text: In May 1918, the Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galich Antony Khrapovitsky was appointed to the Kyiv eparchy, a former candidate to become the Patriarch of Moscow at the Russian Local Council of 1917 and losing it to the Patriarch Tikhon. In July 1918 Metropolitan Antony became the head of the All-Ukrainian Church Council. Eventually he sided with the Russian White movement supporting the Denikin's forces of South Russia, while keeping the title of Metropolitan of Kyiv and Halych. After the defeat of the Whites and the exile of Antony, in 1919-21 the metropolitan seat was temporarily held by the bishop of Cherkasy Nazariy (also the native of Kazan). After the arrest of Nazariy by the Soviet authorities in 1921, the seat was provisionally held by the bishop of Grodno and newly elected Exarch of Ukraine Mikhail, a member of the Russian Black Hundreds nationalistic movement. After his arrest in 1923, the Kyiv eparchy was provisionally headed by various bishops of neighboring eparchies until 1927. After his return in 1927 Mikhail became the Metropolitan of Kyiv and Exarch of Ukraine until his death in 1929.


title: Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)

text: In 1945, after the integration of Zakarpattia Oblast into the USSR, eastern parts of the Eparchy of Mukačevo and Prešov were transferred from the supreme jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church to the jurisdiction of the Exarchate of Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, and a new Eparchy of Mukachevo and Uzhgorod was formed.


text: On 28 October 1990, the Moscow Patriarchate granted the Ukrainian Exarchate a status of a self–governing church under the jurisdiction of the ROC (but "not" the full autonomy as is understood in the ROC legal terminology). However, the Ukrainian branch remained crucial to the Moscow Patriarchate, because of historical and traditional roots in Kyiv and Ukraine, and because nearly a third of the Moscow Patriarchate's 36,000 congregations were in Ukraine.


text: Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan), who succeeded Filaret (Denysenko), was enthroned in 1992 as the Primate of the UOC under the title Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine, with the official residency in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, which also houses all of the Church's administration.


text: The UOC-MP, prior to 2019, was believed to be the largest religious body in Ukraine with the greatest number of parish churches and communities counting up to half of the total in Ukraine and totaling over 10,000. The UOC also claimed to have up to 75 percent of the Ukrainian population. Independent surveys showed significant variance. According to Stratfor, in 2008, more than 50 percent of Ukrainian population belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarch. Razumkov Centre survey results, however, tended to show greater adherence to the rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate.


text: Many Orthodox Ukrainians do not clearly identify with a particular Orthodox jurisdiction and, sometimes, are even unaware of the affiliation of the parish they attend as well as of the controversy itself, which indicates the difficulty of using survey numbers as an indicator of a relative strength of the church. Additionally, the geographical factor plays a major role in the number of adherents, as the Ukrainian population tends to be more churchgoing in the western part of the country rather than in the UOC-MP's heartland in southern and eastern Ukraine. Politically, many in Ukraine see the UOC-MP as merely a puppet of the ROC and consequently a geopolitical tool of Russia, which have stridently opposed the consolidation and recognition of the independent OCU.


text: Since 2014 the church has come under attack for perceived anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian actions by its clergymen. On 14 September 2015 it urged the pro-Russian separatists to lay down their arms and take advantage of the amnesty promised to them in the Minsk II agreement. Ukraine passed laws which the Moscow Patriarchate interpreted as discriminatory in 2017.


text: From 2014 until 2018 around 60 Moscow Patriarchate parishes switched to the Kyivan Patriarchate in transfers the leadership of the Moscow patriarchate says were illegal. According to the Razumkov Center, among the 27.8 million Ukrainian members of Orthodox churches, allegiance to the Kyiv Patriarchate grew from 12 percent in 2000, to 25 percent in 2016—and much of the growth came from believers who previously did not associate with either patriarchate. In April 2018 Moscow patriarchate had 12,300 parishes and the Kyivan Patriarchate 5,100 parishes.


text: By decision of the Russian Orthodox Church Bishops’ Council (November 29-December 2, 2017), a separate chapter of the ROC Statute was singled out to confirm the status of UOC with the following provisions:


text: In December 2017, the Security Service of Ukraine published classified documents revealing that the NKGB of the USSR and its units in the Union and autonomous republics, territories and regions were engaged in the selection of candidates for participation in the 1945 council that elected Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow from the representatives of the clergy and the laity. This included "persons who have religious authority among the clergy and believers, and at the same time checked for civic or patriotic work". A letter sent in September 1944 and signed by the head of the 2nd Directorate of the NKGB of the USSR Fedotov and the head of the Fifth Division 2nd Directorate of Karpov stated that "it is important to ensure that the number of nominated candidates is dominated by the agents of the NKGB, capable of holding the line that we need at the Council."


text: On 13 December 2018 a priest of the church, Volodymyr Maretsky, was sentenced in absentia to 6 years of imprisonment for hindering the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2014 during the Russo-Ukrainian War. In November–December 2018, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carries out raids across the country targeting the UOC (MP) churches and priests.


text: In the week following the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on 15 December 2018, several parishes announced they would leave the UOC (MP) and join the new church.


text: On 20 December 2018, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) passed a legislation to change the UOC-MP's registered name. Ukrainian deputy described the law as stipulating if "the state is recognized as the aggressor state, the church whose administration is based in the aggressor state must have in its title the full name of the church to which it is subordinate". The Russian Orthodox Church, which the UOC-MP is part of, is based in Russia, which is considered by Ukraine as an aggressor state following the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine. The law also gave it "no right to be represented in military units on the front line". On 11 December 2019 the Supreme Court of Ukraine allowed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to retain its name.


text: The January, 2019 establishment of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), by final decree of the Eastern Church's Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, of Constantinople, joined the major existing Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdictions: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), and a part of the UOC-MP.


text: The remaining UOC-MP hierarchy continued to dismiss the independence decree, and remained loyal to Moscow, and initially retained many of its parishes. A May 2019 report by the European Council on Foreign Relations noted that the Moscow Patriarchate claimed 11,000 churches in Ukraine, while the new OCU claimed 7,000.


text: On 24 February 2022, Metropolitan Onufriy said the Russian invasion of Ukraine "is a repetition of the sin of Cain, who killed his own brother out of envy. Such a war has no justification either from God or from people." In April 2022, after the Russian invasion, many UOC-MP parishes signaled their intention to switch allegiance to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The attitude and stance of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow to the war is one of the oft quoted reasons. On May 12, the synod of the UOC-MP met for the first time since the start of the war and issued a statement of support for Ukraine's armed forces, while condemning the Russian invasion.


text: On 27 May 2022, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church formally cut ties and declared independence from the Russian Orthodox Church. In an announcement on Telegram, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich (head of the UOC's Department of External Church Relations) stated:The UOC disassociated itself from the Moscow Patriarchate and confirmed its independent status, and made appropriate changes to its statutes.


text: All references to the connection of the UOC with the Russian Orthodox Church have been removed from the statutes. In fact, in its content, the UOC statutes are now those of an autocephalous Church.


text: On 29 May 2022, Metropolitan Onufriy did not mention Patriarch Kirill during the liturgy as someone who had authority over him (like before), instead he commemorated all heads of churches, similar to primatial divine liturgies. Onufriy also did not commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria, Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens (Greece), and Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus - indicating that communion is still interrupted between them.


text: In June 2022 the Moscow Patriarchate decided to re-transfer Crimea from the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate by creating the Metropolitanate of Crimea. Since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) had kept control of its eparchies in Crimea. The UOC continues to list the Crimean eparchies and has not recognized any change to its territorial boundaries based on decisions taken by the ROC.


text: By early November 2022 the Security Service of Ukraine had exposed 33 alleged "agents" and alleged unofficial artillery observers among the UOC priests and clergy. It had opened 23 criminal proceedings.


text: On 2 December 2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy entered a bill to the Verkhovna Rada that would officially ban all activities of the UOC in Ukraine. On the same day, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery was claimed to be extrajudicially transferred from the UOC to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), but the UOC refuted this.


text: On 14 December 2022 Ukraine handed over a UOC priest to Russia in a prisoner exchange. The priest had been sentenced for treason in Ukraine.


text: In October 2014 the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine was subdivided into 53 eparchies (dioceses) led by bishops. Also there were 25 vicars (suffragan bishops).


text: In 2008 the Church had 42 eparchies, with 58 bishops (eparchial - 42; vicar - 12; retired - 4; with them being classified as: metropolitans - 10; archbishops - 21; or bishops - 26). There were also 8,516 priests, and 443 deacons.


text: Notwithstanding the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) kept control of its eparchies in Crimea until June 2022. In January 2019 the head of the Information and Educational Department of the UOC-MP, Archbishop Clement, stated that "from the point of view of the church canon and the church system, Crimea is Ukrainian territory."


text: In June 2022 the Moscow Patriarchate decided to re-transfer Crimea from the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. They did this by creating the Metropolitanate of Crimea. The UOC continues to list the Crimean eparchies and has not recognized any change to its territorial boundaries based on decisions taken by the ROC.


text: Note: in 1770 the office's jurisdiction was reduced to a diocese's administration as Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia. The autonomy was liquidated and the church was merged to the Russian Orthodox Church.


text: Due to emigration of Metropolitan Antony in 1919, until World War II Kyiv eparchy was often administered by provisional bishops. Also because of political situation in Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church introduced a new title in its history as the Exarch of Ukraine that until 1941 was not necessary associated with the title of Metropolitan of Kyiv and Halych.


title: Hobo spider

text: The hobo spider (Eratigena agrestis, formerly Tegenaria agrestis) is a member of the family of spiders known colloquially as funnel web spiders, but not to be confused with the Australian funnel-web spider. Individuals construct a funnel-shaped structure of silk sheeting and lie in wait at the small end of the funnel for prey insects to blunder onto their webs. Hobo spiders sometimes build their webs in or around human habitations. The hobo spider lays its eggs in September and they hatch during late spring. After the male hobo spider mates it dies.


title: Hobo spider

text: The species was first described in 1802 by naturalist Charles Athanase Walckenaer as "Aranea agrestis", in reference to its western European habitat in fields, woods, and under rocks. In 1841, Walckenaer transferred the species to the genus "Tegenaria". In 2013, "Tegenaria" was split up, and the hobo spider was transferred to a new genus "Eratigena", an anagram of "Tegenaria".


title: Hobo spider

text: Spiders, including the hobo spider, vary considerably in appearance, and identification can be difficult. The hobo spider is 7–14 mm in body length, and brownish in color. Identification relies on an examination of the spider’s anatomy. Like many species of spider the positive identification of "Eratigena agrestis" requires microscopic examination of the epigynum and palpal bulb (the female and male sex organs respectively) and is best done by an arachnologist. However, the following characteristics identify hobo spiders among other species with a similar general appearance:


title: Hobo spider

text: "Eratigena agrestis" is distributed from Europe to Central Asia, and is also found in western North America, in the Pacific Northwest and Great Basin. It is recorded in the checklist of Danish spider species, and is present on the small island of Peberholm, probably having been carried there by foreign trains.


title: Hobo spider

text: It is a resident of fields, avoiding human habitations occupied by major competitors, particularly the giant house spider ("Eratigena atrica"), which is a common resident of houses and other man-made structures in Europe. As a result, human contacts with the hobo spider are uncommon in Europe. Hobo spiders build a horizontal, trampoline-like web near brick walls or wood piles where the spider has shelter and awaits prey.


title: Hobo spider

text: Although the toxicity and aggression of the hobo spider have long been debated, there is little evidence that the hobo spider is a dangerously venomous species. The CDC reported case studies in the 1990s claiming that the hobo spider bite caused isolated cases of necrosis in people, but as of 2017, the CDC no longer lists the hobo spider among venomous species. In Canada, there is no evidence that hobo spider bites cause skin necrosis. Some bites reportedly from the closely related desert grass spider, "Agelenopsis aperta," may have been inaccurately reported and may have actually been from the hobo spider.


title: Miswak

text: The miswak ("miswaak", "siwak", "sewak", or ) is a teeth-cleaning twig made from the "Salvadora persica" tree (known as "arāk", أراك, in Arabic). It is reputed to have been used over 7,000 years ago. The miswak's properties have been described thus: "Apart from their antibacterial activity which may help control the formation and activity of dental plaque, they can be used effectively as a natural toothbrush for teeth cleaning. Such sticks are effective, inexpensive, common, available, and contain many medical properties". It also features prominently in Islamic hygienical jurisprudence.


title: Miswak

text: The "miswak" is predominant in Muslim-inhabited areas. It is commonly used in the Arabian peninsula, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, parts of the Sahel, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Caucasus. In Malaysia, miswak is known as "Kayu Sugi" (Malay for 'chewing stick').


title: Miswak

text: The World Health Organization also known as the WHO recommended the use of the "miswak" in 1986, but in 2000, an international consensus report on oral hygiene concluded that further research was needed to document the effect of the "miswak". Some of this further research has been done on a population of 203, and concluded, "that the periodontal status of miswak users in this Sudanese population is better than that of toothbrush users". Yet another comparative study conducted on a sampling of 480 Saudi Arabian adults found that "the level of need for periodontal care in the sample chosen is low when compared with the findings of similar studies undertaken in other countries. The frequent use of the 'Miswak' was associated with a lower need for treatment".


title: Miswak

text: Studies indicate that Salvadora persica extract exhibits low antimicrobial activity compared to other oral disinfectants and anti-plaque agents like triclosan and chlorhexidine gluconate.


title: Miswak

text: However, the benefits of triclosan were discounted by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2016 and its safety is uncertain as a hygiene product ingredient. Chlorhexidine gluconate was also linked to serious allergic reactions, albeit rarely.


title: Miswak

text: Salvadorine and benzylisothiocyanate appear to be responsible for the antibacterial activity of Miswak. The plant also contains insoluble fluoride in high concentration, calcium, salicylic acid, and some antioxidants of unclear function.


title: Miswak

text: A 2016 paper has been published comparing human DNA left on used miswak and toothbrushes, including the effect of time, to determine whether miswak is a reasonable source of DNA when found at crime scenes. The conclusion was that miswak contains a high enough quantity of DNA, and retained good DNA profiling; and when compared to toothbrushes, miswak is a reasonable source of DNA for forensic profiling. In addition, time of storage up to four months had no or little effects on results.


title: Miswak

text: The use of the "miswak" is frequently advocated in the "hadith" (the traditions relating to the life of Muhammad). Situations where the "miswak" is recommended to be used include before or during wudu (ablution), on waking up in the morning, before going to the mosque, before entering one's house, before and after going on a journey, on Fridays, before sleeping and after waking up, when experiencing hunger or thirst and before entering any good gathering.


title: Miswak

text: In addition to strengthening the gums, preventing tooth decay and eliminating toothaches, the "miswak" is said to halt further decay that has already set in. Furthermore, it is reputed to create a fragrance in the mouth, eliminate bad breath, improve sensitivity of taste-buds and promote cleaner teeth.


title: Miswak

text: It is often mentioned that the Islamic prophet Muhammad recommended the "miswak"'s use. He is quoted in various hadith extolling its virtues:


title: Miswak

text: Modern uses of "arāk" wood in oral hygiene expands beyond miswak itself. Extracts containing its active components have been added to mouthwash and toothpaste. There is also a German patent for similar formulations in pets.


title: Diego Rossi

text: Diego Martín Rossi Marachlian (born 5 March 1998) is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a forward for Turkish Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe and the Uruguay national team.


title: Diego Rossi

text: Rossi began playing football as a child at the El Queso school in Solymar. At the age of six, Rossi moved to the Solymar Uruguay Sports Center, with which he competed in the Interbalnearian League of Youth Football. He demonstrated his ability in the club and caught the attention of Peñarol, where he joined their academy at the age of 12. Néstor Gonçalves discovered him and was invited to play a friendly tournament in Alegrete with the a team, where he eventually was offered a contract.


title: Diego Rossi

text: At the age of 14, Rossi was the top scorer for the team's under-14 team in the Uruguayan seven tier, where he was a top scorer in 2012 with 42 goals in 27 matches. The following year, Rossi joined the Peñarol youth team in the Uruguayan sixth division, where he scored 25 times in 17 appearances. With Penarol's U-15 team, Rossi helped the team win the Apertura Tournament and the Uruguayan U-15 Championship as well as the Fabian Lomineto Cup.


title: Diego Rossi

text: In 2014, he was the top scorer of the Uruguayan Premier Division Under-16 Tournament, scoring 17 goals in the first half of the year, where Peñarol came out champions of the U-16 Clausura Tournament.


title: Diego Rossi

text: On 7 April 2015, he was invited to train with the first-team squad of Peñarol for the first time, along with his teammates from the under-17 team Santiago Bueno and Federico Valverde.


title: Diego Rossi

text: He was promoted by Pablo Bengoechea to the first team for the 2015–16 season in August. Diego alternated the practices with their U-18 team and Peñarol's senior team, but he played with the U-17 club and in the Third or Fourth Division for the entirety of the season.


title: Diego Rossi

text: He finished 2015 helping the Peñarol's U-17 team win the Apertura U-17 Tournament, and after beating Danubio in a final in which he scored a goal. For the fourth consecutive year he was the top scorer of the championship, with 22 goals plus one in the final, although he played ten games in the Fourth and Third Division.


title: Diego Rossi

text: On 5 January 2016, Rossi began the preseason with the Peñarol first team. He debuted with the club on 16 January 2016, in the Bandes Cup final, where he came on in the 7th minute for Gabriel Leyes in a 1–0 victory against Cerro Porteño. Rossi made his debut with the club at the age of 17 years and 317 days old. At the end of the 2015–16, Rossi was demoted to the second team following a change in managerial leadership, where Bengoechea was sacked and Jorge Orosmán da Silva took over.


title: Diego Rossi

text: Following a series of poor results, da Silva called Rossi into the first team, where on 20 April 2016, he made his full debut with the club, playing against Sporting Cristal in the 2016 Copa Libertadores group stage match. He scored his first professional goal five days later in a 3–1 win against Rentistas.


title: Diego Rossi

text: On 14 December 2017, Rossi was signed as a young designated player for Los Angeles FC of Major League Soccer, an expansion franchise that began play in 2018. On 4 March 2018, Rossi made his MLS debut in Seattle against Seattle Sounders FC. Rossi's goal in the 11th minute was the first goal in Los Angeles FC history. The goal was also the fastest goal by an expansion team in MLS history. On 8 August 2018, Rossi scored his first hat-trick in MLS during a U.S. Open Cup semifinal match against the Houston Dynamo, a game in which LAFC ultimately lost in penalty kicks.


title: Diego Rossi

text: On 18 July 2020, Rossi became the 13th MLS player and first LAFC player to score four goals in a single match, accomplishing the feat in a 6–2 victory over rivals LA Galaxy in a MLS is Back Tournament group stage match.


title: Diego Rossi

text: On 1 September 2021, it was announced that Rossi would join Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe on loan from the remainder of the 2021 season with an option to buy, making him the second Armenian-heritage footballer to play in Turkish league after Aras Özbiliz.


title: Diego Rossi

text: On 15 April 2022, Fenerbahçe announced they acquired Rossi on a permanent transfer. He signed a three-year contract, which became valid from 2022–23 season onwards.


title: Diego Rossi

text: Rossi began his international career for Uruguay with under-15 team and went on to earn caps for Uruguay's different age level national teams. He was part of Uruguay squad at 2013 South American U-15 Championship, 2015 South American U-17 Championship, 2017 South American U-20 Championship and 2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament. In total, he has scored 28 goals from 82 matches for Uruguay's youth national teams.


title: Diego Rossi

text: On 18 September 2020, Rossi was included in Uruguay's 26-men preliminary squad for World Cup qualifying matches against Chile and Ecuador. On 5 October 2020, Rossi was included in the final squad as a replacement for injured Cristhian Stuani.


title: Diego Rossi

text: Rossi is of Italian descent through his paternal side and of Armenian descent through his maternal side. Since 2018, he has received invitations to play for Armenia national team, to which he decisively refused over his desire to represent Uruguay. His younger brother Nicolás is also a professional footballer, who's pledged for the Armenia national team.


title: Diego Rossi

text: Rossi earned his U.S. green card in February 2019. This status also qualifies him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The is a Japanese maglev line under construction between Tokyo and Nagoya, with plans for extension to Osaka. Its initial section is between Shinagawa Station in Tokyo and Nagoya Station in Nagoya, with stations in Sagamihara, Kōfu, Iida and Nakatsugawa. The line is expected to connect Tokyo and Nagoya in 40 minutes, and eventually Tokyo and Osaka in 67 minutes, running at a maximum speed of . About 90% of the line to Nagoya will be tunnels.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The Chuo Shinkansen is the culmination of Japanese maglev development since the 1970s, a government-funded project initiated by Japan Airlines and the former Japanese National Railways (JNR). Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) now operates the facilities and research. The line is intended to be built by extending and incorporating the existing Yamanashi test track (see below). The trainsets themselves are popularly known in Japan as , though there have been many technical variations.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: Government permission to proceed with construction was granted on 27 May 2011. Construction of the line, which is expected to cost over ¥9 trillion, commenced in 2014.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The start date of commercial service is currently unknown, after Shizuoka Prefecture denied permission for construction work on a portion of the route in June 2020. JR Central originally aimed to begin commercial service between Tokyo and Nagoya in 2027, with the Nagoya–Osaka section planned to be completed as early as 2037.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: Originally, the Nagoya-Osaka section was planned to be completed as late as 2045, but the date was moved up following a loan from the Japanese government.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: Following the opening of the Tokaido Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964, Japanese National Railways (JNR) focused on the development of faster Maglev technology. In the 1970s, a test track for Maglev research and development was built in Miyazaki Prefecture. As desired results had been obtained at the (now former) Miyazaki test track, an 18.4 kilometer test track with tunnels, bridges and slopes was built at a site in Yamanashi Prefecture, between Ōtsuki and Tsuru (). Residents of Yamanashi Prefecture and government officials were eligible for free rides on the Yamanashi test track, and over 200,000 people took part. Trains on this test track have routinely achieved operating speeds of over 500 km/h (310 mph), making this an embryonic part of the future Chuo Shinkansen.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The track was extended a further along the future route of the Chuo Shinkansen, to bring the combined track length up to . Extension and upgrading work was completed by June 2013, allowing researchers to test sustained top speed over longer periods.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: JR Central began offering public train rides at 500 km/h on the Yamanashi test track, via a lottery selection, in 2014.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: This event was repeated in August 2022. The train has the world record for fastest manned train on this track.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The line's route passes through many sparsely populated areas in the Japanese Alps (Akaishi Mountains), but is more direct than the current Tōkaidō Shinkansen route, and time saved through a more direct route was a more important criterion to JR Central than having stations at intermediate population centers. Also, the more heavily populated Tōkaidō route is congested, and providing an alternative route if the Tōkaidō Shinkansen were to become blocked by earthquake damage was also a consideration. The route will have a minimum curve radius of , and a maximum gradient of 4%. This is significantly more than the traditional Shinkansen lines, which top out at 3%.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The planned route between Nagoya and Osaka includes a stop in Nara. In 2012, politicians and business leaders in Kyoto petitioned the central government and JR Central to change the route to pass through their city. The governor of Nara Prefecture announced in November 2013 that he had re-confirmed the Transport Ministry's intention to route the segment through Nara.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: JR Central announced in July 2008 that the Chūō Shinkansen would start at Tokyo's Shinagawa Station, citing difficulties in securing land at nearby Tokyo and Shinjuku stations for a maglev terminal.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: A JR Central report on the Chuo Shinkansen was approved by a Liberal Democratic Party panel in October 2008, which certified three proposed routes for the Maglev. According to a "Japan Times" news article, JR Central supported the more direct route, which would cost less money to build than the other two proposals, backed by Nagano Prefecture. The latter two plans had the line swinging up north between Kōfu and Nakatsugawa stations to serve areas within Nagano. In June 2009, JR Central also announced research results comparing the three routes, estimating revenue and travel time, which showed the most favorable being the shortest Plan C, with long tunnels under the Japanese Alps. The Council for Transport Policy for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism concluded on 20 October 2010 that Plan C would be most cost-efficient. JR Central announced that one station would be constructed in each of Yamanashi, Gifu, Nagano, and Kanagawa Prefectures.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: On 31 October 2014, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism approved Plan C for construction. Construction began on 17 December 2014.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: A skyscraper measuring in height was built by JR Central. The structure is named 名古屋駅新ビル ("Nagoya-eki Shin-biru", Nagoya Station new building) and accommodates a station for the maglev trains in its basement area.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: JR Central announced in December 2007 that it planned to raise funds for the construction of the Chuo Shinkansen on its own, without government financing. Total cost, originally estimated at 5.1 trillion yen in 2007, escalated to over 9 trillion yen by 2011. Nevertheless, the company has said it can make a pre-tax profit of around 70 billion yen in 2026, when the operating costs stabilize. The primary reason for the project's huge expense is that most of the line is planned to run in tunnels (about 86% of the initial section from Tokyo to Nagoya will be underground) with some sections at a depth of (deep underground) for a total of in the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka areas.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The original construction schedule from 2013, which called for the Tokyo–Nagoya segment to open in 2027 and the Nagoya–Osaka segment to open in 2045, was designed to keep JR Central's total debt burden below its approximate level at the time of privatization (around 5 trillion yen). The schedule was later altered to bring forward the completion date of the Nagoya-Osaka segment to 2037, after JR Central received a loan from the Japanese government.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The first major contract announced was for a tunnel in Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures expected to be completed in 2025. Construction of a tunnel under the southern Japanese Alps commenced on 20 December 2015, approximately below the surface at its deepest point. The tunnel is expected to be completed in 2025, and upon completion will succeed the deep Daishimizu Tunnel on the Joetsu Shinkansen line as the deepest tunnel in Japan. Construction has also started on the maglev station at Shinagawa. Being built below the existing Shinkansen station, and to consist of two platforms and four tracks, construction is planned to take 10 years, largely to avoid disruption to the existing Tokaido Shinkansen services located above the new station.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: JR Central estimates that Chuo Shinkansen fares will be only slightly more expensive than Tokaido Shinkansen fares, with a difference of around 700 yen between Tokyo and Nagoya, and around 1,000 yen between Tokyo and Osaka. The positive economic impact of the Chuo Shinkansen in reducing travel times between the cities has been estimated at anywhere between 5 and 17 trillion yen during the line's first fifty years of operation.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: Construction is yet to commence on the part of the line going through Shizuoka Prefecture, as the municipality has expressed concern about water from the Ōi River leaking into the tunnel, lowering the water level. JR Central has expressed concern early on that the delay on construction of the only 9 kilometer long section going through Shizuoka might throw the entire project off schedule.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: Officials of Shizuoka Prefecture, in a meeting with JR Central in June 2020, denied permission to begin construction work on the tunnel. JR Central announced the following week that it would be "difficult" to open the Tokyo-Nagoya line in 2027 as previously announced.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The incumbent governor of Shizuoka Prefecture Heita Kawakatsu was re-elected in June 2021. His platform was partially built on continued opposition to construction of the new line barring further accommodations by JR Central.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: Following a series of meetings between JR Central and Shizuoka Prefecture facilitated by the Ministry of Transportation, an interim report was released on the results of the meetings so far in late December 2021. Among other things, the report confirmed that while JR was committed to returning any water leaking into the tunnel once construction was completed, there is no known feasible way to return all of the water during the construction phase. However, it did also conclude that the amount of water leaked was likely to be insignificant.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: On 7 January 2022, commenting on the report, the Shizuoka Prefecture governor expressed continued opposition to construction when it could result in water levels going down, even if only during construction. He urged JR Central to re-investigate the possibility of returning leaking water during construction. On 20 January that same year, the prefecture officially called the report "insufficient", and announced that it still would not allow construction to commence.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The government of Osaka Prefecture, as well as local corporations such as Suntory and Nippon Life, have raised concerns about the impact of the delayed construction of the Nagoya–Osaka segment on the Osaka economy. Politicians from the Kansai region called for, and received, state-backed loans for JR Central in order to expedite the line's construction, resulting in the opening of the extension being moved forward by up to 8 years.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The construction of the Chuo Shinkansen involves a large amount of tunneling through seismically active terrain. As such, unexpected collapses and water leaks are relatively common. This section only lists accidents which seriously injured or killed people.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: On 27 October 2021, two construction workers died when part of the retaining wall of a temporary work tunnel collapsed. JR Central concluded that the safety checks carried out were insufficient, and vowed to make it clearer to workers which areas had and had not completed the safety checks necessary to allow for the presence of human workers going forward.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The line will run between Tokyo and Nagoya, with plans for extension to Osaka. Its initial section is between Shinagawa Station in Tokyo and Nagoya Station in Nagoya, with stations in Sagamihara, Kōfu, Iida, and Nakatsugawa.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The line is expected to connect Tokyo and Nagoya in 40 minutes, and eventually Tokyo and Osaka in 67 minutes, running at a maximum speed of .


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: About 90% of the line to Nagoya will be in tunnels, with a minimum curve radius of and a maximum grade of 4% (1 in 25).


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The Chūō Shinkansen will employ the SCMaglev technology, a maglev (magnetic levitation train) system developed by JR Central. The levitating force is generated between superconducting magnets on the trains and coils on the track.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The absence of wheel friction allows normal operation at over 500 km/h, and higher accelerations and deceleration performance compared to conventional high-speed rail. The Chūō Shinkansen will have a maximum operational speed of .


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: The superconducting coils use Niobium–titanium alloy cooled to a temperature of with liquid helium. Magnetic coils are used both for levitation and propulsion. Trains are accelerated by alternating currents on the ground producing attraction and repulsion forces with the coils on the train. The levitation and guidance system, working with the same principle, ensures that the train is elevated and centered in the track.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: In 2018, a scientific comparison of the energy consumption of SCMaglev, Transrapid and conventional high-speed trains was conducted. The energy consumption per square meter of usable area was examined according to speed. The results show that there are only minor differences at speeds of 200 km/h and above. However, maglevs can reach much higher speeds than trains. Conventional trains, on the other hand, require less energy at slow speeds, with this advantage either reversing slightly, or at least shrinking significantly, in favor of maglevs during high-speed operation. However, as the Chūō Shinkansen mostly runs in tunnels, air resistance will be much higher than for most high-speed railways, driving up energy consumption significantly.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: During normal operating conditions, the energy consumption of the L0 series between Tokyo and Osaka is estimated at 90-100 Wh/seat-km. For comparison, the conventional N700-series train operating on the fastest service-pattern on the existing line between Tokyo and Osaka has an estimated energy consumption of 70 Wh/seat-km.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: Despite this increase, the L0 series still consumes much less energy than even the most efficient short/medium-haul modern passenger aircraft. For instance, the Airbus A319neo uses ~209 Wh/seat-km over a distance of 1,900 km. This figure would presumably be even higher for very short flights such as Tokyo-Nagoya, with much less time spent cruising.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: Moreover, the operation of the L0 series maglev train is completely electric, making it easier to transition to renewable energy sources.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: On 2 December 2003, MLX01, a three-car train set a world record speed of in a manned run. On 16 November 2004, it also set a world record for two trains passing each other at a combined speed of .


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: On 26 October 2010, JR Central announced a new train type, the L0 Series, for commercial operation at . It set a world record speed for a manned train of on 21 April 2015.


title: Chūō Shinkansen

text: On 26 March 2020, the Improved L0 Series started operations on the test track. It represents the completion of 80–90% of the design goals for the final train, and is the first to draw power from the track. Previous models used on-board gas generators.


title: Rammed earth

text: Rammed earth is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method.


title: Rammed earth

text: Under its French name of pisé it is also a material for sculptures, usually small and made in molds. It has been especially used in Central Asia and Tibetan art, and sometimes in China.


title: Rammed earth

text: Edifices formed of rammed earth are on every continent except Antarctica, in a range of environments including temperate, wet, semiarid desert, montane, and tropical regions. The availability of suitable soil and a building design appropriate for local climatic conditions are the factors that favour its use.


title: Rammed earth

text: The French term "pisé de terre" or "terre pisé" was sometimes used in English for architectural uses, especially in the 19th century.


title: Rammed earth

text: Making rammed earth involves compacting a damp mixture of subsoil that has suitable proportions of sand, gravel, clay, silt and stabilizer, if any, into a formwork (an externally supported frame or mold).


title: Rammed earth

text: Soil mix is poured into the formwork to a depth of and then compacted to approximately 50% of its original volume. The soil is compacted , in batches or courses, so as to gradually erect the wall up to the top of the formwork. Tamping was historically manual with a long ramming pole by hand, but modern construction systems can employ pneumatically-powered tampers.


title: Rammed earth

text: After a wall is complete, it is sufficiently strong to immediately remove the formwork. This is necessary if a surface texture is to be applied, e.g., by wire brushing, carving, or mold impression, because the walls become too hard to work after approximately one hour. The compressive strength of rammed earth increases as it cures. Cement-stabilised rammed earth is cured for a minimum period of 28 days.


title: Rammed earth

text: In modern rammed earth buildings, the walls are constructed on top of conventional footings or a reinforced concrete slab base.


title: Rammed earth

text: The construction of an entire wall begins with a temporary frame, the "formwork", which is usually made of wood or plywood, as a mold for the desired shape and dimensions of each section of wall. The form must be durable and well braced, and the two opposing faces must be clamped together to prevent bulging or deformation caused by the large compressing forces. Formwork plays an important role in building rammed earth walls. Historically, wooden planks tied using rope were used to build walls. Modern builders use plywood and/or steel to build formwork.


title: Rammed earth

text: The compressive strength of rammed earth is dictated by factors such as soil type, particle size distribution, amount of compaction, moisture content of the mix and type/amount of stabiliser used. Well-produced cement-stabilised rammed earth walls can be anywhere between 5 to 20 MPa. Higher compressive strength might require more cement. But addition of more cement can affect the permeability of the walls. Indeed, properly constructed rammed earth endures for thousands of years, as many ancient structures that are still standing around the world demonstrate. Rammed earth walls are reinforced with rebars in areas of high seismic activity.


title: Rammed earth

text: Adding cement to soil mixtures low in clay can also increase the load-bearing capacity of rammed-earth edifices. The United States Department of Agriculture observed in 1925 that rammed-earth structures endure indefinitely and can be constructed for less than two-thirds of the cost of standard frame houses.


title: Rammed earth

text: Rammed earth works require at least one skilled person for quality control. All other workers can be unskilled or semi-skilled.


title: Rammed earth

text: One significant benefit of rammed earth is its high thermal mass: like brick or concrete, it absorbs heat during the day and releases heat at night. This action moderates daily temperature variations and reduces the need for air conditioning and heating. In colder climates, rammed-earth walls can be insulated by inserting insulation such as styrofoam or rigid fibreglass panels within internal and external layers of rammed earth. Depending on the type and content of binder, it must also be protected from heavy rain and insulated with vapour barriers.


title: Rammed earth

text: Rammed earth can effectively regulate humidity if unclad walls containing clay are exposed to an internal space. Humidity is regulated between 40% and 60%. The material mass and clay content of rammed earth allows an edifice to breathe more than concrete edifices, which avoids problems of condensation but prevents significant loss of heat.


title: Rammed earth

text: Rammed-earth walls have the colour and texture of natural earth. Moisture-impermeable finishes, such as cement render, are not used by some people because they impair the ability of a wall to desorb moisture, which quality is necessary to preserve its strength.


title: Rammed earth

text: The thickness varies widely based on region and code. It can be as little as 6 inches (150mm) for non load-bearing walls and up to 24 inches (600mm) for load-bearing walls. The thickness and density of rammed-earth walls make them suitable for soundproofing. They are also inherently fireproof, resistant to termite damage, and non-toxic.


title: Rammed earth

text: Edifices of rammed earth are more sustainable and environmentally friendly than other building techniques that use more cement and other chemicals. Because rammed-earth edifices use locally available materials, they usually have low embodied energy and generate very little waste. The soils used are typically subsoil which conserve the topsoil for agriculture. When the soil excavated in preparation for a foundation can be used, the cost and energy consumption of transportation are minimal. Rammed earth is probably the least environmentally detrimental construction material and technique that is readily and commercially available today to construct solid edifices. Rammed earth has potentially low manufacturing impact, contingent on the amount of cement and the amount that is locally sourced; it is often quarried aggregates rather than "earth".


title: Rammed earth

text: Rammed earth can contribute to the overall energy efficiency of edifices: the density, thickness, and thermal conductivity of rammed earth render it an especially suitable material for passive solar heating. Warmth requires almost 12 hours to be conducted through a wall thick.


title: Rammed earth

text: Mixing cement with the soil can counteract sustainable benefits such as low embodied energy because manufacture of the cement itself creates 1.25 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of cement produced. Although it has low greenhouse gas emissions in theory, transportation and the production of cement can add significantly to the overall emissions of modern rammed earth construction. The most basic kind of traditional rammed earth has very low greenhouse gas emissions but the more engineered and processed variant of rammed earth has the potential for significant emissions.


title: Rammed earth

text: Evidence of ancient use of rammed earth has been found in Neolithic archaeological sites such as those of the Fertile Crescent, dating to the 9th–7th millennium BC, and of the Yangshao and Longshan cultures in China, dating to 5000 BCE. By 2000 BCE, rammed-earth architectural techniques (夯土 "Hāng tǔ") were commonly used for walls and foundations in China.


title: Rammed earth

text: In the 1800s, rammed earth was popularized in the United States by the book "Rural Economy" by S. W. Johnson. The technique was used to construct the Borough House Plantation and the Church of the Holy Cross in Stateburg, South Carolina, both being National Historic Landmarks.


title: Rammed earth

text: An outstanding example of a rammed-earth edifice in Canada is St. Thomas Anglican Church in Shanty Bay, Ontario, erected between 1838 and 1841.


title: Rammed earth

text: From the 1920s through the 1940s rammed-earth construction in the US was studied. South Dakota State College extensively researched and constructed almost one hundred weathering walls of rammed earth. For over 30 years the college investigated the use of paints and plasters in relation to colloids in soil. In 1945, Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina published the results of their research of rammed earth in a pamphlet titled "Rammed Earth Building Construction". In 1936, on a homestead near Gardendale, Alabama, the United States Department of Agriculture constructed an experimental rammed-earth edifices with architect Thomas Hibben. The houses were inexpensively constructed and were sold to the public along with sufficient land for gardens and small plots for livestock. The project was successful providing homes to low-income families.


title: Rammed earth

text: The US Agency for International Development is working with developing countries to improve the engineering of rammed-earth houses. It also financed the authorship of the "Handbook of Rammed Earth" by Texas A&M University and the Texas Transportation Institute.


title: Rammed earth

text: Interest in rammed earth declined after World War II when the cost of modern construction materials decreased. Rammed earth is considered substandard, and is opposed by many contractors, engineers, and tradesmen. The prevailing perception that such materials and techniques perform poorly in regions prone to earthquakes has prevented their use in much of the world. In Chile, for example, rammed earth edifices normally cannot be conventionally insured against damage or even be approved by the government.


title: Rammed earth

text: A notable example of 21st-century use of rammed earth is the façade of the Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre in southern British Columbia, Canada. As of 2014 it is the longest rammed earth wall in North America.


title: Basquiat (film)

text: Basquiat is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed, co-written and co-composed by Julian Schnabel in his feature directorial debut. The film is based on the life of American postmodernist/neo expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. It is the first film about an American painter written and directed by another artist.


title: Basquiat (film)

text: Jeffrey Wright portrays Basquiat, a Brooklyn-born artist who used his graffiti roots as a foundation to create collage-style paintings on canvas. David Bowie plays Basquiat's friend and mentor, pop artist Andy Warhol. Additional cast members include Gary Oldman as a thinly disguised Schnabel, Michael Wincott as the poet and art critic Rene Ricard, Dennis Hopper as Bruno Bischofberger, Parker Posey as gallery owner Mary Boone, Christopher Walken as a devious, intrusive journalist, Willem Dafoe as a supportive artist who’s making ends meet as an electrician, and Claire Forlani, Courtney Love, Tatum O'Neal, and Benicio del Toro in supporting roles as "composite characters".


title: Basquiat (film)

text: The film is a lightly fictionalized account of Basquiat's life. A struggling artist living in a cardboard box in Tompkins Square Park works his way up the rungs of the New York art world in the eighties, thanks in part to his association with Andy Warhol, the art dealer Bruno Bischofberger, poet and critic René Ricard, and fellow artist Albert Milo.


title: Basquiat (film)

text: Alongside the development of his artistic career, the film follows Basquiat's tumultuous relationship with Gina, a fellow aspiring artist he meets while she is working as a waitress at the diner he frequents with his friend Benny. Their romance is affected by Basquiat's affair with "Big Pink", a woman he picks up on the street, and his habitual abuse of heroin. Eventually, Basquiat finds himself isolated by his fame, the death of Warhol, and his drug use. The film ends with an intertitle stating that Basquiat died of a heroin overdose on August 12, 1988, at the age of 27.


title: Basquiat (film)

text: Julian Schnabel had given seed money to another film that was being developed about Jean-Michel Basquiat, but when he read an early script that he believed misrepresented Andy Warhol, he decided to make the film himself. Schnabel said, <nowiki>"</nowiki>In the film, I wanted to make a requiem for Jean and Andy ... They were so attacked. Andy cared about Jean-Michel. He was really human. He wasn't a vampire. His death broke Jean-Michel's heart."


title: Basquiat (film)

text: The film has a screenplay by Schnabel and a story by John Bowe, Michael Holman—a former member of theatrical rock group The Tubes, who had met Basquiat in 1979 and together founded an experimental, industrial/electronica group called Gray.—and Lech Majewski.


title: Basquiat (film)

text: As director, Schnabel inserted himself into the film as the fictional character Albert Milo (Gary Oldman), based on himself. Schnabel also added cameo appearances by his mother, father, and daughter (as Milo's family). Schnabel appeared as an extra as a waiter.


title: Basquiat (film)

text: "I know what it's like to be attacked as an artist. I know what it's like to be judged as an artist. I know what it's like to arrive as an artist and have fame and notoriety. I know what it's like to be accused of things that you never said or did. I know what it's like to be described as a piece of hype. I know what it's like to be appreciated as well as degraded."


title: Basquiat (film)

text: Basquiat died in 1988 of mixed-drug toxicity (he had been combining cocaine and heroin, known as "speedballing"). Basquiat's estate denied permission for his work to be used in the film. Schnabel and his studio assistant Greg Bogin created paintings "in the style of" Basquiat for the film.


title: Basquiat (film)

text: After the film was released, Jeffrey Wright said that "I think my performance was appropriated, literally, and the way I was edited was appropriated in the same way his [Basquiat's] story has been appropriated and that he was appropriated when he was alive. [...] Julian made him out to be too docile and too much of a victim and too passive and not as dangerous as he really was. It's about containing Basquiat. It's about aggrandizing himself through Basquiat's memory."


title: Basquiat (film)

text: Comparing Bowie's Warhol to earlier portrayals, Paul Morrissey (who directed many Warhol films) said "Bowie was the best by far. You come away from "Basquiat" thinking Andy was comical and amusing, not a pretentious, phony piece of shit, which is how others show him." He also noted that "Bowie at least knew Andy. They went to the same parties." Bowie was able to borrow Warhol's actual wig, glasses and jacket from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh for the film. Writer Bob Colacello, who edited Warhol's "Interview" magazine in the 70's and early 80's, said "[Crispin] Glover walked the most like [the real] Andy, [Jared] Harris talked the most like Andy, and Bowie looked the most like Andy. When I first saw Bowie on the set, it was like Andy had been resurrected."


title: Basquiat (film)

text: In 2018, musician and actor Lenny Kravitz said in an interview with V Magazine, that director Julian Schnabel had asked him to take the role of Basquiat. Kravitz said, "I look back and I'm like, wow, I probably should have done that".


title: Basquiat (film)

text: "Basquiat" opened theatrically on August 9, 1996 in 6 venues, earning $83,863 in its first weekend. The film ultimately grossed $3,011,195 domestically.


title: Basquiat (film)

text: The film received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 67% rating based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. Metacritic reports a 65 out of 100 rating based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Basquiat (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" awarded the film three and a half out of a possible four stars stating that in Schnabel's portrayal Basquiat "is a quiet, almost wordless presence, a young man who rarely says what he is thinking and often deliberately chooses to miss the point of a conversation. He is dreamy, sweet, and pensive. There are deep hurts and angers". Similarly, Janet Maslin in "The New York Times" called the film "bold, attention-getting and more than a little facile, a stylish-looking film without the connective tissue to give it real depth."


title: Basquiat (film)

text: David Bonetti gave the film a poor review due to his perception of the inexperience of the director stating "Schnabel can't decide whether he wants to tell a traditional rise-and-fall morality tale or make an art film. His attempt at telling Basquiat's story straightforwardly collapses under its own banality". Similarly, the "Los Angeles Examiner" said that ""Basquiat" does not seem interested in anything that doesn't advance its director's personal agenda." The review stated that "Though as a writer-director, Schnabel's work is not the total fiasco the debut films of fellow artists David Salle ("Search and Destroy") and Robert Longo ("Johnny Mnemonic") were, it is fascinating to see what a compendium of Troubled Genius movie cliches he has turned out." Like several of the negative reviews, the review picked out for praise the acting of Jeffrey Wright as Jean-Michel Basquiat, saying ""Basquiat's" only genuine inspiration was casting Jeffrey Wright, who won a Tony for his work in "Angels in America" on the New York stage, as the artist. An actor whose talent is visible even in this standard role, Wright's ability creates more interest in Basquiat's fate than would otherwise exist."


title: Basquiat (film)

text: The reviews in the art press focused more on the relation of Schnabel as director to his portrayal of Schnabel as artist in the film, and on changes to the facts of Basquiat's life introduced by Schnabel to make a more accessible film. In "Art in America", the art critic Brooks Adams wrote:


title: Basquiat (film)

text: "Basquiat" can be seen as a huge, lurking self-portrait of the artist-Schnabel, not Basquiat. So laden is the film with the innumerable coincidences of Basquiat and Schnabel's enthusiasms (among others, for pajamas and surfing) that the movie should be more appropriately called My Basquiat... To a remarkable degree, the movie succeeds, by dint of its authorial slant, in popularizing the myth of Basquiat as a young, gorgeous, doomed, yet ultimately transcendent black male artist, even as it extends and reinflates the myth of Schnabel as a protean, Picassoid white male painter... Yet for all one's apprehension about the very idea of Schnabel making such a film, Basquiat turns out to be a surprisingly good movie...It is also an art work.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: The Major League Baseball (MLB) season schedule generally consists of 162 games for each of the 30 teams in the American League (AL) and National League (NL), played over approximately six months—a total of 2,430 games, plus the postseason. The regular season runs from late March/early April to late September/early October, followed by the postseason which can run to early November. The season begins with the official Opening Day, and, as of 2018, runs 26½ weeks through the last Sunday of September or first Sunday of October. One or more International Opener games may be scheduled outside the United States or Canada before the official Opening Day. It is possible for a given team to play a maximum of 22 games in the postseason in a given year, provided the team is a wild card and advances to each of the Division Series, Championship Series, and World Series with each series going the distance (3 games in the Wild Card series, 5 games in the Division Series, 7 games each in the League Championship Series/World Series).


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: The regular season is constructed from series. Due to travel concerns and the sheer number of games, pairs of teams are never scheduled to play single games against each other (except in the instance of making up a postponed game, or more rarely, a one-game playoff to determine a postseason berth); instead they play games on several consecutive days in the same ballpark. Most often the series are of three or four games, but two-game series are also scheduled. Teams play one mid-week series and one weekend series per week. Depending on the length of the series, mid-week series games are usually scheduled between Monday and Thursday, while weekend games are scheduled between Thursday and Monday. Beginning in 2018, teams start and end their season on a weekend for 26½ weeks. Due to the mid-week all-star break in July, teams are scheduled to play 27 weekend series and 25 mid-week series for 52 series (24 divisional series, 20 inter-divisional series, 8 inter-league series). A team's road games are usually grouped into a multi-series road trip; home series are grouped into homestands.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Note that rainouts and other cancellations are often rescheduled ad hoc during the season, sometimes as doubleheaders. However, if two teams are scheduled to meet for the final time in the last two weeks of the season, and the game is cancelled, it may not be rescheduled if there is no impact on the divisional or wild card races. For example, in 2016, the September 29 game between the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers was originally cancelled due to rain. Because the teams were unable to reschedule a make-up date before the end of the season on October 2, and it did not affect the divisional race, the game was not rescheduled. In contrast, a 2008 AL Central division game between Detroit and the Chicago White Sox needed to be made up following the last day of the regular season because it played a part in the division race involving the White Sox and the Minnesota Twins.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: This account gives the length of the major league "championship season" schedule by league and year. During this era, there were a number of different leagues that would be deemed Major League.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Prior to the first league schedule in 1877, member clubs scheduled their own matches by mutual arrangement, including championship games necessarily with member clubs, other games with members, and games with non-member clubs. Some may have practically dictated their arrangements with some others, but there was no central control or coordination.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: The listed years are those in which the league revised its schedule. For example, the National League (NL) scheduled 84 games during 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1882 – that is, four seasons from 1879, ending before 1883, the next listing. 1876 is listed here for convenience although the NL did not schedule games (see 1871 to 1876, below).


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (1871–1875) did not schedule games, nor did it control the number of teams, a major reason for its demise after the 1875 season. Clubs paid a $10 entry fee, later $20, to enter the Association for one season, and thereby declare for that year's national championship. Without continuing membership or heavy investment, there was little to deter a team from breaking a commitment, and though it happened, it was mainly due to clubs going out of business.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: This listing gives the greatest number of games played by any club for each season. Naturally, the leader by games played was always a strong club fielding one of the better gate attractions.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: The leading numbers of games played to a decision were 33, 54, 59, 71, and 70 decisions; by the listed teams except the Mutuals in 1872.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: The National League organized for 1876 on a different basis than the NAPBBP, granting exclusive memberships to eight clubs that would continue from year to year — it was generally expected, if only because membership would be profitable. But in its first season in 1876, the new league followed its predecessor in merely agreeing that each club would play a certain number of matches to a decision (excluding ties) by a certain date. Boston played 70 games with its quota of ten decisions against every rival. The others achieved 56 to 68 decisions with 64 to 66 for the four western teams as the teams from New York and Philadelphia (eastern) abandoned their schedule-concluding road trips.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: The AA expanded its schedule to 140 games two years before the National League did so. After 1891 this incarnation of the AA dissolved with four teams bought out and four others joining the NL, nominally creating one big league, the "National League and American Association" of 12 clubs.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: This account gives the originally announce length of the major league "championship season" schedule by league and year.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: This does not include later announced curtailments of play by war (1918) or by strikes and lockouts (1972, 1981, 1994). The schedules for 1995 were revised and shortened from 162 to 144 games, after late resolution of the strike that had begun in 1994 required a delay in the season to accommodate limited spring training.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Since 1998, there have been 30 major league teams with a single advance schedule for every season that comprises 2430 games. Each team plays 162 games, 81 as the "home" team, 81 as the "visitor". (This is true even on the rare occasion when a game is played at a ballpark not home to either team.) Occasionally, the advance schedule is subsequently altered due to a game postponement or a one-game tie-breaker to determine which team will play in the postseason.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Before 2013, the schedule included 252 "interleague games" that matched one team from the American League and one from the National League; the other 2178 games matched a pair from within one league. About half of the latter matched teams from within one division and about half matched teams from different divisions in one league. In the Central Division of the National League, which alone had six teams, every pair of division rivals played 15 or 16 games. Within the other, smaller divisions every pair of teams played 18 or 19 games. These interleague games were played from mid-to-late May to late June or early July.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Other intraleague games (1087). There are 150 pairs of teams from two different divisions within one league.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: The schedule for interleague play comprised 84 three-game series in each season from 1998 to 2012, divided as six series (18 games) for each of fourteen AL teams and as many as six for each of sixteen NL teams.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Among the 224 interleague pairs of teams, 11 played six games every year, which were scheduled in two three-game series "home and home", or one at each home ballpark. Five of these 11 special arrangements matched two teams in the same city or in neighboring cities, where they wholly or partly share territorial rights. Six were regional matches at greater distance, four of which were in the same state.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: These special local and regional series accounted for 66 interleague games annually from 1998 to 2012, and the other 186 games were determined by rotation.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: The 2001 season was suspended for one week due to the September 11 terrorist attacks and resulting disruptions in travel, resulting in games scheduled for September 11–16 being rescheduled to the first week of October and the playoffs and World Series being rescheduled one week later than their originally planned dates. This resulted in the World Series continuing into early November for the first time.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Schedule changes for 2013, precipitated by realignment that created two equal-sized leagues of 15 teams each, gave every team 20 interleague games. Sixteen of which were determined by a match of divisions, one from each league; all teams in a given division play all teams in a given division from the other league. (Each plays a three-game series against four teams from the designated division and two two-game series against the remaining team.) With this change, interleague games were now scattered throughout the season.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Each team played its four other interleague games against a designated "natural rival", with two games in each club's city. Thus all 30 teams, rather than 22 of 30 as previously, were deemed to have a natural rival in the other league. In 2013 the natural rivalry games were all scheduled for May 27 to May 30 (Memorial Day weekend) but in 2014 their scheduled dates range from May to August.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Ten of the natural rivalries from 2012 and earlier continued, while the Houston–Texas "Lone Star" rivalry had been transformed into an intra-division one with 19 games played. Five of the special arrangements were new in 2013 , including one each for Houston and Texas.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Every team now plays 19 games against each of 4 opponents within its division (76 games), as well as 6 games each against 4 opponents and 7 games against each of the other 6 opponents from other divisions within its own league (66 games).


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: When corresponding divisions (i.e. NL East vs. AL East) play each other, a slight adjustment was made to the interleague games. Teams now play 6 games against their rival and 4 games (home and home) against two opponents plus one home and one away 3-game series (20 total) against the other two teams in the opposing division. This was done in 2015, 2018, and 2021.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Under the collective bargaining agreement reached in December 2016, several changes were made to the scheduling pattern for the 2018 season. The overall length of the season was extended to 187 days with the addition of four off-days for all teams. All teams were scheduled to play on Opening Day, which for 2018 was March 29. "Sunday Night Baseball" will no longer be played on the final Sunday before the All-Star Game, in order to ease travel time for those who are participating in the Home Run Derby. A single, nationally televised night game will be played the following Thursday, with all other teams returning to play on Friday.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic the start of the season was delayed until July 23. Each team would only play 60 games this season and every game will be against the teams in their division and teams in the corresponding division of the other league.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Under the collective bargaining agreement reached in March 2022, every team will play every other team regardless of league under a new balanced schedule. Teams will play 13 games against each of 4 opponents within its division (52 games), as well as 6 games each against 6 of the other 10 opponents within its own league and 7 games each against 4 of the other 10 opponents within its own league (64 games). Interleague play will consist of a four-game home and home series against the geographic rival and a single three-game series against the other 14 interleague opponents (46 games), with location to rotate every other year.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Start of Major League Baseball games depends on days of the week, game number in series, holidays, and other factors. As of 2021, most games start at 6:30pm, 7pm or 7:30pm in the local time zone, so there are more night games than day games even though baseball is traditionally played during the day. The reason why there are more night baseball games is to attract more fans to ballparks as well as viewers from home because most fans would be at work or school during the day. On Mondays (excluding Opening Day and holidays), Tuesdays, and Fridays, games are almost exclusively played at night except for Cubs home games. Getaway days, days on which teams play their last game of the series before departing for another series in another city the next day, are often day games, mainly Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. On Sundays, usually all but one are day games, with the final game reserved for ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball". As of 2022, most Sunday afternoon games start at 1pm or 1:30pm in the local time zone.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: About half of Saturday games are day games (1, 2 or 4pm ET). In some markets, Saturday night games start an hour earlier than usual night start times, but other cities start Saturday night games at the same time as weeknight games. In conclusion, weekday games are only played at night except for getaway days while many weekend games are played during the day.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: First pitch typically occurs between 5 and 10 minutes past the hour, in order to allow time for pre-game ceremonies.


title: Major League Baseball schedule

text: Washington Nationals home games played on the Fourth of July and Boston Red Sox home games played on the local Patriots' Day holiday start at 11:00 am in order to coincide with the events of the two cities that are scheduled to take place on the two respective days. These games are usually the only games to start before noon local time during the season.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Earthworm Jim is a series of platform games featuring an earthworm named Jim who wears a robotic suit and battles the forces of evil. The series is noted for its platforming and shooting gameplay, surreal humor, and edgy art style. Four games were released in the series: "Earthworm Jim", "Earthworm Jim 2", "Earthworm Jim 3D", and "", with the first game released in 1994. The series had lain dormant for almost a decade before Gameloft remade the original game in HD for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in 2010. Interplay announced "Earthworm Jim 4" in 2008; little to no information had been surfaced until May 2019 and August 2020.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Playmates Toys, finding success with the license for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, wanted to start their own franchise. Inspired by the success of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series with "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Sonic the Hedgehog 2", they decided that they wanted to start the franchise as a video game, a rare approach at the time. From there, the game's design actually started with creator Doug TenNapel's simple sketch of an earthworm that he presented to Shiny Entertainment. Impressed, David Perry and the rest of Shiny bought the rights to Earthworm Jim from TenNapel, and started developing the game. From there, TenNapel would work on doing the game design, creating level ideas, and voicing Jim's character, while Perry and the other programmers created other characters and game mechanics.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The game's crazy atmosphere, world, and characters were due to the fact that the company had previously always been restricted to doing licensed games, like 7up's "Cool Spot", where they had to conform to the other company's preset limitations. In that respect, the game was actually created as a satire of platform video games at the time; for instance, "Princess What's-Her-Name" was a parody of how so many video games had throw-away female characters that exist only to be saved from danger.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The resulting game would be the original "Earthworm Jim". The game would play as a 2D sidescrolling platformer with elements of a run and gun game as well. The player controls Jim and must maneuver him through the level while avoiding obstacles and enemies. The player can use Jim's gun as a method of shooting enemies, or his head a whip for whipping enemies. The whip move also allows the player to grab hold of, and swing from, certain hooks in the game. Some levels have additional requirements beyond merely getting to the end of the level. For example, the level "For Pete's Sake" involves making sure the computer-controlled Peter Puppy character gets through the level unharmed, which is accomplished by whipping him to make him jump over pits, and defeating enemies before they can damage him. Failure to do so results in Peter lashing out at Jim, taking health away from him.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The developers also created a wide variety of colorful villains for the game as well, including Psy-Crow, Queen Slug-for-a-Butt, Evil the Cat, Bob the Killer Goldfish, Major Mucus, and Professor Monkey-for-a-Head.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The game was very well-received on both the Genesis and the Super NES. It was awarded Best Genesis Game of 1994 by "Electronic Gaming Monthly" and was rated the 114th-best game made on a Nintendo System in "Nintendo Power"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Top 200 Games list. The game was noted for its fluid animation, featuring a hand-drawn style that was unusual for 16-bit releases.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: A special version of the game, "The Great Earthworm Jim Race", was broadcast in 1995 for the Sega Channel. The game featured an increase in difficulty level and a secret room which, when reached by the first 200 players, would display a password and a toll-free telephone number. Those that called the number were awarded special prizes, such as a book and action figures, as part of Jim's shortly-lived toyline from Playmates Toys. Shortly afterwards, the same development team started work on a sequel.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The premise of the sequel was largely the same as the original; traverse through the levels in order to save Princess What's-Her-Name and defeat the game's numerous enemies, namely Psy-Crow. While the majority of levels was still based on run and gun and platform game elements, separate levels incorporate different gameplay elements as well. Some levels, such as the opening level, "Anything but Tangerines", and the game's eighth level, "Level Ate", play largely the same as the original "Earthworm Jim", with the exception of there being a larger variety of moves at the player's disposal. For instance, there are more types of guns to use once found in a level, such as an auto-aiming gun, or the "brick-wall" gun which takes out every enemy visible on the screen. Additionally, Jim's friend "Snot" travels with him, and can be used to stick and swing to other slimy green surfaces, or as a parachute, upon jumping.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Other levels stray much farther from this formula. In the third level, "The Villi People", the player must guide Jim, defenseless in the disguise of a blind cave salamander, through intestinal passages, while avoiding exploding sheep and hazards embedded in the floor and walls. The latter part of the level suddenly switches to a game show/trivia format, where the player has to answer nonsensical multiple choice questions that commonly have no logically correct answer. Another level, aptly titled "Inflated Head", has Jim's head inflated much like a balloon, and the player must control Jim as he floats upward, avoiding touching sharp objects which cause him to fall back down to the start of the level. Yet another plays as an isometric shooter, with Jim again on his "pocket rocket", where a balloon with a bomb must be directed to the end of the level, and defended from enemies. The last level of the game is not a typical boss fight, but rather, a race against Psy-Crow through an obstacle course, to get to Princess What's-Her-Name.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: "Earthworm Jim 2" was also well-received on the Genesis and Super NES, with some reviewers such as IGN and GameZone declaring it as better overall than the original. The game's humor, innovative gameplay, and "mini-game"-style levels spread throughout the game were also held in high regard as a welcome change from the linear gameplay common at the time, although some reviewers had mixed reactions to some of various different gameplay mechanics.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: However, the game was later ported to the more advanced PlayStation and Sega Saturn systems, and those versions were generally criticized more due to not having any significant improvements despite the more powerful hardware.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Shortly after the release of "Earthworm Jim 2", its original developer, Shiny Entertainment, was bought by Interplay Entertainment, and then put to work on other projects, most notably the PlayStation platformer "Wild 9" for three years. Subsequently, the franchise was given to VIS Entertainment, and it was decided that, like many platform game series at the time ("Super Mario", "Sonic the Hedgehog" et al.), gameplay would transition from 2D to 3D. Although development commenced shortly after "Earthworm Jim 2", a lengthy three-year development cycle lent itself to the occasional belief that the project was destined to become vaporware.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Consequently, numerous problems and errors arose from this extended development cycle. One hurdle, early on, was the necessity to redesign the characters from side-scrolling 2D to free-roaming 3D, while the frame rate and animation were still causing issues with game development more than 70% complete. Error-wise, much of the content shown in previews and promotional material was either graphically different or removed from the final game; while the game's final packaging depicts Evil the Cat as the boss of the "Fear" level, Professor Monkey-For-A-Head became the actual in-game level boss. Also, many locations displayed in early versions of the game, such as a level set in a house wherein Jim is ant-sized, are non-existent in the released copy.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Further compounding these issues, the game was loosely based on the Earthworm Jim TV series. Reportedly, Evil Jim (Earthworm Jim's evil twin from the cartoon series) was to be part of the game. Early screenshots and footage showcase Jim riding his Pocket Rocket, with a fuel meter, in races and other missions, as well as snowboarding. However, by the time the game was finalized, the series had been off the air for over three years, thus hurting the game's promotional tie-ins and relevance to its targeted audience.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Additionally, original series designer David Perry had sold the rights to the franchise. Perry and original series creator Doug TenNapel were at first involved in the game as minor consultants, but were dismissed for unexplained reasons. Both expressed that they hated what was done with "Earthworm Jim 3D", but legally could not prevent anything from happening. TenNapel said he felt the series was "ruined" by the game.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The game was considered neither a critical nor a commercial success. Many reviews called the game uninspired, mediocre, and unable to compete with several other similar, more highly reviewed platform games at the time, like "Super Mario 64", "Rayman 2", or "Banjo-Kazooie".


title: Earthworm Jim

text: A final, fourth "Earthworm Jim" game was released shortly after "Earthworm Jim 3D" in 1999. It was developed neither by the original team, nor the "Earthworm Jim 3D" team, but by David A. Palmer Productions and published by Crave Entertainment. The game played similarly to the first two games, but gameplay was greatly simplified, concentrating on exploring levels to collect items, rather than the constantly changing gimmicks present in the original two games. Levels typically involved goals such as collecting 100 or more coins to progress through levels, and if the player causes Jim to take too much damage, the player must start the level over again, with zero items collected. The game was poorly-received as well, with reviewers complaining about the tedium of the collecting, and the game lacking the charm and style of the original games.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The series lay dormant for the first half of the decade. Rumors of a new "Earthworm Jim" game for the PlayStation Portable started in 2006. Referred to as "Earthworm Jim (cancelled video game)", it was originally believed to be a remake of the original "Earthworm Jim" due to footage of Jim in a level very reminiscent of the "New Junk City" level from the first game. The game was formally announced at E3 2006 by Atari, who had obtained from Interplay a five-year license of the right to develop Earthworm Jim games for handheld devices. However, the game was reported to still be made by members of the original two titles, "Earthworm Jim" and "Earthworm Jim 2", including Shiny Entertainment founder Dave Perry, Doug TenNapel, Nick Bruty, and Tommy Tallarico. The developers later announced that the game would be mostly new content, with elements of the earlier games included. Past characters to return in the game included Princess What's-Her-Name and Peter Puppy. The game was to retain the gameplay of the original two titles, playing as a 2D sidescrolling platform game with elements of a run and gun, but now with 3D computer graphics. It would be two-dimensional gameplay with three-dimensional graphics, much in the vein of "Sonic Rivals" or "". Similar to the original two games, the gameplay consisted of maneuvering Jim through levels through running and jumping, and defeating enemies with a machine gun, and by using his head as a whip.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: By August 2006, the game was reportedly 80% complete, and many video game journalists had hands-on playable builds of the game, such as GameSpot, GamesRadar, and IGN. It was scheduled for an early 2007 release. However, Atari quietly put the game "on hold" by mid-2007. The game was later reported as cancelled due to financial troubles. Financial problems at Atari caused it to sell off its internal development studios, including Shiny Entertainment, which it owned at the time, and ultimately to cease development on all of its game projects, including Earthworm Jim, by the end of 2007.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Interplay announced an "Earthworm Jim 4" in 2008, but little has surfaced since. Series creator Doug TenNapel later denied work on it had ever started in 2010. However, Interplay referred to the game as "still in development" as of May 2011.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: While no new, original games were released in the 2000s, the franchise was still used in the last years of the decade. With the trend of games from the 1990s being re-released digitally, the two original "Earthworm Jim" games were re-released on platforms such as the Wii's Virtual Console, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live. The original was also ported to iOS for play on iPhones as well.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: In 2010, a remake of the original game, titled "Earthworm Jim HD" was released on PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3, and Xbox Live for Xbox 360. The game was very similar to the original, but had redone, smoothed graphics, and new multiplayer exclusive levels. In 2018 "Earthworm Jim HD" was removed from PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: In 2019, a new game was announced as an exclusive release for the Intellivision Amico that will be developed by the original team from the 1990s; the game is set to be released as a launch title for the Amico sometime in the 2020s.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: "Earthworm Jim" is included on the NA/PAL version of the "Sega Genesis Mini", which was released on September 19, 2019.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Earthworm Jim also starred as a fighter on Interplay's Nintendo 64 title "Clay Fighter 63 1/3" in 1997 and the Blockbuster rental title "Clay Fighter 63 1/3: Sculptors Cut" in 1998. In the original, Jim was a default character, however in the Sculptor's Cut, he was required to be unlocked. Also in the game, he and hold a strong rivalry between one another.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: A line of Earthworm Jim toys and action figures was released in late 1995. In 1995 Marvel Comics published a 3-issue comic based on the character. In May 2019 Doug TenNapel raised money through Indiegogo to self-publish a new Earthworm Jim graphic novel called "Launch the Cow". The comic book successfully raised more than $100,000 in its first 24 hours on Indiegogo and nearly $900,000 over the course of its crowdfunding campaign. A crowdfunding campaign for a second new comic book, "Earthworm Jim 2: Fight the Fish", was announced in August 2020; this also eclipsed the $100,000 threshold in its first day.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Shiny has also made references to "Earthworm Jim" in its later titles; their game "Sacrifice" features an earthwormlike god of earth called James, and there were additional references in the game "MDK". Earthworm Jim also appears as a secret character in the first "Battle Arena Toshinden" game for PC.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: Universal Cartoon Studios made an animated series based on the franchise, and it ran for 23 episodes in 2 seasons from 1995 to 1996 on the Kids' WB programming block on The WB Television Network (now merged with UPN to form The CW). The show maintains much of the absurd and surreal humor of the original games, as well as introducing its own features. Most of the episodes revolve around one of Jim's many enemies trying to reclaim the super suit or otherwise cause mayhem throughout the galaxy. Actor Dan Castellaneta, known for voicing various characters on "The Simpsons", including its main protagonist, Homer Simpson, voiced Jim in the animated series.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The original two "Earthworm Jim" games of the series have been praised for their detailed graphics, well-developed platforming, and wacky humor. The original game was received very well, being rated the 114th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list. "Earthworm Jim 2" was also received very well. Both were better received than many of the other projects Interplay was working on around the same time, such as "Boogerman", which was criticized as being cretinous, disgusting, and patronizing, and "Cool Spot", a project Perry and Tallarico worked on, which was criticized for having a "lack of personality".


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The music from "Earthworm Jim" has been praised, with music from "Earthworm Jim 2" being included in "Game Central's Best of the Best CD" compilation of video game music. It has also been requested at concerts where game composer Tommy Tallarico has had his music performed.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The first two games were compiled into a package called "Earthworm Jim 1 & 2: The Whole Can 'O Worms" for the PC. "Next Generation" reviewed the package, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "This is what the PC really needs sometimes – a nice, fast-action game that will distract the player from the more mundane pursuits of word processing or data entry, without requiring the commitment of a huge RPG or strategy title."


title: Earthworm Jim

text: "Earthworm Jim 3D" started a downward trend for the series' popularity, being considered neither a critical nor commercial success, with many reviewers claiming the game was uninspired, mediocre, and unable to compete with many other similar, higher reviewed platform games at the time, such as "Super Mario 64", "Rayman 2", or "Banjo Kazooie". "Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy" was even more poorly-received, with reviewers claiming it had lost the charm of what made the originals good, and pretty much "killed the series".


title: Earthworm Jim

text: The character Earthworm Jim has been recognized as one of the greatest animal protagonists in video game history.


title: Earthworm Jim

text: In July 2020, Megalopolis Toys announced a partnership with Interplay to release a line of 6” action figures based on the games.


title: Trini Lopez

text: Trinidad López III (May 15, 1937 – August 11, 2020) was an American singer, guitarist, and actor. His first album included a cover version of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer", which earned a Golden Disc for him. His other hits included "Lemon Tree", "I'm Comin' Home, Cindy" and "Sally Was a Good Old Girl". He designed two guitars for the Gibson Guitar Corporation, which are now collectors’ items. A documentary on his life and career, "My Name is Lopez" was released in April 2022.


title: Trini Lopez

text: Lopez was born in Dallas, Texas, on May 15, 1937. His father, Trinidad Lopez II, worked as a singer, dancer, actor, and musician in Mexico; his mother was Petra Gonzalez. They married in their hometown of Moroleón, Guanajuato, prior to moving to Dallas. Lopez had four sisters (two are deceased) and a brother, Jesse, who is also a singer. He grew up on Ashland Street in the Little Mexico neighborhood of Dallas and attended grammar school and N.R. Crozier Tech High School. He dropped out of high school in his senior year in order to earn money to help support the family.


title: Trini Lopez

text: Lopez formed his first band in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the age of 15. Around 1955/56 Lopez and his band worked at The Vegas Club, a nightclub owned by Jack Ruby, the man who assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald. In 1957, at the recommendation of Buddy Holly's father, Trini and his group "The Big Beats" went to producer Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico. Petty secured a contract for them with Columbia Records, which released the single "Clark's Expedition"/"Big Boy", both instrumental. Lopez left the group and made his first solo recording, his own composition "The Right To Rock", for the Dallas-based Volk Records, and then signed with King Records in 1959, recording more than a dozen singles for that label, none of which charted.


title: Trini Lopez

text: In late 1962, after the King contract expired, Lopez followed up on an offer by producer Snuff Garrett to join the post-Holly Crickets as vocalist. After a few weeks of auditions in Los Angeles, that idea did not go through. He landed a steady engagement at the nightclub PJ's, where his audience grew quickly. He was heard there by Frank Sinatra, who had started his own label, Reprise Records, and who subsequently signed Lopez.


title: Trini Lopez

text: His debut live album, "Trini Lopez at PJ's" (R/RS 6093), was released in 1963. The album included a version of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer", which reached number one in 36 countries (no. 3 in the United States), and was a radio favorite for many years. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. He also performed his own version of the traditional Mexican song "La Bamba" on the album; his recording of the tune was later reissued as a single in 1966. Another live album from PJ's was recorded later that same year under the title "By Popular Demand More Trini Lopez at PJ's" (R/RS 6103), which contains the song Green, Green which was written by Randy Sparks and Barry McGuire and originally recorded by the New Christy Minstrels earlier that year for their Columbia album "Ramblin".


title: Trini Lopez

text: Lopez scored 13 chart singles through 1968, including "Lemon Tree" (1965), "I'm Comin' Home, Cindy" (1966), and "Sally Was a Good Old Girl" (1968). Later in 2013, Lopez told "Portland Magazine," “People ask about ‘Lemon Tree’ all the time. It’s one of my most favorite requested songs. It’s a very catchy tune. I just happen to like the chorus.” On the adult contemporary chart, he racked up 15 hits, including the top-10 singles "Michael" (1964), "Gonna Get Along Without Ya' Now" (1967), and "The Bramble Bush" (1967), which he sang in the movie "The Dirty Dozen". Beyond his success on record, he became one of the country's top nightclub performers of that era, regularly headlining in Las Vegas. In 1968, he recorded an album in Nashville entitled "Welcome to Trini Country" (R/RS 6300).


title: Trini Lopez

text: Lopez produced a single promoting the Coca-Cola soft drink Fresca in 1967. In 1969, NBC aired a Trini Lopez variety special featuring surf guitar group The Ventures, and Nancy Ames as guests. The soundtrack, released as "The Trini Lopez Show", has him singing his hits with The Ventures as his backing band.


title: Trini Lopez

text: He continued his musical career with extensive tours of Europe and Latin America during this period; an attempt to break out by releasing a disco album in 1978 proved a flop.


title: Trini Lopez

text: In 2002, Lopez teamed with Art Greenhaw for "Legacy: My Texas Roots". The album used the "Texas Roots Combo" including Lopez, Greenhaw, and Lopez's brother, Jesse. Said reviewer Steve Leggett of AllMusic, "The album has an easygoing feel very similar to Lopez's classic live sets from the 1960s, only it rocks a good deal harder." Thereafter, Lopez focused on charitable work.


title: Trini Lopez

text: Lopez was still recording and appearing live in the years leading up to his death. He took part in a benefit concert to raise money for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and appeared as a guest performer in a number of shows held in Maastricht in the Netherlands with the Dutch violinist and composer André Rieu. He continued to record; "El Inmortal" was released in 2010, and the following year he released his 65th album, "Into The Future".


title: Trini Lopez

text: Lopez' popularity led the Gibson Guitar Corporation to ask him in 1964 to design a guitar for them. He ended up designing two: the Trini Lopez Standard, a rock and roll model based on the Gibson ES-335 semihollow body, and the Lopez Deluxe, a variation of a Gibson jazz guitar designed by Barney Kessel. Both of these guitars were in production from 1964 until 1971, and are now highly sought-after among collectors. Owners of the guitar include Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Noel Gallagher of Oasis.