title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: Mary Elizabeth Anania was born in 1949, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Thweatt Anania (1923–2012) and Vincent Anania (1920–2008). She grew up in a military family, moving many times and never having a hometown. Her father, a United States Navy pilot, was transferred from military base to military base during her childhood and adolescence; for part of her childhood, she lived in Japan, where her father was stationed. She wrote in her book "Saving Graces" that one of the difficult relocations that she went through was moving during her senior year of high school. Some of her childhood friends' fathers were killed in war, and Edwards recalled childhood memories of attending their funerals. She also wrote about the stress of living on a military base and seeing a constant stream of wounded soldiers while her father was away fighting in Vietnam.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: Edwards had two younger siblings: a brother, Jay Anania, a professor of film at New York University and a sister, Nancy Anania. Edwards graduated from the Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, Virginia, then attended Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where she earned a Bachelor's degree. After three years of postgraduate studies in English, she entered UNC's School of Law and earned a Juris Doctor.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: Edwards began her career as a judicial law clerk for a federal judge. She then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1978 to become an associate at the law firm of "Harwell Barr Martin & Sloan". In 1981 she and her husband moved their family to Raleigh, where she worked in the Office of the Attorney General and at the law firm "Merriman Nicholls and Crampton". She kept the last name Anania until 1996, when she retired from the practice of law following the death of her son Wade; she changed her name to Elizabeth Anania Edwards in his memory. Following her retirement from law, she devoted much of her time to the administration of the Wade Edwards Foundation. She taught legal writing as an adjunct instructor at the University of North Carolina School of Law and worked as a substitute teacher in the Wake County Public Schools. In August 2009, she opened a furniture store in Chapel Hill.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: In September 2006, Random House published her first book, "Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers", which focused on the ways different communities have helped her through the trials of her life, from her itinerant military childhood to the death of her son and her early bout with breast cancer. In May 2009, Random House published her second book, "Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities", in which she discussed the return of her illness, the deaths of her father and son and the effect of those events on her marriage, her husband's infidelity, and the state of healthcare in America. Both books were bestsellers.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: During much of 2004, Edwards joined her husband, United States Democratic Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards, on the campaign trail. She took a similar role in her husband's 2008 presidential bid, and was one of his closest advisers.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: Edwards disagreed with her husband on the topic of same-sex marriage. She became a vocal advocate in 2007 when she stated: "I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me. I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: On June 10, 2008, it was revealed that Edwards would be advising her husband's former rival and eventual Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, on healthcare issues. Her husband also endorsed Obama during the later stages of the 2008 primary season.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: Edwards became a senior fellow at the American Progress Action Fund and testified before Congress about healthcare reform on its behalf.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: Early in their marriage, the couple had two children: Lucius "Wade" (b. 1979) and Catharine "Cate" (b. 1982). Wade died at age 16 on April 4, 1996, when he lost control of his Jeep and crashed while driving from their home in Raleigh to the family's beach house near Wilmington. Three weeks before his death, Wade had been honored by First Lady Hillary Clinton at the White House as one of ten finalists in an essay contest sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Voice of America. Wade, accompanied by his parents and his sister, met North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms. After Wade died, Helms entered his essay and his obituary into the Congressional Record. Wade was buried in Raleigh's Oakwood Cemetery, with a grave designed by Robert Mihaly.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: Following Wade's death, Elizabeth and John decided to have more children, and she underwent fertility treatments. They had a daughter, Emma Claire (b. 1998), and a son, John "Jack" (b. 2000). After John's January 21, 2010 public admission that he fathered a child with a mistress named Rielle Hunter, Elizabeth legally separated from him, intending to file for divorce after North Carolina's mandatory one-year separation policy.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: On November 3, 2004, Edwards was diagnosed with breast cancer. She later revealed that she discovered a lump in her breast while on a campaign stop a few weeks earlier in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the midst of the campaign. Edwards became an activist for women's health and cancer patients, and underwent oncology treatments. In a November 2006 comment on the "Daily Kos" website, Edwards stated that on her last visit, her oncologist said that cancer was not one of the things going on in her life.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: At a March 22, 2007 press conference, John and Elizabeth announced that her cancer had returned, and that his campaign for the Presidency would continue as before. The announcement included the information that she was asymptomatic, and therefore that she expected to be an active part of the campaign.


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: Her doctor, Dr. Lisa Carey of the University of North Carolina's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, described the diagnosis as stage IV (metastatic) breast cancer with a spot in her rib and possibly her lung. In a March 25 interview on "60 Minutes", Edwards said that there was also a spot in her hip found on her bone scan. The Edwardses and Carey stressed that the cancer was not curable, but was treatable. In early April 2007, Edwards was informed that her cancer might be treatable with anti-estrogen drugs. "I consider that a good sign. It means there are more medications to which I can expect to be responsive," she told the Associated Press during a campaign stop with her husband in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In a 2007 interview with "Newsweek"'s Jonathan Alter, she said, "When I was first diagnosed, I was going to beat this. I was going to be the champion of cancer. And I don't have that feeling now. The cancer will eventually kill me. It's going to win this fight."


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: On December 6, 2010, Edwards' family announced that she had stopped cancer treatment after her doctors informed her that further treatment would be unproductive, because the cancer had metastasized to her liver. She had been advised she had several weeks to live. Her family members, including her estranged husband John, were with her. She posted her last message on Facebook:


title: Elizabeth Edwards

text: Edwards died the next day of metastatic breast cancer at home in Chapel Hill; she was 61 years old. Her funeral, held at Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh, was open to the public and was attended by over 1,200 people, including North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue, Senators John Kerry and Kay Hagan, and Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Threats of protests by the anti-gay coalition led by Westboro Baptist Church attracted at least 300 local Raleigh residents prepared to counterprotest in support of the Edwards family, but only five Westboro protesters showed up and were kept blocks away. Elizabeth Edwards' marble monument was created by sculptor Robert Mihaly. She was interred with her son Wade in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.


title: File sharing

text: File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include removable media, centralized servers on computer networks, Internet-based hyperlinked documents, and the use of distributed peer-to-peer networking.


title: File sharing

text: File sharing technologies, such as BitTorrent, are integral to modern media piracy, as well as the sharing of scientific data and other free content.


title: File sharing

text: Files were first exchanged on removable media. Computers were able to access remote files using filesystem mounting, bulletin board systems (1978), Usenet (1979), and FTP servers (1970's). Internet Relay Chat (1988) and Hotline (1997) enabled users to communicate remotely through chat and to exchange files. The mp3 encoding, which was standardized in 1991 and substantially reduced the size of audio files, grew to widespread use in the late 1990s. In 1998, MP3.com and Audiogalaxy were established, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was unanimously passed, and the first mp3 player devices were launched.


title: File sharing

text: In June 1999, Napster was released as an unstructured centralized peer-to-peer system, requiring a central server for indexing and peer discovery. It is generally credited as being the first peer-to-peer file sharing system. In December 1999, Napster was sued by several recording companies and lost in "A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.". In the case of Napster, it has been ruled that an online service provider could not use the "transitory network transmission" safe harbor in the DMCA if they had control of the network with a server.


title: File sharing

text: Gnutella, eDonkey2000, and Freenet were released in 2000, as MP3.com and Napster were facing litigation. Gnutella, released in March, was the first decentralized file-sharing network. In the Gnutella network, all connecting software was considered equal, and therefore the network had no central point of failure. In July, Freenet was released and became the first anonymity network. In September the eDonkey2000 client and server software was released.


title: File sharing

text: In March 2001, Kazaa was released. Its FastTrack network was distributed, though, unlike Gnutella, it assigned more traffic to 'supernodes' to increase routing efficiency. The network was proprietary and encrypted, and the Kazaa team made substantial efforts to keep other clients such as Morpheus off of the FastTrack network. In October 2001, the MPAA and the RIAA filed a lawsuit against the developers of Kazaa, Morpheus and Grokster that would lead to the US Supreme Court's "MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd." decision in 2005.


title: File sharing

text: Shortly after its loss in court, Napster was shut down to comply with a court order. This drove users to other P2P applications and file sharing continued its growth. The Audiogalaxy Satellite client grew in popularity, and the LimeWire client and BitTorrent protocol were released. Until its decline in 2004, Kazaa was the most popular file-sharing program despite bundled malware and legal battles in the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States. In 2002, a Tokyo district court ruling shut down File Rogue, and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a lawsuit that effectively shut down Audiogalaxy.


title: File sharing

text: From 2002 through 2003, a number of BitTorrent services were established, including Suprnova.org, isoHunt, TorrentSpy, and The Pirate Bay. In September 2003, the RIAA began filing lawsuits against users of P2P file sharing networks such as Kazaa. As a result of such lawsuits, many universities added file sharing regulations in their school administrative codes (though some students managed to circumvent them during after school hours). Also in 2003, the MPAA started to take action against BitTorrent sites, leading to the shutdown of Torrentse and Sharelive in July 2003. With the shutdown of eDonkey in 2005, eMule became the dominant client of the eDonkey network. In 2006, police raids took down the Razorback2 eDonkey server and temporarily took down The Pirate Bay.


title: File sharing

text: “The File Sharing Act was launched by Chairman Towns in 2009, this act prohibited the use of applications that allowed individuals to share federal information amongst one another. On the other hand, only specific file sharing applications were made available to federal computers” (the United States.Congress.House). In 2009, the Pirate Bay trial ended in a guilty verdict for the primary founders of the tracker. The decision was appealed, leading to a second guilty verdict in November 2010. In October 2010, Limewire was forced to shut down following a court order in "Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC" but the Gnutella network remains active through open source clients like FrostWire and gtk-gnutella. Furthermore, multi-protocol file-sharing software such as MLDonkey and Shareaza adapted to support all the major file-sharing protocols, so users no longer had to install and configure multiple file-sharing programs.


title: File sharing

text: On January 19, 2012, the United States Department of Justice shut down the popular domain of Megaupload (established 2005). The file sharing site has claimed to have over 50,000,000 people a day. Kim Dotcom (formerly Kim Schmitz) was arrested with three associates in New Zealand on January 20, 2012 and is awaiting extradition. The case involving the downfall of the world's largest and most popular file sharing site was not well received, with hacker group Anonymous bringing down several sites associated with the take-down. In the following days, other file sharing sites began to cease services; Filesonic blocked public downloads on January 22, with Fileserve following suit on January 23.


title: File sharing

text: In 2021 a European Citizens' Initiative "Freedom to Share" started collecting signatures in order to get the European Commission to discuss (and eventually make rules) on this subject, which is controversial.


title: File sharing

text: From the early 2000s until the mid 2010s, online video streaming was usually based on the Adobe Flash Player. After more and more vulnerabilities in Adobe's flash became known, YouTube switched to HTML5 based video playback in January 2015.


title: File sharing

text: Peer-to-peer file sharing is based on the peer-to-peer (P2P) application architecture. Shared files on the computers of other users are indexed on directory servers. P2P technology was used by popular services like Napster and LimeWire. The most popular protocol for P2P sharing is BitTorrent.


title: File sharing

text: Cloud-based file syncing and sharing services implement automated file transfers by updating files from a dedicated sharing directory on each user's networked devices. Files placed in this folder also are typically accessible through a website and mobile app and can be easily shared with other users for viewing or collaboration. Such services have become popular via consumer-oriented file hosting services such as Dropbox and Google Drive. With the rising need of sharing big files online easily, new open access sharing platforms have appeared, adding even more services to their core business (cloud storage, multi-device synchronization, online collaboration), such as ShareFile, Tresorit, WeTransfer, or Hightail.


title: File sharing

text: rsync is a more traditional program released in 1996 which synchronizes files on a direct machine-to-machine basis.


title: File sharing

text: Data synchronization in general can use other approaches to share files, such as distributed file systems, version control, or mirrors.


title: File sharing

text: In addition to file sharing for the purposes of entertainment, academic file sharing has become a topic of increasing concern, as it is deemed to be a violation of academic integrity at many schools. Academic file sharing by companies such as Chegg and Course Hero has become a point of particular controversy in recent years. This has led some institutions to provide explicit guidance to students and faculty regarding academic integrity expectations relating to academic file sharing.


title: File sharing

text: In 2004, there were an estimated 70 million people participating in online file sharing. According to a CBS News poll in 2009, 58% of Americans who follow the file-sharing issue, considered it acceptable "if a person owns the music CD and shares it with a limited number of friends and acquaintances"; with 18- to 29-year-olds, this percentage reached as much as 70%.


title: File sharing

text: In his survey of file-sharing culture, Caraway (2012) noted that 74.4% of participants believed musicians should accept file sharing as a means for promotion and distribution. This file-sharing culture was termed as cyber socialism, whose legalisation was not the expected cyber-utopia..


title: File sharing

text: According to David Glenn, writing in "The Chronicle of Higher Education", "A majority of economic studies have concluded that file-sharing hurts sales". A literature review by Professor Peter Tschmuck found 22 independent studies on the effects of music file sharing. "Of these 22 studies, 14 – roughly two-thirds – conclude that unauthorized downloads have a 'negative or even highly negative impact' on recorded music sales. Three of the studies found no significant impact while the remaining five found a positive impact."


title: File sharing

text: A study by economists Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf in 2004 concluded that music file sharing's effect on sales was "statistically indistinguishable from zero". This research was disputed by other economists, most notably Stan Liebowitz, who said Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf had made multiple assumptions about the music industry "that are just not correct." In June 2010, "Billboard" reported that Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf had "changed their minds", now finding "no more than 20% of the recent decline in sales is due to sharing". However, citing Nielsen SoundScan as their source, the co-authors maintained that illegal downloading had not deterred people from being original. "In many creative industries, monetary incentives play a reduced role in motivating authors to remain creative. Data on the supply of new works are consistent with the argument that file-sharing did not discourage authors and publishers. Since the advent of file sharing, the production of music, books, and movies has increased sharply." Glenn Peoples of "Billboard" disputed the underlying data, saying "SoundScan's number for new releases in any given year represents new commercial titles, not necessarily new creative works." The RIAA likewise responded that "new releases" and "new creative works" are two separate things. "[T]his figure includes re-releases, new compilations of existing songs, and new digital-only versions of catalog albums. SoundScan has also steadily increased the number of retailers (especially non-traditional retailers) in their sample over the years, better capturing the number of new releases brought to market. What Oberholzer and Strumpf found was better ability to track new album releases, not greater incentive to create them."


title: File sharing

text: A 2006 study prepared by Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz, published by Industry Canada, was "unable to discover any direct relationship between P2P file-sharing and CD purchases in Canada". The results of this survey were similarly criticized by academics and a subsequent revaluation of the same data by Dr. George R. Barker of the Australian National University reached the opposite conclusion. "In total, 75% of P2P downloaders responded that if P2P were not available they would have purchased either through paid sites only (9%), CDs only (17%) or through CDs and pay sites (49%). Only 25% of people say they would not have bought the music if it were not available on P2P for free." Barker thus concludes; "This clearly suggests P2P network availability is reducing music demand of 75% of music downloaders which is quite contrary to Andersen and Frenz's much published claim."


title: File sharing

text: According to the 2017 paper "Estimating displacement rates of copyrighted content in the EU" by the European Commission, illegal usage increases game sales, stating "The overall conclusion is that for games, illegal online transactions induce more legal transactions."


title: File sharing

text: A paper in the journal "" found that file-sharing decreased the chance of survival for low ranked albums on music charts and increased exposure to albums that were ranked high on the music charts, allowing popular and well-known artists to remain on the music charts more often. This hurt new and less-known artists while promoting the work of already popular artists and celebrities.


title: File sharing

text: A more recent study that examined pre-release file-sharing of music albums, using BitTorrent software, also discovered positive impacts for "established and popular artists but not newer and smaller artists." According to Robert G. Hammond of North Carolina State University, an album that leaked one month early would see a modest increase in sales. "This increase in sales is small relative to other factors that have been found to affect album sales."


title: File sharing

text: "File-sharing proponents commonly argue that file-sharing democratizes music consumption by 'levelling the playing field' for new/small artists relative to established/popular artists, by allowing artists to have their work heard by a wider audience, lessening the advantage held by established/popular artists in terms of promotional and other support. My results suggest that the opposite is happening, which is consistent with evidence on file-sharing behaviour."


title: File sharing

text: "Billboard" cautioned that this research looked only at the pre-release period and not continuous file sharing following a release date. "The problem in believing piracy helps sales is deciding where to draw the line between legal and illegal ... Implicit in the study is the fact that both buyers and sellers are required in order for pre-release file sharing to have a positive impact on album sales. Without iTunes, Amazon, and Best Buy, file-sharers would be just file sharers rather than purchasers. If you carry out the 'file-sharing should be legal' argument to its logical conclusion, today's retailers will be tomorrow's file-sharing services that integrate with their respective cloud storage services."


title: File sharing

text: Many argue that file-sharing has forced the owners of entertainment content to make it more widely available legally through fees or advertising on-demand on the internet. In a 2011 report by Sandvine showed that Netflix traffic had come to surpass that of BitTorrent.


title: File sharing

text: File sharing raises copyright issues and has led to many lawsuits. In the United States, some of these lawsuits have even reached the Supreme Court. For example, in "MGM v. Grokster", the Supreme Court ruled that the creators of P2P networks can be held liable if their software is marketed as a tool for copyright infringement.


title: File sharing

text: On the other hand, not all file sharing is illegal. Content in the public domain can be freely shared. Even works covered by copyright can be shared under certain circumstances. For example, some artists, publishers, and record labels grant the public a license for unlimited distribution of certain works, sometimes with conditions, and they advocate free content and file sharing as a promotional tool.


title: Michelle Reis

text: Michelle Monique Reis (born Michele Monique Reis, 20 June 1970) is a Hong Kong actress, model, and beauty queen of Portuguese-Macanese and Shanghainese descent. In 1988, she won the Miss Chinese International Pageant and Miss Hong Kong beauty pageants. Afterward, she became one of Hong Kong's most prominent actresses in the 1990s, preferring to act in more introspective, higher-quality movies that often were independent films.


title: Michelle Reis

text: Reis often played dynamic characters, with a significant number of her roles centering around characters deemed more "difficult" to portray in Hong Kong cinema, such as prostitutes, femme fatales, and professional killers. Known for her youthful beauty and often deemed "one of the most beautiful women in Asia", Reis has continued to remain in the public eye long after her film career subsided in the early 2000s. Outside of the Chinese-speaking world, she is most famous for her role as the Hitman's Assistant in "Fallen Angels" (1995), which brought her critical acclaim internationally, as well as status as a cult film character and saw her nominated for “Best Actress” at the 1996 Golden Bauhinia Awards.


title: Michelle Reis

text: Reis was born in Macau, then a Portuguese colony, on 20 June 1970 as Michele Monique Reis. She did not acquire her Chinese name, Li Jiaxin (李嘉欣), until after elementary school. She is of mixed ancestry; her father, Francis Reis, was a Hong Kong-born ethnically Portuguese Macanese, and her mother, Wu Guofang (Chinese: 吴国芳), is Chinese and was raised in Shanghai before moving to British Hong Kong after World War II. Reis also has an older sister, born in August 1962, known as "Yuet Chi" (Joanna Francisca Reis or Li Jiaming; 李嘉明). She is Catholic.


title: Michelle Reis

text: Her father, a member of the Hong Kong Volunteers, was captured by the Japanese when defending Hong Kong in 1940 during World War II and was imprisoned by the Imperial Japanese Army in the Sham Shui Po concentration camp for two years. Francis was reportedly popular and well-liked by the other prisoners. Still, because of his height, he was sent to work in coal mines in Sendai, Japan, until Japan's surrender. After the liberation of Hong Kong in 1945, he returned to Hong Kong, married Michelle's mother, and entered a business career.


title: Michelle Reis

text: In 1973, a modeling scout discovered Reis, and she was subsequently shot in a one-time baby advertisement.


title: Michelle Reis

text: Reis recalls her childhood as an unhappy one. She recalls her childhood being devoid of toys or new clothes and dominated by "her mother's tears and parents' endless bickering". Her father became more absent, resulting in Reis being raised primarily by her mother. Francis Reis was unsuccessful in his career, "achieving nothing", resulting in the family living in poverty. Wu Guofang, Reis' mother, worked two jobs a day to provide for the family. The family lived in a tin roof house, which they built themselves and was typical of Hong Kong's impoverished, and then lived in the highly dense and impoverished Chungking Mansions. Conditions at the tin roof house were very poor, with summers being extremely hot and rain easily dripping through cracks in their roof.


title: Michelle Reis

text: In 1980, at the age of 10, Reis’ father ran away from the family household because of an affair he was having, reportedly an affair abroad. By the end of his lifetime, he would come to have had three marriages and four children. Reis has also stated that in childhood, she did not pay attention to her appearance, and that in elementary school she wore large myopic glasses.


title: Michelle Reis

text: At 14, she began part-time studies as a student, which her mother emphasized, completing these studies by modelling part-time. During her studies, modelling scouts offered her casting and commercial film opportunities, but Reis declined as she wanted to be a flight attendant. Reis attended Maryknoll Convent School and matriculated from St. Paul's Secondary School throughout her studies. At Maryknoll Convent School, she received excellent grades, with 2A (English, Bible) results and ranking 7B in the five-year secondary education graduation exam.


title: Michelle Reis

text: As Reis and her sister grew older, the family's financial situation gradually improved, yet they remained impoverished. In 1987, Reis' parents officially divorced.


title: Michelle Reis

text: Many years after Reis' father abandoned the family and as Reis began to become well-known in Hong Kong, he tried to contact Reis by phone, asking for money. Despite her worries about his deteriorating health, she had no intention of reconnecting. Years later, Reis recalled the phone call, which she found hurtful.


title: Michelle Reis

text: Reis' father died at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong on 22nd August 1995 after fighting a blood disorder for eight months. She attended his funeral.


title: Michelle Reis

text: Reis had excellent results when she attended Maryknoll Convent School, receiving a 2A (English, Bible) result and ranking 7B in her five-year secondary education graduation exam. She participated in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination shortly after she won the 1988 Miss Hong Kong Pageant.


title: Michelle Reis

text: In 1988, after encouragement from others, Reis auditioned for the 1988 Miss Hong Kong Pageant. She was predicted to win the "Best Photogenic Award", which gave Reis the self-confidence to continue on this career path. However, Sheila Chin won the "Best Photogenic Award" instead. She reportedly cried after leaving the stage. However, her mother's words reminded Reis that the road to success was difficult and that there would be many setbacks in the future on this career path, which proved highly influential and inspirational to Reis, encouraging her to press ahead with the Miss Hong Kong Pageant. The competition between Reis and Sheila Chin was tense in the pageant and was "neck-to-neck". Reis won the pageant, becoming Miss Hong Kong 1988 at the age of 18 and winning the contest's "Miss International Goodwill" title. While both women would soon receive entertainment careers, with both taking a direction towards acting, Reis would, by the mid-1990s, ultimately become a more acclaimed celebrity than Chin, with distinctive film roles. Later that year, in late 1988, Reis would also become the first Miss Chinese International and was awarded the "Best Photogenic Award". Following her Miss Chinese International crowning, she participated in the Miss World 1988 pageant in London, where she promoted the image of Hong Kong. Continuing her newfound status as an acclaimed beauty queen, Reis was then supposed to compete in the Miss Universe 1989 pageant but withdrew due to health problems, citing "personal reasons".


title: Michelle Reis

text: Reis would later reveal in 1998 that her beauty queen career proved to be a difficult time for her, stating: “The Miss Hong Kong time was very confusing for me. I wouldn’t have the courage to do it again.” After spending a year as the “Miss International Goodwill” Ambassador, a title she received from the Miss Hong Kong 1988 pageant, Reis later remarked that she “wasn’t sure what I would do after it.” As is customary for many Miss Hong Kong winners, Reis would receive a career offer from TVB - with Mona Fong, the Deputy Chairman and General Manager of TVB, personally stepping forward and trying her best to persuade Reis to sign a contract. Fong offered Reis very favorable conditions, such as not pushing Reis to star in the TV station's low budget series, which is what usually happens with new, young faces in TVB, as well as offering Reis more beyond a normal monthly salary. As such, Reis soon appeared in a 5-episode TVB drama series called “I Do I Do” (花月佳期), which aired in late March 1989. While the drama is fairly unremarkable, it marked the first acting role of Reis, who had had no formal acting training when she was offered a contract by TVB, and later remarked that filming the series “seemed like the right thing to do.” In 1990, having first worked in commercials, appearing in music videos and then on TVB television episodes, Reis made her formal entry into showbiz with her first film roles such as "Declaration Of Help" (1990) - her film debut - and although a newcomer to films, played a role such as the “rebel sister” Yuet Chi / Moon in her second film, A Chinese Ghost Story Part II (1990). That year, she would also go on to star in comedies like "No Risk, No Gain" (1990), starring as Winnie, and as a streetwise tough beauty in "Perfect Girls" (1990). Her next films, in the years 1990-1993 would mostly be comedies, and she would often play roles dependent on her beauty. As such, she would to some degree cultivate an idol image, starring in popular films such as The Banquet (1991), Royal Tramp II (1992), and replacing Cecilia Yip in starring as the tomboyish disciple Kiddo in Swordsman II (1992) - starring alongside her favourite actress Brigitte Lin. Reis would also star in A Kid From Tibet (1992). However, Reis also starred in some roles in this early part of her acting career that would distinctly represent her acting style, and bring her out as an actress. These included starring as “Windy” in the anime-inspired, science-fiction future noir The Wicked City (1992), where her full-mouthed looks were deemed just right for the anime-inspired film, and her performance as an actress was brought out significantly in a way previously not before. Telling a story of conflicts and relationship between demon-like creatures and humans in 1990s Hong Kong, the film was a big success, being one of the most popular Tsui Hark productions in the USA and Europe, and still playing in festivals and midnight screenings around the USA and Europe. Reis would also dominate the film’s promotional material.


title: Michelle Reis

text: By the dawn of the mid-1990s however, most of Reis’ film roles, with the exception of a few notable, acclaimed roles, had been relatively undemanding, being mainly known for her minor girl-next-door, “nice girl” roles, and she was often only used for simply window dressing, a common phenomenon amongst good-looking talents in Hong Kong’s entertainment industry. Ambitious and wishing to attempt further, more elaborate roles with greater complexity, such as successful women, women with sex appeal, editresses or “mad women”, Reis expanded the scope of her acting career significantly from 1993. Starring in Jet Li’s movie "The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk" (1993), she starred as the beautiful Ting-Ting. The film was a box office hit and Reis then starred in its sequel released later that year, "Fong Sai-Yuk II" (1993). Moving into television, Reis began to increase the complexity of her roles as she so desired, starring as the beautiful and deceptive top agent of a doomsday cult in the cross-genre TVB drama "The Legendary Ranger" (1993) alongside her good friend Leon Lai. The drama’s eclectic setting and merger of wuxia, science fiction and fantasy genres, as well as its visual aesthetic was considered at the time groundbreaking in Hong Kong, and the demented mixture of beauty and darkness in the acting material Reis worked with cemented her signature acting style. In "The Black Morning Glory" (1993), Reis was to establish her acting style a step further - playing a complex dual-role as a professional killer employed by the Japanese Yakuza. The film also dealt into the mental complexity of Reis’ character, with a drama-based storyline that sees her character fend off the police and Yakuza while also attempting to reconcile with her own turmoil after she realises who she has killed. The film would then go on to serve as premise for Reis starring in "The Other Side Of The Sea" (1994), where Reis would again portray a cold-blooded professional killer who must reckon with going on the run and betrayal after becoming disillusioned with a life of killing.


title: Michelle Reis

text: By 1995, Reis would star again alongside Leon Lai; this time in Wong Kar-wai’s neo-noir crime thriller "Fallen Angels" (1995), playing a sexually frustrated, jealous, cold-blooded hitman’s assistant. Reis’ character was a notable departure from her earlier roles, allowing herself to be filmed at fisheye lens angles, in grungy colours and with an appearance that was glamorously-dressed, stylish, and decidedly grunge, an appearance that would become emblematic of Reis’ style, but at times also dishevelled in contrast to the polished appearance of her Miss Hong Kong days. Reis’ character was described as a “chain-smoking, quivering, obsessive mess who faxes kill-plans and masturbates in PVC fetish dresses”, and was also interpreted as a ironic depiction of supermodel glamour or MTV music videos. Fully declaring herself as an actress, and breaking away completely from any kind of innocent or clean-cut image in a way that likely shocked many of her fans, Reis received critical acclaim for her portrayal of the role and immediately established herself as an A-list actress, becoming amongst Hong Kong’s most famous actresses. "Fallen Angels" would go on to become a cult classic of the “Golden Age” of Hong Kong cinema, and Reis’ film character would also become a cult film character and a grunge icon - a reputation Reis has continued to have to this day. The role would also establish Reis as having fame beyond the Chinese-speaking world, becoming her most well-known role outside of the Chinese-speaking world. The role has often been called as the “bravest film choice” in Reis’ film career, marking a moment where she began to build a reputation for starring in introspective and high-quality movies, and by far her most iconic role - it has also been called her “very best performance”.


title: Michelle Reis

text: After the success of "Fallen Angels", Reis’ film output began to fall dramatically, with only 8 films over the next 5 years, representing how she was only willing to only star in higher-quality movies with more challenging film roles, though she continued to pick up large success in her modelling work. In 1996, she starred as Laura in "July 13th" (1996), a horror film about mental problems, suicide, and sleepless pressure in the chaos of Hong Kong city life. In 1997, Reis starred in the action sci-fi mystery thriller "Armageddon" (1997) as Adele, Andy Lau’s character’s dead fiancé. The film was visually and thematically a departure from many other works in Hong Kong cinema at the time, and she also starred in "Young And Dangerous IV" (1997), the fourth film in the hugely-popular "Young and Dangerous" series of films. By the late 1990s, Reis’ career was also taking her abroad for further success - Reis was so popular in Japan that she was able to pick up “millions” from a day’s work of working in Tokyo, and she was also doing a lot of advertising work in Los Angeles.


title: Michelle Reis

text: Around the 21st century, Reis began to withdraw from acting to focus on family and charity businesses whilst making occasional public appearances. Her last role to date was 2009's "Bodyguards and Assassins".


title: Michelle Reis

text: On 25 December 2021, Reis made an appearance as a guest/main judge on HK Television Entertainment's fourth season of the talent variety show King Maker (Chinese: ), sparking internet discussion and hype.


title: Michelle Reis

text: On 23 November 2008, following a public two-year courtship, Reis married business tycoon Julian Hui, son of real-estate billionaire Hui Sai Fun (1921–2018). Their son Jayden Max Hui was born on 8 February 2011. His initials are derived from the first initials, "J" and "M", of his parents' names.


title: Michelle Reis

text: In 2007, a viral audio of Reis and business tycoon Joseph Lau leaked onto the internet caused controversy, in which Reis and Lau had a heated argument regarding actresses he had signed, including Ada Choi and Catherine Hung. Reis' use of profanity directed at Lau led netizens to imply the two to be in a relationship and being able to swear profusely behind his wife's back during that time, although the quality and time has indicated it originated from the 90s. Reis' famous line "I'm really gonna congratulate you/I give my congratulations!" () is often used by people nowadays as a sarcastic manner online or in real life.


title: Michelle Reis

text: On 15 January 2022, Reis was rushed to ICU after a near death experience due to breathing complications.


title: Michelle Reis

text: In mainland China in 2010, it was a popular meme for several Chinese white-collar workers to display images of Michelle Reis at the office to subtly ask for a raise in salary because her Chinese name Jiāxīn () is an exact homophone of ("pay raise") in Mandarin Chinese, and is a near-homophone in Cantonese language (ga1yan1/ga1san1).


title: Frank Bonner

text: Frank Bonner (born Frank Woodrow Boers Jr.; February 28, 1942 – June 16, 2021) was an American actor and television director widely known for his role as sales manager Herb Tarlek on the television sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati".


title: Frank Bonner

text: Bonner was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to Grace Marie "Mamie" (née Dobbins) Boers Delahoussay, a singer, and Frank Woodrow Boers, a saxophonist. He grew up in Malvern, Arkansas.


title: Frank Bonner

text: In 1979, Bonner was injured in a parasailing accident at the El Mirage Lake Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area, northeast of Los Angeles. He was approximately in the air, suspended under an ascendancy parachute pulled by a tow vehicle — when a sudden, unexpected gust of wind collapsed the chute, causing him to fall to the lake bed and suffer internal injuries and injuries to his back. Subsequently, he appeared on crutches in episodes of "WKRP in Cincinnati" (the season 2 episode "A Family Affair") and an All-Star Special episode of "Family Feud".


title: Frank Bonner

text: Bonner was married to Sharon Gray from 1966–1971; actress Mary Alice Rings from 1972–1975; playwright Lillian Garrett-Groag from 1977–1980; Catherine M. Sherwood from 1981 until their divorce (date indeterminate); and Gayle Hardage, his former high school sweetheart in Malvern, Arkansas, from 2006 until his death.


title: Frank Bonner

text: Bonner died on June 16, 2021, aged 79, in Laguna Niguel, California, of complications from Lewy body dementia.


title: Frank Bonner

text: Frank Bonner had five children (four biological), seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild at his death. He had a daughter, Desiree Boers-Kort, with his first wife, Sharon Gray. He had three sons (Michael, Matthew, and Justin); Michael preceded his father. Bonner also had a step-daughter, DeAndra Freed.


title: Frank Bonner

text: Bonner began acting in the experimental 1967 independent film "The Equinox ... A Journey into the Unknown", which was reshot and re-edited as the 1970 cult classic "Equinox" (in which he is credited as Frank Boers Jr.).


title: Frank Bonner

text: He later had several small roles in movies and on television, including "Mannix", "Emergency!", and "Love, American Style". In 1978 he joined the cast of "WKRP in Cincinnati", finding his signature role as Herb Tarlek, the crass and ineffectual station advertising sales agent, noted for his garish plaid suits and white shoes.


title: Frank Bonner

text: Bonner appeared as a guest star in one episode of the sitcom "Night Court" in the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, Bonner played the role of Father Hargis, headmaster of the fictional St. Augustine's Academy, on the TV show "Just the Ten of Us", which was a spin-off of "Growing Pains". He also appeared in one of the early episodes of the television show "Newhart". He reprised the role of Herb Tarlek in the 1991 spinoff "The New WKRP in Cincinnati" and in a 2004 rock video for Canadian indie rock band Rheostatics (for the song "The Tarleks", from their album "2067").


title: Frank Bonner

text: After directing six episodes of "WKRP in Cincinnati," he directed for other television shows in the 1980s and 1990s, including "Who's the Boss?", "Head of the Class", "Evening Shade", "Newhart" and every episode of the NBC Saturday morning sitcom "City Guys". Bonner also appeared in five episodes of "", and directed four episodes.


title: Ebisu (mythology)

text: , also transliterated or called or , is the Japanese god of fishermen and luck. He is one of the , and the only one of the seven to originate purely from Japan without any Buddhist or Taoist influence.


title: Ebisu (mythology)

text: In medieval times, Ebisu's origin came to be tied together with that of "Hiruko" - the first child of Izanagi and Izanami, born without bones (or, in some stories, without arms and legs) due to his mother's transgression during the marriage ritual. Hiruko struggled to survive but, as he could not stand, he was cast into the sea in a boat of reeds before his third birthday. The story tells that Hiruko eventually washed ashore—possibly in —and was cared for by the Ainu . It is however believed that Ebisu first arose as a god among fishermen and that his origin as Hiruko was a much later conception, after the worship of him had spread to merchants and farmers. It is also theorized that he was originally a god known as "Kotoshironushi no Mikoto", son of Ōkuninushi. He became one of the "shichifukujin" or the seven gods of fortune, which include Daikokuten, Bishamonten, Benzaiten, Fukurokuju, Jurojin, and Hotei. Ebisu, together with Daikokuten, was considered the most popular of these seven and was venerated in almost every Japanese home.


title: Ebisu (mythology)

text: For some communities, in addition for being a deity of fishing, wealth, and fortune, Ebisu is also associated with objects that would drift ashore from the sea such as logs and even corpses. As part of the "shichifukujin", Ebisu has three sets of temples and shrines in Tokyo, the Mukojima, Yamate (Bluff), and Meguro sets.


title: Ebisu (mythology)

text: The weak child overcame many hardships, grew legs (and, presumably, the rest of his skeletal structure) at the age of three, and became the god Ebisu. He remains slightly crippled and deaf, but mirthful and auspicious nonetheless (hence the title, "The laughing god"). He is often depicted wearing a tall hat—the —holding a rod and a large red sea bream or sea bass. Jellyfish are also associated with the god and the fugu restaurants of Japan will often incorporate Ebisu in their motif.


title: Ebisu (mythology)

text: In fishing communities across Japan it is extremely common to see fishermen ritualistically praying to Ebisu before they head out for the day. The fishermen’s relationship with Ebisu is indicative of Japan’s relationship with nature as a whole. Fishermen tell stories of how Ebisu keeps the ocean safe and pristine, pushing debris to the shore. As Ebisu is said to have no arms or legs, fishermen often suggest it takes 7 years for things like screws, bolts, or umeboshi seeds, to turn up on shore as Ebisu carries the seed in his mouth and crawls his way along the ocean floor. For this reason, it is believed that Ebisu becomes enraged whenever people pollute the ocean.


title: Ebisu (mythology)

text: Ebisu's festival is celebrated on the twentieth day of the tenth month, "Kannazuki" (the month without gods). While the other myriad members of the Japanese pantheon gather at The Grand Shrine of Izumo, Ebisu does not hear the summons and is thus still available for worship.


title: Ebisu (mythology)

text: Ebisu is frequently paired with Daikokuten, another of the seven gods of Fortune, in displays of the twin patrons by small shopkeepers. In some versions of the myth they are father and son (or master and apprentice). Also, these two are often joined by Fukurokuju as the "Three Gods of Good Fortune".


title: Ebisu (mythology)

text: As a form of animal worshipping, Ebisu was often associated with marine megafauna such as whales and whale sharks (hence the latter being called the "Ebisu-Shark") that bring in masses of fish and protect fishermen.


title: Ebisu (mythology)

text: Ebisu is depicted or parodied in a wide range of media, from artwork to costumed impersonations at local festivals and in commercial logos and advertisements. One of the most widely recognized product logos is in association with Yebisu beer, which was first brewed in 1890, and was acquired by Sapporo Brewery.


title: Ebisu (mythology)

text: The B.League professional basketball team Osaka Evessa is named after the local pronunciation of "Ebisu-sama" (as "Ebessan"), reflecting the god’s longstanding importance in the city of Osaka. Team mascot Maido-kun is a stylized, childlike depiction of Ebisu wearing a basketball uniform.


title: Nenu Local

text: Nenu Local () is a 2017 Indian Telugu-language romantic action comedy film directed by Trinadha Rao Nakkina who wrote the film with Prasanna Kumar Bezawada. Produced by Dil Raju under banner Sri Venkateswara Creations, It stars Nani, Keerthy Suresh and Naveen Chandra. Music was composed by Devi Sri Prasad.


title: Nenu Local

text: Released on 3 February 2017, "Nenu Local" was commercially successful at the box office. The film is remade in Bengali in 2018 as "Total Dadagiri" and in Odia as "Local Toka Love Choka".


title: Nenu Local

text: Babu is a college graduate with a carefree attitude, who makes an exam supervisor to help him pass the exam. After completing his exam, Babu falls for his classmate Keerthy and pursues her to accept his love. After many attempts, Keerthy falls for Babu after he helps her friend Paddu reunite with her fiancèe. However, Babu's happiness is short-lived when he learns that Keerthy is engaged to SI Siddharth Varma.


title: Nenu Local

text: Siddhu had fell in love with Keerthy and meets her father, who tells Siddhu to achieve something in life. After getting selected as the SI. Keerthy's father agrees to the proposal. Keerthy tells Babu to make her father accept him as his son-in-law. However, trouble ensues where it is revealed that Keerthy's father is the same exam supervisor, who rejects him due to his carefree nature. Keerthy helps Babu to apply for a job, but Babu refuses which leads Keerthy to breakup with Babu.


title: Nenu Local

text: On the day of the wedding, The bride's father (Paddu's fianceè's ex father-in-law) arrives and demands to call his son-in-law. Siddhu and Babu arrive where the bride's father aims a shotgun at Babu to kill him. In front of his impending death, Babu convinces the bride's father that his daughter could never be happy after her marriage because his daughter's fiancée loved Paddu. Keerthy's father criticize Babu's speech and taunts to shoot himself.


title: Nenu Local

text: Babu shoots himself with the bride's father's shotgun and gets severely injured where he is rushed to the hospital and Keerthy's father is convinced about Babu and Keerthy's relationship and accepts. Few months later, Babu and Keerthy completes their graduation where they get married. Babu participates in local elections and gets elected as the Corporator with huge majority of his constituency, while Siddhu asks his father to find out if his would-be doesn't have a boyfriend like Babu.


title: Nenu Local

text: The film grossed ₹24 crore at the worldwide box office in its opening weekend. By the end of its run, it was declared a blockbuster, becoming Nani's biggest solo commercial success to date, beating his previous record set by Bhale Bhale Magadivoy. The movie subsequently became Nani's 3rd movie to gross $1 million in the US after Eega and Bhale Bhale Magadivoy.


title: Baby boom

text: A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds of defined national and cultural populations. People born during these periods are often called baby boomers. The cause of baby booms involves various fertility factors. The best-known baby boom occurred in the mid-twentieth century, sometimes considered to have started after the end of the Second World War, sometimes from the late 1930s, and ending in the 1960s.


title: Baby boom

text: "According to the new UNICEF report, almost 2 billion babies will be born in Africa between 2015 and 2050 and the 2 main driving forces behind this surge in births and children are continued high fertility rates and rising numbers of women able to have children of their own."


title: Baby boom

text: By 2050, Africa is predicted to account for about 55% of all births in the world, 40% of all children under the age of five, and 37% of all children worldwide (under 18). Africa will become more crowded as its population continues to grow, considering the continent is predicted to grow from 8 people per square kilometer in 1950 to 39 in 2015, and to around 80 by the middle of the century.


title: Baby boom

text: The HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa has contributed to a population boom. Aid money used for contraception has been diverted since the start of the AIDS crisis in Africa into fighting HIV, which led to far more births, than deaths from AIDS.


title: Baby boom

text: Africa accounted for one out of every nine births in the world in 1950. It is predicted that they will account for approximately one in every three global births by the year 2030. Africa would account for almost half of all births by the end of the century.


title: Baby boom

text: Until the 1960s, the Aboriginal population rose steadily. The child mortality rate started to decline steadily in the 1960s, due to the increased access to health care. Throughout the 1960s, the fertility rate remained high, resulting in the Aboriginal baby boom peaking in 1967 – about ten years after the postwar baby boom in Canada.


title: Baby boom

text: While Aboriginal fertility has remained higher than the overall Canadian birth rate, it has decreased from four times in the 1960s to one-and-a-half times today. However, demographic change was just a part of the reason for the increase in Aboriginal population in the last half of the century.


title: Baby boom

text: Generation X refers to the birth rate decline after the mid-20th century baby boom. Author Douglas Coupland, who coined the term Generation X, defined it as children born 1960 and after. High unemployment and uneven income distribution welcomed Generation X, giving them little opportunity to produce the next baby boom.


title: Baby boom

text: In 2011, the children of baby boomers made up 27% of the total population; this category was called Generation Y, or the "baby boom echo." The fertility rate of the generations after the baby boomers dropped as a result of demographic changes such as increasing divorce and separation rates, female labour force participation, and rapid technological change.


title: Baby boom

text: The echo generation's children, known as Generation Z, are people born after 1993, or after the invention of the Internet, making up over 7.3 million people in Canada born between 1993 and 2011.


title: Baby boom

text: Israel has been in a constant baby boom since independence, with the highest fertility rate in the OECD at 3.1 children per woman. In addition to having the highest fertility rate among developed nations, it is the only developed country to have never had a sub-replacement fertility rate. Israel's baby boom began in 1947, a year before independence, when the fertility rate among the Yishuv, or Jewish population of what was then Mandatory Palestine, began to rise dramatically as a result of the aftereffects of the Holocaust and expectations of Jewish independence.


title: Baby boom

text: In Japan, the first baby boom occurred between 1947 and 1949. The number of births in this period exceeded 2.5 million every year, bringing the total number of births to about 8 million. The 2.69 million births in 1949 are the most ever in postwar statistics. The cohort born in this period is called the "baby boom generation" (団塊の世代, dankai no sedai, means "the generation of nodule").


title: Baby boom

text: A period of more than two million annual births from 1971 to 1974, with the number of births in 1973 peaking at 2.09 million, is referred to as the second baby boom. However, unlike the first boom, this increase in the number of births is an increase in the number of births not accompanied by an increase in the total fertility rate. The people born during this period are often called "baby boom juniors" (団塊ジュニア, dankai junia, means "the juniors of the generation of nodule").


title: Baby boom

text: The term "baby boom" is often used to refer specifically to the post–World War II (1946–1964) baby boom in the United States and Europe. In the US the number of annual births exceeded 2 per 100 women (or approximately 1% of the total population size). An estimated 78.3 million Americans were born during this period.


title: David (name)

text: David is a common masculine given name. It is of Hebrew origin, and its popularity derives from King David, a figure of central importance in the Hebrew Bible and in the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.


title: David (name)

text: David () means "beloved", derived from the root "dôwd" (דּוֹד), which originally meant "to boil", but survives in Biblical Hebrew only in the figurative usage "to love"; specifically, it is a term for an uncle or figuratively, a lover/beloved (it is used in this way in the Song of Songs: אני לדודי ודודי לי, "I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me"). In Christian tradition, the name was adopted as Dawid, Greek , Latin or . The Quranic spelling is .


title: David (name)

text: David was adopted as a Christian name from an early period, e.g. David of Wales (6th century), David Saharuni (7th century), David I of Iberia (9th century).


title: David (name)

text: Name days are celebrated on 8 February (for David IV of Georgia), 1 March (for St. David of Wales) and 29 December (for King David), as well as 25 June (St. David of Sweden), 26 June, 9 July (Russia), 26 August, 11 December and 30 December (Hungary, Latvia, Norway, Czech Republic).


title: David (name)

text: The oldest, most popular and most commonly used diminutive form in the English speaking countries of David is Dav, which first appeared in written form in the 16th century. The nickname Dav or Dave has been used as a name in its own right in the 19th and 20th centuries, at least in the United States. At the height of its popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s, the name Dave was bestowed upon more than 3,000 infants each year.


title: David (name)

text: Other common English-language hypocorisms of the name David are Davey, Davie, and Davy. The Welsh Dafydd is also abbreviated Dewi, Dai and Daf.


title: David (name)

text: In Ashkenazi Jewish culture, common hypocorisms of Dovid are Dovi and Dov. Dudi is a common hypocorism in Modern Hebrew.


title: David (name)

text: Davo is also used as a nickname, and is quite common in Australia and Armenia, while the nickname Dato (for Davit) is popular in the country of Georgia.


title: David (name)

text: Some female forms of the name are Daveigh, Davetta, Davida, and Davina. The girl's name Davinia may derive from David, but it has also been considered a derivation from the Gaelic Devin or a variant of Lavinia.


title: Nickel silver

text: Nickel silver, Maillechort, German silver, Argentan, new silver, nickel brass, albata, alpacca, is a copper alloy with nickel and often zinc. The usual formulation is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc. Nickel silver does not contain the element silver. It is named for its silvery appearance, which can make it attractive as a cheaper and more durable substitute. It is also well suited for being plated with silver.


title: Nickel silver

text: A naturally occurring ore composition in China was smelted into the alloy known as ' or ' () ("white copper" or cupronickel). The name "German Silver" refers to the artificial recreation of the natural ore composition by German metallurgists. All modern, commercially important, nickel silvers (such as those standardized under ASTM B122) contain significant amounts of zinc and are sometimes considered a subset of brass.


title: Nickel silver

text: Nickel silver was first used in China, where it was smelted from readily available unprocessed ore. During the Qing dynasty, it was "smuggled into various parts of the East Indies", despite a government ban on the export of nickel silver. It became known in the West from imported wares called (Mandarin) or (Cantonese) (白 銅, literally "white copper"), for which the silvery metal colour was used to imitate sterling silver. According to Berthold Laufer, it was identical to "khar sini", one of the seven metals recognized by Jābir ibn Hayyān.


title: Nickel silver

text: In Europe, consequently, it was at first called , which is about the way is pronounced in the Cantonese dialect. The earliest European mention of occurs in the year 1597. From then until the end of the eighteenth century there are references to it as having been exported from Canton to Europe. German artificial recreation of the natural ore composition, however, began to appear from about 1750 onward. In 1770 the Suhl metalworks were able to produce a similar alloy. In 1823 a German competition was held to perfect the production process: the goal was to develop an alloy that possessed the closest visual similarity to silver. The brothers Henniger in Berlin and Ernst August Geitner in Schneeberg independently achieved this goal. The manufacturer Berndorf named the trademark brand "Alpacca", which became widely known in northern Europe for nickel silver. In 1830 the German process of manufacture was introduced into England, while exports of from China gradually stopped. In 1832, a form of German silver was also developed in Birmingham, England.


title: Nickel silver

text: After the modern process for the production of electroplated nickel silver was patented in 1840 by George Richards Elkington and his cousin Henry Elkington in Birmingham, the development of electroplating caused nickel silver to become widely used. It formed an ideal, strong and bright substrate for the plating process. It was also used unplated in applications such as cutlery.


title: Nickel silver

text: Nickel silver first became popular as a base metal for silver-plated cutlery and other silverware, notably the electroplated wares called EPNS (electroplated nickel silver). It is used in zippers, better-quality keys, costume jewelry, for making musical instruments (e.g., flutes, clarinets), and is preferred for the track in electric model railway layouts, as its oxide is conductive. It is widely used in the production of coins (e.g. Portuguese escudo and the former GDR marks). Its industrial and technical uses include marine fittings and plumbing fixtures for its corrosion resistance, and heating coils for its high electrical resistance.


title: Nickel silver

text: In the nineteenth century, particularly after 1868, North American Plains Indian metalsmiths were able to easily acquire sheets of German silver. They used them to cut, stamp, and cold hammer a wide range of accessories and also horse gear. Presently, plains use German silver for pendants, pectorals, bracelets, armbands, hair plates, "conchas" (oval decorative plates for belts), earrings, belt buckles, necktie slides, stickpins, "dush-tuhs", and tiaras. Nickel silver is the metal of choice among contemporary Kiowa and Pawnee in Oklahoma. Many of the metal fittings on modern higher-end equine harness and tack are of nickel silver.


title: Nickel silver

text: Early in the twentieth century, German silver was used by automobile manufacturers before the advent of steel sheet metal. For example, the famous Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost of 1907. After about 1920, it became widely used for pocketknife bolsters, due to its machinability and corrosion resistance. Prior to this, the most common metal was iron.


title: Nickel silver

text: Musical instruments, including the flute, saxophone, trumpet, and French horn, can be made of nickel silver. Many professional-level French horns are entirely made of nickel silver. Some saxophone manufacturers, such as Keilwerth, offer saxophones made of nickel silver (Shadow model); these are far rarer than traditional lacquered brass saxophones. Student-level flutes and piccolos are also made of silver-plated nickel silver, although upper-level models are likely to use sterling silver. Nickel silver produces a bright and powerful sound quality; an additional benefit is that the metal is harder and more corrosion resistant than brass. Because of its hardness, it is used for most clarinet, flute, oboe and similar wind instrument keys, normally silver-plated. It is used to produce the tubes (called staples) onto which oboe reeds are tied. Many parts of brass instruments are made of nickel silver, such as tubes, braces or valve mechanism. Trombone slides of many manufacturers offer lightweight nickel silver (LT slide) option for faster slide action and weight balance. It was used in the construction of the National tricone resophonic guitar. The frets of guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass, and related string instruments are typically nickel silver. Nickel silver is sometimes used as ornamentation on the great highland bagpipe.


title: Nickel silver

text: Nickel silver is also used in art. The Dutch sculptor Willem Lenssinck has made several pieces from German silver. Outdoor art made from this material easily withstands all kinds of weather.


title: Nickel silver

text: Counterfeiters have used nickel silver to produce coins and medallions purporting to be silver rounds, generally in an attempt to trick unsuspecting buyers into paying prices based on the spot price of silver. The metal has also been used to produce counterfeit Morgan dollars.


title: Nickel silver

text: Nickel silver fraud has included the production of replica bullion bars, marked "nickel silver" or "German silver", in weights of . They are sold without notification that they contain no elemental silver.


title: Nickel silver

text: According to the "Merck Manual", prolonged contact of copper alloys with acidic food or beverages (including boiling milk) can leach out the copper and cause toxicity. Long-term, low doses can lead to cirrhosis. It is also the case that many people have allergic reactions to nickel, causing a weeping rash that will not heal as long as the metal is in contact with the skin.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: In the United Kingdom, a Sloane Ranger, or simply a Sloane, is a stereotypical upper-middle or upper-class person, typically although not necessarily a young one, who embodies a very particular upbringing and outlook. The Sloane Ranger style is a uniform, effortless, and unambitious although sophisticated one.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: The television character Tim Nice-But-Dim, an Old Ardinian, is thought by some to be a good example of a Sloane Ranger. The term is a pun based on references to Sloane Square, a location in Chelsea, London, famed for the wealth of its residents and frequenters, and the television character "The Lone Ranger".


title: Sloane Ranger

text: The term dates from 1975 when aspiring writer Peter York had conversations with Ann Barr (then features editor of UK magazine "Harpers & Queen") about what had become a recognisable "tribe" of young people living in Chelsea and parts of Kensington. This led to an article for the magazine, defining the characteristics of this slice of English society.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: Female Sloanes, especially those involved in equestrian activities, were often seen in the 1970s around London wearing Hermès or Liberty silk headscarves distinctively tied between the tip of the chin and the bottom lip, masking the lower part of the face, which furthered the "Lone Ranger" jest.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: Several years passed before York and Barr collaborated on the "Official Sloane Ranger Handbook", which became a global best-seller in 1982. The innovatory journalistic format and techniques from the 1975 article had by then become well established. Ann Barr and her editorial team at "Harpers & Queen" spent much time working on the original draft of the 1975 article. The potential of the piece, to become a talking point and to define a new form of social comment, was seen from the start. Barr and the sub-editors at the magazine devised many of the 'attributes' of a Sloane, added as boxes to the main text, in what became a widely imitated format. These delineated the habits and customs of the social group in question, from clothes to shopping, to holiday venues, to choice of marital partner.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: The Sloane Ranger proposal came from Martina (Tina) Margetts, a sub-editor on "Harpers & Queen" who worked (with fellow sub-editor Laura Pank) on the 1975 article. In her early twenties she had found herself amongst this social group while undertaking a course on fine art at the Victoria and Albert Museum.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: Initially, the term "Sloane Ranger" was used mostly in reference to women, a particular archetype being Diana, Princess of Wales. However, the term now usually includes men. A male Sloane has also been referred to as a "Rah" and by the older term "Hooray Henry".


title: Sloane Ranger

text: The term Sloane Ranger has equivalent terms in other countries: in France, they are called 'BCBG' ("bon chic bon genre"), while a near analogue in the United States is the preppy subculture.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: "Sloane Ranger", a commonplace term in 1980s London, was originally popularised by the British writers Peter York and Ann Barr in the book "Style Wars" (1980), followed by "The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook" (1982) and its companion "The Official Sloane Ranger Diary." The books were published by the British society-watcher magazine "Harpers & Queen", for whom Peter York was Style Editor and "was responsible for identifying the cult phenomena of "Sloane Rangers" and "Foodies".


title: Sloane Ranger

text: The exemplar female Sloane Ranger was considered to be Lady Diana Spencer before marrying the Prince of Wales, when she was a member of the aristocratic Spencer family. However, most Sloanes were not aristocrats as Lady Diana was. Considered typical of SRs was patriotism and traditionalism, and a belief in the values of the upper-class and upper-middle-class culture, confidence in themselves and their given places in the world, a fondness for life in the countryside, country sports in particular, and in some cases philistinism. The title of the Sloane Ranger handbook lists the subheading "the problem of Hampstead", in reference to the stereotypical Sloane Ranger's supposed antipathy to the champagne socialist stereotype of the Hampstead liberal.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: Although Sloanes are nowadays supposedly more widely spread and amorphous than in the past, they are still perceived to socialise in the expensive areas of west London, most notably King's Road, Fulham Road, Kensington High Street, and other areas of Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham. The pubs and nightclubs in these areas are popular with Sloanes, in particular the White Horse pub, known as the "Sloaney Pony" in Fulham, and Admiral Codrington, known as "The Cod", in Chelsea.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: Sloanes are associated with being educated at top-tier elite schools, known as public schools in England. The most well-known schools for Sloane Ranger boys are Eton, Radley, Harrow, Westminster, St Paul's and Sherborne. For girls, these are St George's School, Ascot, Wycombe Abbey, Downe House, St Mary's School, Calne, St Paul's Girls' School, Francis Holland School, and Benenden School. For co-educated boys and girls, these are Oundle School, Stowe School, Marlborough College, Wellington College, Pangbourne College, Fettes College, Glenalmond College and Ampleforth College. An expectation of a Sloane is that they also attended prep school.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: Sloane careers involve the country (farming/landowning, Chartered Surveyorship), the law, the City (finance/banking, consultancy) or the services (certain regiments of the British Army), the Foreign Office for men, and auctioning (art), property, business-owning or journalism/writing for women, although many for men and women are very much interchangeable.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: In 2015, Peter York argued that the Sloane population has been winnowed and that Sloanes were more likely to be leading the British trend to downward social mobility.


title: Sloane Ranger

text: Diana, Princess of Wales was considered the archetypal Sloane Ranger of the 1980s ("the 1980s Super-Sloane") by "The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook".


title: Big Syke

text: Tyruss Gerald Himes (November 22, 1968 – December 5, 2016), better known by his stage names Big Syke and Mussolini, was an American rapper best known for his work with the American hip-hop groups Thug Life and Outlawz. His stage name "Big Syke" is a revision of his childhood nickname "Little Psycho". He died at his home in Hawthorne, California on December 5, 2016.


title: Big Syke

text: In 1990, Big Syke and fellow rappers Domino and Mental Illness started a hip-hop group named Evil Mind Gangstas. In 1992 he met rapper Tupac "2Pac" Shakur and joined 2Pac's rap group Thug Life. In 1995 he joined 2Pac's second rap group The Outlaw Immortalz as Mussolini and recorded songs for 2Pac's 1996 album "All Eyez on Me", including "Picture Me Rollin'", "When We Ride", "All Eyez on Me", and "Check Out Time".


title: Big Syke

text: Big Syke died at his home in Hawthorne, California on December 5, 2016, at the age of 48 from natural causes.


title: Guntō

text: The was a ceremonial sword produced for the Imperial Japanese army and navy after the introduction of conscription in 1872.


title: Guntō

text: During the Meiji period, the samurai class was gradually disbanded, and the Haitōrei Edict in 1876 forbade the carrying of swords in public except for certain individuals such as former samurai lords ("daimyōs"), the military and police. Skilled swordsmiths had trouble making a living during this period as Japan modernized its military and many swordsmiths started making other items such as cutlery. Military action by Japan in China and Russia during the Meiji Period helped revive the manufacture of swords and in the Shōwa period (1926–1989) before and during World War II swords were once again produced on a large scale.


title: Guntō

text: During the pre World War II military buildup and throughout the war, all Japanese officers were required to wear a sword. Traditionally made swords were produced during this period but, in order to supply such large numbers of swords, blacksmiths with little or no knowledge of traditional Japanese sword manufacture were recruited. In addition, supplies of the type of Japanese steel (tamahagane) used for sword making were limited so several other types of steel were substituted. Shortcuts in forging were also taken, such as the use of power hammers and tempering the blade in oil rather than hand forging and water tempering; these measures created swords without the usual characteristics associated with Japanese swords.


title: Guntō

text: The non-traditionally made swords from this period are called "Shōwatō." In 1937, the Japanese government started requiring the use of special stamps on the tang to distinguish these swords from traditionally made swords. During this wartime period antique swords from older time periods were remounted for use in military mounts. In Japan, "shōwatō" are not considered to be true Japanese swords, and they can be confiscated. Outside Japan they are collected as historical artifacts.


title: Guntō

text: The first standard sword of the Japanese military was known as the . Murata Tsuneyoshi (1838–1921), a Japanese general who previously made guns, started making what was probably the first mass-produced substitute for traditionally made samurai swords. These swords are referred to as "Murata-tō" and they were used in both the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). The "kyū guntō" was used from 1875 until 1934, and many styles closely resembled European and American swords of the time, with a wraparound hand guard (also known as a D-guard) and chrome plated scabbard ("saya"), the steel scabbard is said to have been introduced around 1900.


title: Guntō

text: Prior to 1945, many "kyū guntō" were distributed to commissioned officers to fill a demand for swords to Japan's expanding military officer classes. To distinguish individuality, wealth or craftsmanship, many swords were produced in batches as small as 1–25 to maintain the legacy of sword culture. Styles varied greatly, with inspirations drawn from swords of early periods, familial crests, and experimental artistic forms that the Meiji Restoration period had begun to introduce. Some examples have included European style silverworking, jade, cloisonné, or metalwork and paint for artistic relief.


title: Guntō

text: The was a weapon and symbol of rank used by the Imperial Japanese Army between the years of 1935 and 1945. During most of that period, the swords were manufactured at the Toyokawa Naval Arsenal.


title: Guntō

text: In response to rising nationalism within the armed forces, a new style of sword was designed for the Japanese military in 1934. The "shin guntō" was styled after a traditional slung tachi of the Kamakura Period (1185–1332). Officers' ranks were indicated by coloured tassels tied to a loop at the end of the hilt. The corresponding colors were brown-red and gold for generals; brown and red for field officers; brown and blue for company or warrant officers; brown for sergeants, sergeants major or corporals. The blades found in "shin guntō" ranged from modern machine-made blades through contemporary traditionally-manufactured blades to ancestral blades dating back hundreds of years.


title: Guntō

text: After the Second World War's conclusion, most produced guntō were made to resemble the traditionally cloth wrapped shin-gunto swords, but out of a solid metal casting. On later models the hilts were made of aluminum and painted to resemble the lacing (ito) on officer's "shin-guntō" swords. These swords will have serial numbers on their blades and are nearly always machine made. If the sword is all original, the serial numbers on the blade, tsuba, saya and all other parts should match.


title: Guntō

text: officers' sword replaced the Western style "kyu gunto" in 1934. It had a traditionally constructed hilt ("tsuka") with ray skin ("same") wrapped with traditional silk wrapping ("ito"). A cherry blossom (a symbol of the Imperial Japanese Army) theme was incorporated into the guard ("tsuba"), pommels ("fuchi" and "kashira"), and ornaments ("menuki").


title: Guntō

text: The scabbard for the Type 94 was made of metal with a wood lining to protect the blade. It was often painted brown and was suspended from two brass mounts, one of which was removable and only used when in full dress uniform. The fittings on the scabbard were also decorated with cherry blossom designs.


title: Guntō

text: released in 1935 was designed for use by non-commissioned officers (NCOs). It was designed to resemble an officer's "shin guntō" but be cheaper to mass-produce. All NCOs' swords had machine-made blades with deep fullers ("bo hi") and a serial number stamped on the blade in arabic numerals. Initially the hilts were cast out of metal (either copper or aluminium) and painted to resemble the traditionally produced items on the officer's swords. They had brass guards similar to the officer's "shin guntō".


title: Guntō

text: By 1945 a simplified NCO sword was being produced. It had a simple wooden hilt with cross hatched grooves for grip. The scabbards were made from wood instead of metal and the guard and other fittings were made from iron instead of brass.


title: Guntō

text: The change to occurred in 1938 and was essentially a simplification of the Type 94. There were only minor differences between early Type 98 swords and the Type 94 swords that preceded them. Most notably the second (removable) hanging point was omitted from the scabbard.


title: Guntō

text: Many changes occurred to the Type 98 between 1938 and the end of the war in 1945. Late in the war Japan's supply of metal was drying up and "shin guntō" were produced with painted wooden scabbards, and with cheaper or no brass ornamentation. Some of the final swords produced in the last year of the war utilized cheap copper or blackened iron fittings.


title: Guntō

text: are the less common naval versions of the "shin guntō". Some "kai gunto" were produced with stainless steel blades.


title: Mike Figgis

text: Michael Figgis (born 28 February 1948) is an English film director, screenwriter, and composer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for his work in "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995). Figgis was the founding patron of the independent filmmakers online community "Shooting People".


title: Mike Figgis

text: Figgis was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, and grew up in Nairobi, Kenya until he was eight. The rest of his childhood was spent in Newcastle upon Tyne.


title: Mike Figgis

text: Figgis's early interest was in music. He played trumpet and guitar in The People Band and is audible in their first record (produced by Charlie Watts) in 1968. He also played keyboards for Bryan Ferry's first band. In 1983 he directed a theatre play, produced in Theatre Gerard-Philipe (Saint-Denis, Paris). This play performed with great success at Festival de Grenada and in Theater der Welt (Munich).


title: Mike Figgis

text: After working in theatre (he was a musician and performer in the experimental group People Show) Figgis made his feature film debut with the low budget "Stormy Monday" in 1988. The film earned him attention as a director who could get interesting performances from established Hollywood actors. His first American film was "Internal Affairs", which helped to revive the career of Richard Gere. His next Hollywood feature, "Mr. Jones", was misunderstood by the studio, who attempted to market the downbeat story as a feelgood film, resulting in a box office flop. Figgis poured his disenchantment with the film industry into "Leaving Las Vegas", which starred Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, which earned Figgis Academy Award nominations for Best Directing and Best Screenplay. He followed this up with the romantic drama "One Night Stand", starring Wesley Snipes and Nastassja Kinski, but the movie received a poor response from critics and was a commercial failure. His most ambitious film to date is the low-budget film "The Loss of Sexual Innocence", a loosely based autobiographical film of the director himself.


title: Mike Figgis

text: In 2007, Figgis shot "Love Live Long" set between Istanbul and Bratislava on the infamous Gumball 3000 Rally, starring Sophie Winkleman and Daniel Lapaine. In 2008, he was called upon by Transport for London to help shoot a PIF entitled "A Little Thought From Each of Us, A Big Difference For Everyone", encouraging more considerate behaviour on London's public transport systems, which was then shown in London cinemas. The ad comprised the screen split into four sections, each section showing one of four scenarios all on the same double-decker bus. At the end of the ad, the friction-creating scenarios were resolved and the ad ended on "A little thought from each of us. A big difference for everyone."


title: Mike Figgis

text: Forays into digital video technology led Figgis to conceive of and direct "Timecode", which took advantage of the technology to create an ensemble film shot simultaneously with four cameras all in one take and also presented simultaneously and uncut, dividing the screen into four-quarters. He returned to the "Timecode" quad-screen approach for his section of "Ten Minutes Older", but has also worked on documentary pieces including a segment of "The Blues (called Red, White, and Blues)" and a short piece on flamenco. His curiosity with the cinematic use of time has led him to cite Robert Enrico's 1962 film version of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" as an influential film for him. Figgis has a well-documented love-hate relationship with the Hollywood system which leads him to often be an outspoken critic of the system while also despairing the lack of a better alternative. At an appearance at Camerimage in 2005, he expressed the view that filmmaking had become "boring and perhaps need[ed] to become even worse before anything better can emerge" successfully at least in reaction.


title: Mike Figgis

text: At one of the "Shooting People" events in 2005 he said that filmmaking with a small digital camera made the experience more like painting or novel writing than the movie industry. His fascination with camera technology has also led him to create a camera stabilisation rig for smaller video cameras, called the Fig Rig which places the camera on a platform held within a steering wheel-like system and has since been released by Manfrotto Group.


title: Mike Figgis

text: To promote a new camera phone, Sony Ericsson commissioned Figgis to create "Life Captured", a short film made out of mobile phone snapshots taken by 14 people from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, who were selected to submit a series of photos after winning the global competition.


title: Mike Figgis

text: Figgis, since 2008, has been professor of film studies at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where he conducts intensive summer seminars.


title: Jason Dawe (presenter)

text: Jason Andrew Dawe (born 4 May 1967) is an English journalist and television presenter. He presented the rebooted first series of "Top Gear" on BBC Two alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. In 2005, he began presenting "Used Car Roadshow"; the programme was cancelled two years later in 2007. He also presented the programme "Classic Gear", which was supposed to be a remake of the 1978–2001 format of Top Gear.


title: Jason Dawe (presenter)

text: Dawe is a regular columnist in "The Sunday Times" motoring section, where he has written extensively about used cars. Together with Nick Rufford of "The Sunday Times" he has also made many video broadcasts of car reviews. He writes for many other motoring magazines and is a regular contributor to radio and TV shows as a motoring expert.


title: Jason Dawe (presenter)

text: In addition to this, Dawe has also been occasionally known to write in the "Automobile Association magazine".


title: Jason Dawe (presenter)

text: Initially, Jeremy Clarkson wanted James May to present the rebooted series of "Top Gear"; however, May declined, with Dawe later agreeing to present the first series alongside Clarkson and Richard Hammond.


title: Jason Dawe (presenter)

text: When May wished to present the show for the second series due to the increasing popularity of the programme, Clarkson thought about Dawe staying and to have four presenters. However, his co-presenter Richard Hammond was close to being fired by BBC management alongside Dawe. Nevertheless show executive producer Andy Wilman strongly supported Hammond's position on the show at the time, stating later in "The Guardian" "There was no doubt that Richard would stay”.


title: Jason Dawe (presenter)

text: Following his departure from "Top Gear", Dawe returned to his presenting career in 2005, appearing on ITV's "Used Car Roadshow" with Penny Mallory until the programme was cancelled in 2007.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: Pushpaka Vimana () is a 1987 Indian black comedy film written and directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, who co-produced it with Shringar Nagaraj. The film, which has no dialogue, stars Kamal Haasan leading an ensemble cast that includes Samir Khakhar, Tinu Anand, K. S. Ramesh, Amala, Farida Jalal, Pratap Potan, Lokanath, P. L. Narayana and Ramya. It revolves around an unemployed graduate who encounters a drunk rich man unconscious and takes over his lifestyle after keeping him prisoner. However, he does not realise the dangers he has brought upon himself because a hired killer believes him to be his target.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: Rao's desire to make a dialogue-less film came when he was working as an assistant director in a film where a character had to emote fear without dialogue in a scene. Once the idea for "Pushpaka Vimana" materialised, Rao wrote the screenplay within two weeks. The film was the only one produced by Nagaraj. Due to the lack of dialogue, Rao was able to cast actors from different parts of India. The cinematography was handled by B. C. Gowrishankar, editing by D. Vasu, art direction by Thota Tharani, and the background score was composed by L. Vaidyanathan. The film was shot in Bangalore, Karnataka.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: The film was released on 27 November 1987 with different titles for different regions: its original title "Pushpaka Vimana" in Karnataka, "Pushpaka Vimanam" in Andhra Pradesh, "Pushpak" () in Hindi-speaking regions, "Pesum Padam" () in Tamil Nadu, and "Pushpakvimanam" in Kerala. It received critical acclaim and became a commercial success, with a 35-week theatrical run in Bangalore. The film won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment as a Kannada-language entry and in three categories at the 35th Filmfare Awards South in the Kannada branch: Best Film, Best Director (Rao) and Best Actor (Haasan).


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: An unemployed graduate living in a ramshackle lodge called Anand Bhavan dreams of riches. He tries to show off his meagre wealth in front of a roadside beggar but is then humbled to discover the beggar has accumulated more money than him. He meets a young woman trying on earrings in a fancy shop and then sees her again while waiting in line to apply for job vacancies. She mistakes the expensive car he is leaning against to be his, and he happily pretends she is right.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: One night, the graduate finds a drunk rich man unconscious by the roadside. Finding in his pocket, a key to a suite in the plush "Pushpak" hotel, the graduate kidnaps and imprisons the rich man in his room at Anand Bhavan, while he moves into the rich man's suite at Pushpak, and takes over his lifestyle.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: The rich man's wife has an extramarital affair with his friend, who hires a contract killer to kill the rich man without her knowledge. The killer stakes out the rich man's suite at Pushpak and mistakes the graduate as his target. The graduate discovers the same young woman in a suite opposite his balcony in the same hotel. She is the daughter of a magician performing at the hotel, and she slaps him after mistaking him for pulling a prank on her. They mend ways while paying tribute at the funeral of the hotel owner, and then they spend time together and develop a romantic relationship.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: Meanwhile, the killer tries to kill the graduate with ice daggers, but he fails in every attempt, with the graduate unaware of the threat to his life. Eventually, the graduate realises the killer is in the hotel to kill someone but does not know who. The killer intrudes into his suite, and barely survives getting electrocuted while trying to stab the graduate. The killer travels to the lover's bungalow to report his failure, and the graduate follows him and learns the truth. The rich man's wife learns of her lover's treachery and leaves him.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: In a montage shown about the hotel owner, the graduate realises that he was once a poor man similar to himself. Seeing what the hotel owner achieved by fair means, the graduate begins to question his actions. He sees the roadside beggar has died, and municipality workers arrive to take away the body. However, discovering the beggar's stash, they abandon his body and squabble over the money. The graduate decides to stop his deceit. He frees the rich man and explains the situation to him in a letter. The rich man and his wife reunite, and he stops drinking.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: The graduate decides to come clean to the magician's daughter too. He learns the magician's family is about to leave Pushpak. He confesses the truth to the magician's daughter, and to his surprise she forgives him. She writes down something on a paper and drops a rose wrapped in the paper from her car window as they depart Pushpak. The graduate picks up the rose, but the wind blows the paper into a gutter. Later, the graduate is shown standing in line again to apply for job vacancies.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: Singeetam Srinivasa Rao was assisting director K. V. Reddy in a film where there was a scene requiring a character to emote fear without dialogues. Rao wondered if he could make an entire film that way for a long time, but did not have an idea for the story. The idea for the film that would become "Pushpaka Vimana" came to Rao when he was in a shower, after which he wrote the screenplay within two weeks. Kamal Haasan agreed to work on the film after being impressed by the script. According to him, the story was originally a tragedy, but after being inspired by Charlie Chaplin, he and Rao decided to change it to a tragicomedy. "Pushpaka Vimana" thus became the first full-length dialogue-less film in India after the "silent era" of cinema.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: The film struggled to find a producer, prompting Rao to take over production himself. When Kannada actor Shringar Nagaraj, a relative of Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar with whom Rao was working at that time, heard that Rao was producing a film on his own, he asked about the subject. Rao narrated "Pushpaka Vimana", Nagaraj showed excitement and joined as co-producer, with the film being produced under Mandakani Chitra, a company based in Bangalore, Karnataka. "Pushpaka Vimana" was the only film Nagaraj had produced in his entire career. Cinematography was handled by B. C. Gowrishankar, editing by D. Vasu, and art direction by Thota Tharani, who had worked with Rao on "Raja Paarvai" (1981).


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: Since the film had no dialogue, Rao chose to cast actors from different parts of India. Haasan, a native of Tamil Nadu, was cast as the protagonist, an unemployed graduate. He had to shave his signature moustache for the role. Rao initially wanted Neelam Kothari to be the female lead, but she wanted to wear "glittering costumes" like in Bollywood films; hence, Rao did not cast her. After seeing Amala compere an awards function at Madras, enquiring about her and getting to know about her Kalakshetra background, he approached her and she accepted. Rao decided to cast Samir Khakhar as the drunk rich man, inspired by his drunkard character Khopdi from the Hindi television series "Nukkad".


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: Rao initially approached Amrish Puri to portray the contract killer, but he could not accept the offer due to unavailability of dates. Haasan's then-wife Sarika showed a photograph of Tinu Anand and successfully recommended him for the role. Pratap Potan, then known mainly for portraying dark characters, portrayed a comical character, the extramarital lover of Ramya's character. Rao initially wanted Bengali magician P. C. Sorcar Jr. to portray the female lead's magician father, but ultimately chose K. S. Ramesh after seeing his performance in a magic show on television in Bangalore, where the story is set. Farida Jalal, who was then visiting Bangalore, was cast as the female lead's mother. According to Rao, P. L. Narayana proved the "ideal choice" for playing the beggar.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: Thota Tharani constructed a street set for the film beside the Hyland Hotel in Bangalore. The ramshackle room where the graduate lives, and the building itself, was constructed above the hotel. Most of the shooting was done in the Windsor Manor hotel in Bangalore. The management of Windsor Manor were not initially willing to let the film be shot there, but after Nagaraj told them that "the entire world will know about this hotel after the film", they agreed. The scenes where the graduate meets the beggar were shot at a bridge near Windsor Manor. According to Anand, Rao wanted the entire cast to be present at all times, regardless of whether they were filming scenes or not.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: As Ramesh was not as old as his character, Rao "made him look old". The killer's signature weapon is an ice dagger. For this reason, every night, an ice mould in the shape of a dagger was kept in the freezer; however, the ice dagger would often melt soon by morning because of the strong density lights being used in the shooting. Rao ultimately decided to use an acrylic dagger, which looked like an ice dagger. The entire budget of the film was 35 lakh (worth 13 crore in 2021 prices).


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: The film had no songs, only background score. Rao wanted a composer who could work as per his demands and requirements for the scenes, for this L. Vaidyanathan was chosen to compose the score. Sitar exponent Janardhan Mitta contributed to the re-recording using two other instruments apart from minimal orchestration.


title: Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

text: Rao called "Pushpaka Vimana" a personal film because "that's the life I lead. I don't want to amass wealth. At the same time, I am not a person who romanticises poverty. Money is important, but that is not everything." Anjana Shekar of "The News Minute" said the film satirises unemployment, an issue that was prevalent in India in the 1980s. She compared it to Mark Twain's novel "The Prince and the Pauper" because of the concept of identity switching, with the difference being that in "Pushpaka Vimana" the switching is not mutually agreed upon and the two men do not look alike. Anjana said that the climax in which the graduate is shown standing in a long queue of job seekers indicates that nothing has changed for him "except that now, he's willing to take the metaphorical stairs to succeed in life." Historian Bhagwan Das Garga noted similarities between the graduate and Walter Mitty, because of how the former "fantasises about riches". Rao named "The Inspector General" (1949), where a civil servant is mistaken for a high-ranking inspector, as an inspiration on "Pushpaka Vimana", and also took inspiration from his personal experiences in the 1950s.