title: Shannara

text: In 2007, Warner Bros. optioned the film rights to the Shannara universe for producer Dan Farah, but the rights deal expired in 2010 and all rights reverted to Terry Brooks.


title: Shannara

text: Farah Films partnered with Sonar Entertainment to acquire TV rights to the Shannara universe in 2012. In December, 2013 it was announced an epic TV series based on the books was being produced for MTV. The series is produced by Dan Farah, Jon Favreau, and "Smallville" showrunners Miles Millar and Al Gough, and Jonathan Liebesman. During the Shannara Chronicles panel at San Diego Comic Con in July 2015, a teaser trailer was revealed, giving audiences a first look at the sets and characters. A television version of the trailer was shown during the 2015 MTV Music Awards. The series premiered January 5, 2016. Season 2 began airing on Spike in October 2017.


title: Shannara

text: On January 16, 2018, it was announced that the series had been cancelled after two seasons. Producers later announced that the series is being shopped to other networks. The series was later considered officially concluded.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: The blood type personality theory is a pseudoscientific belief prevalent in Japan and South Korea, which states that a person's blood group system is predictive of a person's personality, temperament, and compatibility with others. The theory is generally considered a superstition by the scientific community.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: One of the reasons Japan developed the blood type personality indicator theory was in reaction to a claim from German scientist Emil von Dungern, that Blood type B people were inferior. The popular belief originates with publications by Masahiko Nomi in the 1970s.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Although some medical hypotheses have been proposed in support of blood type personality theory, the scientific community generally dismisses blood type personality theories as superstition or pseudoscience because of lack of evidence or testable criteria. Although research into the causal link between blood type and personality is limited, the majority of modern studies do not demonstrate any statistically significant association between the two. Some studies suggest that there is a statistically significant relationship between blood type and personality, although it is unclear if this is simply due to a self-fulfilling prophecy.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: The idea that personality traits were inherited through the blood dates as far back as Aristotle. Hippocrates also sought to link personality biologically, linking traits with the four bodily humors – sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: In 1926, Rin Hirano and Tomita Yashima published the article "Blood Type Biological Related" in the "Army Medical Journal". It was seen to be a non-statistical and unscientific report motivated by racism.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: In 1927, Takeji Furukawa, a professor at Tokyo Women's Teacher's School, published his paper "The Study of Temperament Through Blood Type" in the scholarly journal "Psychological Research". The idea quickly took off with the Japanese public despite Furukawa's lack of credentials, and the militarist government of the time commissioned a study aimed at breeding ideal soldiers. The study used ten to twenty people for the investigation, thereby failing to meet the statistical requirements for generalizing the results to the wider population.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: On the other hand, in 1934, Fisher announced the chi-squared test, which is very popular at present, for the first time. Several scholars said that they found statistically significant differences in analyzing Japanese work conducted at that time.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: In another study, Furukawa compared the distribution of blood types among two ethnic groups: the Formosans in Taiwan and the Ainu of Hokkaidō. His motivation for the study appears to have come from a political incident: After the Japanese occupation of Taiwan following Japan's invasion of China in 1895, the inhabitants tenaciously resisted their occupiers. Insurgencies in 1930 and 1931 resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Japanese settlers.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: The purpose of Furukawa's studies was to "penetrate the essence of the racial traits of the Taiwanese, who recently revolted and behaved so cruelly." Based on a finding that 41.2% of Taiwanese samples had type O blood, Furukawa assumed that the Taiwanese rebelliousness was genetic. His reasoning was supported by the fact that among the Ainu, whose temperament was characterized as submissive, only 23.8% is type O. In conclusion, Furukawa suggested that the Japanese should increase intermarriage with the Taiwanese to reduce the number of Taiwanese with type O blood.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Interest in the theory was revived in the 1970s with a book by Masahiko Nomi, a journalist with no medical background (he graduated from the engineering department of the University of Tokyo). Few Japanese psychologists criticized him at that time, so he continued to demonstrate statistically significant data in various fields and published several books with these results. Later after his death in 1981, Masahiko Nomi's work was said to be largely uncontrolled and anecdotal, and the methodology of his conclusions was unclear. Because of this, he was heavily criticized by the Japanese psychological community, although his books remain popular. His son, Toshitaka Nomi, continued to promote the theory with a series of books and by running the Institute of Blood Type Humanics. He later established the Human Science ABO Center for further research and publication in 2004.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Kengo Nawata, a Japanese social psychologist, statistically analyzed three data sets of over 10,000 Japanese and American people in total. However, 65 of the 68 items yielded non-significant differences between blood types and the other three items showed relatively slight relationships. Therefore, the blood type explained only 0.3% of the whole differences of these data sets. This result suggests that blood type explained very little of people's personalities. Nawata concluded that there is no relevance of blood type for personality.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: However, some academic researchers have shown several statistically significant data in Japan and Korea. Akira Sakamoto and Kenji Yamazaki, Japanese social psychologists, analyzed 32,347 samples of annual opinion polls from 1978 through 1988. These results indicated that Japanese blood-typical stereotypes influenced their self-reported personalitieslike a self-fulfilling prophecy.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Cosy Muto and Masahiro Nagashima et al. (Nagasaki University) conducted a supplementary survey of Yamazaki and Sakamoto in 2011. They demonstrated that significant and the same difference in personalities between blood-types by using the same database as Samamoto and Yamazaki used. In the 1990s, the difference due to blood types was stabilized and variances became smaller. Then in the 2000s, the difference was statistically significant, too. However, the effect magnitude was extremely small, despite 'significance' in the statistical sense.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Another Japanese social psychologist, Shigeyuki Yamaoka (Shotoku University), announced results of his questionnaires, which were conducted in 1999 (1,300 subjects) and 2006 (1,362 subjects), In both cases, the subjects were university students, and only subjects with enough knowledge of and belief in the "blood-type diagnosis" showed meaningful differences. He concluded that these differences must be the influence of mass media, especially TV programs. Yamaoka later examined 6,660 samples from 1999 through 2009 in total and found the same result.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: On the other hand, there are opinions that the statistically meaningful differences according to the blood types are not explained only by beliefs, nor are they a self-fulfilling prophecy. In Japan, the penetration rate of blood-typical personality traits was investigated. Yoriko Watanabe, a Japanese psychologist (then Hokkaido University), chose "well-known" traits and found most traits were known to no more than half of Japanese (subjects were university students). A Japanese writer, Masayuki Kanazawa, analyzed these blood-typical traits in combination with data from Yamaoka (1999) that used the same items of Watanabe's penetration survey. If blood-typical differences are caused by penetration (or their self-recognition), the rate of differences of a trait is proportional to the rate of its penetration. However, Kanazawa was not able to discover any association with blood-type differences and penetration rates. This result raises doubt about the role of beliefs and self-fulfilling prophecy.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Most reports that demonstrated statistical correlation attribute differences to a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, no study directly proved the existence of "self-fulfillment". Therefore, the opinions of researchers are varied at present:


title: Blood type personality theory

text: In a 2021 Japanese study, ANOVA results of a 6,000-population large-scale survey showed that respondents displayed the personality traits corresponding to their own blood type more strongly than respondents who had different blood types did. This finding was consistent across all traits, and all differences were statistically significant. The same differences in scores were found in the groups who reported no blood type personality knowledge, although the values were smaller.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: The five-factor model tests were carried out in several countries, including Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, after the year 2000. These tests were intended to digitize self-ratings of the "big five" personality traits. It was expected that differences in self-reported personalities (a self-fulfilling prophecy) would be detected from the subject who believed in blood-typical stereotypes. As a result, researchers found no meaningful statistical difference.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: So Ho Cho, a Korean psychologist (Yonsei University), and the others carried out a questionnaire about blood-typical items to subjects and discovered statistical differences as expected. However, the difference was not found when the five-factor model for big five personality traits was administered to the same subjects. Another Korean researcher Sohn (Yonsei University) re-analyzed Cho's data. He found that several independent items of the big five personality test detected differences according to each blood-typical stereotype. However, these differences became extinct in the process of plural items being gathered to five factors (big five). If these results are correct, the five-factor model test cannot detect differences between the blood types – if such a causal link did indeed exist.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: In 2014, a Korean matchmaking company 듀오 Duo conducted a research survey closely examined 3,000 couples and found that blood type had no significant impact on the possibility of a couple getting married.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: In 2017, a meta-analysis of studies, using the Big Five personality test, involving 260,861 subjects found that six genes affected human personality. However, the coefficient of determination was as low as 0.04%. This is usually considered to be an error.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: In order to avoid the influence of "contamination by knowledge", a Japanese psychologist group published a series of studies, but no significant differences were found except for Japanese prime ministers. Later, it was reported that significant differences were found not only for prime ministers, but also for foreign ministers, education ministers, professional baseball hitters, and soccer players in Japan.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Kim and Yi (Seoul University of Venture & Information) measured the brain waves of 4,636 adults. They reported that type O people were most stress-resistant. Moreover, an experiment using light topography instruments by Munetaka Haida (Tokai University School of Medicine) suggests the possibility that activated parts of the human brain are different according to blood types. i.e. type A's left brain is superior to the right, while type B's right brain is superior.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: In Japan, discussion of blood types is widely popular in women's magazines as a way of gauging relationship compatibility with a potential or current partner. Morning television shows feature blood type horoscopes, and similar horoscopes are published daily in newspapers. The blood types of celebrities are listed in their es on Japanese Wikipedia. A series of four books that describe people's character by blood type ranked third, fourth, fifth, and ninth on a list of best-selling books in Japan in 2008 compiled by Tohan Corporation.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: No less than two-thirds of people in several East Asian countries and areas, such as Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, believe in the association between blood types and personality.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Furthermore, according to one Japanese survey, more than half of Japanese people are fond of talking about blood type and personality. The research also says that people in Japan like blood-typical personality diagnosis and 1. talk about it with proper knowledge, 2. believe some relationships exist between blood type and personality, 3. feel its traits apply to themselves to a certain degree. The results of the two other surveys are the same.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Although there is no proven correlation between blood type and personality, it remains popular with the many matchmaking services that cater to blood type. In this way, it is similar to the use of astrological signs, which are also popular in Japan. Asking one's blood type is common in Japan, and people are often surprised when a non-Japanese does not know their blood type.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: It is common among anime and manga authors to mention their characters' blood types and to give their characters blood types to match their personalities. Some video game characters have known blood types. Also, it is common for video game series to allow for blood type as an option in their creation modes.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: After then-Reconstruction Minister Ryu Matsumoto's abrasive comments towards the governors of Iwate and Miyagi forced him to step down from his post, he partially blamed his behavior on his blood type, saying "My blood is type B, which means I can be irritable and impetuous, and my intentions don't always come across."


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Blood types are important in South Korea as well. The Korean webcomic "A Simple Thinking About Blood Type" depicts the stereotypes of each blood type and has been adapted as a short anime series in Japan as "Ketsuekigata-kun!" in 2013 and 2015.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Blood type harassment, called (wasei-eigo: a portmanteau of "blood" and " harassment"), has been blamed for bullying of children in playgrounds, loss of job opportunities, and ending of happy relationships.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: Many people in Japan and Korea have been discriminated against because of their blood type. Employers ask blood types during interviews despite the warnings they have been given. Children at schools have been split up according to their blood type. The national softball team has customized training to fit each player's blood type. Companies have given work assignments according to their employee's blood type.


title: Blood type personality theory

text: However, these episodes are thought to be more or less exaggeratedas well as horoscope addiction in Europe or the US, which is sometimes reported in Japan. No blood-type harassment trials have been reported, so far. In reality, most Japanese people do not think blood types determine their personalities, but rather affect them to some degree.


title: So Joo-yeon

text: So Joo-yeon (born December 31, 1993) is a South Korean model and actress. She starred in the Korean television series "Dr. Romantic 2" (2020).


title: So Joo-yeon

text: Joo-yeon is a model under LSAC Model. She made her acting film debut in "The Whispering" and the television series "Not Alright, But It's Alright". She had lead roles in "My Healing Love" and "I Hate Going To Work". She was also cast in "Wild Guys". In 2020, So played the role of Yoon Ah-reum in "Dr. Romantic 2" alongside Han Suk-kyu, Lee Sung-kyung, Ahn Hyo-seop, Kim Min-jae and more.


title: The Card Players

text: The Card Players is a series of oil paintings by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cézanne. Painted during Cézanne's final period in the early 1890s, there are five paintings in the series. The versions vary in size, the number of players, and the setting in which the game takes place. Cézanne also completed numerous drawings and studies in preparation for "The Card Players" series.


title: The Card Players

text: One version of "The Card Players" was sold in 2011 to the Royal Family of Qatar for a price estimated at $250 million ($ million today), signifying a new mark for highest ever price for a painting, not surpassed until November 2017.


title: The Card Players

text: The series is considered by critics to be a cornerstone of Cézanne's art during the early-to-mid 1890s period, as well as a "prelude" to his final years, when he painted some of his most acclaimed work.


title: The Card Players

text: their pipes and playing cards. The subjects, all male, are displayed as studious within their card playing, eyes cast downward, intent on the game at hand. Cézanne adapted a motif from 17th-century Dutch and French genre painting which often depicted card games with rowdy, drunken gamblers in taverns, replacing them instead with stone-faced tradesmen in a more simplified setting. Whereas previous paintings of the genre had illustrated heightened moments of drama, Cézanne's portraits have been noted for their lack of drama, narrative, and conventional characterization. Other than an unused wine bottle in the two-player versions, there is an absence of drink and money, which were prominent fixtures of the 17th-century genre. A painting by one of the Le Nain brothers, hung in an Aix-en-Provence museum near the artist's home, depicts card players and is widely cited as an inspiration for the works by Cézanne.


title: The Card Players

text: The models for the paintings were local farmhands, some of whom worked on the Cézanne family estate, the "Jas de Bouffan." Each scene is depicted as one of quiet, still concentration; the men look down at their cards rather than at each other, with the cards being perhaps their sole means of communication outside of work. One critic described the scenes as "human still life", while another speculated that the men's intense focus on their game mirrors that of the painter's absorption in his art.


title: The Card Players

text: While there are, in total, five paintings of card players by Cézanne, the final three works were similar in composition and number of players (two), causing them to sometimes be grouped together as one version. The exact dates of the paintings are uncertain, but it is long believed Cézanne began with larger canvases and pared down in size with successive versions, though research in recent years has cast doubt on this assumption.


title: The Card Players

text: The largest version, painted between the years 1890–1892, is the most complex, with five figures on a 134.6 x 180.3 cm (53 × 71 in) canvas. It features three card players at the forefront, seated in a semi-circle at a table, with two spectators behind. On the right side of the painting, seated behind the second man and to the right of the third, is a boy, eyes cast downward, also a fixed spectator of the game. Further back, on the left side between the first and second player is a man standing, back to the wall, smoking a pipe and presumably awaiting his turn at the table. It has been speculated Cézanne added the standing man to provide depth to the painting, as well as to draw the eye to the upper portion of the canvas.


title: The Card Players

text: As with the other versions, it displays a suppressed storytelling of peasant men in loose-fitting garments with natural poses focused entirely on their game. Writer Nicholas Wadley described a "tension in opposites", in which elements such as shifts of color, light and shadow, shape of hat, and crease of cloth create a story of confrontation through opposition. Others have described an "alienation" displayed in the series to be most pronounced in this version.


title: The Card Players

text: A more condensed version of this painting with four figures, long thought to be the second version of "The Card Players", is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. At 65.4 x 81.9 cm (25 3/4 x 32 1/4 in), it is less than half the size of the Barnes painting. Here the composition remains virtually the same, minus the boy, with viewers' perspective slightly closer to the game, but with less space between the figures. In the previous painting, the center player as well as the boy were hatless, whereas this version has all the men hatted. Also gone are the shelf to the left with vase and lower half of a picture frame in the center of the wall, leaving only the four pipes and hanging cloth to join the smoking man behind the card players. The painting is brighter, with less focus on blue tones, than the larger version.


title: The Card Players

text: X-ray and infrared studies of this version of "The Card Players" have shown layers of "speculative" graphite underdrawing, as well as heavy layers of worked oil paint, possibly suggesting it was the preliminary of Cézanne's two largest versions of the series, rather than the second version as historically believed. The underdrawing has also led analysts to believe Cézanne had difficulty transferring the men, previously painted individually in studies, onto one canvas.


title: The Card Players

text: It has been speculated that Cézanne solved this "spatial conundrum" in the final three versions of "The Card Players", by eliminating spectators and other "unnecessary detail" while displaying only the "absolute essentials": two players immersed in their game. The scene has been described as balanced but asymmetrical, as well as naturally symmetrical with the two players being each other's "partner in an agreed opposition". The man on the left is smoking a pipe, wearing a tophat with a downcast brim, in darker, more formal clothing, seated upright; the man to the right is pipeless, in a shorter hat with upcast brim, lighter, more loosely fit clothing, and hunched over the table. Even cards themselves are contrasting light and dark hues. In each of the two-player paintings, a sole wine bottle rests in the mid-part of the table, said to represent a dividing line between the two participants as well as the center of the painting's "symmetrical balance".


title: The Card Players

text: Of the three versions, perhaps the best known and most often reproduced is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. It is also the smallest at 47.5 x 57 cm (17 3/4 x 22 1/2 in). The Orsay painting was described by art historian Meyer Schapiro as "the most monumental and also the most refined" of the versions, with the shapes being simpler but more varied in their relationships. It is the most sparsely painted, and generally considered the last of the "Card Players" series.


title: The Card Players

text: There is a shift of axis to the scene, in which the player to the left is more completely in the picture, chair included, with the appearance of being nearer to us. His partner to the right is cut off from the scene at his back, and the table is displayed at an angle to the plane. Critics have described a "deception of restraint" in Cézanne's use of color; graduated area of thinly applied, "priming" color used for solid forms and their appearance of structure is met with lilac and green used to "liven" the canvas, as well as the bright, deep color used on the lower half for the tablecloth. This version of the series was also part of a high-profile theft of eight Cézanne paintings from a traveling show at Aix in August 1961. The most valuable of the stolen works, "The Card Players," was released as a four-color postage stamp by the French government in recognition of the loss. All of the paintings were recovered after a ransom was paid several months later.


title: The Card Players

text: The other two-player paintings are in the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and in a private collection. In February 2012, "Vanity Fair" reported that the royal family of Qatar had, during 2011, purchased their version of the painting for a record price variously estimated at between $250 million and $320 million from the private collection of Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos.


title: The Card Players

text: Cézanne created a substantial number of studies and preparatory drawings for "The Card Players" series. While it had long been believed he began the series with the largest paintings and subsequently worked smaller, 21st-century x-rays of the paintings as well as further analysis of preparatory sketches and studies has led some scholars to believe Cézanne used both the studies and the smaller versions of "The Card Players" to prepare for the larger canvases.


title: The Card Players

text: Over a dozen initial sketches and painted studies of local farmworkers were made by Cézanne in preparation for the final paintings. It has been speculated his models sat for the studies rather than the finished works themselves, and the painter possibly sketched preliminary work in an Aix cafe.


title: The Card Players

text: Some of the studies have been well regarded as stand-alone works of their own volition, particularly the accompaniment piece "Man with a Pipe", displayed alongside "The Card Players" at the Courtauld Gallery in London. The former, along with two similar paintings of smokers undertaken in the same period, are considered by many to be some of Cézanne's most masterful portraits.


title: The Card Players

text: In 2010–11, a joint exhibition was curated by the Courtauld Gallery in London and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to display "The Card Players" paintings, early studies and sketches of the series, and accompanying works. The exhibition ran in London from 21 October 2010 to 16 January 2011 and in New York from 9 February 2011 to 8 May 2011.


title: The Card Players

text: It was described as the first exhibition devoted to the series as well as the largest collection of Cézanne's "Card Players" paintings to ever be exhibited together. The exhibition included the paintings owned by the Courtauld, Metropolitan, and Musée d'Orsay. The versions at the Barnes Foundation and in a private collection were displayed as prints, due to the Barnes' policy of not lending and the private collector declining to release the work. The mini-series of men smoking pipes sometimes referred to as "The Smokers" was also included with over a dozen other studies and sketches, however a legal dispute also prevented the Hermitage Museum's version of "Man with a Pipe" from traveling to New York.


title: Psychological pain

text: Psychological pain, mental pain, or emotional pain is an unpleasant feeling (a suffering) of a psychological, non-physical origin. A pioneer in the field of suicidology, Edwin S. Shneidman, described it as "how much you hurt as a human being. It is mental suffering; mental torment." There is no shortage in the many ways psychological pain is referred to, and using a different word usually reflects an emphasis on a particular aspect of mind life. Technical terms include algopsychalia and psychalgia, but it may also be called mental pain, emotional pain, psychic pain, social pain,


title: Psychological pain

text: spiritual or soul pain, or suffering. While these clearly are not equivalent terms, one systematic comparison of theories and models of psychological pain, psychic pain, emotional pain, and suffering concluded that each describe the same profoundly unpleasant feeling. Psychological pain is widely believed to be an inescapable aspect of human existence.


title: Psychological pain

text: Other descriptions of psychological pain are "a wide range of subjective experiences characterized as an awareness of negative changes in the self and in its functions accompanied by negative feelings", "a diffuse subjective experience ... differentiated from physical pain which is often localized and associated with noxious physical stimuli", and "a lasting, unsustainable, and unpleasant feeling resulting from negative appraisal of an inability or deficiency of the self."


title: Psychological pain

text: The adjective 'psychological' is thought to encompass the functions of beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which may be seen as an indication for the many sources of psychological pain. One way of grouping these different sources of pain was offered by Shneidman, who stated that psychological pain is caused by frustrated psychological needs. For example, the need for love, autonomy, affiliation, and achievement, or the need to avoid harm, shame, and embarrassment. Psychological needs were originally described by Henry Murray in 1938 as needs that motivate human behavior. Shneidman maintained that people rate the importance of each need differently, which explains why people's level of psychological pain differs when confronted with the same frustrated need. This needs perspective coincides with Patrick David Wall's description of physical pain that says that physical pain indicates a need state much more than a sensory experience.


title: Psychological pain

text: In the fields of social psychology and personality psychology, the term social pain is used to denote psychological pain caused by harm or threat to social connection; bereavement, embarrassment, shame and hurt feelings are subtypes of social pain. From an evolutionary perspective, psychological pain forces the assessment of actual or potential social problems that might reduce the individual's fitness for survival. The way we display our psychological pain socially (for example, crying, shouting, moaning) serves the purpose of indicating that we are in need.


title: Psychological pain

text: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has long been believed to be a disorder that produces the most intense emotional pain and distress in those who have this condition. Studies have shown that borderline patients experience chronic and significant emotional suffering and mental agony. Borderline patients may feel overwhelmed by negative emotions, experiencing intense grief instead of sadness, shame and humiliation instead of mild embarrassment, rage instead of annoyance, and panic instead of nervousness. People with BPD are especially sensitive to feelings of rejection, isolation and perceived failure. Both clinicians and laymen alike have witnessed the desperate attempts to escape these subjective inner experiences of these patients. Borderline patients are severely impulsive and their attempts to alleviate the agony are often very destructive or self-destructive. Suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and bulimia nervosa), self-harm (cutting, overdosing, starvation, etc.), compulsive spending, gambling, sex addiction, violent and aggressive behavior, sexual promiscuity and deviant sexual behaviors, are desperate attempts to escape this pain.


title: Psychological pain

text: The intrapsychic pain experienced by those diagnosed with BPD has been studied and compared to normal healthy controls and to others with major depression, bipolar disorder, substance use disorder, schizophrenia, other personality disorders, and a range of other conditions. Although the excruciatingly painful inner experience of the borderline patient is both unique and perplexing, it is often linked to severe childhood trauma of abuse and neglect. In clinical populations, the rate of suicide of patients with borderline personality disorder is estimated to be 10%, a rate far greater than that in the general population and still considerably greater than for patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, 60–70% of patients with borderline personality disorder make suicide attempts, so suicide attempts are far more frequent than completed suicides in patients with BPD.


title: Psychological pain

text: The intense dysphoric states which patients diagnosed with BPD endure on a regular basis distinguishes them from those with other personality disorders: major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and virtually all known DSM-IV Axis I and Axis II conditions. In a 1998 study entitled "The Pain of Being Borderline: Dysphoric States Specific to Borderline Personality Disorder", 146 diagnosed borderline patients took a 50-item self-report measure test. The conclusions from this study suggest "that the subjective pain of borderline patients may be both more pervasive and more multifaceted than previously recognised and that the overall "amplitude" of this pain may be a particularly good marker for the borderline diagnosis".


title: Psychological pain

text: Feelings of emptiness are a central problem for patients with personality disturbances. In an attempt to avoid this feeling, these patients employ defences to preserve their fragmentary selves. In narcissistic personality disorder this can be detachment, exhibitionism, excessive self-concern, self-isolation, negation of other's humaneness, assumption of a false self & acting out are some common defences. Feelings of emptiness may be so painful that suicide is considered.


title: Psychological pain

text: Research suggests that physical pain and psychological pain may share some underlying neurological mechanisms. Brain regions that were consistently found to be implicated in both types of pain are the anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex (some subregions more than others), and may extend to other regions as well. Brain regions that were also found to be involved in psychological pain include the insular cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, parahippocampal gyrus, basal ganglia, and cerebellum. Some advocate that, because similar brain regions are involved in both physical pain and psychological pain, we should see pain as a continuum that ranges from purely physical to purely psychological. Moreover, many sources mention the fact that we use metaphors of physical pain to refer to psychological pain experiences. Further connection between physical and psychological pain has been supported through proof that acetaminophen, an analgesic, can suppress activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the insular cortex when experiencing social exclusion, the same way that it suppresses activity when experiencing physical pain, and reduces the agitation of people with dementia. However use of paracetamol for more general psychological pain remains disputed.


title: Farmville murders

text: The Farmville murders occurred in Farmville, Virginia, in September 2009 – the quadruple bludgeoning homicide of Mark Niederbrock, Debra S. Kelley, their daughter Emma Niederbrock and friend Melanie Wells.


title: Farmville murders

text: Emma Niederbrock shared an online friendship with Richard Samuel McCroskey, a troubled aspiring rapper. Together, Emma, McCroskey, Emma's parents and Wells attended a horrorcore concert the week before. When Wells' mother could not locate her daughter, she alerted police, who discovered the murders.


title: Farmville murders

text: McCroskey, 20 years old, was subsequently arrested, convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison. As of 2020, he is serving his sentence at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia.


title: Farmville murders

text: The murders took place at Dr. Debra Kelley's home, where Kelley lived with her daughter Emma Niederbrock. The bodies were found just after 3:00 p.m. on September 17, 2009, the victims having been bludgeoned to death with a hammer and maul. Three bodies were found in a downstairs bedroom and one in a room upstairs.


title: Farmville murders

text: According to police, Emma's parents, Debra Kelley and Mark Niederbrock, had taken her and her friends Melanie Wells and Richard McCroskey to a horrorcore concert, the "Strictly for the Wicked Festival", in Michigan days before the killings.


title: Farmville murders

text: Prince Edward County Commonwealth's Attorney James Ennis said McCroskey's anger over his failing relationship with Emma and text messages she had sent while they were in Michigan led to the killings. After the four returned to Virginia, McCroskey became increasingly distraught about the relationship, as he had an expectation that he and Emma were seeing each other exclusively and was unhappy with how things were going.


title: Farmville murders

text: Early the next morning, McCroskey attacked the three female victims in the house as they were sleeping and killed each within a short period of time around 3 a.m., according to Ennis. He stated that McCroskey first killed Wells, who was on a sofa in a first-floor den, then Kelley in an upstairs room, and finally Emma in her downstairs bedroom. He struck each victim multiple times with the maul. "No one awoke," Ennis said, adding that the victims had no defensive wounds. Mark Niederbrock arrived at the home three days later, about 5 p.m. on September 17, and McCroskey fatally attacked him with the maul in a living room before moving Mark and Wells’ bodies into Emma's room, and attempted to clean up the bloody den.


title: Farmville murders

text: At some point, McCroskey used a digital camera to record a video of himself, in which he indicated that he knew he had to pay for what he had done and contemplated suicide.


title: Farmville murders

text: A press release was issued to the public at the time of the murders, and an e-mail was sent to Longwood University students. The following Monday, the Attorney General and the Town of Farmville Police Department held a press conference where the bodies were identified.


title: Farmville murders

text: Mark Niederbrock was a pastor at a Presbyterian church in Hixburg in northern Appomattox County, and father of 16-year-old Emma Niederbrock. Niederbrock had been heading Walker's Presbyterian Church for the past six years. Born in Illinois, Niederbrock was an Eagle Scout and graduate of the University of Illinois. Before he entered the ministry he worked as a graphic designer. Niederbrock and his wife Debra Kelley had been divorced for about nine months.


title: Farmville murders

text: Dr. Debra S. Kelley was a 53-year-old associate professor of sociology and criminal justice studies at Longwood University. Dr. Kelley was a mentor to many students during her tenure, many of whom entered proud careers in law enforcement, fire/rescue, and associated fields as practitioners of the subjects she taught. Her memorial can be visited in the northwest grounds of Ruffner Hall adjacent to High Street.


title: Farmville murders

text: Emma Niederbrock was Mark Niederbrock's and Debra Kelley's 16-year-old daughter and an online friend of Richard McCroskey, the convicted murderer. She had been homeschooled since middle school.


title: Farmville murders

text: Melanie Wells was the 18-year-old daughter of Thomas G. Wells Jr. and Kathleen Wells, of Inwood, West Virginia, and Emma Niederbrock's friend. Wells and her family moved to West Virginia from Louisville, Kentucky, just before Wells was to enter high school. Wells dropped out and was studying for her high school equivalency diploma. She attended Musselman High School. Wells had been staying with Emma Niederbrock and Emma's mother.


title: Farmville murders

text: Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III (born December 26, 1988) had been a graphic designer and amateur horrorcore rapper and had been living with his father and 21-year-old sister in Castro Valley, California. McCroskey and his sister had been raised in Hayward, California before moving to Castro Valley.


title: Farmville murders

text: In high school, McCroskey had been teased and harassed because of his weight and red hair. Neighbors described him as a loner. His sister Sarah recalled him as a mild-mannered and kind person who wouldn't fight back when bullied and never reacted badly to anything without provocation. McCroskey's MySpace page featured songs he authored with violent lyrics, dealing with subjects including mutilation, death and the thrill of murder.


title: Farmville murders

text: After dropping out of Tennyson High School in Hayward, McCroskey attended Hayward High School for a period of time before again dropping out. About five months prior to the murders, McCroskey had been devastated when his father asked their mother to move out. He was excited for a planned trip to Virginia to see friend Emma Niederbrock, whom he had dated online for almost a year and spoken with almost daily by phone. He flew to Virginia on September 6, 2009.


title: Farmville murders

text: Prior to discovering the murders, Melanie Wells' mother had called police asking them to check on her daughter. Each time Melanie Wells' mother had called the Kelley home and spoken with Richard McCroskey, McCroskey had given her a different story.


title: Farmville murders

text: When police arrived at the Kelley home, McCroskey answered the door and told police Wells was at the movies with a friend. The police left, and when Melanie Wells' mother called police again they went to the house and discovered the bodies.


title: Farmville murders

text: By that time, McCroskey had fled, stealing and wrecking Mark Niederbrock's 2000 Honda. Unaware of the murders, a deputy issued him a summons for driving without a license but did not arrest him. Prince Edward Sheriff's Sgt. Stuart Raybold said at the time there was no reason for the deputy to be suspicious. During this time, McCroskey made a call to confess he had just killed the victims.


title: Farmville murders

text: McCroskey was apprehended at Richmond International Airport on September 18, where police found him sleeping in the baggage claim area, about to fly back to California. McCroskey, who had no prior criminal record, was first charged with first degree murder, robbery and grand larceny (stealing the car), but later was charged with six counts of capital murder. McCroskey was subsequently held in Piedmont Regional jail, on suicide watch.


title: Farmville murders

text: Police concluded the victims died from blunt force trauma to the head. Police occult expert Don Rimer, brought in because of symbols found in the music the teens listened to, described the murder scene as a slaughter house.


title: Farmville murders

text: The police took McCroskey's computer, house phones and more than a dozen paper bags full of evidence from his home. McCroskey was charged with six counts of capital murder per Virginia criminal law.


title: Farmville murders

text: On September 20, 2010, McCroskey pleaded guilty to the four murders. Although facing the death penalty, he was sentenced to life in prison. Commonwealth's Attorney James Ennis says that the victims' families supported his decision to reach a plea agreement instead of going to trial and seeking the death penalty.


title: 2022 Arizona Cardinals season

text: The 2022 season is the Arizona Cardinals' 103rd in the National Football League (NFL), their 35th in Arizona, and their fourth under head coach Kliff Kingsbury. They attempted to become the third team in NFL history to host and win the Super Bowl as that year's Super Bowl will be held at State Farm Stadium. However, they failed to improve upon their 11–6 record from the previous year after a Week 11 loss to the San Francisco 49ers and missed the postseason after a Week 15 loss against the Denver Broncos.


title: 2022 Arizona Cardinals season

text: The Cardinals were quickly overwhelmed by a high-powered Chiefs defense, finding themselves down 7–37 at the end of the third quarter. A late rally attempt fell well short, and Arizona was handed an 0–1 start for the first time since 2018.


title: 2022 Arizona Cardinals season

text: After trailing 7–23 at the end of the third quarter, the Cardinals came back to force overtime. A fumble recovery led to a Cardinals touchdown. With the win, they improved to 1–1.


title: 2022 Arizona Cardinals season

text: With 1:07 left, Matt Prater attempted an onside kick, but failed. With the loss, the Cardinals dropped to 1–2.


title: 2022 Arizona Cardinals season

text: After stopping a Panthers' comeback, the Cardinals won the game 26–16. With the win, the Cardinals improved to 2–2.


title: 2022 Arizona Cardinals season

text: Not only did the Cardinals lose to the Eagles at home for the first time since 2001, but they also lost their eighth consecutive game at State Farm Stadium.


title: Smoot

text: The smoot is a nonstandard, humorous unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, a fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha, who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the Harvard Bridge (between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts) so that his fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the bridge.


title: Smoot

text: One smoot is equal to Oliver Smoot's height at the time of the prank, . The bridge's length was measured to be "+/− 1 εar" with the "+/−" showing measurement uncertainty and spelled with an epsilon to further indicate possible error in the measurement. Over the years the "+/−" portion and "ε" spelling have gone astray in many citations, including some markings at the site itself, but the "+/−" is recorded on a 50th-anniversary plaque at the bridge's end.


title: Smoot

text: Oliver Smoot was selected by the fraternity pledgemaster because he was the pledge deemed shortest (thereby making measuring the bridge the most labor-intensive), and "most scientifically named." To implement his use as a unit of measure, Smoot repeatedly lay down on the bridge, let his companions mark his new position in chalk or paint, and then got up again. Eventually, he got tired from so much exercise and was carried thereafter by the fraternity brothers to each new position.


title: Smoot

text: Oliver Smoot graduated from MIT with the class of 1962, became a lawyer, and later became chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI, 2001–02) and then, president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO, 2003–04). He is a "distant relative" of Nobel Prize in Physics winner George Smoot.


title: Smoot

text: Public knowledge and interest in the story began when "Holiday" investigated the marks on the bridge years later, and published an interview with Smoot. The prank's fiftieth anniversary was commemorated on October 4, 2008, as Smoot Celebration Day at MIT, which Smoot attended.


title: Smoot

text: In 2011, "smoot" was one of the 10,000 new words added to the fifth edition of the "American Heritage Dictionary".


title: Smoot

text: A 2016 April Fools' Day article by the MIT Alumni Association announced that MIT would recalibrate the smoot to and the ear to , and the bridge would thus be 372 smoots give or take 11 ears.


title: Smoot

text: On May 7, 2016, Oliver Smoot served as Grand Marshal of the alumni parade across the bridge, celebrating the 100th anniversary of MIT's move from Boston to Cambridge.


title: Smoot

text: The bridge is marked with painted markings indicating how many smoots there are from where the sidewalk begins on the Boston river bank, and with a number every ten smoots. The marks are repainted each semester by the incoming associate member class (similar to pledge class) of Lambda Chi Alpha.


title: Smoot

text: Markings typically appear every , but additional marks appear at other numbers in between. For example, the mark is accompanied by a mark for 69. The mark is accompanied by the words "Halfway to Hell" and an arrow pointing towards MIT. In recent years graduating classes have begun to paint a special mark for their graduating year.


title: Smoot

text: The markings are recognized as milestones on the bridge, to the degree that during bridge renovations in the 1980s, the Cambridge police department requested that the markings be restored, as they were routinely used in police reports to identify locations on the bridge. The renovators at the Massachusetts Highway Department also scored the concrete surface of the sidewalk on the bridge at intervals instead of the conventional . The Lambda Zeta (MIT) chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha, which created the smoot markings, continues to repaint the markings once or twice per year.


title: Smoot

text: Starting in 2011, Google Earth enabled the ability to measure distance using smoots, with the standard length of 5 feet 7 inches.


title: The Monk

text: The Monk: A Romance is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796. A quickly written book from early in Lewis's career (in one letter he claimed to have written it in ten weeks, but other correspondence suggests that he had at least started it, or something similar, a couple of years earlier), it was published before he turned twenty. It is a prime example of the male Gothic that specialises in the aspect of horror. Its convoluted and scandalous plot has made it one of the most important Gothic novels of its time, often imitated and adapted for the stage and the screen.


title: The Monk

text: "The Monk" has two main plotlines. The first concerns the corruption and downfall of the monk Ambrosio, and his interactions with the demon-in-disguise Matilda and the virtuous maiden Antonia. The subplot follows the romance of Raymond and the nun Agnes. The novel switches between the stories at moments of high suspense. At various points, the novel also includes several extended anecdotes of characters with Gothic backstories who tell their tales.


title: The Monk

text: Ambrosio was left at an abbey in Madrid as an infant and is now a famously celebrated monk. A beautiful and virtuous young woman, Antonia, goes to hear one of his sermons, and meets Lorenzo, who falls in love with her.


title: The Monk

text: Ambrosio's closest friend among the monks, Rosario, reveals that he is a woman named Matilda, who disguised herself to be near Ambrosio. While picking a rose for her, Ambrosio is bitten by a serpent and falls deathly ill. Matilda nurses him. When he recovers, Matilda reveals that she sucked the poison from Ambrosio's wound and is now dying herself. At the point of her death, Matilda begs him to make love to her, and he agrees reluctantly. After having sex with Ambrosio, Matilda performs a ritual in the cemetery which cures her of the poison. She and Ambrosio continue to be secret lovers, but Ambrosio grows tired of her.


title: The Monk

text: Ambrosio meets Antonia and is immediately attracted to her. He begins visiting Antonia's mother regularly, hoping to seduce Antonia. In the meantime, Lorenzo has secured his family's blessing for his marriage with Antonia. Matilda tells Ambrosio she can help him gain Antonia's charms, the same way she was healed of the poison: witchcraft. Ambrosio is initially horrified, but agrees. Matilda and Ambrosio return to the cemetery, where Matilda calls up Lucifer, who appears young and handsome. He gives Matilda a magic myrtle bough, which will allow Ambrosio to open any door, as well as rape Antonia without her knowing. Ambrosio uses the magic bough to enter Antonia's bedroom. He is on the point of raping her when Antonia's mother arrives and confronts him. In panic, Ambrosio murders her and returns to the abbey, unsatisfied in his lust and horrified that he has now become a murderer.


title: The Monk

text: Antonia, grief-stricken at the death of her mother, sees her mother's ghost. She faints and Ambrosio is called to help. Matilda helps Ambrosio acquire a concoction that will put Antonia in a deathlike coma. While attending to Antonia, Ambrosio administers the poison, and Antonia appears to die. He takes Antonia to the crypt beneath the convent, where, she awakens from her drugged sleep and Ambrosio rapes her. Afterward, he is as disgusted with Antonia as he was with Matilda, who arrives to warn him that the convent is burning down due to a riot (caused by the events of Raymond and Agnes's story). Antonia attempts to escape, and Ambrosio kills her.


title: The Monk

text: Ambrosio and Matilda are brought before the Inquisition. Matilda confesses her guilt and is sentenced to death. Before she is executed, she sells her soul to the devil in exchange for her freedom and her life. Ambrosio insists upon his innocence and is tortured. He is visited by Matilda, who tells him to yield his soul to Satan. Ambrosio again proclaims his innocence, but when faced with torture, he admits to his sins of rape, murder, and sorcery and is condemned to burn. In despair, Ambrosio asks Lucifer to save his life, who tells him it will be at the cost of his soul. Ambrosio is reluctant to give up the hope of God's forgiveness, but Lucifer tells him that there is none. After much resistance, Ambrosio signs the contract. Lucifer transports him from his cell to the wilderness. Lucifer informs him that Antonia's mother, whom he murdered, was also his mother, making Antonia his sister, adding to his crimes the sin of incest. Ambrosio then learns that he accepted Lucifer's deal only moments before he was to be pardoned. Lucifer reveals that it has long been his plan to gain Ambrosio's soul, and Matilda was a demon helping him. Finally, Lucifer points out the loophole in the deal Ambrosio struck: Ambrosio only asked to get out of his cell. Lucifer carries Ambrosio into the sky and drops him onto rocks below. Ambrosio suffers for six days before dying alone and damned for eternity.


title: The Monk

text: Lorenzo's sister, Agnes, is a nun at the nearby abbey who is romantically involved with Raymond, son of a Marquis. Ambrosio hears the confession of the nuns at Agnes's convent. When Agnes confesses that she is pregnant with Raymond's child, Ambrosio turns her over to the Prioress of her abbey for punishment.


title: The Monk

text: Lorenzo confronts Raymond about his relationship with his sister Agnes. Raymond tells their long history. Raymond was travelling in Germany when he was nearly killed by bandits. He avoided being killed, and rescued a Baroness who was also travelling. Visiting the Baroness afterward, Raymond fell in love with her niece Agnes. However, the Baroness was in love with Raymond; when he refused her advances, she made arrangements to send Agnes to a convent. Raymond and Agnes made plans to elope before Agnes left her aunt's castle for the convent. Agnes planned to dress as the Bleeding Nun, a ghost who haunted the castle and exited its gates at midnight. Raymond accidentally eloped with the real ghost of the real Bleeding Nun. Exorcising the ghost of the Bleeding Nun required assistance from the Wandering Jew. When Raymond was free, he found Agnes in the convent. There he seduced Agnes. When she discovered that she was pregnant, she begged him to help her escape.


title: The Monk

text: When Raymond finishes his story, Lorenzo agrees to help him elope with Agnes. He acquires a papal bull releasing Agnes from her vows as a nun so that she may marry Raymond. However, when he shows it to the Prioress, she tells Lorenzo that Agnes died several days before. Lorenzo does not believe it, but after two months, there is no other word concerning Agnes. Eventually, to try to find Agnes, Raymond's servant disguises himself as a beggar and goes to the convent, where Mother St. Ursula sneaks him a note that tells Raymond to have the cardinal arrest the Prioress for Agnes's murder.


title: The Monk

text: During a procession honouring Saint Clare, the Prioress is arrested. Mother St. Ursula publicly describes Agnes's death at the hand of the sisters. When the procession crowd hears that the Prioress is a murderer, they turn into a rioting mob. They kill the Prioress, attack other nuns, and set the convent on fire. In the confusion, Lorenzo finds a group of nuns and a young woman named Virginia hiding in the crypt. Lorenzo discovers a passage leading down into a dungeon, where he finds Agnes, alive and holding the dead body of the baby she had given birth to while abandoned in the dungeon. With Virginia's help, Lorenzo rescues Agnes and the other nuns from the crypt.


title: The Monk

text: Virginia visits Lorenzo as he is recovering from his grief and the two become closer. Agnes tells the story of her miserable experience in the dungeon. Agnes and Raymond are married, and the couple leaves Madrid for Raymond's castle, accompanied by Lorenzo and Virginia, who are also eventually married.


title: The Monk

text: Lewis said he got his first inspiration for the novel from a short story called "The History of Santon Barsisa," which was published in "The Guardian" in 1713. Lewis summarized the story as the tale of "a holy man led by the devil into seduction and murder and tricked at the point of death into forfeiting his soul."


title: The Monk

text: The first edition of "The Monk" was published some time between 1795 and 1796. Older scholarship tended toward a 1795 publication year, but because no copies of the book so dated could be found, and because contemporary sources did not begin announcing or referencing the work until March 1796, the latter date began to be preferred. It was published anonymously, but for Lewis's initials after the preface and was highly praised by reviewers in "The Monthly Mirror" of June 1796 as well as the "Analytical Review".


title: The Monk

text: The first edition sold well, and a second edition was published in October 1796. The good sales and reviews of the first had emboldened Lewis, and he signed the new edition with his full name, adding "M.P." to reflect his newly acquired seat in the House of Commons. The book continued to rise in popularity, but in a February 1797 review by a writer for the "European Magazine", the novel was criticised for "plagiarism, immorality, and wild extravagance."


title: The Monk

text: Lewis wrote to his father on 23 February 1798, attempting to make reparations: the controversy caused by "The Monk" was a source of distress to his family. As recorded by Irwin: “"twenty" is not the age at which prudence is most to be expected. Inexperience prevented my distinguishing what should give offence; but as soon as I found that offence was given, I made the only reparation in my power: I carefully revised the work, and expunged every syllable on which could be grounded the slightest construction of immorality. This, indeed, was no difficult task, for the objection rested entirely on expressions too strong, and words carelessly chosen; not on the sentiments, characters, or general tendency of the work.”


title: The Monk

text: The fourth edition of the novel was published in 1798, and, according to Peck, “contains nothing which could endanger the most fragile virtue... He expunged every remotely offensive word in his three volumes, with meticulous attention to "lust". Ambrosio, formerly a "ravisher", becomes an "intruder" or "betrayer"; his "incontinence" changes to "weakness" or "infamy", his "lust" to "desire", his "desires" to "emotions". Having "indulged in excesses" for three editions, he "committed an error" in the fourth.” Lewis wrote an apology for "The Monk" in the preface of another work; as recorded by Peck:


title: The Monk

text: “Without entering into the discussion, whether the principles inculcated in “The Monk” are right or wrong, or whether the "means" by which the story is conducted is likely to do more mischief than the "tendency" is likely to produce good, I solemnly declare, that when I published the work I had no idea that its publication "could" be prejudicial; if I was wrong, the error proceeded from my judgment, not from my intention. Without entering into the merits of the advice which it proposes to convey, or attempting to defend (what I now condemn myself) the "language and manner" in which that advice was delivered, I solemnly declare, that in writing the passage which regards the Bible (consisting of a single page, and the only passage which I ever wrote on the subject) I had not the most distant intention to bring the sacred Writings into contempt, and that, had I suspected it of producing such an effect, I should not have written the paragraph.”


title: The Monk

text: In the same month as the second edition was published, Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a piece in "The Critical Review", an important literary magazine of the day, in which he both praises and harshly criticises the novel. He acknowledges that it is "the offspring of no common genius," that the "underplot... is skilfully and closely connected with the main story, and is subservient to its development," that the story Lewis weaves in about the bleeding nun is "truly terrific" and that he cannot recall a "bolder or more happy conception than that of the burning cross on the forehead of the wandering Jew." Coleridge gives his highest praise to the character of Matilda, who he believes is "the author's master-piece. It is, indeed, exquisitely imagined, and as exquisitely supported. The whole work is distinguished by the variety and impressiveness of its incidents; and the author everywhere discovers an imagination rich, powerful, and fervid. Such are the excellencies" (7). Coleridge continues by saying that "the errors and defects are more numerous, and (we are sorry to add) of greater importance." Because "the order of nature may be changed whenever the author's purposes demand it" there are no surprises in the work. Moral truth cannot be gleaned because Ambrosio was destroyed by spiritual beings, and no earthly being can sufficiently oppose the "power and cunning of supernatural beings." Scenes of grotesquery and horror abound, which are a proof of "a low and vulgar "taste"." The character of Ambrosio is "impossible... contrary to nature." Coleridge argues that the most "grievous fault... for which no literary excellence can atone" is that "our author has contrived to make [tales of enchantments and witchcraft] ' ‘pernicious' ‘, by blending, with an irreverent negligence, all that is most awfully true in religion with all that is most ridiculously absurd in superstition," commenting with the immortal line that "the Monk is a romance, which if a parent saw in the hands of a son or daughter, he might reasonably turn pale." Coleridge finishes the piece by explaining that he was "induced to pay particular attention to this work, from the unusual success which it has experienced" and that "the author is a man of rank and fortune. Yes! the author of the Monk signs himself a LEGISLATOR! We stare and tremble."


title: The Monk

text: Thomas James Mathias followed Coleridge's lead in "The Pursuits of Literature", a poem in the 18th-Century satiric tradition, but takes a step farther than Coleridge by claiming that a specific passage made the novel indictable under law. The passage, found in Chapter Seven Volume II, discusses an interpretation of the Bible as too lewd for youth to read.


title: The Monk

text: These two major pieces led the way for a multitude of other attacks on the novel, from such sources as the "Monthly Review", the "Monthly Magazine", and the "Scots Magazine"; the last of these attacked the novel six years after its publication. It was a general trend amongst those who criticised, however, to offer praise of some aspect of the novel. "It looked," writes Parreaux, "as if every reviewer or critic of the book, no matter how hostile he was, felt compelled to at least pay lip-service to Lewis's genius."


title: The Monk

text: The criticism of his novel, extending even into criticism of his person, never truly left Lewis, and an attack on his character was published by the "Courier" posthumously, calling itself a "just estimate of his character." As recorded by MacDonald: “He had devoted the first fruits of his mind to the propagation of evil, and the whole long harvest was burnt up ... There is a moral in the life of this man ... He was a reckless defiler of the public mind; a profligate, he cared not how many were to be undone when he drew back the curtain of his profligacy; he had infected his reason with the insolent belief that the power to corrupt made the right, and that conscience might be laughed, so long as he could evade law. "The Monk" was an eloquent evil; but the man who compounded it knew in his soul that he was compounding poison for the multitude, and in that knowledge he sent it into the world.”


title: The Monk

text: There were those who defended "The Monk" as well. Joseph Bell, publisher of the novel, spent half of his essay "Impartial Structures on the Poem Called “The Pursuits of Literature” and Particularly a Vindication of the Romance of “The Monk”" defending Lewis; Thomas Dutton, in his "Literary Census: A Satirical Poem", retaliated against Mathias and praised Lewis; Henry Francis Robert Soame compared Lewis to Dante in his "The Epistle in Rhyme to M. G. Lewis, Esq. M. P."


title: The Monk

text: “Assurances that "The Monk" was not as dangerous as its enemies maintained failed to dampen its success with the reading public,” writes Peck. “They had been told that the book was horrible, blasphemous, and lewd, and they rushed to put their morality to the test.” Indeed, the novel's popularity continued to rise and by 1800 there were five London and two Dublin editions.


title: The Monk

text: The W&F Museum was awarded a grant of £7,222 for the conservation and digitisation of the manuscript of The Monk by M.G. Lewis which is part of the Townshend Collection.


title: The Monk

text: Ambrosio displays traces of hubris and lust very early in the novel. It is explained that "he [Ambrosio] dismissed them [the monks] with an air of conscious superiority, in which humility's semblance combated with the reality of pride. Similarly, "he fixed his eyes on the Virgin… Gracious God, should I then resist the temptation? Should I not barter for a single embrace the reward of my sufferings for thirty years?" Both passages explicitly show the conflicting forces, that is, the moral choices that rage within Ambrosio. His nature instructs him to exult himself above others and lust for the Virgin Mary, while his religious inclinations, or at least his awareness of his position within the church, command him to humility and chastity. Ambrosio begins to deviate from his holy conduct when he encounters Matilda, a character revealed at the end of the novel to be an emissary of Satan. All of these circumstances are consistent with the classic model of the morality tale, and, true to form, once Ambrosio is tempted into sin he enters into a tailspin of increasing desire, which leads him to transgression and culminates in the loss of his eternal salvation and his grisly murder at the hands of the devil.


title: The Monk

text: This pattern of wicked actions leading to ill consequences is exactly what is expected in a morality tale and is reflected in other Gothic novels. For example, Lewis's work is often discussed in conjunction with that of Ann Radcliffe's. Robert Miles writes that "Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis were the two most significant Gothic novelists of the 1790s, an estimate of their importance shared by their contemporaries.". Indeed, the repercussions of malevolent and self-serving actions are represented extraordinarily well in Radcliffe's "The Romance of the Forest". The Marquis in the story was driven to murder for "the title of his brother… and riches which would enable him to indulge his voluptuous inclinations." Similar to Ambrosio, the Marquis was tempted and succumbed to sin, which sets him on a wicked path leading to his public shame and suicide.


title: The Monk

text: Despite its outcome, "The Monk" does have some very marked discrepancies from the normal morality tale setup used in gothic novels. In most morality tales, both vice and virtue are represented equally, but in Lewis's work, the powers of evil are disproportionately represented. Technically speaking, Ambrosio is surrounded by virtue in the sense that he is always conscious that what he is doing is wrong and, until the end of the novel, never believes that he cannot repent. In fact, he tells Matilda that "the consequences [of witchcraft] are too horrible: I… am not so blinded by lust as to sacrifice for her enjoyment my existence both in this world and the next.” However, this general sense of right and wrong is a feeble, inefficacious defence for Ambrosio when he is confronted by the physical presence and influence of demons. There are no corresponding angels who appear before Ambrosio to counter the influence of the devil and try to dissuade him from his path of destruction. As a result, his depravity is accelerated and magnified from the minor character foibles that are congenital to him to the egregious evils that possess him by the end of the novel. The only apparition that is potentially heaven-sent is that of Elvira's ghost. She comes back from the grave to caution her daughter, Antonia that “yet three days, and we shall meet again!” While the apparition may seem to be trying to warn Antonia of her impending death, the ghost's appearance causes Jacintha to fetch Ambrosio to dispel the spirit, allowing him to drug Antonia and take her under his power, a chain of events ultimately leading to the demise of Antonia, which the ghost foretold. As a result of the ghost's intrusion, Antonia is put directly into harm's way, an action much more apropos for a demonic presence rather than a heavenly one.


title: The Monk

text: Lewis also deviates from what is typically expected from morality tales when he includes the sacrifice of innocent people in the latter chapters of the novel. As a result of Ambrosio's personal vices, both Elvira and Antonia are slain. Elvira finds Ambrosio, "the man whom Madrid esteems a saint…at this late hour near the couch of my unhappy child" on the verge of committing rape and Ambrosio murders her to prevent her from revealing his crimes. Elvira was guilty of no crime and throughout the novel was committed to the welfare of her family and her daughter in particular. Likewise, Antonia is murdered to prevent her from alerting Officers of the Inquisition of Ambrosio's crimes. Antonia is also undeserving of her fate, as she was always a loyal daughter and honest woman throughout the novel.


title: The Monk

text: Another Gothic novel in which one individual's quest for a gratification of the senses leads to the ruin of others is "Vathek" by William Beckford. In the novel, the Caliph Vathek attempts to sacrifice fifty children to a demon to gain his favour. Without mercy he "pushed the poor innocent into the gulph [open to hell]." Similarly, in "The Necromancer" by Lawrence Flammenberg, an entire village is sacrificed to a troop of banditti who are angered at their hideout being revealed. The leader of group explaining that "the villagers are not yet punished… for having assisted them, but they shall not escape their doom." Admittedly, "Vathek" can be more readily identified as a morality tale, but "The Necromancer" warns against the pernicious effects of a legal system that is bereft of mercy. A criminal declares during his confession that his life "will afford a useful lesson to judges, and teach the guardians of the people to be careful how they inflict punishments if they will not make a complete rogue of many a hapless wretch…"


title: The Monk

text: "The Monk" is one of many Gothic novels that criticises the Catholic Church and Catholic tradition. By the time of the Gothic novel, the English were, to some extent, institutionally anti-Catholic. Characters such as the wicked abbess, the unchaste nun, and the lascivious monk represent the naked anti-Catholicism projected by the Gothic. Lewis's condemnation of the Church is apparent throughout the novel in his characterisation of Catholic religious. Ambrosio and the Prioress represent all that is seen as wrong with the Catholic Church. The vow of celibacy, which many Protestant writers at the time condemned as unnatural, is presented as contributing significantly to Ambrosio's repressed sexuality, which in turn leads to the heinous acts he commits against Antonia. Agnes's breaking of her vow is seen by the Prioress as an unforgivable crime, which drives her to punish Agnes so severely. In England, the sexual demonization the aberrant Catholic "Other" was part and parcel of the ideological formation of the English, Protestant national identity."


title: The Monk

text: Lewis also appears to mock Catholic superstition through use of iconoclasts repeatedly over the course of the novel, such as when Lorenzo moves a statue of the virgin St. Clare to reveal the chamber in which Agnes is being kept prisoner. This demystification of idols makes light of Catholic superstition in relation to statues and sacred objects. Lewis's treatment of the Catholic Church clearly shows that he harbours negative sentiments about the Church's activities.


title: The Monk

text: The lack of divinity shown throughout the novel is not unique to "The Monk". John Moore's "Zeluco" focuses on the nefarious plots of a single man who cannot control his passions. Like Ambrosio, Zeluco's disposition is shown very early in the novel to be disagreeable. In his youth Zeluco "seized it [his pet sparrow] with his hand, and while it struggled to get free, with a curse he squeezed the little animal to death." Zeluco continually gratifies his vices much to his discredit and dishonor, and, as in "The Monk", his sins compound upon themselves culminating in the infanticide of his only son. Unlike Ambrosio, however, Zeluco has no physical demons spurring him onwards, but rather his insatiable appetite for sin.


title: The Monk

text: The Bleeding Nun, who appears in the subplot of Raymond and Agnes, epitomises the sin of erotic desires. Raymond mistakes her for his lover, Agnes, because she is veiled and he cannot see her face. The veil "conceals and inhibits sexuality comes by the same gesture to represent it." Both Antonia and Matilda are veiled to protect their virginity and innocence and it is expected that Agnes also covers her face for this reason when she meets Raymond. However, the removal of the veil reveals the Bleeding Nun, dead and punished because of her sins. While she was alive, she was a prostitute and a murderer before she was murdered by her lover. Her story is the first we receive of how giving in to sexual desires leads to death and eternal unrest. Raymond expects to find Agnes's beautiful, virgin face beneath the veil, but instead finds death. Her unveiling connects the loss of virginity and the giving in to sexual desires with death and punishment. Both the Bleeding Nun and Ambrosio begin pious, but then fall prey to their sexual desires. Ambrosio has already given into his desire for Matilda and the story of the Bleeding Nun told in the subplot foreshadows his further downfall with Antonia and his eternal punishment in the hands of the devil.


title: The Monk

text: The Bleeding Nun also introduces the world of the supernatural into "The Monk". The supernatural something "that is above nature or belonging to a higher realm or system than that of nature" This introduction brings another Gothic element into the book. Up until this point, the plot has relied on natural elements of the sublime to invoke the terror expected of a Gothic novel. The entrance of the Bleeding Nun transforms this natural world into a world where the supernatural is possible. When she gets into Raymond's carriage, "Immediately thick clouds obscured the sky: The winds howled around us, the lightning flashed, and the Thunder roared tremendously.” Nature is acknowledging the presence of a supernatural force.


title: The Monk

text: When Agnes tells Raymond the story of how the Bleeding Nun's ghost haunts the Castle of Lindenberg, Raymond asks her whether she believes the story and she replies “How can you ask such a question? No, no, Alphonso! I have too much reason to lament superstition’s influence to be its Victim myself.” It is not until the Bleeding Nun appears to Raymond at night that the idea of the existence of the supernatural begins to be a reality. The Wandering Jew's appearance coincides with this first instance of the supernatural. He can see the Bleeding Nun, proving that she is not a figment of Raymond's imagination. His supernatural abilities give access to the Bleeding Nun's story and provide plausibility to the existence of the supernatural. He also has the power to free Raymond from her presence. The later confirmation of Raymond's uncle to the existence of the Wandering Jew allows the whole story to be taken for fact. This establishes the reality of the supernatural and lays the groundwork for Matilda's later use of magic and her and Ambrosio's interaction with evil spirits.


title: The Monk

text: "La nonne sanglante" (The Bloody Nun), freely based on "The Monk", is a five-act opera by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. Written between 1852 and 1854, it was first produced on 18 October 1854 at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opéra. Soprano Anne Poinsot created the role of Agnès.


title: The Monk

text: "La nonne sanglante", a 5-act play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Julien de Mallian, which premiered on 16 February 1835 in Paris at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, was very popular in its day. The legendary actress Mlle Georges created the role of Marie de Rudenz. The melodrama derives its title and certain images and motifs from "The Monk".


title: The Monk

text: The French writer Antonin Artaud's only full-length novel bears the same name and is a "loose translation" of Lewis's work.


title: The Monk

text: Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière attempted to film a version of "The Monk" in the 1960s, but the project was halted due to lack of funds. Buñuel's friend, the Greek director Ado Kyrou, used this script as the basis for his 1972 film version. "Le Moine" (English "The Monk") boasted an international cast with Franco Nero in the title role. The film also starred Nathalie Delon, Eliana de Santis, Nadja Tiller and Nicol Williamson.


title: The Monk

text: "Maria de Rudenz" is a tragic opera by Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848). The libretto by Salvadore Cammarano is based on a 5-act French play (1835), "La nonne sanglante", by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Julien de Mallian, a drama informed by motifs and imagery from "The Monk". The opera premiered at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, 30 January 1838, with soprano Carolina Ungher (1803–1877) singing the eponymous role.


title: The Monk

text: In 1990 "The Monk" was produced by Celtic Films. It starred Paul McGann as the title character, and was written and directed by Francisco Lara Polop.


title: The Monk

text: Grant Morrison and Klaus Janson's 1990 DC Comics graphic novel "" relies heavily and overtly upon "The Monk", combined with elements of Don Giovanni, as the inspiration for the plot.


title: The Monk

text: A film adaption, "The Monk", was made by French-German director Dominik Moll in 2011, it was shot in Santes Creus, Girona and Madrid and stars Vincent Cassel, Déborah François, Geraldine Chaplin, and Sergi López. Shooting began in mid-April and was set for 12 weeks.


title: The Monk

text: A stage adaptation by Benji Sperring for Tarquin Productions ran at Baron's Court Theatre, London, from 16 October to 3 November 2012.


title: The Monk

text: A musical comedy based on the novel is being developed, written and composed by Tug Rice. It was workshopped at Carnegie Mellon University, starring Grey Henson, Jessie Shelton and Corey Cott.


title: The Monk

text: One of the three fictional films shown in the 2022 video game Immortality is an adaptation of the novel, called "Ambrosio"


title: Caramelization

text: Caramelization is a process of browning of sugar used extensively in cooking for the resulting sweet nutty flavor and brown color. The brown colors are produced by three groups of polymers: caramelans (CHO), caramelens (CHO), and caramelins (CHO). As the process occurs, volatile chemicals such as diacetyl are released, producing the characteristic caramel flavor.


title: Caramelization

text: Like the Maillard reaction, caramelization is a type of non-enzymatic browning. Unlike the Maillard reaction, caramelization is pyrolytic, as opposed to being a reaction with amino acids.


title: Caramelization

text: When caramelization involves the disaccharide sucrose, it is broken down into the monosaccharides fructose and glucose.


title: Caramelization

text: Caramelization is a complex, poorly understood process that produces hundreds of chemical products, and includes the following types of reactions:


title: Caramelization

text: The process is temperature-dependent. Specific sugars each have their own point at which the reactions begin to proceed readily. Impurities in the sugar, such as the molasses remaining in brown sugar, greatly speed the reactions.


title: Caramelization

text: Caramelization reactions are also sensitive to the chemical environment, and the reaction rate, or temperature at which reactions occur most readily, can be altered by controlling the level of acidity (pH). The rate of caramelization is generally lowest at near-neutral acidity (pH around 7), and accelerated under both acidic (especially pH below 3) and basic (especially pH above 9) conditions.


title: Avanade

text: Avanade () is a global professional services company providing IT consulting and services focused on the Microsoft platform with artificial intelligence, business analytics, cloud, application services, digital transformation, modern workplace, security services, technology and managed services offerings. Headquartered in Seattle, the company has 50,000 employees in 26 countries. Avanade serves 34% of the Fortune 500 and 46% of the Fortune Global 500.


title: Avanade

text: Avanade was formed on April 4, 2000, as a joint venture between Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) and Microsoft, and today is majority-owned by Accenture. The company maintains the Accenture-Microsoft alliance to combine Accenture's consulting with Microsoft's scalable cloud and mobile technologies. The name Avanade is a portmanteau between avenue and promenade.


title: Avanade

text: On June 6, 2019, Avanade's board of directors appointed Pamela Maynard as CEO beginning on September 1, 2019.


title: Avanade

text: On 21 July 2020, Avanade confirmed it has entered the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), an alliance of autonomous tech suppliers and defense service providers who have partnered with Microsoft Defense to help protect themselves against an environment of increasing cybersecurity threats.


title: Avanade

text: In April 2022, Avanade announced the building of its first US-based engineering center in Tampa, Florida, adding around 500 new entry- and senior-level engineering, data and software development jobs over the next three years.


title: Avanade

text: Avanade operates its business in more than 80 locations across more than 25 countries North America, Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East and the Pacific.


title: Avanade

text: In September 2021, Avanade entered the UAE market with the opening of offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Adriano Neves, Avanade's Sales, Industry and Client Relationships Lead in Brazil, has been appointed to lead the company's newest entity and will relocate from São Paulo to Dubai.


title: Avanade

text: India (IDC), China (CDC) and the Philippines (PDC) supply Avanade with offshore consultants housed in parent company Accenture's delivery centers. Overall, these offshore workers constitute over 40% of Avanade's total workforce. Avanade relies heavily on offshore workers in India, China and other developing countries to help their customers reduce costs.


title: Avanade

text: Avanade is managed by a leadership team of 17 members (2022). Pamela Maynard has served as CEO since September 2019. Mitch Hill, a former senior partner at Andersen Consulting, was the founding CEO until August 31, 2008. Adam Warby held the position from September 1, 2008, to August 31, 2019.


title: Avanade

text: Avanade began filing financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2006, a requirement for publicly traded companies. Alternatively, filings must be made when the number of security holders exceeded 500, which at the time, Avanade had over 1,100. As of July 1, 2008, Avanade is no longer required to file financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission as it has unregistered all securities.


title: Avanade

text: Avanade's business model combines leading and delivering Microsoft-based projects contracted by Accenture, and its own direct business where Avanade is the contracting partner. The latter direct business has grown substantially over the past 10+ years in part due to a series of acquisitions, each of which has brought a book of direct business with it. Avanade is also the largest global partner of Microsoft and has grown its direct business continually through this channel.


title: Avanade

text: Avanade and Accenture have been recognized as the Microsoft Alliance Partner of the Year 16 times, most recently in 2021.


title: Rakka (film)

text: In the near future, Earth will be attacked by technologically superior and highly aggressive reptilian aliens called the Klum (pronounced "klume"). Humanity is nearing extinction with millions dead or enslaved. The Klum transform the Earth in favor of their own ideal living conditions. They do this at first by burning forests and destroying cities. Then they build megastructures that alter the atmosphere by pumping out methane. The gas makes it progressively harder for terrestrial life to breathe. And it warms the climate, which leads to flooding of coastal cities.


title: Rakka (film)

text: The story begins in 2020, from the viewpoint of resistance fighters in Texas, a group of US Army soldiers and many others who have banded together. Most human survivors live underground or among ruins. They have barely enough provisions, weapons, and ammunition. The humans fight by using whatever they can against the primary Klum weapon: an omnipresent nanite in their weaponry, and telepathic control over any human that makes direct eye contact with them.


title: Rakka (film)

text: mind control. The Klum know, however, that a scarcity of materials means a scarcity of brain barriers. They hope, therefore, to win a war of attrition against the human survivors.


title: Rakka (film)

text: Some prisoners are living incubators for the Klum's young, which inevitably kills the victims. Others are dissected. Still other humans are converted into human loudspeakers that urge humans to surrender into "conservatories". Very few humans ever escape.


title: Rakka (film)

text: After the Klum destroy a militia convoy with an airstrike, one of the surviving soldiers witnesses an angel-like being materialize from thin air. The narration describes ″them″ as mankind's saviours.


title: Rakka (film)

text: Nosh is a tech-savvy pyromaniac and bomb-maker, eking out a living in a scrapyard far from the resistance. The resistance despises Nosh for his murderous glee and demands - giving the sick or suicidal over as bait during his many IED ambushes. They must, however, give in to Nosh's demands to


title: Rakka (film)

text: The resistance stumble across Amir, a mute who has escaped from the Klum. He has extensive cybernetics across his head and shoulders. Amid opposition from her lieutenants, the resistance leader, Jasper, releases Amir from her custody into the care of a resistance fighter named Sarah.


title: Rakka (film)

text: Sarah, having lost her daughter to the Klum's experiments, takes a liking to him. She gives Amir food and drink while trying to persuade him to help the resistance fight the Klum by using the precognitive abilities he acquired via the aliens' experiments.


title: Rakka (film)

text: Amir recovers physically and mentally. Then, because of his implant, he has a premonition involving a wounded Klum on the run from militia forces.


title: Rakka (film)

text: Sarah pleads with Amir to help the militia officers to stop the genocide. The more she talks to him, the more his eyes change, seeing the premonition of the impending attack more clearly. Amir, still mute, foresees the militia successfully shooting down an alien aircraft, and the pilot is the alien on the run.


title: Rakka (film)

text: Sarah asks Amir if they will be able to learn how to hunt the Klum and teach them how to fear. Unable to answer, he foresees the Klum telekinetically bashing one of the militia soldiers, disconnecting his brain barrier and causing him to be mind-controlled, turning on his comrades, who are forced to kill him.


title: Rakka (film)

text: Sarah tells Amir that he now has the abilities the aliens have and that he is to use them for humanity. Back in the vision, the militia surround the Klum; Jasper orders the militia to cut off its head. The film ends with Sarah urging Amir to use his abilities because he is humanity's last hope.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: La Piscine ("The Swimming Pool") is a 1969 psychological thriller film directed by Jacques Deray, starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet and Jane Birkin.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: Set in summertime on the Côte d'Azur, it is a drama of sexual jealousy and possessiveness. Both French and English-language versions of the film were made, with the actors filmed speaking English for the international release, which was unusual at a time when movies were always either dubbed or subtitled. The 114-minute international release, shorter than the French version, also had a slightly different editing.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: Jean-Paul, a writer, and Marianne, his girlfriend of just over two years, are holidaying at a friend's villa near Saint-Tropez. There is a tension in their relationship which excites Marianne: the film begins with a scene in which they are together beside the villa's swimming pool and she urges him to scratch her back. He does as she asks, but then throws her into the pool and jumps in after her. In a later scene he takes a branch and uses it to lash her bare buttocks, playfully but with a force that increases as the scene cuts away.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: Harry, an old friend and record producer who was Marianne's lover before Jean-Paul, arrives for a visit, surprising the couple by bringing along his 18-year-old daughter Penelope, whose existence they had not previously known about. Marianne, without asking Jean-Paul, invites Harry and Penelope to stay.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: The four stay together and Harry draws Marianne back towards him as the days go by. Taunting Jean-Paul for having given up serious writing to work in advertising, Harry drinks a great deal and throws a surprise party while Jean-Paul, a recovering alcoholic, stays sober. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that Penelope neither likes nor respects her father, whom she has barely known while growing up. She and Jean-Paul become close and spend a day alone together by the sea.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: That night, while the women are asleep, Harry drunkenly confronts Jean-Paul and accuses him of seducing Penelope to revenge his own shortcomings on his more successful friend. Trying to punch Jean-Paul, Harry falls into the pool and is too drunk to swim. Jean-Paul, who has also been drinking, at first stops him from climbing out of the water, then deliberately pushes Harry under and holds him down until he drowns. He covers up the crime by stripping Harry's clothes off and placing fresh trousers and a shirt at the poolside to make it look like an accident.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: After the funeral, a policeman, Inspector Lévêque, visits the house more than once. He confides to Marianne his reasons for doubting the story of an accident: that Harry had been wearing his watch, which was expensive and not waterproof, and that there is no trace of sweat on the clothes he was supposed to have been wearing. When she tells Jean-Paul, he confesses everything to her, and she goes to see Harry's clothes, hidden in the cellar, that would have given him away. But when she does not take this evidence to the police, the inspector reluctantly suspends the inquiry.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: Marianne takes Penelope to the airport and sees her off as she returns to her mother. When Penelope demands the truth about her father's death, Marianne assures her it really was an accident. She and Jean-Paul are then about to leave the villa when she tells him that they will not go together. She calls for a taxi but he places his hand on the telephone, cutting off her call and silencing her. In the end, neither leaves that day, and in the film's final shot they stand side by side looking out the window at the swimming pool, and then embrace.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: The filming began August 19 and finished October 19, 1968. French designer André Courrèges created many custom pieces for the film, such as the swimsuits worn by Schneider and Birkin. It was the first of the nine films Delon and director Jacques Deray made together, and the only one the star didn't produce. It also marked the onscreen reunion of Delon and Romy Schneider, his co-star in "Christine" (1958) as well as his off-stage romantic partner between 1958 and 1963.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: It was during the making of this film that the Markovic Affair broke out. The body of Stevan Markovic, Delon's bodyguard, was discovered in a public dump in the village of Élancourt, Yvelines, on October 1, 1968.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: The movie was released in the UK as "The Sinners" to limited box office response. It was released in Italy with twenty minutes cut out, but was a popular success.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: The "Los Angeles Times" called it a "handsome, stunningly designed film" which was at its best in "the deft way in which it coolly depicts how beautiful, chic people, dedicated to a sophisticate, amoral view of love, can be utterly defenseless against an onslaught of passion – a favorite Gallic theme." "The Guardian" wrote: "Erotic languour turns gradually into fear and then horror in this gripping and superbly controlled psychological thriller" where "something in the very lineaments of the pool itself creates their own awful destiny: it is a primordial swamp of desire, a space in which there is nothing to do but laze around, furtively looking at semi-naked bodies."


title: La Piscine (film)

text: "La Piscine" was restored and re-released in theaters during the summer of 2021, becoming a surprise hit. Scheduled to run at the Film Forum in New York for two weeks, it ended up running for 18 weeks, causing Glynnis MacNicol of the "New York Times" to declare: "If there is a film of New York’s 2021 summer, this may be it." However, the film was "dismissed as gossip-column fodder in its time". Writing for "The New Yorker", critic Richard Brody was less than enthusiastic about the film's 2021 revival. "I paid it little attention," Brody noted, "in the hope that, given its dry and flimsy mediocrity, it would just blow away into the oblivion whence it emerged." He went on to declare the film a "faux-hip empty shell of faux modernity."


title: La Piscine (film)

text: The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 95% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: The 2016 film "A Bigger Splash", directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Dakota Johnson, is loosely based on "La Piscine".


title: La Piscine (film)

text: An excerpt of the film was used in the Christian Dior Eau Sauvage cologne advertising campaign drawing on the legacy of Alain Delon.


title: La Piscine (film)

text: Alain Delon said in an interview that he cannot watch this film again. His ex-lover Romy Schneider and good friend Maurice Ronet both died prematurely and under tragic circumstances. Revisiting the scenes is simply too painful for him.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: Apostasy in Christianity is the repudiation of Christ and the central teachings of Christianity by someone who formerly was a Christian (Christ-follower). The term apostasy comes from the Greek word "apostasia" ("") meaning "rebellion", "state of apostasy", "abandonment", or "defection". It has been described as "a willful falling away from, or rebellion against, Christianity. Apostasy is the rejection of Christ by one who has been a Christian..." "Apostasy is a theological category describing those who have voluntarily and consciously abandoned their faith in the God of the covenant, who manifests himself most completely in Jesus Christ." "Apostasy is the antonym of conversion; it is deconversion."


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: B. J. Oropeza, who has written one of the most exhaustive studies on the phenomenon of apostasy in the New Testament (3 Volumes, 793 pages), "uncovered several factors that result in apostasy." Some of these factors overlap, and some Christian communities were "susceptible to more than one of these." The first major factor in a believer committing apostasy (i.e., becoming an unbeliever) is "unbelief." Other factors potentially leading to apostasy include: ""persecution"," ""general suffering and hardship"," ""false teachings and factions"," ""malaise"," ""indifference and negligence towards the things of God"" (specifically, ""the command to love one's neighbors""), and engaging in sinful acts ("vice-doing") or assimilating to the ungodly attitudes and actions reflected in a non-Christian culture.


title: Apostasy in Christianity

text: The Greek noun "apostasia" (rebellion, abandonment, state of apostasy, defection) is found only twice in the New Testament (Acts ; 2 Thessalonians ). However, "the concept of apostasy is found throughout Scripture." The related verb "aphistēmi" (go away, withdraw, depart, fall away) carries considerable theological significance in three passages (Luke 8:13; 1 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 3:12).