title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Franz Anton's half-brother, Fridolin, married Cäcilia Stamm and had four daughters, Josepha, Aloysia, Constanze, and Sophie, all of whom became notable singers. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart attempted to woo Aloysia, composing several pieces for her. After she rejected his advances, Mozart went on to marry Constanze; thus Mozart's wife was a cousin of Carl Maria von Weber.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: A gifted violinist, Franz Anton had ambitions of turning Weber into a child prodigy like Mozart. Weber was born with a congenital hip disorder and did not begin to walk until he was four. But by then, he was already a capable singer and pianist.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Franz Anton gave Weber a comprehensive education, which was frequently interrupted by the family's moves. In 1796, Weber continued his musical education in Hildburghausen, where he was instructed by the oboist Johann Peter Heuschkel. After moving to Salzburg in autumn 1797, Weber studied from 1798 with Michael Haydn, younger brother of the better known Joseph Haydn, who agreed to teach Weber free of charge.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: His time in Salzburg was overshadowed by the death of his mother, who succumbed to tuberculosis on 13 March 1798, and that of his one-year-old sister Antonetta on 29 December 1798 in Munich. After the death of Carl's mother, Adelaide, his father's sister, took over the care of him.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: A visit to Joseph Haydn in Vienna, presumably in hope of advanced teaching, was fruitless. In autumn 1798, Weber moved to Munich where he studied singing with Johann Evangelist Wallishauser and composing with Johann Nepomuk Kalcher, who supervised Weber's first opera, "Die Macht der Liebe und des Weins" ("The Power of Love and Wine"). Like his other compositions of that period, this opera is lost. Six fughettas for piano of the twelve-year-old Weber were published in Leipzig.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Weber's musical education was extended by a mastering of lithography which he learned in the workshop of Alois Senefelder, the inventor of the process, and Franz Gleißner (autumn 1799). A set of his "Variations for the Pianoforte" was lithographed by Weber himself.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: In 1800, the family moved to Freiberg in Saxony, where Weber, then 14 years old, wrote an opera called "Das stumme Waldmädchen" ("The Silent Forest Maiden"). It was produced at the Freiberg and Chemnitz theatres and later in Saint Petersburg (1804), Vienna (1805/1805) and Prague (1806). The young Weber also began to publish articles as a music critic, for example in the "Leipziger Neue Zeitung" in 1801.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: In 1801, the family returned to Salzburg, where Weber resumed his studies with Michael Haydn. Weber composed his third opera "Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn" ("Peter Schmoll and His Neighbours") which his teacher approved. After a concert tour in 1802 the Webers returned to Augsburg where it is believed "Peter Schmoll" premiered.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: In mid 1803, Weber continued his studies in Vienna with Abbé Vogler, founder of important music schools in Mannheim, Stockholm, and Darmstadt. Another famous pupil of Vogler in Darmstadt was Jakob Meyer Beer, later known as Giacomo Meyerbeer, who became a close friend of Weber. In letters they addressed each other as "brother".


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Vogler recommended the 17-year-old Weber for the post of Director at the Breslau Opera in 1804; Weber was offered and accepted the post. He sought to reform the Opera by pensioning off older singers, expanding the orchestra, and tackling a more challenging repertoire. His ambitious and dedicated work as director of the orchestra was acknowledged, though his tempi were frequently criticized as too fast. As the daily routine did not leave sufficient time for his own creative work, Weber did not seek to extend his two-year appointment.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: After an interlude at the court of Duke Eugen of Württemberg, who resided in Silesia, Weber served from 1807 to 1810 in Stuttgart as private secretary to Duke Ludwig, brother of King Frederick I of Württemberg. Weber's time in Württemberg was plagued with troubles. He fell deeply into debt and became entangled in the financial manipulations of his employer, e.g. the sale of confirmations of ducal service which exempted the purchaser from military service. Weber was arrested and charged with embezzlement and bribery. As he could disprove the allegations, the case was brought under civil law to avoid compromising the "de facto" manipulator, the brother of the king. Weber agreed to pay the costs (the last payment was made in 1816) and was banished from Württemberg/ together with his father.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: As a sobering side effect, Weber started to keep a diary to list his expenses and correspondence, and make occasional comments on special events.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Weber remained prolific as a composer during this period, writing a quantity of religious music, mainly for the Catholic mass. This, however, earned him the hostility of conservatives working for the re-establishment of traditional chant in liturgy. In his biography of Weber, Warrack notes that Weber was an accomplished guitarist. It was in this year that his first song with guitar accompaniment, "Liebeszauber", was printed. Some of his most original and innovative songs were written during the following years, including "Er an Sie" (1808) and "Was zieht zu deinem Zauberkreise" (1809).


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: In 1810, Weber visited several cities throughout Germany; 1811 was a pivotal year in his career when he met and worked with the Munich court clarinetist Heinrich Baermann and composed the Concertino in E Major, Op. 26, J. 109, and the two concerti J. 114 and J. 118 for him; from December 1811 through March 1812, Weber went on tour with Baermann playing the clarinet works, and it was some of the final concerts on this tour that changed public, critical and royal opinions of Weber's work, and helped him to mount a successful performance of "Silvana" in Berlin later that year.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: From 1813 to 1816 he was director of the Opera in Prague; from 1816 to 1817 he worked in Berlin, and from 1817 onwards he was director of the prestigious Opera in Dresden, working hard to establish a German opera, in reaction to the Italian opera which had dominated the European music scene since the 18th century. He was inspired in this endeavour by the ideals of the "Sturm und Drang" period, and also by the German folk song collection "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" by Arnim and Brentano. It was in 1816 that he wrote the Duet Op.38 for guitar and piano, possibly inspired by similar works printed in Vienna by such composers as Hummel and Diabelli. On 4 November 1817, he married Caroline Brandt, a singer who created the title role of "Silvana". In 1819, he wrote perhaps his most famous piano piece, "Invitation to the Dance".


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: The successful premiere of "Der Freischütz" on 18 June 1821 in Berlin led to performances all over Europe. On the very morning of the premiere, Weber finished his "Konzertstück in F minor for Piano and Orchestra", and he premiered it a week later.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: In 1823, Weber composed his first (and only) full-length, through-composed opera "Euryanthe" to a libretto by Helmina von Chézy, several passages of which (notably the music for the villainous couple Lysiart and Eglantine) anticipate the early, romantic operas of Richard Wagner. In 1824, Weber received an invitation from The Royal Opera, London, to compose and produce "Oberon", based on Christoph Martin Wieland's poem of the same name. Weber accepted the invitation, and in 1826 he travelled to England, to finish the work and conduct the premiere on 12 April.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Weber was already suffering from tuberculosis when he visited London. He conducted the premiere and twelve sold-out performances of "Oberon" in London during April and in May, and despite his rapidly worsening health, he continued to fulfil commitments for private concerts and benefits.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: He died in his sleep during the night on 5 June 1826 at the home of his good friend and host Sir George Smart; he was 39 years old. He was buried in London.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Eighteen years later, in December 1844, his remains were transferred to the family burial plot in the Old Catholic Cemetery (Alter Katholischer Friedhof) in Dresden at the side of his youngest son Alexander, who at the age of 19 had died of measles seven weeks before. The simple gravestone, designed by Gottfried Semper, lies against the northern boundary wall. Wagner composed a eulogy "An Weber's Grabe" WWV 72 for the reburial. The piece for male choir a cappella was premiered on 16 december 1844 in Dresden. For this occasion Wagner also composed Funeral Music for Winds after Themes from "Euryanthe" of Weber, WWV 73.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Weber's unfinished opera "Die drei Pintos" ("The Three Pintos") was originally given by his widow to Meyerbeer for completion; it was eventually completed by Gustav Mahler, who conducted the first performance in Leipzig on 20 January 1888.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Weber's operas "Der Freischütz", "Euryanthe" and "Oberon" greatly influenced the development of the "Romantische Oper" (Romantic opera) in Germany. "Der Freischütz" came to be regarded as the first German opera, "Euryanthe" developed the "leitmotif" technique to an unprecedented degree, while "Oberon" may have influenced Mendelssohn's music for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and, at the same time, revealed Weber's lifelong interest in the music of non-Western cultures. This interest was first manifested in Weber's incidental music for Schiller's translation of Gozzi's "Turandot", for which he used a Chinese melody, making him the first Western composer to use an Asian tune that was not of the pseudo-Turkish kind popularized by Mozart and others.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Weber's compositions for clarinet, bassoon, and horn occupy an important place in the musical repertoire. His compositions for the clarinet, which include two concertos, a concertino, a quintet, a duo concertante, and variations on a theme from his opera "Silvana", are regularly performed today. His Concertino for Horn and Orchestra requires the performer to simultaneously produce two notes by humming while playing—a technique known as "multiphonics". His bassoon concerto and the "Andante e Rondo ungarese" (a reworking of a piece originally for viola and orchestra) are also popular with bassoonists.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Weber's contribution to vocal and choral music is also significant. His body of Catholic religious music was highly popular in 19th-century Germany, and he composed one of the earliest song cycles, "Die Temperamente beim Verluste der Geliebten" ("[Four] Temperaments on the Loss of a Lover"). Weber was also notable as one of the first conductors to conduct without a piano or violin.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Weber's orchestration has also been highly praised and emulated by later generations of composers – Berlioz referred to him several times in his "Treatise on Instrumentation" while Debussy remarked that the sound of the Weber orchestra was obtained through the scrutiny of the soul of each instrument.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: His operas influenced the work of later opera composers, especially in Germany, such as Marschner, Meyerbeer and Wagner, as well as several nationalist 19th-century composers such as Glinka. Homage has been paid to Weber by many 20th-century composers, such as Debussy and Stravinsky. Mahler completed Weber's unfinished comic opera "Die drei Pintos" and made revisions of "Euryanthe" and "Oberon" while Hindemith composed the popular "Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber", based on Weber's lesser-known keyboard works and the incidental music to "Turandot".


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: Weber also wrote music journalism and was interested in folksong, and learned lithography to engrave his own works.


title: Carl Maria von Weber

text: A virtuoso pianist himself, Weber composed four sonatas, two concertos and the "Konzertstück in F minor" (concert piece), which inspired composers such as Chopin, Liszt and Mendelssohn. The "" provided a new model for the one-movement concerto in several contrasting sections (such as Liszt's, who often played the work), and was acknowledged by Stravinsky as the model for his "Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra". Weber's shorter piano pieces, such as the "Invitation to the Dance", were later orchestrated by Berlioz, while his "Polacca Brillante" was later set for piano and orchestra by Liszt. However, Weber's piano music all but disappeared from the repertoire. There are several recordings of the major works for the solo piano, including complete recordings of the piano sonatas and the shorter piano pieces, and there are recordings of the individual sonatas by Claudio Arrau (1st sonata), Alfred Cortot and Emil Gilels (2nd sonata), Sviatoslav Richter (3rd sonata) and Leon Fleisher (4th sonata). The "Invitation to the Dance", although better known in Berlioz's orchestration (as part of the ballet music for a Paris production of "Der Freischütz"), has long been played and recorded by pianists (e.g., Benno Moiseiwitsch [in Carl Tausig's arrangement]). "Invitation to the Dance" also served as the thematic basis for Benny Goodman's swing theme song for the radio program "Let's Dance".


title: Abner Louima

text: Abner Louima (born November 24, 1966 in Thomassin, Haiti) is a Haitian American man who, in 1997, was physically attacked, brutalized, and raped by officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) after he was arrested outside a Brooklyn nightclub. His injuries were so severe that he required three major surgeries. At first, the police attempted to cover up the attack.


title: Abner Louima

text: Officers responsible for the attack were charged and convicted in federal court, and one is still in federal prison serving a 30-year sentence. In 2001, Louima received a settlement (equivalent to about $M in ) in his civil suit against the city for police brutality, the largest civil settlement at that time for such abuse. He has set up the Abner Louima Foundation to establish a hospital and community centers in Haiti, Florida, and New York for Haitian residents, immigrants, and others in need.


title: Abner Louima

text: Abner Louima was born and grew up in Thomassin, a small community in Haiti. He immigrated to the United States in 1991, where he married and had one child. In 1997, he was living in Brooklyn with his family. He had been trained as an electrical engineer in Haiti, but in New York, Louima was unable to get a position related to his education. He worked as a security guard in a water and sewage plant in the Flatlands area of Brooklyn. By 1997, he was a naturalized citizen of the United States.


title: Abner Louima

text: On the night of August 9, 1997, the police were called and several officers from the 70th Precinct were dispatched to the scene where Abner Louima and other men had been involved in a fight between two women in Club Rendez-Vous, a popular nightclub in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Police, supporters, and various people all became involved in the fight outside the club. Police officers Justin Volpe, Charles Schwarz, Thomas Bruder, and Thomas Wiese, and others responded to the scene. In the ongoing altercation, Volpe said that Louima had attacked him. Louima was charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing government administration, and resisting arrest. Later, Volpe admitted his accusation about Louima being his assailant was a lie.


title: Abner Louima

text: On the ride to the station, the arresting officers beat Louima with their fists, nightsticks, and hand-held police radios. On arriving at the station house, they had Louima strip-searched and put in a holding cell. The beating continued later, culminating with Louima being forcibly sodomized in a bathroom at the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn. Volpe kicked Louima in the testicles, and while Louima's hands were cuffed behind his back, he first grabbed onto and squeezed his testicles and then forced a broken broomstick up his rectum. According to trial testimony, Volpe walked through the precinct holding the bloody, excrement-stained instrument in his hand, bragging to a police sergeant that he "took a man down tonight."


title: Abner Louima

text: Louima's teeth were also badly damaged in the attack when the broom handle was jammed into his mouth. He testified that a second officer in the bathroom helped Volpe in the assault but could not positively identify him. The identity of the second attacker became a point of serious contention during the trial and appeals. Louima also initially claimed that the officers involved in the attack called him a racial slur and shouted, "This is Giuliani-time" during the beating. Louima later recanted that claim. The reversal was used by police defense lawyers to cast doubt on the entirety of his testimony.


title: Abner Louima

text: The day after the incident, police took Louima to the emergency department at Coney Island Hospital. Escorting officers explained away his serious injuries, saying they were the result of "abnormal homosexual activities." An Emergency Department (ED) nurse, Magalie Laurent, suspecting that Louima's extreme injuries were not the result of consensual sex, notified Louima's family and the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau of the likelihood that he had been raped and beaten in custody. Louima suffered severe internal damage to his colon and bladder in the attack, which required three major operations to repair. He was hospitalized for two months after the incident.


title: Abner Louima

text: Reports of the incident and the severity of Louima's injuries provoked national outrage. On August 29, 1997, an estimated 7,000 demonstrators marched to the New York City Hall and the 70th Precinct station house at 154 Lawrence Avenue where the attack took place. The march was dubbed "Day of Outrage Against Police Brutality and Harassment."


title: Abner Louima

text: The case was mentioned in the 1998 Amnesty International report on the United States, among several other cases of police brutality, torture, and abuse. Amnesty International also uses the incident as a case study on a treatise in the campaign against torture.


title: Abner Louima

text: Mike McAlary, a "New York Daily News" journalist, investigated and reported an exposé of the brutalization of Louima by NYPD officers. He won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary for this reporting.


title: Abner Louima

text: Volpe was charged with several counts in federal court of violating Louima's civil rights, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to police; he pleaded "not guilty". Midway through the trial, Volpe changed his plea to guilty, confessing to having sodomized Louima. Although Louima had suffered several broken teeth, Volpe denied that he ever struck Louima in the mouth with the stick and claimed that he only put it very close to Louima's mouth. Volpe also admitted that he had threatened Louima's life. Volpe was convicted of the charges. On December 13, 1999, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, without the possibility of parole, as well as a $525 fine and restitution in the amount of $277,495.


title: Abner Louima

text: Charles Schwarz was convicted on June 27, 2000 for helping Volpe assault Louima in the bathroom, and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. At the time of his conviction, numerous questions were raised about whether he could receive a fair trial in the highly charged atmosphere. Volpe identified Wiese, not Schwarz, as the second man in the bathroom, in a recorded interview on news show "60 Minutes", a fact not brought up in the trial. The conviction was overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which found that Schwarz was denied a fair trial. However, in 2002, Schwarz pleaded guilty to a perjury charge for testifying that he did not lead Louima to the bathroom, and he was sentenced to five years in prison. His request for leniency was rejected on March 30, 2006. He was released to a halfway house in February 2007, and as of 2019 works in New York City as a carpenter.


title: Abner Louima

text: Three other NYPD officers (Bruder, Wiese, and Sergeant Michael Bellomo) were indicted for trying to cover up the assault. On March 9, 2000, Wiese and Bruder, along with Schwarz, were convicted on the charge of conspiracy to obstruct a federal investigation into the assault on Louima, but their convictions were reversed by a federal appeals court in February 2002 for insufficient evidence. Bellomo was found not guilty of trying to cover up the beating of Louima and that of another Haitian immigrant by Volpe earlier that evening.


title: Abner Louima

text: Volpe is serving his 30-year sentence at a minimum security facility at the Federal Correctional Institution, Beaumont in Texas; he is scheduled for release on April 12, 2024. He was assigned BOP Inmate #49477-053. In February 2021, Volpe's request for a COVID-related compassionate release was denied.


title: Abner Louima

text: Louima was represented by attorney Sanford Rubenstein in a subsequent civil suit against the City of New York; this was settled for $8.75 million on July 30, 2001, the largest police brutality settlement in New York City history. After legal fees, Louima collected approximately $5.8 million.


title: Abner Louima

text: In February 2003, Louima visited his family still living in Haiti. There, he discussed setting up the Abner Louima Foundation, a nonprofit organization to raise additional money to build a community center and hospital in Haiti. Louima indicated he had plans to use his own money and donations to open community centers in Haiti, New York, and Florida for Haitians and others seeking legal, financial or other aid. Louima paid the school tuition for 14 poor children in Thomassin, the small community where he grew up. During his visit to Haiti, he met with the President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest whom Louima knew from his school days. In a rare interview, Louima said he is convinced that he can make a difference in his impoverished homeland: "Maybe God saved my life for a reason, I believe in doing the right thing."


title: Abner Louima

text: In 2007, Louima was residing in Miami Lakes, Florida. He owns homes in suburban Miami and Port-au-Prince, and several investment properties in Florida.


title: Abner Louima

text: Louima has since participated in anti-police brutality protests with Al Sharpton, notably over the shooting of Sean Bell in November 2006, and on August 9, 2007, exactly 10 years after his attack. On the latter date, Louima was honored in New York City by the National Action Network (an organization founded by Al Sharpton), at the House of Justice, for his resolve and for helping others who have suffered from police brutality.


title: New Orleans Breakers (2022)

text: The New Orleans Breakers are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are one of eight members of United States Football League (USFL).


title: New Orleans Breakers (2022)

text: They currently play their home games at Protective Stadium and Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, which also hosts the University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazers.


title: New Orleans Breakers (2022)

text: The New Orleans Breakers were one of eight teams that were officially announced as a USFL franchise on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" on November 22, 2021.


title: New Orleans Breakers (2022)

text: On January 27, 2022, it was announced on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" that former NCAA Football Head coach Larry Fedora was named the Head coach and General manager of the Breakers.


title: New Orleans Breakers (2022)

text: Initially, each team carried a 38-man active roster and a 7-man practice squad, but the rosters were increased to 40 active players and 50 total in May, 2022.


title: James Clapper

text: James Robert Clapper Jr. (born March 14, 1941) is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Air Force and former Director of National Intelligence. Clapper has held several key positions within the United States Intelligence Community. He served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from 1992 until 1995. He was the first director of defense intelligence within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and simultaneously the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. He served as the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) from September 2001 until June 2006.


title: James Clapper

text: On June 5, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Clapper to replace Dennis C. Blair as United States Director of National Intelligence. Clapper was unanimously confirmed by the Senate for the position on August 5, 2010.


title: James Clapper

text: Following the June 2013 leak of documents detailing the NSA practice of collecting telephone metadata on millions of Americans' telephone calls, Clapper was accused of perjury for telling a congressional committee hearing that the NSA does not collect any type of data on millions of Americans earlier that year. One senator asked for his resignation, and a group of 26 senators complained about Clapper's responses under questioning. In November 2016, Clapper resigned as director of national intelligence, effective at the end of President Obama's term. In May 2017, he joined the Washington, D.C.–based think tank the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) as a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Intelligence and National Security. In August 2017, CNN hired Clapper as a national security analyst.


title: James Clapper

text: James Robert Clapper Jr. was born on March 14, 1941, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of Anne Elizabeth ( Wheatley) and First Lieutenant James Robert Clapper. His father worked in US Army signals intelligence during World War II, retiring as a colonel in 1972 then worked in security at George Mason University in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His maternal grandfather, James McNeal Wheatley, was an Episcopal minister.


title: James Clapper

text: Clapper graduated from Nurnberg American High School in West Germany in 1959 where his father was stationed at the time.


title: James Clapper

text: Clapper earned a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from the University of Maryland in 1963 and a Master of Science degree in political science from St. Mary's University, Texas in 1970.


title: James Clapper

text: After a brief enlistment in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, where Clapper served as a rifleman and attended the junior course of Platoon Leader Course he transferred to the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program. In 1963, he graduated as a distinguished military graduate from the University of Maryland and was commissioned as an Air Force second lieutenant. He served two tours of duty in Southeast Asia where he commanded a signals intelligence detachment based at a listening post in Thailand's Udon Thani Province, and flew 73 combat support missions in EC-47s, including some over Laos and Cambodia. Later, he commanded a signals intelligence (SIGINT) wing at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, and the Air Force Technical Applications Center, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. During the Persian Gulf War, Clapper served as Chief of Air Force Intelligence.


title: James Clapper

text: Clapper became Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in November 1991 under George H. W. Bush. While serving as DIA director, he oversaw the transformation of the National Military Intelligence Center into the National Military Joint Intelligence Center. He also launched an initiative to reorganize intelligence analysis by specialists in enemy weapons rather than specialists in countries and regions. The initiative failed because it created functional stovepipes which "reduced the coherence of the analytic effort", whereupon Clapper decided to restore the original organizational structure using strong regional elements. Clapper retired from active duty as a lieutenant general after thirty-two years of service in September 1995. In 1996, alongside General Wayne Downing, he was a member of the investigatory inquiry into the Khobar Towers bombing, which killed 20 people, including 19 American servicemen.


title: James Clapper

text: He then spent six years in private industry, including two years as president of the Security Affairs Support Association, an organization of intelligence contractors. In August 2001, he was named as the director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (later renamed National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) where he served until June 2006.


title: James Clapper

text: From 2006 to 2007, Clapper worked for GeoEye (satellite company) and was an executive on the boards of three government contractors, two of which were doing business with the NGA while he served as director. In October 2006, he began working as a chief operating officer for the British military intelligence company Detica, now DFI and U.S.–based subsidiary of BAE Systems. He also worked for SRA International and Booz Allen Hamilton.


title: James Clapper

text: Clapper defended the private sector's role in intelligence-gathering in his 2010 confirmation hearings telling the committee, "I worked as a contractor for six years myself, so I think I have a good understanding of the contribution that they have made and will continue to make."


title: James Clapper

text: For the 2006–2007 academic year, Clapper held the position of Georgetown University's Intelligence and National Security Alliance Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Intelligence.


title: James Clapper

text: While teaching at Georgetown, he was officially nominated by President George W. Bush to be Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USD(I)) on January 29, 2007, and confirmed by the United States Senate on April 11, 2007. He was the second person ever to hold this position, which oversees the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency (NSA), and the National Reconnaissance Office. He also worked closely with DNI John Michael McConnell.


title: James Clapper

text: Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested to President Obama that he nominate Clapper to replace Dennis C. Blair as Director of National Intelligence, but both Chairman Dianne Feinstein and Vice-chairman Kit Bond of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee offered reservations regarding his appointment due to his military background and emphasis on defense-related issues. In an official statement in the White House Rose Garden on June 5, 2010, Obama announced his nomination of Clapper, saying he "possesses a quality that I value in all my advisers: a willingness to tell leaders what we need to know even if it's not what we want to hear."


title: James Clapper

text: Lawmakers approved his nomination on August 5, 2010, in a unanimous vote after the Senate Intelligence Committee backed him with a 15–0 vote. During his testimony for the position, Clapper pledged to advance the DNI's authorities, exert tighter control over programming and budgeting, and provide oversight over the CIA's use of drones in Pakistan.


title: James Clapper

text: In August 2010, Clapper announced a new position at the DNI called the deputy director of national intelligence for intelligence integration, to integrate the former posts of deputy director for analysis and deputy director for collections into one position. Robert Cardillo, the deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was tapped to fill the new post.


title: James Clapper

text: After an agreement between Clapper and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, his office assumed administrative control over the National Intelligence Program. Previously the NIP was itemized within the Defense Department budget to keep the line item and dollar amount from public view. In late October 2010, Clapper's office disclosed the top line budget as $53.1 billion, which was below the $75 billion figure circulated in 2010, in the belief the budget change would strengthen the DNI's authority.


title: James Clapper

text: In January 2012, Clapper said that "some Iranian officials, probably including supreme leader Ali Khamenei, have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime." Clapper added that Iran was "keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons." In February 2012, Clapper told the Senate that if Iran is attacked over its alleged nuclear weapons program, it could respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz to ships and launch missiles at regional U.S. forces and allies.


title: James Clapper

text: Former Defense Intelligence Agency chief Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess told senators that Iran is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict. Clapper said it's "technically feasible" that Tehran could produce a nuclear weapon in one or two years if its leaders decide to build one, "but practically not likely." Both men said they did not believe Israel had decided to strike Iran back then.


title: James Clapper

text: In December 2012, Clapper authorized the NSA to expand its "third party" relationship with Saudi Arabia. The goal was "to facilitate the Saudi government’s ability to utilize SIGINT to locate and track individuals of mutual interest within Saudi Arabia."


title: James Clapper

text: Clapper made "intelligence integration" across the Intelligence Community the primary mission of the ODNI. In 2012 the office announced an initiative to create a common information technology desktop for the entire Intelligence Community, moving away from unconnected agency networks to a common enterprise model. In late fiscal 2013, the shared IT infrastructure reached operating capability with plans to bring on all intelligence agencies over the next few years.


title: James Clapper

text: On March 12, 2013, during a United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing, Senator Ron Wyden quoted NSA director Keith B. Alexander's keynote speech at the 2012 DEF CON. Alexander had stated that "Our job is foreign intelligence" and that "those who would want to weave the story that we have millions or hundreds of millions of dossiers on people, is absolutely false... From my perspective, this is absolute nonsense." Wyden then asked Clapper, "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" He responded, "No, sir." Wyden asked, "It does not?" and Clapper said, "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly."


title: James Clapper

text: When Edward Snowden was asked during a January 26, 2014, television interview in Moscow on what the decisive moment was or what caused him to whistle-blow, he replied: "Sort of the breaking point was seeing the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress. ... Seeing that really meant for me there was no going back."


title: James Clapper

text: On June 5, 2013, "The Guardian" published the first of the global surveillance documents leaked by Edward Snowden, including a top secret court order showing that the NSA had collected phone records from over 120 million Verizon subscribers.


title: James Clapper

text: The following day, Clapper acknowledged that the NSA collects telephony metadata on millions of Americans' telephone calls. This metadata information included originating and terminating telephone number, telephone calling card number, International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, time, and duration of phone calls, but did not include the name, address, or financial information of any subscriber. The rationale for this data collection, which was said to be permitted under Section 216 of the Patriot Act, was that if the NSA discovered a terrorist was called into the U.S. and knew the number the terrorist was calling from, the NSA could look at the phone records to see what U.S. number he was calling to. If that indicated something worth investigating, obtaining caller identities and actually listening to the content of the calls would require a warrant from a U.S. court.


title: James Clapper

text: On June 7, Clapper was interviewed by Andrea Mitchell on NBC. Clapper said that "I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner by saying no" when he testified.


title: James Clapper

text: ...because the NSA program under Section 215 was highly classified, Senator Wyden wouldn't or shouldn't have been asking questions that required classified answers on camera...my error had been forgetting about Section 215, but even if I had remembered it, there still would have been no acceptable, unclassified way for me to answer the question in an open hearing. Even my saying, "We'll have to wait for the closed, classified session to discuss this," would have given something away. ...I ought to have sent a classified letter to Senator Wyden explaining my thoughts when I'd answered and that I misunderstood what he was actually asking me about. Yes, I made a mistake – a big one – when I responded, but I did not lie. I answered with truth in what I understood the context of the question to be.


title: James Clapper

text: On June 11, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) accused Clapper of not giving a "straight answer," noting that Clapper's office had been provided with the question a day in advance of the hearing and was given the opportunity following Clapper's testimony to amend his response.


title: James Clapper

text: On June 12, 2013, Representative Justin Amash became the first congressman to openly accuse Director Clapper of criminal perjury, calling for his resignation. In a series of tweets he stated: "It now appears clear that the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, lied under oath to Congress and the American people," and "Perjury is a serious crime ... [and] Clapper should resign immediately," U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said "The director of national intelligence, in March, did directly lie to Congress, which is against the law." Paul later suggested that Clapper might deserve prison time for his testimony.


title: James Clapper

text: On June 27, 2013, a group of 26 senators sent him a complaint letter opposing the use of a "body of secret law."


title: James Clapper

text: On July 1, 2013, Clapper apologized, telling Senate Intelligence Committee that "my response was clearly erroneous—for which I apologize." On July 2, Clapper said that he had forgotten about the Patriot Act, which was later clarified that he forgot Section 215 of the act specifically, and therefore had given an "erroneous" answer.


title: James Clapper

text: On July 2, 2013, journalist Glenn Greenwald accused the U.S. media of focusing on Edward Snowden instead of focusing on wrongdoing by Clapper and other U.S. officials. Jody Westby of "Forbes" argued that due to the revelations, the American public should ask Clapper to resign from office, arguing that "not only did Mr. Clapper give false testimony to Congress, even his June 6 statement was false. We now know—since the companies identified by the "Washington Post" have started fessing up—that lots more than telephony metadata has been collected and searched." Fred Kaplan of "Slate" also advocated having Clapper fired, arguing "if President Obama really welcomes an open debate on this subject, James Clapper has disqualified himself from participation in it. He has to go." Andy Greenberg of "Forbes" said that NSA officials along with Clapper, in the years 2012 and 2013 "publicly denied–often with carefully hedged words–participating in the kind of snooping on Americans that has since become nearly undeniable." John Dean, former White House Counsel for President Nixon, has claimed that it is unlikely Clapper would be charged with the three principal criminal statutes that address false statements to Congress: perjury, obstruction of Congress, and making false statements. David Sirota of "Salon" said that if the U.S. government fails to treat Clapper and Alexander in the same way as it did Roger Clemens, "the message from the government would be that lying to Congress about baseball is more of a felony than lying to Congress about Americans' Fourth Amendment rights" and that the “message would declare that when it comes to brazen law-breaking, as long as you are personally connected to the president, you get protection rather than the prosecution you deserve."


title: James Clapper

text: On December 19, 2013, seven Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee called on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate Clapper, stating "witnesses cannot be allowed to lie to Congress."


title: James Clapper

text: In January 2014, Robert S. Litt, general counsel to the Office of the DNI, stated that Clapper did not lie to Congress, citing the context of the question and the fact that Clapper's staff had answered the question in writing the day before. In May 2015, Litt clarified that Clapper "had absolutely forgotten the existence of" Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, and claimed he had been thinking of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act when he gave the answer.


title: James Clapper

text: In January 2014, six members of the House of Representatives wrote to President Obama urging him to dismiss Clapper for lying to Congress, stating his statement was "incompatible with the goal of restoring trust" in the intelligence community, but were rebuffed by the White House.


title: James Clapper

text: Caitlin Hayden, the White House National Security Council spokesperson, said in an e-mailed statement that Obama has "full faith in Director Clapper's leadership of the intelligence community. The Director has provided an explanation for his answers to Senator Wyden and made clear that he did not intend to mislead the Congress."


title: James Clapper

text: In March 2014, Clapper signed a directive that barred employees of the intelligence community from providing "intelligence-related information" to reporters without prior authorization, even to provide unclassified information, making a violation of the directive a "security violation". The order, which purportedly came as a result of congressional urging to crack down on leaks, drew criticism from public watchdogs who claimed that the move would stifle inner-agency criticism and threaten whistleblowers. The following month he implemented a new pre-publication review policy for the ODNI's current and former employees that prohibits them from citing news reports based on leaks in their unofficial writings.


title: James Clapper

text: In June 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against several defendants including Clapper challenging the intelligence community's bulk collection of metadata. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York found in December 2013 that the collection did not violate the Fourth Amendment and dismissed the lawsuit. On May 7, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Section 215 of the Patriot Act did not authorize the bulk collection of metadata, which judge Gerard E. Lynch called a "staggering" amount of information.


title: James Clapper

text: In June 2015, the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced that it had been the target of a data breach targeting the records of as many as 18 million people. "The Washington Post" has reported that the attack originated in China, citing unnamed government officials.


title: James Clapper

text: Speaking at a forum in Washington, D.C., Clapper warned of the danger posed by a capable adversary such as the Chinese government and said, "You have to kind of salute the Chinese for what they did."


title: James Clapper

text: In August 2015, fifty intelligence analysts working for United States Central Command (CENTCOM) complained to the Pentagon's Inspector General and the media, alleging that CENTCOM's senior leadership was altering or distorting intelligence reports on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to paint a more optimistic picture of the ongoing war against ISIL forces in Iraq and Syria. They were subsequently joined by civilian and Defense Intelligence Agency analysts working for CENTCOM. Members of the groups began anonymously leaking details of the case to the press in late August. In September 2015, "The Guardian" reported that according to an unknown former intelligence official, Clapper was in frequent contact with Brigadier General Steven Grove, who was said to be one of the subjects of the Inspector General's review. In February 2017, the Inspector General of the United States Department of Defense completed its investigation and cleared the senior leadership of CENTCOM, concluding that "allegations of intelligence being intentionally altered, delayed or suppressed by top CENTCOM officials from mid-2014 to mid-2015 were largely unsubstantiated."


title: James Clapper

text: In June 2017 Clapper commenced an initial four-week term at the Australian National University (ANU) National Security College in Canberra that includes public lectures on key global and national security issues. Clapper was also expected to take part in the ANU Crawford Australian Leadership Forum, the nation's pre-eminent dialogue of academics, parliamentarians and business leaders.


title: James Clapper

text: In August 2017, CNN hired Clapper as a national security analyst. In May 2018, Clapper expressed his support for CIA Director-designate Gina Haspel.


title: James Clapper

text: In a March 2017 interview with Chuck Todd, Clapper, who had been the Director of National Intelligence under President Obama until January 20, 2017, revealed the state of his knowledge at that time:


title: James Clapper

text: Clapper had stopped receiving briefings on January 20 and was "not aware of the counterintelligence investigation Director Comey first referred to during his testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee for Intelligence on the 20th of March". CNN stated that Clapper had "taken a major defense away from the White House."


title: James Clapper

text: In a speech at Australia's National Press Club in June Clapper accused Trump of "ignorance or disrespect", called the firing of FBI director James Comey "inexcusable", and warned of an "internal assault on our institutions".


title: James Clapper

text: In June 2017, Clapper opined that Trump-Russia scandal is more serious than the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. In December 2017, Clapper said that Russian President Vladimir Putin "knows how to handle an asset, and that’s what he’s doing with" President Trump. In his 2018 memoir "Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence", Clapper further addressed the issue.


title: James Clapper

text: In an August 2017 interview, Clapper stated that U.S. President Donald Trump having access to the nuclear codes is "pretty damn scary" and he questioned his fitness to be in office.


title: James Clapper

text: In October 2018, Clapper alongside several Democratic officials and other critics of Trump was targeted by a mailed pipe bomb.


title: James Clapper

text: In February 2019, Clapper said he agreed with former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s opinion that President Donald Trump could be a "Russian asset".


title: James Clapper

text: In October 2020, Clapper and more than 50 former intelligence officials signed a letter stating the disclosure of emails in the Hunter Biden laptop story "has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation".


title: James Clapper

text: In May 2017, Clapper said that Russia is the primary adversary of the United States. He explained why he believes the Russians are so dangerous:


title: James Clapper

text: If you put that in context with everything else we knew the Russians were doing to interfere with the election, and just the historical practices of the Russians, who typically, almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique. So we were concerned.


title: James Clapper

text: In June 2017, Clapper said that "[t]he Russians are not our friends", because it is in their "genes to be opposed, diametrically opposed, to the United States and western democracies."


title: James Clapper

text: Clapper serves on the "Advisory Board of the Committee to Investigate Russia", a nonpartisan, non-profit group formed with the intention of helping "Americans understand and recognize the scope and scale of Russia's continuing attacks on our democracy."


title: James Clapper

text: In 2003, Clapper, then head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, attempted to explain the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq by asserting that the weapons materials were "unquestionably" shipped out of Iraq to Syria and other countries just before the American invasion, a "personal assessment" that Clapper's own agency head at the time, David Burpee, "could not provide further evidence to support."


title: James Clapper

text: In an interview on December 20, 2010, with Diane Sawyer of ABC News, Clapper indicated he was completely unaware that 12 alleged terrorists had been arrested in Great Britain earlier that day.


title: James Clapper

text: In February 2011, when mass demonstrations were on the verge of toppling Hosni Mubarak's presidency in Egypt, Clapper told the House Intelligence Committee during a hearing that:


title: James Clapper

text: The term 'Muslim Brotherhood' ... is an umbrella term for a variety of movements, in the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam... They have pursued social ends, a betterment of the political order in Egypt, et cetera. ... In other countries, there are also chapters or franchises of the Muslim Brotherhood, but there is no overarching agenda, particularly in pursuit of violence, at least internationally.


title: James Clapper

text: The Obama administration took the rare step later that day of correcting its own intelligence chief after the statement drew scrutiny among members of Congress.


title: James Clapper

text: In March 2011, Clapper was heard at the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services commenting on the 2011 Libyan civil war that "over the longer term" Gaddafi "will prevail". This position was loudly questioned by the White House, when National Security Adviser Thomas E. Donilon qualified his statement as a "static and one-dimensional assessment" and argued that "the lost legitimacy [of Gaddafi] matters." During the same hearing he was also questioned when he neglected to list Iran and North Korea among the nuclear powers that might pose a threat to the United States.


title: James Clapper

text: In February 2016, Clapper cited the activities of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Islamic State and "homegrown extremists" as major threats to the United States.


title: James Clapper

text: In March 2017, Clapper said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had not obtained a FISA court order allowing the FBI to tap Trump Tower, rebutting Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claims that President Barack Obama personally ordered wiretapping of Trump Tower before the November election. Clapper stated "I will say that for the part of the national security apparatus that I oversaw as DNI, was there no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time or as a candidate or against his campaign," but added that "I can't speak for other Title III authorized entities in the government or a state or local entity."


title: James Clapper

text: Clapper also said that he saw no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He stopped receiving briefings on January 20 and was "not aware of the counterintelligence investigation Director Comey first referred to during his testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee for Intelligence on the 20th of March". CNN stated that Clapper had "taken a major defense away from the White House."


title: James Clapper

text: In May 2017, Clapper was criticized by some media outlets for a xenophobic remark in an interview with Chuck Todd from "Meet the Press". He told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Russians are "almost genetically driven" to act deviously.


title: James Clapper

text: On October 26, 2018, the New York Times reported that an explosive device addressed to James Clapper was delivered to CNN offices in Manhattan. Federal authorities are investigating.


title: James Clapper

text: In 1965, Clapper married Susan Ellen Terry, a former National Security Agency employee. They have a daughter, Jennifer, who is a principal of an elementary school in Fairfax County, Virginia. They also have a son, Andrew, who is an Instructional Technology resource teacher for Hidden Valley High School in Roanoke, Virginia.


title: James Clapper

text: Clapper has a brother, Mike Clapper of Illinois, and a sister, Chris. He introduced them at his Senate confirmation hearings on July 20, 2010.


title: James Clapper

text: Clapper also holds an honorary doctorate in strategic intelligence from the Joint Military Intelligence College, Washington, D.C., where he taught as an adjunct professor.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Thoongaa Vanam () is a 2015 Indian action thriller film directed by Rajesh M. Selva. The film stars Kamal Haasan, Prakash Raj, Trisha, Kishore, Sampath Raj, and Yugi Sethu, while Aman Abdullah, Asha Sharath, Madhu Shalini, and Jagan play supporting roles. It is filmed simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu languages, the latter titled Cheekati Rajyam (). Both versions were produced by Raaj Kamal Films International and Sri Gokulam Movies. The film is a remake of the French film "Sleepless Night" (2011).


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: "Thoongaa Vanam" was released on 10 November 2015 coinciding with Diwali while the Telugu version "Cheekati Rajyam" was released on 20 November 2015. The film received positive reviews from critics.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: C.K Diwakar is an IRS officer in the NCB, who along with his deputy Mani, bust down a narcotics scam. In retribution, Vittal Rao, a drug smuggler who had masterminded the scam, kidnaps Diwakar's son Vasu. He is willing to release Vasu if Diwakar can return to him a bag of cocaine that he seized while thwarting the scam.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Without any options, Diwakar agrees and proceeds to Vittal's nightclub, where Vasu is held hostage, with the bag of cocaine, hiding it in the men's toilet. However, this is noticed by his colleague Mallika, who becomes suspicious. Thinking that Diwakar is involved in drug smuggling, she informs her superior Dhiraviyam. Both begin to pursue Diwakar, taking away the bag of cocaine from the toilet in the process.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: When Diwakar realises that the bag of cocaine has gone missing, he decides to return to Vittal a bag containing packets of maida instead, thinking that he and his cronies, including a gangster named Pedha Babu, will not realise the difference. Unfortunately, Vittal and Pedha soon find out that Diwakar had cheated them and decide to kill him.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Caught between Vittal's gang on one side and Mallika and Dhiraviyam on the other side, Diwakar confronts Mallika and tells her that contrary to her suspicions, he is working undercover and had planned the entire operation to expose cops such as Dhiraviyam and even Mani, who are involved in drug smuggling. Then, Diwakar rescues Vasu without Vittal's knowledge, and Vittal is also arrested by Mallika and Dhiraviyam.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: While taking Vittal to prison, Mallika finds out that she has Mani's mobile phone, and on reading the messages in it, she finds out that Diwakar had been speaking the truth all along, realising that Dhiraviyam and Mani are involved in drug smuggling and had tried to frame Diwakar. Though Dhiraviyam tries to resist arrest, killing Vittal in the process, he is eventually brought to justice.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Three months later, Mallika is now Diwakar's deputy, where both of them thwarts the attempted murder of a police officer.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Kamal Haasan announced that his next project, a bilingual thriller titled "Thoongaa Vanam" in Tamil, and it would be directed by his former assistant Rajesh Selva and produced by himself. The film was initially titled as "Ore Iravu", before going through a change of title. Kamal Haasan was so glad to be a part of this great film and expressed his thanks to all who supported him in his career. He added that the film would be shot simultaneously and with the same cast and crew as "Cheekati Rajyam" in the Telugu language. Sanu Varghese and Shan Mohammed were named as the cinematographer and editor, respectively, while Ghibran was recruited as the film's composer, working for a fourth successive Kamal Haasan film. Writer Suka was chosen to write the Tamil dialogues, while Abburi Ravi was assigned to work on the dialogues for the Telugu version.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Kamal Haasan was reported to be play CK Dhiwakar, an Indian Revenue Service officer in Narcotics Control Bureau. Trisha and Prakash Raj were the first actors to be cast and reported to play the female lead and an important supporting role respectively. While Prakash Raj was said to portray a drug dealer named Vital Rao, Trisha's role was Mallika, a police officer. Initially, the makers were considering Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala to play Kamal's wife in the movie. But the crew later opted for Asha Sarath after watching her films. Uma Riyaz Khan was signed for an "important role" and Kishore informed that had been selected for a "key role" in the film. In June 2015, it was reported that Madhu Shalini was part of the film and had starting filming, while Sampath Raj was also added to the cast. Sampath's character was revealed to be that of a local gangster called Pedha Babu.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Following a photo shoot at the AVM Studios on 20 May 2015, the film was officially unveiled on 25 May in Hyderabad with the release of the first look poster, after which principal photography began with a schedule at the Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. The filming was completed in 38 days by August 2015.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: The soundtrack album for "Thoongaa Vanam" composed by Ghibran, features only one song, "Neeye Unakku Raja" in the heavy metal genre, written by Vairamuthu and sung by Kamal Haasan, with backing vocals by Yazin Nizar and model-turned-singer Aishvarrya. The song was released on 7 October 2015, along with its video song being simultaneously released on YouTube.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Behindwoods reviewing for the song stated that "Kamal’s textured voice and the glitch mode is on full throttle for this house-mix song, Ghibran’s toxic instrumentation takes us into a trance land of no hope and support. Be it the Veenai in the interlude or the numerous sound effects, the electronic influence in the composition, teamed up with some growling, bowls us over throughout. The female voice is no less, and particularly the metal-like singing is a whole new try." and gave a verdict, "Though it's just one, it's a gun!"


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: The Telugu version of the song named "Dhairyam Veedi" written by Ramajogayya Sastry was released, on 3 November 2015.


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Gautaman Bhaskaran of "Hindustan Times" gave the film a rating of 4/5 stars, calling it "an absolute slick crime adventure". Latha Srinivasan of "Daily News and Analysis" gave 3.5/5 stars mentioning Thoongaa Vanam as a slick, well-made film that takes you through the course of happening over one night to the police officer and appreciated the debutant Rajesh M. Selva for directing a film that broke from the regular Kollywood films. They also appreciated the performance of Kamal Haasan, Trisha and music director Gibran for the excellent background score. Avinash Gopinath of Filmibeat gave 3.5/5 stars and concluded "Without any songs and romantic sequences, is not your regular Tamil film. After all, who else other than Kamal Haasan can make a Kollywood flick look truly international?"


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Rating it 3/5 stars, S. Saraswathi of Rediff appreciated the performances of the lead cast as well as the film's technical aspects but criticised the lack of pace in the film's screenplay before concluding "the intriguing plot, good performances, Ghibran's innovative background score and camera angles of Sanu Varghese make director Rajesh M. Selva's worth a watch." M. Suganth of "The Times of India" also rated the film 3/5 and wrote, "even though the film cleverly spreads the action across various areas in the club [...] it isn't enough to shake off the feeling of claustrophobia. By the time the film gets over, we feel exhausted." Entertainment website Behindwoods rated it 2.75/5, mentioning it as "There are thrills and surprises worth experiencing in this Thoongavanam", but also wrote "If one has to complain, it must be about the slightly slower pace of the movie", a contradictory statement when compared with general opinion. They appreciated the technicians as well as actors of the film with special mention to Trisha, and Aman Abdullah. Karthik Keramalu of IBNLive gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote, "Actors move in and out of rooms, run this way and that, plot and fail, hide and seek. Yet all the effort of the cast and crew is shaken and not stirred enough as the screenplay gets a few nods wrong."


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: Baradwaj Rangan of "The Hindu" stated that the film picks up in the post-interval portions "the kitchen-sink action choreography, the sounds of things breaking and clattering, the bursts of background score, the jittery camerawork", concluding the film as "an okay thriller", but criticised director Rajesh Selva for not giving the output to the dazzle of Brian De Palma films. Sify described the film as a "classy thriller that gives an edge of the seat ride with world class action sequences and no-nonsense execution!".Kamal Haasan, Prakash Raj, Sampath Raj, Kishore and Trisha were appreciated for their performances, while they concluded mentioning about the technical aspects like music, action, editing and camera work that gave an edge to the film. Raisa Nasreen of Bookmyshow termed the film as "A solid action-thriller".


title: Thoongaa Vanam

text: The Telugu version was released a week later with similar positive reviews. Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of "The Hindu" stated, 'though the film isn't really exceptional, makes for an engaging watch', appreciating director on the promising debut. She also mentioned the performance of Kamal Haasan, Prakash Raj and Trisha as good, concluding the film as a stylish cop drama as attention is paid even to little details of the film making. Rating it 3/5 stars, Pravallika Anjuri of filmibeat stated that, even though the film is not up to the standard of an edgy or racy thriller, the performance of artistes, ideal run time and presentation makes it a must watch. 123 Telugu gave the film a rating of 3.25/5 stars, calling it as a slick action thriller with interesting moments going on its way with a racy first half, concluding as the film is a must watch for those who like action thrillers and for the rest, the film is a decent watch.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Jonathan Phillip "Sugarfoot" Moffett (born November 17, 1954) is an American drummer, songwriter and producer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Beginning in 1979, Moffett collaborated with the Jackson family, particularly Michael Jackson, over the course of 30 years. More recently, he has worked with other notable artists and producers such as Madonna, George Michael, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones and many others. He was bestowed the moniker of "Sugarfoot" by Michael Jackson due to becoming well known for his frequent use of advanced techniques on the foot pedals.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett is the third of a musical family of siblings. His two other brothers played the guitar and the bass guitar, while Jonathan's father encouraged him to drum. His influences are Zigaboo, Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson, Billy Cobham, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Roger Taylor and other drummers, mostly originating from New Orleans.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: He initially wanted to play the bass guitar long before drums. He was always acutely aware of the bass guitar parts in songs and mimicked them on the bass drum. Moffett was never musically trained and learned to play drums on his own by ear. He was nicknamed ""Sugarfoot"" for his quick, articulate, and pronounced bass drum work, which requires a lot of precision and stamina for a drummer. He plays 16th note, 32nd note, and 64th note figures energetically and fluidly within rhythms. Moffett started off his drumming career by performing locally with prominent bands within the region and at nightclubs as a young boy.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: He came up with his kung-fu inspired signature moves during a marathon practice session late one evening - the "one-handed cymbal catch" and his "backlash-whiplash" cymbal crashes (single and/or double hand) where he places two cymbals behind him and crashes/chokes them without looking.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett's professional career initially started with The Jacksons. In 1979, through serendipity, he came across The Jackson's musical director, James McField, who told him they were auditioning for a new drummer. Though the final auditions were that day, they extended it for him, knowing how eager he was to play for the group. According to an article by Robyn Flans in "Drummer Magazine" in September 1984, Moffett said:"He [McField] called that night and the audition was set for the next day. I was familiar with their songs [The Jacksons] because I had grown up with their music, yet I didn't know everything about the music...After we finished a few songs, they pulled me aside and said they'd let me know something soon. That evening, I got the call and they said they wanted me to join the group. It was just a miracle."


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: His first major tour was the Destiny Tour (22.1.1979 – 13.1.1980) with The Jacksons. After his first show with the group, Michael Jackson was in awe by Moffett's ability to keep up with his dancing, always accenting his dance moves, which gave his dancing more power and prominence. He also used his "one-handed cymbal catch" frequently, in which Moffett explained to Zildjian:"With the Jacksons, I'll use it to accent certain moments before the vocal chorus. OR when Michael makes a move and stops real quick, I'll accent that with a catch. You've got to do it fast and drop back into the rhythm without breaking time."He proceeded to perform on the Triumph Tour (8.7.1981 – 26.9.1981) with The Jacksons in 1981, which "Rolling Stone" later named as one of the best 25 tours of 1967 to 1987. Epic decided to have one of the shows from the tour recorded due to its immense popularity and success. Moffett also drummed around the United States and Canada for the record-breaking and famous Victory Tour (6.7.1984 – 9.12.1984), where he met Madonna backstage who asked him to drum for her upcoming The Virgin Tour (10.4.1985 – 11.6.1985). The Jacksons' Victory Tour promoted Michael Jackson's albums "Off the Wall" (1979) and "Thriller" (1982) and was promoted by Don King. Moffett performed with Eddie Van Halen, who made a few special appearances on some of the shows playing "Beat It" on guitar. Prince complimented Moffett after many shows with The Jacksons (and did the same seeing him live with other artists). He'd nod his head, smile, and say, "That was bad, you're bad".


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: When Moffett turned professional, he designed innovative futuristic drum kits for every tour to complement the stage design. His work with The Jacksons and unique drumming style led him to become one of the most in-demand pop music drummers and perform on 23 world tours.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett was with Michael and the Jackson brothers during the infamous Pepsi commercial shoot in 1984 when Michael suffered from second-degree burns from the blazing pyrotechnics. He noticed the flames on Michael's hair at one point during the shoot and dropped his drum sticks and ran to help him just as some crew members did the same.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: He is credited for live drumming on "The Jacksons Live!" (1981) album, which is RIAA-certified Gold. The double-disc album contains recordings of songs performed throughout the Triumph Tour (8.7.1981 – 26.9.1981). He also later recorded on The Jacksons' albums "Victory" (1984) and "2300 Jackson Street" (1989).


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: After their initial meet during The Jacksons Victory Tour (July 6, 1984 – December 9, 1984), Moffett finally agreed to tour with Madonna on her debut tour, "The Virgin Tour" (April 10, 1985 – June 11, 1985) alongside "Victory Tour" bandmate, Patrick Leonard (musical director/keyboardist). The tour took place only in the United States and Canada. He was featured on Madonna's 1985 "Dress You Up" music video which was basically concert footage of her singing the song from "The Virgin Tour". With the success of the tour, which was also released as a video album, Madonna requested Moffett to tour with her on her second tour, Who's That Girl Tour (June 14, 1987 – September 6, 1987). The tour took place on a global level and was a huge commercial success, superseding the previous tour, and he finally toured with her on her controversial yet groundbreaking Blond Ambition Tour (April 13, 1990 – May 8, 1990), which received accolades for its intricate choreography and stage production. The tour was followed by a 1991 motion picture film, "", which Moffett was featured in.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett also recorded on three Madonna albums with producer Patrick Leonard: "True Blue" (1986), "Like a Prayer" (1989), and "I'm Breathless" (1990). He recorded drums, percussion, and background vocals on all three albums.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: He performed with the pop star at "Live Aid" in 1985 performing her hit songs including "Holiday", "Into the Groove", and "Love Makes the World Go Round" with guest stars Nile Rodgers, Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie, and The Thompson Twins.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Elton turned to Moffett for his comeback Reg Strikes Back Tour (9.9.1988 – 10.6.1989) with a total of 87 shows and which he utilized to fight bad press. Elton again hired Moffett for his Sleeping with the Past Tour (28.7.1989 – 20.5.1990) a total of 74 shows.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett drummed on Elton's "Sleeping with the Past" (1989) album, which was Elton's best selling album in Denmark – where the album was recorded. It was more successful than the tour. The album was also Elton's first platinum album since 1983 with many hit singles. Moffett was also credited on "To Be Continued" a four-disc box set, recorded on various locations between 1965 and 1991, that chronicled Elton's songs from his days with Bluesology to the present day; it included newly recorded songs. He was also credited for live drumming on Elton's "Duets" (1993) album for the song "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" which was recorded live with George Michael at Wembley Arena in 1991. He is also credited on "" (1991) and was additionally featured in the 1991 TV movie "Two Rooms: A Tribute to Elton John & Bernie Taupin".


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: George Michael called Moffett to tour with him on his Cover to Cover tour (15.1.1991 – 31.10.1991) totaling 30 shows and which took place in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, Canada and the United States. Moffett also performed with Michael at the Rock in Rio Music Festival, which is a recurring music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: He toured with Janet Jackson on her janet. World Tour (24.11.1993 – 22.4.1995). The tour took place throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Moffett did the first leg of the tour with Jackson.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett continued to perform with Michael Jackson throughout the duration of his solo career on various shows and tours such as his performance on the "30th Annual Grammy Awards" in 1988 with the songs "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Man in the Mirror" and joined Jackson on his third and final tour, the HIStory World Tour (7.9.1996 – 15.10.1997). He also drummed for the "" shows at the Madison Square Garden in New York City on September 7 and 10, 2001 and "" benefit concert led by Jackson himself in Washington D.C. among several others on October 21, 2001.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett drummed for The "" which took place on September 7 and 10, 2001. The concerts aired as a two-hour television special on CBS, honoring Michael Jackson's thirtieth year as a solo artist. The television special included footages from both shows. Moffett drummed with the rest of the band on the balcony right above the performers. Some of the guests and performers included Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin, Slash, Liza Minnelli, Destiny's Child, Britney Spears, Gloria Estefan, Ray Charles, Chris Tucker, Usher, and more.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Jackson asked Moffett to collaborate on a song he wrote for Diana Ross titled "Muscles". Moffett played both drums and percussions on the track. The song was named after Jackson's pet snake and released in 1982. It was an instant hit and reached #10 on the "Billboard Hot 100".


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett was supposed to perform on Jackson's This Is It Tour (13.7.2009 – 6.3.2010), rehearsing for months, but it never happened as Jackson died before its launch.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: He was featured in "Michael Jackson's This Is It" (2009) documentary motion picture film alongside many other concert films, shows, and documentaries. "This Is It's" worldwide gross revenue was $261 million, making it the highest-grossing concert film of all time. There are snippets of him drumming throughout the documentary as well as discussing the concert series that never came to be and his history with Jackson.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Though Moffett was known as ""Sugarfoot"" to the rest of the world, Michael cut his stage name short and called him ""Foot"" instead. Moffett was Michael Jackson's live drummer of choice from the beginning when he first started drumming with The Jacksons. Michael always called him first for each tour and show, even when he was under contract with other artists. The two collaborated over the course of 30 years starting in 1979 to 2009 with a total of four tours together; "This Is It" (13.7.2009 – 6.3.2010) would have been the fifth. Aside from working with Michael, he was friends with him and hung out at The Jackson Estate (Hayvenhurst home) with the family (including with Jackson family matriarch, Katherine Jackson, who he considers his "second mother") and one-on-one with Michael at Neverland Ranch and his other homes. The two had drawing contests on the road when touring and Jackson sent him birthday and holiday cards when they were not together. Moffett was with him the night before he died until 1 AM.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Following Michael Jackson's passing, Moffett drummed around the world honoring the pop star with Cirque du Soleil's (2.10.2011 – 31.8.2014). The tour is listed as one of the top-grossing tours of all time with a gross revenue of $360 million totaling 501 shows at 157 venues in 28 countries worldwide.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett also performed at the "Australian Music Show (AIMS)" and hosted a drum clinic in which he performed ten Michael Jackson songs that were supposed to be on "This Is It".


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Most recently he was featured in Spike Lee's 2016 "Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall" documentary, which was Lee's second documentary on Michael Jackson since "Bad 25" (2012). The documentary was released with the reissue of the "Off the Wall" (1979) album. Moffett spoke of his initial audition with The Jacksons and early days with Michael and the group.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Jonathan Moffett is currently sponsored by Drum Workshop (DW), Remo Drum Heads, Empire Ear Monitors, Earthworks Microphones, Roland, Audeze Headphones, QSC and Gruv Gear. Over the years he has played a variety of cymbals including Zildjian and Istanbul Mehmet. Additionally he designed his own signature "Jonathan Moffett Duo" drum sticks in 1996 and designed his own cymbal called the "Moffett "M" Series" with "Soultone" back when he endorsed them, but later had a falling out with the company. He is currently in the process of designing his very own drum products and has an upcoming line of drum sticks coming out called “Sweet Beats”, which will be sold on his web store, the Moffett Store.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett has been featured in the following: "Modern Drummer, Rolling Stone, DRUM! Magazine, Drummer Magazine, People, Rhythm magazine, Drummer World, Batteur Magazine, US Weekly, Ebony, Batterie Magazine, RIGHT ON!, The Drum Channel, Jet Magazine, Beat Magazine" and a variety of other notable magazines, publications and blogs.


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: He has performed on countless television shows including on "Good Morning America" (with The Jacksons), "Grammy Awards" (with Michael Jackson), "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson", "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Saturday Night Live", many times on the "Arsenio Hall Show" (with Brenda Russell, The O'Jays, Jasmine Guy, Wilson Phillips, Lindsey Buckingham, Go West, etc.), "Solid Gold" (with Greg Phillinganes and Cameo), "Top of the Pops", "The A-Team" (with Isaac Hayes and Rick James), and countless others. Some of the tours he was on with Michael Jackson and Madonna aired as television specials, including on "HBO".


title: Jonathan Moffett

text: Moffett's drumming techniques and style are often mimicked by drummers all over the world to this day, and his work is taught in various music schools. His drum beat on "Don't Stop the Music" (1981) which he recorded with the Yarbrough and Peoples has been sampled by a multitude of modern artists (over 45 times) including on TLC's "Let's Do It Again" (1994), Nuttin Nyce's "Froggy Style" (1995), P. Diddy's "Don't Stop What You're Doin'" (1997), on the soundtracks "Soul Food" and "Playa", and by artists Eve, Alicia Keys, Keyshia Cole, Fat Pat, Beyonce, Missy Elliott, Tichina Arnold, and many others. Rapper 2Pac sampled the song in 1996 on his unreleased original version of "Don't Stop". This song, however, was remixed for his 2006 "Pac's Life" album.


title: Surfin' Safari

text: Surfin' Safari is the debut album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released October 1, 1962 on Capitol Records. The official production credit went to Nick Venet, though it was Brian Wilson with his father Murry who contributed substantially to the album's production; Brian also wrote or co-wrote nine of its 12 tracks. The album reached number 32 in the US during a chart stay of 37 weeks.


title: Surfin' Safari

text: The album was preceded by two singles: "Surfin'" and "Surfin' Safari", which charted at numbers 75 and 14, respectively. The success of "Surfin' Safari" helped secure a full album for the group while an additional single, "Ten Little Indians", was issued, charting at number 49.


title: Surfin' Safari

text: Recording sessions for "Surfin' Safari" took place in Capitol's basement studios in the famous tower building in August. During the sessions, Wilson fought for, and won, the right to helm the production – though this fact was not acknowledged with an album liner notes production credit. David Marks remembered, "Brian did everything. Played, did the arrangements, screwed up the lead sheets himself. He didn't need any help to do that. You listen to those first albums and they sound campy and corny but Brian was dead serious."


title: Surfin' Safari

text: "County Fair" was inspired by Gary Usher and Brian Wilson visiting a county fair in San Bernardino. The song was written in about ten minutes. "Ten Little Indians" saw the group trying to emulate the style of the song "Running Bear". "Little Miss America" features a doo-wop style, and according to biographer David Leaf, is about "the ideal southern California dream girl".


title: Surfin' Safari

text: In "Chug-a-Lug", written by Brian and Usher, the lyrics refer to Usher, Marks, Carl, and Dennis, as well as a Larry. The latter was possibly Larry Lennear, a saxophonist who played and recorded with Brian at the time. "409" was written about Usher's obsession over hot-rods. The car sound effects were recorded by Usher driving his car past the home of the Wilsons, who had set a tape recorder up outside using a 100-foot extension cord.


title: Surfin' Safari

text: Brian stated that the song "Surfin'" was composed after Dennis told him "surfing’s getting really big. You guys ought to write a song about it." "Heads You Win, Tails I Lose" was written because of Usher and Brian Wilson's frequent use of coin flipping to decide things. The group wanted to make contemporary expressions into songs.


title: Surfin' Safari

text: The instrumental "Moon Dawg", originally performed by the Gamblers, was considered the first surf record. The Beach Boys became the first group to cover the song, exposing it to a much wider audience. "The Shift" was presented as a "fashion statement" from Brian and Love.


title: Surfin' Safari

text: The album was released through Capitol on October 1, 1962, and peaked at No. 32. Lead single, "Surfin'", was later credited with creating the genre of California Sound, a music aesthetic primarily revolving around surfing, hot rod culture, and youthful innocence. "409" was similarly credited with starting the hot rod music craze of the 1960s, According to Usher, Capitol chose "Ten Little Indians" as the second single due to thinking that surf music was a fad.


title: Surfin' Safari

text: Richie Unterberger, in a retrospective review for AllMusic, felt that most of the songs on "Surfin' Safari" are substandard, but that as the album was recorded by the Beach Boys themselves rather than session musicians, it offered an opportunity to hear what the band sounded like in the studio.


title: Karz (film)

text: Karz () is a 1980 Indian Hindi-language romantic thriller film directed by Subhash Ghai, starring Rishi Kapoor and Tina Munim as leads, also starring Simi Garewal, in the critically acclaimed role of Kamini Verma, the murderous wife from the past life, which won her a Filmfare nomination. The film's music was by Laxmikant–Pyarelal, giving successful numbers like "Om Shanti Om" and "Dard-E-Dil", and they went on to win Filmfare Best Music Director Award for this film, the lyricist received two Filmfare nominations for these two hits.


title: Karz (film)

text: The movie begins with Ravi Verma winning a legal battle against Sir Judah who had unjustly usurped Ravi's father's wealth and property after his death. Ravi calls his mother to tell her the good news and that he is marrying his girlfriend Kamini, who unbeknownst to him is a gold-digger working for Judah. On their way home to Coonoor, Kamini rams Ravi over a cliff near a small temple of the Goddess Kali. Distraught at the sudden death of her son, Ravi's mother demands the Goddess allow her son to pay his mother's debt for dying prematurely, while Kamini inherits everything. Two decades later, Monty, an orphan raised by G.G. Oberoi, is a twenty-one-year-old singer who starts to have visions of Ravi's memories triggered by a tune that Ravi used to like.


title: Karz (film)

text: Monty's doctors joke that maybe he is Ravi's reincarnation, but in all seriousness should just take a vacation and rest. Monty travels to Ooty (coincidentally near Coonoor) where Tina lives and they fall in love. Tina tells him that she was brought up by a woman she calls Rani Sahiba and her uncle Kabira who, having served 10 years for murder, is released from jail. As Monty explores the area and learns the Verma Family story from the locals, including that Ravi's mother and his sister were ousted from their house by Kamini, he starts to experience more of Ravi's memories which become more intense. He is later shocked to find that Tina's Rani Sahiba and Kamini are one and the same.


title: Karz (film)

text: Kabira then reveals to Monty that Tina's father was murdered by Kamini's brother after overhearing a secret involving Ravi and the temple of Kali. In retaliation, Kabira killed Kamini's brother which is why he went to jail. Pretending to know Kamini's secret, Kabira blackmailed her to raise Tina with a proper education. Monty in kind reveals to Kabira his connection to Ravi Verma, and that they must find Ravi's estranged family, with whom Monty is united. Accepting that he is Ravi's reincarnation, Monty is able to piece together Ravi's murder.


title: Karz (film)

text: To set things right, Monty and Kabira gradually trick Kamini into believing that Ravi's ghost seeks revenge. In their final trick, Monty and Tina perform at a local school opening function attended by Kamini, where they dramatize Ravi's story.


title: Karz (film)

text: Kamini is horrified to see Ravi's mother and sister, and flees. When Monty confronts her, Kamini confesses to Ravi's murder, which the police record. However, Judah holds Tina hostage and offers her in exchange for Kamini. Just as the exchange is about to take place, Tina jumps on Kamini causing a mêlée. Kabira and Monty gain the upper hand but Judah locks Ravi's mother and sister in a house and sets it ablaze. Monty saves them, and kills Judah in the fire. Kamini escapes in a jeep but Monty pursues her. She tries to ram Monty off the cliff at the temple of Kali in the same way she killed Ravi, but this time Monty jumps away, causing her to drive off the cliff to her death. In the end, the Verma wealth and property is returned to Ravi's family and Monty marries Tina.


title: Karz (film)

text: The soundtrack of the film includes tracks composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, with lyrics by Anand Bakshi, who received two Filmfare nominations for these two hits, "Om Shanti Om" and "Dard-E-Dil", Laxmikant-Pyarelal however, won the trophy for Best Music Director of the year. With hits like, "Ek Haseena Thi" and "Om Shanti Om" by Kishore Kumar and "Dard-E-Dil" by Mohammed Rafi, the soundtrack was a trendsetter for disco music in the Indian music industry and film's background score, especially the signature tune are still remembered as one of the most memorable ones. The title track "Om Shanti Om" is inspired by the Lord Shorty calypso song of the same name, while the dramatic "Ek Hasina Thi" resembles George Benson's "We As Love".


title: Karz (film)

text: The film's chart-buster song, "Om Shanti Om", sung by Kishore Kumar, reached the number 2 spot on Binaca Geetmala's annual list 1980, while another duet between Lata and Kishore, "Tu Kitne Baras Ki" reached number 13.


title: Karz (film)

text: Despite being counted as a cult classic today, "Karz" was declared an "average" nationwide during its opening and very next week Feroz Khan's mega budget "Qurbani" was released and crashed it at the box office. Rishi Kapoor admitted himself about its failure in his many interviews and also in his biography. In a 2008 interview, film director, Subhash Ghai admitted that film was ahead of its time, and was thus panned by critics of the times, and "flopped" at the box office, it was only years later that it started being considered a classic and even remade several times over.


title: Karz (film)

text: The film is also one of the finest films of Subhash Ghai, notable for picturisation of songs like "Ek Hasina Thi" on stage as well as "Dard-E-Dil", and set the standard for his future films, as most of them became known for his dramatic flair, and above all their music score.


title: Karz (film)

text: Though the theme of reincarnation was earlier handled in "Madhumati" (1958), "Kudrat" (1981), and "Mehbooba" (1976), the modern twist with the murder and revenge angle in "Karz" was a contemporary pot-boiler. Film critic Anupama Chopra also cites "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud" (1975, J. Lee Thompson), an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Max Ehrlich, as the basis of the film. Director Subhash Ghai admitted that "Karz" was partly inspired by the 1975 film but was mixed in with Indian beliefs on reincarnation.


title: Karz (film)

text: Karz went on to inspire several other Indian remakes, notably "Yuga Purusha" (1989) in Kannada; "Enakkul Oruvan" (1984) in Tamil; "Aatmabalam" (1985) in Telugu; and the Hindi film "Karzzzz" (2008), starring Himesh Reshammiya. "Karz" may have also inspired the American film "Chances Are" (1989).


title: Karz (film)

text: The songs of the film inspired several film titles, notably "Dard-e-dil" (1983), "Paisa Yeh Paisa" (1985), "Main Solah Baras Ki" (1998), "Ek Hasina Thi" (2004), "Aashiq Banaya Aapne" (2005) and "Om Shanti Om" (2007), which was seen as a light-hearted tribute to the film, as it borrowed many elements from it.


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: The United Nations Secretariat () is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), The secretariat is the UN's executive arm. The secretariat has an important role in setting the agenda for the deliberative and decision-making bodies of the UN (i.e., the General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, and Security Council), and the implementation of the decision of these bodies. The secretary-general, who is appointed by the General Assembly, is the head of the secretariat.


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: The mandate of the secretariat is a wide one. Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN's second secretary-general, described its power as follows: "The United Nations is what member nations made it, but within the limits set by government action and government cooperation, much depends on what the secretariat makes it. It has creative capacity. It can introduce new ideas. It can, in proper forms, take initiatives. It can put before member governments findings which will influence their actions". The United Nations Department of Political Affairs, which has a role analogous to a ministry of foreign affairs, is a part of the secretariat. So is the Department of Peace Operations. The secretariat is the main source of economic and political analysis for the General Assembly and Security Council; it administers operations initiated by UN's deliberative organs, operates political missions, prepares assessments that precede peacekeeping operations, appoints the heads of peacekeeping operations, conducts surveys and research, communicates with non-state actors such as media and non-government organizations, and is responsible for publishing all of the treaties and international agreements.


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: The UN secretary-general's duties include helping resolve international disputes, administering peacekeeping operations, organizing international conferences, gathering information on the implementation of Security Council decisions, and consulting with member governments regarding various initiatives. Key secretariat offices in this area include the Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The secretary-general may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter that, in his or her opinion, may threaten international peace and security. The current secretary-general of the UN is António Guterres.


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: As at 31 December 2018, there are 37,505 people employed from more than 140 countries within the secretariat.


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: Eligibility for civil service is based on a UN-administered examination offered worldwide, in addition to a competitive application process. Qualifications for membership include "the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity", according to the UN Charter. Staff-members are appointed by the secretary-general alone and are assigned to the organs of the UN. Staff members are appointed on a temporary or permanent basis, under the discretion of the secretary-general. During staff recruitment, geographical variety is an especially prominent selection factor in order to accurately reflect the scope of member states present in the UN. The charter states that staff members are responsible "only to the organization" and are prohibited from any action or influence that would suggest affiliation with a government or organization outside the UN.


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: Headquartered in New York, the secretariat functions through duty stations in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Geneva, Nairobi, Santiago and Vienna, in addition to offices all over the world.


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: One study finds the following factors play a role in the selection of staff for the secretariat: a desire to achieve a minimum number of officials from each state; population size; and lo assessment of dues. The most overrepresented states in the secretariat are small, rich democracies. The Nordic states stand out, in particular, when it comes to overrepresentation.


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: Representation of women in the UN, particularly at managerial and decision-making positions at the D-1 level and above, has been a UN General Assembly concern and goal since 1970.


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: <ref name="A/RES/45/239"></ref> Since 1984, the UN Secretariat, in order to achieve early gender equality, issued several five-year "action plans", including strategic plans, to improve the status of women in the secretariat.<ref name="40/258. 18 December 1985"></ref> These plans, however, did not have the desired impact, and progress in achieving gender parity remained slow.


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: In December 1994, the UN General Assembly's "disappointment" that its gender equality target were not met urged the secretary-general to prioritize the recruitment and promotion of women to reach to 50/50 representation in D1 and above posts by 2000.<ref name="ST/SGB/282"></ref><ref name="A/RES/49/167 - 23/dec"></ref> In Feb 2004, gender parity target for the secretariat was once again revised to 2015. In 2009, despite the plans, and General Assembly resolutions, the representation of women in the UN secretariat remained well below parity at 29.2 percent.<ref name="A /65/334"></ref>


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: The representation of women in the UN secretariat, at the D1 level, in 2000, was 30.3 percent. Instead of increasing, in the next decade, the representation of women in the secretariat decreased to 26.7 percentIn December 2011, the representation of women in the secretariat at the D1 level was 27.4 percent, an increase of .6 percent over a two-year period.<ref name="A /67/347"></ref> At the current rate of progress, it is estimated that gender parity at the D-1 to higher levels will be achieved after 102 years. At D2 level The representation of women in 2011 was 24.4 percent


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: To ensure that the gender equality target mandated by the General Assembly is met, the secretariat, in September 1999, promulgated an administrative instruction (AI) on "Special Measures for the Achievement of Gender Equality" (ST/AI/1999/9)<ref name="ST /AI/1999/9-1"></ref> Gender Equality A/I echoes the goals of, and is in conformity with, the mandate of Articles 8 and 101 of the Charter of the United Nations, and Article 4 paragraph 1 of the "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)".


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: On 4 September 2012, in his annual reports to the General Assembly, titled "Improvement of the Status of Women in the United Nations System", Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated that the aim of the special measures was to ensure "gender balance in recruitment and promotion". and that special measures would remain in effect until the "goal of gender parity is achieved", and sustained for a period of time." The secretary-general, in his recommendations to the General Assembly, noted that the " United Nations Secretariat, pursuant to the decision of the Policy Committee chaired by the Secretary-General" is to "ensure the effective implementation of special measures for gender equality. These measures include mandatory selection of equally or better-qualified women candidates…"


title: United Nations Secretariat

text: Since its creation, the secretariat has undergone extensive reforms. On 21 March 2005, Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed several reforms for the secretariat. He announced his intentions to appoint a scientific adviser, create a peacebuilding support office, establish a cabinet-style decision-making mechanism, and strengthen the mediation function. He also asked the General Assembly to appropriate funds for a one-time staff buyout; to work with him in revising budgetary and human resources rules; to grant the secretary-general more managerial authority and flexibility; to strengthen the Office of Internal Oversight Services; and "to review all mandates older than five years to see whether the activities concerned are still genuinely needed or whether the resources assigned to them can be reallocated in response to new and emerging challenges".


title: Mole people

text: Mole people (also called tunnel people or tunnel dwellers) are homeless people living under large cities in abandoned subway, railroad, flood, sewage tunnels, and heating shafts. The term may also refer to the speculative fiction trope of an entirely subterranean society or a race of humanoid moles.


title: Mole people

text: "Dark Days", a 2000 documentary feature film by British filmmaker Marc Singer follows a group of people living in an abandoned section of the New York City Subway, in the area called Freedom Tunnel. Anthropologist Teun Voeten's book "Tunnel People" is also about the inhabitants of the Freedom Tunnel, where Voeten lived for five months.