title: George Mason

text: Going into the convention, Mason wanted to see a more powerful central government than under the Articles, but not one that would threaten local interests. He feared that the more numerous Northern states would dominate the union and would impose restrictions on trade that would harm Virginia, so he sought a supermajority requirement for navigation acts. As was his constant objective, he sought to preserve the liberty he and other free white men enjoyed in Virginia, guarding against the tyranny he and others had decried under British rule. He also sought a balance of powers, seeking thereby to make a durable government; according to historian Brent Tarter, "Mason designed his home [Gunston Hall] so that no misplaced window or missing support might spoil the effect or threaten to bring down the roof; he tried to design institutions of government in the same way, so that wicked or unprincipled men could not knock loose any safeguards of liberty".


title: George Mason

text: Mason had hope, coming into the convention, that it would yield a result that he felt would strengthen the United States. Impressed by the quality of the delegates, Mason expected sound thinking from them, something he did not think he had often encountered in his political career. Still, he felt that the "hopes of all the Union centre in this Convention", and wrote to his son George, "the revolt from Great Britain & the Formations of our new Government at that time, were nothing compared with the great Business now before us."


title: George Mason

text: Mason knew few of the delegates who were not from Virginia or Maryland, but his reputation preceded him. Once delegates representing sufficient states had arrived in Philadelphia by late May, the convention held closed sessions at the Pennsylvania State House (today Independence Hall). Washington was elected the convention's president by unanimous vote, and his tremendous personal prestige as the victorious war general helped legitimize the convention but also caused him to abstain from debate. Mason had no such need to remain silent, and only four or five delegates spoke as frequently as he did. Though he ended up not signing the constitution, according to Broadwater, Mason won as many convention debates as he lost.


title: George Mason

text: In the early days of the convention, Mason supported much of the Virginia Plan, which was introduced by Randolph on May 29. This plan would have a popularly elected lower house which would choose the members of the upper house from lists provided by the states. Most of the delegates had found the weak government under the Articles insufficient, and Randolph proposed that the new federal government should be supreme over the states. Mason agreed that the federal government should be more powerful than the states.


title: George Mason

text: The Virginia Plan, if implemented, would base representation in both houses of the federal legislature on population. This was unsatisfactory to the smaller states. Delaware's delegates had been instructed to seek an equal vote for each state, and this became the New Jersey Plan, introduced by that New Jersey Governor William Paterson. The divisions in the convention became apparent in late June, when by a narrow vote, the convention voted that representation in the lower house be based on population, but the motion of Connecticut's Oliver Ellsworth for each state to have an equal vote in the upper house failed on a tie. With the convention deadlocked, on July 2, 1787, a grand committee was formed, with one member from each state, to seek a way out. Mason had not taken as strong a position on the legislature as had Madison, and he was appointed to the committee; Mason and Franklin were the most prominent members. The committee met over the convention's July 4 recess and proposed what became known as the Great Compromise: a House of Representatives based on population, in which money bills must originate, and a Senate with equal representation for each state. Records do not survive of Mason's participation in that committee, but the clause requiring money bills to start in the House most likely came from him or was the price of his support, as he had inserted such a clause in the Virginia Constitution, and he defended that clause once convention debate resumed. According to Madison's notes, Mason urged the convention to adopt the compromise:


title: George Mason

text: By mid-July, as delegates began to move past the stalemate to a framework built upon the Great Compromise, Mason had considerable influence in the convention. North Carolina's William Blount was unhappy that those from his state "were in Sentiment with Virginia who seemed to take the lead. Madison at their Head tho Randolph and Mason also great". Mason had failed to carry his proposals that senators must own property and not be in debt to the United States, but he successfully argued that the minimum age for service in Congress should be 25, telling the convention that younger men were too immature. Mason was the first to propose that the national seat of government not be in a state capital lest the local legislature be too influential. He voted against proposals to base representation on a state's wealth or taxes paid and supported regular reapportionment of the House of Representatives.


title: George Mason

text: On August 6, 1787, the convention received a tentative draft written by a Committee of Detail chaired by South Carolina's John Rutledge; Randolph had represented Virginia. The draft was acceptable to Mason as a basis for discussion, containing such points important to him as the requirement that money bills originate in the House and not be amendable in the Senate. Nevertheless, Mason felt the upper house was too powerful, as it had the powers to make treaties, appoint Supreme Court justices, and adjudicate territorial disputes between the states. The draft lacked provision for a council of revision, something Mason and others considered a serious lack.


title: George Mason

text: The convention spent several weeks in August in debating the powers of Congress. Although Mason was successful in some of his proposals, such as placing the state militias under federal regulation, and a ban on Congress passing an export tax, he lost on some that he deemed crucial. These losses included the convention deciding to allow importation of slaves to continue to at least 1800 (later amended to 1808) and to allow a simple majority to pass navigation acts that might require Virginians to export their tobacco in American-flagged ships, when it might be cheaper to use foreign-flagged vessels. The convention also weakened the requirement that money bills begin in the House and not be subject to amendment in the Senate, eventually striking the latter clause after debate that stretched fitfully over weeks. Despite these defeats, Mason continued to work constructively to build a constitution, serving on another grand committee that considered customs duties and ports.


title: George Mason

text: On August 31, 1787, Massachusetts' Elbridge Gerry spoke against the document as a whole, as did Luther Martin of Maryland. When Gerry moved to postpone consideration of the final document, Mason seconded him, stating, according to Madison, that "he would sooner chop off his right hand than put it to the Constitution as it now stands". Still, Mason did not rule out signing it, saying that he wanted to see how certain matters still before the convention were settled before deciding a final position, whether to sign or ask for a second convention. As the final touches were made to the constitution, Mason and Gerry held meetings in the evening to discuss strategy, bringing in delegates representing states from Connecticut to Georgia.


title: George Mason

text: Mason's misgivings about the constitution were increased on September 12, when Gerry proposed and Mason seconded that there be a committee appointed to write a bill of rights, to be part of the text of the constitution. Connecticut's Roger Sherman noted that the state bills of rights would remain in force, to which Mason responded, "the Laws of the United States are to be paramount [supreme] to State Bills of Rights." Although Massachusetts abstained in deference to Gerry, the Virginians showed no desire to conciliate Mason in their votes, as the motion failed with no states in favor and ten opposed. Also on September 12, the Committee on Style submitted its final draft, and Mason began to list objections on his copy. On September 15, as the convention continued a clause-by-clause consideration of the draft, Mason, Randolph, and Gerry stated they would not sign the constitution.


title: George Mason

text: On September 17, members of the twelve delegations then present in Philadelphia signed the constitution, except for the three men who had stated they would not. As the document was sent to the Articles of Confederation's Congress in New York, Mason sent a copy of his objections to Richard Henry Lee, a member of the Congress.


title: George Mason

text: Broadwater notes, "given the difficulty of the task he had set for himself, his stubborn independence, and his lack, by 1787, of any concern for his own political future, it is not surprising that he left Philadelphia at odds with the great majority of his fellow delegates". Madison recorded that Mason, believing that the convention had given his proposals short shrift in a hurry to complete its work, began his journey back to Virginia "in an exceeding ill humor". Mason biographer Helen Hill Miller notes that before Mason returned to Gunston Hall, he was injured in body as well as spirit after an accident on the road. Word of Mason's opposition stance had reached Fairfax County even before the convention ended; most local sentiment was in favor of the document. Washington made a statement urging ratification but otherwise remained silent, knowing he would almost certainly be the first president. Mason sent Washington a copy of his objections, but Washington believed that the choice was ratification or disaster.


title: George Mason

text: The constitution was to be ratified by state conventions, with nine approvals necessary for it to come into force. In practice, opposition by large states such as New York or Virginia would make it hard for the new government to function. Mason remained a member of the House of Delegates, and in late October 1787, the legislature called a convention for June 1788; in language crafted by John Marshall, it decreed that the Virginia Ratifying Convention would be allowed "free and ample discussion". Mason was less influential in his final session in the House of Delegates because of his strong opposition to ratification, and his age (61) may also have caused him to be less effective.


title: George Mason

text: As smaller states ratified the constitution in late 1787 and early 1788, there was an immense quantity of pamphlets and other written matter for and against approval. Most prominent in support were the pamphlets later collected as "The Federalist", written by Madison and two New Yorkers, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay; Mason's objections were widely cited by opponents. Mason had begun his "Objections to this Constitution of Government" in Philadelphia; in October 1787, it was published, though without his permission. Madison complained that Mason had gone beyond the reasons for opposing he had stated in convention, but Broadwater suggested the major difference was one of tone, since the written work dismissed as useless the constitution and the proposed federal government. Nevertheless, both Lee and Mason believed that if proper amendments were made, the constitution would be a fine instrument of governance. The "Objections" were widely cited in opposition to ratification, and Mason was criticized for placing his own name on it, at a time when political tracts were signed, if at all, with pen names such as Junius, so that the author's reputation would not influence the debate. Despite this, Mason's "Objections" were among the most influential Anti-Federalist works, and its opening line, "There is no Declaration of Rights", likely their most effective slogan.


title: George Mason

text: Virginians were reluctant to believe that greatly respected figures such as Washington and Franklin would be complicit in setting up a tyrannical system. There were broad attacks on Mason; the New Haven "Gazette" suggested that he had not done much for his country during the war, in marked contrast to Washington. Oliver Ellsworth blamed the Virginia opposition on the Lee family, who had long had tensions with the Washington family, and on "the madness of Mason". Tarter, in his "American National Biography" article on Mason, wrote that "the rigidity of [Mason's] views and his increasingly belligerent personality produced an intolerance and intemperance in his behavior that surprised and angered Madison, with whom he had worked closely at the beginning of the convention, and Washington, who privately condemned Mason's actions during the ratification struggle."


title: George Mason

text: In Richmond from October 1787 until January 1788 representing Fairfax County in the House of Delegates, Mason faced difficulties in winning election to the ratifying convention from his home county, since most Fairfax freeholders were Federalist, and local courthouse politics put him at odds with many in Alexandria. The statute governing elections to the convention in Richmond allowed Mason to seek election where he owned property, and he sought election in Stafford County. He assured voters that he did not seek disunion, but rather reform, and spoke against the unamended constitution in strong terms. George Nicholas, a Federalist friend of Mason, believed that Mason felt he could lead Virginia to gain concessions from the other states, and that he was embittered by the continuing attacks on him. On March 10, 1788, Mason finished first in the polls in Stafford County, and veteran delegate Andrew Buchanan won the other seat over Colonel Carter and William Fitzhugh. Two days later, a Richmond essayist criticized Mason and Richard Henry Lee (who did not attend) for the "barefaced impudence and folly" of public protests. Mason apparently was the only person elected to that convention for a constituency in which he did not live (although historically many of his ancestors had lived in and represented the county). Voter turnout was low, as many in remote areas without newspapers knew little about the constitution. The Federalists were believed to have a slight advantage in elected delegates; Mason thought that the convention would be unlikely to ratify the document without demanding amendments.


title: George Mason

text: By the time the Richmond convention opened in June, Randolph had abandoned the Anti-Federalist cause, which damaged efforts by Mason and Henry to co-ordinate with their counterparts in New York. Mason moved that the convention consider the document clause by clause, which may have played into the hands of the Federalists, who feared what the outcome of an immediate vote might be, and who had more able leadership in Richmond, including Marshall and Madison. Nevertheless, Broadwater suggested that as most delegates had declared their views before the election, Mason's motion made little difference. Henry, far more a foe of a strong federal government than was Mason, took the lead for his side in the debate. Mason spoke several times in the discussion, on topics ranging from the pardon power (which he predicted the president would use corruptly) to the federal judiciary, which he warned would lead to suits in the federal courts by citizens against states where they did not live. John Marshall, a future Chief Justice of the United States, downplayed the concern regarding the judiciary, but Mason would later be proved correct in the case of "Chisholm v. Georgia" (1793), which led to the passage of the Eleventh Amendment.


title: George Mason

text: The federalists initially did not have a majority, with the balance held by undeclared delegates, mainly from western Virginia (today's Kentucky). The Anti-Federalists suffered repeated blows during the convention due to the defection of Randolph and as news came other states had ratified. Mason led a group of Anti-Federalists which drafted amendments: even the Federalists were open to supporting them, though the constitution's supporters wanted the document drafted in Philadelphia ratified first.


title: George Mason

text: After some of the Kentuckians had declared for ratification, the convention considered a resolution to withhold ratification pending the approval of a declaration of rights. Supported by Mason but opposed by Madison, Light-Horse Harry Lee, Marshall, Nicholas, Randolph and Bushrod Washington, the resolution failed, 88–80. Mason then voted in the minority as Virginia ratified the constitution on June 25, 1788 by a vote of 89–79. Following the ratification vote, Mason served on a committee chaired by George Wythe, charged with compiling a final list of recommended amendments, and Mason's draft was adopted, but for a few editorial changes. Unreconciled to the result, Mason prepared a fiery written argument, but some felt the tone too harsh and Mason agreed not to publish it.


title: George Mason

text: Defeated at Richmond, Mason returned to Gunston Hall, where he devoted himself to family, local affairs and his own health, though still keeping up a vigorous correspondence with political leaders. He resigned from the Fairfax County Court after an act passed by the new Congress required officeholders to take an oath to support the constitution, and in 1790 declined a seat in the Senate which had been left vacant by William Grayson's death, stating that his health would not permit him to serve, even if he had no other objection. The seat went to James Monroe, who had supported Mason's Anti-Federalist stance, and who had, in 1789, lost to Madison for a seat in the House of Representatives. Judging by his correspondence, Mason softened his stance towards the new federal government, telling Monroe that the constitution "wisely & Properly directs" that ambassadors be confirmed by the Senate. Although Mason predicted that the amendments to be proposed to the states by the First Congress would be "Milk & Water Propositions", he displayed "much Satisfaction" at what became the Bill of Rights (ratified in 1791) and wrote that if his concerns about the federal courts and other matters were addressed, "I could cheerfully put my Hand & Heart to the new Government".


title: George Mason

text: Washington, who was in 1789 elected the first president, resented Mason's strong stances against the ratification of the constitution, and these differences destroyed their friendship. Although some sources accept that Mason dined at Mount Vernon on November 2, 1788, Peter R. Henriques noted that Washington's diary states that Mr. George Mason was the guest, and as Washington, elsewhere in his diary, always referred to his former colleague at Philadelphia as Colonel Mason, the visitor was likely George Mason V, the son. Mason always wrote positively of Washington, and the president said nothing publicly, but in a letter referred to Mason as a "quondam friend" who would not recant his position on the constitution because "pride on the one hand, and want of manly candour on the other, will not I am certain let him acknowledge error in his opinions respecting it [the federal government] though conviction should flash on his mind as strongly as a ray of light". Rutland suggested that the two men were alike in their intolerance of opponents and suspicion of their motives.


title: George Mason

text: Mason had long battled against Alexandria merchants who he felt unfairly dominated the county court, if only because they could more easily get to the courthouse. In 1789, he drafted legislation to move the courthouse to the center of the county, though it did not pass in his lifetime. In 1798, the legislature passed an authorizing act, and the courthouse opened in 1801. Most of those at Gunston Hall, both family and slaves, fell ill during the summer of 1792, experiencing chills and fever; when those subsided, Mason caught a chest cold. When Jefferson visited Gunston Hall on October 1, 1792, he found Mason, long a martyr to gout, needing a crutch to walk, though still sound in mind and memory. Additional ailments, possibly pneumonia, set in. Less than a week after Jefferson's visit, on October 7, George Mason died at Gunston Hall, and was subsequently buried on the estate, within sight of the house he had built and of the Potomac River.


title: George Mason

text: Although Mason's death attracted little notice, aside from a few mentions in local newspapers, Jefferson mourned "a great loss". Another future president, Monroe, stated that Mason's "patriotic virtues thro[ugh] the revolution will ever be remembered by the citizens of this country".


title: George Mason

text: Mason routinely spoke out against slavery, even before America's independence. In 1773, he wrote that slavery was "that slow Poison, which is daily contaminating the Minds & Morals of our People. Every Gentlemen here is born a petty Tyrant." In 1774, he advocated ending the international slave trade.


title: George Mason

text: However, Mason owned many slaves. In Fairfax County, only George Washington owned more, and Mason is not known to have freed any, even in his March 1773 will ultimately transcribed into the Fairfax County probate records in October 1792 (the original was then lost). That will divided his slaves among his children (between twenty and three years old when Mason wrote it). Mason would continue trading in land as well as remarry (with a marriage agreement recorded in Prince William County in April 1780), and Virginia legalized manumission in May 1782. The childless Washington, in his will executed shortly before his death, ordered his slaves be freed after his wife's death, and Jefferson manumitted a few slaves, mostly of the Hemings family, including his own children by Sally Hemings. According to Broadwater, "In all likelihood, Mason believed, or convinced himself, that he had no options. Mason would have done nothing that might have compromised the financial futures of his nine children." Peter Wallenstein, in his article about how writers have interpreted Mason, argued that he could have freed some slaves without harming his children's future, if he had wanted to.


title: George Mason

text: Mason's biographers and interpreters have long differed about how to present his views on slavery-related issues. His descendant Kate Mason Rowland, a charter member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy published a two-volume biography (1892). Broadwater noted that she wrote "during the heyday of Jim Crow" and denied that Mason (her ancestor) was "an "abolitionist" in the modern sense of the term", arguing that Mason "regretted" slavery and was against the slave trade, but wanted slavery protected in the constitution. In 1919, Robert C. Mason published a biography of his prominent ancestor and asserted that George Mason "agreed to free his own slaves and was the first known abolitionist", refusing to sign the constitution, among other reasons because "as it stood then it did not abolish slavery or make preparation for its gradual extinction". Rutland, writing in 1961, asserted that in Mason's final days, "only the coalition [between New England and the Deep South at the Constitutional Convention] in Philadelphia that had bargained away any hope of eliminating slavery left a residue of disgust." Catherine Drinker Bowen, in her widely read 1966 account of the Constitutional Convention, "Miracle at Philadelphia", contended that Mason believed slaves to be citizens and was "a fervent abolitionist before the word was coined".


title: George Mason

text: Others took a more nuanced view. Pamela C. Copeland and Richard K. MacMaster deemed Mason's views similar to other Virginians of his class: "Mason's experience with slave labor made him hate slavery but his heavy investment in slave property made it difficult for him to divest himself of a system that he despised". According to Wallenstein, "whatever his occasional rhetoric, George Mason was—if one must choose—proslavery, not antislavery. He acted in behalf of Virginia slaveholders, not Virginia slaves". Broadwater noted, "Mason consistently voiced his disapproval of slavery. His 1787 attack on slavery echoes a similar speech to the Virginia Convention of 1776. His conduct was another matter."


title: George Mason

text: According to Wallenstein, historians and other writers "have had great difficulty coming to grips with Mason in his historical context, and they have jumbled the story in related ways, misleading each other and following each other's errors". Some of this is due to conflation of Mason's views on slavery with that of his desire to ban the African slave trade, which he unquestionably opposed and fought against. His record otherwise is mixed: Virginia banned the importation of slaves from abroad in 1778, while Mason was in the House of Delegates. In 1782, after he had returned to Gunston Hall, it enacted legislation that allowed manumission of adult slaves young enough to support themselves (not older than 45). However, a proposal, supported by Mason, to require freed slaves to leave Virginia within a year or be sold at auction, was defeated. Broadwater asserted, "Mason must have shared the fears of Jefferson and countless other whites that whites and free blacks could not live together".


title: George Mason

text: The contradiction between wanting protection for slave property, while opposing the slave trade, was pointed out by delegates to the Richmond convention such as George Nicholas, a supporter of ratification. Mason stated of slavery, "it is far from being a desirable property. But it will involve us in great difficulties and infelicity to be now deprived of them."


title: George Mason

text: There are sites remembering George Mason in Fairfax County. Gunston Hall, donated to the Commonwealth of Virginia by its last private owner, is now "dedicated to the study of George Mason, his home and garden, and life in 18th-century Virginia". George Mason University, with its main campus adjacent to the city of Fairfax, was formerly George Mason College of the University of Virginia from 1959 until it received its present name in 1972. A major landmark on the Fairfax campus is a statue of George Mason by Wendy M. Ross, depicted as he presents his first draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights.


title: George Mason

text: The George Mason Memorial Bridge, part of the 14th Street Bridge, connects Northern Virginia to Washington, D.C. The George Mason Memorial in West Potomac Park in Washington, also with a statue by Ross, was dedicated on April 9, 2002.


title: George Mason

text: Mason was honored in 1981 by the United States Postal Service with an 18-cent Great Americans series postage stamp. A bas-relief of Mason appears in the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives as one of 23 honoring great lawmakers. Mason's image is located above and to the right of the Speaker's chair; he and Jefferson are the only Americans recognized.


title: George Mason

text: According to Miller, "The succession of New World constitutions of which Virginia's, with Mason as its chief architect, was the first, declared the source of political authority to be the people ... in addition to making clear what a government was entitled to do, most of them were prefaced by a list of individual rights of the citizens ... rights whose maintenance was government's primary reason for being. Mason wrote the first of these lists." Diane D. Pikcunas, in her article prepared for the bicentennial of the U.S. Bill of Rights, wrote that Mason "made the declaration of rights as his personal crusade". Tarter deemed Mason "celebrated as a champion of constitutional order and one of the fathers of the Bill of Rights". Justice Sandra Day O'Connor agreed, "George Mason's greatest contribution to present day Constitutional law was his influence on our Bill of Rights".


title: George Mason

text: Mason's legacy extended overseas, doing so even in his lifetime, and though he never visited Europe, his ideals did. Lafayette's


title: George Mason

text: "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" was written in the early days of the French Revolution under the influence of Jefferson, the U.S. Minister to France. According to historian R.R. Palmer, "there was in fact a remarkable parallel between the French Declaration and the Virginia Declaration of 1776". Another scholar, Richard Morris, concurred, deeming the resemblance between the two texts "too close to be coincidental": "the Virginia statesman George Mason might well have instituted an action of plagiarism".


title: George Mason

text: Donald J. Senese, in the conclusion to the collection of essays on Mason published in 1989, noted that several factors contributed to Mason's obscurity in the century after his death. Older than many who served at Philadelphia and came into prominence with the new federal government, Mason died soon after the constitution came into force and displayed no ambition for federal office, declining a seat in the Senate. Mason left no extensive paper trail, no autobiography like Franklin, no diary like Washington or John Adams. Washington left papers collected into 100 volumes; for Mason, with many documents lost to fire, there are only three. Mason fought on the side that failed, both at Philadelphia and Richmond, leaving him a loser in a history written by winners—even his speeches to the Constitutional Convention descend through the pen of Madison, a supporter of ratification. After the Richmond convention, he was, according to Senese, "a prophet without honor in his own country".


title: George Mason

text: The increased scrutiny of Mason which has accompanied his rise from obscurity has meant, according to Tarter, that "his role in the creation of some of the most important texts of American liberty is not as clear as it seems". Rutland suggested that Mason showed only "belated concern over the personal rights of citizens". Focusing on Mason's dissent from the constitution, Miller pointed to the intersectional bargain struck over navigation acts and the slave trade, "Mason lost on both counts, and the double defeat was reflected in his attitude thereafter." Wallenstein concluded, "the personal and economic interests of Mason's home state took precedence over a bill of rights".


title: George Mason

text: Whatever his motivations, Mason proved a forceful advocate for a bill of rights whose "Objections" helped accomplish his aims. Rutland noted that "from the opening phrase of his "Objections" to the Bill of Rights that James Madison offered in Congress two years later, the line is so direct that we can say that Mason forced Madison's hand. Federalist supporters of the Constitution could not overcome the protest caused by Mason's phrase 'There is no declaration of rights'." O'Connor wrote that "Mason lost his battle against ratification ... [but] his ideals and political activities have significantly influenced our constitutional jurisprudence." Wallenstein felt that there is much to be learned from Mason:


title: Earl Boen

text: Earl Boen () is an American retired film, television and voice actor, best known as criminal psychologist Dr. Peter Silberman in "The Terminator" (1984), "" (1991), "" (2003) and "" (2019, archive footage only). He is the only actor besides Arnold Schwarzenegger to appear in each of the first three "Terminator" films.


title: Earl Boen

text: Boen is also very active in the voice-over field. He is known for voicing characters such as Mr. Bleakman in "Clifford the Big Red Dog", Police Chief Kanifky in "Bonkers", the Narrator in "World of Warcraft", Señor Senior, Senior in "Kim Possible", and Captain LeChuck in the "Monkey Island" series.


title: Earl Boen

text: Having started acting in the mid-1950s, Boen played roles on the stage with several repertory companies between 1965 and 1976 before moving to Hollywood.


title: Earl Boen

text: Boen is known to many TV viewers as the Harper family's pastor, the Rev. Lloyd Meechum on the 1980s sitcom "Mama's Family". His character was featured in several of the most memorable episodes (on both the network and syndicated versions). He also appeared as a clergyman in episodes of "The Golden Girls", "The Golden Palace", "The Wonder Years", "Boy Meets World", "Seinfeld" and "Three's Company". He also appeared as Willie's boss in "ALF", and as Patrick Morrison in the "Matlock" episode "The Cult". Boen commonly plays doctors in movie and television roles. He may also be noted for his role as Jim Petersen, Angela Bower's boss on the show "Who's The Boss?". Earl had a recurring role as Dr. Kramer in the 1990s Fox series "Get a Life". Boen also appeared (alongside Tom Jones) in an episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" in 1993.


title: Earl Boen

text: Other films in which he appeared include "The Main Event" (1979), "Battle Beyond the Stars" (1980), "9 to 5" (1980), "Soggy Bottom, U.S.A." (1981), "The Man with Two Brains" (1983), "To Be or Not to Be" (1983), "Alien Nation" (1988), "Marked for Death" (1990), "" (1994), and "" (2000).


title: Earl Boen

text: In 1987, came his first voice role as Taurus in the direct to video "". Some of his most well known voice roles have been villainous pirate LeChuck from the "Monkey Island" series of adventure games. He has also provided the introductions for "World of Warcraft" and its expansions, voiced Magtheridon in "" and King Terenas Menethil II in "", including the ending cinematic for that expansion.


title: Earl Boen

text: Boen was also well known for voicing the dramatic thespian Edwin Blackgaard in Focus on the Family's "Adventures in Odyssey", as well as Edwin's nefarious twin brother Regis.


title: Earl Boen

text: Boen's voice was heard on the Disneyland Railroad from 2002 until 2016 and on the Walt Disney World Railroad from 2002 until late 2010.


title: Earl Boen

text: Boen retired from screen acting in 2003, but continued his work as a voice actor in radio, television cartoons and video games.


title: Earl Boen

text: Boen married actress Carole Kean in 1970. She died on April 23, 2001, from ovarian cancer at the age of 58.


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: Suffolk County is located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 797,936, making it the fourth-most populous county in Massachusetts. The county comprises the cities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. The traditional county seat is Boston, the state capital and the largest city in Massachusetts. The county government was abolished in 1999, and so Suffolk County today functions only as an administrative subdivision of state government and a set of communities grouped together for some statistical purposes. Suffolk County is located at the core of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the greater Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT Combined Statistical Area.


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: The county was created by the Massachusetts General Court on May 10, 1643, when it was ordered "that the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four shires". Suffolk initially contained Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Weymouth, and Hingham. The county was named after Suffolk, England, which means "southern folk."


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: In 1731, the extreme western portions of Suffolk County, which included Mendon and Uxbridge, were split off to become part of Worcester County. In 1793, most of the original Suffolk County (including Milton) except for Boston, Chelsea, Hingham, and Hull (which remained in Suffolk) split off and became Norfolk County. Hingham and Hull would leave Suffolk County and join Plymouth County in 1803. Revere was set off from Chelsea and incorporated in 1846 and Winthrop was set off from Revere and incorporated in 1852. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Boston annexed several adjacent cities and towns including Hyde Park, Roxbury, West Roxbury, and Dorchester from Norfolk County and Charlestown and Brighton from Middlesex County, resulting in an enlargement of Suffolk County.


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: Like an increasing number of Massachusetts counties, Suffolk County exists today only as a historical geographic region, and has no county government. All former county functions were assumed by state agencies in 1999. The sheriff, district attorney, and some other regional officials with specific duties are still elected locally to perform duties within the county region, but there is no county council, executives or commissioners. Prior to the abolition of county government, the authority of the Suffolk County Commission had for many years been exercised by the Boston City Council, even though three communities in the county are not part of the city. However, communities are now granted the right to form their own regional compacts for sharing services.


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: Politically speaking, Suffolk County supports the Democratic Party overwhelmingly. No Republican presidential candidate has won there since Calvin Coolidge in 1924. In 2012 Barack Obama received 77.4% of the vote, compared to 20.8% for former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney. In the 2014 gubernatorial election, Martha Coakley carried the county by a 32.4% margin, while losing the election statewide by 48.4 to 46.5%. In 2020, Joe Biden won the county by the largest margin of any presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, and was the first candidate since then to win more than 80% of the vote in the county.


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: The Suffolk County Sheriff's Department's primary responsibility is oversight of the Nashua Street Jail and the South Bay House of Correction. These were built in the 1990s to replace the historic Charles Street Jail and Deer Island Prison, respectively. The Suffolk County Sheriff's Department was among those named in a 2020 WBUR report about the neglect of inmates with medical conditions in Massachusetts prisons leading to their deaths.


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (52%) is water. It is the second-smallest county in Massachusetts by land area and smallest by total area.


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: Suffolk County has no land border with Plymouth County to its southeast, but the two counties share a water boundary in the middle of Massachusetts Bay.


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: Of the 292,767 households, 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.1% were married couples living together, 16.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 52.0% were non-families, and 36.3% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 3.11. The median age was 31.5 years.


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: The median income for a household in the county was $50,597 and the median income for a family was $58,127. Males had a median income of $48,887 versus $43,658 for females. The per capita income for the county was $30,720. About 15.7% of families and 20.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.1% of those under age 18 and 19.1% of those age 65 or over.


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: According to the 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the largest ancestry groups in Suffolk County, Massachusetts are:


title: Suffolk County, Massachusetts

text: Each city has its own school district (including Boston Public Schools, Chelsea Public Schools, Revere Public Schools, and Winthrop Public Schools), which all follow municipal boundaries.


title: Old Man's War

text: Old Man's War is a military science fiction novel by American writer John Scalzi, published in 2005. His debut novel was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2006.


title: Old Man's War

text: "Old Man's War" is the first novel in Scalzi's "Old Man's War" series. A sequel, "The Ghost Brigades", was published in 2006, followed by two other books, "The Last Colony" (2007) and "Zoe's Tale" (2008). Another book in the series, "The Human Division", was published as a serial and then collected in a novel (2013). The next book in the series, "The End of All Things", was published in June 2015 as four novellas.


title: Old Man's War

text: "Old Man's War" is about a soldier named John Perry and his exploits in the Colonial Defense Forces (CDF). The first-person narrative follows Perry's military career from CDF recruit to the rank of captain. It is set in a universe heavily populated with life forms, in which the spacegoing species compete for the scarce planets that are suitable for sustaining life. As a result, Perry must learn to fight a wide variety of aliens. The characters in "Old Man's War" have enhanced DNA and nanotechnology, giving them advantages in strength, speed, endurance, and situational awareness.


title: Old Man's War

text: John Perry, a 75-year-old retired advertising writer, joins the Colonial Defense Forces who protect human interplanetary colonists. Volunteers sign letters of intent and provide DNA samples at age 65, which John and his now deceased wife Kathy had done ten years prior to the beginning of the story. After visiting his wife's grave to say goodbye (as volunteers can never return to Earth), Perry takes a space elevator to the CDF ship "Henry Hudson", where he meets Thomas, Jessie, Harry, Alan, Susan and Maggie, fellow retiree volunteers. They dub themselves the "Old Farts".


title: Old Man's War

text: Following a series of sometimes bizarre psychological and physical tests, Perry's mind is ultimately transferred to a new body based on his genetic material. His new body is a younger version of himself, but genetically engineered with enhanced musculature, green skin, and yellow cat-like eyes. He now possesses enormous strength and dexterity, nanobot-enhanced artificial blood, enhanced eyesight and other senses, and most critically, a BrainPal—a neural interface that, among other capabilities, allows Perry to communicate with other members of the CDF via thought.


title: Old Man's War

text: After a week of frivolity and orgies in their new bodies, Perry and the other recruits land on Beta Pyxis III for basic training, during which the CDF's heritage in the United States armed forces is made clear when the recruits are taught the Rifleman's Creed. Perry's drill instructor, Master Sergeant Ruiz, adopts a tough and disdainful persona towards the recruits, but later discovers Perry is the creator of an advertising slogan Ruiz adopted as a personal mantra ("Sometimes you just gotta hit the road"). As a dubious gesture of respect, Perry is given the job of platoon leader during the weeks of training before he is shipped out to the CDF ship "Modesto". His first engagement is with the Consu, a fierce, incredibly intelligent and religiously zealous alien species. Perry improvises a tactic which enables the CDF to win this first battle quickly. This is soon followed by a number of battles with, among others, the bear-like Whaidians and the tiny Covandu. By the end of this last engagement Perry begins to suffer psychological distress over killing the Liliputian Covandu and accepts that he has transformed both physically and mentally.


title: Old Man's War

text: Now a veteran, Perry participates in the Battle for Coral. The planet contains coral reefs valuable to the attacking Rraey, as well as a human colony (the Rraey also have a taste for human flesh). The CDF plans to rapidly counterattack with a small force before the Rraey establish their coral strip mining operations, but the Rraey have somehow obtained technology to predict the appearance of a space ship's skip drive (a feat that should not be possible) and use this knowledge to ambush and destroy CDF ships as they arrive in the Coral system. Perry's quick thinking allows him and his fellow soldiers on a transport shuttle to escape the wreckage of the "Modesto" and make for the planet's surface, but they are shot down. Everyone but Perry is killed in the crash; Perry is grievously wounded but survives thanks to his artificially enhanced body. Perry is left for dead by a Rraey search party (who find CDF soldiers inedible), but he is rescued by members of the mysterious "Ghost Brigades", the Special Forces units of the CDF. Perry thinks he has died when he sees a younger green version of his dead wife Kathy, who in reality is Jane Sagan, the leader of the Ghost Brigades rescue team.


title: Old Man's War

text: After being repaired, Perry tracks down Sagan, who turns out to have been grown based on Kathy Perry's DNA sample, as legally allowed by her letter of intent to join the CDF. Unlike John, Jane has no memories of Kathy's life, as she is only six years old, but after learning about Kathy, Jane seeks to learn more from John about being a "realborn" person and what kind of life one can have outside the CDF.


title: Old Man's War

text: Sagan manipulates her chain of command to promote John to an advisory role (as a lieutenant) to gather information from the Consu during a ritualistic meeting to obtain information. Perry discovers that the Rraey had received the skip-drive detection tachyon technology from the Consu, which was used to set up the ambush at Coral. Perry also manipulates his chain of command to have the last two of his friends from the "Old Farts" transferred out of combat duty to military research. Sagan and Perry then participate in a Special Forces operation in an attempt to capture or destroy the borrowed Consu technology in advance of a major attack to recapture Coral from the Rraey. Perry is instrumental in the successful outcome of the battle by capturing the technical manual for the Consu detection system (which was destroyed in the fighting), and saving Sagan's life after she is severely wounded. However, he never sees her again after delivering her to a shuttle which returns her to the secretive Ghost Brigades.


title: Old Man's War

text: At the conclusion of the book, Perry is promoted to captain following his deeds at Coral and, despite the separation, holds hope of reuniting with Sagan when their terms of service conclude.


title: Old Man's War

text: "Old Man's War" introduces a new form of FTL interstellar travel called a Skip Drive. The Skip Drive takes an object like a space ship, punches a hole in space, and places the object at its destination in a new, essentially identical universe. There are limits on the skip drive due to the characters not knowing all there is to know about how it works. The limitations are as follows:


title: Old Man's War

text: The Colonial Union and other governments use devices called skip drones to communicate. These skip drones are essentially computers equipped with skip drives. A ship or satellite will launch one of these devices away from local gravity wells and skip to its target locale and upload its information to the local people.


title: Old Man's War

text: More advanced races, notably the Consu, have a more complex understanding of skip drives and can even detect ships skipping into a system.


title: Old Man's War

text: The BrainPal is a neural implant that allows members of the Colonial Defense Forces (CDF) to send and receive data, including speech, battle plans and much more. CDF soldiers use their BrainPals to communicate with each other, translate alien languages, watch classic cartoons, and read old books.


title: Old Man's War

text: A BrainPal allows a CDF soldier to operate colonial technology by thought alone. A CDF rifle can only be used by someone with a BrainPal.


title: Old Man's War

text: To the members of the Ghost Brigades the BrainPal does much more: it provides a synthetic consciousness that allows the newborn soldiers to function until their own identities develop. This gives people who meet Special Forces the impression that they know everything. When presented with a situation that is unfamiliar to the newborn soldier, the BrainPal loads the relevant and important information directly into the mind at an amazing rate.


title: Old Man's War

text: The MP-35, also known as "empee", is the main infantry weapon used by the Colonial Defense Force (CDF).


title: Old Man's War

text: The weapon features self assembling and self repairing capabilities, the ability to interface with BrainPal, and ammunition composed of nano-robotic bullets able to transform immediately into any type of projectile desired, including bullets, incendiaries, explosives, and beams. These features make it superior to conventional weapon types, as it solves the problem of excessive weight associated with carrying multiple weapons, weapon jamming, and enemy use. The weapon proved to be very versatile and adaptable in the battlefield, as shown in Perry's first battle against the Consu where he took full advantage of the weapon's adaptability and used BrainPal to program a sequence of fire that exploited the enemies' weakness to win the battle.


title: Old Man's War

text: The Beanstalk is a space elevator, built by the CDF, connecting Earth and the CDF space station. The space elevator, officially built to transport colonists and CDF recruits to space, displayed the CDF's power and technological prowess. To Earth's inhabitants, the space elevator defied physics and was extremely impractical. Henry hypothesized that the entire concept of the Beanstalk was taken from another alien species. In real life, John Scalzi notes that the feasibility and practical application of a space elevator is speculative.


title: Old Man's War

text: In the early days of human colonization it became clear that human soldiers were not cut out for fighting the endless hordes of alien aggressors. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was found wanting. Humans were not strong enough, tough enough or fast enough to compete with the countless xeno breeds that desired the eradication of the human race. Humanity was saved by two technologies: the ability to grow an engineered human body to maturity in a few months and the ability to transfer a consciousness from an old body to the new one (provided that the brains are identical).


title: Old Man's War

text: This tech is the foundation of the Colonial Defense Force, allowing them to recruit senior citizens from Earth and transfer their minds to new super-soldier bodies.


title: Old Man's War

text: The most noticeable features of the engineered bodies include chlorophyll enhanced dermis for energy absorption, the above-mentioned brainpal, and yellow eyes that appear like a cat's eyes for enhanced vision.


title: Old Man's War

text: The Colonial Defense Forces use nanotechnology in almost every aspect of their military operations. Combat armor is made from interlinked nanobots, medical nanobots perform surgeries and help to regrow limbs, and the very blood of the CDF soldier has been replaced by a nanotech solution called "smartblood" that does everything that blood can do, only better (such as holding one's breath for over six minutes), and a few things that blood can't do (like explode on command). The primary infantry weapon, the MP-35 or "empee", assembles its ammunition on demand from a block of raw materials (with six types of ammo: rifle, shot, grenade, missile, flamethrower and microwave beam), and can use its ammunition block for self-repair.


title: Old Man's War

text: The Consu are a fierce, technologically advanced, and strongly religious alien race. They believe in helping deserving races reach "Ungkat", a state of perfection for a whole race.


title: Old Man's War

text: The Consu are the most advanced alien race presented in the Old Man's War. Their home system is surrounded by a Dyson sphere, which harnesses all the energy output of its local sun's companion star, a dwarf star, to make it impenetrable to the weapons and technology of every other known species. The Consu possess technology so advanced that even the CDF is unable to reverse-engineer or even fully understand it, such as tachyon detectors. Despite being the most technologically advanced out of all the alien races presented in the novel, in any conflict the Consu will scale their weapons technology to that of their opponent in order to keep the battle fair. Unlike other alien species, the Consu do not fight for territory, but for religious motives, believing that any aliens killed by Consu warriors are thereby guaranteed another place in the cycle of creation. The Consu rarely meet with outsiders and any individual that does is inevitably a criminal or other undesirable. Following the meeting, the meeting dome is imploded and shot into a black hole so that it can't defile any other Consu.


title: Old Man's War

text: The Covandu are a liliputian species, the tallest only measuring an inch, but otherwise very similar to humans. Their aggression in colonizing planets is similar to humans' as well, sometimes causing conflict. One human colony was taken over by Covandu when it was abandoned due to a virus (which did not affect the Covandu). After developing a vaccine, humans returned to take it back by force.


title: Old Man's War

text: The Rraey are a species described in Old Man's War as being considerably less advanced than the CDF. They consider humans as a part of a "balanced breakfast" and are even known to have celebrity chefs showing how to best butcher a human. They became a serious problem for the CDF after acquiring technology from the Consu to predict the trajectory of a vessel's skip drives, a feat that was previously considered impossible. The only physical description of them is a mention that they have a head and limbs and "muscular bird-like legs".


title: Old Man's War

text: They developed a craving for humans, going as far as creating many dishes for different parts of the body. They are a few decades behind the CDF in terms of technology and weaponry, but nonetheless, still considered a threat to the CDF. The skip drive detection device given to them by the Consu enabled them to wipe out an entire fleet of CDF ships without any casualties to their own.


title: Old Man's War

text: The Whaidians are an alien species that have an appearance similar to that of a "cross between black bear and a large flying squirrel." Their home consists of small planets that are linked together. They are artistically gifted and are nearly as technologically advanced as the CDF. For this reason they are targeted by the CDF and their spaceport is completely destroyed by a fleet of CDF ships. The highest form of Whaidian art is a collective chant which is recited by small groups all the way up to entire cities.


title: Old Man's War

text: Old Man's War sits in the military science fiction genre but themes of the ethics of life extension, friendship, marriage, the significance of mortality, what makes one human, and individual identity are present within the novel. Aging plays its biggest role near the beginning of the novel with the CDF being able to find a way to reverse the effects of aging. The themes of marriage and friendship are explored in the characterization of John Perry through his continued love of his dead wife and his later meetings with Jane. When it comes to identity and humanity John Perry is the focus of attention and his characteristics by the end of the novel determine whether or not the reader believes John Perry is still human.


title: Old Man's War

text: Scalzi states that he was influenced by Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" and modeled his book's format after Heinlein’s novels. He wanted to make the story as sympathetic as possible to the reader in which one can understand events such as being in a war.


title: Old Man's War

text: Scalzi took what he learned about Heinlein and produced four lessons on how to create a novel centered on characters. These lessons are that a story should only exist for its characters, make room in the characters for the reader, make the characters talk like people, and make the characters act like people. His novel's themes were based on the four lessons in which to make a character as connectable as possible while still keeping his theme of space military.


title: Old Man's War

text: Netflix announced plans in 2017 to make a film based in the universe of "Old Man's War". Previous failed attempts to release adaptations of "Old Man's War" include a film project by Paramount Pictures and a TV adaptation by Syfy.


title: Old Man's War

text: A character can be seen reading the book in an episode of the science fiction television series "Stargate Universe", as a shout-out to Scalzi in his role as creative consultant on the show.


title: Old Man's War

text: "Old Man's War" was well received both domestically and globally. "Old Man's War" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2006 but lost to the novel "Spin", written by Robert Charles Wilson. "Old Man's War" was ranked #1 on a Tor.com reader poll as the best science fiction and fantasy novel of 2000–2010. In 2012 it was voted #1 on the Locus online reader poll for best science fiction novel of the 21st century, and in 2011, "Old Man's War" was listed 74th on the NPR.com reader poll of the Top 100 science fiction and fantasy books/series for 2011.


title: Ad blocking

text: Ad blocking or ad filtering is a software capability for blocking or altering online advertising in a web browser, an application or a network. This may be done using browser extensions or other methods.


title: Ad blocking

text: Online advertising exists in a variety of forms, including web banners, pictures, animations, embedded audio and video, text, or pop-up windows, and can even employ audio and video autoplay. Many browsers offer some ways to remove or alter advertisements: either by targeting technologies that are used to deliver ads (such as embedded content delivered through browser plug-ins or via HTML5), targeting URLs that are the source of ads, or targeting behaviors characteristic to ads (such as the use of HTML5 AutoPlay of both audio and video).


title: Ad blocking

text: Use of mobile and desktop ad blocking software designed to remove traditional advertising grew by 41% worldwide and by 48% in the U.S. between Q2 2014 and Q2 2015. As of Q2 2015, 45 million Americans were using ad blockers. In a survey research study released Q2 2016, Met Facts reported 72 million Americans, 12.8 million adults in the UK, and 13.2 million adults in France were using ad blockers on their PCs, smartphones, or tablet computers. In March 2016, the Internet Advertising Bureau reported that UK ad blocking was already at 22% among people over 18 years old.


title: Ad blocking

text: As of 2021, 27% of US Internet users used ad blocking software, with continued increasing trend since 2014.


title: Ad blocking

text: Publishers and their representative trade bodies, on the other hand, argue that web ads provide revenue to website owners, which enable the website owners to create or otherwise purchase content for the website. Publishers state that the prevalent use of ad blocking software and devices could adversely affect website owner revenue and thus, in turn, lower the availability of free content on websites.


title: Ad blocking

text: For users, the benefits of ad blocking software include quicker loading and cleaner looking web pages with fewer distractions, lower resource waste (bandwidth, CPU, memory, etc.), and privacy benefits gained through the exclusion of the tracking and profiling systems of ad delivery platforms. Blocking ads can also save substantial amounts of electrical energy and lower users' power bills, and additional energy savings can also be expected at the grid level because fewer data packets need to be transmitted between the user's machine and the website server.


title: Ad blocking

text: Ad blocking software may have other benefits to users' quality of life, as it decreases Internet users' exposure to advertising and marketing industries, which promote the purchase of numerous consumer products and services that are potentially harmful or unhealthy and on creating the urge to buy immediately.


title: Ad blocking

text: Unwanted advertising can also harm the advertisers themselves if users become annoyed by the ads. Irritated users might make a conscious effort to avoid the goods and services of firms which are using annoying "pop-up" ads which block the Web content the user is trying to view. For users not interested in making purchases, the blocking of ads can also save time. Any ad that appears on a website exerts a toll on the user's "attention budget" since each ad enters the user's field of view and must either be consciously ignored or closed, or dealt with in some other way. A user who is strongly focused on reading solely the content that they are seeking likely has no desire to be diverted by advertisements that seek to sell unneeded or unwanted goods and services. In contrast, users who are actively seeking items to purchase, might appreciate advertising, in particular targeted ads.


title: Ad blocking

text: Another important aspect is improving security; online advertising subjects users to a higher risk of infecting their devices with computer viruses than surfing pornography websites. In a high-profile case, malware was distributed through advertisements provided to YouTube by a malicious customer of Google's Doubleclick. In August 2015, a 0-day exploit in the Firefox browser was discovered in an advertisement on a website. When Forbes required users to disable ad blocking before viewing their website, those users were immediately served with pop-under malware. The Australian Signals Directorate recommends individuals and organizations block advertisements to improve their information security posture and mitigate potential malvertising attacks and machine compromise. The information security firm Webroot also notes employing ad blockers provide effective countermeasures against malversating campaigns for less technically sophisticated computer users.


title: Ad blocking

text: Ad blocking reduces page load time and saves bandwidth for the users. Users who pay for total transferred bandwidth ("capped" or pay-for-usage connections) including most mobile users worldwide have a direct financial benefit from filtering an ad before it is loaded. Using an ad blocker is a common method of improving internet speeds. Analysis of the 200 most popular news sites (as ranked by Alexa) in 2015 showed that Mozilla Firefox Tracking Protection lead to 39% reduction in data usage and 44% median reduction in page load time. According to research performed by "The New York Times", ad blockers reduced data consumption and sped upload time by more than half on 50 news sites, including "The New York Times" itself. Journalists concluded that "visiting the home page of Boston.com (the site with most ad data in the study) every day for a month would cost the equivalent of about $9.50 in data usage just for the ads".


title: Ad blocking

text: It is a known problem with most web browsers, including Firefox, that restoring sessions often plays multiple embedded ads at once. However, this annoyance can easily be averted simply by setting the web browser to clear all cookies and browsing-history information each time the browser software is closed. Another preventive option is to use a script blocker, which enables the user to disable all scripts and then to selectively re-enable certain scripts as desired, in order to determine the role of each script. The user thus can very quickly learn which scripts are truly necessary (from the standpoint of webpage functionality) and consequently which sources of scripts are undesirable, and this insight is helpful in visiting other websites in general. Thus by precisely controlling which scripts are run in each webpage viewed, the user retains full control over what happens on their computer CPU and computer screen.


title: Ad blocking

text: One method of filtering is simply to block (or prevent auto play of) Flash animation or image loading or Microsoft Windows audio and video files. This can be done in most browsers easily and also improves security and privacy. This crude technological method is refined by numerous browser extensions. Every web browser handles this task differently, but, in general, one alters the options, preferences or application extensions to filter specific media types. An additional add-on is usually required to differentiate between ads and non-ads using the same technology, or between wanted and unwanted ads or behaviors.


title: Ad blocking

text: The more advanced ad-blocking filter software allows fine-grained control of advertisements through features such as blacklists, whitelists, and regular expression filters. Certain security features also have the effect of disabling some ads. Some antivirus software can act as an ad blocker. Filtering by intermediaries such as ISP providers or national governments is increasingly common.


title: Ad blocking

text: As of 2015, many web browsers block unsolicited pop-up ads automatically. Current versions of Konqueror, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox also include content filtering support out-of-the-box. Content filtering can be added to Firefox, Chromium-based browsers, Opera, Safari, and other browsers with extensions such as AdBlock, Adblock Plus, and uBlock Origin, and a number of sources provide regularly updated filter lists. Adblock Plus is included in the freeware browser Maxthon from the People's Republic of China by default.


title: Ad blocking

text: Another method for filtering advertisements uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) rules to hide specific HTML and XHTML elements. This was once handled directly by a browser's user style sheet and custom CSS files. The CSS files employed regular expressions to describe a general advertisement profile. An example CSS selector from the once popular Floppy Moose (2003) style sheet is below. It simply hides anything with a link containing the characters "ad."


title: Ad blocking

text: Stylesheets are still used to block ads today. However they are almost always used by an ad-blocking extension that combines CSS with other techniques. AdBlock Plus syntax includes CSS selectors which they call "element hiding" rules. The newer uBlock origin even allows "cosmetic filters" which inject custom CSS declarations. Due to changes in advertising techniques, modern ad-blockers use more specific selectors, more frequently updated selectors, and a greater quantity of selectors. For example, the Floppy Moose style sheet originally contained 40 lines of CSS. In 2022, Easylist contains thousands of CSS selectors. In contrast to the general example above, below is one of the many specific CSS selectors from Easylist (2022).


title: Ad blocking

text: In January 2016, Brave, a free, ad-blocking browser for Mac, PC, Android, and iOS devices was launched. Brave users can optionally enable Brave's own ad network to earn Basic Attention Tokens (BATs), a type of cryptocurrency, which can be sent as micro-payments to publishers.


title: Ad blocking

text: At the beginning of 2018, Google confirmed that the built-in ad blocker for the Chrome/Chromium browsers would go live on 15 February: this ad blocker only blocks certain ads as specified by the "Better Ads Standard" (defined by the Coalition for "Better Ads", in which Google itself is a board member). This built-in ad blocking mechanism is disputed because it could unfairly benefit Google's advertising itself.


title: Ad blocking

text: In 2019, both Apple and Google began to make changes to their web browsers' extension systems which encourage the use of declarative content blocking using pre-determined filters processed by the web browser, rather than filters processed at runtime by the extension. Both vendors have imposed limits on the number of entries that may be included in these lists, which have led to (especially in the case of Chrome) allegations that these changes are being made to inhibit the effectiveness of ad blockers.


title: Ad blocking

text: A number of external software applications offer ad filtering as a primary or additional feature. A traditional solution is to customize an HTTP proxy (or web proxy) to filter content. These programs work by caching and filtering content before it is displayed in a user's browser. This provides an opportunity to remove not only ads but also content that may be offensive, inappropriate, or even malicious (Drive-by download). Popular proxy software which blocks content effectively include Netnanny, Privoxy, Squid, and some content-control software. The main advantage of the method is freedom from implementation limitations (browser, working techniques) and centralization of control (the proxy can be used by many users). Proxies are very good at filtering ads, but they have several limitations compared to browser-based solutions. For proxies, it is difficult to filter Transport Layer Security (SSL) (codice_1) traffic and full webpage context is not available to the filter. As well, proxies find it difficult to filter JavaScript-generated ad content.


title: Ad blocking

text: Most operating systems, even those which are aware of the Domain Name System (DNS), still offer backward compatibility with a locally administered list of foreign hosts. This configuration, for historical reasons, is stored in a flat text file that by default contains very few hostnames and their associated IP addresses. Editing this hosts file is simple and effective because most DNS clients will read the local hosts file before querying a remote DNS server. Storing black-hole entries in the hosts file prevents the browser from accessing an ad server by manipulating the name resolution of the ad server to a local or nonexistent IP address (codice_2 or codice_3 are typically used for IPv4 addresses). While simple to implement, these methods can be circumvented by advertisers, either by hard-coding, the IP address of the server that hosts the ads (this, in its turn, can be worked around by changing the local routing table by using for example iptables or other blocking firewalls), or by loading the advertisements from the same server that serves the main content; blocking name resolution of this server would also block the useful content of the site.


title: Ad blocking

text: Using a DNS sinkhole by manipulating the hosts file exploits the fact that most operating systems store a file with IP address, domain name pairs which is consulted by most browsers before using a DNS server to look up a domain name. By assigning the loopback address to each known ad server, the user directs traffic intended to reach each ad server to the local machine or to a virtual black hole of /dev/null or bit bucket.


title: Ad blocking

text: Advertising can be blocked by using a DNS server which is configured to block access to domains or hostnames which are known to serve ads by spoofing the address. Users can choose to use an already modified DNS server or set up a dedicated device running adequate software such as a Raspberry Pi running Pi-hole themselves. Manipulating DNS is a widely employed method to manipulate what the end-user sees from the Internet but can also be deployed locally for personal purposes. China runs its own root DNS and the EU has considered the same. Google has required their Google Public DNS be used for some applications on its Android devices. Accordingly, DNS addresses/domains used for advertising may be extremely vulnerable to a broad form of ad substitution whereby a domain that serves ads is entirely swapped out with one serving more local ads to some subset of users. This is especially likely in countries, notably Russia, India and China, where advertisers often refuse to pay for clicks or page views. DNS-level blocking of domains for non-commercial reasons is already common in China.


title: Ad blocking

text: On Android, apps can run a local VPN connection with its own host filtering ability and DNS address without requiring root access. This approach allows ad blocking app to download ad blocking host files and use them to filter out ad networks throughout the device. AdGuard, Blokada, DNS66, and RethinkDNS are few of the popular apps which accomplish ad blocking without root permission. The ad blocking is only active when the local VPN is turned on, and it completely stops when the VPN connection is disconnected. The convenience makes it easy to access content blocked by anti-adblock scripts.


title: Ad blocking

text: This approach optimizes battery usage, reduces internet slowdown caused by using external DNS or VPN ad blocking and needs overall less configuration.


title: Ad blocking

text: Devices such as AdTrap or Pi-hole use hardware to block Internet advertising. Based on reviews of AdTrap, this device uses a Linux Kernel running a version of PrivProxy to block ads from video streaming, music streaming, and any web browser, while PiHole act as local DNS to block advertisement servers, stopping connected devices from showing most ads. Another such solution is provided for network-level ad blocking for telcos by Israeli startup Shine.


title: Ad blocking

text: Internet providers, especially mobile operators, frequently offer proxies designed to reduce network traffic. Even when not targeted specifically at ad filtering, these proxy-based arrangements will block many types of advertisements that are too large or bandwidth-consuming, or that are otherwise deemed unsuited for the specific internet connection or target device. Many internet operators block some form of advertisements while at the same time injecting their own ads promoting their services and specials.


title: Ad blocking

text: Some content providers have argued that widespread ad blocking results in decreased revenue to a website sustained by advertisements and e-commerce-based businesses, where this blocking can be detected. Some have argued that since advertisers are ultimately paying for ads to increase their own revenues, eliminating ad blocking would only dilute the value per impression and drive down the price of advertising, arguing that like click fraud, impressions served to users who use ad blockers are of little to no value to advertisers. Consequently, they argue, eliminating ad blocking would not increase overall ad revenue to content providers in the long run.


title: Ad blocking

text: Some websites have taken countermeasures against ad blocking software, such as attempting to detect the presence of ad blockers and informing users of their views, or outright preventing users from accessing the content unless they disable the ad blocking software, whitelist the website, or buy an "ad-removal pass". There have been several arguments supporting and opposing the assertion that blocking ads is wrong. Indeed, there is evidence to show that these countermeasures may hurt a website's SEO performance, as users unwilling to turn off their AdBlock, may instead go to a competitor's website listed in the search results. Due to the little amount of time the user spends on the website, and the greater time spent on a competitor's, search engines may view the webpage less favourably and reduce its search ranking. The back-and-forth elevation of technologies used for ad-blocking and countering ad-blocking have been equated to an "ad blocking war" or "arms race" between all parties.


title: Ad blocking

text: It has been suggested that in the European Union, the practice of websites scanning for ad blocking software may run afoul of the E-Privacy Directive. This claim was further validated by IAB Europe's guidelines released in June 2016 stating that there indeed may be a legal issue in ad blocker detection. While some anti-blocking stakeholders have tried to refute this it seems safe to assume that Publishers should follow the guidelines provided by the main Publisher lobby IAB. The joint effort announced by IAB Sweden prior to IAB Europe's guideline on the matter never materialized, and would have most likely been found against European anti-competition laws if it did.


title: Ad blocking

text: In August 2017, a vendor, Admiral, of such counter-measures issued a demand under section 1201 of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, to demand the removal of a domain name associated with their service from an ad-blocking filter list. The vendor argued that the domain constituted a component of a technological protection measure designed to protect a copyrighted work, and thus made it a violation of anti-circumvention law to frustrate access to it.


title: Ad blocking

text: As of 2015, advertisers and marketers look to involve their brands directly into the entertainment with native advertising and product placement (also known as brand integration or embedded marketing). An example of product placement would be for a soft drink manufacturer to pay a reality TV show producer to have the show's cast and host appear onscreen holding cans of the soft drink. Another common product placement is for an automotive manufacturer to give free cars to the producers of a TV show, in return for the show's producer depicting characters using these vehicles during the show.


title: Ad blocking

text: Some digital publications turned to their customers for help as a form of tip jar. For example, "The Guardian" is asking its readers for donations to help offset falling advertising revenue. According to the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, the newspaper gets about the same amount of money from membership and donations as it does from advertising. The newspaper considered preventing readers from accessing its content if usage of ad-blocking software becomes widespread, but so far it keeps the content accessible for readers who employ ad-blockers.


title: Ad blocking

text: A new service called Scroll, launched in January 2020, worked with several leading website publishers to create a subscription model for ad-free browsing across all supported websites. Users would pay Scroll directly, and portions of the subscription fees are doled out to the websites based on proportional view count.


title: Ratification

text: Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties intended to show their consent by such an act. In the case of bilateral treaties, ratification is usually accomplished by exchanging the requisite instruments, and in the case of multilateral treaties, the usual procedure is for the depositary to collect the ratifications of all states, keeping all parties informed of the situation.


title: Ratification

text: The institution of ratification grants states the necessary time-frame to seek the required approval for the treaty on the domestic level and to enact the necessary legislation to give domestic effect to that treaty. The term applies to private contract law, international treaties, and constitutions in federal states such as the United States and Canada. The term is also used in parliamentary procedure in deliberative assemblies.


title: Ratification

text: In contract law, the need for ratification can arise in two ways: if the agent attempts to bind the principal despite lacking the authority to do so; and if the principal authorizes the agent to make an agreement, but reserves the right to approve it. An example of the former situation is an employee not normally responsible for procuring supplies contracting to do so on the employer's behalf. The employer's choice on discovering the contract is to ratify it or to repudiate it.


title: Ratification

text: The latter situation is common in trade union collective bargaining agreements. The union authorizes one or more people to negotiate and sign an agreement with management. A collective bargaining agreement can not become legally binding until the union members ratify the agreement. If the union members do not approve it, the agreement is void, and negotiations resume.


title: Ratification

text: The ratification of international treaties is always accomplished by filing instruments of ratification as provided for in the treaty. In most democracies, the legislature authorizes the government to ratify treaties through standard legislative procedures by passing a bill.


title: Ratification

text: In Australia, power to enter into treaties is an executive power within Section 61 of the Australian Constitution so the Australian Government may enter into a binding treaty without seeking parliamentary approval. Nevertheless, most treaties are tabled in parliament for between 15 and 20 joint sitting days for scrutiny by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, and if implementation of treaties requires legislation by the Australian parliament, this must be passed by both houses prior to ratification.


title: Ratification

text: The President makes a treaty in exercise of his executive power, on the aid and the advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister, and no court of law in India may question its validity. However, no agreement or treaty entered into by the president is enforceable by the courts which is incompatible with Indian constitution/ national law, as India follows dualist theory for the implementation of international laws.


title: Ratification

text: If the Parliament wishes to codify the agreement entered into by the executive thereby making it enforceable by the courts of India, it may do so under of the constitution.


title: Ratification

text: In Japan, in principle both houses of the parliament (the National Diet) must approve the treaty for ratification. If the House of Councilors rejects a treaty approved by the House of Representatives, and a joint committee of both houses cannot come to agreement on amendments to the original text of the treaty, or the House of Councilors fails to decide on a treaty for more than thirty days, the House of Representatives the will be regarded as the vote of the National Diet approving the ratification. The approved treaty will then be promulgated into law by the act of the Emperor.


title: Ratification

text: Treaty ratification is a royal prerogative, exercised by the monarch on the advice of the government. By a convention called the Ponsonby Rule, treaties were usually placed before Parliament for 21 days before ratification, but Parliament has no power to veto or to ratify. The Ponsonby Rule was put on a statutory footing by Part 2 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.


title: Ratification

text: Treaty power is a coordinated effort between the Executive branch and the Senate. The President may form and negotiate, but the treaty must be advised and consented to by a two-thirds vote in the Senate. Only after the Senate approves the treaty can the President ratify it. Once it is ratified, it becomes binding on all the states under the Supremacy Clause. While the House of Representatives does not vote on it at all, the supermajority requirement for the Senate's advice and consent to ratification makes it considerably more difficult to rally enough political support for international treaties. Also, if implementation of the treaty requires the expenditure of funds, the House of Representatives may be able to block or at least impede such implementation by refusing to vote for the appropriation of the necessary funds.


title: Ratification

text: The President usually submits a treaty to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) along with an accompanying resolution of ratification or accession. If the treaty and resolution receive favorable committee consideration (a committee vote in favor of ratification or accession), the treaty is then forwarded to the floor of the full Senate for such a vote. The treaty or legislation does not apply until it has been ratified. A multilateral agreement may provide that it will take effect upon its ratification by less than all of the signatories. Even though such a treaty takes effect, it does not apply to signatories that have not ratified it. Accession has the same legal effect as ratification, for treaties already negotiated and signed by other states. An example of a treaty to which the Senate did not advise and consent to ratification is the Treaty of Versailles, which failed to garner support because of the Covenant of the League of Nations.


title: Ratification

text: The US can also enter into international agreements by way of executive agreements. They are not made under the Treaty Clause and do not require approval by two-thirds of the Senate. Congressional-executive agreements are passed by a majority of both houses of Congress as a regular law. If the agreement is completely within the President's constitutional powers, it can be made by the President alone without Congressional approval, but it will have the force of an executive order and can be unilaterally revoked by a future President. All types of agreements are treated internationally as "treaties". See Foreign policy of the United States#Law.


title: Ratification

text: Federations usually require the support of both the federal government and some given percentage of the constituent governments for amendments to the federal constitution to take effect.


title: Ratification

text: Not all constitutional amendments in India require ratification by the states. Only constitutional amendments that seek to make any change in any of the provisions mentioned in the proviso to of the Constitution of India, must be ratified by the Legislatures of not less than one-half of the States. These provisions relate to certain matters concerning the federal structure or of common interest to both the Union and the States viz., the election of the President (articles 54 and 55); the extent of the executive power of the Union and the States (Articles 73 and 162); the High Courts for Union territories (Article 241); The Union Judiciary and the High Courts in the States (Chapter IV of Part V and Chapter V of Part VI); the distribution of legislative powers between the Union and the States (Chapter I of Part XI and Seventh Schedule); the representation of States in Parliament; and the provision for amendment of the Constitution laid down in Article 368. Ratification is done by a resolution passed by the State Legislatures. There is no specific time limit for the ratification of an amending Bill by the State Legislatures. However, the resolutions ratifying the proposed amendment must be passed before the amending Bill is presented to the President for his assent.


title: Ratification

text: However, when the treaty terms are interfering with the powers exclusively applicable to states (State List), prior ratification of all applicable states are to be obtained per of the Indian constitution before the ratification by the Parliament.


title: Ratification

text: Article VII of the Constitution of the United States describes the process by which the entire document was to become effective. It required that conventions of nine of the thirteen original States ratify the Constitution. If fewer than thirteen states ratified the document, it would become effective only among the states ratifying it. New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify, doing so on June 21, 1788, but, as a practical matter, it was decided to delay implementation of the new government until New York and Virginia could be persuaded to ratify. Congress intended that New York City should be the first capital, and that George Washington, of Mount Vernon, Virginia, should be the first President, and both of those things would have been somewhat awkward if either New York or Virginia were not part of the new government. Ratification by those states was secured—Virginia on June 25 and New York on July 26—and the government under the Constitution began on March 4, 1789.


title: Ratification

text: For subsequent amendments, Article V describes the process of a potential amendment's adoption. Proposals to adopt an amendment may be called either by a two-thirds vote by both houses of Congress or by a national convention as a result of resolutions adopted by two-thirds (presently at least 34 out of 50) of the states' legislatures. For a proposed amendment to be adopted, three-quarters of the states (presently at least 38 out of 50) must then ratify the amendment either by a vote of approval in each state's legislature or by state ratifying conventions. Congress may specify which method must be used to ratify the amendment. Congress may also set a deadline by which the threshold for adoption must be met.


title: Ratification

text: A deliberative assembly, using parliamentary procedure, could ratify action that otherwise was not validly taken. For example, action taken where there was no quorum at the meeting is not valid until it is later ratified at a meeting where a quorum is present.


title: Simon Franglen

text: Simon Franglen (born Westminster, London, England) is an English composer of classical and film music. He is also a record producer and former musician. His credits include four of the list of top grossing films and six of the list of best-selling albums of all time.


title: Simon Franglen

text: His film work includes a number of well-known movies, including "Avatar", for which he received Golden Globe and Grammy nominations for the theme song, and for being the producer of "My Heart Will Go On" from "Titanic", for which he won a Record of The Year Grammy Award. Other film credits range from David Fincher's "Seven"," The Amazing Spider-Man", "The Magnificent Seven", to arranging music for the James Bond films "Skyfall" and "Spectre".


title: Simon Franglen

text: Franglen has worked with Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, David Foster, Toni Braxton, The Corrs, Monica, Bee Gees, Luciano Pavarotti. Currently there are over four hundred music credits to Franglen on AllMusic.


title: Simon Franglen

text: After showing skill with synthesizers whilst working in London recording studios as a student, Franglen was hired by Trevor Horn as a Synclavier programmer, working on Yes, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Godley and Creme. He left Sarm West Studios to become an independent producer for acts like The Associates and a composer for commercials and TV. He composed the famous Direct Line jingle.


title: Simon Franglen

text: Franglen was persuaded by engineer/producer Humberto Gatica to move to the US, where he became a top Los Angeles session musician and programmer. Alongside his career on film music, Franglen has been involved in a huge number of singles and albums that have charted highly, since the early 1990s. These include:


title: Simon Franglen

text: "No Matter What" (Boyzone) and his remix of E.Y.C.'s "One More Chance" was the leading version on the single release which peaked at number 25 in the UK charts.


title: Simon Franglen

text: He has produced a wide variety of material, from UK grime rappers such as Ironik and Chip to classical tenors including Rolando Villazon.


title: Simon Franglen

text: Franglen moved into film music when he was introduced to the composer John Barry late in the production of the score for "Dances with Wolves" and collaborated on the soundtrack album. He continued to work with Barry for a number of years, including on "Chaplin". Other long-term collaborations were with the film composers Alan Silvestri, James Horner, and Howard Shore, for whom he created the trademark dystopian electronica for "Seven" by David Fincher, "Crash" by David Cronenberg.


title: Simon Franglen

text: He worked with producer David Foster on the soundtrack for "The Bodyguard" and later, produced Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor's "Come What May" with Foster for director Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge!", he separately acted as vocal producer for the film songs. In 1997, he worked for the first time with James Horner on the score for "Titanic", for which he won a Grammy Award as producer of "My Heart Will Go On". He reconnected with Horner for "Avatar", spending almost 11 months working on the score; he acted as Electronic Music Arranger and also co-write and co-produced the Golden Globe and Grammy nominated theme song. Horner and Franglen continued to work closely together from 2009 on films such as "The Amazing Spider-Man", Franglen initially acting as arranger, then moving to score producer.


title: Simon Franglen

text: In 2016, a year after the death of his friend and colleague, James Horner, Franglen co-composed the score to "The Magnificent Seven", which Horner had commenced. He won an ASCAP award for his work. 2016 also included original music for director Terrence Malick's film "Voyage of Time".


title: Simon Franglen

text: In December 2016, he premiered a new fifteen minute 3-dimensional orchestral immersive work in what CNN called 'The World's Highest Art Space' - a 240 speaker immersive experience featuring four separate complete orchestral parts, Chinese Solo instruments, choir and bells on the 2000 ft high 126th floor of the Shanghai Tower, Shanghai, China.


title: Simon Franglen

text: In early 2017, he worked with Pink Floyd at Abbey Road Studios, producing 3D mixes of some of their best known tracks for an immersive installation room at the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition, . Over 400,000 people visited the exhibition and the installation will tour around the world.


title: Simon Franglen

text: Franglen was responsible for the production and further composition of the music throughout Pandora–The World of Avatar which opened at Walt Disney World in Florida in May 2017, taking over duties from James Horner in 2015. In 2018, an album of selected music from the park was released by Walt Disney Music album.


title: Simon Franglen

text: He scored "Together", a film by director Terrence Malick which premiered at SXSW in late 2017 and at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival


title: Simon Franglen

text: . In 2018, he composed the scores to "Peppermint" directed by Pierre Morel, the MGM TV series "The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair" by director Jean-Jacques Annaud.


title: Simon Franglen

text: In 2019, he premiered a new large scale orchestral and choral work for live performance, the oratorio "The Birth of Skies and Earth", based on the great Chinese creation myths. A ninety-minute work, with libretto in Mandarin Chinese, it premiered in Shanghai, with 176 musicians on stage, featuring a 90 piece orchestra, 80 voice choir, and six soloist singers. Subsequently, it toured around China.


title: Simon Franglen

text: In late 2019, he composed the score to Xiaolong Zheng's "Turandot, The Three Bracelets", a large-budget Chinese historical action fantasy for release in 2021.


title: Simon Franglen

text: In late 2020, he composed the score to the documentary film about the saving of the Timbuktu Manuscripts from Jihadists - 'The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu' directed by Otto Bell.


title: Simon Franglen

text: In early 2021, he will be composing the score to the mythological epic, "Brahmastra", directed by Ayan Mukerji. In late 2022, he will premiere a new opera.


title: Simon Franglen

text: In 2021, 20th Century Studios announced that Franglen would take over as composer for the Avatar Sequels.


title: Simon Franglen

text: Franglen accompanied Barbra Streisand for her first live performance in 27 years at the Inauguration of President Bill Clinton in Washington DC. He also toured with her for the subsequent come-back tour.


title: Simon Franglen

text: The composer and producer Nick Franglen is his brother. The musician and writer Hans Keller was his great uncle.


title: Gustavo Cerati

text: Gustavo Adrián Cerati (11 August 1959 – 4 September 2014) was an Argentine singer-songwriter, composer and producer, considered one of the most important and influential figures of Ibero-American rock. Cerati along with his band Soda Stereo, were one of the most popular and influential rock and pop groups of the 1980s and 1990s.


title: Gustavo Cerati

text: Cerati was the recipient of many awards throughout his career including various Grammys, MTV awards, as well as the MTV (Latin America) Legend Award with Soda Stereo, the first of its kind.


title: Gustavo Cerati

text: On 15 May 2010, Cerati suffered a massive brain stroke in Caracas following a concert; the stroke left him in a coma, and four years later, on 4 September 2014, Cerati died of cardiac arrest in Buenos Aires aged 55. He and his band had intended to go to a show-after-party at the rock club Moulin Rouge, located on Francisco Solano López Avenue in the Sabana Grande area of Caracas but his symptoms started developing backstage, right after his last performance concluded.


title: Gustavo Cerati

text: Cerati was born on 11 August 1959 in Barracas, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He grew up in a middle class household; his paternal family was of Lombard descent and his maternal family was of Irish origin. His father was an accountant and regularly traveled abroad. From his early memories he had an idyllic love of the sun and nature. Cerati's first passion was art and in elementary school he drew comics and created his own comic book characters.


title: Gustavo Cerati

text: Cerati's parents, Juan José Cerati and Lilian Clark, acquired a guitar for him when he was nine years old, at that point Cerati started to take music seriously, becoming a fanatic of rock and roll:


title: Gustavo Cerati

text: By the age of 13, he formed a trio and started playing at house parties and in the local Catholic school, where he eventually joined the choir. Cerati was a good student until his third year of junior high school when he met a fellow student who, like himself, was into rock and roll.


title: Gustavo Cerati

text: After serving compulsory military service in 1979, Cerati entered the university to pursue a degree in marketing, something that he was not passionate about. His family supported him with his music, "Mi familia me vio tan enloquecido con la música, que pensaron que algo de éxito iba a tener" (My family saw that I was so crazy about music, that they thought I would have some success [with it]). At the Universidad del Salvador, a Jesuit university in Buenos Aires, he met Héctor "Zeta" Bosio, also a marketing student. The two hit it off and decided to form a band. They were fans of The Police, The Beatles, XTC, Elvis Costello, Television, and Talking Heads. In 1982, after various lineup changes that included Richard Coleman, Daniel Melero, and Andrés Calamaro as well as others, Bosio and Cerati recruited Charly Alberti as their drummer, thus forming Soda Stereo.