title: Cram school

text: In Malaysia, it is considered a norm for parents, especially those from the middle and upper class, to send schoolchildren for private tuition. Such services are often provided by tuition centres and/or private tutors. These tutors may be full-time tutors, schoolteachers, retirees, or even senior students. Many concerned parents choose to send their children to different tuition classes or schedules based on the child's entrance examination subjects. Some students may go to tuition for their weaker subjects, while many schoolchildren are increasingly known to attend at least 10 hours of private tuition every week. Correspondingly, the reputation and business of a tuition centre often depends on venue, schedule, number of top-scoring clients, and advertising by word of mouth. It is not uncommon for private tutors to offer exclusive pre-examination seminars, to the extent where some tutors entice schoolchildren to attend such seminars with the promise of examination tips, or even supposedly leaked examination questions.


title: Cram school

text: In Pakistan, it has become very common for parents to send their children to such institutions, popularly known as "academies", after school for further private coaching. It has become prevalent in almost all levels of education, from junior classes to colleges and, to a lesser extent, universities. Due to the near-universality of this system, it has become very difficult to compete successfully in almost any level of exams without them, despite the added burden on the students.


title: Cram school

text: In Peru, cram schools, known as "Academias", are institutions which intensively prepare, in about a year, high school graduates to gain admission to either University ("Academia Pre Universitaria"), or Military Schools ("Academia Pre-Militar").


title: Cram school

text: Cram Schools in Peru are not an admission requirement to enter to any Tertiary Institution; however, due to fierce competition, preparation in a cram school allows the candidate to achieve the highest mark possible in the entry exam and so gain entry to their desired Tertiary Institution.


title: Cram school

text: Cram Schools are independent of universities, however, of recent a post-high-school, pre-university school has started at some public and private universities in Peru. Under the name of CEntro PREuniversitario (name or acronym of university, for instance CEPREUNI or CEPREPUCP, after Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria or Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, commonly referred to as "the CEPRE" or "the PRE"). Some of these CEPREs offer automatic admission to their university to their students who reach a set level of achievement


title: Cram school

text: In the Philippines, cram schools are usually called "review centers" or "review schools". They are often attended by students in order to study for and pass college and university entrance examinations, or to pass licensure examinations such as the Philippine Bar Examination, the Philippine Physician Licensure Examination, or the Philippine Nurse Licensure Examination.


title: Cram school

text: In Singapore, it is very common for students in the local education system to be enrolled in cram schools, better known locally as tuition centers. Enrollment in these after-school tuition centers is extremely high, especially for students bound for national exams, such as the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), GCE O Levels, or the GCE A Levels. Students attending tuition centers on a daily basis is not unheard of in Singapore.


title: Cram school

text: Although the South Korean educational system has been criticized internationally for its stress and competitiveness, it remains common for South Korean students to attend one or more cram schools ("hagwons") after their school-day is finished, most students studying there until 10 P.M. Some types of cram schools include math, science, art, and English. English language institutes along with math are particularly popular. Certain places, such as Gangnam in Seoul, are well known for having a lot of hagwons. Because of hagwons, many Koreans have voiced complaints about how public education is falling behind in terms of quality compared to private education, creating a gap between students who can afford the expensive hagwon tuition fee and those who cannot. Today, it is almost mandatory for Korean students to attend one or more hagwons in order to achieve high results on a test.


title: Cram school

text: South Korean students have two big tests per semester: midterms and finals. They just have written tests in those subjects. A distinct feature of the cramming teaching method in Korea is extra preparation for these tests, ranging from tests from previous years and other schools to various prep books made by different education companies. These test preparation periods normally start a month before the test date. After school, generally, most students go to hagwons to supplement what they learned from the teachers who provide knowledge to the students. Students memorize for tests, and go to hagwons for high grades.


title: Cram school

text: The Korean College Scholastic Ability Test, the standardized college entrance examination commonly referred to as the "suneung", also plays a large part in why so many students attend hagwons. However, unlike midterms and finals, many high school students also prepare for the "suneung" through online video lessons on websites that specialize in "suneung" preparation.


title: Cram school

text: Cram schools in Taiwan are called "buxiban" (補習班 literally "supplementary learning class", the same as in mainland China) and are not necessarily cram schools in the traditional sense. Almost any kind of extracurricular academic lesson could be termed "buxiban", such as music, art, math, and physics, even if students do not attend these classes specifically in order to pass an examination. It's a traditional belief that parents should send their children to all kinds of cram schools in order to compete against other talented children. Therefore, most children in Taiwan have a schedule packed with all sorts of cram school lessons. But when they study English, often with a "Native Speaker Teacher", they are actually studying at a private language school. Furthermore, since this study is ongoing, they are not "cramming" in the traditional sense of the word, and therefore, these language schools are not cram schools by strict definition.


title: Cram school

text: Taiwan is well known for its cram schools. Nearly all students have some kinds of cram school to improve their skills. The meritocratic culture, which requires some skills testing for passports to college, graduate school, and even government service, is dominant on Taiwan's policy.


title: Cram school

text: Cram schooling in Thailand has become almost mandatory to succeed in high school or in the entrance examinations of universities. Cram schools in Thailand, which are called "tutoring institutes", "tutoring schools", "special tutoring", or "special classes" for example, are widespread throughout the country. Some of them do not have instructors in class rooms in a traditional sense; students receive their tuition via television network, which can either relay a live session from another branch or replay a pre-recorded session. Parents generally encourage their children to attend these schools and they sometimes can be perceived as pushy. The system of cram school is currently blamed for discouraging pupils from independent studies.


title: Cram school

text: The main reason given by attending students is to increase understanding in their lessons. The secondary reason of junior high school students is to want to know faster techniques whereas the reason of senior ones is to prepare for exam. The most attended subjects are mathematics for juniors and English language for seniors. Average expense per course is about 2,001–3,000 baht.


title: Cram school

text: Most of the students in the top universities of Thailand have attended at least one cram class, especially in science-based faculties such as science, engineering, medicine, and pharmacy.


title: Cram school

text: "Dek siw", those who failed in their first year, spend the whole following year studying at home or at a cram school for a better chance of going to a top university like Chulalongkorn University, Thammasart University, Kasetsart University, Mahidol University, or King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi.


title: Cram school

text: The "dershane" (plural, "dershaneler") system is the Turkish counterpart of cram schools. The Turkish "dershane" system resembles Indian and Japanese systems. Students, typically after school and on weekends (especially during the last year), are drilled on various aspects of the (YKS). This is cheaper than private tutoring.


title: Cram school

text: Crammers first appeared in Britain after 1855 when the Civil Service Commission created the Administrative class of government employees, selected by examination and interview rather than patronage. Crammers offered to prepare men of 18 to 25 years old for these examinations, mainly in classics, economics and foreign languages, which would provide entry to civil service or diplomatic careers. The opening scenes of Benjamin Britten's 1971 television opera "Owen Wingrave", and the 1892 novella by Henry James on which it is based, are set in a military crammer; its master plays an important role in both. Terence Rattigan's 1936 play "French Without Tears" is set in a language crammer typical of the period. These civil service crammers did not survive the Second World War.


title: Cram school

text: Tutorial colleges in the United Kingdom are also called "crammers", and are attended by some who want to attend the most prestigious universities. They have been around since the early 20th century.


title: Cram school

text: A number of businesses, called "tutoring services" or "test preparation centers", are colloquially known as cram schools. They are used by some GED candidates, and by many upperclassmen in high schools to prepare for the SAT, ACT, and/or Advanced Placement exams for college admission. Their curriculum is geared more towards vocabulary drills, problem sets, practising essay composition, and learning effective test-taking strategies. College graduates and undergraduates near graduation will sometimes attend such classes to prepare for entrance exams necessary for graduate level education (i.e. LSAT, DAT, MCAT, GRE).


title: Cram school

text: Review courses for the CPA examination (e.g., Becker Conviser, part of Devry University) and the bar examination (e.g., Barbri) are often taken by undergraduate and graduate students in accountancy and law.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Christianity is a central theme in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional works about Middle-earth, but always a hidden one. This allows the book to be read at different levels, and its meaning to be applied by the reader, rather than forcing a single meaning on the reader.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic from boyhood, and he described "The Lord of the Rings" in particular as “unconsciously” a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work". While he insisted it was not an allegory, it contains numerous themes from Christian theology. These include the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace. A central theme is death and immortality, with light as a symbol of divine creation, but Tolkien's attitudes to mercy and pity, resurrection, the Eucharist, salvation, repentance, self-sacrifice, free will, justice, fellowship, authority and healing can also be detected. Divine providence appears indirectly as the will of the Valar, godlike immortals, expressed subtly enough to avoid compromising people's free will.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: There is no single Christ-figure comparable to C. S. Lewis's Aslan in his Narnia books, but the characters of Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn exemplify the threefold office, the prophetic, priestly, and kingly aspects of Christ respectively.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, although his family had once been Baptists. He described "The Lord of the Rings" as rich in Christian symbolism, as he explained in a letter to his close friend and Jesuit priest, Robert Murray:


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The Tolkien scholar Patrick Curry writes that Tolkien's statement however elides the paganism that pervades the work, and indeed the whole of his Middle-earth Legendarium; it may be "fundamentally" Christian, but on other levels it is another matter, with its pagan polytheism and animism, and many other features. In other words, Middle-earth is both Christian and pagan. The Tolkien scholar Paul H. Kocher comments that "having made the times pre-Christian, [Tolkien] has freed himself from the need to deal with them in a Christian context, which would be awkward if applied to elves, ents, dwarves, and the rest."


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Many theological themes underlie the narrative, including the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace, as seen with Frodo's pity toward Gollum. The work includes the themes of death and immortality, mercy and pity, resurrection, salvation, repentance, self-sacrifice, free will, justice, fellowship, authority and healing. Tolkien mentions the Lord's Prayer, especially the line "And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil" in connection with Frodo's struggles against the power of the One Ring. Tolkien said "Of course God is in "The Lord of the Rings". The period was pre-Christian, but it was a monotheistic world", and when questioned who was the One God of Middle-earth, Tolkien replied "The one, of course! The book is about the world that God created – the actual world of this planet."


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The Bible and traditional Christian narrative also influenced "The Silmarillion". The conflict between Melkor and Eru Ilúvatar parallels that between Satan and God. Further, "The Silmarillion" tells of the creation and fall of the Elves, as "Genesis" tells of the creation and fall of Man. As with all of Tolkien's works, "The Silmarillion" allows room for later Christian history, and one version of Tolkien's drafts even has Finrod, a character in "The Silmarillion", speculating on the necessity of Eru Ilúvatar's eventual Incarnation to save Mankind.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: A specifically Christian influence is the notion of the fall of man, which influenced the Ainulindalë, the Kinslaying at Alqualondë, and the fall of Númenor.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Commentators including some Christians have taken a wide range of positions on the role of Christianity in Tolkien's fiction, especially in "The Lord of the Rings". They note that it contains representations of Christ and angels in characters such as the wizards, the resurrection, the motifs of light, hope, and redemptive suffering, the apparent invisibility of Christianity in the novel, and not least the nature of evil, an ancient debate in Christian philosophy, that has led to lengthy scholarly argument about Tolkien's position in the book. Commentators disagree in particular on whether "The Lord of the Rings" is a Christian work, despite Tolkien's statement that it is.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Catherine Madsen writes that she found herself drawn to faith by the novel, "yet not particularly to the Christian faith". She notes that Tolkien wrote that "Myth and fairy-story, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit[ly]". She states that Tolkien clearly "did not intend his work to argue or illustrate or promulgate Christianity". In her view, Tolkien uses "Christian magic", not doctrine; she notes that Tolkien wrote that Middle-earth was "a monotheistic world of 'natural theology'". The "natural religion" of the book is, she argues, based on matters such as the Elves and their longing for the sea, creating a "religious feeling ... curiously compatible with a secular cosmology". A world of religion without revelation, she writes, is necessarily ambiguous, and any triumph over evil also diminishes the good, so the world inevitably fades. Hence, what "The Lord of the Rings" offers is not a supernatural hope, but what Tolkien called "recovery", the reawakening of the senses, an unmediated attention to the present, as when Sam looks up into the night sky in Mordor, and is struck by the beauty of a star. To Madsen, this is "the most compelling thing about the book, and also the least Christian ... available to anyone of any persuasion, and not contingent upon belief."


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes that Tolkien stated in the foreword to the second edition of "The Lord of the Rings" that


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Despite this, writes Shippey, Tolkien certainly did sometimes write allegories, giving the example of "Leaf by Niggle", and there is certainly meant to be some relationship between his fiction and fact. He notes, too, that Tolkien deliberately "approach[ed] to the edge of Christian reference" by placing the destruction of the Ring and the fall of Sauron on 25 March, the traditional Anglo-Saxon date of the crucifixion of Christ and of the annunciation, and of the last day of the Genesis creation. Other commentators have noted further echoes of Christian themes, including the presence of Christ figures, the resurrection, hope, and redemptive suffering.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Paul Kocher, in his book "Master of Middle-earth", writes that "having made the times pre-Christian, [Tolkien] has freed himself from the need to deal with them in a Christian context, which would be awkward if applied to elves, ents, dwarves, and the rest." On the other hand, Kocher notes that Elrond ascribes purpose to events including the summoning of the Free Peoples to his council; Elrond uses the words "purpose", "called", "ordered", and "believe", implying "some living will". Similarly, he comments, Gandalf firmly tells Denethor, the despairing Steward of Gondor, that suicide is forbidden and indeed is "heathen".


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The scholar of theology and literature Ralph C. Wood, in his 2003 book "The Gospel According to Tolkien", concludes "Christians are called to be hobbit-like servants of the King and his Kingdom. Frodo and Sam are first in the reign of Iluvatar because they are willing to be last and least among those who 'move the wheels of the world'". Wood notes, too, that the elves' "lembas" waybread is "reminiscent of the eucharistic wafer: its airy lightness gives strength in direct disproportion to its weight". Pat Pinsent, in "A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien", states that "his own devout adherence to Catholicism is in fact reflected throughout his writing, to the extent that ... his faith was the driving force behind his literary endeavors".


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The Episcopal priest and theologian Fleming Rutledge, in her 2004 book "The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings", writes that Tolkien had constructed his book both as an exciting surface narrative, and as a deep theological narrative. She cites his statement that "I am a Christian (which can be deduced from my stories)." In her view, Tolkien very rarely allows the hints and suggestions of divine intervention to break the surface, but that the cumulative effect of his "veiled substructure" can have a powerful effect on the reader. She writes that Tolkien was providing "a rare glimpse of what human freedom within God's Divine Plan really means." She notes that while Tolkien had said "The Lord of the Rings" was fundamentally religious, Middle-earth appears "a curiously nonreligious world". Her view is that this was entirely deliberate, as Tolkien wanted to avoid any hint of pantheism, worship of the natural world; and while Arda is, as Tolkien wrote, "my own mother-earth", the action is set long before the Christian era; she points out that he wrote in a letter that


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The scholar Verlyn Flieger writes that Tolkien's fantasy "has no explicit Christianity", unlike the medieval Arthurian legends "with their miracles, pious hermits, heavy-handed symbolism, and allegorical preachiness". Tolkien's Middle-earth, "greatly to his credit", avoided preachiness and allegory. On the subject of making Christianity explicit in fantasy, he wrote:


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Flieger comments that the word "fatal" is to be taken literally: an explicit Christian message "would have killed the work", draining the life from the secondary world, and that Tolkien had indeed written in a letter:


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The philosopher Peter Kreeft, like Tolkien a Roman Catholic, observes that there is no one complete, concrete, visible Christ figure in "The Lord of the Rings" comparable to Aslan in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series. However, Kreeft and Jean Chausse have identified reflections of the figure of Jesus Christ in three protagonists of "The Lord of the Rings": Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn. While Chausse found "facets of the personality of Jesus" in them, Kreeft wrote that "they exemplify the Old Testament threefold Messianic symbolism of prophet (Gandalf), priest (Frodo), and king (Aragorn)".


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Baptism, the rite which welcomes Christians into the new life of the Church by immersing them in water, symbolically drowning their old life, has been identified in aspects of the story in "The Lord of the Rings". One is the water of the fountain called the Mirror of Galadriel. Rutledge suggests that if this does symbolise baptism, then the fountain's water should protect against Sauron's evil will "to penetrate the defences even of the wise", such as Galadriel's guarding of her Elf-realm of Lothlórien. She notes that some of the water is held in the Phial of Galadriel, which protects Frodo and Sam on their way into Mordor.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: A very different symbol is the dark underground Dwarf-realm of Moria. Here, the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring enter, are submerged, and re-emerge on the other side of the mountains, symbolically having gone through death and been reborn; one of them, Gandalf, actually dies there, though he too is reborn.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Aragorn is acclaimed as King of Gondor by his own people, following their old proverb that the hands of a King are the hands of a healer. He goes about after the battle, using the healing herb "Athelas" or "Kingsfoil" to revive those stricken by the Black Breath, the evil of the Nazgûl. Rutledge comments on the echoes of the Samaritan woman at the well, who tells her people to come and see the miraculous man who spoke to her: "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?", and about Aragorn's laying his hand on Merry's head and calling him by name, recalling Christ's raising up of Jairus's daughter.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Several commentators have seen Gandalf's passage through the Mines of Moria, dying to save his companions and returning as "Gandalf the White", as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Like Jesus who carried his cross for the sins of mankind, Frodo carried a burden of evil on behalf of the whole world. Frodo walks his "Via Dolorosa" to Mount Doom, just like Jesus who made his way to Golgotha. As Frodo approaches the Cracks of Doom, the Ring becomes a crushing weight, just as the cross was for Jesus. Sam Gamgee, Frodo's servant, who carries Frodo up to Mount Doom, parallels Simon of Cyrene, who helps Jesus by carrying his cross to Golgotha. When Frodo accomplishes his mission, like Christ, he says "it is done". Just as Christ ascends to heaven, Frodo's life in Middle-earth comes to an end when he departs to the Undying Lands.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Another symbol of resurrection is the White Tree, the symbol of Gondor. It stood dry and lifeless in the Court of the Fountain at the top of the city of Minas Tirith throughout the centuries that Gondor was ruled by the Stewards; Aragorn brought a sapling of the White Tree into the city on his return as King. The White Tree has been likened to the Dry Tree of the 14th century "Travels of Sir John Mandeville". The tale runs that the Dry Tree has been lifeless since the crucifixion of Christ, but that it will flower afresh when "a prince of the west side of the world should sing a mass beneath it", while the apples of the trees allow people to live for 500 years.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: A dramatic event in "The Lord of the Rings" is the reappearance of Gandalf, or as the Elf Legolas names him in a joyous shout of recognition, "Mithrandir!" Tolkien scholars and theologians have called this a transfiguration. Rutledge considers the Biblical echoes are unmistakable, likening the event to the Transfiguration of Christ on the mountaintop. Among the parallels are the fact that Gandalf stands above the companions, and his robes and hair are "gleaming white". She notes that the return of Moses from Mount Sinai, his face shining too bright to look at with the reflected light of God, could be a closer parallel, as Aragorn comments that his sight had been "veiled".


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: At least two other events in "The Lord of the Rings" have been called transfigurations. One is the change in the seemingly-crippled King Théoden of Rohan, when Gandalf visits his hall, Edoras, and lifts him out of the control of the traitor Wormtongue, who has been controlling Rohan on behalf of the Wizard Saruman. Gandalf gets the King to straighten up, stand, and walk outside his hall, and to grasp his own sword. Gandalf "announces 'The Lord of the Mark comes forth!' and the king's entire aspect is transformed as he straightens his back to meet Gandalf's description". The other is Aragorn's splendour at his coronation, with the "stately procession of the Knights of the West" into the victorious city of Minas Tirith, the liveries:


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The motif of hope is illustrated in Aragorn's successful handling of Saruman's seeing-stone or palantír. Aragorn is given the very name of "Hope" (Sindarin "Estel"), by which he is still affectionately called by his queen, Arwen, who at the hour of his death cries out "Estel, Estel!". Only Aragorn, as the heir of Isildur, can rightfully use the palantír, while Saruman and Denethor, who have both also made extensive use of palantírs, have fallen into despair or presumption. These latter traits have been identified as the two distinct sins "against the virtue of Hope".


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The Christian theme of the redemptive and penitential nature of suffering is apparent in the dreadful ordeal of Sam and Frodo in Mordor. The Catholic author Stratford Caldecott calls Frodo "a very 'Christian' type of hero. ... He allows himself to be humiliated and crucified." In a different way, Boromir atones for his assault on Frodo by single-handedly but vainly defending Merry and Pippin from orcs, which illustrates another significant Christian theme: immortality of the soul and the importance of good intention, especially at the point of death. This is clear from Gandalf's statement: "But he [Boromir] escaped in the end... It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir's sake."


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Rosebury writes that "The Lord of the Rings" is saved from simple moralising or allegory by the presence of realistically complicated moral conflict within the characters: the "good" characters are challenged by temptations, while the "evil" characters all have good sides, were once good, or hesitate over evil actions.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Rutledge writes that moral conflict, as seen in the struggle within Gollum, is central both to the narrative and to the "underlying theological drama". Far from being a battle of good people against evil monsters, she writes, the evil is within each individual, citing Saint Paul's comment in Romans 3:9–10 that "none is righteous, no, not one".


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Tolkien rarely breaks his rule to avoid explicit religion of any kind, but when Frodo and Sam have dinner with Faramir in his hidden fastness of Henneth Annûn, all the Men turn towards the west in a brief silence. Faramir explains that


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Rutledge notes the parallel of this action, that she calls a sort of prayer, with the "Gloria Patri" of Christian liturgy,


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: She comments that while the mention of Númenor could be a romantic nostalgia, there is also an echo of the Christian identity exiled from the Garden of Eden, and always seeking its true home. The mention of what is beyond Elvenhome, she writes, "invokes the transcendent dimension", and is an "austere acknowledgement" of monotheism.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Tolkien wrote of the Eucharist or Blessed Sacrament that it was "the one great thing to love on earth" where, he advised his son Michael, "you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth". He described it as a divine paradox, meaning death but also eternal life. Tolkien alluded to a religious significance of the lembas waybread in "The Lord of the Rings" in a letter to Forrest J. Ackerman in 1958:


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Based on Tolkien's statements, Christian commentators have argued that a highly developed Eucharistic symbolism is carried by lembas and its history. This is elaborated further in "The Silmarillion", noting that "waybread" can be seen as a translation of "viaticum", the Eucharistic food for a journey. In "The Silmarillion", the lembas, for example, is given to the Elves to feed them during their Great Journey to the Undying Lands, recalling to Christian commentators God's gift of Manna to the Israelites during their exodus to the Promised Land at Exodus 14. The Maia Melian makes a royal gift of lembas to Beleg, brother-in-arms of the mortal Man Túrin, to be his "help in the wild":


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Beleg uses the lembas, along with his Elvish power, to help heal Men of Túrin's company, and later also the Elf Gwindor, who had been enslaved by Morgoth.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: An event in "The Lord of the Rings" has been compared to the Last Supper, the feast commemorated by the Eucharist. The Hobbit Pippin has a sunlit morning meal with his friend Beregond, a Guard of the Citadel, in Minas Tirith just before the coming of the long-expected storm as the forces of Minas Morgul assault the city. Rutledge comments that this "creates a remarkable mood. One might even think of Jesus with his disciples at the Last Supper". Indeed, very soon all who cannot fight leave the city, it grows cold, and a Nazgûl flies ominously across the sun; Rutledge remarks on the biblical echoes.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Shippey notes that a pair of references to the Christian year, rarely picked up by readers, is that Tolkien chose dates of symbolic importance for the quest to destroy the Ring. It began in Rivendell on 25 December, the date of Christmas, and ended on Mount Doom on 25 March, a traditional Anglo-Saxon date for the crucifixion (the modern date of Easter being moveable, and thus not yielding any fixed calendar date).


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: A theme that runs throughout "The Lord of the Rings" but is especially clear in "The Silmarillion" is of light. The scholar of mythology and medieval literature Verlyn Flieger explains that Tolkien equates light with God and the ability to create. She cites from Tolkien's poem "Mythopoeia" ("Creation of Myth"):


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Flieger writes that by this, Tolkien meant that an author's ability to create fantasy fiction, or in his terms "subcreation", was derived from and could be seen as a small splinter of the Divine Light, the "single White" of the poem. Further, the whole of "The Silmarillion" can be seen as a working-out of this theme of Man splintering the original white light of creation "to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes" in the forms of the sundering of the Elves into light and dark elves, men good and bad, and dragons and other monsters. This creative light, she states, was for Tolkien equated with the Christian "Logos", the Divine Word.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The light begins in "The Silmarillion" as a unity, and in accordance with the splintering of creation is divided into more and more fragments as the myth progresses. Middle-earth is peopled by the angelic Valar and lit by two great lamps; when these are destroyed by the fallen Vala Melkor, the world is fragmented, and the Valar retreat to Valinor, which is lit by The Two Trees. When these too are destroyed, their last fragment of light is made into the Silmarils, and a sapling too is rescued, leading to the White Tree of Numenor, the living symbol of the Kingdom of Gondor. Wars are fought over the Silmarils, and they are lost to the Earth, the Sea, and the Sky, the last of these, carried by Eärendil the Mariner, becoming the Morning Star. Some of the star's light is captured in Galadriel's Mirror, the magic fountain that allows her to see past, present, and future; and some of that light is, finally, trapped in the Phial of Galadriel, her parting gift to Frodo, the counterbalance to Sauron's evil and powerful Ring that he also carries. At each stage, the fragmentation increases and the power decreases. Thus the theme of light as Divine power, fragmented and refracted through the works of created beings, is central to the whole mythology.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The place of Christianity's angels is taken by the immortal Ainur, who are divided into two orders of beings, the Valar and the Maiar. The powerful Valar behave much like the pagan gods of Greek mythology. Flieger calls their role in Middle-earth "eccentric" from a Christian point of view: they are lower than the One God, certainly, but unlike angels they are sub-creators, each with their own realm. So, for instance, Manwë is King of Arda (the Earth), Ulmo is Lord of Waters, Mandos Judge of the Dead, and they were married. This positions them, as Tolkien stated, as demiurges, godlike figures in the Platonic scheme of things with the ability to shape the material world. As with the splintering of light, Flieger writes, the choice of the name "demiurge" implies subdivision, its original meaning including "to do "by" dividing".


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Some Maiar, a lesser order than the Valar, were sent by the Valar into Middle-earth in mortal bodies to influence, but not to direct, events there. These Maiar were Wizards or Istari, of whom Gandalf is the best known to readers. Tolkien stated that they fitted the original Greek description "ἄγγελος" ("Angelos") meaning messenger.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Two figures in Middle-earth have reminded commentators of the Virgin Mary: the Vala Varda, called by the Elves Elbereth, and the Elf-lady Galadriel. Wood writes that Sam's invocation of Galadriel's name, however unintentional, caused his Elven-rope to release itself from the knot that fastened it, after letting the Hobbits descend a cliff, quoting Sam's explanation "I think the rope came off itself—when I called". Rutledge notes that Frodo, facing the deadly attack of the "pale King", the Nazgûl on Weathertop, cries out "O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!", apparently causing Aragorn to arrive just in time: Frodo is dangerously wounded but not killed. Rutledge comments that while there is no direct correspondence between any "Lord of the Rings" character and any biblical figure, Elbereth does resemble the Virgin Mary in one sense, in that she can grant favours and come to the help of people in need. Similarly, she writes that Sam makes the invocation "Elbereth Gilthoniel!" as he faces off with Shelob in the darkness of her lair, holding aloft the Phial of Galadriel, which blazes with (in Tolkien's words) an "intolerable light" as if "'his indomitable spirit' had activated it".


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Rutledge considers the question of divine providence, predestination, and free will a central theme of "The Lord of the Rings". The question hinges on the apparent contradiction between divine action and intention on one side, and human freedom on the other: if the divine power acts in the world, how can individual action be free? Rutledge notes that theologians have grappled with the problem, and that Tolkien's book can be read as an explanation of how it can work out in practice. The divine will remains almost entirely beneath the surface in the story, as she believes it does in the real world; but Tolkien gives hints throughout the text, most often in the form of statements in the passive voice about the causes of events which might appear to be luck or chance. Thus, for example, Gandalf says that Bilbo and Frodo were "meant" (in the passive voice) to have the One Ring, though it remained their choice to co-operate with this purpose.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Providence is represented in Middle-earth by the will of the Valar. This can be detected but is subtle enough not to affect the free will of the story's characters, or the need for individual courage and trust in the face of an uncertain future. In keeping with that subtlety, the Valar are mentioned directly only once in "The Lord of the Rings", when one of Faramir's Rangers of Ithilien encounters the enormous "Mumak" or battle-elephant of the Haradrim and says "May the Valar turn him aside".


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Tolkien stated that "The Downfall of Númenor" ("Akallabêth") was effectively a second fall of man, with "its central theme .. (inevitably, I think, in a story of Men) a Ban, or Prohibition". Bradley J. Birzer, writing in "The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia", notes that Tolkien thought that every story was essentially about a fall, and accordingly his legendarium contains many "falls": that of Morgoth, of Fëanor and his relatives, and that of Númenor among them. Eric Schweicher, writing in "Mythlore", notes that the ban was "soon defied", as in the Biblical fall. The temptation for the Númenoreans was the desire for immortality, and the ban that they broke was not to sail towards the Undying Lands of Aman, parallelling the Biblical prohibition on eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Tolkien mentions also "the 'Fall' of the High-elves" in a letter, giving as the cause "a strange case of an Elf (Míriel mother of Fëanor) that tried to "die", which had disastrous results"; he discusses it in the context of the Fall of Man. Matthew T. Dickerson writes that while Fëanor is held responsible by the Valar, "neither Finwë nor Míriel is blameless".


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: Shippey writes that "The Lord of the Rings" embodies the ancient debate within Christianity on the nature of evil. Shippey notes Elrond's Boethian statement that "nothing is evil in the beginning. Even [the Dark Lord] Sauron was not so", in other words all things were created good; but this is set alongside the Manichean view that Good and Evil are equally powerful, and battle it out in the world. Tolkien's personal war experience was Manichean: evil seemed at least as powerful as good, and could easily have been victorious, a strand which Shippey notes can also be seen in Middle-earth. Brian Rosebury, a humanities scholar, interprets Elrond's statement as implying an Augustinian universe, created good.


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: The Jesuit John L. Treloar writes that the Book of Revelation personifies evil in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: the first, on a white horse, represents a conquering king; the second, red with a sword, means bloody war; the third, black and carrying a scale balance, means famine; and the last, green, is named death. Treloar comments that the personification increases the emotional impact, and that the Ringwraiths (Nazgûl) are introduced "as terror inspiring horsemen who bring these four evils into the world. They are bent on conquest, war, [and] death, and the land they rule is non-productive."


title: Christianity in Middle-earth

text: "Christianity Today" reported that Oxford University's Bodleian Libraries exhibition "" was "nearly comprehensive" but had one "glaring omission": "any mention of the author's devout, lifelong Christian faith." It mentions Michael Ward's comment that Tolkien's faith is not obvious in Middle-earth, unlike his friend C. S. Lewis's Narnia, and concludes that "Only if we recognize Tolkien's deep Christian faith can we hope to understand the life and work of the 'Maker of Middle-earth'".


title: Morgan Rielly

text: Morgan Frederick Rielly (born March 9, 1994) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and alternate captain for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted by the Maple Leafs in the first round, fifth overall, of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Before being drafted, Rielly played with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League. He has represented Canada internationally on several occasions, most notably at the 2016 World Championship, where he won a gold medal.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: Rielly was selected second overall by the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League (WHL) Bantam Draft in 2009. Before entering the WHL, Rielly played midget hockey for the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. In his final season with the Hounds, Rielly was the top-scoring defenceman in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League, with 55 points in 43 games. His team captured Canada's national midget championship. Rielly joined the Warriors for the 2010–11 WHL season, playing in 65 games and recording 28 points. Heading into the 2011–12 WHL season, Rielly was a highly ranked prospect for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. He suffered a serious knee injury, a torn anterior cruciate ligament, causing him to miss most of the season. He returned for the tail end of the Warriors playoff run against the Edmonton Oil Kings. Despite the injury, Rielly still finished the season ranked fifth among North American skaters by the Central Scouting Bureau. Rielly was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, fifth overall, and he signed a contract with the club shortly before the 2012–13 NHL lockout. He spent the 2012–13 season with the Warriors, with a stint in January at the Toronto Maple Leafs training camp, but eventually was returned to finish the season in the WHL.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: Rielly made his professional debut at the end of the 2012–13 season with the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League (AHL). At the start of the 2013–14 NHL season, Rielly made the Maple Leafs roster out of training camp. He made his NHL debut on October 5, 2013, against the Ottawa Senators. On December 16, 2013, Rielly scored his first NHL goal, against Stanley Cup winner Marc-André Fleury of the Pittsburgh Penguins.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: Rielly recorded his first multigoal game with two goals against Cam Talbot of the New York Rangers on February 10, 2015.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: Throughout the 2015–16 season, Rielly earned much praise from Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock, as well as other figures of management. In addition, he would see an increase in ice time, often appearing on the top pairing for the club. He also set career highs in multiple offensive categories such as goals, assists and points. Rielly signed a six-year, $30 million contract on April 13, 2016, carrying an average value of $5 million a season. Before the 2016–17 season, Rielly was named as one of the Maple Leafs' alternate captains, along with teammates Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov, and Matt Hunwick. He had his first career four-point game (1 goal and 3 assists), on November 11, 2016 during a 6–3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers. He spent most of the 2016–17 season with rookie Nikita Zaitsev on the Leafs' shutdown defence pairing, and finished the season with 27 points in 76 games. Rielly was nominated for the Bill Masterton Trophy at the end of the 2016–17 season.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: During the 2017–18 season, Rielly was injured in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers on January 19, 2018, and was placed on injured reserve on January 22. He was back in the Leafs' lineup on February 3, 2018, after missing six games. Despite his injury, Rielly and fellow defenceman Jake Gardiner became the first two Leafs defenceman to record at least 50 points in a season since Tomáš Kaberle and Bryan McCabe accomplished the feat in 2006–07. He ended the regular season with a career-high 46 assists and 52 points, tying Gardiner for the team points leader amongst Leafs defencemen, and helped propel the Leafs to their second consecutive playoff showing. Despite pushing the Boston Bruins to seven games, the Leafs lost the series in the first round, as Rielly finished the playoffs with five points.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: During the 2018–19 season, on October 9, 2018, Rielly recorded a career-high four assists in a 7–4 win over the Dallas Stars, bringing him to ten points in his first four games, tying him for the NHL lead in points alongside teammate Auston Matthews. The following game, on October 11 against the Detroit Red Wings, Rielly passed Bobby Orr for most points by a defenceman in a team's first five games, with 12 points. By picking up an assist the next game, he established the longest season-opening point streak by a defenceman in franchise history. On October 14, Rielly was named as one of the NHL's 3 Stars of the Week for the first time in his career. He had an NHL-leading six assists, along with an overtime goal against the Chicago Blackhawks, during a four-game Maple Leafs win streak. He was named as the NHL's second star of the week for his accomplishments. On December 20, during a 6–1 Leafs win over the Florida Panthers, Rielly recorded his second four assist game of the season, becoming the first NHL defenceman that year to reach the 40-point mark. On December 24, Rielly was again named as the 2nd star in the NHL's 3 Stars of the Week. Rielly led the NHL with 3 goals, 6 assists, 9 goals and a +10 rating the previous week to propel the Maple Leafs to a perfect week and into second place in the overall League standings. On January 23, 2019, Rielly became the first Maple Leafs defenceman to post consecutive 50-point seasons since Tomáš Kaberle's 2005–06 and 2007–08 seasons. Rielly reached the 50-point mark while skating in his 49th personal game of 2018-19. Only three other Maple Leafs defencemen have reached the mark faster: Borje Salming (42 GP in 1976-77), Babe Pratt (44 GP in 1943-44), and Bryan McCabe (45 GP in 2005-06). He scored his 20th goal of the season on March 16, 2019 against the Ottawa Senators. With his 20th goal of the season, Rielly became the first Maple Leafs' defenceman to score 20 goals in a season since Al Iafrate in the 1989–90 season. Rielly ended the season with a career-high 20 goals, 52 assists, and 72 points, the first 70+ point season by a Maple Leafs' defenceman since Börje Salming in 1980. He was one of only three defencemen under 25 to score at least 50 points that season, along with Thomas Chabot and Jacob Trouba.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: Rielly represents Canada internationally. He started out in regional and age-group competitions. When he was representing Team Pacific at the 2011 World U-17 Hockey Challenge, Rielly scored two goals in five games and helped his team capture a bronze medal. Later that year, Rielly was part of Canada's gold medal winning squad at the 2011 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. Rielly's first experience at an International Ice Hockey Federation sanctioned event was the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships, where he recorded two goals and one assist in seven games. Canada finished fourth at the tournament.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Rielly was selected to represent Canada at the 2013 IIHF World U20 Championships, again finishing in fourth place. In 2016, Rielly was named to Canada's roster for the 2016 IIHF World Championship, where he was named one of Canada's most valuable players. Canada would go on to win the tournament with a 2–0 victory over Finland in the final. Throughout the tournament, Rielly recorded the most ice time of any player on Canada. For this accomplishment, he was named to the tournament All-Star team.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: For the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, Rielly was placed on Team North America, a team of North American hockey players aged 23 or younger. Also on the team was future teammate Auston Matthews. In three games with Team North America, Rielly tallied two points (one goal and one assist). Team North America went 2–1–0 in the tournament, scoring ten goals and conceding eight, suffering elimination following Finland's loss to Russia.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: Growing up, Rielly was a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. His paternal family is from Hamilton, Ontario, and are fans of the Maple Leafs. His mother, Shirley, is a cancer researcher and owns a medical company. He has an older brother, Connor. The family owns a lab named Maggie.


title: Morgan Rielly

text: Until September 2015, Rielly and teammate Jake Gardiner were roommates. Despite parting ways, the two remained friends and Rielly was a groomsman at Gardiner's wedding.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: The Tangier International Zone ( "Minṭaqat Ṭanja ad-Dawliyya", , ) was a international zone centered on the city of Tangier, Morocco, which existed from 1924 until its reintegration into independent Morocco in 1956, with special status lasting until April 1960. Surrounded on the land side by the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, it was governed under a complex system that involved various European nations, the United States, and the Sultan of Morocco, himself under a French protectorate.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: Tangier had developed since the 18th century as the main point of contact between the Moroccan monarchy and European commercial interests, leading to the establishment of a number of consulates in the city by the main European nations. By 1830, Denmark, France, Portugal, Sardinia, Spain, Sweden, Tuscany, the United Kingdom, and the United States all had consulates in Tangier. In 1856, its role as Morocco's diplomatic capital was made official, and the existing consulates were elevated to legations.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: Tangier's unique governance took further shape around 1880. That year, it was granted a monopoly of importation of tobacco and opium into Morocco. In 1879, a "Dahir" (decree) of the Sultan of Morocco established a Hygiene Commission, which was actually established in 1884 and further organised in 1892. The Commission was chaired by the foreign consuls, on three-months turns with succession based on alphabetical order of nationality. One of them, the Greek-American Ion Perdicaris, in 1887 advocated a special status for Tangier as a neutral free port under the great powers' joint control. In 1893, the Commission's role was broadened to public roads, with authority to raise levies.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: In 1904, Tangier was chosen as location of the French-led Moroccan Debt Administration. The Algeciras Conference of 1906 prepared the ground for the colonisation of Morocco and specifically for the creation of the State Bank of Morocco which would be established in Tangier the following year; it did not, however, define the status of Tangier itself. Both France and Spain wanted to control the city, and the United Kingdom wanted to neutralise it to maintain its dominance of the Strait of Gibraltar. In 1912, Article 7 of the Treaty Between France and Spain Regarding Morocco stipulated that Tangier would be granted a special status. An agreement to that effect was signed in Madrid in 1914, but its implementation was suspended by World War I. Negotiations restarted after the end of the war, in Cannes in 1922. Meanwhile, Tangier still operated under the ancient regime of Capitulations under which the Sultan of Morocco delegated wide administrative duties in the town to the foreign consulates established there.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: Eventually, France, Spain and the UK reached agreement on the Tangier Protocol on 18 December 1923. Tangier was made a neutral zone under a joint administration. In line with UK wishes, it was entirely free from any military presence. It was also made into a tax haven, with no tariffs on imported or exported goods or gold, no exchange controls, no income or revenue taxes, and unlimited freedom of establishment. Although misgivings remained about the agreement, ratifications were exchanged in Paris on 14 May 1924. The convention was amended on 25 July 1928, when the governments of Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden joined the international framework.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: The initial economic effect of the creation of the zone was sharply negative, because the Spanish protectorate authorities discouraged commerce with it and thus Tangier lost most of its traditional hinterland. Tangier had handled nineteen percent of Morocco's imports in 1906, but only four percent in 1929. With time, however, the service activities favoured by the zone's special status enabled a gradual recovery. The Zone had a reputation for tolerance, diversity of culture, religion, and bohemianism. It became a tourist hotspot for literary giants and gay men from Western countries. Many of the latter were able to live an openly "out" life in the Zone.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: Spanish troops occupied Tangier on 14 June 1940, the same day Paris fell to the Germans. Despite calls by the writer Rafael Sánchez Mazas and other Spanish nationalists to annex ""Tánger español"", the Francoist State publicly considered the occupation a temporary wartime measure. A diplomatic dispute between Britain and Spain over the latter's abolition of the city's international institutions in November 1940 led to a further guarantee of British rights and a Spanish promise not to fortify the area. Tangiers was annexed to the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco on 23 November 1940. In May 1944, although it had served as a contact point between himself and the later Axis Powers during the Spanish Civil War, Franco expelled all German diplomats from the Zone.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: The territory was restored to its pre-war status on 11 October 1945. The activity of Tangier as an offshore financial centre and tax haven took off in the postwar period. In 1950, there were 85 banks in Tangier, up from 4 in 1900 and 15 in 1939. Its practice of banking secrecy was extreme, with effectively no bank licensing, no prudential supervision, no accounting obligations, and no transparency whatsoever about a bank's ownership. In some cases, the senior management of a Tangier bank would not even know who the bank's owners were. One author wrote that "the authorities of Tangier had pushed to an unequaled degree of perfection the art of non-governing by reciprocal annulment of rival sovereignties. They took care, better than elsewhere, of the rigorous application of an almost total non-taxation". In July 1952 the protecting powers met at Rabat to discuss the Zone's future, agreeing to abolish it. Tangier joined with the rest of Morocco following the restoration of full sovereignty in 1956. At the time of the handover, Tangier had a population of around 40,000 Muslims; 31,000 Christians; and 15,000 Jews.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: On 29 October 1956, the foreign nations involved in the zone and the Moroccan government, represented by Foreign Minister Ahmed Balafrej, signed a joint declaration that returned Tangier to full Moroccan sovereignty. Mohammed V granted it a charter to smooth the transition and extend its tax and other privileges on a temporary basis. In October 1959, that charter was abrogated with a six-month notice period. The expiration of that transition on 11 April 1960 marked the final end of Tangier's special status.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: Executive power was vested in an Administrator. In the interwar period all Administrators were French, until the Spanish takeover of June 1940. They had two deputies, one French and one British. After the re-establishment of the international regime in 1945, the Administrators were from other nationalities, namely Portuguese (1945–1948 and 1951–1954), Dutch (1948–1951), and Belgian (1954–1956).


title: Tangier International Zone

text: In the zone's early years and until 1937, the Administrator and his staff worked in the building of the Moroccan Debt Administration, on Boulevard Pasteur. From 1937 to the Spanish takeover, they appear to have been located at the nearby French Consulate. A new building constructed to house the International Administration was completed in the early 1950s. After Moroccan independence, that building was repurposed as the seat of the local Prefecture ("Wilaya"), now of the region of Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: The zone's Muslim and Jewish communities were not directly administered by the foreign nations but by a personal representative of the Sultan, the Mendoub. The Mendoub had his seat and main residence in the former German consulate, now known as the Mendoubia. From 1929 he also had a secondary residence in the Marshan neighbourhood, also known as the Mendoub Palace, now part of Marshan Palace.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: The zone's legislature was the International Legislative Assembly, which was subject to supervision by a Committee of Control consisting of the Consuls of Belgium, France, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, with rotating chair similarly as in the former Hygiene Commission. The assembly's 26-strong membership was set as follows: 4 French, 4 Spanish, 3 British, 3 Italians, 1 Belgian, 1 Dutch, 1 Portuguese, 6 Muslims, and 3 Jews.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: After World War II, a new home was built for the Legislative Assembly, which is now the main building of Marshan Palace.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: Judicial power resided in a Mixed Court of five judges, respectively appointed by the Belgian, British, Spanish, French, and Italian governments. As a result of the creation of the Mixed Court, the various European powers withdrew the consular courts that previously exercised jurisdiction there. From its start, the Mixed Court was considered a unique experiment given its international setup. Unlike other institutions of the zone, it continued to function under the Spanish occupation of Tangier during World War II. It was reformed in 1952 but remained affected by shortcomings that included inadequate representation of Muslim Moroccans and an insufficient number of judges. Its activity ceased in 1957.


title: Tangier International Zone

text: The Mixed Court was initially located together with the International Administration on Boulevard Pasteur. In 1937, it moved to purpose-built art deco courthouse on (now ), which after Moroccan independence became the city courthouse (). In 2021 the court moved to a new building in the outskirts of Tangier.


title: Mil Mi-38

text: The Mil Mi-38 is a transport helicopter designed by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and being developed by Kazan Helicopters. Originally intended as a replacement for the Mil Mi-8 and the Mi-17, it is being marketed in both military and civil versions. It flew for the first time on 22 December 2003 and was certified on 30 December 2015.


title: Mil Mi-38

text: The Mi-38's development was carried out by Kazan Helicopters since early 1980s and a mockup was first shown during the 1989 Paris Air Show. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazan Helicopters went into collaboration with Eurocopter that was to adapt the Mi-38 for international market. In September 1994, Euromil JSC was established and funding of the programme began a month later. Sextant and Pratt & Whitney Canada were also to participate in the programme as suppliers of Mi-38's avionics and powerplant equipment. Initially, the helicopter was to be first flight tested in 1999, but only on 18 August 1999 a contract was signed for completion of the first demonstrator. In 2001, testing of Mi-38's rotor blades was carried out on a Mi-17 helicopter. The first Mi-38 demonstrator (PT-1) performed its maiden flight above the Kazan Helicopters plant on 22 December 2003.


title: Mil Mi-38

text: The second prototype (OP-2), powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127/TS engines, made its first flight on 2 December 2010. The prototype is also equipped with the IBKO-38 or IBKV-38 aviation complex, developed by Transas Aviation, which implements a concept of a glass cockpit for the Mi-38. The same month, OP-2 performed its first long-haul flight from Kazan to Moscow, which covers more than 800 km.


title: Mil Mi-38

text: In March 2013, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale has confirmed the Mi-38 prototypes have already set five records in the E1h class. The second prototype aircraft set an altitude record by reaching 8,620 meters (28,280 feet) without a payload. The second and third records were for climbing speed; the Mi-38 reached a height of 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) in six minutes, then followed this to reach 6,000 meters (19,685 feet) in 10 minutes and 52 seconds. Two further records were altitude records: the first was set at 7,895 meters (25,902 feet) with a 1,000-kg (2,205-lb) payload, the second at 7,020 meters (23,031 feet) with a 2,000-kg (4,409-lb) payload.


title: Mil Mi-38

text: The third prototype (OP-3), began its flight tests on 17 December 2013. The helicopter is equipped with a pair of Russian Klimov TV7-117V turboshaft engines, which produce about as opposed to for the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127/TS.


title: Mil Mi-38

text: The fourth and final prototype (OP-4), first took off on 16 October 2014. Same as the OP-3, it is powered by Klimov TV7-117V engines but differs from the third prototype by its impact-resistant fuel system and enlarged portholes.


title: Mil Mi-38

text: On 30 December 2015, Rosaviatsiya certified the Mi-38, completing the testing and certification program and allowing for the delivery of the first production model. Certification was based on the third and fourth flight-test prototypes with Klimov TV7-117V engines.


title: Mil Mi-38

text: In July 2017, a contract for delivery of first two serial Mi-38s to the Russian Defence Ministry was signed. The Kazan Helicopters plant launched the serial production of the helicopter on 10 January 2018. In total, the Russian Defence Ministry planned to purchase about 15 helicopters until 2020.


title: Mil Mi-38

text: On 23 November 2018, military variant, Mi-38T, performed its maiden flight. The new variant was developed to meet the Russian MoD's new requirements for the helicopter and due to international sanctions imposed on Russia, all of its components, including engines and avionics, are Russian-made. Deputy Managing Director at Kazan Helicopters Vadim Ligai stated that the Mi-38 can now carry up to 40 passengers. The Russian Defence Ministry took delivery of the first two serial Mi-38s in December 2019. In January 2020, Russian Helicopters announced that it had received orders from an unspecified export customer (reported by Russian media sources to be in the Middle East) for Mi-38Ts in "transport and in increased comfort cabin configurations", with delivery from 2021 to 2022. The RF Defense Ministry ordered 2 more Mi-38s in increased comfort cabin configuration in August 2020 and the Ministry of Emergency Situations ordered 9 in August 2021.


title: Innocence Project

text: Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The group cites various studies estimating that in the United States between 2.3% and 10% of all prisoners are innocent. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld who gained national attention in the mid-1990s as part of the "Dream Team" of lawyers who formed part of the defense in the O. J. Simpson murder case.


title: Innocence Project

text: , the Innocence Project has helped to successfully overturn over 300 convictions through DNA-based exonerations. In 2021, Innocence Project received the biennial Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty by Cato Institute, awarded in recognition and gratitude for its work to ensure liberty and justice for all. In March 2022, The Innocence Project won two Webby Awards for its "Happiest Moments" video, winning the Best Humanitarian & Services campaign in both the brand and non-profit categories. "Happiest Moments" was the organizations first-ever public service announcement that premiered in June 2021 and was produced by Hayden5.


title: Innocence Project

text: The Innocence Project was established in the wake of a study by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Senate, in conjunction with the Jewish Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, which claimed that incorrect identification by eyewitnesses was a factor in over 70% of wrongful convictions. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Scheck and Neufeld as part of a law clinic at Cardozo. It became an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization on January 28, 2003, but it maintains institutional connections with Cardozo. Madeline deLone was the executive director from 2004 until 2020, succeeded by Christina Swarns on September 8, 2020.


title: Innocence Project

text: The Innocence Project is the headquarters of the Innocence Network, a group of nearly 70 independent innocence organizations worldwide. One such example exists in the Republic of Ireland where in 2009 a project was set up at Griffith College Dublin.


title: Innocence Project

text: The Innocence Project's mission is "to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment."


title: Innocence Project

text: The Innocence Project focuses exclusively on post-conviction appeals in which DNA evidence is available to be tested or retested. DNA testing is possible in 5–10% of criminal cases. Other members of the Innocence Network also help to exonerate those in whose cases DNA testing is not possible.


title: Innocence Project

text: In addition to working on behalf of those who may have been wrongfully convicted of crimes throughout the United States, those working for the Innocence Project perform research and advocacy related to the causes of wrongful convictions.


title: Innocence Project

text: Some of the Innocence Project's successes have resulted in releasing people from death row. The successes of the project have fueled American opposition to the death penalty and have likely been a factor in the decision by some American states to institute moratoria on criminal executions.


title: Innocence Project

text: In "District Attorney's Office v. Osborne" (2009), US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts wrote that post-conviction challenge "poses questions to our criminal justice systems and our traditional notions of finality better left to elected officials than federal judges." In the opinion, another justice wrote that forensic science has "serious deficiencies". Roberts also said that post-conviction DNA testing risks "unnecessarily overthrowing the established system of criminal justice." Law professor Kevin Jon Heller wrote: "It might lead to a reasonably accurate one."


title: Innocence Project

text: The Innocence Project, as of June 2018, receives 55% of its funding from individual contributions, 16% from foundations, 16% from events, 8% from investments, and the remaining 5% from corporations, Yeshiva University, and other sources.


title: Innocence Project

text: The Innocence Project originated in New York City but accepts cases from other parts of the country. The majority of clients helped are of low socio-economic status and have used all possible legal options for justice. Many clients hope that DNA evidence will prove their innocence, as the emergence of DNA testing allows those who have been wrongly convicted of crimes to challenge their cases. The Innocence Project also works with the local, state and federal levels of law enforcement, legislators, and other programs to prevent further wrongful convictions.


title: Innocence Project

text: All potential clients go through an extensive screening process to determine whether or not they are likely to be innocent. If they pass the process, the Innocence Project takes up their case, resources permitting. About 2,400 prisoners write to the Innocence Project annually, and at any given time the Innocence Project is evaluating 6,000 to 8,000 potential cases. In addition to their co-directors and a managing attorney, the Innocence Project has six full-time staff attorneys and nearly 300 active cases.


title: Innocence Project

text: In almost half of the cases that the Innocence Project takes on, the clients' guilt is reconfirmed by DNA testing. Of all the cases taken on by the Innocence Project so far, about 43% of clients were proven innocent, 42% were confirmed guilty, and evidence was inconclusive and not probative in 15% of cases. In about 40% of all DNA exoneration cases, law enforcement officials identified the actual perpetrator based on the same DNA test results that led to an exoneration.


title: Innocence Project

text: , 375 people previously convicted of serious crimes in the United States had been exonerated by DNA testing since 1989, 21 of whom had been sentenced to death. Almost all (99%) of the wrongful convictions were males, with minority groups constituting approximately 70% (61% African American and 8% Latino). The National Registry of Exonerations lists 2,939 convicted defendants who were exonerated through DNA and non-DNA evidence from January, 1989 through January, 2022 with more than 25,600 years imprisoned.


title: Innocence Project

text: According to a study published in 2014, at least 4.1% of persons overall sentenced to death from 1973 to 2004 are probably innocent. The following are some examples of exonerations they helped bring about:


title: Innocence Project

text: The Innocence Project is a founding member of the Innocence Network, a coalition of independent organizations and advocates, including law schools, journalism schools, and public defense offices that collaborate to help convicted felons prove their innocence. , there were 68 organizations in the network, operating in all 50 US states and 12 other countries, and had helped exonerate 625 people.


title: Innocence Project

text: In South Africa, the Wits Justice Project investigates South African incarcerations. In partnership with the Wits Law Clinic, the Julia Mashele Trust, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC), the US Innocence Project, and the Justice Project investigate individual cases of prisoners wrongly convicted or awaiting trial.


title: Innocence Project

text: Wrongful convictions are a common occurrence with various causes that land innocent defendants in prison. Most common are false eyewitness accounts, where the accused are incorrectly identified by viewers of a crime. This accounts for 69% of the exonerations that took place due to the Innocence Project, further proving that eyewitness accounts are often unreliable. This measure has proven to be inaccurate in many police lineups, as there is much bias, and suspects can be singled out based on their appearance and the frequency that they are placed in front of witnesses.


title: Innocence Project

text: Additionally, 52% of the Innocence Project cases’ wrongful convictions have resulted from the misapplication of forensic science. These include faulty hair comparisons, arson artifacts, and comparative bullet lead analysis. These methods of evidence collection evolve as new technology arises, but said technology can take decades to create, making cases based on the faulty forensic science cases difficult to overturn.


title: Innocence Project

text: In 26% of DNA exoneration cases—and more than double that number in homicide cases—innocent people were coerced into making false confessions. Many of these false confessors went on to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit (usually to avoid a harsher sentence or even the death penalty). Currently, there is a racial aspect of this issue where many black people are discriminated against during both their trial and while in jail. The hashtag #blackbehindbars has allowed those exonerated after false confessions to share their stories and the injustice they faced due to the failure of the criminal justice system.


title: Innocence Project

text: Another large contributor of wrongful convictions is fabricated testimonies that falsely incriminate defendants. The Innocence Project has found that 17% of its cases have been caused by false testimonies, allowing the person who gave the testimony a shorter or better sentence while the accused face harsher repercussions. Many of these stories are given by inmates who have been given an incentive to falsely testify against certain people with rewards such as reduction of their sentences or leniency in prison.


title: Prison escape

text: A prison escape (referred as a bust out, breakout, jailbreak, or prison break) is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture them and return them to their original detainers. Escaping from prison is also a criminal offense in some countries, such as the United States and Canada, and it is highly likely to result in time being added to the inmate's sentence, as well as the inmate being placed under increased security that is most likely a maximum security prison or supermax prison. In some other places like Germany and a number of other countries, it is considered human nature to want to escape from a prison and it is considered as a violation of the right of freedom, so escape is not penalized in itself (in the absence of other factors such as threats of violence, actual violence, or property damage).


title: Prison escape

text: Many prisons use security features such as CCTV, perimeter sensors, barred windows, high walls, barbed wire, razor wire, and electric fencing to prevent escapes.


title: Prison escape

text: Numerous methods have been used to escape prison over time. Many escapes have been successfully conducted by inmates who have invented their own methods. Weaknesses that are found as prisoners escape are often corrected at numerous prisons around the world to prevent future escapes in a similar manner. This leads inmates to finding new ways.


title: Prison escape

text: Since prisoners usually have a lot of time in which they are doing nothing, this gives them plenty of time to think, allowing them to devise plans and figure out ways to escape.


title: Prison escape

text: The following are methods that have commonly been used by prisoners in escapes. In some instances, a combination of these are used.


title: Prison escape

text: While some prisoners are allowed out of their cells at times, others remain locked in their cells most of the time, particularly those in solitary confinement. Many prisoners who are kept in their cells must find ways out of the cells. Even those who are allowed out of their cells at times still have plans that involve escape from their cells.


title: Prison escape

text: Cell escapes occur through either the door, the window, the light, the ventilation system, by breaking down the walls, or by tunneling underground.


title: Prison escape

text: Some prisoners have escaped by picking the locks on their cells, creating keys to their cells, sawing bars off of the doors or windows, carving away the walls, or breaking away the vent.


title: Prison escape

text: Containment penetration involves breaking down or slipping through the physical containment of the prison, including that of the cell itself or the surrounding complex. Methods include the destruction of the cell or compound walls, squeezing through tight spaces, or entering off-limits areas. Prisoners often destroy their containment with homemade tools, smuggled objects, or other contraband.


title: Prison escape

text: Most prisons are contained on the outside by one or more fences, often topped with barbed wire or razor wire. Escapees manage to scale these fences successfully or cut holes in the fences, damaging them. These fences are also watched by one or more guards from a tower, but escapees manage to pass the fence when the guard is turned away, unable to see in the dark, or sleeping on the job. Outside the fences is often a perimeter patrol conducted by an officer in a vehicle, which stands as the final line of defense. Escapees manage to evade this by studying the length of time between passes, waiting until it is on the other side, or using the cover of darkness.


title: Prison escape

text: A rare method that has been used at times involves the digging of a tunnel under the facility that exits outside the facility.


title: Prison escape

text: Physical force involves attacking guards with blunt force, homemade weapons, smuggled weapons, or weapons stolen from overpowered guards.


title: Prison escape

text: Some escapes involve one or more inmates taking over an entire unit or section of the prison, subduing guards, and stealing weapons or other objects they can use to their advantage.


title: Prison escape

text: Deception may involve fooling one or more guards into believing the prisoner is authorized to depart prison grounds for a legitimate reason, or the prisoner disguising himself or herself as a worker or civilian who can exit prison grounds without arousing suspicion, or the creation of a ruse to mislead guards.


title: Prison escape

text: In some escapes, inmates construct makeshift dummies to make guards believe they are in their cells, usually in bed, when they are not. This enables the inmate to gain a head start from the prison before guards discover they are actually missing. Such dummies are typically constructed quite crudely, often using the inmate's or another's hair, shoes, and miscellaneous materials for stuffing, hidden under a blanket to give the appearance a body is present.


title: Prison escape

text: Finding holes in the security of the facility, and taking advantage of them. This may include the discovery of overlooked security issues, or taking advantage of guards who are not following policies or procedures, or are otherwise not doing their jobs properly.


title: Prison escape

text: Taking advantage of intentional wrongdoing on part of prison staff. This may include the use of weapons or other contraband smuggled in by staff, or receiving assistance from staff who assist due to their personal initiative or by other means of compensation.


title: Prison escape

text: Some lower security inmates are permitted to leave prison grounds temporarily on the honor they will return. These include those who depart for employment outside the facility or furloughs that allow time outside for periods of time.


title: Prison escape

text: Breaking while in custody outside facility grounds. Prisoners are often transported for work duties, to be moved between facilities, attend court hearings, for hospitalization and medical appointments, and other reasons.


title: Prison escape

text: Receiving aid from an accomplice outside prison walls, including those who provide a ride to the inmate following their penetration, smuggle in contraband as visitors, or use helicopters, among other methods.


title: Prison escape

text: When a banned item is smuggled, it can either be slipped through or tossed over the fence from outside, hidden in a gift to the inmate that is legal, or slipped past corrupt security officers. In some cases, the staff are the source of the smuggling themselves.


title: Prison escape

text: Escaping from an island prison brings another challenge of crossing the water to free land. This can be done by construction of a makeshift raft or receiving outside help from the owner of a boat. In the famed 1962 Alcatraz escape, a makeshift raft from raincoats was confirmed. One additional theory is that a boat was used to transport them in the water.


title: Prison escape

text: Prevention of prison escape includes the numerous security measures that are in effect. How many and which measures are used depends on the security level and specific institution. Some of the preventive measures are:


title: Prison escape

text: In some jurisdictions, including the United States, escaping from jail or prison is a criminal offense. In Virginia, for instance, the punishment for escape depends on whether the offender escaped by using force or violence or setting fire to the jail, and the seriousness of the offense for which they were imprisoned.


title: Prison escape

text: In Russia, escaping from prison is an offence that can result in up to four years being added to the inmate's sentence.


title: Prison escape

text: In Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria and other countries, the philosophy of the law holds that it is human nature to want to escape. In those countries, escapees who do not break any other laws are not charged and no extra time is added to their sentence.


title: Linate Airport

text: Milan Linate Airport is the third international airport of Milan, the second-largest city and largest urban area of Italy, behind Malpensa Airport and Orio al Serio Airport. It served 9,233,475 passengers in 2018, being the fifth busiest airport in Italy.


title: Linate Airport

text: The airport was built next to Idroscalo of Milan in the 1930s when Taliedo Airport, located from the southern border of Milan and one of the world's first aerodromes and airports, became too small for commercial traffic. Linate was completely rebuilt in the 1950s and again in the 1980s.


title: Linate Airport

text: Its name comes from the small village where it is located in the town of Peschiera Borromeo. Its official name is "Airport Enrico Forlanini", after the Italian inventor and aeronautical pioneer born in Milan. Linate airport buildings are located in the Segrate Municipality, and the field is located for a large part in the Peschiera Borromeo Municipality.


title: Linate Airport

text: Since 2001, because of Linate's close proximity to the centre of Milan – only east of the city centre, compared with Malpensa, which is 41 km (25 mi) northwest of the city centre – its capacity has been reduced by law from 32 slots per hour (technical capacity) down to 22 slots per hour (politically decided capacity) and only domestic or international flights within the EU or to the United Kingdom have been allowed. That year, 2001, also saw a major accident at Linate with many illegal and non-ICAO-regulation practices and layouts part of its then operation.


title: Linate Airport

text: From 27 July to 27 October 2019, Linate was closed for runway resurfacing and terminal upgrades. The latter project is expected to continue after the airport's reopening, concluding some time in 2021. During this closure, most flights were rerouted to Malpensa, displacing approximately 2.5 million passengers.


title: Linate Airport

text: Linate Airport features one three-story passenger terminal building. The ground level contains the check-in and separate baggage reclaim facilities as well as service counters and a secondary departure gate area for bus-boarding. The first floor features the main departure area with several shops, restaurants and service facilities. The second floor is used for office space. The terminal building features five aircraft stands, all of which are equipped with jet-bridges. Several more parking positions are available on the apron which are reached from several bus-boarding gates.


title: Linate Airport

text: The airport is located in "Viale Enrico Forlanini" next to its intersection with autostrada "A51" (exit "6 Aeroporto Linate"). A51 is part of the city's highway ring, so the airport can be reached from any direction.


title: Linate Airport

text: The airport can be reached by the ATM bus "73" from Piazza Duomo in the city centre, as well as by coach services from other places within the city. Coaches from and to Monza, Brescia and Milan Malpensa Airport are also available.


title: Linate Airport

text: The Milan metro line 4 connects the airport (station Linate Aeroporto) to the city centre starting from November 2022, with a travel time of about 15 minutes.


title: William Chan

text: William Chan Wai-ting (born 21 November 1985) is a Hong Kong singer, dancer and actor. In 2003, he participated in New Talent Singing Awards where he won several awards. He was then signed under Emperor Entertainment Group. He began his singing career by joining Cantopop group Sun Boy'z in 2006 and left the group in 2008 to pursue a solo career, releasing his debut solo album in the same year. Since then, he has released a total of 7 albums and 6 singles.


title: William Chan

text: Since 2013, he gradually shifted his career focus to mainland China. He is known for his roles in television series "Swords of Legends" (2014), "The Mystic Nine" (2016), "Lost Love in Times" (2017), "Age of Legends" (2018) and ""(2021).


title: William Chan

text: In 2003, William participated in the International Chinese New Talent Singing Championship Hong Kong regional finals and won several awards. He was then signed by Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG) as a new talent and started appearing in TV shows as a host.


title: William Chan

text: In 2006, William joined Sun Boy'z, a Cantopop boy group created by EEG, together with Steven Cheung and Dennis Mark and started adopting a dance-singer persona. The trio has recorded three albums in 2006 and 2007, but disbanded in 2008.


title: William Chan

text: After the disbandment of his group, William began his solo career. In September 2008, William released his first solo album "Will Power", and won the Most Popular Male Newcomer award at the 2008 Hong Kong Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards Presentation and Most Promising Award at the RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards. The following year, William released his second solo album "Warrior". He also participated in Dragon TV's dance program "Let's Shake It".


title: William Chan

text: From 2010 to 2013, William released four more albums, namely "Do You Wanna Dance" (2010), "Heads or Tails" (2010), "WOW" (2011) and "Pop It Up" (2013).


title: William Chan

text: In 2015, William released his first EP titled "Waiting", which is also his first Mandarin album. "Waiting" was a commercial success and achieved platinum certification in sales. The same year in November, he released his self-composed single "1121".


title: William Chan

text: In 2016, William released the single "Plan W", which topped local music charts and reached ten million downloads in 12 hours.


title: William Chan

text: On 27 August 2016, William embarked on his first solo tour "Inside Me" which kick-started in Beijing. It was subsequently held in the cities Shanghai, Nanjing, Chongqing and Guangzhou.


title: William Chan

text: In 2018, he acted as a dance mentor in iQiyi's reality online street dance variety program "Hot Blood Dance Crew", as well as a mentor in Dragon Television's talent scouting program "The Next Top Bang".


title: William Chan

text: In 2020, his second solo tour originally scheduled to kick-start in Guangzhou on 14 March 2020 was postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.


title: William Chan

text: In 2009, William made his big screen debut in crime thriller "Overheard". He was cast in his first lead role in "Hi, Fidelity" (2011), which was showcased at the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival.


title: William Chan

text: William then starred in the Hong Kong-Chinese film "As the Light Goes Out" (2013), which won him the Best Supporting Actor award at the Macau International Movie Festival for his performance.


title: William Chan

text: In 2013, William began to shift his career focus to Mainland China. He filmed his first Chinese drama, "The Four", an adaptation of Woon Swee Oan's novel "Si Da Ming Bu". The drama was aired on Hunan TV in 2015.


title: William Chan

text: Subsequently, he starred in the fantasy action drama "Swords of Legends". It was a huge success and topped viewership ratings and online views in China. The popularity of "Swords of Legends" shot William to fame in China, and he won the Most Popular All-Around Artist and Media's Most Anticipated Actor awards at the 6th China TV Drama Awards. The same year, William starred in the comedy film "Golden Brother" and won the Best Young Actor award at the China Image Film Festival for his performance.


title: William Chan

text: William then starred in his first period drama, "Legend of Fragrance" alongside his "Swords of Legends" co-star Li Yifeng. The same year, he took on his first small-screen leading role in the fantasy wuxia drama "Legend of Zu Mountain".


title: William Chan

text: In 2016, William starred in the tomb-raiding drama "The Mystic Nine", which serves as a prequel to the popular web drama "The Lost Tomb" by Nanpai Sanshu. "The Mystic Nine" achieved success, placing first in television ratings and setting a record for the most online views garnered in a day, and has accumulated over 10 billion views. William gained a surge in popularity for his role as Fo Ye, and was named the "Person of the Year" at the iQiyi All-Star Carnival. The same year, he starred alongside Jessica Jung in the romantic comedy film "I Love That Crazy Little Thing" and featured in Guo Jingming's fantasy blockbuster "".


title: William Chan

text: In 2018, William headlined the war epic film "Genghis Khan", as well as modern romance drama "Only Side by Side with You" and crime action drama "Age of Legends" He also starred as a supporting role in the war film "Air Strike".


title: William Chan

text: In 2020, the second part of Guo Jingming's fantasy blockbuster "" was released via on-line streaming.


title: William Chan

text: In 2021, William starred as the main antagonist in fantasy film "The Yinyang Master", as well as the main protagonist in cyber security action drama "The Dance of the Storm" and historical fantasy drama "." His upcoming work includes films "Caught in Whirlwind", "Bursting Point" and drama "A Date with the Future".


title: William Chan

text: In 2017, his wax figure dressed up as his role in "The Mystic Nine" was added to Madame Tussauds Shanghai. In 2018, a second wax figurine dressed in his concert attire was added to Madame Tussauds Beijing.


title: William Chan

text: In 2018, William's fashion brand "Williamism" collaborated with other companies (New Era, Reebok, UCCA, Aftermaths) to produce his own brand of caps, shoes, T-shirts and skiing attire.


title: William Chan

text: In 2020, he was a mentor in comedian talent scouting show 'Gagman' and starred in reality sales-marketing series "Fourtry Season 2". He also established his own fashion brand "CANOTWAIT_", which partnered with luxury car brand Maserati to release a limited edition sedan in 2021 .


title: Anti-Federalism

text: Anti-Federalism was a late-18th century political movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed the ratification of the 1787 Constitution. The previous constitution, called the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, gave state governments more authority. Led by Patrick Henry of Virginia, Anti-Federalists worried, among other things, that the position of president, then a novelty, might evolve into a monarchy. Though the Constitution was ratified and supplanted the Articles of Confederation, Anti-Federalist influence helped lead to the passage of the Bill of Rights.


title: Anti-Federalism

text: The name "Anti-Federalists" is a misnomer. It was imposed upon the movement by their opponents, the Federalists and it was supposed to mark them as men who "stood against the very political ideas they embraced". According to historian Carol Berkin:


title: Anti-Federalism

text: During the American Revolution and its immediate aftermath, the term "federal" was applied to any person who supported the colonial union and the government formed under the Articles of Confederation. After the war, the group that felt the national government under the Articles was too weak appropriated the name Federalist for themselves. Historian Jackson Turner Main wrote, "to them, the man of 'federal principles' approved of 'federal measures,' which meant those that increased the weight and authority or extended the influence of the Confederation Congress."


title: Anti-Federalism

text: As the Federalists moved to amend the Articles, eventually leading to the Constitutional Convention, they applied the term anti-federalist to their opposition. The term implied, correctly or not, both opposition to Congress and unpatriotic motives. The Anti-Federalists rejected the term, arguing that they were the true Federalists. In both their correspondence and their local groups, they tried to capture the term. For example, an unknown anti-federalist signed his public correspondence as "A Federal Farmer" and the New York committee opposing the Constitution was called the "Federal Republican Committee." However the Federalists carried the day and the name Anti-Federalist forever stuck.


title: Anti-Federalism

text: The Anti-Federalists were composed of diverse elements, including those opposed to the Constitution because they thought that a stronger government threatened the sovereignty and prestige of the states, localities, or individuals; those that saw in the proposed government a new centralized, disguised "monarchic" power that would only replace the cast-off despotism of Great Britain; and those who simply feared that the new government threatened their personal liberties. Some of the opposition believed that the central government under the Articles of Confederation was sufficient. Still others believed that while the national government under the Articles was too weak, the national government under the Constitution would be too strong. Another complaint of the Anti-Federalists was that the Constitution provided for a centralized rather than federal government (and in "The Federalist Papers", James Madison admits that the new Constitution has the characteristics of both a centralized and federal form of the government) and that a truly federal form of government was a leaguing of states as under the Articles of Confederation.


title: Anti-Federalism

text: During the period of debate over the ratification of the Constitution, numerous independent local speeches and articles were published all across the country. Initially, many of the articles in opposition were written under pseudonyms, such as "Brutus" (likely Melancton Smith), "Centinel" (likely Samuel Bryan), and "Federal Farmer." Eventually, famous revolutionary figures such as Patrick Henry came out publicly against the Constitution. They argued that the strong national government proposed by the Federalists was a threat to the rights of individuals and that the president would become a king. They objected to the federal court system created by the proposed constitution. Minority groups also contributed, such as Mercy Otis Warren who disguised herself as "A Colombian Patriot," thought to be Elbridge Gerry. Warren's most notable pamphlet discussed the treatment of minorities and American natural rights; this pamphlet was titled "History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution". This produced a body of political writing; the best and most influential of these articles and speeches were gathered by historians into a collection known as the "Anti-Federalist Papers" in allusion to the "Federalist Papers".


title: Anti-Federalism

text: In many states the opposition to the Constitution was strong (although Delaware, Georgia, and New Jersey ratified quickly with little controversy), and in two states—North Carolina and Rhode Island—it prevented ratification until the definite establishment of the new government practically forced their adherence. Individualism was the strongest element of opposition; the necessity, or at least the desirability, of a bill of rights was almost universally felt. In Rhode Island, resistance against the Constitution was so strong that civil war almost broke out on July 4, 1788, when anti-federalist members of the Country Party led by Judge William West marched into Providence with over 1,000 armed protesters.


title: Anti-Federalism

text: The Anti-Federalists played upon these feelings in the ratification convention in Massachusetts. By this point, five of the states had ratified the Constitution with relative ease, but the Massachusetts convention was far more disputed and contentious. After a long debate, a compromise (known as the "Massachusetts compromise") was reached. Massachusetts would ratify the Constitution with recommended provisions in the ratifying instrument that the Constitution be amended with a bill of rights. (The Federalists contended that a conditional ratification would be void, so the recommendation was the strongest support that the ratifying convention could give to a bill of rights short of rejecting the Constitution.)