title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: The Romanian Workers' Party, which assumed political power at the end of 1947, initiated mass purges that resulted in a decimation of the Orthodox hierarchy. Three archbishops died suddenly after expressing opposition to government policies, and thirteen more "uncooperative" bishops and archbishops were arrested. A May 1947 decree imposed a mandatory retirement age for clergy, thus providing authorities with a convenient way to pension off old-guard holdouts. The 4 August 1948 Law on Cults institutionalised state control over episcopal elections and packed the Holy Synod with Communist supporters. The evangelical wing of the Romanian Orthodox Church, known as the Army of the Lord, was suppressed by communist authorities in 1948. In exchange for subservience and enthusiastic support for state policies, the property rights over as many as 2,500 church buildings and other assets belonging to the (by then-outlawed) Romanian Greek-Catholic Church were transferred to the Romanian Orthodox Church; the government took charge of providing salaries for bishops and priests, as well as financial subsidies for the publication of religious books, calendars and theological journals. By weeding out the anti-communists from among the Orthodox clergy and setting up a pro-regime, secret police-infiltrated Union of Democratic Priests (1945), the party endeavoured to secure the hierarchy's cooperation. By January 1953 some 300-500 Orthodox priests were being held in concentration camps, and following Patriarch Nicodim's death in May 1948, the party succeeded in having the ostensibly docile Justinian Marina elected to succeed him.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: As a result of measures passed in 1947–48, the state took over the 2,300 elementary schools and 24 high schools operated by the Orthodox Church. A new campaign struck the church in 1958-62 when more than half of its remaining monasteries were closed, more than 2,000 monks were forced to take secular jobs, and about 1,500 clergy and lay activists were arrested (out of a total of up to 6,000 in the 1946-64 period). Throughout this period Patriarch Justinian took great care that his public statements met the regime's standards of political correctness and to avoid giving offence to the government; indeed the hierarchy at the time claimed that the arrests of clergy members were not due to religious persecution.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: The church's situation began to improve in 1962, when relations with the state suddenly thawed, an event that coincided with the beginning of Romania's pursuit of an independent foreign policy course that saw the political elite encourage nationalism as a means to strengthen its position against Soviet pressure. The Romanian Orthodox Church, an intensely national body that had made significant contributions to Romanian culture from the 14th century on, came to be regarded by the regime as a natural partner. As a result of this second co-optation, this time as an ally, the church entered a period of dramatic recovery. By 1975, its diocesan clergy was numbering about 12,000, and the church was already publishing by then eight high-quality theological reviews, including "Ortodoxia" and "Studii Teologice". Orthodox clergymen consistently supported the Ceaușescu regime's foreign policy, refrained from criticizing domestic policy, and upheld the Romanian government's line against the Soviets (over Bessarabia) and the Hungarians (over Transylvania). As of 1989, two metropolitan bishops even sat in the Great National Assembly. The members of the church's hierarchy and clergy remained mostly silent as some two dozen historic Bucharest churches were demolished in the 1980s, and as plans for systematization (including the destruction of village churches) were announced. A notable dissenter was Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa, imprisoned for a number of years and eventually expelled from Romania in June 1985, after signing an open letter criticizing and demanding an end to the regime's violations of human rights.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: In an attempt to adapt to the newly created circumstances, the Eastern Orthodox Church proposed a new ecclesiology designed to justify its subservience to the state in supposedly theological terms. This so-called "Social Apostolate" doctrine, developed by Patriarch Justinian, asserted that the church owed allegiance to the secular government and should put itself at its service. This notion inflamed conservatives, who were consequently purged by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Ceaușescu's predecessor and a friend of Justinian's. The Social Apostolate called on clerics to become active in the People's Republic, thus laying the foundation for the church's submission to and collaboration with the state. Fr. Vasilescu, an Orthodox priest, attempted to find grounds in support of the Social Apostolate doctrine in the Christian tradition, citing Augustine of Hippo, John Chrysostom, Maximus the Confessor, Origen and Tertullian. Based on this alleged grounding in tradition, Vasilescu concluded that Christians owed submission to their secular rulers as if it were the will of God. Once recalcitrants were removed from office, the remaining bishops adopted a servile attitude, endorsing Ceauşescu's concept of nation, supporting his policies, and applauding his peculiar ideas about peace.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: In the wake of the Romanian Revolution, the church never admitted to having ever willingly collaborated with the regime, although several Romanian Orthodox priests have publicly admitted after 1989 that they had collaborated with and/or served as informers for the Securitate, the secret police. A prime example was Bishop Nicolae Corneanu, the Metropolitan of Banat, who admitted to his efforts on behalf of the Romanian Communist Party, and denounced activities of clerics in support of the Communists, including his own, as "the Church's [act of] prostitution with the Communist regime".


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: In 1986, Metropolitan Antonie Plămădeală defended Ceaușescu's church demolition programme as part of the need for urbanization and modernisation in Romania. The church hierarchy refused to try to inform the international community about what was happening.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: Widespread dissent from religious groups in Romania did not appear until revolution was sweeping across Eastern Europe in 1989. The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church Teoctist Arăpașu supported Ceaușescu up until the end of the regime, and even congratulated him after the state murdered one hundred demonstrators in Timișoara. It was not until the day before Ceaușescu's execution on 24 December 1989 that the Patriarch condemned him as "a new child-murdering Herod".


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: Following the removal of Communism, the Patriarch resigned (only to return a few months after) and the Holy Synod apologised for those "who did not have the courage of the martyrs".


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: As Romania made the transition to democracy, the church was freed from most of its state control, although the State Secretariat for Religious Denominations still maintains control over a number of aspects of the church's management of property, finances and administration. The state provides funding for the church in proportion to the number of its members, based on census returns and "the religion's needs" which is considered to be an "ambiguous provision". Currently, the state provides the funds necessary for paying the salaries of priests, deacons and other prelates and the pensions of retired clergy, as well as for expenses related to lay church personnel. For the Orthodox church this is over 100 million euros for salaries, with additional millions for construction and renovation of church property. The same applies to all state-recognised religions in Romania.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: The state also provides support for church construction and structural maintenance, with a preferential treatment of Orthodox parishes. The state funds all the expenses of Orthodox seminaries and colleges, including teachers' and professors' salaries who, for compensation purposes, are regarded as civil servants.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: Since the fall of Communism, Greek-Catholic Church leaders have claimed that the Eastern Catholic community is facing a cultural and religious wipe-out: the Greek-Catholic churches are allegedly being destroyed by representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Church, whose actions are supported and accepted by the Romanian authorities.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: The church openly supported banning same-sex marriage in a referendum in 2018. The church believes that homosexuality is a sin and unnatural.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: The Romanian Orthodox Church also has jurisdiction over a minority of believers in Moldova, who belong to the Metropolis of Bessarabia, as opposed to the majority, who belong to the Moldovan Orthodox Church, under the Moscow Patriarchate. In 2001 it won a landmark legal victory against the Government of Moldova at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: This means that despite current political issues, the Metropolis of Bessarabia is now recognized as "the rightful successor" to the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia and Hotin, which existed from 1927 until its dissolution in 1944, when its canonical territory was put under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church's Moscow Patriarchate in 1947.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: The Romanian Orthodox Church is organized in the form of the Romanian Patriarchate. The highest hierarchical, canonical and dogmatical authority of the Romanian Orthodox Church is the Holy Synod.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: There are six Orthodox Metropolitanates, ten archbishoprics and fifteen bishoprics in Romania, and more than twelve thousand priests and deacons, servant fathers of ancient altars from parishes, monasteries and social centres. Almost 400 monasteries exist inside the country, staffed by some 3,500 monks and 5,000 nuns. Three "Diasporan Metropolitanates" and two "Diasporan Bishoprics" function outside Romania proper. As of 2004, there are, inside Romania, fifteen theological universities where more than ten thousand students (some of them from Bessarabia, Bukovina and Serbia benefiting from a few Romanian fellowships) currently study for a theological degree. More than 14,500 churches (traditionally named "lăcașe de cult", or houses of worship) exist in Romania for the Romanian Orthodox believers. As of 2002, almost 1,000 of those were either in the process of being built or rebuilt.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: Dumitru Stăniloae (1903–1993) is considered one of the greatest Orthodox theologians of the 20th century, having written extensively in all major fields of Eastern Christian systematic theology. One of his other major achievements in theology is the 45-year-long comprehensive series on Orthodox spirituality known as the Romanian Philokalia, a collection of texts written by classical Byzantine writers, that he edited and translated from Greek.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: Archimandrite Cleopa Ilie (1912–1998), elder of the "Sihăstria Monastery", is considered one of the most representative fathers of contemporary Romanian Orthodox monastic spirituality.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: Metropolitan Bartolomeu Anania (1921-2011) was the Metropolitan of Cluj, Alba, Crișana and Maramureș from 1993 until his death.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: Initiative of Patriarch Daniel’s, with a deep missionary impact for Church and society, has been the proclamation of jubilee and commemorative years in the Romanian Patriarchate, with solemn sessions of the Holy Synod, conferences, congresses, monastic synaxes, debates, programmes of catechesis, processions and other Church activities dedicated to the respective annual theme.


title: Romanian Orthodox Church

text: The patriarchal chair is currently held by Daniel I, Archbishop of Bucharest, Metropolitan of Muntenia and Dobrudja (former Ungro-Wallachia) and Patriarch of All of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Since 1776, the Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia has been titular bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia ("Locțiitor al tronului Cezareei Capadociei"), an honor bestowed by Ecumenical Patriarch Sophronius II.


title: Republic of Dahomey

text: The Republic of Dahomey (; ), simply known as Dahomey, was established on 4 December 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Prior to attaining autonomy, it had been French Dahomey, part of the French Union. On 1 August 1960, it attained full independence from France.


title: Republic of Dahomey

text: In 1975, the country was renamed Benin after the Bight of Benin (which was in turn named after the Benin Empire which had its seat of power in Benin City, modern-day Nigeria), since "Benin" was deemed politically neutral for all ethnic groups in the state, whereas "Dahomey" recalled the Fon-dominated Kingdom of Dahomey.


title: Republic of Dahomey

text: The Republic of Dahomey became independent of France on 1 August 1960. In the words of the historian Martin Meredith, the young country "was encumbered with every imaginable difficulty: a small strip of territory jutting inland from the coast, it was crowded, insolvent and beset by tribal divisions, huge debts, unemployment, frequent strikes and an unending struggle for power between three rival political leaders". These rivals were Justin Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin, who held sway in the southern and central regions of the country, Sourou-Migan Apithy, who dominated the southeast, and Hubert Maga, whose power base was located in the north.


title: Republic of Dahomey

text: Upon independence, Maga became the first president of Dahomey. A political crisis in 1958, prior to independence, had led to Maga's Dahomeyan Democratic Movement joining a coalition government, with a subsequent crisis leading to Maga becoming the head of government in April 1959. This compromise, however, was unable to solve Dahomey's problems, and an uprising broke out in October 1963, culminating in a coup d'état, and the replacement of Maga as president with Apithy. This also failed to bring about stability, and Apithy was removed in another coup, in December 1965.


title: Republic of Dahomey

text: Following the 1965 coup, Colonel Christophe Soglo became president. A veteran of the French Army, he saw himself as a Dahomeyan Charles de Gaulle, banning all political activity with the stated aim of stabilising the country. Civilian rule was in fact restored in 1968, but the tumult of the preceding years meant that the army remained a key player in Dahomeyan politics, with civilian presidents beholden to their military backers. In October 1972, a coup (the fifth in the country's history) led by Mathieu Kérékou removed a civilian government (which had been headed by a triumvirate consisting of Ahomadégbé, Apithy and Maga). Kérékou would go on to proclaim his support for Marxism–Leninism, declaring the end of the Republic of Dahomey and the establishment of the People's Republic of Benin on 30 November 1975.


title: Republic of Dahomey

text: Dahomey was chosen for some of the filming locations in the 1967 film "The Comedians", with an all-star cast that included Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Lillian Gish, James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Browne, Alec Guinness, Raymond St. Jacques, Gloria Foster, Zakes Mokae, Paul Ford, Georg Stanford Brown, Peter Ustinov, Douta Seck and Cicely Tyson. The movie is the story of an adulterous affair, placed against the backdrop of Haiti during the tumultuous dictatorship of François Duvalier (known as Papa Doc). Dahomey resembled Haiti in many ways, both geographically and culturally, and it was safer to film there than in Haiti.


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: Red Queen is a young adult fantasy novel written by American writer Victoria Aveyard. Published in February 2015, it was her first novel and first series. Aveyard followed up with three sequels: "Glass Sword", "King's Cage" and "War Storm". "Red Queen" won the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Debut Goodreads Author and was nominated for the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction.


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: Mare Barrow is a Red 17-year-old living with her parents and a younger sister, Gisa. Her three older brothers, Bree, Tramy, and Shade, serve in the front line of a war fought between the northern Kingdom the Lakelands and the Barrows' homeland, the Kingdom of Norta. Norta is currently ruled by King Tiberias Calore VI, one of many "Silver" citizens, whose silver blood and supernatural powers allow them to rule over the more numerous yet powerless red blooded population. Mare is jealous of Gisa because her skills in sewing earned her a job working for Silvers, and Reds who have jobs don't have to conscript in the war. When Mare learns that Kilorn Warren, her best friend, will be conscripted, she plans an escape and meets with a colleague who directs her to Farley, a captain of the Scarlet Guard, insurgents composed of Reds who want to bring equality between their people and the Silvers. Farley demands an exorbitant sum of money in exchange for Kilorn's escape.


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: Mare's plan to steal from a Silver with Gisa goes horribly wrong when live news reports that the Scarlet Guard bombed Silver buildings, inciting Silvers around them to grow violent. Gisa's hand is broken in the chaos, forcing her to quit her job and stop supporting Mare's family, whilst diminishing Gisa's dreams of becoming a seamstress. Unable to bear the guilt she feels towards Gisa and her family, Mare goes to a tavern and began stealing from random people to occupy her thoughts. While there, she gets sloppy and is caught while attempting to steal from a boy. Surprisingly, instead of turning her in he gives her money. He informs her that his name is Cal and he works as a servant at the palace. He walks her home and listens as she informs him of her tragic life. He gives her another coin out of pity and leaves. The next day, Mare is taken to the king's local residence and given a job as a servant. She discovers that Cal is Tiberias Calore VI's son, Prince Tiberias Calore VII, who granted her her work in the palace in order to protect her from conscription. During the Queenstrial, where Silver nobility compete for Cal's hand in marriage, Mare accidentally displays electrokinetic powers against Cal's eventual bride, Evangeline Samos. She is captured, but because the king fears of an uprising should a Red be discovered to have supernatural powers, Mare is made a bride of Tiberias' second son, the shy Maven, given the name Mareena Titanos, and a cover story: the daughter of a Silver general who died on the battle field and was adopted by the Reds in the war zone. Mare feels torn as she realizes she is in love with Cal, her betrothed's brother and the future Silver king. However, she soon grows to develop feelings for Maven instead.


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: Suddenly having to live as a noble within the king's ranks, Mare slowly acquaints herself with Maven and Cal while also befriending Julian Jacos, Cal's uncle and a librarian who teaches her how to control her powers. Mare is permitted to say goodbye to her family by Cal and learns the return of her brothers Bree and Tramy, but not Shade, who was beheaded by Silver officers for reported desertion. Furious that her favorite brother was killed, Mare joins the Scarlet Guard. While meeting with Farley to discuss plans, Mare is infuriated when she learns that Kilorn joined, and surprised when she sees that Maven joined as well. This new revelation brings Mare and Maven closer together and they become lovers. The plan involves disrupting a royal ball and killing several important Silvers. However, an unexpected and mysterious bomb goes off, killing many innocents in the process, and also resulting in the capture of Kilorn, Farley, and other members of the Scarlet Guard. Though the rebels are able to be freed thanks to Julian's help, Mare is alarmed when she learns that Farley was not responsible for the bomb dropped at the palace. The bomb gave Silvers the ability to paint the Scarlet Guard as dangerous murderers to the public.


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: Due to the attack of the Scarlet Guard, the Reds are punished by the Silvers with the lowering of the age of conscription from 18 to 15. Mare herself is ordered to broadcast the new law. Julian confesses that his research concludes that Mare's blood has a genetic mutation, allowing for a person with red blood to have Silver-like powers, and be stronger than both; furthermore, she is not the only one with the mutation. Shade also had the mutation, which was why he was executed; the only reason Mare was spared was because her powers manifested while she was viewed by many Silver onlookers, thus preventing a cover-up. Julian also mentions that he needs to go into hiding so he leaves Mare a list of names of people like her. After another meeting with Farley in a free zone that the Silvers have been avoiding, Mare, at Maven's suggestion, infiltrates the king's residence in the capital, Archeon. There, through the underground-roaming Undertrains, the rebels stake an invasion. Mare attempts to convince Cal to allow the Scarlet Guard overtake the castle, and admits to helping them. Cal, stung by her betrayal, refuses and arrests both Mare and Maven, leading them to the castle. However, once in the presence of Queen Elara and King Tiberius, Queen Elara reveals that she and Maven have been manipulating Mare the whole time in a plot to grant Maven the title of King and murder Cal. Maven hints that he and his mother caused the explosion to paint the Scarlet Guard in a bad light. Elara then uses her power of mind control to force Cal to kill his father on live television, thus branding him and Mare traitors and allowing Maven to become king. It is also revealed that Elara murdered the King's first wife many years ago in order to become Queen and gain more power.


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: Mare and Cal are sentenced to death and put in an arena with their powers stifled. Mare and Cal battle their former sparring partners, including Evangeline, and manage to kill a few Silvers before they retreat. They are rescued by the Scarlet Guard and they escape by the Undertrain before Maven can stop them. Inside it, Mare meets with Farley, Kilorn, and, to her shock, Shade, who faked his death and is also a part of the Scarlet Guard. Mare vows to take revenge against Maven, and use the list she acquired from Julian to seek out others like her.


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: "Red Queen" has been generally well received. "The Guardian" gave the novel four stars. Vilma Gonzalez of "USA Today" described the novel positively, revealing that "Aveyard’s compelling debut is richly imagined, addictive, chilling and suspenseful. She breathes new life into her own unique "Game of Thrones" story enlivened by exciting, character-driven plot twists that have me clamoring for more. This scintillating tale of betrayals and blood-spattered crowns is not to be missed."


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: However, "Grand Forks Herald"'s Cassidy Anderson stated "Ultimately, this book was over-hyped. It's still a fun read as long as you are not looking for anything with a lot of depth or meaning to it." "The Christian Science Monitor" described the book as a dystopian novel.


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: "Kirkus Reviews" saw "An inventive, character-driven twist breathes new life into tired fantasy trends."


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: "Publishers Weekly" found "There’s an unmistakable feeling of deja vu to this first installment in the Red Queen trilogy, which shares several plot points and similarities with the "Hunger Games" series, ... Fortunately, Aveyard’s conclusion leaves the story poised to depart from this derivative setup."


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: Common Sense Media wrote "With its courageous protagonist, action-packed plot, and romantic possibilities, Red Queen is a winning series start for fantasy and dystopia lovers."


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: Gennifer Hutchison, a writer and producer on "Better Call Saul" and "Breaking Bad", was hired in 2015 by Universal Pictures to adapt the novel into a feature film. "Pitch Perfect 2" director Elizabeth Banks was in talks with the studio to direct and produce the project.


title: Red Queen (novel)

text: In May 2021, it was reported that Peacock is in developing a television series adaptation of novel. Banks is set to direct and also set to star in a supporting role.


title: Arti Singh

text: Arti Sharma (born 5 April 1985) Known as Arti Singh is an Indian television actress. She is known for her work in "Thoda Hai Bas Thode Ki Zaroorat Hai", "Parichay" and "Waaris". In 2019, she participated in "Bigg Boss 13" as a contestant and became fourth runner-up.


title: Arti Singh

text: Aarti Singh was born on 5 April 1985. in Lucknow to Himachali father Atmaprakash Sharma and mother Padma. She is the niece of Actor Govinda (actor), sister of Comedian Krushna Abhishek and cousin of television actress Ragini Khanna and Soumya Seth. She belongs to the Govinda Family in the Bollywood Industry.


title: Arti Singh

text: Singh started her acting career with the Zee TV show "Maayka" where she portrayed the role of Soni in 2007. She later was seen playing Rano in Star Plus's show "Grihasti" followed by "Thoda Hai Bas Thode Ki Zaroorat Hai" as Mugda.


title: Arti Singh

text: In 2011, she portrayed the role of Seema in Ekta Kapoor's show "Parichay — Nayee Zindagi Kay Sapno Ka". She later portrayed the role of Kajri in Colors TV's "Uttaran". In 2014, she appeared in the show "Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev" as Baani and later participated in the reality show "Box Cricket League".


title: Arti Singh

text: After appearing in comedy shows "Killerr Karaoke Atka Toh Latkah", "Comedy Classes" and "Comedy Nights Bachao", she played the role of a ghost in "Sasural Simar Ka" in 2016. She later was seen as the main lead in &TV's "Waaris" as Amba from 2016 to 2017.


title: Arti Singh

text: In 2019, she participated in the reality show "Bigg Boss 13 and" emerged as fourth runner-up. In this show, She revealed that she suffered depression due to lack of work for 2 years.


title: Coby Bell

text: Coby Scott Bell (born May 11, 1975) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Jesse Porter on the USA Network original series "Burn Notice" and professional football player Jason Pitts on The CW/BET comedy-drama "The Game". He also co-starred as police officer Tyrone "Ty" Davis, Jr. on the NBC drama "Third Watch" and as Aaron in the Amazon original series "Mad Dogs". He started on "Sister Sister" from 1994-1999, then starred in other shows & films.


title: Coby Bell

text: Bell was born in Orange County, California to a white mother and an African-American father, the Broadway actor Michel Bell. Before he began acting, Bell attended San Jose State University, where he graduated with honors. He began his career with a few minor roles in various shows including "The Parent 'Hood", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "ER" and "Smart Guy", before landing a thirteen episode stint as Patrick Owen in "L.A. Doctors".


title: Coby Bell

text: In 1999, Bell landed the role of Officer Ty Davis, Jr. on the NBC drama "Third Watch". He was one of only five original cast members to remain on the show throughout its entire six-season run on NBC. During the series' run, he co-starred in "Safe", a critically acclaimed play co-written by "Third Watch" co-star Anthony Ruivivar. The play co-starred "Third Watch" actors Jason Wiles and Yvonne Jung. He appeared in a "Third Watch" edition of the American version of "The Weakest Link".


title: Coby Bell

text: In 2005, just months after "Third Watch" ended its run, Bell landed a recurring role on the UPN comedy series "Half & Half" as Glen Stallworth, a San Francisco firefighter who is originally set up on a date with main character Mona, but winds up falling for her mother, Phyllis (played by actress Telma Hopkins). Despite appearing in only three episodes, Bell's character was mentioned and referenced throughout the show's fourth and final season.


title: Coby Bell

text: In 2006, Bell starred in and co-produced an independent film called "Drifting Elegant". The project marked his debut as a producer. That same year, Bell guest-starred in an episode of the UPN comedy series "Girlfriends" in an episode entitled "", which served as the pilot episode for the CW comedy-drama series of the same name. Bell stars as Jason Pitts, the captain of the fictional San Diego Sabers football team. He reprised Jason Pitts in a recurring role when "The Game", which was cancelled in 2009, returned on BET in January 2011. In June 2010, Bell joined the cast of the USA Network series "Burn Notice" as former counter-intelligence agent Jesse Porter.


title: Coby Bell

text: On February 28, 2020, it was announced that Bell was cast as Captain Larry James, a Texas Ranger Captain, in the CW western crime drama series "Walker" reboot.


title: Coby Bell

text: Bell is married to Aviss Pinkney-Bell and has four children, three girls and one boy, who are two sets of twins.


title: Coby Bell

text: In addition to acting, Bell is also a musician and songwriter in a reggae band. He also serves as a mentor to underprivileged youths in the Big Brothers of America.


title: Elbit Systems

text: Elbit Systems Ltd. is an Israel-based international defense electronics company engaged in a wide range of programs throughout the world. The company, which includes Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries, operates in the areas of aerospace, land and naval systems, command, control, communications, computers, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR), unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), advanced electro-optics, electro-optic space systems, electronic warfare suites, signal intelligence (SIGINT) systems, data links and communications systems and radios.


title: Elbit Systems

text: The company also focuses on the upgrading of existing military platforms, developing new technologies for defense, homeland security and commercial aviation applications and providing a range of support services, including training and simulation systems.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In 2016, Elbit Systems had approximately 13,895 employees, the majority of whom are engaged in engineering, mechanics, research and development, and other computing and technical areas.


title: Elbit Systems

text: Elbit Systems was founded in 1966 by Elron Electronic Industries (TASE ELRN), which combined the existing expertise within the Israel Ministry of Defense-Research Institute in special computer design with Elron's experience in electronic product design, manufacture and management (initially under the name Elbit Computers).


title: Elbit Systems

text: Elbit steadily expanded developing and producing logistic-support weapon delivery and navigation systems for most Israeli aircraft, establishing a combat avionics package for the IAI Lavi fighter aircraft, and producing a fire-control system for the Merkava tank.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In 2000, Elbit Systems merged with El-Op (a company controlled by the current chairman, Michael Federmann), creating the largest non governmental defense electronics company in Israel and increasing Elbit Systems' value which later in 2004, enabled Elron to sell its shares in Elbit Systems for approximately $200 million. Following the merger with El-Op, Michael Federmann became the largest shareholder in the combined group.


title: Elbit Systems

text: Following the merger with El-Op, Michael Federmann and CEO Joseph Ackerman led an aggressive growth by acquisitions strategy.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In October 2014, Elbit Systems won a $12.7 million contract for the supply and provision of Apache Aviator Integrated Helmets for the US Army helicopter fleet. The contract would be delivered over a two-year period.


title: Elbit Systems

text: On March 22, 2018, Elbit Systems and Universal Avionics announced today that Elbit "is in the process of completing the acquisition of the privately owned U.S. company Universal Avionics Systems Corporation [UASC] through an asset acquisition agreement." The deal is expected to close “in the coming weeks.”


title: Elbit Systems

text: In the year of 2019, Elbit Systems purchased the night vision business of Harris Corp. (which had earlier acquired Exelis Inc., previously of ITT Inc.) for $350 million when Harris merged with L3.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In April 2019, Elbit Systems announced that it had partnered with DA-Group to produce and advertise its anti-jamming devices for global navigation satellite systems.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In August 2019, Elbit Systems won an IMOD contract to install the Iron Fist active protection system on the IDF's new Eitan AFV and the IDF's fleet of armored D9 bulldozers.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In April 2021, the Australian Army directed that Elbit's battlefield management system be withdrawn from use by 15 May. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that this action was taken due to concerns about the system's security. An "Australian Financial Review" columnist stated that the security problems comprised "a “backdoor” security vulnerability reportedly uncovered by the Australian Signals Directorate". The "Australian Defence Magazine" also reported that the system had failed two security milestones during 2020. Elbit denied that the system posed any security risks.


title: Elbit Systems

text: France – On June 19, 2011, Elbit announced that its subsidiary Elisra Electronic Systems Ltd. was awarded a contract valued at approximately €5 million to supply hundreds of units of its AN/PRC-684 Personal Locator Beacon to the French Ministry of Defense, equipping the French Air Force, Army, Navy and DGA (Direction Générale de l'Armement). The project is to be performed within 24 months.


title: Elbit Systems

text: Italy – On June 22, 2011, Elbit announced that it was awarded a contract valued in excess of US$15 million by Elettronica S.p.A. to participate in a program to supply the ELT/572 DIRCM (Directed Infra-Red Countermeasures) system for installation on various platforms of the Italian Air Force, including the C130J, C27J and AW101. The contract is to be performed over the next three years.


title: Elbit Systems

text: North Macedonia – In February 2004 Elbit System started modernization of 4 helicopters (two transport MI-17, and two attack helicopters MI-24V) in Air Base Petrovec for Macedonian Air Force with equipment (ANVIS/HUD-24) for flight and combat in night environments. On May 11, 2011, Ministry of Defence signed a contract for building a training center for pilots with simulators (Full Mission Sumulator, FMS) for MI-17 and MI-24 helicopters. Simulators was produced by Romanian Company Simultec ownership of Elbit Systems, On March 2, 2014, centar was opened with ceremony led by President of Republic Of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, Premier of Republic Of Macedonia Nikola Gruevski, ex-minister from Ministry of Defence and other guests.


title: Elbit Systems

text: Romania – Elbit Systems' activities in Romania, which started in 1996, are primarily carried out through its wholly owned Romanian subsidiaries, Elbit Systeme S.A., A-E Electronics S.A, Elmet International SRL and Simultec SRL, which employ approximately 400 employees.


title: Elbit Systems

text: On May 24, 2011, Elbit announced that it was awarded a contract valued at approximately $18.6 million to upgrade the Romanian Air Forces' C-130 transport aircraft. According to the agreement, the C-130 aircraft will be installed with various types of advanced electronic systems, including those produced by Elbit Systems' wholly owned subsidiary – Elisra Electronic Systems Ltd. The project, to be performed over four years, will be executed in cooperation with local companies in Romania, led by the Romanian Aeronautical Industry.


title: Elbit Systems

text: Sweden - On June 17, 2021, Elbit Systems announced the establishment of its Swedish subsidiary "Elbit Systems Sweden". On January 13, 2022 Elbit Systems Sweden was awarded with a contract to supply combat management systems to the Royal Swedish Navy.


title: Elbit Systems

text: Elbit Systems Uk Ltd. was incorporated on 24 September 2004, as a holding company for Elbit's activities in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, it has six subsidiary companies, located across ten sites in the country, employing over 500 people.


title: Elbit Systems

text: The company was incorporated after Elbit and Thales Group of France, won a tender (code named "Watchkeeper program") to supply the British Army with unmanned aerial vehicles. The tender condition included a requirement to set up a local manufacturing facility for the program, therefore, at the end of 2005 a joint venture company was established, with the Thales Group, named "UAV Tactical Systems Ltd (U-TacS)", based in Leicester to manufacture the Watchkeeper WK450. Additionally a flight testing facility was set up at ParcAberporth in West Wales.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In 2007, Elbit acquired Ferranti Technologies, based in Oldham, Greater Manchester, a company that was part of the historic Ferranti group and provides engineering, manufacturing and product support to the aerospace and defence markets. Starting in 2014, following the Gaza War, activists from Palestine Action and other groups started protesting outside the factory in Oldham. Eventually, in January 2022 Elbit announced that it is selling the facility.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In February 2016, Affinity Flying Services Limited, a joint venture between Elbit and Kellog, Brown and Root was awarded a £500 million contract to manage the "UK Military Flight Training System" (UKMFTS) program for the Ministry of Defence, to deliver aircrew training for over an 18-year period.


title: Elbit Systems

text: On 19 May 2021, during the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, four members of the Palestine Action group dressed in red boiler suits climbed onto the roof of an Elbit Systems-owned drone factory in Meridian Business Park, Leicester. The occupation lasted six days, and a total of 10 arrests were made for conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass.


title: Elbit Systems

text: The group have staged similar occupations of Elbit Systems sites in Bristol, Oldham in collaboration with Extinction Rebellion and Tamworth in collaboration with Animal Rebellion.


title: Elbit Systems

text: United States – Elbit owns several companies in the United States through its American subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America (ESA):The elbit systems of America operates under a Special Security agreement with a proxy board, allowing it to function independently and separately from its parent company.


title: Elbit Systems

text: Brazil – In 2001, Aeroeletronica (AEL), a Brazilian company that had more than two decades of experience in the defense industry has become a part of the Elbit Systems Group. In January 2011, Elbit announced that it had bought two more Brazilian companies: Ares Aeroespecial e Defesa, and Periscopio Equipamentos Optronicos. In April 2011, Embraer has entered into a strategic agreement with AEL Sistemas S.A ("AEL"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems. The two companies were yet to define the specific programs to be pursued but, according to officials from the two companies, the main goals of the cooperation were the expanding of joint activities in the area of unmanned aircraft systems, including the anticipated creation of a jointly owned company, with majority participation of Embraer D&S. One of the primary goals of the joint venture will be to promote the introduction and use of Elbit Systems Hermes 450 UAV in the service of the Brazilian Air Force.


title: Elbit Systems

text: Colombia – In March 2010, a $28 million contract for Hermes 450 UAVs was suspended by the Colombian government after media reports based on anonymous letters alleged that Colombian officials had been bribed. The Israeli Ministry of Defense investigated and found that the letters likely came from Israel Aerospace Industries, a competitor that lost the tender. The incident led to a review of the regulations governing overseas competition between Israeli defense companies.


title: Elbit Systems

text: Philippines – Elbit won its first contract in the Philippines for the supply of upgraded armored personnel carriers to the Philippine military back in June 2014. The upgrade included 25mm unmanned turrets, 12.7 mm remote controlled weapon stations (RCWS) and fire control systems (FCS) for 90 mm turrets. The contract marks a significant breakthrough for Elbit Systems, as it is the first one awarded to the company in the Philippines. In 2015, the Armed Forces of the Philippines received 114 M113 tracked APCs from the United States. The improved version of M113A2 APCs will have Remote Control Weapons System (RWS) designed by Elbit Systems. The electronically driven turrets can be configured with various types of cannons (25mm/30mm), coaxial machine guns (7.62mm) and guided anti-tank missiles.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In August 2020, the Philippine Air Force received full delivery of three Hermes 900 and one Hermes 450 unmanned aerial systems (UAS) as part of a contract worth approximately $175 million. Each system consists of three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), a ground control system and support equipment. Elbit Systems also included a spare used Hermes 450 UAV as part of the deal, for a total of 9 Hermes 900 UAVs and 4 Hermes 450 UAVs.


title: Elbit Systems

text: On October 23, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Elbit won contracts to produce 18 Sabrah ASCOD Light Tanks and 10 Pandur II Tank Destroyers along with 1 ASCOD 2 Armored Command Vehicle, 1 ASCOD 2 Armored Recovery Vehicle and a separate another contract to supply 28 Iveco VBTP-MR Guarani APCs for the Philippine Army's Light Tank and APC Acquisition Projects.


title: Elbit Systems

text: On 6 December 2017, Citizenlab published a detailed report that showed that Ethiopian dissidents and journalists in the US, UK, and other countries were targeted by sophisticated commercial spyware, sold and operated by Cyberbit, a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems. In a reply to an inquiry from Human Rights Watch on the topic, Cyberbit did not deny selling this kind of technology, and rejected the responsibility of its possible misuse on its customers.


title: Elbit Systems

text: On September 3, 2009, the Norwegian Pension Fund's ethical council decided to sell the fund's stocks in Elbit due to the corporations supply of surveillance systems for the Israeli West Bank barrier. At a press conference to announce the decision, Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen said "We do not wish to fund companies that so directly contribute to violations of international humanitarian law". The Norwegian Ambassador to Israel was called to a meeting at the Israeli Foreign Ministry where the decision was protested.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In January 2010, Danske Bank added Elbit to the list of companies that fail its Socially Responsible Investment policy; a bank spokesman noted that it was acting in the interests of its customers by not 'placing their money in companies that violate international standards'. The Danish financial watchdog Danwatch has also placed Elbit on its ethical blacklist, and one of Denmark's largest pension fund administrators PKA Ltd announced it will no longer consider investing in Elbit, stating "The ICJ stated that the barrier only serves military purposes and violates Palestinian human rights. Therefore we have looked at whether companies produce custom-designed products to the wall and thus has a particular involvement in repressive activities."


title: Elbit Systems

text: In March 2010, a Swedish pension fund not wanting to be associated with companies which in its opinion are violating international treaties, boycotted Elbit Systems for being involved in constructing the Israeli West Bank barrier.


title: Elbit Systems

text: HSBC divested from Elbit following its acquisition of IMI Systems. HSBC cited IMI's manufacturing of cluster bombs, which violated the bank's defense policy to not invest in companies linked to the manufacturing or marketing of cluster munition.


title: Elbit Systems

text: In April 2019, the publication of a report entitled AXA: Financing War Crimes by SumOfUs highlighted that AXA's investment subsidiary, AXA Investment Managers, a French investment firm, divested from Elbit on December 31, 2018. However, the same study notes that their affiliate AXA Equitable Holdings maintains investment in the company.


title: Kris Dunn

text: Kristofer Michael Dunn (born March 18, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Capital City Go-Go of the NBA G League. He played four seasons of college basketball for the Providence Friars before being drafted with the fifth overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves. He played his rookie season with the Timberwolves before being traded to the Chicago Bulls in 2017. Dunn signed with the Atlanta Hawks as a free agent in November 2020, but only played nine games for the team due to ankle surgery.


title: Kris Dunn

text: Dunn attended New London High School in New London, Connecticut; he was one of the most dominating point guards in high school basketball. During his junior year in 2010–11, Dunn averaged 26.5 points, 10 rebounds, 5 steals and 5 assists per game to lead the Whalers to a 27–0 record and a victory in the Connecticut Class L State Championship against Northwest Catholic High School. In his senior year from 2011–12, he scored his 2,000th career point. He also led New London High School to the semifinal round of the 2012 Connecticut Class LL State Championships where they were defeated by St. Josephs High School. Dunn was ranked #24 out of all high school players nationwide. He was also #1 in Connecticut.


title: Kris Dunn

text: Dunn tore his labrum in June 2012 and underwent shoulder surgery immediately. He made his freshman debut in late December. He played 25 games that season and averaged 5.7 points per game.


title: Kris Dunn

text: On December 11, 2013, it was announced Dunn would undergo shoulder surgery and miss the rest of his sophomore season after playing four games.


title: Kris Dunn

text: In the 2014–15 season, Dunn returned from injury to earn the Big East Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year awards. He averaged 15.6 points per game and led the Big East in assists per game and steals per game. Choosing to return for the 2015–16 season with the intention of graduating, Dunn garnered many preseason accolades, including preseason POY.


title: Kris Dunn

text: Dunn was named Big East Player of the Week on January 4, 2016 after scoring 26 points in a win against St. John's and a 26 point outing in a victory over ninth-ranked Butler. On February 1, 2016, he was named one of 10 finalists for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award. He was named to the 35-man midseason watchlist for the Naismith Trophy on February 11.


title: Kris Dunn

text: At the conclusion of his redshirt junior season, Dunn announced his intention to skip his final season of eligibility and enter the 2016 NBA draft. Dunn graduated from Providence and received his college degree following the end of the season. According to ESPN, Dunn was listed as the number two point guard and would likely be a top ten pick in the draft.


title: Kris Dunn

text: On June 23, 2016, Dunn was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the fifth overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft. On July 7, he signed his rookie scale contract with the Timberwolves and joined the team for the 2016 NBA Summer League. Dunn scored a team-high 27 points in his Summer League debut. He managed just two Summer League games before sitting out the rest of the tournament after being diagnosed with a concussion. He made his regular season debut on October 26 in the Timberwolves' season opener, scoring eight points off the bench in a 102–98 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. On November 1, he had 10 points, six assists and five steals in his first career start, helping the Timberwolves defeat the Grizzlies 116–80. On December 6, he had a season-best game with 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting in a 105–91 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.


title: Kris Dunn

text: On June 22, 2017, Dunn was traded, along with Zach LaVine and the rights to Lauri Markkanen (the 7th pick in the 2017 NBA draft), to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Jimmy Butler and the rights to Justin Patton (the 16th pick in the 2017 NBA draft). His debut with the Bulls was delayed until the fifth game of the season after he suffered a left index finger dislocation during a preseason game on October 6. In his debut on October 28, in a 101–69 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dunn came off the bench and had eight points and five fouls, while also aggravating his finger. On November 17, 2017, he scored a career-high 22 points in a 123–120 win over the Charlotte Hornets. On December 9, 2017, he had 17 points, nine assists and seven rebounds and made two free throws with 2.9 seconds left to lift the Bulls to a 104–102 victory over the New York Knicks. On December 26, 2017, he recorded 20 points and 12 assists in 33 minutes in a 115–106 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. He also had four steals and two blocks against the Bucks; Dunn joined Michael Jordan as the only Bulls player with at least 20 points, 12 assists, four steals and two blocks in a game. He also became one of only 18 players to have amassed that stat line in an NBA game. On January 5, 2018, he scored a career-high 32 points in a 127–124 win over the Dallas Mavericks. On February 14, 2018, he had eight points and three assists in 20 minutes against the Toronto Raptors after missing 11 games because of a concussion.


title: Kris Dunn

text: Dunn missed the first two games of the 2018–19 season for the birth of his first child. After recording nine points and seven assists on October 22 against the Dallas Mavericks, Dunn was sidelined with a sprained MCL in his left knee. On December 10, after sitting out nearly seven weeks, Dunn returned to the lineup and finished with nine points in 20 minutes in a 108–89 loss to the Sacramento Kings. On December 15, he scored 24 points in a 98–93 win over the San Antonio Spurs. On January 4, he had 16 points and 17 assists in a 119–116 overtime loss to the Indiana Pacers. On March 20, he scored a season-high 26 points—including eight in overtime—to go with 13 assists in a 126–120 overtime win over the Washington Wizards.


title: Kris Dunn

text: In the 2019–20 season, Dunn finished eleventh in All-Defensive team voting. Although he narrowly missed out on both All-Defensive First and Second team, he received the only votes out of the players on a non playoff team or in the experimental “bubble” in Orlando. Dunn received four first team votes and twenty-three second team votes.


title: Kris Dunn

text: On November 28, 2020, Dunn signed with the Atlanta Hawks. He only played in four games for the Hawks during the 2020–21 season, missing 63 games due to leg injuries for which he required surgery.


title: Kris Dunn

text: On August 7, 2021, Dunn was traded to the Boston Celtics in a three-team trade involving the Sacramento Kings. He was then dealt to the Memphis Grizzlies on September 15, who waived him on October 16, after one preseason game.


title: Kris Dunn

text: On March 14, 2022, Dunn signed a 10-day contract with the Portland Trail Blazers via the hardship exception. On March 24, he signed a second 10-day contract. On April 3, he signed a rest-of-season contract.


title: Myron Rolle

text: Myron L. Rolle (born October 30, 1986) is a Bahamian-American neurosurgeon and former football safety. He played college football at Florida State, and was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. He attended the Florida State University College of Medicine and is a neurosurgery resident at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital.


title: Myron Rolle

text: He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and studied at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University for the 2009–10 academic year in order to earn an MSc in Medical Anthropology. In 2010, he was chosen as the second-smartest athlete in sports by the "Sporting News", behind baseball player Craig Breslow. On February 17, 2021, Abiomed, a member of the S&P 500, announced Dr. Rolle as a member of its Board of Directors.


title: Myron Rolle

text: Rolle was born in Houston. His family is from the Bahamas; and after returning to Nassau for two years after his birth, his family then moved permanently to the United States. He was raised in Galloway Township, New Jersey, where in 2009, December 10 was decreed "Myron Rolle Day". Myron attended the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, where he played the saxophone in the school band, sang in a school play, and was the sports editor of the school newspaper as well as playing football, basketball and track. He transferred to the Hun School of Princeton and played high school football and basketball. He maintained a 4.0 GPA in High School. He was an All-American and made 112 tackles including 14 for loss. ESPN's recruiting services ranked Rolle as the number one high school prospect in the country. Rivals.com rated him the 12th-best player and the top athlete overall, as well as the best player from New Jersey in the 2006 recruiting class.


title: Myron Rolle

text: In 2006, after a nationwide search Rolle won the prestigious annually awarded Franklin D. Watkins Memorial Trophy, the premier African-American scholar/athlete award in America for high school males. He is an alumnus of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.


title: Myron Rolle

text: Aspiring to both the National Football League and medical school, Rolle played as a safety at FSU, completed all necessary pre-medical requirements, and earned his bachelor's degree in Exercise Science in just 2.5 years with a 3.75 grade point average. Rolle helped the Florida State Seminoles win on the field, and off the field, he won a Rhodes Scholarship. He postponed playing in the NFL for a year in order to study at Oxford University.


title: Myron Rolle

text: In 2008, he earned Associated Press 3rd team All-American honors as well as Football Writers Association America 2nd team All-ACC and CoSIDA Academic All-America. In the 2008 season game versus the University of Miami Hurricanes, Seminoles defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews remarked that Rolle played the best and most complete game he has ever seen a safety play at Florida State University in his 25 years of coaching. Rolle had 4 tackles (2 touchdown saving tackles), 1 tackle for loss, 4 pass breakups, 1 sack, 2 quarterback hurries and 3 critical 3rd down stops.


title: Myron Rolle

text: Rolle was named a finalist for one of the 32 Rhodes Scholarships awarded to Americans each year. His interview for the scholarship was originally scheduled at the same time as Florida State was to play at Maryland, in which Florida State defeated Maryland 37–3. The NCAA decided to allow Rolle to take a chartered plane from his interview in Birmingham, Alabama to College Park. He was awarded the scholarship less than three hours before the Florida State vs. Maryland game. He became the fourth Florida State student and second school athlete to receive the honor, as well as the only FSU football player to do so. Rolle announced on January 12, 2009, that he would first study at Oxford University for the 2009–10 academic year in order to earn an M.Sc. in medical anthropology and would then enter the 2010 NFL Draft. He was a member of St Edmund Hall, commonly known as "Teddy Hall," at Oxford, living in college accommodation at Norham Gardens.


title: Myron Rolle

text: Rolle was selected by the Tennessee Titans in the sixth round (207th overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft. He signed a four-year contract on June 14, 2010. Over two seasons in 2010 and 2011, Rolle never appeared in a regular-season game for the Titans. He then spent a brief time with the Pittsburgh Steelers before the team released him in 2012.


title: Myron Rolle

text: Rolle announced his intent to leave the NFL to attend medical school in 2013. He enrolled at Florida State University College of Medicine and graduated in May 2017. Rolle matched to a neurosurgery residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Rolle is a Global Neurosurgery Fellow at Harvard Medical School. In July 2020, Rolle stated he felt that due to COVID-19 the NFL should delay or cancel the 2020 season.


title: Myron Rolle

text: He is the son of Whitney and Beverly Rolle. Myron is the youngest of five: Marchant, Marvis, Mordecai and McKinley. Rolle is the cousin of former safety Antrel Rolle, linebacker Brian Rolle, and former cornerback Samari Rolle.


title: Myron Rolle

text: In 2017, he married pediatric dentist, Dr. Latoya Legrand-Rolle. The couple have two sets of twins. Rolle is a Christian.


title: Bastion fort

text: A bastion fort or trace italienne (a phrase derived from non-standard French, literally meaning "Italian outline") is a fortification in a style that evolved during the early modern period of gunpowder when the cannon came to dominate the battlefield. It was first seen in the mid-fifteenth century in Italy. Some types, especially when combined with ravelins and other outworks, resembled the related star fort of the same era.


title: Bastion fort

text: The design of the fort is normally a polygon with bastions at the corners of the walls. These outcroppings eliminated protected blind spots, called "dead zones", and allowed fire along the curtain from positions protected from direct fire. Many bastion forts also feature cavaliers, which are raised secondary structures based entirely inside the primary structure.


title: Bastion fort

text: Their predecessors, medieval fortresses, were usually placed on high hills. From there, arrows were shot at the enemies. The enemies' hope was to either ram the gate or climb over the wall with ladders and overcome the defenders. For the invading force, these fortifications proved quite difficult to overcome, and accordingly, fortresses occupied a key position in warfare.


title: Bastion fort

text: Passive ring-shaped ("Enceinte") fortifications of the Medieval era proved vulnerable to damage or destruction when attackers directed cannon fire on to perpendicular masonry wall. In addition, attackers that could get close to the wall were able to conduct undermining operations in relative safety, as the defenders could not shoot at them from nearby walls, until the development of Machicolation. In contrast, the bastion fortress was a very flat structure composed of many triangular bastions, specifically designed to cover each other, and a ditch. To counteract the cannonballs, defensive walls were made lower and thicker. To counteract the fact that lower walls were easier to climb, the ditch was widened so that attacking infantry were still exposed to fire from a higher elevation, including enfilading fire from the bastions.


title: Bastion fort

text: The outer side of the ditch was usually provided with a glacis to deflect cannonballs aimed at the lower part of the main wall. Further structures, such as ravelins, tenailles, hornworks or crownworks, and even detached forts could be added to create complex outer works to further protect the main wall from artillery, and sometimes provide additional defensive positions. They were built of many materials, usually earth and brick, as brick does not shatter on impact from a cannonball as stone does.


title: Bastion fort

text: Bastion fortifications were further developed in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, primarily in response to the French invasion of the Italian peninsula. The French army was equipped with new cannon and bombards that were easily able to destroy traditional fortifications built in the Middle Ages. Star forts were employed by Michelangelo in the defensive earthworks of Florence, and refined in the sixteenth century by Baldassare Peruzzi and Vincenzo Scamozzi. The design spread out of Italy in the 1530s and 1540s.


title: Bastion fort

text: It was employed heavily throughout Europe for the following three centuries. Italian engineers were heavily in demand throughout Europe to help build the new fortifications. The late-seventeenth-century architects Menno van Coehoorn and especially Vauban, Louis XIV's military engineer, are considered to have taken the form to its logical extreme. "Fortresses... acquired ravelins and redoubts, bonnettes and lunettes, tenailles and tenaillons, counterguards and crownworks and hornworks and curvettes and fausse brayes and scarps and cordons and banquettes and counterscarps..."


title: Bastion fort

text: The star-shaped fortification had a formative influence on the patterning of the Renaissance ideal city: "The Renaissance was hypnotized by one city type which for a century and a half—from Filarete to Scamozzi—was impressed upon all utopian schemes: this is the star-shaped city." In the 19th century, the development of the explosive shell changed the nature of defensive fortifications. Elvas, in Portugal is considered by some to be the best surviving example of the Dutch school of fortifications.


title: Bastion fort

text: When the newly-effective manoeuvrable siege cannon came into military strategy in the fifteenth century, the response from military engineers was to arrange for the walls to be embedded into ditches fronted by earthen slopes (glacis) so that they could not be attacked by destructive direct fire and to have the walls topped by earthen banks that absorbed and largely dissipated the energy of plunging fire. Where conditions allowed, as in Fort Manoel in Malta, the ditches were cut into the native rock, and the wall at the inside of the ditch was simply unquarried native rock. As the walls became lower, they also became more vulnerable to assault.


title: Bastion fort

text: The rounded shape that had previously been dominant for the design of turrets created "dead space", or "dead zones", which were relatively sheltered from defending fire, because direct fire from other parts of the defences could not be directed around curved walls. To prevent this, what had previously been round or square turrets were extended into diamond-shaped points to eliminate potential cover for attacking troops. The ditches and walls channelled the attackers into carefully constructed zwinger, bailey, or similar "kill zone" areas where the attackers had no place to shelter from the fire of the defenders.


title: Bastion fort

text: A further and more subtle change was to move from a passive model of defence to an active one. The lower walls were more vulnerable to being stormed, and the protection that the earthen banking provided against direct fire failed if the attackers could occupy the slope on the outside of the ditch and mount an attacking cannon there. Therefore, the shape was designed to make maximum use of "enfilade" (or flanking) fire against any attackers who should reach the base of any of the walls. The indentations in the base of each point on the star sheltered cannons. Those cannons would have a clear line of fire directly down the edge of the neighbouring points, while their point of the star was protected by fire from the base of those points. The evolution of these ideas can be seen in transitional fortifications such as Sarzana in northwest Italy.


title: Bastion fort

text: Thus forts evolved complex shapes that allowed defensive batteries of cannon to command interlocking fields of fire. Forward batteries commanded the slopes which defended walls deeper in the complex from direct fire. The defending cannon were not simply intended to deal with attempts to storm the walls, but to actively challenge attacking cannon and deny them approach close enough to the fort to engage in direct fire against the vulnerable walls.


title: Bastion fort

text: The key to the fort's defence moved to the outer edge of the ditch surrounding the fort, known as the covered way, or covert way. Defenders could move relatively safely in the cover of the ditch and could engage in active countermeasures to keep control of the glacis, the open slope that lay outside the ditch, by creating defensive earthworks to deny the enemy access to the glacis and thus to firing points that could bear directly onto the walls and by digging counter mines to intercept and disrupt attempts to mine the fort walls.


title: Bastion fort

text: Compared to medieval fortifications, forts became both lower and larger in area, providing defence in depth, with tiers of defences that an attacker needed to overcome in order to bring cannon to bear on the inner layers of defences.


title: Bastion fort

text: Firing emplacements for defending cannon were heavily defended from bombardment by external fire, but open towards the inside of the fort, not only to diminish their usefulness to the attacker should they be overcome, but also to allow the large volumes of smoke that the defending cannon would generate to dissipate.


title: Bastion fort

text: Fortifications of this type continued to be effective while the attackers were armed only with cannon, where the majority of the damage inflicted was caused by momentum from the impact of solid shot. Because only low explosives such as black powder were available, explosive shells were largely ineffective against such fortifications. The development of mortars, high explosives, and the consequent large increase in the destructive power of explosive shells and thus plunging fire rendered the intricate geometry of such fortifications irrelevant. Warfare was to become more mobile. It took, however, many years to abandon the old fortress thinking.


title: Bastion fort

text: Bastion forts were very expensive. Amsterdam's 22 bastions cost 11 million florins, and Siena in 1544 bankrupted itself to pay for its defences. For this reason, bastion forts were often improvised from earlier defences. Medieval curtain walls were torn down, and a ditch was dug in front of them. The earth used from the excavation was piled behind the walls to create a solid structure. While purpose-built fortifications would often have a brick fascia because of the material's ability to absorb the shock of artillery fire, many improvised defences cut costs by leaving this stage out and instead opting for more earth. Improvisation could also consist of lowering medieval round towers and infilling them with earth to strengthen the structures.


title: Bastion fort

text: It was also often necessary to widen and deepen the ditch outside the walls to create a more effective barrier to frontal assault and mining. Engineers from the 1520s were also building massive, gently sloping banks of earth called glacis in front of ditches so that the walls were almost totally hidden from horizontal artillery fire. The main benefit of the glaces was to deny enemy artillery the ability to fire point-blank. The lower the angle of elevation, the higher the stopping power.


title: Bastion fort

text: The first key instance of a "trace Italianate" was at the Papal port of Civitavecchia, where the original walls were lowered and thickened because the stone tended to shatter under bombardment.


title: Bastion fort

text: The first major battle which truly showed the effectiveness of "trace Italienne" was the defence of Pisa in 1500 against a combined Florentine and French army. With the original medieval fortifications beginning to crumble to French cannon fire, the Pisans constructed an earthen rampart behind the threatened sector. It was discovered that the sloping earthen rampart could be defended against escalade and was also much more resistant to cannon fire than the curtain wall it had replaced.


title: Bastion fort

text: The second siege was that of Padua in 1509. A monk engineer named Fra Giocondo, trusted with the defence of the Venetian city, cut down the city's medieval wall and surrounded the city with a broad ditch that could be swept by flanking fire from gun ports set low in projections extending into the ditch. Finding that their cannon fire made little impression on these low ramparts, the French and allied besiegers made several bloody and fruitless assaults and then withdrew.


title: Bastion fort

text: The new type of fortification also played a role in the numerous Mediterranean wars, slowing down the Ottoman expansion. Although Rhodes had been partially upgraded to the new type of fortifications after the 1480 siege, it was still conquered in 1522; nevertheless it was a long and bloody siege, and the besieged had no hope of outside relief because the island was close to the Ottoman power base and far from any allies. On the other hand, the Ottomans failed to take Corfu in 1537 in no small part because of the new fortifications, and several attempts spanning almost two centuries (another major one was in 1716) also failed.


title: Bastion fort

text: Two star forts were built by the Order of Saint John on the island of Malta in 1552, Fort Saint Elmo and Fort Saint Michael. Fort Saint Elmo played a critical role in the Ottoman siege of 1565 when it managed to hold out heavy bombardment for over a month. Eventually it fell, but the Ottoman casualties were very high, and it bought time for the relief force which arrived from Sicily to relieve the rest of the besieged island. The star fort therefore played a crucial and decisive role in the siege.


title: Bastion fort

text: After the fall of Venice to Napoleon, Corfu was occupied in 1797 by the French republican armies. The now ancient fortifications were still of some value at this point. A Russian–Ottoman–English alliance led at sea by Admiral Ushakov and with troops sent by Ali Pasha retook Corfu in 1799 after a four-month siege, when the garrison led by general Louis François Jean Chabot, being short of provisions and having lost the key island of Vido at the entrance of the port, surrendered and was allowed passage back to France.


title: Bastion fort

text: According to Geoffrey Parker in his article, "The Military Revolution 1560–1660: A Myth?", the appearance of the "trace Italienne" in early modern Europe, and the difficulty of taking such fortifications, resulted in a profound change in military strategy, most importantly, Parker argued, an increase in army sizes necessary to attack these forts. "Wars became a series of protracted sieges," Parker suggests, and open-pitch battles became "irrelevant" in regions where the "trace Italienne" existed. Ultimately, Parker argues, "military geography", in other words, the existence or absence of the "trace Italienne" in a given area, shaped military strategy in the early modern period. This is a profound alteration of the Military Revolution thesis originally proposed by Michael Roberts in 1955.


title: Bastion fort

text: Parker's emphasis on the fortification as the key element has attracted substantial criticism from some academics, such as John A. Lynn and M. S. Kingra, particularly with respect to the claimed causal link between the new fortress design and increases in army sizes during this period.


title: Bastion fort

text: In the nineteenth century, with the development of more powerful artillery and explosive shells, star forts were replaced by simpler but more robust polygonal forts. In the twentieth century, with the development of tanks and aerial warfare during and after the First World War, fixed fortifications became and have remained less important than in previous centuries.


title: Bastion fort

text: Star forts reappeared during the early 21st century French intervention in Mali where they were built by the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: The Wedding Guest is a 2018 British-American action-thriller film written and directed by Michael Winterbottom. It stars Dev Patel, Radhika Apte and Jim Sarbh.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: It had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018. It was released in the United States on March 1, 2019, by IFC Films.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: Jay, a young British man, packs a stash of passports and arrives in Pakistan, travelling to Younganabad. Despite only speaking English, he carries out a careful plan by switching rental cars and buying equipment, including duct tape and two handguns. Scouting out a home where a wedding party are staying, he sneaks inside that night and kidnaps the bride, Samira, at gunpoint. Jay shoots dead an armed guard who attempts to intervene. He flees with Samira in the trunk of his car, disposing of the incriminating gun.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: Jay offers Samira a choice: to return to her family and her arranged marriage, or continue on to Lahore and rejoin her boyfriend Deepesh, who hired Jay to rescue her for £15,000. Unwilling to be married, Samira chooses the latter. They drive to Amritsar, where Deepesh fails to meet them as planned. Jay purchases phones and SIM cards and manages to reach Deepesh, who says that he will instead be in India the following day.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: Crossing the border into Delhi with fake passports, Jay meets with Deepesh and demands his payment. Media attention on the kidnapping and the guard's death have changed Deepesh's mind, and he offers Jay a further £20,000 to abandon Samira back in Pakistan. Jay tells Samira, playing her a recording of the conversation. She insists on seeing Deepesh, and reveals their plan to live off of diamonds he has stolen from his family's business.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: Meeting briefly in Jaipur, Deepesh gives Jay half of the money, promising to have the rest the next day. In the morning, he collects Jay and Samira to take them to a hotel, and refuses to stop the car when Samira asks to speak in private. Jay pulls his second pistol, forcing Deepesh to pull over on a deserted stretch of road and give him the remaining money. Arguing with Samira, Deepesh hits her, and Jay drags him out of the car at gunpoint. He warns Jay not to trust Samira, but Jay demands the diamonds, and beats Deepesh to death after he attacks Jay with a rock.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: Unsure whether to trust each other, Jay and Samira agree to reach safety together, split the diamonds, and go their separate ways. She finds the diamonds hidden in Deepesh's shoe, and Jay burns the body. They check in to the hotel using Deepesh's passport, posing as tourists travelling to Nepal, and Samira sews the diamonds into the hem of her dress. Jay's contacts lead him to a fence who provides them with fake identities and puts them in touch with a buyer for the jewels. However, the jeweller refuses to handle the sale after appraising even one of the stones at over $100,000.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: In Goa, Jay and Samira rent a house on the beach, and give in to their mutual attraction. Having grown close while on the run, Samira asks Jay for his real name; he replies “Aasif”, but she says she knows this is not true. In the night, she slips away with her fake documents and most of the money, and he awakens in the morning to find her gone. She calls to apologize, saying that while he can go home, she never can. Jay tells her to call if she ever needs anything, and Samira hangs up, riding a bus toward her new life while Jay sits alone.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: In November 2017, it was announced Dev Patel had joined the cast of the film, with Michael Winterbottom directing from a screenplay he wrote.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: It had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018. Shortly after, IFC Films acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released in the United States on March 1, 2019.


title: The Wedding Guest (2018 film)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, ""The Wedding Guest" makes a compelling argument for Dev Patel as an actor worthy of diverse leading roles, even if the movie's less than the sum of its action thriller parts." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Caron Butler

text: James Caron Butler (born March 13, 1980) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). During a 14-year career he played for the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Washington Wizards, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Detroit Pistons, and Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Butler is a two-time NBA All-Star and was the 2002 Big East Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year, while playing for the Connecticut Huskies.


title: Caron Butler

text: Butler was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, where he suffered through a rough childhood; he was a drug dealer at age 12 and arrested 15 times before the age of 15. Butler discovered his love for basketball while at a youth detention center. Butler played in Amateur Athletic Union basketball in 1998 and 1999. After a brief career at Racine Park High School, he enrolled at Maine Central Institute where he was successful enough to receive a scholarship to attend the University of Connecticut to play for the Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team for coach Jim Calhoun for two years.


title: Caron Butler

text: At Connecticut, Butler lost off his frame and developed his perimeter game. As a freshman, Butler led the Huskies, only two years removed from a national championship, in both scoring and rebounding with 15.3 points per game and 7.6 rebounds per game respectively. The summer after his freshman season he started for the US team that took home gold in the 2001 FIBA World Championship for Young Men.


title: Caron Butler

text: Butler followed his spectacular freshman campaign with an even better sophomore season, averaging 20.3 points per game and 7.5 rebounds per game, leading the Huskies to both regular season and tournament Big East titles, and was named Big East tournament MVP. He was named co-Big East player of the year (along with Pittsburgh's Brandin Knight) and a second-team All-American. Butler led the Huskies to the Elite 8 of the NCAA basketball tournament. Despite 32 points from Butler, the Huskies lost a close game to the eventual national champion Maryland Terrapins. After the season ended, Butler declared for the NBA draft.


title: Caron Butler

text: Butler was a lottery pick in the 2002 NBA draft, selected with the 10th overall pick by the rebuilding Miami Heat. Miami would rely on Butler immediately despite being a rookie, and he would start in all 78 games he played in during the season, averaging 15.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and finished 8th in the league in steals with 1.8 per game. Despite Miami winning just 25 games and missing the playoffs, Butler proved to be a notable rookie, winning the rookie of the month awards four times during the season while also getting selected to play in the rookie challenge game at that year's All-Star weekend in Atlanta. By season's end, Butler would also be named to the first team on the NBA All-Rookie Team. Miami would again enter the draft lottery, and this time drafted Dwyane Wade before acquiring Lamar Odom from the Los Angeles Clippers.


title: Caron Butler

text: In the 2003–2004 season, however, Butler struggled with injuries that hampered him throughout the season, and he would go on to start in just 56 of 68 games. His scoring average fell to 9.2 points game for the season, but Miami's balanced offense led by Wade, Odom and Eddie Jones propelled Miami into the playoffs. In the first round, the Heat faced the New Orleans Hornets and the two teams would battle in a grueling 7 games series in which the home team won every game. In game 7, Miami closed out the series with Butler scoring 23 points with 9 rebounds. The Heat advanced to the play the top seeded Indiana Pacers, who were heavily favored and won the first two games of the series before Miami responded with two home wins to tie the series at 2 games apiece. Butler scored 21 points with 10 rebounds in the fourth game, but the Pacers responded to win the series in 6 games. Following the season, Miami decided to change the roster and traded Butler, Odom and Brian Grant to the Los Angeles Lakers for superstar center Shaquille O'Neal.


title: Caron Butler

text: The Lakers had been a title contender but were now in rebuilding mode, led by superstar guard Kobe Bryant. Butler started in all of his 77 games in the 2004–2005 season, averaging 15.5 points a game with a then career high field goal percentage of 44.5% percent. The Lakers struggled with injuries and a midseason coaching change however, and failed to make the playoffs. Once again, the offseason meant Butler would be shipped again, as the Lakers traded him and Chucky Atkins to the Washington Wizards for Kwame Brown and Laron Profit.


title: Caron Butler

text: Upon arriving in Washington, Butler signed a 5-year, $46 million deal with the team. He became part of Washington's new "Big 3", a trio made up of teammates Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison. Butler was nicknamed "Tough Juice" by coach Eddie Jordan for his aggressive and passionate play, epitomized by Butler's 20 rebounds in the Game 6 loss of opening-round series against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.


title: Caron Butler

text: On January 17, 2007, Butler converted his first game-winning basket, a dunk following a pass from DeShawn Stevenson with 2.2 seconds remaining against the Knicks to give the Wizards a 99–98 win. Butler was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for January 15–21, 2007. He would have his best season yet, posting career high averages in rebounds, assists, and points. He was also named as a reserve to the 2007 NBA Eastern Conference All-Star team, his first appearance. However, he broke his hand late in the season attempting to block a shot and was forced to sit out during the playoffs along with the injured Gilbert Arenas as the Wizards were swept in their opening round rematch versus the Cavaliers.


title: Caron Butler

text: Butler, who was sidelined with a hip injury, was selected as a reserve for the East in the 2008 NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans, Louisiana but was forced to sit out. Due to the injury, Butler missed 20 of the Wizards' last 35 games of the season. He returned to the lineup on March 13 (his 28th birthday), when the Wizards hosted the Cavaliers. He registered 19 points (8-for-18 field goals) and five rebounds in 41 minutes played in the Wizards' 101–99 win over the Cavs.


title: Caron Butler

text: On February 13, 2010 Butler was traded to the Dallas Mavericks along with Brendan Haywood and Deshawn Stevenson for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton, and Quinton Ross. The Mavericks qualified for the 2010 NBA Playoffs as the second seed in the Western Conference, but were upset in six games by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round.


title: Caron Butler

text: On January 4, 2011, Butler was ruled out for the rest of the 2010–11 season after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured right patellar tendon. The Mavericks went on to defeat the Miami Heat 4–2 in the 2011 NBA Finals to claim their first NBA championship.


title: Caron Butler

text: On December 9, 2011, Butler signed a three-year, $24 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers. During his two seasons as a starter with the Clippers, he helped the team reach the playoffs twice.


title: Caron Butler

text: On July 10, 2013, Butler was traded to the Phoenix Suns alongside Eric Bledsoe in a three-way trade that had both Jared Dudley from the Suns and JJ Redick from the Milwaukee Bucks join the Clippers and two different second round picks being sent to the Bucks. On August 29, 2013, the Suns traded Butler to the Milwaukee Bucks for Ish Smith and Viacheslav Kravtsov. On February 27, 2014, Butler was bought out of his contract by the Bucks, and in 34 games, he averaged 11.0 points per game.


title: Caron Butler

text: On March 1, 2014, Butler signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Butler finished the season having played in 22 regular season games and 17 playoff games for the Thunder, as they qualified for the Western Conference Finals where they were defeated by the San Antonio Spurs.


title: Caron Butler

text: On July 15, 2014, Butler signed with the Detroit Pistons to a reported two-year, $9 million contract.


title: Caron Butler

text: On June 11, 2015, Butler was traded, along with Shawne Williams, to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Ersan İlyasova. However, he was later waived by the Bucks on June 30, 2015.


title: Caron Butler

text: On July 23, 2015, Butler signed with the Sacramento Kings. He received minimal minutes during the 2015–16 season and made just 17 appearances, averaging 3.7 points and 1.3 rebounds per game.


title: Caron Butler

text: On June 21, 2016, Butler exercised his player option with the Kings for the 2016–17 season. However, he was later waived by the Kings on July 4, 2016, after he reached an agreement with the team to have his contract bought out.


title: Caron Butler

text: Butler's final NBA game was on April 11, 2016 in a 105 - 101 victory over the Phoenix Suns where he recorded 7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block.


title: Caron Butler

text: In 2015, Butler released an autobiography entitled "Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA". In 2019 Mark Wahlberg signed on as the executive producer of Butler's biopic of the same name.


title: Caron Butler

text: In 2017, he participated within Global Mixed Gender Basketball (GMGB), which is the first professional basketball league to support unified play between men and women, by being a color commentator for games. He also owns a team in the newly developed league known as the Wisconsin Cheeseheads.


title: Caron Butler

text: Also in 2017, Butler joined ESPN as full-time college basketball and NBA analyst. In 2018 Butler joined FS1 as an NBA analyst.


title: Caron Butler

text: Caron Butler is a Christian. After Butler was sent to a juvenile institution, he began to change his life by reading Bible verses. Butler began taking his interest in basketball seriously when he looked out his window at a basketball court at Ethan Allen Juvenile Detention. Butler spoke of it saying, "God puts stuff in front of you for a reason." Butler also said, "God put his hands on my life. [God] said, 'I'm going to touch you so that you can touch others.'"


title: Caron Butler

text: Butler has a habit of chewing on straws, which he picked up back in AAU ball in 1998 or 1999. His straws of choice are from McDonald's. While playing for the Washington Wizards, he had an addiction to Mountain Dew. He said he drank about six 12 ounce sodas a day and would wake up in the middle of the night to have one. In his autobiography entitled "Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA", he states that teammates, namely Kobe Bryant, have tried to curb his Mountain Dew addiction. Butler has stated that he still struggles with his addiction to this day.


title: Caron Butler

text: Butler attended a surprise birthday party for Anthony Fadel, a 16-year-old in the Washington, D.C. area when invited by the boy's family. The party was held in May 2007, and the event was primarily reported by Internet blogs, since Wizards PR purposely did not cover the event to preserve the sincerity of Butler's gesture.


title: Caron Butler

text: After working at Burger King in his youth, Butler now owns six of the fast food restaurants across the United States. He has taken Business Management classes at Duke University.


title: Caron Butler

text: Butler is the son of Mattie Claybrook Paden. His father left him when he was born to join the Marines. His mother married Melvin and he has younger brother Melvin III.


title: Caron Butler

text: Caron and Andrea Pink Butler met at UConn's pre college summer program. After their sophomore year they traveled to Las Vegas in 2005 and married. Butler has a daughter and son from a previous relationship. With wife Andrea he has three other daughters.


title: Balls of Fury

text: Balls of Fury is a 2007 American sports comedy film directed by Robert Ben Garant, who also wrote the screenplay with Thomas Lennon, who also co-starred and produced with Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman. The film stars Dan Fogler, with a supporting cast of George Lopez, Christopher Walken, Maggie Q, Terry Crews, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, James Hong and Jason Scott Lee. The film was released in the United States on August 29, 2007. "Balls of Fury" was Fogler's first lead role.


title: Balls of Fury

text: Eleven-year-old Randy Daytona becomes anxious when he learns that his father Peter has bet on his performance in the 1988 Summer Olympics table tennis tournament finals. During his semi-final game against Karl Wolfschtagg of the German Democratic Republic, Daytona has an accident and suffers an injury. Unable to continue, he loses the match. Loan sharks, in the employ of criminal mastermind Feng, murder his father, and Daytona leaves competitive ping-pong.


title: Balls of Fury

text: Nineteen years later, Daytona is dismissed from the Peppermill casino and meets FBI agent Ernie Rodriguez, who requests his assistance in arresting Feng for running guns. Feng's hidden jungle hideout hosts a black-market Ping-Pong tournament, and Daytona's invitation is a way for the FBI to infiltrate Feng's organization. When Daytona agrees, Rodriguez tells him to win enough championships that Feng's scouts notice him. After losing a local tournament, Daytona is apprenticed to a blind man in Chinatown named Wong, who was Feng's former mentor. Daytona also meets Wong's niece, Maggie. When locals vandalize Master Wong's house for violating their edict against teaching white people ping pong, Daytona is forced to play against "The Dragon", a young girl, in exchange for Wong's right to stay. After Daytona beats the Dragon and gets punched, Feng's men take notice of his win and bring Daytona, Rodriguez, and Wong to Feng's facility.


title: Balls of Fury

text: Daytona handily beats his first opponent, Freddy "Fingers" Wilson, though he is unnerved to learn that the tournament is literally sudden death—the loser is killed by a poisoned dart delivered by Feng's majordomo, Mahogany. After Daytona attempts unsuccessfully to escape, Feng invites him to join his side and reveals that he only finished half of Wong's training. He says it would be the ultimate satisfaction to win Daytona away from Wong. Feng also shows Daytona his specially modified ping-pong table. It is wired to special vests that give increasingly powerful and fatal electrical shocks for failure. Daytona informs Rodriguez of a hidden cache of illegal guns that are sufficient to put Feng in jail. While Rodriguez investigates the hidden facilities, Daytona defeats numerous opponents for his life.


title: Balls of Fury

text: Upon learning that Wolfschtagg is his last opponent, Daytona requests extraction. Rodriguez comes up with a plan to brutally injure Daytona so that he has to quit. Rodriguez breaks Daytona's arm before Daytona can tell him that he has changed his mind. Feng discovers Rodriguez's attempts to contact the FBI and forces Daytona to face Wolfschtagg, then substitutes Maggie. When Wolfschtagg protests, Feng kills him. Daytona plays one-handed and tries to stall for time. Maggie tries to lose on purpose to sacrifice herself. However, Daytona uses his ping-pong expertise to hit Maggie with the ball. While this goes on, they escape together. Enraged, Feng orders them both executed. Mahogany shoots a poisonous dart at Daytona, but Maggie thwarts her. Daytona throws the poisoned paddle back at Mahogany, killing her. The FBI swarms the place, during which the heroes attempt to escape, but Daytona's attempts to rescue Feng's slaves cause their capture. Feng plays Daytona to determine which of Wong's students is the superior ping pong player.


title: Balls of Fury

text: During the game, Daytona trips Feng's bodyguard and sets off the self-destruct sequence. Feng reveals there is no way to turn off the suits. He also states that he changed the rules so that the ball can now be bounced off any surface once and still be in play. The game moves through several buildings and finally onto a bridge over a nearby river. After Wong informs Daytona that Feng has a weak backhand, Daytona exploits his weakness, and Feng is electrocuted, falling into the river. Daytona and his friends, along with Feng's slaves, escape in Wong's boat as the facility explodes. Two months later, the major characters are reunited for the reopening of Wong's rebuilt Mushu shop while also still hosting ping-pong games. Wong inadvertently falls down the elevator shaft, to Randy, Rodriguez, and Maggie's shock.


title: Balls of Fury

text: , the film holds a 21% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 131 reviews with an average score of 4.2/10. The site's consensus reads: "Tasteless, yet harmless, "Balls of Fury" nevertheless fails to generate enough laughs despite its lowbrow intentions".


title: Balls of Fury

text: On Metacritic the film has a score of 38 out of 100 based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."


title: Balls of Fury

text: Brian Lowry of Variety magazine wrote: "Relentlessly silly in spoofing martial-arts movie conventions, Balls of Fury has roughly enough laughs for a first-class trailer but wheezes, gasps and finally goes flat through much of its 90 minutes." Film historian Leonard Maltin was even less kind, declaring the picture a BOMB (his lowest possible rating), while describing it as a "...One-joke comedy that's every bit as inane and stupid as its premise. James Hong steals every scene he's in; but, alas, it's petty theft." Roger Ebert was more favorable in his review for the "Chicago Sun-Times", giving it two-and-a-half out of four stars and recommending it as a modest comedy of "sheer absurdity".


title: Balls of Fury

text: The film opened with a U.S. take on the opening weekend of $11,352,123. The U.S. final gross, on November 4, 2007, was $32,886,940.


title: Balls of Fury

text: A tie-in game for "Balls of Fury" was released for Wii and Nintendo DS by Black Lantern. The storyline involves an underground ping-pong competition, based on the film. The Nintendo DS version was released on September 9, 2007, with the Wii version following on September 25. Both versions take advantage of motion controls to play ping pong, and were not well received. The Wii version was panned by critics, while the Nintendo DS version received better, but mixed reviews. IGN scored the Wii version a 1.2 out of 10, but scored the DS version a 6.5 out of 10.


title: Corinthian order

text: The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: "Ordo Corinthius") is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order which was the earliest, followed by the Ionic order. In Ancient Greek architecture, the Corinthian order follows the Ionic in almost all respects other than the capitals of the columns.


title: Corinthian order

text: When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon: the Tuscan order and the Composite order. The Corinthian, with its offshoot the Composite, is the most ornate of the orders. This architectural style is characterized by slender fluted columns and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls. There are many variations.


title: Corinthian order

text: The name "Corinthian" is derived from the ancient Greek city of Corinth, although the style had its own model in Roman practice, following precedents set by the Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus (c. 2 AD). It was employed in southern Gaul at the Maison Carrée, Nîmes and at the comparable Temple of Augustus and Livia at Vienne. Other prime examples noted by Mark Wilson Jones are the lower order of the Basilica Ulpia and the Arch of Trajan at Ancona (both of the reign of Trajan, 98–117 AD), the Column of Phocas (re-erected in Late Antiquity but 2nd century in origin), and the Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek (c. 150 AD).


title: Corinthian order

text: The Corinthian order is named for the Greek city-state of Corinth, to which it was connected in the period. However, according to the architectural historian Vitruvius, the column was created by the sculptor Callimachus, probably an Athenian, who drew acanthus leaves growing around a votive basket. Its earliest use can be traced back to the Late Classical Period (430–323 BC). The earliest Corinthian capital was found in Bassae, dated at 427 BC.


title: Corinthian order

text: Proportion is a defining characteristic of the Corinthian order: the "coherent integration of dimensions and ratios in accordance with the principles of "symmetria"" are noted by Mark Wilson Jones, who finds that the ratio of total column height to column-shaft height is in a 6:5 ratio, so that, secondarily, the full height of column with capital is often a multiple of 6 Roman feet while the column height itself is a multiple of 5. In its proportions, the Corinthian column is similar to the Ionic column, though it is more slender, and stands apart by its distinctive carved capital.


title: Corinthian order

text: The abacus upon the capital has concave sides to conform to the outscrolling corners of the capital, and it may have a rosette at the center of each side. Corinthian columns were erected on the top level of the Roman Colosseum, holding up the least weight, and also having the slenderest ratio of thickness to height. Their height to width ratio is about 10:1.


title: Corinthian order

text: One variant is the Tivoli order, found at the Temple of Vesta, Tivoli. The Tivoli order's Corinthian capital has two rows of acanthus leaves and its abacus is decorated with oversize fleurons in the form of hibiscus flowers with pronounced spiral pistils. The column flutes have flat tops. The frieze exhibits fruit festoons suspended between bucrania. Above each festoon has a rosette over its center. The cornice does not have modillions.