title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Atlanta University was founded on September 19, 1865 by James Tate and Grandison Daniels. Two years later, Edmund Asa Ware of the American Missionary Association was appointed the first president. Atlanta University was chartered in 1867 with the assistance from Oliver Otis Howard of the Freedmen's Bureau. He also appointed William J. White as educational agent of the Freedmen's Bureau on January 12, 1867. White was the half-brother of founder James Tate and was the co-founder of the Augusta Institute in 1867, which would become Morehouse College. He served as trustee of Atlanta University in 1869.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Atlanta University—now Clark Atlanta University—is the first HBCU in the Southern United States, and the nation's oldest graduate institution serving a predominantly African-American student body. It was chartered on October 17, 1867. It offered its first instruction at the postsecondary level in 1869. Its first graduating class was in 1873 (normal school for future teachers including women), and it awarded its first six bachelor's degrees in June 1876.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Atlanta University was the first to accept women, and the first HBCU to have a women's dormitory, North Hall, built in 1869. One woman earned a bachelor's degree from Atlanta University between 1876 and 1895. Seven women received bachelor's degrees from Atlanta University between 1895 and 1900. Atlanta University awarded bachelor's degrees 53 years (1876-1929) before exclusively offering graduate degrees.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: A 1912 catalog shows that Atlanta University had three divisions—the college and the normal school, each with a preparatory division. Enrollment that year was 403-40 college students, 62 normal students, 115 high school students in the college prep program and 183 high school students in the normal program. At that time half of the Atlanta University alumni were employed in teaching. There were a group of small Black colleges in Atlanta - Atlanta, Morehouse, Spelman, Clark, Morris Brown and Gammon - each guarding its independence but each dependent on Northern philanthropy. By the end of World War I, the Northern philanthropists were demanding mergers to improve educational quality. 1929 saw the creation of the Atlanta University Affiliation, in which Atlanta University took on a new role as the graduate school, with Morehouse and Spelman as undergraduate colleges. Before World War II, the Affiliation came to include other Black colleges in Atlanta. By 1988, Atlanta University merged with Clark College, becoming Clark Atlanta University on July 1, 1988.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Atlanta University began on West Mitchell, about a mile from downtown Atlanta. Built in 1869 by architect William H. Parkins, North Hall, now Gaines Hall, marked the first female dormitory on the campus of a co-ed school in the United States. Gaines Hall stood as Atlanta University's initial original building. A year later, South Hall opened for boys. Wings were added to each in 1871 and 1880. In 1882, Stone Hall opened as the main building, containing the chapel, lecture halls, recitation rooms, laboratories and administrative offices. By 1905 four more permanent buildings had been added, including a Carnegie Library. North Hall is the middle building, flanked by South Hall (left) and North Hall. South Hall was later demolished by Morris Brown College. A fire in mid-August 2015 threatened to raze the building completely. In October 2017, a court ruling returned the property to Clark Atlanta University.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Stanley Pritchett, Morris Brown's former president, shows a photo of Atlanta University students taken on what is now Morris Brown's campus.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Erected in 1882 on the crest of Diamond Hill on the Morris Brown College campus, Fountain Hall is one of the earlier structures for the original site of Atlanta University. Historically, the hall is significant to the city, state, and nation for its role in providing higher education to Blacks in this country. It was for this reason that Fountain Hall was made a National Historic Landmark in 1975. Architecturally, this building is important as a work of G. L. Norrman. This Atlanta architect was active during the late nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries, but few of his works have survived. The three-story, red brick structure is also an excellent example of the High Victorian style, its clock tower a rare sight in Atlanta. Over its 138-year history, Fountain Hall has served as the location for administrative offices, as well as a number of other university activities, contributing greatly to the cultural fabric of the city through the education of its citizens.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: From its construction in 1882 until 1929, Fountain Hall primarily functioned as the administration building for Atlanta University, though it contained a chapel, library, recitation rooms, and laboratories during various times in its history. It served in a similar capacity for Morris Brown College for many years. Currently, the structure contains offices, a chapel, art studios, and a gallery. Fountain Hall has been a gathering place and focus of activity in the education process of many of the mostly Black Americans attending the university and college since its construction. Because of the building's location, Fountain Hall can be seen from some distance and has long served as an impressive and identifying landmark for the historic Atlanta University Center.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: In the early 1930s, Morris Brown College was in financial trouble and was forced to give up its property at Houston and Boulevard. Since its affiliation with Spelman and Morehouse, Atlanta University was no longer using several of its original buildings. In 1932, Bishop W. A. Fountain, former college president and then chairman of the Board of Trustees, and his son, W. A. Fountain, Jr., President of Morris Brown, negotiated for the college to become part of the university system and lease some of the vacant buildings on the old campus. After this, Stone Hall became known as Fountain Hall, named for Bishop William A. Fountain. In the 1929, the college deeded the buildings, establishing a permanent home for Morris Brown College.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: The Atlanta University campus was moved to its present site, and the modern organization of the Atlanta University Center emerged, with Clark College, Morris Brown College, and the Interdenominational Theological Center joining the affiliation later. The story of the Atlanta University over the next twenty years after 1930 includes many significant developments. Graduate Schools of Library Science, Education, and Business Administration were established in 1941, 1944, and 1946, respectively. The Atlanta School of Social Work, long associated with the university, gave up its charter in 1947 to become an integral part of the university. In 1957, the controlling boards of the six institutions (Atlanta University; Clark, Morehouse, Morris Brown and Spelman Colleges; and Gammon Theological Seminary) ratified new articles of affiliation. The new contract created the Atlanta University Center. The influence of Atlanta University has been extended through professional journals and organizations, including "Phylon", and through the work of Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, a member of the center.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: The significance of Atlanta University Center rests in the quality of its leaders, faculty, and graduates. Edmund Asa Ware was Atlanta University's spiritual and intellectual father. His dedication to academic excellence and rejection of racial inferiority influenced other black colleges and American education in general. John Hope, former Morehouse president and Atlanta University's first black president, is noted in every history of American education during the first half of this century. Atlanta University's most famous faculty member (1897-1910) was W. E. B. DuBois, who began the Atlanta Studies on Negro Sociology and later became the director of publications for the NAACP.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Clark College was founded in 1869 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, which later became the United Methodist Church as the nation's first four-year liberal arts college to serve the primarily African-American student population. Originally named Clark University, the school was chartered and incorporated in 1877. It first offered instruction at the postsecondary level in 1879, and awarded its first degree (baccalaureate) in 1880. It became Clark College in 1940. It was named for Bishop Davis Wasgatt Clark, who was the first President of the Freedman's Aid Society and became Bishop in 1864. A sparsely furnished room in Clark Chapel, a Methodist Episcopal church in Atlanta's Summerhill section, housed the first Clark College class. In 1871, the school relocated to a new site on the newly purchased Whitehall and McDaniel Street property. In 1877, the School was chartered as Clark University.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: An early benefactor, Bishop Gilbert Haven, visualized Clark as the "university" of all the Methodist schools founded for the education of freedmen. After the school changed locations several times, Bishop Haven, who succeeded Bishop Clark, was instrumental in acquiring in South Atlanta, where in 1880 the school conferred its first degree. In 1883, Clark established a theology department named for Dr. Elijah H. Gammon. In 1888 the Gammon School of Theology became an independent theological seminary, and is currently part of the Interdenominational Theological Center. Clark College merged with Atlanta University on July 1, 1988 to form Clark Atlanta University.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: In 2020, MacKenzie Scott donated $15 million to Clark Atlanta University. Her donation is the largest single gift in the history of the institution.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Clark Atlanta University's main campus houses 37 buildings, including an art museum, on and is southwest of downtown Atlanta.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Clark Atlanta is the most comprehensive institution in the Atlanta University Center, offering over 40 degrees at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Clark Atlanta is annually ranked on the list of "The Washington Monthly" "Best Colleges and Universities" and consistently ranked a top 25 HBCU by "U.S. News & World Report" (No. 23).


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: The Isabella T. Jenkins Honors Program is a selective academic program established to provide a close-knit and uniquely stimulating community for high-achieving undergraduates at Clark Atlanta.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Clark Atlanta's social work graduate program consistently ranks among the 100 best in the nation by "U.S. News & World Report".


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Clark Atlanta's Center for Functional Nanoscale Measures (CFNM) has produced more black Ph.D.s in Nanoscale Science than any HBCU in the nation.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Annually between 30 and 40% of students are Georgia residents, while the remaining come from outside Georgia. Approximately 25% of students are male and 75% are female. In 2018, 89% of students identified as African-American/Black, 7% identified as other/unknown, and 4% identified as international.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: All new undergraduate students are required to attend "CAU Experience", which is five days of events orchestrated to help them get better acquainted with the legacy, traditions, culture, and community of Clark Atlanta University. The preeminent scheduled event is the formal induction ceremony where new undergraduate students are officially inducted as CAU Panthers. CAU Experience is mostly led by enthusiastic and trained student leaders known as "OGs", Orientation Guides.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: Clark Atlanta University, known athletically as the Panthers, competes within the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Division II. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football and track & field; women's sports include basketball, cross country, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: The university's marching band is known as the Mighty Marching Panther Band. "Essence" is the dance-line featured with the marching band. The band was featured in the 2002 movie "Drumline".


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: All nine of the National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations have chapters established at Clark Atlanta University. Other Greek letter organizations registered on campus include Sigma Alpha Iota, Gamma Sigma Sigma, Kappa Kappa Psi, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Tau Beta Sigma and Gamma Phi Delta.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: About two percent of undergraduate men and three percent of undergraduate women are active in CAU's National Pan-Hellenic Council.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: CAU operates WCLK (91.9 FM), Atlanta's only jazz radio station and one of the longest running in the world.


title: Clark Atlanta University

text: This is a list of notable alumni which includes graduates, non-graduate former students, and current students of Atlanta University, Clark College, Clark University, and/or Clark Atlanta University. It does not include other notable persons who may have attended Clark Atlanta University as cross-registered students (credit as an alumnus is not given to Clark Atlanta University, which has spurred controversy over the school's cross-registration policies).


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The Army Ranger Wing (ARW) (, ""SFA"") is the special operations force of the Irish Defence Forces, the military of Ireland. A branch of the Irish Army, it also selects personnel from the Naval Service and Air Corps. It serves at the behest of the Defence Forces and Government of Ireland, operating internally and overseas, and reports directly to the Chief of Staff. The ARW was established in 1980 with the primary role of counter terrorism and evolved to both special operations and counter terrorism roles from 2000 after the end of conflict in Northern Ireland. The unit is based in the Curragh Camp, County Kildare. The 2015 White Paper on Defence announced that the strength of the ARW would be considerably increased due to operational requirements at home and overseas.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The unit has served abroad in a number of international peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions including in Somalia, East Timor, Liberia, Chad, and Mali. The ARW trains with special forces units around the world, particularly in Europe. The ARW in its domestic counter terrorism role trains and deploys with the Garda Síochána (national police) specialist armed intervention unit, the Emergency Response Unit (ERU).


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The Army Ranger Wing roles are divided between wartime special operations ("Green Role") and anti-terrorism ("Black Role"), the latter known formally as military Aid to the Civil Power (ATCP):


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In the late 1960s, the Defence Forces established 'Special Assault Groups' (SAG) in the Army to meet security challenges on the border with Northern Ireland. A number of Army officers attended the United States Army Ranger School in Fort Benning, Georgia who returned to conduct Army Ranger courses in Ireland with the first held in 1969. Among its founding officers was later-to-be Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Dermot Earley. Special Assault Groups were formed comprising 40 Rangers trained in all arms, engineering and ordnance techniques. By the mid 1970s, the Defence Forces had over 300 Rangers who conducted support operations on the request of the Garda Síochána. Students on these courses were selected from among all ranks and units of the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps. The courses improved standards of physical endurance, marksmanship, individual military skills and small unit tactics. In December 1977, the Garda Síochána formed a counter terrorist unit named the Special Task Force (STF) to operate in border regions that was later to become the Emergency Response Unit.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Following an assessment of the SAG, and Rangers receiving training from the M-Squadron, an elite counter-terrorism (CT) branch of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps, in 1978 it was decided to consolidate the Rangers into a new special forces unit with a counter terrorist capability following an increase in international and national terrorism, such as the 1972 Munich massacre in Germany (then West Germany) and a number of hostage-takings by the Provisional IRA (such as the Balcombe Street siege).


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The Army Ranger Wing (ARW) was formally established, in accordance with the Defence Act, by Government order on 16 March 1980. The ARW received its colours in 1981; Black, Red and Gold, signifying Secrecy, Risk and Excellence. In 1991, the ARW was granted permission to wear the Green beret.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In April 2017, it was reported that there had been no increase in the strength of the ARW despite the 2015 White Paper's aim to considerably increase the strength of the unit.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: On 16 January 2022, there were recommendations made for some ARW operators to be based in Cork to work alongside their colleagues in the Naval Service in improving its maritime anti-terrorism capabilities. On 31 January 2022, the ex-ARW operator turned politician Cathal Berry said that he backs proposals to potentially rename the unit as the Ireland's Special Operations Force.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The unit's official name is "Sciathán Fianóglach an Airm", which is translated from the Irish language into English as "Army Ranger Wing". "Fianóglach" (representing "Ranger") is an amalgamation of two words. "Fiann" is closest to the English word "warrior", and refers to the ancient band of warriors known as "Na Fianna" in Irish mythology. "Óglach" literally means "young soldier", and is often translated as '"volunteer". Use in this context refers to the name of the Defence Forces in Irish: "Óglaigh na hÉireann" ("Irish Volunteers"). "Na Fianna" were purportedly expert warriors, so the addition of the word "Fiann" before "Óglaigh" denotes an elite element to the unit. The shoulder flash insignia of the unit uses "Fianóglach".


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The motto of the Army Ranger Wing is taken from an old Fianna poem, in Irish it is: ""Glaine ár gcroí, Neart ár ngéag, Agus beart de réir ár mbriathar"", which translates as: "The purity of our hearts, the strength of our limbs and our commitment to our promise" in English.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The Officer Commanding the Army Ranger Wing is responsible for the administrative, disciplinary and operational control of the unit, and is in turn directly under the command of the Chief of Staff at Defence Forces Headquarters (DFHQ). Information on the numerical strength of the unit and the identity of its personnel is restricted. Estimates variously put the strength at "well over a hundred" or between 140 and 150 personnel. In 2015, the Defence White Paper announced an increase in strength with reports of the unit doubling in size. The Wing is divided into operational task units each comprising several assault teams relative to each operator's area of speciality. After serving one year in an assault team an operator can apply to join a specialist team such as combat diving team, free fall parachuting team and sniping team. An example of an operational task unit is the Special Operations Maritime Task Unit (SOMTU). Support elements provide expertise in bomb disposal, medical treatment, maritime and aviation operations. The Army Ranger Wing is headquartered at the Defence Forces Training Centre (DFTC) in the Curragh Camp, with Army Rangers required to live within a defined radius. Training is carried out nationwide at a number of Department of Defence properties, including Lynch Camp in Kilworth, County Cork.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The ARW is on immediate call 24/7, 365 days a year for operations throughout the state and abroad. The ARW is on 96 hours notice to deploy overseas on special operations. The ARW is on a 1-hour alert for anti-terrorist operations to deploy anywhere on land in the Republic of Ireland using Air Corps aircraft and up to 200 miles out to sea via the Naval Service vessels. In the event of a major terrorist, hijacking or hostage incident, the ARW may be called to aid the Garda ERU, and in the past they have been put on standby to assist the Irish Prison Service during major prison riots. The ARW have also provided security at Ireland's maximum-security Portlaoise Prison. The unit has on occasion been tasked for search and rescue (SAR) operations, as the ARW have trained Arctic survival specialists.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Besides sanctioned international military missions, the unit may be deployed overseas to protect Irish diplomatic missions and diplomats (particularly in times of war or civil unrest in host countries), to provide close protection to members of the Irish government travelling overseas, to rescue kidnapped Irish citizens or to conduct intelligence operations.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The ARW is equipped with SINCGAR ITT, Harris and Racal communications equipment, which have an inbuilt encryption and frequency-hopping systems. It is also equipped with satellite communications, through the ARW C3 (Command, Control & Communications) function and in cooperation with the Communications and Information Services Corps (CIS). This means ARW teams can communicate with their GHQ from anywhere in the world. The Army Ranger Wing Intelligence Section has the ability to remotely intercept electronic and telephonic communications, working with the Directorate of Military Intelligence (J2) and Army CIS Corps.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Candidates must be serving members of the Permanent Defence Forces (PDF) from any of the three branches (Army, Air Corps or Naval Service). The candidate must be medically fit and have attained the rank of at least 3 Star Private (or equivalent). There is no age limit to attempt selection. Selection has been open to females since 1984, however, none have been successful. Usually 40 to 80 candidates attempt selection annually.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The ARW recently revised its selection and assessment procedures combining the previous Selection course & Basic Skills course into a new single course named the "Special Operations Force Qualification Course" (SOFQ). The SOFQ is conducted over 10 months (40 weeks). The Selection Course had been conducted over 3 weeks after being reduced in 2006 from 4 weeks. The Basic Skills course had been conducted over 5 months.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Module 1 assesses a candidate's level of physical fitness, motivation and suitability to progress on towards further modules (2-5) of the SOFQ course similar to the previous selection course. Candidates must pass a series of fitness assessments, map reading and individual navigation assessments, claustrophobia, water confidence, and psychometric testing. The final phase of Module 1 includes individual navigation exercises with set weights over unknown distances and completion times which can be over 250 km, culminating in an additional 65 km cross-country march carrying a 65 lb combat load in the Dublin & Wicklow mountain range. On average candidates get between four and five hours sleep per a night. Officer and senior NCO candidates are subjected to separate, rigorous scrutiny of their planning and decision-making skills to determine their suitability. The length of Module 1 is 3 weeks similar to the previous selection course length. Typically 85% of candidates fail Module 1. Between 2000 and 2005, approximately 240 attempted selection, including a female, with 50 successful.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Modules 2 to 4 consist of assessment and training in weapons and marksmanship, live-fire tactical training, special operations tactics, techniques, and procedures (green role) and counter-terrorism tactics, techniques, and procedures (black role), combat water survival, Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Extraction (SERE), communications and medical training. Upon successful completion of Module 3, candidates are awarded the "Fianóglach" shoulder tab and are provisionally assigned to the unit. Upon successful completion of Module 4, candidates are awarded the distinctive ARW green beret.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Module 5 Continuation training is the conclusion of the SOFQ course, and candidates are posted to an operational ARW task unit as an assault team operator. 3 Star Privates (and equivalents) who are successful in completing the SOFQ course pass out at the rank of Acting Corporal, and the lowest commissioned rank in the unit is that of Captain. All candidates must successfully complete the basic parachute course of five (5) static line jumps from 3,000 feet using T10 round canopies.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: As of 2012, it was reported that since the units inception less than 400 had completed training to become a Ranger.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Further specialist training courses for Rangers include advanced combat medical skills, military freefall, combat diving (taught by the specialist Naval Service Diving Section) and boat handling, close protection and handling of advanced weapons.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Prior to 2000 with The Troubles, approximately 85% of Ranger training had been dedicated to counter-terrorism. The average age of a Ranger is 31 years old with the eldest 44 years old. On average, a member of the ARW spends between 5 and 10 years serving with the unit before being returned to their home unit bringing their skills with them, but it is not uncommon for some to spend 15 years in the unit.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The ARW has its own purpose built tactical training facilities, including shooting ranges, kill houses and various urban and rural settings. The main facility is known as "Tac Town", based in the Curragh. Other ranges are located in County Wicklow. These facilities are also made available to the ERU.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In 2015, the Irish Defence Forces signed agreements with their British counterparts to deepen joint special forces peacekeeping co-operation, extending from previous deployments with British special forces in a number of combat zones.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Rangers have seen active service in a number of peacekeeping missions around the world with the United Nations, European Union (EU) and Partnership for Peace (PfP) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (the Republic of Ireland is not a member of NATO, due to its policy of military neutrality). Individual deployments include Lebanon, Bosnia, Cyprus, Iraq and Western Sahara.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The ARW's first deployment overseas was in Somalia in 1993 as part of UNOSOM II where a number of teams joined the United States-led peacekeeping coalition tasked with imposing a ceasefire in the Baidoa region. Over 100 Irish troops took part in the mission, during which the ARW wore US military uniforms to blend in with American troops.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: On one regular return journey, from protecting a food convoy/supply run to Mogadishu, Irish and Indian UN troops were ambushed by insurgents. Following an intense firefight, there were more than 10 enemies killed with no Irish or Indian fatalities reported. Following this, the Irish contingent was supplied with armoured vehicles as they had previously been relying on soft-skinned vehicles mounted with heavy calibre machine guns.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In October 1999, No 1 IRCON (Irish Contingent), an ARW platoon of 30 Rangers deployed to East Timor as part of the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) to restore peace and security following the independence referendum in August. The Australian-led mission had begun nearly a month earlier with an allied special forces coalition of Australian Special Air Service, New Zealand Special Air Service and British Special Boat Service (SBS) armed Response Force.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: No 1 IRCON was embedded in the reconnaissance company in the 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Regiment (1 RNZIR) Battalion Group together with an infantry company from the Canadian 3rd Battalion, Royal 22 Regiment bringing the battalion to full strength. The Battalion Group based in Suai was responsible for securing the south-west of the country from pro-Indonesian militia and Indonesian military (TNI) that included a long section of the border between East and Indonesian controlled West Timor.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: No 1 IRCON completed a four-month deployment followed by No 2 IRCON. In February 2000, INTERFET handed over command of military operations to the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). No 2 IRCON completed its four-month deployment in June 2000 with subsequent rotations from infantry platoons. The Battalion Group had several contacts (firefights) and a number of incidents with threat forces sustaining no casualties.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The ARW was deployed in Liberia in the aftermath of the Second Liberian Civil War as part of a peacekeeping contingent of more than 400 troops from the Irish Army, in turn, part of the mixed Irish-Swedish Force Reserve Battalion of the United Nations mission in the country, UNMIL (2003). The ARW's area of operations (AO) was "all of Liberia", consisting of 4.7 million people and 111,369 sq km (43,000 sq mi).


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: One of their most successful missions during this deployment was the rescue of a large group of civilians captured by gunmen from renegade Liberian forces. Acting on intelligence, a team of twenty heavily armed Rangers were dropped via helicopters at the town of "Gbapa". To avoid casualties among the hostages, the ARW implemented a policy of less-lethal intervention and, after surrounding a 40-foot container holding 35 hostages, rescued the innocent civilians and captured the rebel forces, including their commander. The incident, which resulted in no Irish casualties, drew praise from the international community and boosted the reputation of the ARW worldwide.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Ranger Sergeant Derek Mooney (33) of Dublin, was killed when his vehicle was involved in a motor vehicle accident during a transport convoy.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In February 2008, a Special Forces Task Group of 58 Rangers deployed to Abéché in Chad as part of the European Union Force Chad/CAR based at Camp Croci. The ARW was an Initial Entry Force together with other EUFOR special forces that conducted special reconnaissance within the Irish assigned south eastern Chad area of operations. The ARW was later based at Multi-National Base-South at Goz Beïda known as Camp Ciara in the area of operations providing security during the construction of the base. The ARW conducted vehicle patrols along the Chad / Sudan border in their Ford F-350 Special Reconnaissance Vehicles. The ARW mission ended in June 2008 with the arrival of the 97th Infantry Battalion.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In June 2019, Dáil Éireann approved sending an ARW Task Unit and staff officers to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in intelligence and operational roles, on 4-month rotations for two years. The ARW were deployed in response to an upsurge in violence in north-eastern Mali, led by militants affiliated with al-Qaeda. The Irish contingent were primarily tasked with conducting long-range reconnaissance patrols (LRRP) and deployed as part of a German-led ISTAR Task Force, benefiting from the protections and medical support in place for the larger force. 14 ARW operators are reported to be involved per rotation.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: MINUSMA is the most dangerous UN peacekeeping mission. As of October 2019, 204 peacekeepers had been killed out of a total of 15,000 deployed uniformed personnel. It is the first overseas operational deployment for the ARW as a unit, in ten years.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In February 2020, three ARW personnel were injured when an IED blast hit the armoured patrol vehicle they were travelling in, 70 km east of Gao. The personnel were airlifted to hospital but after two weeks were reported to be "back to work".


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In October 2005, Rangers and Arabic-speaking intelligence officers from Military Intelligence (J2) were deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, following the abduction of Irish journalist Rory Carroll by al-Qaeda militants. Following negotiations with Irish, British and American governments, Rory Carroll was released unharmed days later and returned safely to Ireland.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In 2009, the ARW were involved in the evacuation of GOAL aid worker Sharon Commins who was kidnapped by Janjaweed in Darfur, Sudan for more than 100 days before being released, although the government denied the involvement of the ARW at the time.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: From 2006 to 2014, it has been reported that operatives from the ARW, including from the Intelligence Section and Military Intelligence Directorate, had been on the ground in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of various international missions.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: With the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and the Libyan Civil War, the ARW, Air Corps and other Defence Forces assets were deployed in order to evacuate upwards of 115 Irish citizens from the country, mainly via the capital Tripoli. The ARW operated out of the British diplomatic mission in Malta. It was reported at the time that Irish officials printed fake boarding passes in order to bypass "tight" security at Tripoli airport, where authorities refused to allow a large number of aircraft to land or take off. Three Irish aircraft were involved in the operation.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In 2012, it was reported that the ARW could deploy 30 Rangers in the Gulf of Aden, subject to Government, Dáil and UN approval ("triple-lock"), to protect international shipping lanes against Somali pirates as part of the EU's Operation Atalanta.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: As of 2014, Rangers were serving missions on three continents, including training foreign forces in Africa and the Balkans, protection duties in Lebanon for the United Nations mission and security and intelligence operations on the Israeli-Syrian border (Golan Heights).


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In late 2015, Private John O'Mahony (Ret.) gave evidence as a witness in a military trial in Beirut, Lebanon against Mahmoud Bazzi, a former Lebanese militia fighter accused of murdering Private Thomas Barrett and Private Derek Smallhorne of the Irish Army in April 1980 in Southern Lebanon (see At Tiri Incident). O'Mahony was accompanied during his entire time in Lebanon by a Close Protection Team from the Army Ranger Wing.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: The ARW was chosen to spearhead the special operations task group (SOTG) for the EU Battlegroup rapid reaction force based in Germany, deploying in late 2019. It was the fourth time the Irish Defence Forces served in the Battlegroup, but the first time the ARW have as a unit. The wider force comprises 1,500 troops from EU member states. The ARW trained with the battlegroup for six months after which they remained on standby with it for 18 months. This overlapped with the unit's rotations to MINUSMA in Mali.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In October 2019 it was reported that the ARW were deployed to the Syrian border to extract Lisa Smith - a former Irish Army soldier who converted to Islam before fleeing Ireland to join ISIS - and her two-year-old child in a Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) after the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria resulted in Kurdish-held ISIS prisoners escaping, including Smith, although the Defence Forces or Irish government did not confirm this. ARW personnel were in plainclothes and "discreetly armed" for protection purposes. Smith was repatriated to Dublin Airport where she was arrested by Gardai and charged with terrorism offences.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: During the War in Afghanistan, ARW personnel served in small numbers with ISAF and RSM from October 2006 to March 2007 and from September 2014 to March 2015, mainly as trainers, medical staff and IED experts. On 23 August 2021 in the aftermath of the Fall of Kabul to the Taliban, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney approved the deployment of an Emergency Consular Assistance Team (ECAT) comprising ARW personnel and a small team of DFA diplomats to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in order to evacuate Irish citizens. The options available to the Irish government to extract its citizens were hampered by Ireland's lack of an organic strategic airlift capability. The mission ended on 26 August, just 48 hours after the team touched down in Kabul and resulted in the evacuation of 26 Irish citizens. It was reported the last members of the ECAT team left minutes after a deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In December 1983 the ARW was involved in an operation against a Provisional IRA "unit" on the loose in woodland in the South of County Leitrim that had been holding hostage for ransom a kidnapped businessman, the ARW having been sent in by the Government after the P-IRA had murdered a Garda officer and an Irish Army soldier that had found their hideout.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In the early 1990s the ARW took part in operations in support of the Garda Emergency Response Unit against the Provisional IRA.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In January 1997, two teams of 12 from the ARW were sent to Mountjoy Prison in central Dublin where three prisoners armed with knives had taken two prison officers hostage and barricaded themselves inside the Medical Unit where they were threatening to kill the prison officers. The ARW took up positions ready to blow down the steel door to the unit and eliminate the threat posed by the hostage-takers. The siege ended within a few hours of the ARW being called in after the hostage-takers were made aware of their presence during negotiations and surrendered.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In May 2011, the unit had a major role in protecting Queen Elizabeth II on her state visit to Ireland, where "viable" assassination attempts by dissident republican terrorists were prevented. The ARW had airborne sniper teams in three AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters, counter assault teams in the motorcade and a number of ground teams, including 20 close protection officers.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Also in May 2011, President of the United States Barack Obama received protection from the ARW on his visit to Ireland just days after the visit of the Queen. The two visits were the largest civil security operations ever undertaken in the Republic of Ireland, both ultimately successful.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: From January to July 2013, the wing formed part of the security apparatus for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, held by Ireland for six months, which included supplying sniper and spotter teams. Also in June 2013, they helped secure the Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border on land and at sea as part of the security operation for the 39th G8 summit in Northern Ireland.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: Three Rangers are known to have died while serving in the unit since its foundation in 1980, one of them overseas. Sergeant Derek Mooney, aged 33, of Blackrock, Dublin, died after the Land Rover Defender he was driving in a convoy overturned due to poor road conditions, 40 km south of Monrovia, Liberia on 27 November 2003. Sgt Kevin Mayne (1987) and RQMS Patsy Quirke (1998) also lost their lives while serving in the unit, however no details regarding the cause of their deaths are publicly available. No other losses have been publicly disclosed.


title: Army Ranger Wing

text: In Paul O'Brien and Wayne Fitzgerald's book "Shadow Warriors", it states "four operatives losing their lives while on active service" with the ARW, however their names and details are omitted at the request of the Irish Defence Forces. They are remembered on a memorial located within the ARW compound at the Curragh Camp.


title: Tips Industries

text: Tips Industries Limited is an Indian music record label and film production, film promotion, and film distribution company in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Kumar S. Taurani and Ramesh S. Taurani in 1975. Its distributors serve more than 1,000 wholesalers and 400,000 retailers across India.


title: Tips Industries

text: In 1975, the Taurani brothers used to trade in LP’s (Long Playing Phonograph Records) for three of the biggest companies in India – HMV, Music India & CBS. By 1977, they had become the biggest dealers for these companies in Western India. Today, Tips also handles film production.


title: Power take-off

text: A power take-off or power takeoff (PTO) is one of several methods for taking power from a power source, such as a running engine, and transmitting it to an application such as an attached implement or separate machine.


title: Power take-off

text: Most commonly, it is a splined drive shaft installed on a tractor or truck allowing implements with mating fittings to be powered directly by the engine.


title: Power take-off

text: Semi-permanently mounted power take-offs can also be found on industrial and marine engines. These applications typically use a drive shaft and bolted joint to transmit power to a secondary implement or accessory. In the case of a marine application, such shafts may be used to power fire pumps.


title: Power take-off

text: In aircraft applications, such an accessory drive may be used in conjunction with a constant speed drive. Jet aircraft have four types of PTO units: internal gearbox, external gearbox, radial drive shaft, and bleed air, which are used to power engine accessories. In some cases, aircraft power take-off systems also provide for putting power "into" the engine during engine start. See also Coffman starter.


title: Power take-off

text: Also, in wave energy technology to harness the ocean wave energy, the power take-off systems are used. The working principle can vary and be classified as a direct mechanical drive system, hydro turbine transfer system, hydro motor system, pneumatic air turbine transfer system, and direct electrical drive system.


title: Power take-off

text: Various power transmission methods were available before power take-offs became common, but there were applications which would benefit more from some of the attributes that PTOs would provide. Flat belts were generally only useful for applications where the engine was stationary, such as factory steam engines, portable stationary engines, or traction engines parked in front of the work. For moving vehicles such as a traction engine or early tractor towing a farm implement, the implement could receive rotary power by taking it from one of its own wheels (whose turning was imparted by the towing) and distributing it via roller chains (to a sickle bar's crank, for example), but such a transmission ceases if the vehicle stops traveling, and the workload's resistance tends to make the wheel skid rather than turn, even if cleated. The concept of a shaft drive with easily connected and disconnected couplings, and flexibility for driving at changing angles (such as when an articulated tractor-and-trailer combination turns), was a goal to pursue.


title: Power take-off

text: Experimental power take-offs were tried as early as 1878, and various homemade versions were constructed over the subsequent decades.


title: Power take-off

text: International Harvester Company (IHC) was first to market with a PTO on a production tractor, with its model 8-16, introduced in 1918. Edward A. Johnston, an IHC engineer, had been impressed by a homemade PTO that he saw in France about a decade before, improvised by a French farmer and mechanic surnamed Gougis. He and his IHC colleagues incorporated the idea into the 8-16, and designed a family of implements to take advantage of the feature. IHC was not alone in the market for long, as within a year PTOs were appearing on other production tractors, such as some Case models. In 1920, IHC offered the PTO option on their 15-30 tractor, and it was the first PTO-equipped tractor to be submitted for a Nebraska tractor test. The PTO was a competitive advantage for IHC in the 1920s, and other companies eventually caught up with PTO implementation.


title: Power take-off

text: Inside the transmission, the exact point along the gear train where the power is taken off determines whether the PTO can be run independently of vehicle travel (ground speed). Early PTOs were often taken off the main output shaft, meaning that the vehicle had to be "in gear" in order to run the PTO. Later this was improved by so-called live PTO (LPTO) designs, which allow control of the PTO rotation independently of the tractor motion. This is an advantage when the load driven by the PTO requires the tractor motion to slow or stop running to allow the PTO driven equipment to catch up. It also allows operations where the tractor remains parked, such as silo-filling or unloading a manure spreader to a pile or lagoon rather than across a field. In 1945, Cockshutt Farm Equipment Ltd of Brantford, Ontario, Canada, introduced the Cockshutt Model 30 tractor with LPTO. Most PTOs built today are live. In modern tractors, LPTO is often controlled by push-button or selector switch. This increases safety of operators who need to get close to the PTO shaft.


title: Power take-off

text: The PTO and its associated shafts and universal joints are a common cause of incidents and injury in farming and industry. According to the National Safety Council, six percent of tractor related fatalities in 1997 in the United States involved the PTO. Incidents can occur when loose clothing is pulled into the shaft, often resulting in bone fractures, loss of limb, or death to its wearer. On April 13, 2009 former Major League Baseball star Mark Fidrych died as a result of a PTO related accident; "He appeared to have been working on the truck when his clothes became tangled in the truck's power take-off shaft", District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said in a statement. Despite much work to reduce the frequency and severity of agricultural injuries, these events still occur. Power take-off entanglements are one example of agricultural events that can lead to death or permanent disability.


title: Power take-off

text: Agricultural PTOs are standardized in dimensions and speed. The ISO standard for PTOs is "ISO 500", which as of the 2004 edition was split into three parts:


title: Power take-off

text: The original type (designated as Type 1) calls for operation at 540 revolutions per minute (rpm). A shaft that rotates at 540 rpm has six splines on it, and a diameter of .


title: Power take-off

text: Two newer types, supporting higher power applications, operate at 1000 rpm and differ in shaft size. The larger shaft has 20 splines (diameter ) (designated as Type 3), while the smaller has 21 splines (diameter ) (designated as Type 2). Farmers typically differentiate these two types by calling them "large 1000" or "small 1000" as compared to the Type 1 which is commonly referred to as the "540".


title: Power take-off

text: Due to ever-increasing horsepower requirements from farm implements, and higher horsepower engines being installed in farm tractors, a still larger type (designated as Type 4) has been added to ISO 500. It operates at a higher rotational speed of 1300 rpm in order to allow for power transfer at reduced levels of torque. The shaft has 22 splines with a major diameter of 57.5 millimeters (mm). It is meant to handle PTO powers up to 450 kilowatts (kW), or roughly 600 horsepower (hp).


title: Power take-off

text: All four types rotate counterclockwise when viewed from inside the tractor's cab; when standing behind the tractor, the shaft turns clockwise.


title: Power take-off

text: A 10-spline type was used with some early equipment such as the 1948 Land Rover. A six-spline adapter was usually supplied. It is customary for agricultural machines manufacturers to provide the nominal PTO power specification, an indication of the available instantaneous power at the shaft. Newer tractors may come equipped with 540/540E and/or 1000/1000E options that allow the tractor to power certain low-power-demand implements like hay rakes or tedders using lower engine speeds to maintain the revolutions per minute needed, using less fuel and placing less stress on the engine – thereby improving efficiency and reducing costs.


title: Power take-off

text: The first industry standard for PTO design was adopted by ASAE (the American Society of Agricultural Engineers) in April 1927. The PTO rotational speed was specified as 536 ± 10 rpm; the direction was clockwise. The speed was later changed to 540 rpm.


title: Power take-off

text: Truck transmissions have one or more locations which allow for a PTO to be mounted. The PTO must be purchased separately and care is required to match the physical interface of the transmission with a compatible PTO. PTO suppliers will usually require details of the make, model and even serial number of the transmission. Care is also needed to ensure that the physical space around the transmission allows for installation of the PTO. The PTO is engaged and disengaged using the main transmission clutch and a remote control mechanism which operates on the PTO itself. Typically, an air valve is used to engage the PTO, but a mechanical linkage, electric or hydraulic mechanism are also options.


title: Power take-off

text: Units will be rated according to the continuous and intermittent torque that can be applied through them and different models will offer different "PTO shaft rotation to engine RPM" ratios.


title: Power take-off

text: In the majority of cases, the PTO will connect directly to a hydraulic pump. This allows for transmission of mechanical force through the hydraulic fluid system to any location around the vehicle where a hydraulic motor will convert it back into rotary or linear mechanical force. Typical applications include:


title: Power take-off

text: A split shaft PTO is mounted to the truck's drive shaft to provide power to the PTO. Such a unit is an additional gearbox that separates the vehicle's drive shaft into two parts:


title: Power take-off

text: The unit itself is designed to independently divert the engine's power to either the axle-facing shaft or the additional PTO output shaft. This is done by two independent clutches like tooth or dog clutches, which can be operated at total driveline standstill only. Because the main gearbox changes the rotation speed by selection of a gear, the PTO cannot be operated while the vehicle is moving.


title: Power take-off

text: On 4x4 vehicles, only the rear drive shaft is used by the split shaft PTO gearbox, requiring the vehicle's 4x4 drive scheme to be of the "selectable 4WD" type to keep the front axle drive shaft completely decoupled during PTO operation.


title: Power take-off

text: It is also possible to connect something other than a hydraulic pump directly to the PTO: for example, fire truck pumps.


title: Power take-off

text: A "sandwich" type split shaft unit is mounted between engine and transmission and used on road maintenance vehicles, fire fighting vehicles and off-road vehicles. This unit gets the drive directly from the engine shaft and can be capable of delivering up to the complete engine power to the PTO. Usually these units come with their own lubricating system. Due to the sandwich mounting style, the gearbox will be moved away from the engine, requiring the driveline to accommodate the installation.


title: Cloven hoof

text: A cloven hoof, cleft hoof, divided hoof or split hoof is a hoof split into two toes. This is found on members of the mammalian order Artiodactyla. Examples of mammals that possess this type of hoof are cattle, deer, pigs, antelopes, gazelles, goats and sheep. In folklore and popular culture, a cloven hoof has long been associated with the Devil.


title: Cloven hoof

text: The two digits of cloven-hooved animals are homologous to the third and fourth fingers of the hand. They are called claws and are named for their relative location on the foot: the outer, or lateral, claw and the inner, or medial claw. The space between the two claws is called the interdigital cleft; the area of skin is called the interdigital skin. The hard outer covering of the hoof is called the hoof wall or horn. It is a hard surface, similar to the human fingernail.


title: Cloven hoof

text: The almost finger-like dexterity available to cloven-hooved mammals such as mountain goats and wild sheep combined with a hard outer shell and soft and flexible inner pads provides excellent traction in their precarious habitats.


title: Cloven hoof

text: It is speculated by paleontologists that during the Eocene period hooved marsh dwellers carried their body weight mainly on two of the middle toes, which grew to equal size, becoming the Artiodactyla or even-toed hooved animals. Before the end of the Eocene period the side toes of some had dwindled and practically disappeared (mainly in the form of a dewclaw) while the basal pieces or metapodium of the pair of supporting toes became fused together, thus producing the appearance of a cloven hoof.


title: Cloven hoof

text: The mammal with a cloven hoof is an even-toed ungulate of order Artiodactyla as opposed to the odd-toed ungulates of Perissidactyla, such as the horse, which have one toe, or the rhinoceros, which has three toes. The five-toed ancestors of the earliest Eocene had already developed feet that suggest odd-toed and even-toed descendants to the modern viewer. Even Phenacodus, the most generalized of the early mammals, has a foot in which the central toe is somewhat larger than the others and could be placed in the division of odd-toed ungulates, Perissidactyla.


title: Cloven hoof

text: The distinction between cloven and uncloven hooves is highly relevant for dietary laws of Judaism ("kashrut"), as set forth in the Torah and the Talmud. Animals that "both" chew their cud (ruminate, i.e. regurgitate partly digested food from a specialised multi-chambered stomach back to the mouth to be chewed for a second time as part of their ordinary digestive process) and have split true cloven hooves (a hoof being hard or rubbery sole and a hard wall formed by a thick nail) are allowed ("kosher", lit. "fit") for Jewish consumption. Those animals that have neither of these two characteristics, or only one of the characteristics, are considered unclean animals ("treif", not fit for Jewish consumption) and Jews are forbidden to eat them.


title: Cloven hoof

text: This rule thus excludes the camel from the list of kosher animals because although the camel does ruminate it does not possess true "hooves" – it walks on soft toes which have little more than a nail merely giving an appearance of a "hoof". Similarly the pig, although it has cloven true hooves, does not ruminate. Other animals such as dogs and cats exhibit neither characteristic and are thus also forbidden for Jewish consumption.


title: Yajna

text: Yajna () refers in Hinduism to any ritual done in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras. Yajna has been a Vedic tradition, described in a layer of Vedic literature called Brahmanas, as well as Yajurveda. The tradition has evolved from offering oblations and libations into sacred fire to symbolic offerings in the presence of sacred fire (Agni).


title: Yajna

text: Yajna rituals-related texts have been called the "Karma-kanda" (ritual works) portion of the Vedic literature, in contrast to "Jnana-kanda" (knowledge) portion contained in the Vedic Upanishads. The proper completion of Yajna-like rituals was the focus of Mimansa school of Hindu philosophy. Yajna have continued to play a central role in a Hindu's rites of passage, such as weddings. Modern major Hindu temple ceremonies, Hindu community celebrations, or monastic initiations may also include Vedic Yajna rites, or alternatively be based on Agamic rituals.


title: Yajna

text: The word "yajna" () has its root in the Sanskrit meaning 'to worship, adore, honour, revere' and appears in the early Vedic literature, composed in 2nd millennium BCE. In Rigveda, Yajurveda (itself a derivative of this root) and others, it means "worship, devotion to anything, prayer and praise, an act of worship or devotion, a form of offering or oblation, and sacrifice". In post-Vedic literature, the term meant any form of rite, ceremony or devotion with an actual or symbolic offering or effort.


title: Yajna

text: A yajna included major ceremonial devotions, with or without a sacred fire, sometimes with feasts and community events. It has, states Nigal, a threefold meaning of worship of the deities ("devapujana"), unity ("sangatikarana") and charity ("dána").


title: Yajna

text: The Sanskrit word is related to the Avestan term "yasna" of Zoroastrianism. Unlike the Vedic "yajna", however, the "Yasna" is the name of a specific religious service, not a class of rituals, and they have "to do with water rather than fire". The Sanskrit word is further related to Ancient Greek "ἅζομαι" (házomai), "to revere", deriving from the Proto-Indo-European root "*Hyeh₂ǵ-" ("to worship").


title: Yajna

text: Yajna has been a part of an individual or social ritual since the Vedic times. When the ritual fire – the divine Agni, the god of fire and the messenger of gods – was deployed in a Yajna, mantras were chanted. The hymns and songs sung and oblations offered into the fire were a form of hospitality towards the Vedic gods. The offerings were believed to be carried by "Agni" to the gods, the gods in return were expected to grant boons and benedictions, and thus the ritual served as a means of spiritual exchange between gods and human beings. The Vedangas, or auxiliary sciences attached to the Vedic literature, define Yajna as follows,


title: Yajna

text: Yajña, sacrifice, is an act by which we surrender something for the sake of the gods. Such an act must rest on a sacred authority ("āgama"), and serve for man's salvation ("śreyortha"). The nature of the gift is of less importance. It may be cake (puroḍāśa), pulse ("karu"), mixed milk ("sāṃnāyya"), an animal ("paśu"), the juice of soma-plant (soma), etc; nay, the smallest offerings of butter, flour, and milk may serve for the purpose of a sacrifice.


title: Yajna

text: In the Upanishadic times, or after 500 BCE, states Sikora, the meaning of the term Yajna evolved from "ritual sacrifice" performed around fires by priests, to any "personal attitude and action or knowledge" that required devotion and dedication. The oldest Vedic Upanishads, such as the Chandogya Upanishad (~700 BCE) in Chapter 8, for example state,


title: Yajna

text: What is commonly called "Istam" (sacrificial offering) is really the chaste life of the student of sacred knowledge,


title: Yajna

text: The later Vedic Upanishads expand the idea further by suggesting that Yoga is a form of "Yajna" (devotion, sacrifice). The Shvetashvatara Upanishad in verse 1.5.14, for example, uses the analogy of "Yajna" materials to explain the means to see one's soul and God, with inner rituals and without external rituals. It states, "by making one's own body as the lower friction sticks, the syllable Om as the upper friction sticks, then practicing the friction of meditation, one may see the Deva who is hidden, as it were".


title: Yajna

text: The nature of Vedic sacrifice and rituals evolved over time, with major changes during the 1st millennium BCE, changes that influenced concepts later adopted by other traditions such as Buddhism. Early Vedic period sacrifices involved animal sacrifice, but the rituals were progressively reinterpreted over time, substituting the offerings and making it non-violent or symbolic, with the superiority of knowledge and celebration of sound of mantra replacing the physical offerings. Ultimately, the external rituals were reformulated and replaced with "internal oblations performed within the human body". These ideas of substitution, evolution from external actions (karma-kanda) to internal knowledge (jñana-kanda), were highlighted in many rituals-related sutras, as well as specialized texts such as the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (~800 BCE), Chandogya Upanishad, Kaushitaki Upanishad and Pranagnihotra Upanishad.


title: Yajna

text: The Vedic text Satapatha Brahmana defines a sacrifice as an act of abandonment of something one holds of value, such as oblations offered to god and dakshina (fees, gifts) offered during the yajna. For gifts and fees, the text recommends giving cows, clothing, horses or gold. The oblations recommended are cow milk, ghee (clarified butter), seeds, grains, flowers, water and food cakes (rice cake, for example). Similar recommendations are repeated in other texts, such as in the "Taittiriya Shakha" 2.10 of the Krishna Yajurveda).


title: Yajna

text: Tadeusz Skorupski states that these sacrifices were a part of ritual way of life, and considered to have inherent efficacy, where doing these sacrifices yielded repayment and results without the priests or gods getting involved. These Vedic ideas, adds Skorupski, influenced "the formulation of Buddhist theory of generosity". Buddhist ideas went further, criticizing "the Brahmins for their decadence and failure to live in conformity with the Brahmanic legacy of the ancient Brahmins", who claimed the Vedic ancients "lived in self restraint, were ascetics, had no cattle, no gold, and no wealth". The Buddha sought return to more ancient values, states Tadeusz Skorupski, where the Vedic sages "had study as their grain and wealth, guarded the holy life as their treasure, praised morality, austerity and nonviolence; they performed sacrifices consisting of rice, barley and oil, but they did not kill the cows".


title: Yajna

text: Vedic (Shrauta) yajnas are typically performed by four priests of the Vedic priesthood: the hota, the adhvaryu, the udgata and the Brahma. The functions associated with the priests were:


title: Yajna

text: There were usually three fires lit in the center of the offering ground. Oblations are offered into the fire. Among the ingredients offered as oblations in the yajna are ghee, milk, grains, cakes and soma. The duration of a yajna depends on its type, some last only a few minutes whereas, others are performed over a period of hours, days or even months. Some yajnas were performed privately, while others were community events. In other cases, yajnas were symbolic, such as in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad hymn 3.1.6, where "the mind is the Brahmin of sacrifice" and the goal of sacrifice was complete release and liberation (moksha).


title: Yajna

text: The benedictions proffered ranged from long life, gaining friends, health and heaven, more prosperity, to better crops. For example,


title: Yajna

text: Yajnas, where milk products, fruits, flowers, cloth and money are offered, are called "homa" or "havan". A typical Hindu marriage involves a Yajna, where Agni is taken to be the witness of the marriage.


title: Yajna

text: In Valmiki's Ramayana, it is said that Rama performed ashvamedha, vajapeya, pundarika, rajasuya, and several other yajnas multiple times.


title: Yajna

text: The Vedic yajna ritual is performed in the modern era on a square altar called "Vedi" ("Bedi" in Nepal), set in a "mandapa" or "mandala" or "kundam", wherein wood is placed along with oily seeds and other combustion aids. However, in ancient times, the square principle was incorporated into grids to build large complex shapes for community events. Thus a rectangle, trapezia, rhomboids or "large falcon bird" altars would be built from joining squares. The geometric ratios of these Vedi altar, with mathematical precision and geometric theorems, are described in Shulba Sutras, one of the precursors to the development of mathematics in ancient India. The offerings are called "Samagri" (or "Yajāka", "Istam"). The proper methods for the rites are part of Yajurveda, but also found in Riddle Hymns (hymns of questions, followed by answers) in various Brahmanas. When multiple priests are involved, they take turns as in a dramatic play, where not only are praises to gods recited or sung, but the dialogues are part of a dramatic representation and discussion of spiritual themes.


title: Yajna

text: The Brahmodya Riddle hymns, for example, in Shatapatha Brahmana's chapter 13.2.6, is a "yajna" dialogue between a "Hotri" priest and a "Brahmin" priest, which would be played out during the yajna ritual before the attending audience.


title: Yajna

text: Agni and yajna play a central role in Hindu weddings. Various mutual promises between the bride and groom are made in front of the fire, and the marriage is completed by actual or symbolic walk around the fire. The wedding ritual of "Panigrahana", for example, is the 'holding the hand' ritual as a symbol of their impending marital union, and the groom announcing his acceptance of responsibility to four deities: Bhaga signifying wealth, Aryama signifying heavens/milky way, Savita signifying radiance/new beginning, and Purandhi signifying wisdom. The groom faces west, while the bride sits in front of him with her face to the east, he holds her hand while the Rig vedic mantra is recited in the presence of fire.


title: Yajna

text: The "Saptapadi" (Sanskrit for "seven steps/feet"), is the most important ritual in Hindu weddings, and represents the legal part of Hindu marriage. The couple getting married walk around the Holy Fire ("Agni"), and the yajna fire is considered a witness to the vows they make to each other. In some regions, a piece of clothing or sashes worn by the bride and groom are tied together for this ceremony. Each circuit around the fire is led by either the bride or the groom, varying by community and region. Usually, the bride leads the groom in the first circuit. The first six circuits are led by the bride, and the final one by the groom. With each circuit, the couple makes a specific vow to establish some aspect of a happy relationship and household for each other. The fire altar or the Yajna Kunda is square.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: The 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike was the eighth and longest work stoppage in baseball history, as well as the fourth in-season work stoppage in 22 years. The strike began on August 12, 1994, and resulted in the remainder of that season, including the postseason and the World Series, being canceled. This was the first time in ninety years, since 1904, that a World Series was not played. The strike was suspended on April 2, 1995, after 232 days, making it the longest such stoppage in MLB history and the longest work stoppage in major league professional sports at the time (breaking the record set by the 1981 strike, also in MLB).


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: As a result of the 1994 Major League baseball strike, a total of 948 games were canceled, and MLB became the first-ever major American professional sports league to lose an entire postseason due to a labor dispute. Due to the strike, both the 1994 and 1995 seasons were not played to a complete 162 games; the strike began after the teams had played at least 113 games in 1994. Each team played a total of 144 games in 1995.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: This was the first time in North American professional sports that an entire postseason was canceled because of labor disputes; the second (and last to date) was the cancellation of the National Hockey League's 2005 Stanley Cup Playoffs as a result of the entire 2004-05 season being canceled. Coincidentally, the NHL also experienced a labor dispute of their own in 1994.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: In response to a worsening financial situation in baseball, the owners of Major League Baseball teams collectively proposed a salary cap to their players. Ownership claimed that small-market clubs would fall by the wayside unless teams agreed to share local broadcasting revenues (to increase equity among the teams) and enact a salary cap, a proposal that the players adamantly opposed. On January 18, 1994, the owners approved a new revenue-sharing plan keyed to a salary cap, which required the players' approval. The following day, the owners amended the Major League agreement by giving complete power to the commissioner on labor negotiations.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: The dispute was played out with a backdrop of years of hostility and mistrust between the two sides. What arguably stood in the way of a compromise settlement was the absence of an official commissioner ever since the owners forced Fay Vincent to resign in September 1992. Vincent said the owners had colluded in the signing of free agents, which led to "a $280 million theft" by Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf, which "polluted labor relations in baseball" and left Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, with "no trust in Selig." On February 11, 1994, the owners greatly reduced the commissioner's power to act in "the best interests of baseball."


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: Owner representative Richard Ravitch officially unveiled the ownership proposal on June 14, 1994. The proposal would guarantee a record $1 billion in salary and benefits. But the ownership proposal also would have forced clubs to fit their payrolls into a more evenly based structure. Salary arbitration would have been eliminated, free agency would begin after four years rather than six, and owners would have retained the right to keep a four- or five-year player by matching his best offer. Owners claimed that their proposal would raise average salaries from $1.2 million in 1994 to $2.6 million by 2001.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: Fehr rejected the offer from the owners on July 18. He believed a salary cap was simply a way for owners to clean up their own disparity problems with no benefit to the players.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: On July 13, 1994, Fehr said if serious negotiations between the players and the owners did not begin soon, the players could go out on strike in September of that year, threatening the postseason. On December 31, 1993, Major League Baseball's collective bargaining agreement ran out with no new agreement yet signed.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: As negotiations continued to heat up, the owners decided to withhold $7.8 million that they were required to pay per previous agreement into the players' pension and benefit plans. The final straw came on June 23 when the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to approve an antitrust legislation by a vote of 10–7. According to Fehr, the action left the players with little choice but to strike. "We felt in '94 we were pushed into it," he said. "I still think that's a justified conclusion."


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: On July 28, the Players Association executive board set August 12, 1994, as a strike date. When that day came, the players went ahead with their threat to walk off the job. The last games of that baseball season were played on August 11, 1994.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: On August 31, three-and-a-half hours of negotiations with federal mediators produced no progress in the strike, and no further talks were scheduled as the strike went into its 4th week. According to then-acting commissioner Bud Selig, September 9 was the tentative deadline for canceling the rest of the season if no agreement was reached between the owners and players. The MLBPA offered a counterproposal to ownership on September 8 calling for a two-percent tax on the 16 franchises with the highest payrolls to be divided among the other 12 clubs. Teams in both leagues would share 25% of all gate receipts under the MLBPA's plan. The owners responded by claiming that the measures wouldn't meet the cost.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: The rest of the season, including the World Series, was called off by Selig on September 14. Selig acknowledged that the strike had torn an irreparable hole in the game's fabric. The move to cancel the rest of the season meant the loss of $580 million in ownership revenue and $230 million in player salaries. In 1994, the average MLB salary was an estimated $1.2 million.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: The Montreal Expos' best season in their history was stopped by the strike. They had the best record in baseball, 74–40, and were six games ahead of the Atlanta Braves in the NL East despite having the second-lowest payroll in MLB. Most baseball writers considered the Expos to be World Series contenders. Coincidentally, the only time that the Expos actually made it to the postseason was in 1981, the last time that there was a significant players' strike in Major League Baseball. That season, Montreal qualified by winning the second half of the 1981 season.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: Chicago White Sox star Frank Thomas, who wound up winning the American League's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award for the second year in a row in 1994, said "I've had a career year, but I'm not going to finish it." Tony Gwynn had a chance to be the first to finish a season over .400 since Ted Williams, as he was batting .394 at the time of the strike. The strike also cost Matt Williams of the San Francisco Giants a chance to beat Roger Maris' single season home run record. When the strike forced the cancellation of the remaining 47 games of the season, Williams had already hit 43 home runs, on pace to match Maris' single season record of 61 home runs. Cleveland Indians second baseman Carlos Baerga was unable to extend his record two-year streak of 20 home runs, 200 hits, and 100 RBI by a second baseman because of the strike. Seattle Mariners star Ken Griffey Jr., who led the American League with 40 home runs at the time of the strike, summed it up by saying, "We picked a bad season to have a good year." Kevin Mitchell of the Cincinnati Reds, Julio Franco of the Chicago White Sox, and Shane Mack of the Minnesota Twins opted during the strike to play in Japan in 1995.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: By the third day of the strike, Cleveland Indians owner Richard Jacobs directed that all souvenirs being sold at the Indians' gift shop carrying the words "inaugural season at Jacobs Field" be sold at half price.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: The Colorado Rockies were completing their last season at Mile High Stadium with an attendance of 3,281,511 through 57 home games for an average of 57,570 per game. At that pace, the team would have had a good chance of drawing over 4.6 million fans in their 81 home games if the season had continued. This would have eclipsed the major league season attendance record of 4,483,350 fans set by the Rockies only the season before.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: One of the few positive notes was that fans were spared from witnessing one of the worst division races in history. The Texas Rangers were leading the newly reformed AL West despite being 10 games under .500. The last-place California Angels were only games out despite having the second-worst record in the majors at 21 games under .500—on pace for 96 losses. In fact, the two last place teams in the other American League divisions (namely, the Detroit Tigers of the AL East and Milwaukee Brewers of the AL Central) had better records than the Rangers.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: The National League's MVP award was given to Jeff Bagwell. His hand was broken by a pitch on August 10, just before the players' strike began; had the season continued, he would likely have missed the remainder of the year and might not have won the MVP. But because of the timing of his "lucky break", Bagwell became just the fourth player in National League history to win the award unanimously.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: The strike also led to an absurdity. The Minnesota Twins traded Dave Winfield to the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later. Since the strike led to the season being canceled, no further transactions could be made until it was settled. The Twins would officially be listed as having sold Winfield to the Indians, but the actual transaction was conducted much differently. Instead of the Indians buying the contract outright, team management went out for a meal with Twins management and the Indians paid the tab; this essentially meant that Winfield had been traded for dinner.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: Arguably, the biggest storyline of the strike was the New York Yankees. In having the best record in the American League, which was also the second-best record in baseball, 70–43, and a game lead over the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East, the largest division lead of any division leader, the strike cost their captain, Don Mattingly, his best chance at his postseason debut in his 13-year career. The Yankees had not been in the postseason since 1981. Because the Yankees' prior postseason chances had also been cut short by a strike, news media reported on the parallels between the two Yankee teams (1981 and 1994), both of which had division leads taken away by strike actions. Mattingly would reach the playoffs for the first and only time in his playing career the following year, being defeated at the hands of the Seattle Mariners in the ALDS in five games.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: On December 5, it was announced Richard Ravitch would step down as negotiator for the owners on December 31, 1994. Ravitch instead resigned on December 6, 1994. On December 14, labor talks headed by federal mediator William Usery broke down. The next day, the owners approved a salary cap plan by a vote of 25–3, but agreed to delay implementing it so that another round of talks with the players could be held. On December 23, with negotiations at a standstill, the owners unilaterally implemented a salary cap.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: On January 4, 1995, five bills aimed at ending the baseball strike were introduced into Congress. The next day, Fehr declared all 895 unsigned Major League players to be free agents in response to unilateral contract changes made by the owners. On January 10, arbitrator Thomas Roberts awarded 11 players a total of almost $10 million as a result of collusion charges brought against the owners. On January 26, both players and owners were ordered by President Bill Clinton to resume bargaining and reach an agreement by February 6. Unfortunately, President Clinton's deadline came and went with no resolution of the strike. Just five days earlier, the owners agreed to revoke the salary cap and return to the old agreement.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: After the deadline passed with no compromises, the use of replacement players for spring training and regular season games was approved by baseball's executive council on January 13. Replacement players were reportedly guaranteed US$5,000 for reporting to spring training and another $5,000 if they made the Opening Day roster. Selig declared that, "We are committed to playing the 1995 season and will do so with the best players willing to play."


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: On March 14, the players' union announced that it would not settle the strike if replacement players were used in regular season games, and if results were not voided. Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson was put on an involuntary leave of absence as he refused to manage replacement players.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: Replacement players created major issues for two American League teams. The Toronto Blue Jays could not play games with replacement players or umpires in Ontario, due to labour code amendments passed by the Ontario NDP that prohibited replacement workers. This was confirmed in a March 28, 1994, Ontario Labour Board hearing. Manager Cito Gaston and his coaching staff were sent to work with minor league players, and the team announced that games featuring replacement workers would be played at their spring training facility in Dunedin, Florida. The Baltimore Orioles, owned by prominent union lawyer Peter Angelos, announced they would also not be using replacement players. On March 20, Angelos's Orioles canceled the remainder of their spring training games. The next day, the Maryland House of Delegates approved legislation to bar teams playing at Camden Yards from using replacement players.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: On March 26, the MLB announced that the 1995 season would be reduced from 162 games per team to 144 games per team as a result of the use of replacement players.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: Following the end of the 1993 season, CBS Sports lost the rights to broadcast baseball games on television. Production of nationally televised games was taken over by MLB itself, which sold the games as brokered programming to ABC and NBC as part of a joint venture that was referred to as The Baseball Network. Originally, the idea was for ABC and NBC to share a slate of games aired in prime time during the week, with the two networks alternating coverage of the All-Star Game and World Series and splitting the Division and League Championship Series between them. The agreement was to run for six seasons and end in 1999, with ABC and NBC airing the World Series and All-Star Game three times each; NBC would air the All-Star Game in even numbered years while ABC would do so in odd numbered years, and the network that did not air the All-Star Game would instead carry the World Series.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: The strike, however, resulted in ABC losing out on two weeks of coverage and the World Series and NBC losing out on all of its allotted regular season games. MLB and the local NBC and ABC stations lost a combined $595 million in advertising revenue, and both networks announced that they would be opting out of the deal after the shortened 1995 season. Both networks would share coverage of the World Series that year, with ABC airing the odd numbered games and NBC the even numbered games.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: Fox became the new broadcast partner for MLB in 1996, and has remained as such since. NBC did elect to retain some broadcast rights, however; it continued to air the All-Star Game in even numbered years and retained its rights to air the World Series in odd numbered years until Fox gained exclusive rights to national MLB broadcasts in 2001.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: On March 28, 1995, the players voted to return to work if a U.S. District Court judge supported the National Labor Relations Board's unfair labor practices complaint against the owners (which was filed on March 27). By a vote of 27–3, owners supported the use of replacement players. The strike ended when Judge (and future Supreme Court Justice) Sonia Sotomayor of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction against the owners on March 31. On April 2, 1995, the day before the season was scheduled to start with the replacement players, the strike came to an official end at 232 days. Judge Sotomayor's decision received support from a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which denied the owners' request to stay the ruling.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: As part of the terms of the injunction, the players and owners were to be bound to the terms of the expired collective bargaining agreement until a new one could be reached and the start of the season would be postponed three weeks, with teams playing an abbreviated 144-game season instead of a 162-game season.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: During the first days of the 1995 season, some fans remained irate at both players and owners. Attendance at the games plummeted, as did television ratings, to a greater extent than during the last significant players strike in 1981.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: While a total of 50,010,016 fans had attended the 1,600 MLB regular season games played in 1994, averaging 31,256 per game, a total of 50,416,880 fans attended the 2,016 games of the 1995 MLB regular season, for an average attendance of just 25,008 per game. This represented a decline in average attendance of 20% from 1994 to 1995.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: A few of the fans who showed up demonstrated their frustration, and booed the players; the strike was seen as the worst work stoppage in sports history, leaving the game in crisis and some fans shaken and angry.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: The opening games were played with replacement umpires, the first time since Opening Day 1991 that replacement umpires were used.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: On August 3, 1995, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a bill calling for the partial repeal of baseball's antitrust exemption to the full Senate. The vote was just 9–8. On August 9, George Nicolau, baseball's impartial arbitrator since 1986, was fired by Major League owners. On September 29, 1995, a three-judge panel in New York voted unanimously to uphold the injunction that brought the end to the strike in April 1995. The owners had appealed the injunction issued on March 31, but the panel said the Players Relations Committee had illegally attempted to eliminate free agency and salary arbitration.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: While replacement players from the 1995 spring training were allowed to play on postseason teams, these players were not allowed to have their names or likenesses on any commemorative merchandise; furthermore, they could not be featured in video games or tabletop games, and were instead replaced by placeholder players. The affected players include Shane Spencer of the 1998, 1999, and 2000 New York Yankees; Damian Miller of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks; Brendan Donnelly of the 2002 Anaheim Angels; Kevin Millar of the 2004 Boston Red Sox; and Jamie Walker of the 2006 Detroit Tigers.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: Arguably the largest impact was to the Montreal Expos. The strike was considered to be start of the franchise's downfall in Montreal, eventually leading to them relocating to Washington, D.C. to become the current Washington Nationals. Not only did their dream season (the best record in MLB, six games ahead of the Atlanta Braves in the NL East) end abruptly, they were forced to lower payroll and sell off their four highest-paid stars (Marquis Grissom, Ken Hill, Larry Walker, and John Wetteland) in the span of less than a week in spring training. With the strike negatively affecting its fan base, the Expos would never recover from the incident. Despite respectable performances in 1996, 2002 and 2003, the team never came close to contending again; the team was purchased by Major League Baseball after the 2001 season, and would become the focus of contraction rumors until the team was moved to Washington, D.C., to become the Washington Nationals after the 2004 season. The franchise won its first World Series in 2019, as the Nationals.


title: 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike

text: Also after the 1994-95 strike, players strikes became less popular. Since then many other major professional sports leagues have preferred lockouts to settle labor disputes between owners and players unions.


title: Sheryl Crow discography

text: The discography of Sheryl Crow, an American singer-songwriter, consists of 11 studio albums, four live albums, one live EP, six compilation albums, one box set, 45 singles, six promotional singles, 13 video albums, 57 music videos, 21 B-sides and 19 soundtrack contributions. She has sold over 50 million albums worldwide. According to RIAA, she has sold 16 million certified albums in the United States. Billboard named her the 5th Greatest Alternative Artist of all time.


title: Sheryl Crow discography

text: After signing a contract with A&M Records and not wanting to release her own first attempt at a debut record thinking it was unmemorable, Crow finally released "Tuesday Night Music Club" in 1993. It remains her most successful effort to date and one of the best-selling albums of the 1990s, having sold more than ten million copies internationally by the end of the decade. Such hits as "All I Wanna Do", "Strong Enough", and "Can't Cry Anymore" garnered Crow's popularity on radio, while "Tuesday Night Music Club" became a "Billboard" 200 mainstay, rising from the debut spot at number 173 to its peak in the top five and spending exactly 100 weeks on the chart. The album also saw success in countries such as Australia and Canada and throughout Europe. In 1995, Crow won three Grammy Awards (out of five nominations), including for Best New Artist.


title: Sheryl Crow discography

text: Her second album, "Sheryl Crow", was released in 1996 and debuted at No. 6 on the "Billboard" 200, becoming Crow's second consecutive top ten album, spending over a year on the chart and ranking as the one of the most sold albums of 1996 and 1997. In less than a year, the album was certified as triple platinum. The album produced five singles: "If It Makes You Happy", "Everyday Is a Winding Road", "Hard to Make a Stand", "A Change Would Do You Good", and "Home", with the first two peaking at Nos. 10 and 11 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, respectively. The self-titled record remains Crow's most critically acclaimed album to date. Crow won two Grammy Awards for this new effort in 1997 and one additional nomination in 1998. Shortly afterwards, Crow contributed to the "Tomorrow Never Dies" soundtrack, writing and performing the theme song for the James Bond movie. The song became Crow's fifth top-20 hit in the UK and received nominations for a Golden Globe and a Grammy.


title: Sheryl Crow discography

text: Despite encountering difficulties in recording her third studio album, Crow released "The Globe Sessions" in 1998. Preceded by the top 20 hit single "My Favorite Mistake", the album debuted at No. 5 on the "Billboard" 200 and went on to sell more than two million copies in the United States. "The Globe Sessions" received five Grammy Award nominations, including for Album of the Year, but won only for Best Rock Album. The next year, Crow's rendition of the song "Sweet Child O'Mine" was included in the "Big Daddy" soundtrack and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. In addition, Crow released her first live album, recorded at Central Park in the company of guest musicians such as Keith Richards, Stevie Nicks, and Eric Clapton. The album was not as commercially successful as its predecessors, being certified as gold only in Canada but at the same time, garnered Crow three fresh Grammy nominations, winning Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "There Goes the Neighborhood" in 2000.


title: Sheryl Crow discography

text: "C'mon, C'mon" (2002), her following release, debuted at number two in the US, Canada and United Kingdom. The album became her highest debut in several countries and produced the hit single "Soak Up the Sun". The album helped Crow win an American Music Award and four Grammy Award nominations. Once again, Crow won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, this time for the second single "Steve McQueen". In 2003, Crow released "The Very Best of Sheryl Crow", her first greatest hits compilation. Propelled by the major hit single "The First Cut Is the Deepest", the album went on to sell over four million copies in the United States alone, staying inside the "Billboard" 200 for 80 weeks and becoming 2004's ninth best-selling album. Crow won two American Music Awards the next year in the categories Favorite Rock/Pop Female Artist and Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist.


title: Sheryl Crow discography

text: Her fifth studio album, "Wildflower" (2005) debuted at No. 2 on the "Billboard" 200 and No. 1 on the "Canadian Albums" chart. The album was certified as platinum in less than a year and spawned the single "Always on Your Side", which became Crow's ninth "Billboard" Hot 100 top 40 hit. "Wildflower" received three Grammy nominations. In 2008, Crow released "Detours", her first album in three years. Like its last two predecessors, the album debuted at No. 2 on the "Billboard" 200, remaining on the chart for over 20 weeks and becoming one of the year's best-sold albums. Her seventh studio album, "100 Miles from Memphis", was released in 2010 and became her last album on A&M Records.


title: Sheryl Crow discography

text: After signing with Warner Music Nashville, Crow announced the release of her debut album in the country music format. Her ninth studio album, entitled "Feels Like Home", was released September 10, 2013. The lead-off single, "Easy", saw release exclusively to country radio and became Crow's first top 20 country airplay hit.


title: I Am Curious (Yellow)

text: I Am Curious (Yellow) (, meaning "I Am Curious: A Film in Yellow") is a 1967 Swedish erotic drama film written and directed by Vilgot Sjöman, starring Sjöman and Lena Nyman. It is a companion film to 1968's "I Am Curious (Blue)"; the two were initially intended to be one hour film.


title: I Am Curious (Yellow)

text: Director Vilgot Sjöman plans to make a social film starring his lover Lena Nyman, a young theatre student who has a strong interest in social issues.


title: I Am Curious (Yellow)

text: Nyman's character, also named Lena, lives with her father in a small apartment in Stockholm and is driven by a burning passion for social justice and a need to understand the world, people and relationships. Her little room is filled with books, papers, and boxes full of clippings on topics such as "religion" and "men", and files on each of the 23 men with whom she has had sex. The walls are covered with pictures of concentration camps and a portrait of Francisco Franco, reminders of the crimes being perpetrated against humanity. She walks around Stockholm and interviews people about social classes in society, conscientious objection, gender equality, and the morality of vacationing in Franco's Spain. She and her friends also picket embassies and travel agencies. Lena's relationship with her father, who briefly went to Spain to fight Franco as part of the International Brigades, is problematic, and she is distressed by the fact that he returned from Spain for unknown reasons after only a short period.


title: I Am Curious (Yellow)

text: Through her father Lena meets the slick Bill (Börje in the original Swedish), who works at a menswear shop and voted for the Rightist Party. They begin a love affair, but Lena soon finds out from her father that Bill has another woman, Marie, and a young daughter. Lena is furious that Bill has not been open with her, and goes to the country on a bicycle holiday. Alone in a cabin in the woods, she attempts an ascetic life-style, meditating, studying nonviolence and practicing yoga. Bill soon comes looking for her in his new car. She greets him with a shotgun, but they soon make love. Lena confronts Bill about Marie, and finds out about another of his lovers, Madeleine. They fight and Bill leaves. Lena has strange dreams, in which she ties two teams of soccer players – she notes that they number 23 – to a tree, shoots Bill and cuts his penis off. She also dreams of being taunted by passing drivers as she cycles down a road, until finally Martin Luther King Jr. drives up. She apologizes to him for not being strong enough to practice nonviolence.


title: I Am Curious (Yellow)

text: Lena returns home, destroys her room, and goes to the car showroom where Bill works to tell him she has scabies. They are treated at a clinic, and then go their separate ways. As the embedded story of Lena and Bill begins to resolve, the film crew and director Sjöman are featured more. The relationship between Lena the actress and Bill the actor has become intimate during the production of Vilgot's film, and Vilgot is jealous and clashes with Bill. The film concludes with Lena returning Vilgot's keys as he meets with another young female theatre student.


title: I Am Curious (Yellow)

text: The film includes an interview with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., filmed in March 1966, when King was visiting Stockholm along with Harry Belafonte with a view to starting a new initiative for Swedish support of African Americans. The film also includes an interview with then Minister of Transportation Olof Palme (later Prime Minister of Sweden), who talks about the existence of class structure in Swedish society (he was told it was for a documentary film), and footage of Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko.


title: I Am Curious (Yellow)

text: The film includes numerous and frank scenes of nudity and staged sexual intercourse. One particularly controversial scene features Lena kissing her lover's (Borje's) flaccid penis. Released in Sweden in October 1967, it was released in the U.S. in March 1969, immediately attracting a ban in Massachusetts for being pornographic, with the Boston Police Department seizing the film reels from the Symphony Cinemas I & II on Huntington Avenue. After proceedings in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts ("Karalexis v. Byrne", 306 F. Supp. 1363 (D. Mass. 1969)), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States ("Byrne v. Karalexis", 396 U.S. 976 (1969) and 401 U.S. 216 (1971)), the Second Circuit found the film not to be obscene.