title: Zoox (company)

text: Zoox is creating an entirely new autonomous vehicle targeted at the robo-taxi market. The company's approach is centered around the fact that a retrofitted vehicle is not optimized for autonomy. Zoox has applied the latest techniques in automotive, robotics and renewable energy to build a symmetrical, bi-directional battery-electric vehicle that solves for the unique challenges of autonomous mobility.


title: Zoox (company)

text: The company has used retrofitted Toyota Highlanders with their self-driving system in final preparation for their commercial vehicle reveal in December 2020. As of July 2018 test driving was taking place in both San Francisco's Financial District and North Beach districts, as well as Las Vegas.


title: Zoox (company)

text: In December 2018, Zoox became the first company to gain approval for providing self-driving transport services to the public in California. By July 2018, according to Bloomberg, Zoox had raised $800 million in venture capital, at a valuation of $3.2 billion. Draper Fisher Jurvetson is an investor in the company. In September 2020, Zoox became the fourth company in the State of California to receive permit to test driverless automobiles on public roads. On December 14, 2020, Zoox showcased a fully autonomous, all-electric, purpose-built vehicle that is capable of driving up to 75 mph.


title: Zoox (company)

text: On March 20, 2019, Tesla, Inc. filed a lawsuit against Zoox and several now-former Tesla employees (who left Tesla for employment at Zoox) alleging theft of Tesla's proprietary information and trade secrets related to warehousing, shipping, and logistics in late 2018 and early 2019. The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed sum in April 2020 where Zoox "acknowledged that certain of its new hires from Tesla were in possession of Tesla documents pertaining to shipping, receiving, and warehouse procedures when they joined Zoox's logistics team".


title: Zoox (company)

text: In July 2022, Zoox became the first purpose-built, fully autonomous, all-electric passenger vehicle that was certified to the existing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) without the need for regulatory changes or exemption requests.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: Sleepless is a 2017 American action thriller film directed by Baran bo Odar and written by Andrea Berloff. A remake of the 2011 French film "Sleepless Night", the film stars Jamie Foxx as a police officer who faces off against mobsters who have kidnapped his son. Michelle Monaghan, Dermot Mulroney, David Harbour, Tip "T.I." Harris, Gabrielle Union, and Scoot McNairy also star.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: This film was released in the United States on January 13, 2017, by Open Road Films. It received generally negative reviews from critics. The film grossed $33 million against a budget of $30 million.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: In Las Vegas, LVMPD policemen Vincent Downs – who has a lot of enemies – and his partner Sean Cass rob a shipment of cocaine belonging to entrepreneur Stanley Rubino, who intended to sell it to mobster Rob Novak, the son of a powerful mob boss. The two cops volunteer to investigate the robbery in order to cover up their involvement, clashing with Internal Affairs investigators Jennifer Bryant and her superior Doug Dennison, who are suspicious of the pair. Vincent is estranged from his wife Dena, who is getting remarried, and has minimal involvement in the life of his 16-year-old son T.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: While driving T to a soccer game, Vincent is ambushed by Rubino's men, who stab him in the abdomen and kidnap his son - demanding the stolen cocaine back in exchange for T's life. Vincent retrieves the cocaine from Cass, places it in a duffel bag, and leaves it in the ventilation shaft of one of the bathrooms in Rubino's casino, hoping he can negotiate his son's release before handing over his leverage. He is unknowingly followed by Bryant, who, now convinced he is a dirty cop, retrieves the bag and hides it in the women's locker room nearby.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: Without the drugs, Vincent is forced to present Rubino with bags of sugar to ensure T's safety, but Novak uncovers his ruse, and T is recaptured by Rubino's men, while Vincent manages to escape. Meanwhile, after coming up empty while searching the casino for Vincent, Dennison is convinced he's gotten away and directs Bryant to go home and get some sleep. Bryant gives him the key to the women's locker with the cocaine and heads for the exit.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: Vincent enters the casino as a janitor, but crosses paths with Bryant on her way out and is chased into one of the hotel rooms. They fight, and he subdues her before revealing he's been undercover on behalf of Internal Affairs for the last two years to dismantle the crime ring within the police department. He knows Cass is a drug-runner, knew details about a previous investigation by Bryant, and is now attempting to find the senior member of law enforcement that is covering everything up. A skeptical Bryant directs him to the locker room to retrieve the cocaine, but the drugs have recently been removed by Dennison. Dennison ambushes Vincent but is ultimately overpowered and knocked unconscious. Meanwhile, T escapes and steals Rubino's cellphone to contact Vincent, but is quietly being followed by Rubino and his men who allow it all to happen in an attempt to lure Vincent into a trap. Elsewhere, Dena finds out Vincent and T are in danger and heads to the casino.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: Cass arrives and confronts Vincent about his Internal Affairs involvement, but then saves Vincent from one of Novak's men. He is shot in the process and presumed dead. Vincent infiltrates the casino in a police uniform that Cass brought and finds out Dennison is the mole in the force upon going through Cass's phone; Dennison is on Novak's payroll and ordered Cass to kill Vincent after informing him that he was Internal Affairs. Bryant and Dennison later find a severely injured Cass in the garage. While Bryant checks the vitals of Novak's man, Dennison privately questions Cass on whether Vincent is aware of his involvement and finishes him off when Cass refuses to answer. Vincent and T reunite just as Novak begins shooting up the casino and escape to the parking garage. In the ensuing shootout, Bryant arrests Rubino.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: Vincent and T attempt to escape in a stolen car, but are ambushed by Novak and his men, leading to a violent shootout. Dena arrives and kills Novak's remaining henchman to save Vincent and T before Novak corners them. He shoots Vincent in the chest, but Vincent survives and fatally shoots Novak. Vincent then contacts Bryant and alerts her of Dennison's corruption. She instantly attempts to apprehend Dennison but he shoots her. He then kills Rubino after questioning if Novak's father ever mentioned him in his criminal dealings, then shoots dead the policeman driving the cruiser they are in, in order to cause the vehicle to crash, intending to frame Rubino for the incident. However, Bryant survives and exposes Dennison, who is promptly arrested.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: Vincent and Bryant are taken to the same hospital, where they make amends and congratulate each other on the job. Meanwhile, a corrupt DEA agent - seen earlier in the film - contacts Novak's father and informs him that there has been a problem, implying that he will subsequently tell him about his son's death.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: The film was released in the United States by Open Road Films on January 13, 2017. It was originally set to be released on February 24, 2017, but in October 2016 was moved up to January.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: "Sleepless" grossed $20.8 million in the United States and Canada and $12.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $32.9 million.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: In North America, the film was released alongside "Monster Trucks" and "The Bye Bye Man", as well as the wide releases of "Silence", "Patriots Day" and "Live by Night," and was expected to gross around $10 million from 1,803 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up opening to $8.4 million, finishing 8th at the box office. The film grossed $3.5 million of wide release (a drop of 59%), falling to 9th.


title: Sleepless (2017 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 25% based on 61 reviews and an average rating of 4.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Sleepless" wastes a talented cast – and solid source material – on a tired crime drama whose clichés rapidly outnumber its thrills." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score 34 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 77% overall positive score.


title: Beja people

text: The Beja people (, Beja: Oobja, ) are an ethnic group native to the Eastern Desert, inhabiting a coastal area from southeastern Egypt through eastern Sudan and into northwestern Eritrea. They are descended from peoples who have inhabited the area since 4000 BC or earlier, although they were Arabized by Arabs who settled in the region. They are nomadic, and live primarily in the Eastern Desert. They number around 1,900,000 to 2,200,000 people. Most of the Beja speak Arabic, while some speak the Cushitic language of Beja and the Semitic language of Tigre. In Eritrea and southeastern Sudan, many members of the Beni-Amer grouping speak Tigre. Originally, the Beja did not speak Arabic, however the migration of the numerous Arab tribes of Juhaynah, Mudar, Rabi'a, and many more to the Beja areas contributed to the Arabization and Islamization of them, however the Arabs did not fully settle in the Beja areas as they looked for better climate in other areas. The Beja have partially mixed with Arabs through intermarriages over the centuries, and by the 15th century were absorbed into Islam. The process of Arabization led to the Beja adopting the Arabic language, Arab clothing, and Arab kinship organization.


title: Beja people

text: While many secondary sources identify the Ababda as an Arabic-speaking Beja tribe due to their cultural links with the Bishari, this is a misconception: The Ababda do not consider themselves Beja, nor are they so considered by Beja people.


title: Beja people

text: The Beja are traditionally Cushitic-speaking pastoral nomads native to northeast Africa, formerly referred to as Blemmyes. The geographer Abu Nasr Mutahhar al-Maqdisi wrote in the tenth century that the Beja were at that time Christians. Beja territories in the Eastern desert were made tributary by the Kingdom of Aksum in the third century. The historian Al-Yaqubi documented five Beja Kingdoms in the 9th century. Originally, the Beja did not speak Arabic, however the migration of the numerous Arab tribes of Juhaynah, Mudar, Rabi'a, and many more to the Beja areas contributed to the Arabization and Islamization of them, however the Arabs did not fully settle in the Beja areas as they looked for better climate in other areas. The Beja have partially mixed with Arabs through intermarriages over the centuries, and by the 15th century, the Beja were Islamized. The now-Islamic Beja participated in the further Muslim conquest of Sudan, expanding southward. The Hadendoa Beja by the 18th century dominated much of eastern Sudan. In the Mahdist War of the 1880s to 1890s, the Beja fought on both sides, the Hadendoa siding with the Mahdist troops, while the Bisharin and Amarar tribes sided with the British, and some Beni Amer - a subset of the Beja who live largely in modern Eritrea - sided with the Ethiopian Ras Alula in certain battles, such as Kufit.


title: Beja people

text: The Beja Congress was formed in 1952 with the aim of pursuing regional autonomy from the government in Khartoum. Frustrated by the lack of progress, the Beja Congress joined the insurgent National Democratic Alliance in the 1990s. The Beja Congress effectively controlled a part of eastern Sudan centered on Garoura and Hamshkoraib. The Beja Congress sabotaged the oil pipeline to Port Sudan several times during 1999 and 2000. In 2003, they rejected the peace deal arranged between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army, and allied with the rebel movement of the Darfur region, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, in January 2004. A peace agreement was signed with the government of Sudan in October 2006. In the general elections in April 2010, the Beja Congress did not win a single seat in the National Assembly in Khartoum. In anger over alleged election fraud and the slow implementation of the peace agreement, the Beja Congress in October 2011 withdrew from the agreement, and later announced an alliance with the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army.


title: Beja people

text: The Beja people inhabit a general area between the Nile River and the Red Sea in Sudan, Eritrea and eastern Egypt known as the Eastern Desert. Most of them live in the Sudanese states of Red Sea around Port Sudan, River Nile, Al Qadarif and Kassala, as well as in Northern Red Sea, Gash-Barka, and Anseba Regions in Eritrea, and southeastern Egypt. There are smaller populations of other Beja ethnic groups further north into Egypt's Eastern Desert. Some Beja groups are nomadic. The Kharga Oasis in Egypt's Western Desert is home to a large number of Qamhat Bisharin who were displaced by the Aswan High Dam. Jebel Uweinat is revered by the Qamhat.


title: Beja people

text: The Beja have been named "Blemmyes" in Roman times, Bəga in Aksumite inscriptions in Ge'ez, and "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling was specifically referring to the Hadendoa, who fought the British, supporting the Mahdi, the Sudanese leader of the war against Turkish-Egyptian rule, supported by the British Imperial administration.


title: Beja people

text: Many of the Beja speak Arabic, while some speak the Beja language, known as "Bidhaawyeet" or "Tubdhaawi" in that language. It belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family. Cohen noted that the Beja language is the Cushitic language with the largest proportion of Semitic roots, and stated that they are in majority of Arabic origin.


title: Beja people

text: The French linguist Didier Morin (2001) has made an attempt to bridge the gap between Beja and another branch of Cushitic, namely Lowland East Cushitic languages and in particular Afar and Saho, the linguistic hypothesis being historically grounded on the fact that the three languages were once geographically contiguous. Most Beja speak the Beja language, but certain subgroups use other lingua franca. The Beni Amers speak a variety of Tigre, whereas most of the Halengas speak Arabic.


title: Beja people

text: Although there is a marked Arabic influence, the Beja language is still widely spoken. The very fact that the highest moral and cultural values of this society are in one way or the other linked to their expression in Beja, that Beja poetry is still highly praised, and that the claims over the Beja land are only valid when expressed in Beja, are very strong social factors in favour of its preservation. True enough Arabic is considered as the language of modernity, but it is also very low in the scale of Beja cultural values as it is a means of transgressing social prohibitions. Beja is still the prestigious language for most of its speakers because it conforms to the ethical values of the community.


title: Beja people

text: The Bejas are divided into clans. These lineages include the Bisharin, Hedareb, Hadendowa (or "Hadendoa"), the Amarar (or "Amar'ar"), Beni-Amer, Hallenga, Habab, Belin and Hamran, some of whom are partly mixed with Bedouins in the east.


title: Beja people

text: Beja society was traditionally organized into independent kingdoms. According to Al-Yaqubi, there were six such Beja polities that existed between Aswan and Massawa during the 9th century. Among these were the Kingdom of Bazin, Kingdom of Belgin, Kingdom of Jarin, Kingdom of Nagash, Kingdom of Qita'a and Kingdom of Tankish.


title: Ladies of the Canyon (album)

text: Ladies of the Canyon is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released on Reprise Records in 1970. It peaked at No. 27 on the "Billboard" 200, and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. The title makes reference to Laurel Canyon, a centre of popular music culture in Los Angeles during the 1960s. The album includes several of Mitchell's most noted songs, such as "Big Yellow Taxi", "Woodstock" and "The Circle Game".


title: Ladies of the Canyon (album)

text: The album is notable for its expansion of Mitchell's artistic vision and its varied song topics (ranging from the aesthetic weight of celebrity, to observation of the Woodstock generation, to the complexities of love). "Ladies of the Canyon" is often viewed as a transition between Mitchell's folky earlier work and the more sophisticated, poignant albums that were to follow. In particular, "For Free" foreshadows the lyrical leitmotif of the isolation triggered by success that would be elaborated upon in "For the Roses" and "Court and Spark". The sparse, alternative-tuning laden sound of later records comes to the forefront on "Ladies of the Canyon".


title: Ladies of the Canyon (album)

text: Of all of Mitchell's work, this album is the most related to her long-standing friendships and relationships with Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young (whose rock arrangement of "Woodstock" was one of their four radio hits in 1970). A number of the album's songs, including the aforementioned "Ladies of the Canyon" and "Woodstock", feature densely stacked, wordless harmony overdubs reminiscent of David Crosby's oeuvre; Crosby himself has performed "For Free" for many years. "The Circle Game", one of the artist's early signature songs, features background vocals from all four, and is a response to Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain".


title: Ladies of the Canyon (album)

text: Reviewing for "The Village Voice" in 1970, Robert Christgau found "Ladies of the Canyon" "superior to her previous work, richer lyrically and more compelling musically." He said the album's second half is "almost perfect, and the arrangements are intelligent throughout", but found Mitchell's voice weak and her wordplay inconsistent. Years later in "" (1981), he said that, despite the occasional "laughably high school" wordplay, Mitchell's reliance on piano suggests "a move from the open air to the drawing room ... that's reflected in richer, more sophisticated songs." In 2000 it was voted number 731 in Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums".


title: Ladies of the Canyon (album)

text: "Big Yellow Taxi" has become a standard over the years, as well as being sampled by Janet Jackson. In 1995 Annie Lennox performed the song "Ladies of the Canyon" and released it as the B-side of her single "No More I Love You's".


title: Ladies of the Canyon (album)

text: Singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey included a cover of the song "For Free" as part of several dates of her 2019 Norman Fucking Rockwell! Tour. A studio version of the cover featuring Zella Day and Weyes Blood was also included in her 2021 album "Chemtrails over the Country Club".


title: Ladies of the Canyon (album)

text: "The Young and the Restless" star Jess Walton stated that she was the owner of one of the houses featured on the album's cover.


title: Head shaving

text: Head shaving is a form of body modification which involves shaving the hair from a person's head. People throughout history have shaved all or part of their heads for diverse reasons including aesthetics, convenience, culture, fashion, practicality, punishment, a rite of passage, religion, or style.


title: Head shaving

text: The earliest historical records describing head shaving are from ancient Mediterranean cultures such as Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The Egyptian priest class ritualistically removed all hair from head to toe by plucking it.


title: Head shaving

text: In many cultures throughout history, cutting or shaving the hair on men has been seen as a sign of subordination. In ancient Greece and much of Babylon, long hair was a symbol of economic and social power, while a shaved head was the sign of a slave. This was a way of the slave-owner establishing the slave's body as their property by literally removing a part of their personhood and individuality.


title: Head shaving

text: The practice of shaving heads has been widely in the military. Although sometimes explained as being for hygiene reasons, the image of strict and disciplined conformity is also accepted as a factor. Upon the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II, many soldiers chose to have their heads completely shaved in order to deny any Nazis the opportunity to grab it if they engaged in hand-to-hand combat. For the new military recruit, it can be a rite of passage, and variations of it have become a badge of honor.


title: Head shaving

text: Prisoners commonly have their heads shaven to prevent the spread of lice, but it may also be used as a demeaning measure. Having the head shaved can be a punishment prescribed in law. Nazis punished people accused of racial mixing by parading them through the streets with shaved heads and placards around their necks detailing their "crimes".


title: Head shaving

text: During and after World War II, thousands of French women had their heads shaved in front of cheering crowds as punishment for either collaborating with the Nazis or having sexual relationships with Nazi soldiers during the war. Some Finnish women also had their heads shaved for allegedly having relationships with Soviet prisoners of war during the war.


title: Head shaving

text: Many Buddhists and Vaisnavas, especially Hare Krishnas, shave their heads. Some Hindu and most Buddhist monks and nuns shave their heads upon entering their order, and Buddhist monks and nuns in Korea have their heads shaved every 15 days. Muslim men have the choice of shaving their heads after performing the Umrah and Hajj, following the tradition of committing to Allah, but are not required to keep it permanently shaved.


title: Head shaving

text: Hasidic Jewish men will occasionally shave all of their head except for the sides to emphasize their payot (sidelocks). In certain Hasidic sects, most famously Satmar, married women shave their heads every month before immersion in the mikveh (ritual bath).


title: Head shaving

text: Competitive swimmers, sprinters, and joggers sometimes seek to gain an advantage by completely removing all hair from their entire body to reduce drag while competing.


title: Head shaving

text: People experiencing hair loss may shave their heads in order to look more presentable, for convenience, or to adhere to a certain style or fashion movement. Those with alopecia areata or androgenetic alopecia often choose to shave, which has rapidly become a common choice since the 1990s. It has also become more common for bald men to accessorize with small hoop or stud earrings, a look famously adopted by figures such as basketball player Michael Jordan and professional wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin upon shaving their heads in the 1990s.


title: Head shaving

text: "This list includes only notable people for whom a shaved head is an important and recognizable part of their public image; it is not a list of every celebrity who has shaved their head at some point in their life."


title: Head shaving

text: In modern fiction, shaved heads are often associated with characters who display a stern and disciplined or hardcore attitude. Examples include characters played by Yul Brynner, Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson, Telly Savalas, Sigourney Weaver, and Bruce Willis, as well as characters such as Agent 47 (whose physical appearance was based on his actor, the aforementioned David Bateson), Mr. Clean, Kratos, Saitama, and Walter White. Baldness is sometimes an important part of these characters' biographies; for example, Saitama wanted to be a superhero and lost all of his hair in exchange for receiving superpowers. Shaved heads are also often associated with villains in fiction, such as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Colonel Kurtz, and Lex Luthor. A notable exception is Daddy Warbucks.


title: Head shaving

text: A goatee, usually of the Van Dyke variety, is often worn to complement the look or add sophistication; this look was widely popularized in the mid-to-late 1990s by professional wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. For the majority of the crime drama series "Breaking Bad", often regarded as one of the greatest TV series of all time, the aforementioned Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) wore a Van Dyke with a shaved head, contributing to the character's iconic status.


title: Head shaving

text: In futuristic settings, shaved heads are often associated with bland uniformity, especially in sterile settings such as " V for Vendetta" and "THX 1138". In the 1927 sci-fi film "Metropolis", hundreds of extras had their heads shaved to represent the oppressed masses of a future dystopia.


title: Head shaving

text: It is less common for female characters to have shaved heads, though some actresses have shaved their heads or used bald caps for roles.


title: Head shaving

text: In the 1960s, some British working-class youths developed the skinhead subculture, whose members were distinguished by short cropped hair (although they did not shave their heads down to the scalp at the time). This look was partly influenced by the Jamaican rude boy style. It was not until the skinhead revival in the late 1970s—with the appearance of punk-influenced Oi! skinheads—that many skinheads started shaving their hair right down to the scalp. Head shaving has also appeared in other youth-oriented subcultures such as the hardcore, black metal, metalcore, nu metal, hip hop, techno, and neo-nazi scenes.


title: Head shaving

text: A sexual fetish involving head shaving is called trichophilia. While a shaved head on a man is often seen as a sign of authority and virility, a shaved head on a woman typically connotes androgyny, especially when combined with traditionally feminine signifiers. It may, but does not always, express membership in the LGBT community; gay men sometimes incorporate a shaven head into their overall look, particularly amongst the bear subculture. Those with the stereotypical "Castro clone" look commonly shave their heads in order to project a homoerotic, ultra-masculine image. Drag queens have sometimes adopted shaved heads to express a genderqueer image. In the BDSM community, shaving a submissive or slave's head is often used to demonstrate powerlessness or submission to the will of a dominant.


title: Head shaving

text: Baldness is perhaps the most famous side effect of the chemotherapy treatment for cancer, and some people shave their heads before undergoing such treatment or after the hair loss starts to become apparent; some people chose to shave their heads in solidarity with cancer sufferers, especially as part of a fundraising effort.


title: Head shaving

text: During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many countries imposed strict lockdown procedures and actively encouraged members of the public to self-isolate. Many people, particularly men, initially began to shave their heads during lockdown due to boredom and being unable to have their hair cut as barbershops were forced to stay closed. In the UK, a fundraising effort began to support its National Health Service, which suffered from the enormous pressure of the pandemic. The effort was started on Just Giving with a goal of £100,000; it encouraged people to shave their heads whilst also donating money to the NHS and was dubbed the "Covhead-19 Challenge". Various celebrities also took part.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: Roberto Fabián Ayala (; born 14 April 1973), nicknamed "El Ratón" ("The Mouse"), is an Argentine former footballer who played as a centre back for the Argentina national football team, as well as Valencia and Real Zaragoza in Spain, Milan and Napoli in Italy, and Ferro Carril, River Plate and Racing Club in his native Argentina.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: Regarded as one of the best central defenders of his generation, he stood out for his leadership and ability in the air throughout his career in spite of his small stature as a centre back. Ayala captained Argentina in a record 63 matches. He played in three FIFA World Cups and made a total of 115 international appearances, behind only Javier Mascherano, Javier Zanetti and Lionel Messi in terms of international appearances.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: Ayala began his career in his native Argentina, playing for Ferro Carril Oeste. After three seasons, he moved to River Plate where his good form attracted the attention of clubs in Europe.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: Italian side Parma brought the Argentine defender to Europe. However, the club, having already used their quota of three non-EU players, loaned him to Napoli, who purchased 50% of his rights on a co-ownership deal. Ayala was bought by Milan at the end of the 1997–98 season and played there for two seasons until Valencia purchased him for £6.25 million.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: After signing with Valencia in the summer of 2000, Ayala made 275 appearances during a seven-year spell at the club.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: On 24 September 2000, Ayala made his debut for Valencia in a 3–0 La Liga win over Numancia. He soon established himself as a first choice central defender for "Los Che" and started alongside compatriot Mauricio Pellegrino in the 2001 UEFA Champions League final, where Valencia lost 5–4 to Bayern Munich after a penalty shootout. He was later named best defender for the 2000–01 tournament.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: The following season, Ayala was part of the Valencia team that won the 2001–02 La Liga title. He scored the opening goal of a 2–0 defeat of Málaga which secured the championship on 5 May 2002. In 2003–04, Valencia again won the La Liga title and beat Marseille 2–0 in Gothenburg to win the UEFA Cup.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: During the 2004–05 season, injuries kept Ayala from much of the La Liga campaign as well as the UEFA Super Cup victory over Porto.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: During his time with Valencia, he was widely regarded as one of the finest central defenders in the world and is considered to be one of the club's all-time legends.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: In August 2006, Ayala was not offered a new contract by sporting director Amedeo Carboni. On 7 February 2007, he announced he would join regional rivals Villarreal at the end of the season, however before having played for Villarreal, he joined Real Zaragoza on a three-year deal on 14 July 2007. The buy-out clause in his contract with Villarreal was €6 million (£4.8 million) which was paid in full by Real Zaragoza.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: On 3 May 2008, Ayala scored his first goal for Real Zaragoza in the 94th minute against Deportivo de La Coruña to lead Zaragoza to a 1–0 victory. Zaragoza, however, were relegated to the Segunda División. On 22 November 2008, Ayala scored his second goal for Zaragoza, in the 73rd of a 3–0 win over Eibar. On 29 February 2009, he scored his third goal coming in the 54th minute against Real Murcia as Zaragoza won the match 4–1.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: Ayala played for Argentina U23 at the 1996 Summer Olympics, winning the silver medal. He played for Argentina in the 1998 FIFA World Cup and was a non-playing squad member in the 2002 competition due to a last-minute injury moments before their first match against Nigeria. He was selected as one of the three overage players then Argentina U23 won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Ayala played an integral part in the Argentine squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He played brilliantly throughout the tournament and was picked as a member of the All Star Team. In the quarter-final against Germany, he scored a header that gave Argentina the 1–0 lead, although his side lost the penalty shootout after a 1–1 draw, with Ayala's spot kick being saved by Jens Lehmann.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: One of the best defenders in Argentina's history, on 7 February 2007 Ayala became the most capped player of the national team (most as captain), beating his friend Diego Simeone, in a friendly victory 1–0 against France played in the Stade de France in Paris.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: On 5 June 2007, in a friendly against Algeria, Ayala captained Argentina for a record 58th international, having equalled Diego Maradona's mark of 57 in the 1–1 draw against Switzerland in Basel on 2 June.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: On 17 July 2007, two days after playing in the 2007 Copa América Final, which ended in a 3–0 defeat to Brazil, and during which he scored an own goal, Ayala announced his retirement from international football. Ayala stated, "it has nothing to do with what happened in the final of the Copa América." Javier Zanetti took over from him as captain.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: On 30 December, Ayala retired from professional football. On 21 December 2011, Ayala was hired as a football coordinator at Racing Club. In September 2013, a new management arrived, and Ayala was released on 19 September 2013.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: In December 2013, Ayala was hired as a technical director / sport director for Valencia, where he was going to be the responsible for the whole South American area. The role also involved him scouting in that area to find young talents. He left the club in the middle of 2015.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: On 10 January 2019, Ayala joined the technical staff of the Argentina national football team as a field assistant of manager Lionel Scaloni.


title: Roberto Ayala

text: Regarded as one of the best and most accomplished defenders of all time, Ayala was mainly known for his ability in the air and tenacious tackling, and also stood out for his leadership and consistency throughout his career. A complete defender, he was also noted for his speed, ability on the ball, and passing accuracy as a centre-back.


title: Tar Heel

text: Tar Heel is a nickname applied to the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is also the nickname of the University of North Carolina athletic teams, students, alumni, and fans.


title: Tar Heel

text: The origins of the Tar Heel nickname trace back to North Carolina's prominence from the mid-18th through the 19th century as a producer of turpentine, tar, pitch, and other materials from the state's plentiful pine trees. "Tar Heel" (and a related version, "Rosin Heel") was often applied to the poor white laborers who worked to produce tar, pitch, and turpentine. The nickname was embraced by Confederate North Carolina soldiers during the Civil War and grew in popularity as a nickname for the state and its citizens following the war.


title: Tar Heel

text: In its early years as a colony, North Carolina became an important source of the naval stores of tar, pitch, and turpentine, especially for the Royal Navy. Tar and pitch were largely used to paint the bottoms of wooden ships, both to seal the ships and to prevent shipworms from damaging the hulls. Tar was created by piling up pine logs and burning them until hot oil seeped out from a spout.


title: Tar Heel

text: Hugh Lefler and Albert Newsome claim in their "North Carolina: the History of a Southern State" (3rd edition, 1973) that North Carolina led the world in production of naval stores from about 1720 to 1870. At one time, an estimated of tar and pitch were shipped from North Carolina to England every year. After 1824, North Carolina became the leader for naval stores in the United States. By the time the Civil War began in 1861, North Carolina had more than 1,600 turpentine distilleries. Two-thirds of all the turpentine in the United States came from North Carolina, and one-half came from the counties of Bladen and New Hanover.


title: Tar Heel

text: The vast production of tar from North Carolina led many, including Walt Whitman, to give the derisive nickname of "Tarboilers" to the residents of North Carolina. North Carolina was nicknamed the "Tar and Turpentine State" because of this industry. These terms evolved until the nickname "Tar Heel" was being used to refer to residents of North Carolina. The term gained prominence during the American Civil War, when it had a mainly pejorative meaning. Starting around 1865, however, the term began to be used by residents of North Carolina themselves as an expression of pride.


title: Tar Heel

text: One of the earliest known references to the term in print came in 1863 in an article in a Raleigh newspaper in which a Confederate soldier from North Carolina is quoted:


title: Tar Heel

text: The troops from other States call us “Tar Heels.” I am proud of the name, as tar is a sticky substance, and the “Tar Heels” stuck up like a sick kitten to a hot brick, while many others from a more oily State slipped to the rear, and left the “Tar Heels” to stick it out.


title: Tar Heel

text: In 1893, the students of the University of North Carolina founded a newspaper and named it "The Tar Heel," later renamed "The Daily Tar Heel." By the early 1900s, the term had been embraced by many, both inside and outside the state, as a non-derisive term for North Carolinians.


title: Tar Heel

text: According to this legend, the troops of British General Cornwallis during the American Revolutionary War were fording what is now known as the Tar River between Rocky Mount and Battleboro when they discovered that tar had been dumped into the stream to impede the crossing of British soldiers. When they finally got across the river, they found their feet completely black with tar. Thus, the soldiers observed that anyone who waded through North Carolina rivers would acquire "tar heels."


title: Tar Heel

text: In the third volume of Walter Clark's "Histories of the Several Regiments from North Carolina in the Great War", the author explains that the nickname came about when North Carolina troops held their ground during a battle in Virginia during the American Civil War while other supporting troops retreated. After the battle, supporting troops asked the victorious North Carolinians: "Any more tar down in the Old North State, boys?" and they replied: "No, not a bit; old Jeff's bought it all up." The supporting troops continued: "Is that so? What is he going to do with it?" The North Carolinian troops' response: "He is going to put it on you'ns' heels to make you stick better in the next fight."


title: Tar Heel

text: The State of North Carolina was the next to last state to secede from the United States of America, and as a result the state was nicknamed "the reluctant state" by others in the south. The joke circulating around at the beginning of the war went something like: "Got any tar?" "No, Jeff Davis has bought it all." "What for?" "To put on you fellows' heels to make you stick." As the war continued, many North Carolinian troops developed smart replies to this term of ridicule: The 1st Texas Infantry lost its flag at Sharpsburg. As they were passing by the 6th North Carolina a few days afterward, the Texans called out, "Tar Heels!", and the reply was, "If'n you had had some tar on your heels, you would have brought your flag back from Sharpsburg."


title: Tar Heel

text: The book "Grandfather Tales of North Carolina History" (1901) states that: During the late unhappy war between the States it [North Carolina] was sometimes called the "Tar-heel State," because tar was made in the State, and because in battle the soldiers of North Carolina stuck to their bloody work as if they had tar on their heels, and when General Lee said, "God bless the Tar-heel boys," they took the name. (p. 6)


title: Tar Heel

text: A letter found in 1991 (dating from 1864 in the North Carolina "Tar Heel Collection") by North Carolina State Archivist David Olson supports the theory that Lee might have stated something similar to this. A Colonel Joseph Engelhard, describing the Battle of Ream's Station in Virginia, wrote: "It was a 'Tar Heel' fight, and ... we got Gen'l Lee to thanking God, which you know means something brilliant."


title: Yukti Kapoor

text: Yukti Kapoor is an Indian television actress best known for portraying Urmila in "Siya Ke Ram" and Ragini Singh in Agniphera and S.I. Karishma Singh in "Maddam Sir".


title: Yukti Kapoor

text: Kapoor made her acting debut in 2010 with "Nanhi Si Kali Meri Laadli" where she was seen as Guddi. She subsequently appeared as Tanu Chauhan in "Jhilmil Sitaaron Ka Aangan Hoga", Bittoo in "Pyaar Ka Dard Hai Meetha Meetha Pyaara Pyaara" and Mayura Dunavati in "Yeh Hai Mohabbatein" in 2013. In the same year, she made her film debut with the Bhojpuri film "Ka Ukhaad Leba" where she played Mona Bai.


title: Yukti Kapoor

text: In 2015, she made her Hindi film debut with "Uvaa". Later in the same year, she landed her first major role in Star Plus's "Siya Ke Ram", where she portrayed Urmila opposite Karan Suchak.


title: Yukti Kapoor

text: In 2017, she played one of the protagonist Ragini Singh in "Agnifera" alongside Ankit Gera and Simran Kaur.


title: Yukti Kapoor

text: "Agnifera" took a leap in 2018, after which she portrayed her character's on-screen daughter Agni Singh Thakur alongside Samridh Bawa and Kaur(coincidentally portraying Kaur's earlier character's daughter) till 2019. Later, Kapoor played Swetha in an episode of "Laal Ishq" with Vikram Sakhalkar. The same year, she portrayed Lakshmi, Alakshmi and Matrikas in "Namah" alongside Savi Thakur.


title: Yukti Kapoor

text: In 2020, she appeared in her first music video "Fakiri". Since 2020, Kapoor has been playing the role of a Lucknow based female cop S.I. Karishma Singh in Sony SAB's "Maddam Sir" alongside Gulki Joshi. In 2022, she also portrayed Kaushalya Singh, the twin-sister of her onscreen character Karishma Singh in "Maddam Sir", in her third dual role.


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: Jamaica Kincaid (; born May 25, 1949) is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in St. John's, Antigua (part of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda). She lives in North Bennington, Vermont and is Professor of African and African American Studies in Residence at Harvard University during the academic year.


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in St John's, Antigua, on May 25, 1949. She grew up in relative poverty with her mother, a literate, cultured woman and homemaker, and her stepfather, a carpenter. She was very close to her mother until her three brothers were born in quick succession, starting when Kincaid was nine years old. After her brothers' births, she resented her mother, who thereafter focused primarily on the brothers' needs. Kincaid later recalled,


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: Our family money remained the same, but there were more people to feed and to clothe, and so everything got sort of shortened, not only material things but emotional things. The good emotional things, I got a short end of that. But then I got more of things I didn't have, like a certain kind of cruelty and neglect.


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: In a "New York Times" interview, Kincaid also said: "The way I became a writer was that my mother wrote my life for me and told it to me."


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: Kincaid received (and frequently excelled in) a British education growing up, as Antigua did not gain independence from the United Kingdom until 1981. Although she was intelligent and frequently tested at the top of her class, Kincaid's mother removed her from school at 16 to help support the family when her third and last brother was born, because her stepfather was ill and could no longer provide for the family. In 1966, when Kincaid was 17, her mother sent her to Scarsdale, a wealthy suburb of New York City, to work as an "au pair". After this move, Kincaid refused to send money home; "she left no forwarding address and was cut off from her family until her return to Antigua 20 years later".


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: In 1979, Kincaid married the composer and Bennington College professor Allen Shawn, son of longtime "The New Yorker" editor William Shawn and brother of actor Wallace Shawn. The couple divorced in 2002. They have two children: a son, Harold, the music producer/songwriter Levelsoundz, a graduate of Northeastern University; and a daughter, Annie, who graduated from Harvard and now works in marketing. Kincaid is president of the official Levelsoundz Fan Club.


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: While working as an "au pair", Kincaid enrolled in evening classes at a community college. After three years, she resigned from her job to attend Franconia College in New Hampshire on a full scholarship. She dropped out after a year and returned to New York, where she started writing for teenage girls' magazine "Ingénue", "The Village Voice" and "Ms." magazine. She changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid in 1973, when her writing was first published. She described this name change as "a way for [her] to do things without being the same person who couldn't do them — the same person who had all these weights". Kincaid explained that "Jamaica" is an English corruption of what Columbus called Xaymaca, the part of the world that she comes from, and "Kincaid" appeared to go well with "Jamaica". Her short fiction appeared in "The Paris Review", and in "The New Yorker", where her 1990 novel "Lucy" was originally serialized.


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: Kincaid is a writer, whose work has been both praised and criticized for its subject matter because it largely draws upon her own life, and her tone is often perceived as angry. Kincaid counters that many writers draw upon personal experience, so to describe her writing as autobiographical and angry is not valid criticism. Jamaica Kincaid was named the 50th commencement speaker at Bard College at Simon's Rock in 2019.


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: As a result of her budding writing career and friendship with George W. S. Trow, who wrote many pieces for "The New Yorker" column "The Talk of the Town", Kincaid became acquainted with "New Yorker" editor William Shawn, who was impressed with her writing. He employed her as a staff writer in 1976 and eventually as a featured columnist for "Talk of the Town" for nine years. Shawn's tutelage legitimized Kincaid as a writer and proved pivotal to her development of voice. In all, she was a staff writer for "The New Yorker" for 20 years. She resigned from "The New Yorker" in 1996 when then editor Tina Brown chose actress Roseanne Barr to guest-edit an issue as an original feminist voice. Though circulation rose under Brown, Kincaid was critical of Brown's direction in making the magazine less literary and more celebrity-oriented.


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: Kincaid recalls that when she was a writer for "The New Yorker", she would often be questioned, particularly by women, on how she was able to obtain her position. Kincaid felt that these questions were posed because she was a young black woman "from nowhere… I have no credentials. I have no money. I literally come from a poor place. I was a servant. I dropped out of college. The next thing you know I'm writing for "The New Yorker", I have this sort of life, and it must seem annoying to people."


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: "Talk Stories" was later published in 2001 as a collection of "77 short pieces Kincaid wrote for "The New Yorker"'s 'Talk of the Town' column between 1974 and 1983".


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: In December 2021, Kincaid was announced as the recipient of the 2022 "Paris Review" Hadada Prize, the magazine's annual lifetime achievement award.


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: Her novels are loosely autobiographical, though Kincaid has warned against interpreting their autobiographical elements too literally: "Everything I say is true, and everything I say is not true. You couldn't admit any of it to a court of law. It would not be good evidence." Her work often prioritizes "impressions and feelings over plot development" and features conflict with both a strong maternal figure and colonial and neocolonial influences. Excerpts from her non-fiction book "A Small Place" were used as part of the narrative for Stephanie Black's 2001 documentary, "Life and Debt".


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: One of Kincaid's contributions according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr, African-American literary critic, scholar, writer, and public intellectual, is that:


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: Kincaid's writing explores such themes as colonialism and colonial legacy, postcolonialism and neo-colonialism, gender and sexuality, renaming, mother-daughter relationships, British and American imperialism, colonial education, writing, racism, class, power, death, and adolescence. In her most recent novel, "See Now Then", Kincaid also first explores the theme of time.


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: Kincaid's unique style has created disagreement among critics and scholars, and as Harold Bloom explains: "Most of the published criticism of Jamaica Kincaid has stressed her political and social concerns, somewhat at the expense of her literary qualities." As works such as "At the Bottom of the" River and "The Autobiography of My Mother" use Antiguan cultural practices, some critics say these works employ magical realism. "The author claims, however, that [her work] is 'magic' and 'real,' but not necessarily [works] of 'magical realism'." Other critics claim that her style is "modernist" because much of her fiction is "culturally specific and experimental". It has also been praised for its keen observation of character, curtness, wit, and lyrical quality. Her short story "Girl" is essentially a list of instructions on how a girl should live and act, but the messages are much larger than the literal list of suggestions. Derek Walcott, 1992 Nobel laureate, said of Kincaid's writing: "As she writes a sentence, psychologically, its temperature is that it heads toward its own contradiction. It's as if the sentence is discovering itself, discovering how it feels. And that is astonishing, because it's one thing to be able to write a good declarative sentence; it's another thing to catch the temperature of the narrator, the narrator's feeling. And that's universal, and not provincial in any way". Susan Sontag has also commended Kincaid's writing for its "emotional truthfulness," poignancy, and complexity. Her writing has been described as "fearless" and her "force and originality lie in her refusal to curb her tongue". Giovanna Covi describes her unique writing: "The tremendous strength of Kincaid's stories lies in their capacity to resist all canons. They move at the beat of a drum and the rhythm of jazz…" She is described as writing with a "double vision" meaning that one line of plot mirrors another, providing the reader with rich symbolism that enhances the possibilities of interpretation.


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: Kincaid's writing is largely influenced by her life circumstances even though she discourages readers from taking her fiction literally. To do so, according to the writer Michael Arlen, is to be "disrespectful of a fiction writer's ability to create fictional characters". Kincaid worked for Arlen, who would become a colleague at "The New Yorker", as an au pair and is the figure whom the father in "Lucy" is based on. Despite her caution to readers, Kincaid has also said: "I would never say I wouldn't write about an experience I've had."


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: The reception of Kincaid's work has been mixed. Her writing stresses deep social and even political commentary, as Harold Bloom cites as a reason why the "literary qualities" of her work tend to be less of a focus for critics. Writing for Salon.com, Peter Kurth called Kincaid's work "My Brother" the most overrated book of 1997. Reviewing her latest novel, "See Now Then" (2013), in "The New York Times", Dwight Garner called it "bipolar", "half séance, half ambush", and "the kind of lumpy exorcism that many writers would have composed and then allowed to remain unpublished. It picks up no moral weight as it rolls along. It asks little of us, and gives little in return." Another "New York Times" review describes it as "not an easy book to stomach" but goes on to explain, "Kincaid's force and originality lie in her refusal to curb her tongue, in an insistence on home truths that spare herself least of all." Kate Tuttle addresses this in an article for "The Boston Globe": "Kincaid allowed that critics are correct to point out the book's complexity. "The one thing the book is," she said, "is difficult, and I meant it to be." Some critics have been harsh, such as one review for "Mr Potter" (2002) that reads: "It wouldn't be so hard if the repetition weren't coupled, here and everywhere it occurs, with a stern rebuff to any idea that it might be meaningful." On the other hand, there has been much praise for her writing, for instance: "The superb precision of Kincaid's style makes it a paradigm of how to avoid lots of novelistic pitfalls."


title: Jamaica Kincaid

text: In February 2022, Kincaid was one of 38 Harvard faculty to sign a letter to the Harvard Crimson defending Professor John Comaroff, who had been found to have violated the university's sexual and professional conduct policies. The letter defended Comaroff as "an excellent colleague, advisor and committed university citizen" and expressed dismay over his being sanctioned by the university. After students filed a lawsuit with detailed allegations of Comaroff's actions and the university's failure to respond, Kincaid was one of several signatories to say that she wished to retract her signature.


title: Coffee enema

text: A coffee enema is the injection of coffee into the rectum and colon via the anus, i.e., as an enema. There is no scientific evidence to support any positive health claim for this practice, and medical authorities advise that the procedure may be dangerous.


title: Coffee enema

text: There is no medical or scientific evidence to support any detoxification or anti-cancer effect of coffee enemas.


title: Coffee enema

text: Coffee enemas carry a risk of adverse effects, some of them serious, including infection, seizures, heart and lung problems, and death.


title: Coffee enema

text: The rationale for using enemas can be traced back the earliest medical texts, to the prescientific misconception that the accumulation of faeces in the intestines can lead to autointoxication and that the "cleansing" of intestines can prevent that.


title: Coffee enema

text: The practice of colon cleansing experienced a renaissance in the 1990s, and at this time, coffee enemas were used as alternative cancer treatments. Their frequent use is a feature of Gerson therapy and Kelley therapy, ineffective alternative cancer therapies. Their use is promoted with claims they can "detoxify" the body by boosting the function of the gallbladder and liver. Such claims are not supported by evidence. In 2018, Gwyneth Paltrow's company goop.com was promoting coffee enema kits, one of a number of questionable medical products it has sold.


title: Coffee enema

text: Advocates of coffee enemas often point to their inclusion in editions of the Merck Manual through 1972, where coffee is listed as an ingredient for a retention enema for treating constipation. The Merck Manual does not list any other uses for coffee enemas, and in editions after 1972 all mention of them was dropped.


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: Fun House is the second studio album by American rock band the Stooges. It was released on July 7, 1970, by Elektra Records. Though initially commercially unsuccessful, "Fun House" developed a strong cult following. Like its predecessor (1969's "The Stooges") and its successor (1973's "Raw Power"), it is generally considered integral in the development of punk rock.


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: In 1969, Elektra Records had released the Stooges' debut album to mixed reviews and mediocre commercial success (peaking at number 106 on the "Billboard" charts). Company head Jac Holzman believed that MC5, another Michigan-based band, had more potential of success than the Stooges. Holzman asked former Kingsmen keyboardist Don Gallucci to produce the Stooges' second album.


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: Having seen the group live, Gallucci told Holzman that the Stooges were an "interesting group, but I don't think you can get this feeling on tape". Holzman said it didn't matter because he had already reserved recording time in L.A. The album was recorded at Elektra Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, California, from May 11 to 25, 1970. Gallucci's plan as a producer was to use each day to record about a dozen takes of a particular song and then pick the one that would appear on the album. The first day consisted of sound checking and run-throughs of all songs. The entire band used headphones with the bass and drums isolated by baffles while singer Iggy Pop sang his vocals through a condenser microphone on a boom.


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: The result was terrible in the band's opinion. They took exception to the atmosphere inside the studio with soundproof padding and isolators. To achieve their vision, the Stooges and Gallucci stripped the entire studio of its usual gear to emulate their live performances as closely as possible. According to Gallucci, they set up the band in the way they normally play at a concert. For example, Pop was singing through a handheld microphone, and the guitar and bass amps were placed side by side. The results were very raw when compared to many contemporary records; for example, without the normal isolation baffles the vibrations from the bass amplifier cause audible rattling of the snare drum on several songs.


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: Pop indicated that iconic blues singer Howlin' Wolf "was really pertinent for me on "Fun House". That stuff is Wolfy, at least as I could do it."


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: The Stooges intended for "Loose" to be the album's first track; Elektra, however, felt that "Down on the Street" would be the stronger opener.


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: An alternate version of "Down on the Street", featuring a Doors-style organ overdubbed by Gallucci, was pulled from the album and released as a single. It was released the same month as "Fun House", and fared slightly better on the charts.


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: According to "Billboard" magazine, "Fun House" is set in hard rock and improvisation. Music critic Robert Christgau characterized the album as "genuinely 'avant-garde' rock" because of the music's apt "repetitiveness", "solitary new-thing saxophone", and "L.A. Blues", which showcases the "old avant-garde fallacy ... trying to make art about chaos by reproducing same." Greg Kot called "Fun House" "the Stooges' punk jazz opus".


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: In "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" (2005), music journalist Stevie Chick wrote that the sleazy tales of hedonism and reckless abandon on the album's first half are followed by "the comedown", as evoked by looser song structures, Steve Mackay's freeform saxophone, and "Iggy sounding like a scared, lost child, warning from bitter experience that 'The Fun House will steal your heart away.'" "L.A. Blues" concludes the album with a flurry of noise and disoriented dual drumming, which "Stylus Magazine"s Patrick McNally interpreted as the Stooges being "lost culturally and spiritually in the smoke and riots and confusion of Detroit and America at the dawn of the seventies, but also in the overwhelming squall and clatter of the sound that they—from nothing, from nowhere—managed to create."


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: In a contemporary review, Charles Burton from "Rolling Stone" found "Fun House" to be "much more sophisticated" than the Stooges' debut album, writing that they sounded "so exquisitely horrible and down and out that they are the ultimate psychedelic rock band in 1970". Roy Hollingworth of "Melody Maker" was unimpressed however, calling it the worst record of the year and "a muddy load of sluggish, unimaginative rubbish heavily disguised by electricity and called American rock". Christgau wrote in his original review for "The Village Voice" that the Stooges' successful use of monotony and incorporation of saxophone had intellectual appeal, but questioned whether it was healthy as a listener for "[me] to have to be in a certain mood of desperate abandon before I can get on with them musically". He later said his criticism had been based on the album's "inaccessibility" as popular music, and wrote in "" (1981):


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Mark Deming hailed "Fun House" as "the ideal document of the Stooges at their raw, sweaty, howling peak", and wrote that it features better songs than their debut, significant improvement from each member, and Don Gallucci's energetic and immediate production. Dalton Ross of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that the "radical" album sounded "primal, unpredictable, dangerous". "Pitchfork" critic Joe Tangari felt that the music's aggression has rarely been matched. He recommended it to "any rock fan with a sense of history" and asserted that, along with the Stooges' debut, "Fun House" is one of the most important predecessors to the punk rock movement. Barney Hoskyns called it a "proto-punk classic", and Jon Young of "Spin" hailed it as a "proto-punk landmark" that possessed a "magnificent chaos". According to "Cleveland.com" writer Troy L. Smith, "What was once dismissed as something too raw and primal, now sits as a work of unparalleled hard-rock genius", while music historian Simon Reynolds says "it clearly stands out as the most powerful hard-rock album of all time."


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: In 2003, "Rolling Stone" ranked "Fun House" number 191 on their list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revision, and moving it up to number 94 in the 2020 reboot of the list. "Melody Maker" said that it is, "no contest, the greatest rock n' roll album of all time". Lenny Kaye, writing for eMusic, called it a "rock and roll classic" and "one of the most frontal, aggressive, and joyously manic records ever". In "The Rolling Stone Album Guide" (2004), Scott Seward claimed that, although saying so "risks hyperbole", "Fun House" is "one of the greatest rock & roll records of all time" and that, "as great as they were, the Stones never went so deep, the Beatles never sounded so alive, and anyone would have a hard time matching Iggy Pop's ferocity as a vocalist."


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: Australian band Radio Birdman chose their name based on mishearing the line "radio burnin' up above" in the song "1970". They also named their Oxford Street performance venue The Oxford Funhouse and covered "TV Eye" on their 1977 album "Radios Appear".


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: John Zorn covered "T.V. Eye" for "": the same song was also covered for the glam rock film "Velvet Goldmine" by a supergroup featuring original Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton and members of Sonic Youth, with actor Ewan McGregor on vocals. The Birthday Party covered "Loose" on their 1982 live album "Drunk on the Pope's Blood" and, also live, the song "Funhouse": a version with sax played by J.G. Thirlwell appears on the 1999 CD "The Birthday Party Live 81–82". the Damned's 1977 debut album, "Damned Damned Damned", features a cover of "1970", entitled "I Feel Alright". Depeche Mode covered "Dirt" on their "I Feel Loved" single. Hanoi Rocks cover "1970" (titled "I Feel Alright") on their 1984 live album All Those Wasted Years. Spacemen 3 adapted "T.V. Eye" into the near-cover "OD Catastrophe" on their debut album "Sound of Confusion". Michael Monroe also covered the song for his "" live album in 2010. In 1989 indie rock band Blake Babies covered "Loose" for their album "Earwig". They sampled Pop's voice into the song. Rage Against the Machine recorded a cover of "Down on the Street" on their 2000 covers album "Renegades", and the main riff from their song "Sleep Now in the Fire" was inspired by the riff in "T.V. Eye." A cover of "Dirt" appears on disc one of Screeching Weasel's 1999 double CD compilation "Thank You Very Little". In 2010, the Nigerian songwriter Billy Bao and his band went into the studio exactly 40 years after the recording of the album and recorded their album "Buildings from Bilbao" using all titles and song times for their own songs (except "1970", which is updated as "2010", and "L.A. Blues", which is called "LAGOS Blues"). "Down on the Street" briefly appears on the song "Maggot Death (Live at Brighton)" off of the Throbbing Gristle album The Second Annual Report, as a field recording of a club playing the song over the P.A. system.


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: Numerous other musical artists have cited "Fun House" as their favorite album, including Joey Ramone, Mark E. Smith, Jack White, Nick Cave, Michael Gira, Buzz Osborne, Aaron North, Henry Rollins and Steve Albini.


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: In 1999, Rhino Records released a limited edition box set, "", featuring every take of every song from every day of the recording sessions, plus the single versions of "Down on the Street" and "1970". On August 16, 2005, the album was reissued by Elektra and Rhino as a two-CD set featuring a newly remastered version of the album on disc one and a variety of outtakes (essentially highlights from the "Complete Fun House Sessions" box set. Jack White contributed a quote to Pop biographer Paul Trynka's liner notes to the reissue, in which White dubbed "Fun House" "by proxy the definitive rock album of America".


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: In 2005, the Stooges performed the album live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series. "Dirt" was ranked number 46 on Gibson's "Top 50 Guitar Solos" list in 2010.


title: Fun House (The Stooges album)

text: The title track was on the soundtrack to the 2004 video game MTX Mototrax, "1970" appeared in "Tony Hawk's Underground 2" the same year and "Down on the Street" appeared in "" in 2015.


title: View from the Window at Le Gras

text: View from the Window at Le Gras is a heliographic image and the oldest surviving camera photograph. It was created by French inventor Nicéphore Niépce in 1827 in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France, and shows parts of the buildings and surrounding countryside of his estate, "Le Gras", as seen from a high window.


title: View from the Window at Le Gras

text: Niépce captured the scene with a camera obscura projected onto a pewter plate thinly coated with bitumen of Judea, a naturally occurring asphalt. The bitumen hardened in the brightly lit areas, but in the dimly lit areas it remained soluble and could be washed away with a mixture of oil of lavender and white petroleum. A very long exposure in the camera was required. Sunlight strikes the buildings on opposite sides, suggesting an exposure that lasted about eight hours, which has become the traditional estimate. A researcher who studied Niépce's notes and recreated his processes found that the exposure must have continued for several days.


title: View from the Window at Le Gras

text: In late 1827, Niépce visited the United Kingdom. He showed this and several other specimens of his work to botanical illustrator Francis Bauer. "View from the Window at Le Gras" was the only example of a camera photograph; the rest were contact-exposed copies of artwork. Bauer encouraged him to present his "heliography" process to the Royal Society. Niépce wrote and submitted a paper but was unwilling to reveal any specific details in it, so the Royal Society rejected it based on a rule that prohibited presentations about undisclosed secret processes. Before returning to France, Niépce gave his paper and the specimens to Bauer. Niépce died suddenly in 1833, due to a stroke.


title: View from the Window at Le Gras

text: After the pioneering photographic processes of Louis Daguerre and Henry Fox Talbot were publicly announced in January 1839, Bauer championed Niépce's right to be acknowledged as the first inventor of a process for making permanent photographs. On March 9, 1839, the specimens were finally exhibited at the Royal Society. After Bauer's death in 1840 they passed through several hands and were occasionally exhibited as historical curiosities. "View from the Window at Le Gras" was last publicly shown in 1905 and then fell into oblivion for nearly fifty years.


title: View from the Window at Le Gras

text: Historians Helmut Gernsheim and his wife, Alison Gernsheim, tracked down the photograph in 1952 and brought it to prominence, reinforcing the claim that Niépce is the inventor of photography. They had an expert at the Kodak Research Laboratory make a modern photographic copy, but it proved extremely difficult to produce an adequate representation of all that could be seen when inspecting the actual plate. Helmut Gernsheim heavily retouched one of the copy prints to clean it up and make the scene more comprehensible, and until the late 1970s he allowed only that enhanced version to be published. It became apparent that at some point in time after the copying in 1952, the plate was disfigured and acquired bumps near three of its corners, which caused light to reflect in ways that interfered with the visibility of those areas and of the image as a whole.


title: View from the Window at Le Gras

text: During the 1950s and early 1960s, the Gernsheims toured the photograph to several exhibitions in continental Europe. In 1963, Harry Ransom purchased most of the Gernsheims' photography collection for the University of Texas at Austin. Although it has rarely traveled since then, in 2012–2013 it visited Mannheim, Germany, as part of an exhibition entitled "The Birth of Photography—Highlights of the Helmut Gernsheim Collection". It is normally on display in the main lobby of the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas.


title: View from the Window at Le Gras

text: During a study and conservation project in 2002–2003, scientists at the Getty Conservation Institute examined the photograph using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and other techniques. They confirmed that the image consists of bitumen and that the metal plate is pewter (tin alloyed with lead, as well as trace amounts of iron, copper, and nickel). The Institute also designed and built the elaborate display case system that now houses the artifact in a continuously monitored, stabilized, oxygen-free environment.


title: View from the Window at Le Gras

text: In 2007, scientists from the Louvre Museum published an analysis of the photograph using ion beam analysis, with data taken on their 2 MV electrostatic accelerator. This showed the details of the oxidation process that was corroding the image.


title: View from the Window at Le Gras

text: In 2003, "Life" listed "View from the Window at Le Gras" among "100 Photographs that Changed the World". In an article for "Art on Paper", "View from the Window at Le Gras" was said to have a "fair claim" as the first photograph.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: Zlatko Dalić (; born 26 October 1966) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player. He is the manager of the Croatia national team since 2017 and led them to a runners-up finish at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and third place at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: He started off his youth career at Troglav 1918 Livno, before joining Hajduk Split in 1983 and thus starting his senior career. He stayed at Hajduk Split until 1986, after joining Cibalia, which was at that time known as Dinamo Vinkovci. Apart from Hajduk Split and Cibalia, Dalić also played for Budućnost Titograd, Velež Mostar and Varteks. He finished his career in 2000 at Varteks.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: After ending his playing career in 2000, he became assistant coach at Varteks. From May 2002 to May 2005, Dalić worked as the club's sports director, and during the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons he simultaneously acted as assistant coach for Miroslav Blažević.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: In May 2005, he was appointed manager of Varteks and in his first season at the helm he won third place in the Croatian First League and reached the final of the Croatian Cup. In the first leg of the final, which was played in Rijeka, Varteks lost 0–4 to HNK Rijeka. In the second leg in Varaždin, Dalić nearly created a sensation leading the team to a 5–1 win, but they were one goal short from lifting the silverware.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: In the summer of 2007, after his contract with Varteks ended, he became manager of Rijeka, and finished fourth at the end of the 2007–08 season. After being knocked out of the 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup by FK Renova, Dalić was sacked on 1 July 2008 just before the start of the season.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: In the 2008–09 season, Dalić managed Albanian champions Dinamo Tirana, with whom he won the Albanian Supercup. He resigned in February 2009 after losing two derbies in a row versus fellow capital teams Tirana and Partizani.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: After a short stint in Albania, he returned to Croatia in 2009 and took over his third Croatian football club, Slaven Belupo.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: In the 2010–11 season, he became head coach of Al-Faisaly. At the end of the 2010–11 season under Dalić the club enjoyed the greatest success in its history, qualifying for the King's Cup in the Saudi Professional League. Dalić was named Coach of the Year in the Saudi Professional League for the 2010–11 season by Al Riyadh newspapers. In the selection, he beat other more famous coaches working in Saudi Arabia at the time, such as Gabriel Calderón, Walter Zenga and Eric Gerets.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: On 3 May 2012, Dalić signed a contract with Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal to manage their B team. On 30 January, Al-Hilal agreed with Dalić to coach the first team following the sacking of Antoine Kombouaré. On 9 February 2013, he made his managerial debut with Al-Hilal against his old club Al-Faisaly in the semi-final of the 2012–13 Saudi Crown Prince Cup. Dalić eventually led Al-Hilal to the cup title–the team's sixth consecutive win–which was also Dalić's second major title in his coaching career. During the 2013–14 season, he was the main candidate for the position of sports director at Croatian powerhouse Hajduk Split, but turned down the offer from one of the biggest clubs in Croatian football.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: On 8 March 2014, Dalić was appointed manager of Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates after the team had sacked Quique Sánchez Flores. In his first season, he led the team to finish top of their group in the 2014 AFC Champions League, which was the first time since 2006 that the club progressed through the group stage. On 30 April 2014, Al-Ain announced that Dalić would remain head coach for the next two seasons. In the round of sixteen of the 2014 AFC Champions League, Al-Ain beat Al-Jazira by 4–2 to advance to the quarter-finals; in the quarter-finals, the team beat Al-Ittihad 5–1 to advance to the semi-finals, ultimately losing 4–2 to Al-Hilal, which was Dalić's former team.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: On 18 May 2014, Al-Ain won the final game of UAE President's Cup against league champions Al-Ahli 1–0, which secured Dalić's first trophy as manager of Al-Ain.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: Dalić won the title of Best Coach of 2014 for his performances; at the end of the first round of the UAE Pro-League, Al–Ain took the first position with one game in hand. Eventually, Al-Ain won their 12th UAE Pro-League title in the 2014–15 season. The club finished the season 11 points above runners-up Al Jazira and Al Shabab Dubai, only losing two games throughout the season; in this season, they also achieved several records, namely conceding the fewest goals (19), the longest unbeaten run (15 matches), the longest winning run (8 matches), and the biggest home win against Ajman (7–1).


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: On 12 July 2015, Dalić received the Coach of the Year accolade during the UAE Pro-League award ceremony for the 2014–15 UAE Pro-League season for guiding his side to winning the league title.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: Dalić's first match of the 2015–16 season was a UAE Super Cup match between Al-Ain and Al-Nasr Dubai, played on 15 August and resulted in victory for Al-Ain, which won 4–2. Following a 3–0 win against Al-Ahli Dubai in the 10th round of the UAE Pro-League on 5 December, Dalić became the best coach in the league's history since it turned professional, though Al-Ain ultimately finished second in the league in 2016. The club also reached the 2016 AFC Champions League final, ultimately losing 2–3 to Jeonbuk Motors.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: Dalić's tenure as manager of Al-Ain saw the club rise rapidly in the Football Database Ranking; initially, the club was ranked 335th in March 2014, when Dalić arrived, and by the time of his departure, the club was ranked 122nd in the world, also reaching 5th position in Asia, according to the ranking.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: Dalić formally departed Al-Ain in January 2017, citing a "need for rest" as his reason for departing.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: On 7 October 2017, following the sacking of Ante Čačić due to a series of poor results, the Croatian Football Federation named Dalić as the head coach of the Croatia national football team. Upon arriving, Dalić announced that he would only remain head coach if Croatia qualifies for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and that the HNS would decide his future if Croatia miss out on qualifying for the finals.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: On 9 October, Dalić led Croatia to a 2–0 win over Ukraine in 2018 World Cup qualifying, which also secured second place in their group, and a place in the play-off round. On 19 October, Dalić named Ivica Olić, former Croatia international player, as his assistant manager. Croatia drew Greece in the play-off round, and on 9 November, Dalić led the team to a 4–1 first-leg triumph over Greece, all but securing a place in the 2018 World Cup. In the return leg, on 12 November, Croatia drew with Greece 0–0, but won 4–1 on aggregate, thus securing a place in the World Cup finals. Following this, Dalić officially signed a contract with the Croatian Football Federation, running until 30 July 2020, and would reportedly earn around €500,000 per year.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: Croatia drew a challenging group, with the likes of Nigeria, Argentina and Iceland. On 16 June, Croatia won their opening match of the 2018 World Cup, beating Nigeria by a scoreline of 2–0. However, during the game, forward Nikola Kalinić had refused to come on as a late substitute, citing a back injury as his excuse, although he had used this excuse earlier during a friendly match against Brazil, as well as the previous training session. This prompted Dalić to send him home on just the fifth day of the tournament. Dalić stated that he needed "prepared players, while Kalinić did not show up at three occasions". Dalić received praise for his treatment of Kalinić, with some stating that he had cemented his position as a head coach with the decision. On 21 June, Croatia overwhelmed football heavyweights Argentina, winning by a scoreline of 3–0, with Ante Rebić, Luka Modrić and Ivan Rakitić scoring the goals. The victory led Croatia to a spot in the knockout stage for the first time since the 1998 FIFA World Cup, in which they finished third place. On 26 June, Croatia topped their group with maximum points following a 2–1 win over Iceland, and drew Denmark in the round of sixteen, advancing after a penalty shootout. Croatia again won through a penalty shootout against hosts Russia in the quarter-finals, setting up a semi-final tie against England. On 11 July, Croatia beat England 2–1, advancing to the final, where they lost 4–2 to France on 15 July. For the achievement, he received the Franjo Bučar State Award for Sport Yearly Award.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: In the inaugural edition of UEFA Nations League, Croatia was drawn in the same group as Spain and England. Croatia opened their Nations League campaign on 11 September with a disastrous 6–0 defeat to Spain in Elche. However, on 15 November, Croatia managed to get revenge with a 3–2 victory in Zagreb. Nevertheless, due to a goalless draw with England in Rijeka on 12 October and a 2–1 defeat in London on 18 November, Croatia were relegated to League B. However, due to a format change, Croatia avoided relegation and remained in League A.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: Croatia entered their UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying campaign poorly with narrow 2–1 home victories over Azerbaijan and Wales, and an upset 2–1 away defeat to Hungary. However, Croatia returned to form beating Slovakia 4–0 away in Trnava. On 16 November 2019, in their last qualifying match, Croatia beat Slovakia 3–1 in Rijeka, topping the group and securing their place at the finals. Applauded for his successful handling of the national team after the retirement of some prominent internationals such as Mario Mandžukić and Danijel Subašić, successful integration of new names such as Bruno Petković, Josip Brekalo and Nikola Vlašić into the team and successful qualifying campaign, Dalić signed a new contract on 23 July 2020 with the Croatian Football Federation that kept him at the position of Croatia manager until the end of 2022, earning an annual salary of €1.6 million.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: Croatia entered their 2020–21 UEFA Nations League campaign poorly, losing heavily to Portugal and France away, 4–1 and 4–2 respectively. After beating Sweden 2–1 at home, Croatia failed to win any of the rest of the matches. They finished third in their group and avoided relegation to League B solely due to having better goal difference than last-placed Sweden. Croatia also notably conceded more goals than any other team in the Nations League. Despite calls from the general public for Dalić to resign, he retained his job.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: Croatia began their qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup with a loss away to Slovenia, drawing further criticism. However, after the first game, Croatia finished the campaign unbeaten, drawing only away to Russia and at home to Slovakia. A first place finish made Dalić the first coach in the history of the team to qualify them for three major tournaments. In the 2022 World Cup, Dalić led Croatia to their second consecutive semi-final and third in total, after beating Brazil on penalties in the quarter-finals. However, Dalic's side would be eliminated 3-0 in the semifinals by Argentina. He would go on to beat Morocco 2-1 in the third place play-off, Croatia’s second-joint best finish in a World Cup.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: Born on 26 October 1966, in Livno, then a part of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, within SFR Yugoslavia, today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dalić comes from a Bosnian Croat family of mother Kata and father Ivan Dalić. He holds Croatian citizenship.


title: Zlatko Dalić

text: In 1992, Dalić married his wife Davorka Propadalo, whom he met at a high school in Livno. They have together two sons, Toni and Bruno. Dalić is a practicing Roman Catholic, and prays the Rosary during every match.


title: Lyne Renée

text: She graduated from the Studio Herman Teirlinck in Antwerp, Belgium. From 2003 to 2005 she appeared as stage actress in Belgian theaters. After she starred in the Belgian TV series "Kinderen van Dewindt" and the Dutch movie "Ober" by Alex van Warmerdam. In 2006 she moved to Los Angeles and appeared in the movies "The Box Collector" (2008) and "The Hessen Conspiracy" (2009). The latter is a film noir the plot of which takes place in the US-occupied Germany right after the end of World War II. In it Renée plays a femme fatale, who is the driving force behind a jewelry heist.


title: Lyne Renée

text: In 2011 she moved to London, where she starred in "The River Line" at the Jermyn Street Theatre. She also appeared in the TV series "Strike Back" and "Parade's End".


title: Lyne Renée

text: In 2016, she had a recurring role on the ABC series "Of Kings and Prophets" as the Witch of Endor, appeared in the miniseries "Madoff" as Catherine Hooper, fiancée of Andrew Madoff, and had a role in the thriller "Split".


title: Lyne Renée

text: In 2017 she appeared in the second season of the PBS series "Mercy Street" as well as the film "The Hippopotamus".


title: Athame

text: An athame or athamé (, or ) is a ceremonial blade, generally with a black handle. It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used in ceremonial magic traditions, and by other neopagans, witchcraft, as well as satanic traditions. A black-handled knife called an "arthame" appears in certain versions of the "Key of Solomon", a grimoire dating to the Renaissance.


title: Athame

text: The proper use of the tool was started by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, in the early 20th century, for the use of banishing rituals. The tool was later adopted by Wiccans, Thelemites and Satanists.


title: Athame

text: The athame is also mentioned in the writings of Gerald Gardner in the 1950s, who claimed to have been initiated into a surviving tradition of Witchcraft, the New Forest Coven. The athame was their most important ritual tool, with many uses, but was not to be used for actual physical cutting.


title: Athame

text: There has been speculation that Gardner's interest and expertise in antique swords and knives, and in particular the kris knives of Malaysia and Indonesia, may have contributed to the tool's central importance in modern Wicca.


title: Athame

text: On the other hand, the athame stands as one of the four elemental tools in modern occultism, traditionally standing for fire, for witches, and air, for ceremonial magicians. (From the known origins of Wicca, with Gardner's own Book of Shadows, the athame represents fire; where the wand corresponds to air. Other varieties of Wiccan practice may switch those two around.) The other three elemental tools are the wand, the pentacle, and the cup or chalice. These four magical tools correspond to four "weapons" of significance in Celtic myth—the sword, the spear, the shield, and the cauldron (and/or grail). The same four ritual tools also appear in the magical practices of the western hermetic tradition, derived from The Golden Dawn, who pioneered the modern occult tradition and new age spirituality; and they appear in tarot decks as the four card suits: swords, cups, wands, and pentacles. The athame is an elemental tool, while the sword is often a tool representing power, used to keep spirits in check during goetic evocation. Wiccans sometimes use the sword as a substitute for the athame.


title: Athame

text: An athame can take many forms. Contrary to popular belief, athames are not required to have double-edged blades. Contemporary magical practitioners often choose a double-edged blade since this carries symbolic meaning.


title: Athame

text: Some witches will choose a single edge athame and use the straight edge to ring the bell for rituals. The handle of the athame is usually black and is required in most covens which practice some variant of British Traditional Wicca, including Gardnerian and Alexandrian. The handle may be inscribed with particular symbols dictated by the tradition. Janet and Stewart Farrar in "A Witches' Bible" suggest that the point of an athame be dulled so as to prevent un-intended physical harm during ritual use.


title: Athame

text: In eclectic forms of Witchcraft the handle decorations range from astrological glyphs to runes, the symbols being chosen by the owner. Many fantasy-themed athames are also available from medieval and neopagan supply shops.


title: Athame

text: Ceremonial witches, on the other hand, use the symbolic colours purple and yellow, representing the alchemical element of Air, to colour the Athame, and it is then inscribed with specific sigils. This is to invoke the powers it corresponds to, and make a proper impression upon the subconscious.


title: Athame

text: The athame's primary use is to channel and direct psychic energy, generally conceived as etheric fire. They are usually not supposed to harm or draw blood. Some modern day magical practitioners believe that if things such as herbs or cords need to be cut, another knife called a "boline" is used. The boline is often confused or mislabeled the "white-handled knife", a completely different magical blade. In fact, a boline was more similar to a sickle than a knife and thus would have made chopping herbs very difficult (the boline was, however, handy for harvesting herbs). In the "kitchen witchcraft" witches are encouraged to use magical tools for mundane purposes to increase the witch's familiarity with them.


title: Athame

text: The ritual drawing of the boundary of the magic circle – also known as "casting the circle" – is usually done with either a ritual sword or an athame, in traditional coven practice. For open rituals in public places, this is sometimes done with a ritual wand or staff instead, since there may be legal complications involved with swords and daggers in public places, even when the edges have been dulled. In most traditional covens, the athame is associated with the magical element of fire, so the circle is considered to be cast in etheric fire. This fire is traditionally envisioned as blue, indigo or violet; although it may equally well be envisioned as other colors. When the circle is ritually purified after being cast, that is traditionally done with the remaining three elements—air (incense), water (salt-water), and earth (salt) – because the element of fire has already been imbued into the circle during the casting, by the use of the athame.


title: Athame

text: After the casting, the athame is the tool traditionally used to invoke the elemental guardians of the four directions (also termed "calling the quarters"), typically by drawing invoking pentagrams at each quarter. This important traditional practice is one of the reasons often given for the false requirement that the athame must be double-edged; because attempting to trace a pentagram in the air with a single-edged blade will require some awkward twisting of the hand and wrist, in order to keep the single cutting edge in the direction of motion. Practitioners unfortunately get caught up on this logistic and may be unaware that the elementals are more concerned with the threat the magical blade represents than how one twists their wrist.


title: Athame

text: As a masculine principle, the black-handled athame is often used in combination with the chalice, as feminine principle, evoking the act of procreation, as a symbol of universal creativity. The athame represents the magical element of fire, associated with the Sun and the Horned God; while the chalice represents the magical element of water, associated with the Moon and the Goddess. The union of the two then represents the union of God and Goddess, male and female, sun and moon, fire and water. The marriage of the Sun and Moon—the union of opposites—is an ancient idea in alchemy; and the "hieros gamos" or sacred marriage of god and goddess is an even more ancient idea in pagan religions. (For example, in ancient Greece—from whence the term "hieros gamos" comes.) This rite is done by dipping the athame into the chalice to bless the wine. This is a symbol of the Great Rite in Wiccan rituals. Some modern witchcraft traditions may prefer not to use iron blades, instead preferring alternatives such as copper, bronze or stone, such as obsidian. This is most common amongst traditions that have a particular fondness of the Sidhe, to whom iron is supposedly baneful.


title: Athame

text: Some Wiccan traditions associate the black-handled athame with the masculine principle and with the element of fire, as did Gerald Gardner; while the wand is associated with air. Other traditions may reverse these elemental associations, and use the athame to represent air and the wand to represent fire. Janet and Stewart Farrar suggested this difference is due to the Golden Dawn releasing false information in the hopes of preventing its rituals being used in the correct way. They add that a witch should always choose the association which seems the most correct to them.


title: Athame

text: Fire and water are considered to be polar opposite elements, classically and in alchemy and traditional magical practice. They are sometimes considered to be the two primordial elements, the combination of which gave rise to the other two elements of earth and air. Fire and water are also the elements most associated with Sun and Moon, and thus the Horned God and the Goddess within Wicca. For this reason, covens that associate the athame with air (and the wand with fire) may decide to use the wand to bless the wine chalice, instead of using the athame. A union of air and water does not carry the same symbolic significance of the "conjunctio oppositorum" (union of opposites) that the union of fire and water does. Also, covens that regard the athame as air and the wand as fire may choose to cast the ritual circle with the wand or staff, instead of the sword or athame—if they conceive of this casting in the traditional way, as a casting of etheric fire via a projection of psychic energy. If they conceive of the circle casting as cutting a line in the air with the tool of air, then they may choose to purify the circle with the remaining three elements of fire, water, and earth; this would involve using a candle to purify the circle, and omitting the incense, since the circle has already been imbued with the element of air.


title: Athame

text: The athame is the most important ritual tool in Wicca, and like other ritual tools it is generally purified and consecrated to the gods before being used for ritual and magical purposes. There are various ways of accomplishing ritual purification and consecration, depending on the specific tradition of Wicca being followed, and also whether the individual Wiccan is practicing with a coven or as a solitary witch. One common way to do this is by using the four magical elements of fire (candle), air (incense), water and salt; and perhaps anointing the blade with an oil infused with magical herbs. Touching another person's athame without permission is considered a ritual faux pas in almost all traditions of Wicca. It is an intrusion of the owner's personal space; and more importantly, it is an act that violates the magical bond between the athame and its owner. Some witches will go to great lengths to ritually purify, reconsecrate, and rededicate an athame after it has been touched by another person.


title: Athame

text: There are rituals of consecration for a newly acquired athame, be it new, or acquired from another person.


title: Athame

text: The term athame derives, via a series of corruptions, from the late Latin "artavus" ("quill knife"), which is well attested in the oldest manuscripts of the "Key of Solomon". It means "a small knife used for sharpening the pens of scribes" ("Cultellus acuendis calamis scriptorii"). "Artavus" is well-attested in medieval Latin, although it is not a common word. This explains why it was left untranslated in some French and Italian manuscripts, and ultimately became garbled in various manuscripts as "artavo", "artavus", "arthana", "artanus", "arthany" or "arthame". R. E. Latham described the etymology of artavus as being dubious, but Johannes Balbus de Janua (Catholicon, 1497) derives it from "arto", "artas", etc. (to narrow). An alternate etymology is given by John de Garlande, (ca 1225): "Artavus, called 'kenivet' in French, namely a small knife which stretches in length, is named after 'ars' (art or craft), because it is used by artisans." (as opposed to either a table knife "cultellos ad mensam, mensaculos", or a weapon) (Artavus dicitur Gallice 'kenivet,' scilicet cultellus qui tendit in altum; vel dicitur ab arte, quia eo artifices utuntur.)


title: Athame

text: Idries Shah, who was personal secretary and close friend of Gerald Gardner, provides yet another etymology from an alleged Arabic "al-dhammé" "blood-letter", which was supposed to be the ritual knife of a medieval magical cult of Morocco and Andalusia. This etymology is controversial, however. It appears in his book "The Sufis" as a quotation from "A History of Secret Societies" by Arkon Daraul (a probable pseudonym of Shah). Robert Graves (an acquaintance of Shah) suggests an Arabic derivation from "al thame" (or "adh-dhame"), which he translates as "the arrow".


title: Athame

text: A Latin manuscript version of the "Key of Solomon" has a drawing that looks like a sickle, labeled "Artavo". Gerald Gardner's use of 'athame' probably came from modern French versions of the "Key of Solomon", probably via Grillot de Givry's "Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy" (1931), who misinterpreted the term as applying to the main ritual knife, as shown by his index entries "arthane" or "arthame".


title: John Neville (actor)

text: John Reginald Neville, CM, OBE (2 May 1925 – 19 November 2011) was an English theatre and film actor who moved to Canada in 1972. He enjoyed a resurgence of international attention in the 1980s as a result of his starring role in Terry Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988).


title: John Neville (actor)

text: Neville was born in Willesden, London, the son of Mabel Lillian ("née" Fry) and Reginald Daniel Neville, a lorry driver. He was educated at Willesden and Chiswick County Schools for Boys and, after service in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before starting his professional career as a member of the Trent Players.


title: John Neville (actor)

text: Neville was a West End star of the 1950s, hailed as "one of the most potent classical actors of the Richard Burton–Peter O'Toole generation". A leading member of London's Old Vic Company, he played many classical leading roles, including Romeo in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" (a role he repeated on American television for the anthology series "Producers' Showcase"), and an acclaimed Richard in "Richard II", with Virginia McKenna as Queen Anne. He also alternated with Richard Burton the parts of Othello and Iago in "Othello". He was a frequent performer at the Bristol Old Vic. He received good reviews in the musical adaptation of "Lolita", called "Lolita, My Love", which closed in Boston.