title: Ogre Battle

text: In 1996, Bothtec Corporation released in Japan a CD-ROM containing a collection of images and artwork used in "Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together". The package is titled "Tactics Ogre Complete Works" and also includes icons, wallpapers, databases and a screen saver. It is available for Windows 95 and Mac OS.


title: Ogre Battle

text: The series has sold over 2 million copies worldwide, placing it among the best-selling Japanese role-playing game franchises.


title: Ogre Battle

text: Among critics, the series was acclaimed both in Japan and North America. According to the review aggregator GameRankings, the SNES release of "March of the Black Queen" has an average aggregate rating of 84%, while the PlayStation port of "Let Us Cling Together" has an average of 81%. "Ogre Battle 64" has an average of 86% and "The Knight of Lodis" 84%. In Japan, gaming magazine Weekly Famitsu scored the Super Famicom releases of "March of the Black Queen" and "Let Us Cling Together" 33/40 and 34/40, respectively. The magazine also provided high scores for "Ogre Battle 64" (33/40) and "The Knight of Lodis" (34/40), while "Prince of Zenobia" received a slightly lower score, 28/40. The PSP remake of "Let Us Cling Together" is the most critically acclaimed release in the series, with an average of 88% at GameRankings and a score of 36/40 from Weekly Famitsu.


title: Jim Webb

text: James Henry Webb Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is an American politician and author. He has served as a United States senator from Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, Counsel for the United States House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and is a decorated Marine Corps officer.


title: Jim Webb

text: Outside of working in government, Webb is also an Emmy Award winning journalist, filmmaker, and author of ten books. In addition, he taught literature at the United States Naval Academy and was a Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics. As a member of the Democratic Party, Webb announced on November 19, 2014, that he was forming an exploratory committee to evaluate a run for President of the United States in 2016. On July 2, 2015, he announced that he would be joining the race for the Democratic nomination for president, but stepped down from running in the primaries on October 20, 2015, stating that he was "not comfortable" with many political positions from the party's leadership.


title: Jim Webb

text: In 2020, Webb was named the first distinguished fellow of University of Notre Dame's International Security Center.


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, to James Henry Webb, and his wife, Vera Lorraine (Hodges). The second of four children and the older son, he grew up in a military family, moving frequently as his father's career in the United States Air Force required. The family crisscrossed the country, living in Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Alabama, Nebraska, California, and Virginia, as well as in England, where his father was an exchange officer with the Royal Air Force. His father flew B-17s and B-29s during World War II, and flew Air Force cargo aircraft during the 1948-49 Berlin airlift. After developing an inner ear disorder, Meniere's Disease, he became a pioneer in the Air Force missile program, later serving as the commanding officer of the 1001st Missile Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Webb's parents are buried at the Arlington National Cemetery.


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb is descended from Scots-Irish immigrants from Ulster who emigrated in the mid-18th century to the British North American colonies. Webb's 2004 book "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America" details his family history, noting that his ancestors fought in every major American war. A 2014 TV documentary on the Smithsonian Channel, also entitled "Born Fighting", was adapted from Webb's book and is narrated by him.


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb attended more than a dozen schools across the U.S. and in England. After graduating from high school in Bellevue, Nebraska, he attended the University of Southern California on a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps scholarship from 1963 to 1964 and he also was a member of Delta Chi. In 1964, Webb earned appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. At Annapolis, Webb was a member of the Brigade Honor Committee and the Brigade Staff. When he graduated in 1968, he received the Superintendent's Letter for Outstanding Leadership. After his medical retirement from the Marine Corps due to injuries received in Vietnam, Webb enrolled in law school at Georgetown University where he earned a Juris Doctor and received the Horan Award for excellence in legal writing.


title: Jim Webb

text: After graduating from the Naval Academy, Webb was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. Attending the Marine Corps Officer Basic School shortly after leaving Annapolis, he graduated first in his class. He was promoted to first lieutenant in the second half of his tour in Vietnam. He served as a platoon commander with Delta Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines. He was awarded the Navy Cross for heroism in Vietnam, the second-highest decoration in the Navy and Marine Corps. Webb also was awarded the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts. After returning from Vietnam, he was assigned to Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, as an instructor for Officer Candidates School (OCS). He was then assigned to the Secretary of the Navy's office for the remainder of his active duty. His war wounds left him with shrapnel in his knee, kidney, and head. The injury to his knee led a medical board to recommend his medical retirement.


title: Jim Webb

text: In 1980, Webb was interviewed for , a Canadian television documentary about the Vietnam War. In one segment, he discussed how hard it was to adjust to arriving in Vietnam. "we stepped off an air conditioned plane, where I just watched a first-run movie, and you know, this German stewardess says, 'have a nice war."


title: Jim Webb

text: In the October 13, 2015, CNN Democratic Debate, when asked, "Which enemy are you most proud of?", Webb stated, "I'd have to say, the enemy soldier that threw the grenade that wounded me, but he's not around right now to talk to."


title: Jim Webb

text: In a November 19, 2006 appearance on "Meet the Press", Webb told host Tim Russert, "I'm one of these people who – there aren't many of us – who can still justify for you the reasons that we went into Vietnam, however screwed up the strategy got."


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb attended Georgetown Law Center from 1972 to 1975, graduating with a Juris Doctor degree. While at Georgetown, he wrote his first book, "Micronesia and U.S. Pacific Strategy".


title: Jim Webb

text: From 1977 to 1981, Webb worked on the staff of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. During this time, he also represented veterans pro-bono. Webb taught at the Naval Academy and was criticized for a 1979 article published in "Washingtonian" magazine, titled "Women Can't Fight" (see "2006 Senate campaign" below). He attended the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit and led the Pledge of Allegiance in the opening session.


title: Jim Webb

text: During the Reagan Administration, Webb served as the nation's first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs from 1984-87. In 1987, he served as Secretary of the Navy, becoming the first Naval Academy graduate to serve as the civilian head of the Navy. As Navy Secretary, Webb pushed the appointment of Alfred M. Gray, Jr. as Commandant of the Marine Corps, hoping that Gray could reshape the Corps into the elite unit it once was. Webb resigned in 1988 after refusing to agree to reduce the size of the Navy. Webb had wished to increase the Navy to 600 ships. As revealed in "The Reagan Diaries", President Ronald Reagan wrote on February 22, 1988: "I don't think Navy was sorry to see him go."


title: Jim Webb

text: In a 1990 "New York Times" opinion piece, Webb opposed further U.S. military escalation in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield citing lack of a coherent strategy and consent from the United States Congress. He also warned against a permanent military presence in the Middle East. Seven months before the beginning of the 2003 Iraq War, Webb wrote an essay for "The Washington Post" in which he


title: Jim Webb

text: During the 2004 presidential campaign, Webb wrote an op-ed piece for "USA Today" in which he, as a military veteran, evaluated the candidacies of John Kerry and George W. Bush. He criticized Kerry for the nature of his opposition to the Vietnam War in the 1970s while affiliated with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and accused Bush of using his father's connections to avoid service in Vietnam. Webb wrote that Bush had "committed the greatest strategic blunder in modern memory" with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb supported Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey's campaign for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination. In 1994, he endorsed incumbent Democrat Charles Robb for reelection to his Senate seat, over Webb's former Naval Academy classmate Oliver North; like Webb, both Robb and North were decorated Marine veterans of the Vietnam war. Webb subsequently endorsed Republican George Allen over Robb in 2000, and then ran against Allen himself in 2006.


title: Jim Webb

text: In late 2005, a campaign to draft Webb to run for the Senate in 2006 began on the internet, promoted by netroots activists such as those at the blog Raising Kaine. On February 7, 2006, he announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the 2006 Senate race against incumbent Virginia Senator George Allen.


title: Jim Webb

text: In the Democratic primary on June 13, 2006, Webb faced longtime businessman and lobbyist Harris Miller. Webb won with 53.5% of the vote, in a race with low turnout.


title: Jim Webb

text: On August 11, 2006, an incident occurred in which Allen used the word "macaca" to refer to Webb campaign associate S.R. Sidarth, who was filming an event as a "tracker" for the Webb campaign. A poll the following week showed Webb gaining 10 percentage points. The race, which at one point looked like a sure win for Allen, became one of the most watched and closest races of the 2006 elections. Webb's entry into the race and primary victory changed the political landscape. Political analyst Larry Sabato said in May that "Jim Webb is George Allen's worst nightmare: a war hero and a Reagan appointee who holds moderate positions... Allen tries to project a Reagan aura, but Webb already has it."


title: Jim Webb

text: On September 7, 2006, Webb released his first television advertisement, which included footage of a 1985 speech by Ronald Reagan that praised Webb's service as a Marine. The next day, the Chief of Staff for the Reagan Library wrote Webb's campaign on behalf of former first lady Nancy Reagan, urging them not to air the advertisement saying it was neither fair nor respectful because it gave the impression of an endorsement. The Webb campaign disagreed, saying, "What Reagan said about Jim Webb, that belongs to Jim Webb, frankly." The library said they ask all candidates to refrain from using the former president's image but declined to say if they would request the Allen campaign to remove the image of Reagan used on his campaign website.


title: Jim Webb

text: Five female graduates of the United States Naval Academy held a press conference, decrying Webb's 1979 article, "Women Can't Fight." The women said Webb's article contributed to an atmosphere of hostility and harassment towards women at the academy. Webb was later endorsed by nine military women who stated that Webb is a "man of integrity" who "recognizes the crucial role that women have in the military today."


title: Jim Webb

text: In October 2006, the Allen campaign issued a press release quoting several passages from Webb's novels with sexual content, including graphic references to female anatomy and purported pedophilia, homosexuality and incest, citing a passage in which a Southeast Asian father ritually places the penis of his young son in his mouth. The press release said that the passages showed a "continued pattern of demeaning women". Allen's campaign refused to tell a local radio news station, WTOP-FM, whether it in fact had issued a news release on the matter.


title: Jim Webb

text: In response, Jim Webb explained to "The Washington Post", "I actually saw this happen in a slum in Bangkok when I was there as a journalist." According to an article on Raw Story, the conservative website "CNS News" cited a case in Nevada in which a Cambodian mother was arrested for a similar act. According to the CNS article, an office manager for the Cambodian Association of America confirmed it is a cultural norm in Thailand and Cambodia.


title: Jim Webb

text: On November 9, 2006, after AP and Reuters projected that Webb had won the seat, Allen conceded the election. Although the margin was narrow – less than half of 1% of the total vote and therefore small enough under Virginia law to allow demanding a recount – Allen stated that he would not challenge the result.


title: Jim Webb

text: On November 15, 2006, Senate majority-leader-in-waiting Harry Reid assigned Webb to three committees: the committees on Foreign Relations, Veterans' Affairs, and Armed Services.


title: Jim Webb

text: "That same day, an op-ed authored by Webb appeared in the pages of "The Wall Street Journal". Titled 'Class Struggle: American workers have a chance to be heard'. The piece addressed the harmful economic inequality in the U.S., with the elites on one side and American workers on the other side. The article cites the "age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground labor pool from illegal immigration", as well as extravagant executive compensation, the detrimental effects of free trade and globalization, iniquitous tax cuts, speedily rising health care costs, and stagnation in income as the reasons for the increasing disparity between the elites and American workers.


title: Jim Webb

text: On November 28, 2006, at a White House reception for those newly elected to Congress, Webb did not choose to wait in the line to have his picture taken with the president, whom Webb often criticized during the campaign. The president approached Webb later and asked him, "How's your boy?", referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq. Webb replied "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President." Bush responded, "That's not what I asked you. How's your boy?", Webb responded, "That's between me and my boy, Mr. President." "The Hill" cited an anonymous source who claimed that Webb was so angered by the exchange that he confessed he was tempted to "slug" the president. Webb later remarked in an interview, "I'm not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall."


title: Jim Webb

text: In response to the incident, some conservatives criticized Webb, including George Will, who called Webb a "boor" and wrote, "[Webb] already has become what Washington did not need another of, a subtraction from the city's civility and clear speaking." Others, such as conservative columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, reserved their criticism for Bush, writing: "I thought it had the sound of the rattling little aggressions of our day, but not on Mr. Webb's side."


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb was asked about the exchange in a January 4, 2007 appearance on "Hardball with Chris Matthews". He told Matthews:


title: Jim Webb

text: After his son returned from Iraq, Webb "buried the hatchet" with the president by setting up a private chat with his son, the president, and himself in the Oval Office.


title: Jim Webb

text: On January 3, 2007, Webb was sworn into the 110th U.S. Senate, accompanied by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a fellow former Secretary of the Navy; and former Virginia Democratic Sen. Chuck Robb, who held the same seat before losing to Allen.


title: Jim Webb

text: On his first day in the Senate, Webb introduced the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, to expand benefits for military families, which he had written. The act replaces key provisions of the Montgomery G.I. Bill for recent veterans and "makes veterans benefits identical to those soldiers received following World War II". "With many of our military members serving two or three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is past time to enact a new veterans' education program modeled on the World War II era G.I. bill. This is exactly what our legislation does", Webb said. It became law on June 30, 2008, as part of the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008.


title: Jim Webb

text: In a January 4, 2007, appearance on "The Situation Room", Webb articulated his position on the Iraq War:


title: Jim Webb

text: What we really need to do is to get into the arena where we can talk about a strategy, talk about the pluses and the minuses of the Baker-Hamilton Commission and work toward a solution that, on the one hand, will allow us to remove our combat troops, but on the other, will increase the stability of the region, allow us to continue to fight against international terrorism and allow us, as a nation, to address our strategic interests around the world. And this is – this is one of the drawbacks that we've had with so many troops having been put into this constant rotational basis inside one country when we have a war against international terrorism that's global.


title: Jim Webb

text: Asked by Wolf Blitzer if he would ever support the efforts of Dennis Kucinich to cut funding for the war, Webb said,


title: Jim Webb

text: I – you know, I lived through Vietnam. I lived through it as a Marine and I know that those sorts of approaches, while they seem attractive on one level are really not that realistic. What we want to do – and I was talking with a number of senators today – is to try to get some of these so-called emergency legislation packages back into the committee process so that the committees can actually play.


title: Jim Webb

text: On January 23, 2007, Webb delivered the Democratic response to the president's State of the Union address, focusing on the economy and Iraq. Webb's speech drew positive reviews, and was regarded as one of the stronger State of the Union responses in recent memory.


title: Jim Webb

text: On March 5, 2007, Webb introduced his second piece of legislation, , intended to prohibit the use of funds for military operations in Iran without the prior approval of Congress. In a statement on the floor of the Senate, Webb said, "The major function of this legislation is to prevent this Administration from commencing unprovoked military activities against Iran without the approval of the Congress. The legislation accomplishes this goal through the proper constitutional process of prohibiting all funding for such an endeavor."


title: Jim Webb

text: On March 26, 2007, a senatorial aide of Webb, Phillip Thompson, was arrested for carrying Webb's loaded pistol as he entered the Russell Senate Office Building and for carrying unregistered ammunition. The weapon was discovered when Thompson went through an X-ray machine with a briefcase that contained a loaded pistol and two additional loaded magazines. Charges against the aide were dismissed after prosecutors concluded it could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Thompson was aware that the gun and ammunition were in the briefcase. Webb responded to his aide's arrest by reiterating his support for gun-owners' rights:I'm a strong supporter of the Second Amendment; I have had a permit to carry a weapon in Virginia for a long time; I believe that it's important; it's important to me personally and to a lot of people in the situation that I'm in to be able to defend myself and my family.


title: Jim Webb

text: On August 14, 2009, Webb visited Myanmar (Burma), seeing its junta's leader, Gen. Than Shwe, and also the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest. During Webb's visit with Than Shwe, Webb negotiated the release and deportation of an imprisoned American, John Yettaw. Upon his return to the U.S., Webb wrote an editorial titled "We Can't Afford to Ignore Myanmar" for "The New York Times", arguing for the easing of sanctions on the country. Webb stated that sanctions have isolated the country, thereby encouraging the ruling regime to turn to China and allowing "China to dramatically increase its economic and political influence in Myanmar, furthering a dangerous strategic imbalance in the region." Webb also noted that, unlike Myanmar, China does not allow opposition parties. Webb has stated that he started the pivot to Asia during the Bush Administration.


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb visited Vietnam as part of a two-week trip to five Southeast Asian countries. Webb, who can speak Vietnamese, has had a continuous involvement in Asian and Pacific affairs that long predates his time in the Senate. In addition to his more recent visits as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Webb has worked and traveled throughout this vast region, from Micronesia to Burma, for nearly four decades, as a Marine Corps officer, a defense planner, a journalist, a novelist, a Department of Defense executive, and as a business consultant. He worked in the 1990s as a consultant for companies attempting to do business in Vietnam.


title: Jim Webb

text: On March 26, 2009, Webb filed the Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 (SB 714), which would create a blue ribbon commission to reevaluate the criminal justice system and drug policy and make recommendations for reform. Noting that the United States houses 25% of the world's inmates despite having only 5% of the world's population, Webb proposed a comparison between U.S. incarceration policies and those of other developed nations. At a United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs hearing, Webb described the criminal justice system as being in "... a profound, deeply corrosive crisis that we have largely been ignoring at our peril." He also criticized the lack of standards in prison administration and highlighted the justice system's negative impact on communities. The subcommittee chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), expressed support for the bill at the hearing and indicated his intent to move the bill to the full United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. By the end of June 2010, the bill had 39 cosponsors.


title: Jim Webb

text: In the fall of 2009, an amendment to SB 714 was proposed by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) that would have prohibited the commission created by the bill from discussing or recommending the decriminalization or legalization of any substance prohibited under the Controlled Substances Act. The proposed amendment drew criticism from some in the online community. Grassley later rescinded the amendment and claimed in a "Des Moines Register" op-ed that he had proposed it to "start a debate on this important issue". SB 714 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a voice vote on January 21, 2010. but no further action was ever taken.


title: Jim Webb

text: On February 9, 2011, Webb announced that he would not run for re-election to his Senate seat in 2012.


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb was frequently mentioned as a possible vice presidential Democratic nominee for Barack Obama in 2008 due to his military experience and moderate policy positions. Although he said he was not interested in the vice presidency, speculations about his being picked by Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee at the time, were still heard.


title: Jim Webb

text: On July 7, Webb effectively removed himself as a possible candidate for Vice President in a statement made to "Time", stating that he intended to serve his term in the Senate and "under no circumstances will I be a candidate for Vice President." Obama went on to choose fellow senator Joe Biden as his running mate.


title: Jim Webb

text: On November 19, 2014, Webb announced the formation of an exploratory committee in preparation for a possible bid for the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States in 2016. He made the announcement via a video posted on his website, as well as on YouTube.


title: Jim Webb

text: On June 15, 2015, Webb announced he would make a decision regarding a presidential bid by the end of the month.


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb made a formal announcement on July 2, 2015, through an open letter on his webb2016 website, that he would seek the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidency.


title: Jim Webb

text: On October 20, 2015, after failing to gain substantial support for his campaign ahead of the primaries, Webb announced that he would be dropping out of the Democratic presidential race in favor of a possible independent presidential run citing his "frustration with party leadership". On February 11, 2016, he ruled out making an independent presidential bid.


title: Jim Webb

text: On March 4, 2016, Webb stated that he would not vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and declined to rule out voting for Donald Trump.


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb's successful first novel, "Fields of Fire" (1978), drawn from personal experience, tells the story of a platoon of United States Marines in late 1960s Vietnam. Reviewers hailed its descriptions of infantry life and combat.


title: Jim Webb

text: After five more novels, he wrote "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America" (2004), a personal view of Scots-Irish and their place in American history and culture.


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb wrote the story, and was the executive producer, for the 2000 film "Rules of Engagement", which starred Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson.


title: Jim Webb

text: Warner Brothers acquired Webb's script for "Whiskey River". The script concerns an American soldier who is injured in Iraq and returns to the United States. Before completing rehabilitation, he is called back to active duty. His father, in an attempt to save his son's life, kidnaps him.


title: Jim Webb

text: In October 2006, while commenting on the need to break away from stereotypical movie villains, Webb stated, "[e]very movie needs a villain. Towel-heads and rednecks—of which I am one ... became the easy villains in so many movies out there."


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb is a prolific writer and has written for many national journals including the "Marine Corps Gazette", "Proceedings" of the United States Naval Institute, "USA Today", "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", and "The Wall Street Journal".


title: Jim Webb

text: His first marriage was to Barbara Samorajczyk, a lawyer who has worked for various real estate and development companies in Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia. She is a member of the Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Council. They have one daughter, Amy, who was eight when they divorced in 1979. Webb and Samorajczyk have three grandchildren.


title: Jim Webb

text: His second marriage was to Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs and health-care lobbyist Jo Ann Krukar in 1981; in later years, long after their divorce, she also assisted in his 2006 Senate campaign. They have three children: Sarah, Jimmy, and Julia. Webb's son Jimmy was a rifleman and sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, and served a tour in Iraq with Weapons Company, 1st Battalion 6th Marines. In tribute to his son, Jimmy, and to "all the people sent into harm's way", Jim Webb wore his son's old combat boots every day during his 2006 Senate campaign.


title: Jim Webb

text: Webb is currently married to Hong Le Webb, a Vietnamese-American securities and corporate lawyer for Murphy and McGonigle. Hong Le was born in South Vietnam and came to the United States when she was seven, after the fall of Saigon. She grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. They married in October 2005. Hong Le and Jim Webb have one child together, Georgia LeAnh, born December 2006. Webb is also a stepfather to Hong Le's daughter from a previous marriage. Jim Webb speaks Vietnamese.


title: Dana Elcar

text: Ibsen Dana Elcar (October 10, 1927 – June 6, 2005) was an American television and film character actor. He appeared in about 40 films as well as on the 1980s and 1990s television series "MacGyver" as Peter Thornton, MacGyver's immediate supervisor at the Phoenix Foundation. Elcar had appeared in the pilot episode of "MacGyver" as Andy Colson before assuming the role of Thornton.


title: Dana Elcar

text: Elcar was born in Ferndale, Michigan, the son of Hedwig (née Anderberg) and James Aage Elcar, a carpenter and butcher. He was an alumnus of the University of Michigan where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. At age 18, Elcar enlisted and served a tour of duty in the United States Navy at the end of World War II. He moved to New York in the 1950s to become a professional thespian. He was a student of legendary acting coach Sanford Meisner. He brought this education to bear when in 1986, with fellow character actor William Lucking, he formed the Santa Paula Theater Center. Elcar sat as artistic director for six years.


title: Dana Elcar

text: In 1962, he created the role of the hit-man Ben in the U.S. premiere of Harold Pinter's "The Dumb Waiter" at the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village, New York City. That same year he was cast on the long running CBS daytime drama "The Guiding Light" as Andrew Murray, the District Attorney of Los Angeles County. Later in 1962 and 1963, due to his stint on "The Guiding Light", he was cast in three episodes of the NBC sitcom "Car 54, Where Are You?", and two segments of the ABC crime drama "Naked City", both set in New York City. In 1966 and 1967, Elcar played Sheriff George Patterson on the vampire soap opera "Dark Shadows". He played Inspector Shiller, the supervisor, in the crime drama, "Baretta", starring Robert Blake. As a character actor, Elcar guest-starred in many television shows, including "Gunsmoke", "Mannix," "Ironside", "Columbo," "Cannon, Benson, Newhart, The Fall Guy, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Hill Street Blues, The A-Team, Trapper John, M.D., Matlock, Law and Order, and ER."


title: Dana Elcar

text: Elcar guest starred on "Get Smart", CBS's "" and "Storefront Lawyers" in 1970. In 1971, he was a guest star on "Ironside". He appeared on "The Waltons" and "Kung Fu" in 1973. He had a regular role as Colonel Lard in the 1976–78 television military drama, "Baa Baa Black Sheep", starring Robert Conrad, and also directed four episodes of the series. He appeared in TV disaster movies such as "Heatwave!" (1974) and "Crisis in Mid-Air" (1979). He also appeared in The Sting (1973).


title: Dana Elcar

text: In 1979, he played judges in "Centennial" and "B. J. and the Bear". In 1980, he was cast in the role of "Chief" in the "Get Smart" feature film entitled "The Nude Bomb" (a.k.a. "The Return of Maxwell Smart") that was based on the 1960s hit TV series (the role previously played by Edward Platt, who died in 1974). He also co-starred in two episodes of "The A-Team" in 1984 and 1985. In 1987, he was cast on "Matlock".


title: Dana Elcar

text: Elcar and his stunt/photography double Don S. Davis were often mistaken for each other. Elcar appeared in the hit series "Knight Rider" in the 1983 episode "Merchants of Death"; as a corrupt sheriff in "The Incredible Hulk" episode "Escape from Los Santos" (1978), in which Banner is headed to Phoenix; and as KAOS Agent Kruger in the 2-part 1969 episode of "Get Smart" entitled "And Baby Makes Four".


title: Dana Elcar

text: In 1991, Elcar began to develop glaucoma. This condition was written into the "MacGyver" plotline, beginning with the sixth season seventeenth episode "Blind Faith" and continuing through the remainder of that season and the entire seventh season, with Elcar's character developing the disease. The sixth-season finale, "Hind-Sight", was a clip show using Pete Thornton's upcoming eye surgery as a framing device. After "MacGyver", Elcar made a guest appearance in "Virus", a 1993 episode of "Law & Order", in which he played a man who blamed his diabetes-caused blindness on his former physician, and whose son murdered other patients as revenge.


title: Dana Elcar

text: Elcar also played a blind character on episodes of "The Magic School Bus" and "ER". Once blind, Elcar took on the challenge of playing Vladimir in "Waiting for Godot" complete with white cane. This was his theatrical swan song, and he retired in 2002 after his "ER" performance.


title: Dana Elcar

text: Elcar married Katherine Frances Mead in 1948 and divorced her in 1950. He married Peggy Romano in 1954 and divorced her in 1970. Elcar had 4 children: Marin Elcar, Nora Elcar Verdon, Dane Elcar, and Chandra Elcar. He started losing his sight on the set of "MacGyver" with glaucoma, though he still continued to act. His long-time partner was Thelma Garcia.


title: Dana Elcar

text: On June 6, 2005, Elcar died at the Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California from pneumonia at age 77.


title: Neil Macdonald

text: Neil Macdonald (born 1957) is a Canadian journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, currently senior correspondent for CBC News "The National".


title: Neil Macdonald

text: Macdonald was born and raised in Quebec City. His father was Percy Macdonald, who served with the Canadian Army during World War II and helped liberate the Netherlands. His mother is Ferne Macdonald (née Mains). He has two brothers, one of whom was comedian/actor Norm Macdonald. He is married to Joyce Napier, a parliamentary bureau chief for CTV News.


title: Neil Macdonald

text: After graduating from Algonquin College in Ottawa, Macdonald worked first as a print journalist. He joined the CBC in 1988 and covered Canadian Parliament for approximately a decade. He then served for five years (1998–2003) as the network's chief Middle East correspondent.


title: Neil Macdonald

text: Macdonald was involved in a public dispute with Canadian media mogul Leonard Asper in 2003. Asper had accused Macdonald of being "anti-Israeli" after taking exception to some of the CBC's Middle East coverage. Macdonald responded with a rebuttal in "The Globe and Mail", accusing Asper of defamation and alleging editorial censorship in the Asper-owned CanWest media outlets.


title: Neil Macdonald

text: In November 2010, Macdonald led a CBC investigation into the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which had been mandated with solving the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The report uncovered documents suggesting the UN investigative body had strong evidence to link the Shia paramilitary group Hezbollah to the 2005 bombing that killed Hariri, and that the UN had not acted on this intelligence due to diplomatic concerns. Macdonald's report also sharply criticized the performance of the Special Tribunal's head prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, who responded that he was "extremely disappointed" with the report.


title: Neil Macdonald

text: In 2014, Macdonald harshly criticized Linden MacIntyre, a former CBC employee, after MacIntyre made comments about the CBC in regard to the Jian Ghomeshi incident.


title: Neil Macdonald

text: In 2015, Macdonald moved back to Canada after 17 years in the United States, 12 of which he spent in Washington, D.C. as the Washington bureau correspondent for "The National". Macdonald continues to produce editorial articles for the CBC's website, as well as appearing as a senior correspondent for "The National".


title: Neil Macdonald

text: In 1988, Macdonald received a Centre for Investigative Journalism Award honorable mention for the 1987 story "CSIS: Making a cop into a spy just doesn't fly" in the "Ottawa Citizen.


title: Neil Macdonald

text: In 2004, Macdonald received a Gemini Award for his reportage on political violence in Haiti. He was awarded a second "best reportage" Gemini in 2009 for his coverage of the U.S. 2007 economic crisis.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: The Supreme Team was an organized crime syndicate that operated throughout the 1980s in New York City. Their headquarters was in Baisley Park, in South Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York. The leaders were Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff and his nephew, Gerald "Prince" Miller. In 1989, McGriff spent 10 years in a federal prison for a narcotics conviction.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: In February 2007, McGriff was convicted in federal court of racketeering, two murder-for-hire homicides, narcotics trafficking, and engaging in illegal financial transactions with drug money. Although facing the death penalty for this conviction, he was ultimately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: On August 16, 1996, in a case against members of the "Supreme Team" their operation and a number of alleged crimes were documented in the case file.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: The Supreme Team was a street gang organized in the early 1980s in the vicinity of the Baisley Park Houses in Jamaica, Queens, New York, by a group of teenagers who were members of the Five-Percent Nation. Under the leadership of Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, with Miller, his nephew, as second-in-command, the gang concentrated its criminal efforts on the widespread distribution of crack cocaine. At its 1987 peak, the Supreme Team's receipts exceeded $200,000 a day, and the gang regularly committed acts of violence and murder to maintain its stranglehold on the area's drug trade. After McGriff went to jail in 1987, leadership of the Supreme Team was assumed by Gerald "Prince" Miller. Miller solidified his control by increasing the security force and employing it against rivals and against Team members suspected of disloyalty. During 1987 alone, Miller and the then-incarcerated McGriff ordered at least eight homicides.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: The Supreme Team's narcotics operations used dozens of employees, including layers of drug sellers to insulate the gang leaders from the street-level activity. Team members communicated using the Five Percenter Supreme Alphabet and Supreme Mathematics as a coded language and numerical systems. To thwart law enforcement efforts further, Miller used armed bodyguards and deployed sentinels with two-way radios on rooftops. The sophistication of the gang's operation enabled it to survive the periodic targeting of various members for prosecution by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the Queens County District Attorney's Office (collectively, the "State").


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: In late 1987, however, while Miller was incarcerated on state charges, a task force of NYPD and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents executed search warrants on a number of Supreme Team storage locations, drug outlets, and residences. Although the gang was tipped off about the raid shortly before it occurred and was able to remove 11 kilograms of cocaine and $200,000 from targeted premises, authorities nonetheless seized an array of weapons, narcotics trade hardware, photographs, documents, and instructional manuals on criminal conduct, as well as a kilogram of cocaine and thousands of dollars. Following that raid and his own arrest by federal agents, McGriff ordered that the gang's operations be shut down.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: When Miller was released from prison in the spring of 1989, he began to rebuild the Supreme Team and regained control of two of its most lucrative retail locations known as "spots." The reorganized gang under Miller included Arroyo as the second-in-command, Hunt as Miller's bodyguard, Ernesto Piniella as head of security, and Hale, Jimenez, and Julio Hernandez as security workers. Tucker and Coleman managed retail spots and supervised crews of workers; long-time gang member David Robinson helped supervise the drug operations and kept records. Raymond Robinson assisted in arranging cocaine purchases, provided security during drug transactions, supervised the processing of cocaine into crack, and delivered crack to sales locations. The Supreme Team began to reclaim its hold on the area drug trade and built its gross receipts up to $10,000 a day.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: The substantive narcotics distribution charges against the present defendants focused on the period from December 1989 to March 1990, during which the State was monitoring the gang's activity with wiretaps. During that period, the Supreme Team conducted its business in the Baisley Park apartment of David Robinson's mother. Tucker, Coleman, and David Robinson would deliver to the apartment the moneys received at the retail spots they supervised; Miller and the Team's primary drug courier Trent Morris would negotiate cocaine deals by telephone with William Graham, a supplier who had Colombian connections; and Morris and Raymond Robinson would then drive to Graham's apartment with money to purchase kilogram-quantities of cocaine. The cocaine would be brought back to the Robinson apartment, where it was processed as crack, packaged, and given to Arroyo, David Robinson, Tucker, or Coleman, who in turn arranged for its sale by street-level employees.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: The gang also resumed its use of violence and homicide. The government presented evidence at trial, not all of which resulted in convictions, of homicides committed both prior to the Supreme Team's 1987 shut-down and after its 1989 renaissance.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: In 1987, the Supreme Team was allied with another drug gang, led by Lorenzo "Fat Cat" Nichols, who supplied the Supreme Team with powder cocaine. Nichols suspected two men, Henry and Isaac Bolden, of robbing Nichols's organization. While Nichols was incarcerated, he sought Miller's assistance in locating the Boldens so that Nichols's crew members could kill them.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: To obtain that information, Miller sought the help of two corrupt New York State Parole Division employees, Parole Officer Ina McGriff (no relation to Kenneth McGriff) and secretary Ronnie Younger. Ina McGriff was responsible for supervising the parole of Supreme Team security chief Ernesto Piniella but had become romantically involved with him; Younger had become romantically involved with Miller. The Team regularly paid both women for assistance. For example, McGriff falsely certified that Piniella was in compliance with parole requirements; she and Younger provided the gang leaders with information from their parole files, false identification documents, and information about the whereabouts of other parolees; and McGriff, who as a Parole Officer carried a gun, supplied Supreme Team members with ammunition.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: Piniella and Ina McGriff testified that Miller paid the two women $3,000 for the addresses for the two Boldens and their families. Handwritten notes of such addresses were recovered in a raid of a Supreme Team apartment; the notes were written in part by Younger, according to a handwriting expert's testimony, and in part by Ina McGriff, according to her own testimony. The notes provided Henry Bolden's address in the Bronx, where he was later shot; and they provided Isaac Bolden's mother's address, in the immediate vicinity of which he was later shot and killed.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: In 1987, Ina McGriff also gave Piniella copies of Parole Division documents indicating that Supreme Team member James Page was cooperating with authorities. Upon receiving that information, Kenneth McGriff, who had just been arrested on federal charges, ordered that Page be killed; Piniella subsequently arranged Page's murder.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: Gus Rivera was a Supreme Team member who had introduced the gang's leaders to some of its Colombian suppliers. According to the trial testimony, four of these Colombian drug traffickers were robbed of their cocaine and brutally murdered in July 1989 by Miller, Arroyo, Hale, Hunt, and Jimenez. However, other than the testimony that two of these men were known as "Fernando" and "George," the government was unable to present evidence as to their identities, and their bodies were never identified. The jury found that these murders, alleged as RICO predicate acts, were not proven beyond a reasonable doubt.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: In the wake of these murders, the gang decided that Rivera was more of a liability than an asset. Accordingly, in August 1989, Arroyo arranged for Rivera to be killed. Rivera was shot in the head in a Baisley Park courtyard, but he survived and hid from the gang, temporarily. Arroyo learned Rivera's whereabouts from Rivera's girlfriend, Toni McGee (also a Supreme Team member) by threatening to kill her. Arroyo and Hale proceeded to track Rivera to a South Jamaica motel, where Rivera was murdered.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: Fernando Suarez and Pablo Perlaza were also Colombian suppliers to the Supreme Team. In the summer of 1989, the Team decided to steal these suppliers' cocaine rather than buy it. Accordingly, in August 1989, when Suarez and Perlaza arrived at Hale's Baisley Park apartment, they were held at gunpoint by Julio Hernandez , Jose (shorty) Goncalves from New Jersey while Arroyo and Hale bound them with tape. Supreme Team members then tied the suppliers' heads in plastic bags. While Suarez and Perlaza were suffocating, Hale beat their heads with a baseball bat. Hunt was then called upon to help dispose of the bodies. After he arrived, the bodies were loaded into a car and dumped in separate locations in Queens. Later, knowing that her husband had gone to meet Arroyo before disappearing, Suarez's wife telephoned Arroyo, who told her that Suarez was supposed to have met him but never arrived.


title: Supreme Team (gang)

text: "Supreme Team", a three-part documentary series about Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff and the Supreme Team, directed by Nas and Peter Scalettar, premiered in 2022 at the Tribeca Film Festival and on Showtime.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: The Hubble Deep Field (HDF) is an image of a small region in the constellation Ursa Major, constructed from a series of observations by the Hubble Space Telescope. It covers an area about 2.6 arcminutes on a side, about one 24-millionth of the whole sky, which is equivalent in angular size to a tennis ball at a distance of 100 metres. The image was assembled from 342 separate exposures taken with the Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 over ten consecutive days between December 18 and 28, 1995.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: The field is so small that only a few foreground stars in the Milky Way lie within it; thus, almost all of the 3,000 objects in the image are galaxies, some of which are among the youngest and most distant known. By revealing such large numbers of very young galaxies, the HDF has become a landmark image in the study of the early universe.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: Three years after the HDF observations were taken, a region in the south celestial hemisphere was imaged in a similar way and named the Hubble Deep Field South. The similarities between the two regions strengthened the belief that the universe is uniform over large scales and that the Earth occupies a typical region in the Universe (the cosmological principle). A wider but shallower survey was also made as part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey. In 2004 a deeper image, known as the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF), was constructed from a few months of light exposure. The HUDF image was at the time the most sensitive astronomical image ever made at visible wavelengths, and it remained so until the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) was released in 2012.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: One of the key aims of the astronomers who designed the Hubble Space Telescope was to use its high optical resolution to study distant galaxies to a level of detail that was not possible from the ground. Positioned above the atmosphere, Hubble avoids atmospheric airglow allowing it to take more sensitive visible and ultraviolet light images than can be obtained with seeing-limited ground-based telescopes (when good adaptive optics correction at visible wavelengths becomes possible, 10 m ground-based telescopes may become competitive). Although the telescope's mirror suffered from spherical aberration when the telescope was launched in 1990, it could still be used to take images of more distant galaxies than had previously been obtainable. Because light takes billions of years to reach Earth from very distant galaxies, we see them as they were billions of years ago; thus, extending the scope of such research to increasingly distant galaxies allows a better understanding of how they evolve.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: After the spherical aberration was corrected during Space Shuttle mission STS-61 in 1993, the improved imaging capabilities of the telescope were used to study increasingly distant and faint galaxies. The Medium Deep Survey (MDS) used the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) to take deep images of random fields while other instruments were being used for scheduled observations. At the same time, other dedicated programs focused on galaxies that were already known through ground-based observation. All of these studies revealed substantial differences between the properties of galaxies today and those that existed several billion years ago.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: Up to 10% of the HST's observation time is designated as Director's Discretionary (DD) Time, and is typically awarded to astronomers who wish to study unexpected transient phenomena, such as supernovae. Once Hubble's corrective optics were shown to be performing well, Robert Williams, the then-director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, decided to devote a substantial fraction of his DD time during 1995 to the study of distant galaxies. A special Institute Advisory Committee recommended that the WFPC2 be used to image a "typical" patch of sky at a high galactic latitude, using several optical filters. A working group was set up to develop and implement the project.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: The field selected for the observations needed to fulfill several criteria. It had to be at a high galactic latitude because dust and obscuring matter in the plane of the Milky Way's disc prevents observations of distant galaxies at low galactic latitudes. The target field had to avoid known bright sources of visible light (such as foreground stars), and infrared, ultraviolet and X-ray emissions, to facilitate later studies at many wavelengths of the objects in the deep field, and also needed to be in a region with a low background infrared 'cirrus', the diffuse, wispy infrared emission believed to be caused by warm dust grains in cool clouds of hydrogen gas (H I regions).


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: These criteria restricted the field of potential target areas. It was decided that the target should be in Hubble's 'continuous viewing zones' (CVZs)—the areas of sky which are not occulted by the Earth or the moon during Hubble's orbit. The working group decided to concentrate on the northern CVZ, so that northern-hemisphere telescopes such as the Keck telescopes, the Kitt Peak National Observatory telescopes and the Very Large Array (VLA) could conduct follow-up observations.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: Twenty fields satisfying these criteria were initially identified, from which three optimal candidate fields were selected, all within the constellation of Ursa Major. Radio snapshot observations with the VLA ruled out one of these fields because it contained a bright radio source, and the final decision between the other two was made on the basis of the availability of guide stars near the field: Hubble observations normally require a pair of nearby stars on which the telescope's Fine Guidance Sensors can lock during an exposure, but given the importance of the HDF observations, the working group required a second set of back-up guide stars. The field that was eventually selected is located at a right ascension of and a declination of ; it is approximately 2.6 arcminutes in width, or 1/12 the width of the Moon. The area is approximately 1/24,000,000 of the total area of the sky.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: Once a field had been selected, an observing strategy had to be developed. An important decision was to determine which filters the observations would use; WFPC2 is equipped with forty-eight filters, including narrowband filters isolating particular emission lines of astrophysical interest, and broadband filters useful for the study of the colours of stars and galaxies. The choice of filters to be used for the HDF depended on the 'throughput' of each filter—the total proportion of light that it allows through—and the spectral coverage available. Filters with bandpasses overlapping as little as possible were desirable.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: In the end, four broadband filters were chosen, centred at wavelengths of 300 nm (near-ultraviolet), 450 nm (blue light), 606 nm (red light) and 814 nm (near-infrared). Because the quantum efficiency of Hubble's detectors at 300 nm wavelength is quite low, the noise in observations at this wavelength is primarily due to CCD noise rather than sky background; thus, these observations could be conducted at times when high background noise would have harmed the efficiency of observations in other passbands.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: Between December 18 and 28, 1995—during which time Hubble orbited the Earth about 150 times—342 images of the target area in the chosen filters were taken. The total exposure times at each wavelength were 42.7 hours (300 nm), 33.5 hours (450 nm), 30.3 hours (606 nm) and 34.3 hours (814 nm), divided into 342 individual exposures to prevent significant damage to individual images by cosmic rays, which cause bright streaks to appear when they strike CCD detectors. A further 10 Hubble orbits were used to make short exposures of flanking fields to aid follow-up observations by other instruments.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: The production of a final combined image at each wavelength was a complex process. Bright pixels caused by cosmic ray impacts during exposures were removed by comparing exposures of equal length taken one after the other, and identifying pixels that were affected by cosmic rays in one exposure but not the other. Trails of space debris and artificial satellites were present in the original images, and were carefully removed.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: Scattered light from the Earth was evident in about a quarter of the data frames, creating a visible "X" pattern on the images. This was removed by taking an image affected by scattered light, aligning it with an unaffected image, and subtracting the unaffected image from the affected one. The resulting image was smoothed, and could then be subtracted from the bright frame. This procedure removed almost all of the scattered light from the affected images.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: Once the 342 individual images were cleaned of cosmic-ray hits and corrected for scattered light, they had to be combined. Scientists involved in the HDF observations pioneered a technique called 'drizzling', in which the pointing of the telescope was varied minutely between sets of exposures. Each pixel on the WFPC2 CCD chips recorded an area of sky 0.09 arcseconds across, but by changing the direction in which the telescope was pointing by less than that between exposures, the resulting images were combined using sophisticated image-processing techniques to yield a final angular resolution better than this value. The HDF images produced at each wavelength had final pixel sizes of 0.03985 arcseconds.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: The data processing yielded four monochrome images (at 300 nm, 450 nm, 606 nm and 814 nm), one at each wavelength. One image was designated as red (814 nm), the second as green (606 nm) and the third as blue (450 nm), and the three images were combined to give a colour image. Because the wavelengths at which the images were taken do not correspond to the wavelengths of red, green and blue light, the colours in the final image only give an approximate representation of the actual colours of the galaxies in the image; the choice of filters for the HDF (and the majority of Hubble images) was primarily designed to maximize the scientific utility of the observations rather than to create colours corresponding to what the human eye would actually perceive.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: The final images were released at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January 1996, and revealed a plethora of distant, faint galaxies. About 3,000 distinct galaxies could be identified in the images, with both irregular and spiral galaxies clearly visible, although some galaxies in the field are only a few pixels across. In all, the HDF is thought to contain fewer than twenty galactic foreground stars; by far the majority of objects in the field are distant galaxies.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: There are about fifty blue point-like objects in the HDF. Many seem to be associated with nearby galaxies, which together form chains and arcs: these are likely to be regions of intense star formation. Others may be distant quasars. Astronomers initially ruled out the possibility that some of the point-like objects are white dwarfs, because they are too blue to be consistent with theories of white dwarf evolution prevalent at the time. However, more recent work has found that many white dwarfs become bluer as they age, lending support to the idea that the HDF might contain white dwarfs.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: The HDF data provided extremely rich material for cosmologists to analyse and by late 2014 the associated scientific paper for the image had received over 900 citations. One of the most fundamental findings was the discovery of large numbers of galaxies with high redshift values.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: As the Universe expands, more distant objects recede from the Earth faster, in what is called the Hubble Flow. The light from very distant galaxies is significantly affected by the cosmological redshift. While quasars with high redshifts were known, very few galaxies with redshifts greater than one were known before the HDF images were produced. The HDF, however, contained many galaxies with redshifts as high as six, corresponding to distances of about 12 billion light-years. Due to redshift the most distant objects in the HDF (Lyman-break galaxies) are not actually visible in the Hubble images; they can only be detected in images of the HDF taken at longer wavelengths by ground-based telescopes. One of the first observations planned for the James Webb Space Telescope is a mid-infrared image of the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: The HDF galaxies contained a considerably larger proportion of disturbed and irregular galaxies than the local universe; galaxy collisions and mergers were more common in the young universe as it was much smaller than today. It is believed that giant elliptical galaxies form when spirals and irregular galaxies collide.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: The wealth of galaxies at different stages of their evolution also allowed astronomers to estimate the variation in the rate of star formation over the lifetime of the Universe. While estimates of the redshifts of HDF galaxies are somewhat crude, astronomers believe that star formation was occurring at its maximum rate 8–10 billion years ago, and has decreased by a factor of about 10 since then.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: Another important result from the HDF was the very small number of foreground stars present. For years astronomers had been puzzling over the nature of dark matter, mass which seems to be undetectable but which observations implied made up about 85% of all matter in the Universe by mass. One theory was that dark matter might consist of Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs)—faint but massive objects such as red dwarfs and planets in the outer regions of galaxies. The HDF showed, however, that there were not significant numbers of red dwarfs in the outer parts of our galaxy.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: Very-high redshift objects (Lyman-break galaxies) cannot be seen in visible light and generally are detected in infrared or submillimetre wavelength surveys of the HDF instead. Observations with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) indicated infrared emission from 13 galaxies visible in the optical images, attributed to large quantities of dust associated with intense star formation. Infrared observations have also been made with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Submillimeter observations of the field have been made with SCUBA on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, initially detecting 5 sources, although with very low resolution. Observations have also been made with the Subaru telescope in Hawaii.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: X-ray observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed six sources in the HDF, which were found to correspond to three elliptical galaxies, one spiral galaxy, one active galactic nucleus and one extremely red object, thought to be a distant galaxy containing a large amount of dust absorbing its blue light emissions.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: Ground-based radio images taken using the VLA revealed seven radio sources in the HDF, all of which correspond to galaxies visible in the optical images. The field has also been surveyed with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and the MERLIN array of radio telescopes at 1.4 GHz; the combination of VLA and MERLIN maps made at wavelengths of 3.5 and 20 cm have located 16 radio sources in the HDF-N field, with many more in the flanking fields. Radio images of some individual sources in the field have been made with the European VLBI Network at 1.6 GHz with a higher resolution than the Hubble maps.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: An HDF counterpart in the southern celestial hemisphere was created in 1998: the HDF-South (HDF-S). Created using a similar observing strategy, the HDF-S was very similar in appearance to the original HDF. This supports the cosmological principle that at its largest scale the Universe is homogeneous. The HDF-S survey used the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) instruments installed on the HST in 1997; the region of the original Hubble Deep Field (HDF-N) has since been re-observed several times using WFPC2, as well as by the NICMOS and STIS instruments. Several supernova events were detected by comparing the first and second epoch observations of the HDF-N.


title: Hubble Deep Field

text: A wider survey, but less sensitive, was carried out as part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey; a section of this was then observed for longer to create the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, which was the most sensitive optical deep field image for years until the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field was completed in 2012. Images from the Extreme Deep Field, or XDF, were released on September 26, 2012, to a number of media agencies. Images released in the XDF show galaxies which are now believed to have formed in the first 500 million years following the Big Bang.


"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information" is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology. It was written by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller of Harvard University's Department of Psychology and published in 1956 in "Psychological Review". It is often interpreted to argue that the number of objects an average human can hold in short-term memory is 7 ± 2. This has occasionally been referred to as "Miller's law".


title: The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two

text: In his article, Miller discussed a coincidence between the limits of one-dimensional absolute judgment and the limits of short-term memory. In a one-dimensional absolute-judgment task, a person is presented with a number of stimuli that vary on one dimension (e.g., 10 different tones varying only in pitch) and responds to each stimulus with a corresponding response (learned before). Performance is nearly perfect up to five or six different stimuli but declines as the number of different stimuli increases. The task can be described as one of information transmission: The input consists of one out of "n" possible stimuli, and the output consists of one out of "n" responses. The information contained in the input can be determined by the number of binary decisions that need to be made to arrive at the selected stimulus, and the same holds for the response. Therefore, people's maximum performance on a one-dimensional absolute judgment can be characterized as an information channel capacity with approximately 2 to 3 bits of information, which corresponds to the ability to distinguish between four and eight alternatives.


text: The second cognitive limitation Miller discusses is memory span. Memory span refers to the longest list of items (e.g., digits, letters, words) that a person can repeat back in the correct order on 50% of trials immediately after the presentation. Miller observed that the memory span of young adults is approximately seven items. He noticed that memory span is approximately the same for stimuli with vastly different amounts of information—for instance, binary digits have 1 bit each; decimal digits have 3.32 bits each; words have about 10 bits each. Miller concluded that memory span is not limited in terms of bits but rather in terms of chunks. A chunk is the largest meaningful unit in the presented material that the person recognizes—thus, what counts as a chunk depends on the knowledge of the person being tested. For instance, a word is a single chunk for a speaker of the language but is many chunks for someone who is totally unfamiliar with the language and sees the word as a collection of phonetic segments.


text: Miller recognized that the correspondence between the limits of one-dimensional absolute judgment and of short-term memory span was only a coincidence, because only the first limit, not the second, can be characterized in information-theoretic terms (i.e., as a roughly constant number of bits). Therefore, there is nothing "magical" about the number seven, and Miller used the expression only rhetorically. Nevertheless, the idea of a "magical number 7" inspired much theorizing, rigorous and less rigorous, about the capacity limits of human cognition. The number seven constitutes a useful heuristic, reminding us that lists that are much longer than that become significantly harder to remember and process simultaneously.


text: Later research on short-term memory and working memory revealed that memory span is not a constant even when measured in a number of chunks. The number of chunks a human can recall immediately after presentation depends on the category of chunks used (e.g., span is around seven for digits, around six for letters, and around five for words), and even on features of the chunks within a category. Chunking is used by the brain's short-term memory as a method for keeping groups of information accessible for easy recall. It functions and works best as labels that one is already familiar with—the incorporation of new information into a label that is already well rehearsed into one's long-term memory. These chunks must store the information in such a way that they can be disassembled into the necessary data. The storage capacity is dependent on the information being stored. For instance, span is lower for long words than it is for short words. In general, memory span for verbal contents (digits, letters, words, etc.) strongly depends on the time it takes to speak the contents aloud. Some researchers have therefore proposed that the limited capacity of short-term memory for verbal material is not a "magic number" but rather a "magic spell," i.e. a period of time. Baddeley used this finding to postulate that one component of his model of working memory, the phonological loop, is capable of holding around 2 seconds of sound. However, the limit of short-term memory cannot easily be characterized as a constant "magic spell" either, because memory span also depends on other factors besides speaking duration. For instance, span depends on the lexical status of the contents (i.e., whether the contents are words known to the person or not). Several other factors also affect a person's measured span, and therefore it is difficult to pin down the capacity of short-term or working memory to a number of chunks. Nonetheless, Cowan has proposed that working memory has a capacity of about four chunks in young adults (and less in children and older adults).


text: Tarnow finds that in a classic experiment typically argued as supporting a 4 item buffer by Murdock, there is in fact no evidence for such and thus the "magical number", at least in the Murdock experiment, is 1. Other prominent theories of short-term memory capacity argue against measuring capacity in terms of a fixed number of elements.


text: Cowan also noted a number of other limits of cognition that point to a "magical number four", and different from Miller, he argued that this correspondence is no coincidence. One other process that seems to be limited at about four elements is subitizing, the rapid enumeration of small numbers of objects. When a number of objects are flashed briefly, their number can be determined very quickly, at a glance, when the number does not exceed the subitizing limit, which is about four objects. Larger numbers of objects must be counted, which is a slower process. The film "Rain Man" portrayed an autistic savant, who was able to rapidly determine the number of toothpicks from an entire box spilled on the floor, apparently subitizing a much larger number than four objects. A similar feat was informally observed by neuropsychologist Oliver Sacks and reported in his book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat". Therefore, one might suppose that this limit is an arbitrary limit imposed by our cognition rather than necessarily being a physical limit. (On the other hand, autism expert Daniel Tammet has suggested that the children Sacks observed may have pre-counted the matches in the box.) There is also evidence that even four chunks is a high estimate: Gobet and Clarkson conducted an experiment and found that over half of the memory recall conditions yielded only about two chunks. Research also shows that the size, rather than the number, of chunks that are stored in short-term memory is what allows for enhanced memory in individuals.


title: Diego Serrano

text: Serrano was born on February 5, 1973 in Quito, Ecuador. He has appeared on "The Young and the Restless" as Diego Guittierez (2001–02) and the long-running, defunct soap opera "Another World" as Tomas Rivera (1993–97). In 2000, he starred alongside star Jennifer Love Hewitt on the Fox television series "Time of Your Life". He also appeared in the 2005 film "The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green" playing Kyle Underhill, a professional baseball player who comes out as gay and authors an autobiography. Serrano played the role of Richard in the film "The Ode" (2008) based on the novel "Ode to Lata" by Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla. He also appeared as "Eddie Diaz" with Rosie Perez, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Tony Award winner Patti Lupone in Nancy Savoca's "The 24 Hour Woman".


title: Diego Serrano

text: Serrano was in a long-term relationship with actress Cote de Pablo, but they were reported as having broken up in June 2015.


title: Laurel and Hardy filmography

text: Laurel and Hardy were a motion picture comedy team whose official filmography consists of 106 films released between 1921 and 1951. Together they appeared in 34 silent shorts, 45 sound shorts, and 27 full-length sound feature films. In addition to these, Laurel and Hardy appeared in at least 20 foreign-language versions of their films and a promotional film, "Galaxy of Stars" (1936), produced for European film distributors.


title: Laurel and Hardy filmography

text: Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) were established as film comedians prior to their teaming, with Laurel appearing in over 50 silent films and Hardy in over 250. (Hardy also appeared in three sound features without Laurel.) Although they first worked together in the film "The Lucky Dog" (1921), this was a chance pairing and it was not until 1926 when both separately signed contracts with the Hal Roach film studio that they appeared in film shorts together. Laurel and Hardy officially became a team the following year with their 11th silent short film, "The Second Hundred Years" (1927). The pair remained with the Roach studio until 1940. Between 1941 and 1945, they appeared in eight features and one short for 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. After finishing their film commitments, Laurel and Hardy concentrated on stage shows, embarking on a music hall tour of Great Britain. In 1950, they appeared in their last film, "Atoll K", a French/Italian coproduction.


title: Laurel and Hardy filmography

text: In 1932, Laurel and Hardy's short "The Music Box" won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film (Comedy). In 1960, Laurel was presented with an Academy Honorary Award "for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy." In 1992, 1997, 2012 and 2020 respectively, "Big Business" (1929), "The Music Box", "Sons of the Desert" (1932) and "The Battle of the Century" (1927) were added to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." For their contributions to cinema, Laurel and Hardy have been awarded separate stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


title: Laurel and Hardy filmography

text: The following is a list of Laurel and Hardy's official filmography as established in "Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies" by Randy Skretvedt and "Laurel and Hardy" by John McCabe, Al Kilgore, and Richard R. Bann. Each book lists 105 films and Skredvedt's adds a 106th in its appendix, "Now I'll Tell One", a previously lost film that was partly rediscovered.


title: Laurel and Hardy filmography

text: Except where noted, all of these films were photographed in black and white, produced by Hal Roach, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Except where noted, all short films are two reels in length. All films produced prior to 1928 are silent and all films made after 1929 are sound. Releases from 1928 are silent except as noted. 1929 releases are identified as silent, all-talkie, or sound films with music and sound effects only.


title: Laurel and Hardy filmography

text: During the early days of sound American motion picture companies often made foreign-language versions of their films. The following is a list of known foreign-language versions of Laurel and Hardy films.


title: Laurel and Hardy filmography

text: Note: A lost German-language version of "The Hollywood Revue of 1929", "Wir Schalten um auf Hollywood" (We Switch to Hollywood), was made and released in 1931. Apparently Laurel and Hardy do not appear in it.


title: Kite Man

text: Kite Man (Charles "Chuck" Brown) is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. He is commonly depicted as an adversary of Batman who uses kite-based weapons to commit crimes. His name is a homage to "Peanuts" protagonist Charlie Brown. The character has been generally regarded as a joke in comparison with other supervillains, due to his lack of super-powers, dimwitted personality, and the flimsy central concept that belies his identity as a super-criminal.


title: Kite Man

text: In recent years, Kite Man has been adapted into several forms of media outside of comics, such as the adult animated series "Harley Quinn", in which he is voiced by Matt Oberg. Oberg is set to reprise his role in "Noonan's", a spin-off of "Harley Quinn" focused on the character.


title: Kite Man

text: Kite Man first appeared in "Batman" #133 (August 1960), and was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Dick Sprang. He subsequently appeared in "Batman" #315 (September 1979) by Len Wein.


title: Kite Man

text: Tony Isabella would use the character in "Hawkman" #4 (November 1986), and gave him the real name of Charles Brown, as well as introducing the idea that he was a "joke" villain. Following this he was primarily used as a minor character, until Tom King featured him in his run on "Batman"in the "DC Rebirth" era.


title: Kite Man

text: Charles "Chuck" Brown is a man who armed himself with kite weapons to be used to commit acts of evil. He flies with a big kite strapped to himself or in a kite plane. He also uses an array of specialty kites to overwhelm his enemies and commit crimes.


title: Kite Man

text: In his first appearance (which he announces), in "Batman" #133, he first drops tear gas from his kite to steal a precious ruby then frees mobster Big Bill Collins, nearly killing Robin along the way and capturing Batman. Leaving mobsters to guard Batman's room, on his return Kite Man is defeated when Robin returns, frees Batman and they use his own amazing Kite weapons against him, leaving a Kite Plane trophy on the Batcave wall.


title: Kite Man

text: Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Zatanna confront him again, in Hawkman's title. His real name is revealed, as well as a childhood fascination with kites. He is victorious and jumps into a tree.


title: Kite Man

text: Kite Man is one of many criminals to take advantage of the supervillain-friendly atmosphere of the fictional country of Zandia. He ends up joining its sports team and later becomes involved in a fight against an invading troop of superheroes.


title: Kite Man

text: In "Infinite Crisis", Joker reports that Brown was thrown off Wayne Tower without his kite by Deathstroke, after he refused to join the new Secret Society of Super Villains.


title: Kite Man

text: Brown, however, survives his fall and reaches some low rank in the post-Crisis Gotham City's underworld in the pages of the weekly series "52". He is captured alongside Sewer King, Dawson, Lamelle, The Squid and Mirage. As with the other prisoners, Kite Man is killed and eaten by Bruno Mannheim upon refusing to side with him.


title: Kite Man

text: Kite Man appears in the DC Rebirth universe. This version is referred to as Charles, Chuck, and Charlie Brown. He seems to be happier, constantly chanting the catch-phrase "Kite Man, hell yeah!", a reference to his son, Charles Brown Jr.'s reaction to the first time he tried flying a kite. He first appears robbing a luxurious party, before being quickly foiled by Gotham Girl. He is then seen in a prison cell in Arkham Asylum as Batman walks down the aisles looking for criminals.


title: Kite Man

text: At some point, he escapes, as he is later one of the many villains taken down by Batman and Catwoman after he takes her along with him on an average night of his job in Gotham City. Kite Man later sold a kite to a pawn shop, where Headhunter purchased it to use to kill Swamp Thing's father. Batman and Swamp Thing interrogated Kite Man later.


title: Kite Man

text: In a story set during the early years of Batman's career, it is revealed that he studied wind in school. He was a divorced father, became an alcoholic and began a life of criminal activities, eventually being recruited by the Joker to design the Jokermobile. During The War of Jokes and Riddles, he becomes encircled by Batman, who commands him to get the Joker's phone number and, later, to meet him. Shortly after, the Riddler kidnaps Charles, wanting to know about his future meeting with the Joker. After being freed, he is kidnapped again, this time by the Joker, who tells him about his encounters with Batman and the Riddler. He is then forced to serve as a suicide bomber by the Joker to kill Batman, but realizes that the bomb is fake. Charles Brown Jr., his son, is poisoned by the Riddler and subsequently dies. Wanting to get revenge on the Riddler, Charles Brown creates the persona of Kite Man to join the Joker's side.


title: Kite Man

text: After Batman joins the Riddler's side on the war he starts to defeat every villain on Joker's side, leaving Kite Man for last. When Kite Man is captured he tells Batman and the Riddler about Joker's last secret hideout on a building and provides them and all the villains on Riddler's side kites so they can infiltrate it. After breaking inside, Riddler and his villains turn against Batman, who tells Kite Man to activate the jet-propelled inverse parachutes in their packs, making the villains ascend to be captured by Alfred Pennyworth in the Bat-Blimp. After a scuffle, the Riddler then reveals that the creation of Kite Man, and his own defeat at Kite Man's hands, was part of an unsuccessful plan to solve the Joker's depression and make him laugh again.


title: Kite Man

text: In the alternate timeline of the 2011 "Flashpoint" storyline, Kite Man is one of the many villains killed by that reality's Batman.


title: Tempus fugit

text: Tempus fugit is a Latin phrase, usually translated into English as "time flies". The expression comes from line 284 of book 3 of Virgil's "Georgics", where it appears as "fugit" "inreparabile" "tempus": "it escapes, irretrievable time". The phrase is used in both its Latin and English forms as a proverb that "time's a-wasting".


title: Tempus fugit

text: "Tempus fugit" is typically employed as an admonition against sloth and procrastination (cf. "carpe diem") rather than an argument for licentiousness (cf. "gather ye rosebuds while ye may"); the English form is often merely descriptive: "time flies like the wind", "time flies when you're having fun".


title: Tempus fugit

text: The phrase is a common motto, particularly on sundials and clocks. It also has been used on gravestones.


title: Tempus fugit

text: 'Hêd Amser! / Meddi Na! / Erys Amser / Dyn Â' on sundial at Univ of Bangor, North Wales. says the sundial was commissioned by Sir William Henry Preece, and offers an English equivalent:


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: No Smoking is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language thriller film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap and co-produced by Vishal Bhardwaj and Kumar Mangat. The film stars John Abraham, Ayesha Takia, Ranvir Shorey and Paresh Rawal in the lead roles, while Bipasha Basu appears in an Item number. The film is loosely based upon the 1978 short story "Quitters, Inc." by Stephen King, which was previously adapted as one of three segments featured in Hollywood anthology film, "Cat's Eye" (1985). It became the second Indian film after "Julie Ganapathi" and first Hindi-language film to be adapted from a Stephen King's work. The story follows K (Abraham), a self-obsessed, narcissist chain smoker who agrees to kick his habit to save his marriage and visits a rehabilitation centre, but is caught in a labyrinth game by Baba Bengali (Rawal), the man who guarantees he will make him quit.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: The film released worldwide on 26 October 2007, but was met with a lukewarm response from Indian critics and mixed response from overseas critics. The film did not perform well at the box office either, becoming one of the major disasters of the year. According to Kashyap, the film failed because, it was considered much ahead of its time, courtesy of its dark and unusual storyline comprising with elements of surrealism, fantasy, dream, reality, horror and dark humour which left critics and the cinema-goers baffled, this was frowned upon by Indian audiences, as it was unconventional, pretentious and they had never seen anything like it. But in later years, the film received positive reviews and has become a cult film.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: "No Smoking" was nominated at several award ceremonies in 2008, primarily for the technical aspects of the film, including three Filmfare Award nominations. Before a full cinematic release in India, the film was invited to be screened at the Rome Film Festival where it won huge appreciation from the audience and critics alike. In 2011, the film was played at several film festivals in India and China, receiving unanimous applause and praise, as well as winning a number of awards.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: The film begins with a man waking up in decrepit old house in an unknown area. He gets a call from his wife inquiring where he is. Unaware of his location, he searches the house for a cigarette. He accidentally opens a room and finds it filled with Russian soldiers. One of them starts chasing him and opens fire at him. He gets shot in the leg and jumps into a bathtub he finds in the snow.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: The man wakes up in a bathtub. He is revealed to be K (John Abraham), a wealthy businessman in his 30s. He is confident, narcissistic and very arrogant, and also completely addicted to smoking. He smokes almost constantly - at work, at home, even in the bath and while having sex. His friends and family beg him to quit, but to no avail. K's friend Abbas (Ranvir Shorey) and his doctor (Kiku Sharda), offer to set up an appointment at a rehabilitation centre called 'Prayogshaala' ('The Laboratory'), which they claim will surely rid K of his habit. K finally relents after his wife Anjali (Ayesha Takia) leaves him, unable to take the strain K's smoking addiction places on their relationship.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: K decides to check out Prayogshaala, and meets Shri Shri Prakash Guru Ghantal Baba Bengali Sealdahwale (Paresh Rawal). The centre operates behind the front of another business, 'Kalkatta Karpets'. K finds the building to be unconventional and confusing, similar to a Labyrinth. The method Prayogshaala uses to cure their patients of their addiction is based on fear and psychological manipulation. Each time a patient gives in to their vice, Baba makes sure that something shocking happens to them.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: K initially refuses to sign the contract and pay the fee of 21,11,110 for his treatment but is forced to do so by Baba and his disciples. Baba then tells K that he is free to leave, but he must abide by the rules or he will suffer the consequences. K witnesses other members of the group as they try to quit smoking. Many end up losing fingers as they cannot resist the urge to smoke. K tries to keep to the terms but fails twice and is punished. He is now very conscious about the third time.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: After some time, K meets an old friend, Alex, who is now a Cuban cigar seller. At an event, K is forced to place a cigar in his mouth, in order to appease his friend. Seconds later, he receives a phone call from the police, who inform him that his wife is missing and possibly dead. He calls Baba and is told that for smoking, his wife will be killed, as per the rules. He protests that he did not actually smoke and Baba apologizes for the mistake, but says it is too late. K asks Baba to tell the police about this, but the line goes dead and the phone number is non-existent on dialling. K's protests are ignored and the police believe that he is delusional. Trying to prove his story, he seeks out Abbas, who had lost a finger at the rehabilitation centre, only to find that the man has all fingers intact. Mocking him, the police force K to smoke. Shortly afterwards, K gets a phone call that his brother committed suicide due to his smoking habit. K raves angrily at the police and is thrown in the jail.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: K is eventually bailed out. Soon, he learns that Baba permits sins and vices to be done during a period known as 'Zero Minute'. He attends an event, where he sees Baba, but is unable to reach him. K decides to light a cigarette. Suddenly, K wakes up in a Russian army base, with a call from his wife. She asks him why he believes she is dead. K is confused, but escapes from the base by jumping into water and ends up in a ragged room, from which he sees himself staring out from a hospital room. He also sees his wife and Baba. He calls out but no one can hear him, and he is told that it is because his body no longer hears his inner soul. The final punishment is complete.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: In a series of haphazard events, the twisted path of K's soul is shown, until it finally reaches his body once again. K wakes up in his home to find his wife sleeping near him. He also discovers that he is missing two fingers. Later, K is seen recommending the "Prayogshala" centre to a friend.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: The idea for the film came during the making of "Satya" (1998), when director Ram Gopal Varma pitched a story about a chain smoker's encounter with someone who despises smoking. Varma later incorporated his own idea of the story as a short segment in his anthology film, "Darna Mana Hai" (2003). During the shooting of Kashyap's "Black Friday", his assistant narrated him a different script about a chain smoker who wakes up without cigarettes and is unable to get any because of a curfew. Kashyap decided to take the story forward, taking inspiration from "Quitters, Inc." and a surreal moment from "Cats Eye", subsequently making him develop the story into a darker and more unreal version.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: After the scripting was complete in 2006, Kashyap narrated the film to Shah Rukh Khan, who was keen to do the film but later would back out for unknown reasons. When the deal fell through Kashyap who was in bad shape at the time, as one of his films were delayed and the other stuck in production, he tried to get a hold of all the top actors, though none of them responded except for Abraham. Vishal Bhardwaj, Kashyap's friend and producer of the film recommended Saif Ali Khan, as he was part of the smoking segment in "Darna Mana Hai", though Kashyap had already finalised Abraham. Later false reports surfaced that Saif will be appearing in a cameo, on the request of co-producer Kumar Mangat, who worked together in "Omkara" (2006).


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: Due to the film having a complex storyline, when Kashyap was auditioning Abraham, he read him a badly written fake script titled "Lapata" (Lost), which Abraham declined to. After which he read him the real script of "No Smoking", he immediately agreed to do it. Initially Takia was not comfortable with the love making scenes and the clothes of the secretary (Annie), though Kashyap refused to make any changes. There is also a scene where Abraham is seen nude from rear, this stirred up some controversy. Abraham who had previously quit smoking, smoked up to 90 cigarettes a day during the shooting to give the film a more believable look. Later when the film was complete, Abraham went for an X-ray and found his lungs were heavily damaged.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: Originally director Rajkumar Santoshi was set to make his acting debut by playing the role of the doctor, and writer Abbas Tyrewala was to play the role later given to Shorey, hence Kashyap named the character after the writer.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: Most of the filming was done in unique ways. In one scene where Abraham and Shorey are seen as teenagers smoking Marijuana, most directors would have used child actors but Kashyap decided instead to alter the appearance of the actors and make them improvise and behave as kids themselves.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: The film was also shot in parts of the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Siberia, in extremely cold climates with temperatures of minus 25 degrees Celsius (°C), despite this none of the crew members had any problems during the shooting. During the shooting in Uzbekistan, a Russian actor dressed as a soldier had to chase Abraham. After running 200 meters the man collapsed, as the shooting was on high altitudes, there was a lack of oxygen. He had to be rushed to the hospital, as he had stopped breathing.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: The film was heavily panned by Indian critics. "Sify" gave it 2 out of 5 stars saying "You try so hard to understand what "No Smoking" tries to say, but the film is like one big puzzle that refuses to get solved. John makes a sincere attempt to leave a mark and succeeds to an extent. Really, one wonders, what prompted John to instantly approve this bizarre story". Rajeev Masand of "IBN Live" giving it 1.5/5 said "What the director gives us is an extremely arrogant piece of work that reeks of over-confidence and self-proclaimed genius. How else do you explain the intentionally incohesive screenplay, the bizarre dialogue, and the blatant disregard for the viewer's time and patience?". Nikhat Kazmi of "Times of India" also gave it 1.5/5 stars and said ""No Smoking" leaves you completely baffled and desperately looking for logic in its surreal sequences of John in a jaded jail, John in a tunnel, John in a bathtub, John in Siberia-like surroundings". Indu Mirani from "DNA India" rated it 1.5/5 saying "There is a fine line between intelligence and indulgence and with "No Smoking", director Anurag Kashyap crosses it often. It’s not like he has made a rank bad film, but 'No Smoking' is so influenced by graphic novels and Neil Gaiman books, that understanding its plot's many forward and backward movements would be out of the scope of the layman". Khalid Mohamed of "Hindustan Times" rated it 1 star and said "Too in-depth man, too in-depth, puffing, driving, the sex act, fingers being chopped. Kcuf, kcuf. What’s happening out here? You can’t make out, you don’t care, and you’re fed up of the affectations, the self-indulgence." Taran Adarsh from "Bollywood Hungama" giving it 1 out of 5 said "You try so hard to understand what "No Smoking" tries to say, but the film is like one big puzzle that refuses to get solved. What ails "No Smoking", did you ask. Simple, it's the most complicated cinematic experience of 2007. On the whole, "No Smoking" fails miserably. Very disappointing!". Prithviraj Hegde of "Rediff.com" gave the film 0 stars and said "The movie unfolds like a bad dream and spins into a downward spiral that's unreal, incomprehensible and leaves you dazed. And as you may have gathered, I still have no clue what the movie was about." On the contrary, Chandril Bhattacharya of Anandabazar Patrika praised the movie uninhibitedly and described the film as first of its kind in India and historical. Aesthetically and culturally significant, it is extremely unfortunate No Smoking was not sent as India’s official selection at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language film. Instead, in 2012 "No Smoking" was voted no. 2 on the list of: "The Ten Worst Films of John Abraham" by "Rediff.com".


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes website, the film has received 46% fresh rating, indicating mixed reviews. Phelim O'Neill of "The Guardian" gave it 3 out of 5 saying "While no screen credit is offered to King, it's clear his tale directly forms this film's basis, making it kind of a first for Indian cinema. It could be the beginning of a trend. While a slack pace, unsettled internal logic and a goofy subplot undo much of director Kashyap's hard work. "Film 4" also rated it 3 out of 5 stars and said "Those whose concept of Bollywood involves elephants, saris and dance numbers might be pleasantly surprised by Anurag Kashyap's film, a slick thriller that combines a screwball sensibility with a nightmarish twist". Tajpal Rathore from "BBC Films "gave it 1 out of 5 and said ""No Smoking" is a surprisingly sincere effort, but shouldn't make your life feel any more fulfilled, even if you are a smoker. The shoddy screenplay is stale, and its situations laughable, and though the actors' give it their all, it just doesn't light up in the end. No smoke, and no fire, in what is ultimately a bit of a drag".


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: The film was screened in private a day before its release, as most of the audience could not decipher the film, they left, which resulted in a negative word of the mouth spreading. The film was further affected from negative critical reception. "No Smoking" opened to a poor response at the box office, and was one of the biggest disasters of the year.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: The film was made on huge budget and at the time when it sank at the box office, the director Kashyap fell into depression not expecting the critics to lash at it. He admitted that most of the audience expected to see a film about quitting smoking and that pre-release, the extensively played item song featuring Basu gave audience the wrong type of image as they expected her to play the lead role opposite Abraham. In 2011, Kashyap stated that "No Smoking" was his favourite, of all his films.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: "No Smoking" has garnered a strong cult following, among Kashyap's fans and movie buffs, who rate it as one of the most abstract stories, which can have multiple interpretations. The film has seen more positive response from overseas than in India, though the audience now views it as a modern masterpiece, critical reception has still not improved. It is often compared to the films of Hollywood director David Lynch, who is known for his cult surrealistic films.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: "No Smoking" has been played at several Film festivals. It was played at the Indian film festival and won multiple awards, after being repeatedly screened. The film was also played at various venues in Beijing (China) and Rome.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: "No Smoking" is notable as being the only Bollywood film which can have multiple interpretations. Kashyap explained that the film has nothing to do with quitting smoking but relatively about the state of mind, which refers to the mood or the mental state of the film's protagonist, K. He has left it upon the audience themselves to make their own interpretations and speculate what transpires. There are many unofficial blogs on the internet by fans trying to solve the film's meaning.


title: No Smoking (2007 film)

text: The official soundtrack was composed by Vishal Bhardwaj who also co-produced the film. Background Score was done by Hitesh Sonik & Clinton Cerejo. The lyrics were penned by Gulzar. The music rights were sold to Eros Entertainment and were released in September 2007. The album is available to download from iTunes.