title: Front 242

text: Patrick Codenys and Jean-Luc De Meyer had separately formed a group called Underviewer at around the same time. The groups merged in 1982 after Underviewer had given their demo tapes to Bressanutti who was working at a music instruments shop at the time (Hill's Music in Brussels.) Daniel was so impressed he asked Patrick and Jean-Luc to join Front 242.


title: Front 242

text: Recordings by the band were initially created in Daniel's apartment studio, where all the entire band and their equipment were packed into a 2.5m x 2.5m room. The band incorporated as an artistic association in Belgium which allowed them to access government assistance and made it easier to afford better studio equipment.


title: Front 242

text: Bressanutti, Codenys and De Meyer took turns on vocals at first, until they settled on De Meyer as the lead vocalist (early recordings with Bressanutti on vocals were subsequently released in 2004). De Meyer came to write most of the lyrics, although Valerie Jane Steele wrote several tracks including "Don't Crash." Despite falling into specific roles, however, the band sought to project a more anonymous, mysterious image, replete with dark sunglasses and militaristic uniforms so that they could not be easily identified. Bressanutti took this anonymity to the extreme, leaving stage entirely to run live shows from the sound board behind the audience.


title: Front 242

text: The band self-released their first album, "Geography", in 1982 and shortly after signed to the Belgian indie label consortium Les Disques du Crépuscule who later re-released the album. Their next single, "U-Men", was released the same year as was the band's first music video, produced by Marcel Vanthilt and played on the program RoodVonk on VRT (Vlaamse Radio Televisie - Flemish Radio & TV). The video proved a challenge, not only conceptually given the band's insistence on anonymity, but because of the small budget; ultimately the video was shot on location in Daniel's bedroom.


title: Front 242

text: In 1983, the band brought on Richard Jonckheere (a.k.a.: Richard 23), who they became familiar with through Richard's own "noise concept," as a percussionist and second vocalist to help boost the band's live presence. Not long after, Dirk Bergen left the band to manage the group and pursue a graphic design career. Also in 1983 the band released the EP "Endless Riddance".


title: Front 242

text: Front 242 became a popular musical group in Belgium, particularly for their "infamous" live performances that involved loud sound, aggressive stage presence, smoke, and bright flashing lights. The music press in Belgium was less receptive, sometimes interpreting their militaristic appearance, dark music, and samples from war movies - especially given the backdrop of the Cold War and terror incidents in Belgium - as being pro-fascist, an interpretation that the band firmly rejected.


title: Front 242

text: Their second album, "No Comment", released in 1984, was the first to introduce the term electronic body music in association with their sound via the liner notes, which stated: "Electronic body music composed and produced on eight tracks by Front 242." The band followed the release with a European tour.


title: Front 242

text: It was around this time that Front 242 had some collaborations with Luc van Acker, who was a familiar presence at Hill's Music. On one occasion, Luc brought his guitar and gear to the band's studio where samples of the session were used in composing the track "No Shuffle." Luc was also known to take the stage with the band at times.


title: Front 242

text: Front 242 signed with the American label Wax Trax! in 1984. At the behest of Alain Jourgensen who was working with Wax Trax at the time, Front 242 was invited to be the support band for Ministry during their upcoming tour in the United States. This tour led to the creation of Revolting Cocks by Richard 23, Luc van Acker, and Alain Jourgensen.


title: Front 242

text: In 1985 the band played the Seaside Festival and the first ever Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium. An incident between the band and security at Pukkelpop resulted in more poor reflections and accusations in the press. That year they also released the "Politics of Pressure" EP and a 12" for "No Shuffle."


title: Front 242

text: In 1986, Front 242 turned down a contract with ZTT Records and instead signed with the Red Rhino (RRE) label in Europe - a sub-label of Play It Again Sam - who released "Backcatalogue" and "Official Version" in 1987. Trouser Press credited "Official Version" with helping Front 242 "emerge from relative obscurity to become a significant cult force, selling records all over the world." In the fall of 1987, Front 242 supported Depeche Mode on the first European leg of their "Music for the Masses" tour.


title: Front 242

text: In 1988, "Front by Front" was released, and in December of that same year, "Headhunter" (with a video by Anton Corbijn), became the band's first club hit, reaching number 13 on the US "Billboard" Dance/Club Play Songs chart.


title: Front 242

text: "Tyranny (For You)", released in 1991, became the band's highest-charting album, reaching #95 on the "Billboard" 200. "Tyranny (For You)" was the first album they released under contract with a major corporate label, Sony/Epic, after the widespread popularity of "Front by Front". Sony/Epic also acquired the rights to the band's back catalog from Wax Trax! and issued re-released versions of the albums with new cover art and bonus tracks taken from singles and EPs.


title: Front 242

text: In 1992, Bressanutti returned to combining graphic arts with music, taking his lithographs on tour to three U.S. galleries. Bressanutti also composed a solo half-hour atmospheric recording called "Art and Strategy" (or The Art Corporation) to play during viewings of the lithographs, and released it in a limited edition of 1,000 CDs.


title: Front 242

text: Front 242's style shifted abruptly with each of their next two albums, released in rapid succession in 1993 on Epic's sub-label RRE (originally planned as a double-CD): "06:21:03:11 UP EVIL" and "05:22:09:12 OFF" (the numbers correspond to letters, spelling "FUCK UP EVIL" and "EVIL OFF"). The band describes the two albums as "based on the duality of good and evil." However, strains were emerging, with the band members apparently having different artistic views. Despite these tensions, they performed on the main stage of the 1993 Lollapalooza tour.


title: Front 242

text: Neither of these albums had significant input from Richard 23, and "05:22:09:12 OFF" only included their lead vocalist, Jean-Luc De Meyer, on a remixed track originally from "Up Evil". On the other hand, a variety of new contributors were listed as members of Front 242 on these albums: Jean-Marc Pauly and Pierre Pauly (of the Belgian electronic group Parade Ground) on "Up Evil", and 99 Kowalski, Jon Dubs and Eran Westwood on "Off".


title: Front 242

text: 99 Kowalski is the stage name of Kristin Kowalski, making a tradition out of Richard 23's idea of number-as-name. Kowalski, Dubs and Westwood were originally members of a New York City band called Spill who Bressanutti and Codenys had brought to Belgium to produce their debut album. After the recording sessions fell apart, they contributed to Front 242 on the "Off" release.


title: Front 242

text: After the release of "06:21:03:11 Up Evil" and "05:22:09:12 Off", there was no new material from Front 242 under any lineup. Instead, the band released a stream of live recordings and remixes. However, this period also saw a proliferation of side projects, an inordinate number of which involved De Meyer.


title: Front 242

text: Earlier, Richard 23 played in the Revolting Cocks, and De Meyer had a side project doing vocals for Bigod 20 for their single, "The Bog" in 1990. In 1995, De Meyer met Marc Heal of Cubanate at a Front Line Assembly concert, and the two of them collaborated along with Ged Denton and Jonathan Sharp, to record as Cyber-Tec Project for the new (and short-lived) Cyber-Tec record label.


title: Front 242

text: After the departure of Sharp and the demise of the Cyber-Tec label, the remaining group continued working under the name C-Tec. De Meyer also took over as vocalist for Birmingham 6 for their 1996 album "Error of Judgment". 1996 also saw the debut album "Elemental" from Cobalt 60, which De Meyer formed with Dominique Lallement and Frederic Sebastien of Reims, France, members of Kriegbereit. This was the start of a number of releases from Cobalt 60, which also did the soundtrack for the video game "". Meanwhile, Richard 23 recorded with the groups Holy Gang, and later, LaTchak.


title: Front 242

text: The four core members of Front 242 regrouped in 1998 to compose radically reworked versions of many of their songs, which they then performed on their first tour in five years, appropriately called the Re:Boot tour. They acknowledged the influence of The Prodigy and their "Fat of the Land" album in crafting the new, more techno style of Re:Boot.


title: Front 242

text: The new tour material was the subject of Front 242's new recording contract in the U.S. with Metropolis Records. Front 242 also indicated at this time that they were recording new material. However, they had little activity after 1998, making occasional appearances in Europe and Mexico, while Codenys recorded under the name Gaiden with Steve Stoll in 2001.


title: Front 242

text: 2002 saw the beginning of a wave of new material from Bresanutti and Codenys, and then from Front 242. In August 2002 a DVD/CD two-disc set called "Speed Tribe" was released by Dance.com. The DVD was a collaboration with experimental documentary filmmakers Rod Chong and Sharon Matarazzo, who filmed the 2001 24 Hour Le Mans. In the video, the racecars, clouds, rain and spectators form an impressionistic visual backdrop for the music.


title: Front 242

text: Several months later, the first release from Male or Female, also known as Morf, a new project for Bresanutti and Codenys along with vocalist Elko Blijweert. In 2002 and 2003, Morf released an album, an E.P., a double album, and a DVD/CD two-disc combo, on the Belgian record label Alfa Matrix, and went on tour through the U.S.


title: Front 242

text: Then, 2002 and 2003 also saw the release of the new material from Front 242 in a decade: the EP "Still & Raw" and the album "Pulse", released on XIIIBis Records in Europe and Metropolis in the U.S. These represented another iteration of Front 242's explicitly stated goal of reinventing itself. The style of the two new releases is more mellow than some of their past work, using more "glitchy" and "bleepy" sounds. As well, it uses the manipulated voice as a musical instrument. The new releases have a much more emotional style from De Meyer, which was presaged in his later recordings with C-Tec and particularly Cobalt 60 on its album "Twelve".


title: Front 242

text: Front 242 promised a new U.S. tour to perform new material from these releases. They have made occasional appearances in Latin America and Europe, even being rejoined by Dirk Bergen for a reunion concert in Aarschot (De Klinker club) in 2004 under the original lineup of Bresanutti, Bergen, Codenys and De Meyer. This performance was kept secret until two days before the show but when the scene magazine Side-Line and the band's label Alfa Matrix launched the news, tickets were quickly sold out.


title: Front 242

text: The band has now also set itself to re-release its entire back catalogue both as a normal CD and as a limited edition consisting of a 2-CD set holding previously unreleased material. For this the band is working together with the Belgian label Alfa Matrix that already took care of releasing the albums of the Front 242 side-project Male Or Female. The first re-release is their debut album "Geography", this time newly remastered personally by Bresanutti to surprisingly powerful effect and including 3 extra tracks (two hidden ones) on the normal CD format.


title: Front 242

text: Meanwhile, their enthusiasm for side projects has continued, as Patrick Codenys started appearing with a new group called Red Sniper, Bresanutti started recording with a new group called Troissoeur, and Codenys and Richard 23 formed a quasi-DJ project called Coder23 which toured in late 2004 and early 2005 as the opening act for VNV Nation. De Meyer contributed vocals on two studio tracks for the Glis album "Nemesis" in 2005. The lyrical content of the two songs ("The Irreparable" and "La Béatrice") were based on the poems of Charles Baudelaire.


title: Front 242

text: Front 242 toured through twenty venues in North America in November 2005, their first tour as a full band since 2000. The band performed at the Roskilde Festival in 2006. The band's sold out two-day performance at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels has been recorded for a future release via Alfa Matrix.


title: Front 242

text: In December 2006, Front 242 announced from their MySpace page that they were writing music for a video game called "Cipher Complex" and provided a link to a teaser trailer with a short sample of one of their scores.


title: Front 242

text: In 2007, De Meyer announced a new project: 32CRASH via the Alfa Matrix label. The band is preparing for an album release in October 2007 after the release of the EP "Humanity".


title: Front 242

text: In October 2008, Front 242 performed for the first time in Finland, at the Alternative Party 2008 media arts festival.


title: Front 242

text: In 2008, the band added two new members: Tim Kroker on percussion and Sylvain Guigon on live video projection and effects.


title: Front 242

text: On 1 June 2008, the Alfa Matrix label announced that Front 242 would make an ultimate statement towards abusive audio compression by releasing the free two-track download, "First Moment". By 15 June the same year, the tracks were made available for free on Alfa Matrix's site in medium and high bit-rate MP3s, WAV, FLAC, and M4A formats. Contrary to what fans and some media speculated, the two-track download was not new studio material. Instead, "First Moments" consisted of two previously unreleased live tracks, "U-Men" and "Im Rhythmus Bleiben", in rather stunning sound quality. It is rumored that over 20,000 people downloaded the tracks within hours of being made available. The label later confirmed that over 25,000 people downloaded the free tracks.


title: Front 242

text: On 4 June 2008, Alfa Matrix announced the release of "Moments..." The album was a live recording encompassing the best of Front 242's compositions. The album was shipped in several formats including limited CD box sets, vinyl in different colors including 300-copy limited editions, and as a one-disc CD release.


title: Front 242

text: On 15 April 2016, Alfa Matrix released the remastered edition of P.U.L.S.E. The re-release featured the companion Still+Raw EP, in multicolored two-disc CD formats with the special collector box set limited to 1242 copies; this box set included the album in vinyl and CD formats, as well as a 1989 live recording, a laminated live pass, posters, and the Alfa Matrix Sounds from the Matrix 017 compilation.


title: Front 242

text: In February 2020, Front 242 announced the "Black To Square One" US Tour with a planned 13 dates across the country which were to be preceded by a string of concerts in the EU. The US tour was rescheduled for 2021 and many of the European dates were postponed or cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The rescheduled 16 date US tour was announced in May 2021 with the first show planned for 15 September 2021, in New York City.


title: Front 242

text: While Front 242 have not released new music since "Pulse" in 2003, on the "Black To Square One" US Tour they played three 'new' songs: "Generator", "Fix It", and "Deeply Asleep." There is no information on whether these songs or a new studio album will see a release.


title: Front 242

text: Bressanutti cites Musique Concrète, Avant Garde, and the experimental music of Karlheinz Stockhausen as early influences. De Meyer cited Joy Division as an early influence for their "dramatic content." The electro-pop style of Fad Gadget also provided early inspiration for the band. While they were aware of, enjoyed, and learned from musical progenitors such as Klaus Schulze, Kraftwerk, and fellow countrymen Telex, the band did not see their styles as particularly influential. When asked in a 1989 interview about Front 242's being grouped with other industrial bands, Codenys replied that they "were somewhere in between Throbbing Gristle, Kraftwerk, and bands like that, but... wanted to be exclusive, and to have nothing to do with any fashion."


title: Front 242

text: Despite the stated intention of remaining genre-neutral, Front 242 did latch onto a phrase to describe their style: "electronic body music" or EBM; a phrase that would expand into a genre in itself. The band was not the first to use "electronic body music" as a music descriptor. Kraftwerk used the phrase to describe their 1978 album "Die Mensch Maschine" (translated: The Man-Machine) and the German group Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF) used a similar term - "körpermusik" - to describe their music at the beginning of the 1980s. Despite not having coined the term originally, Front 242 was the first to explicitly claim EBM as a descriptor on the liner notes of their 1984 album "No Comment" and cemented their claim to the genre when given the lead track on the seminal Play It Again Sam compilation "This Is Electronic Body Music" in 1988.


title: Front 242

text: In the 80s, Front 242 strived to project a visual mystery and anonymity to accompany their aggressive physical stage performances. The band's ethic is largely responsible for defining the "Rivethead" style of industrial and EBM culture which included the wearing of military gear, such as flak jackets, camouflage, and combat boots, as well as hairstyles, sunglasses, accessories, tattoos, and piercings.


title: Front 242

text: During the 1991 Gulf War, US Navy ships continuously played a list of songs by Front 242 and other bands such as the Ramones, The Clash, and Ministry as a means of boosting morale and aggression during combat operations. The band were informed of this by military personnel who attended their 1993 tour.


title: Front 242

text: A broader public was exposed to Front 242's music in 1992 in the film "Single White Female", starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh. In the film, obsessed roommate Leigh ties Fonda to a chair but leaves her with the television remote control. In order to attract attention, Fonda tunes in to a music video channel and turns up the volume. The video playing at the time is Front 242's "Rhythm Of Time", from the album "Tyranny (For You)". Also in 1992, the television commercials for the film "K2" were set to the Front 242 song "Moldavia", from the same album.


title: MapQuest

text: MapQuest (stylized as mapquest) is an American free online web mapping service. It was launched in 1996 as the first commercial web mapping service. MapQuest vies for market share with competitors such as Google Maps and Here.


title: MapQuest

text: MapQuest's origins date to 1967 with the founding of Cartographic Services, a division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons in Chicago, Illinois, which moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1969. In the mid-1980s, R.R. Donnelley & Sons began generating maps and routes for customers, with cooperation by Barry Glick, a University at Buffalo Ph.D. In 1994 it was spun off as GeoSystems Global Corporation. Much of the code was adapted for use on the Internet to create the MapQuest web service in 1996. MapQuest's original services were mapping (referred to as "Interactive Atlas") and driving directions (called "TripQuest").


title: MapQuest

text: Sensing the emerging demand for spatial applications on the Internet, and with crippling network latency in Lancaster, the executive team of Barry Glick and Perry Evans moved MapQuest to the up-and-coming LoDo area of Denver, Colorado.


title: MapQuest

text: The initial Denver team consisted of Evans, Simon Greenman, Chris Fanjoy and Harry Grout. To make MapQuest a serious contender in the online spatial application market, a robust set of geographical tools was developed under Greenman's direction. Grout, who had spent time at Rand McNally, Etak and Navigation Technologies Corporation building digital map data, was tasked with acquiring data and licensing arrangements. The initial team experienced rapid growth in the Denver office, and in a short time MapQuest was becoming a well-known brand.


title: MapQuest

text: On February 25, 1999, MapQuest went public, trading on Nasdaq. In December 1999, it was announced that America Online (AOL) would acquire MapQuest for $1.1 billion. The deal closed in 2000. Chief Operating Officer / Chief Financial Officer Jim Thomas managed these transactions.


title: MapQuest

text: For a while, MapQuest included satellite images through a licensing deal with GlobeXplorer, but later removed them because of the unorthodox business mechanics of the arrangement brokered by AOL. In September 2006, the website once again began serving satellite imagery in a new beta program.


title: MapQuest

text: In 2004, MapQuest, uLocate, Research in Motion and Nextel launched MapQuest Find Me, a buddy-finder service that worked on GPS-enabled mobile phones. MapQuest Find Me let users automatically find their location, access maps and directions and locate nearby points of interest, including airports, hotels, restaurants, banks and ATMs. Users also had the ability to set up alerts to be notified when network members arrive at or depart from a designated area. In 2005 the service became available on Sprint, and in 2006, Boost Mobile.


title: MapQuest

text: In July 2006, MapQuest created a beta version of a new feature with which users could build customized routes by adding additional stops, reordering stops along the way and avoiding any undesired turns or roads. Users could also write out the starting address.


title: MapQuest

text: In April 2007, MapQuest announced a partnership with General Motors' OnStar to allow OnStar subscribers to plan their driving routes on MapQuest.com and send their destination to OnStar's turn-by-turn navigation service. The OnStar Web Destination Entry pilot program began in the summer of 2007 with a select group of OnStar subscribers.


title: MapQuest

text: Around 2008, the general public made a significant shift away from MapQuest to the much younger Google Maps service.


title: MapQuest

text: In July 2010, MapQuest announced plans to become the first major mapping site to embrace open-source mapping data, launching a new site separate from its main site, entirely using data from the OpenStreetMap project. On July 14, 2010, MapQuest launched a simplified user interface and made the site more compact. MapQuest also introduced "My Maps" personalization, which enables the user to personalize the interface.


title: MapQuest

text: In May 2015, with the purchase of AOL by Verizon Communications, MapQuest came under the ownership of Verizon.


title: MapQuest

text: On 11 July 2016, MapQuest discontinued its open tile API, and users such as GNOME Maps were switched to a temporarily free tier of the Mapbox tileserver, while considering alternatives.


title: MapQuest

text: MapQuest provides some extent of street-level detail or driving directions for a variety of countries. Users can check if their country is available using a dropdown menu on the MapQuest home page.


title: MapQuest

text: The company offers a free mobile app for Android and iOS that features POI search, voice-guided navigation, real-time traffic and other features. MapQuest also offers a mobile-friendly website.


title: MapQuest

text: MapQuest has several travel products and also includes a feature to let users compare nearby gas prices, similar to the service offered by GasBuddy.com. However, this feature is only available in the United States.


title: MapQuest

text: MapQuest's POI data helps the service differentiate itself from other wayfinding software by guiding users directly to the entrances of businesses and destinations, rather than to general street addresses.


title: MapQuest

text: In October 2006, MapQuest sold off its publishing division (which published traditional maps in paper format) to concentrate on its online and mobile services.


title: Chain store

text: A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many parts of the world. A franchise retail establishment is one form of chain store. In 2005, the world's largest retail chain, Walmart, became the world's largest corporation based on gross sales.


title: Chain store

text: In 1792, Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna established W.H. Smith as a news vending business in London that would become a national concern in the mid-19th century under the management of their grandson William Henry Smith. The world's oldest national retail chain, the firm took advantage of the during the Industrial Revolution by opening news-stands at railway stations beginning in 1848. The firm, now called WHSmith, had more than 1,400 locations as of 2017.


title: Chain store

text: In the U.S., chain stores likely began with J. Stiner & Company, which operated several tea shops in New York City around 1860. By 1900, George Huntington Hartford had built The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, originally a tea distributor based in New York, into a grocery chain that operated almost 200 stores. Dozens of other grocery, drug, tobacco, and variety stores opened additional locations, around the same time, so that retail chains were common in the United States by 1910. Several state legislatures considered measures to restrict the growth of chains, and in 1914 concern about chain stores as a factor in passage of the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act.


title: Chain store

text: Isidore, Benjamin and Modeste Dewachter originated the idea of the chain department store in Belgium in 1868, ten years before A&P began offering more than coffee and tea. They started with four locations for "Maisons Dewachter" (Houses of Dewachter): La Louvière, Mons, Namur and Leuze. They later incorporated as "Dewachter frères" (Dewachter Brothers) on January 1, 1875. The brothers offered ready-to-wear clothing for men and children and specialty clothing such as riding apparel and beachwear. Isidore owned 51% of the company, while his brothers split the remaining 49%. Under Isidore's (and later his son Louis') leadership, "Maisons Dewachter" would become one of the most recognized names in Belgium and France with stores in 20 cities and towns. Some cities had multiple stores, such as Bordeaux, France. Louis Dewachter also became an internationally known landscape artist, painting under the pseudonym Louis Dewis.


title: Chain store

text: By the early 1920s, chain retailing was well established in the United States, with A&P, Woolworth's, American Stores, and United Cigar Stores being the largest. By the 1930s, chain stores had come of age, and stopped increasing their total market share. Court decisions against the chains' price-cutting appeared as early as 1906, and laws against chain stores began in the 1920s, along with legal countermeasures by chain-store groups. State taxes on chain stores were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1931. Between then and 1933, 525 chain-store tax bills were introduced in state legislatures, and by the end of 1933 special taxes on retail chains were in force in 17 states.


title: Chain store

text: A chain store is characterised by the ownership or franchise relationship between the local business or outlet and a controlling business.


title: Chain store

text: While chains are typically "formula retail", a chain refers to ownership or franchise, whereas "formula retail" or "formula business" refers to the characteristics of the business. There is considerable overlap because key characteristic of a formula retail business is that it is controlled as a part of a business relationship, and is generally part of a chain. Nevertheless, most codified municipal regulation relies on definitions of formula retail (e.g., formula restaurants), in part because a restriction directed to "chains" may be deemed an impermissible restriction on interstate commerce (in the US), or as exceeding municipal zoning authority (i.e., regulating "who owns it" rather than the characteristics of the business). Non-codified restrictions will sometimes target "chains". A municipal ordinance may seek to prohibit "formula businesses" in order to maintain the character of a community and support local businesses that serve the surrounding neighborhood.


title: Chain store

text: Brick-and-mortar chain stores have been in decline as retail has shifted to online shopping, leading to historically high retail vacancy rates. The hundred-year-old Radio Shack chain went from 7,400 stores in 2001 to 400 stores in 2018. FYE is the last remaining music chain store in the United States and has shrunk from over 1000 at its height to 270 locations in 2018. In 2019, Payless ShoeSource stated that it would be closing all remaining 2,100 stores in the US.


title: Chain store

text: A restaurant chain is a set of related restaurants in many different locations that are either under shared corporate ownership (e.g., McDonald's in the U.S.) or franchising agreements. Typically, the restaurants within a chain are built to a standard format through architectural prototype development and offer a standard menu and/or services.


title: Chain store

text: Fast food restaurants are the most common, but sit-down restaurant chains also exist. In 1896, Samuel Isaacs from Whitechapel, east London opened the first fish and chips restaurant (as opposed to a take-away) in London, and its popularity saw a rapid expansion of the chain with further restaurants around London and outside including Brighton, Ramsgate, Margate and other seaside resorts in southern England. In 1864, the Aerated Bread Company (ABC) began operating a chain of teashops in Britain. ABC would be overtaken as the leader in the field by Lyons, co-founded by Joseph Lyons in 1884. From 1909 Lyons began operating a chain of teashops which became a staple of the High Street in the UK, and at its peak, the firm numbered around 200 cafes. Restaurant chains are often found near highways, shopping malls and densely populated urban or tourist areas.


title: Chain store

text: The displacement of independent businesses by chains has sparked increased collaboration among independent businesses and communities to prevent chain proliferation. These efforts include community-based organizing through Independent Business Alliances (in the U.S. and Canada) and "buy local" campaigns. In the U.S., trade organizations such as the American Booksellers Association and American Specialty Toy Retailers do national promotion and advocacy. NGOs like the New Rules Project and New Economics Foundation provide research and tools for pro-independent business education and policy while the American Independent Business Alliance provides direct assistance for community-level organizing.


title: Chain store

text: A variety of towns and cities in the United States whose residents wish to retain their distinctive character—such as San Francisco; Provincetown, Massachusetts and other Cape Cod villages; Bristol, RI; McCall, Idaho; Port Townsend, Washington; Ogunquit, Maine; Windermere, Florida and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California—closely regulate, even exclude, chain stores. They don't exclude the chain itself, only the standardized formula the chain uses, described as ""formula businesses"". For example, there could often be a restaurant owned by McDonald's that sells hamburgers, but not the formula franchise operation with the golden arches and standardized menu, uniforms, and procedures. The reason these towns regulate chain stores is aesthetics and tourism. Proponents of formula restaurants and formula retail allege the restrictions are used to protect independent businesses from competition.


title: Front of the Class

text: Front of the Class is a 2008 American docudrama film directed by Peter Werner that is based on the 2005 book "Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had" by Brad Cohen and co-authored by Lisa Wysocky, which tells of Cohen's life with Tourette syndrome and how it inspired him to teach other students.


title: Front of the Class

text: The book was made into a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" TV movie starring newcomer James Wolk—a 2007 University of Michigan graduate—and featuring Treat Williams and Emmy Award-winning actress Patricia Heaton as Cohen's parents; the movie aired on CBS on December 7, 2008.


title: Front of the Class

text: Brad Cohen's story starts when he is a young boy and his mother helps doctors to realize that he has Tourette syndrome. With the support from his mother and school principal, Brad is a success story, becoming a motivational speaker and an award-winning teacher.


title: Front of the Class

text: Twelve-year-old Brad lives in Missouri with his divorcée mother, Ellen, and younger brother, Jeff. He constantly gets into trouble with his father Norman and his teachers at school due to his tics. In one class, his teacher calls him to the front to make him apologize to his class for disrupting the class and promise he won't do it again. Determined to find out what is wrong with her son, Ellen seeks medical help. A psychiatrist believes that Brad's tics are the result of his parents' divorce. One lady suggests an exorcism. Ellen takes her search to the library and comes across Tourette syndrome (TS) in a medical book. She shows this to the psychiatrist, who agrees with the diagnosis, and says that there is no cure. Brad and his mother attend a support group for the first and last time. From then on, Brad aspires to never be like the other members of the support group and to become successful.


title: Front of the Class

text: At the beginning of middle school, Brad is sent to the principal's office for being disruptive. The principal invites him to the school concert later in the afternoon. At the end of the concert, which Brad's Tourette's tics had disturbed, he calls Brad up to the stage and asks Brad to talk about his TS. As Brad makes his way back to his seat, the school applauds him. For the first time, someone outside his family has given him support and proactively helped him into being accepted by others. From that moment on, Brad has a dream that he will carry on: to become a teacher, just like the principal.


title: Front of the Class

text: As an adult, Brad lives with his house mate Ron in Georgia, and is looking for work as an elementary school teacher. He is turned down after 24 interviews because of his TS. He finally gets an interview where the staff is accepting and they give him the job.


title: Front of the Class

text: On his first day, Brad explains his TS to the children. He helps a child with ADHD, Thomas, with reading and makes an impression on Heather, a girl with terminal cancer. Another student's father pulls her out of Brad's class as he fears Brad will distract her. When the little girl tries to sneak in Brad's class again, he express his gratefulness, but doesn't oppose the girl's father wishes and reminds her that her father is doing what he thinks it is best for her.


title: Front of the Class

text: Brad meets Nancy on an online dating site. After dating her for some time, he invites her over for Thanksgiving back at Ellen's house, where he tells Nancy he loves her, and the feeling is reciprocated. He confides in Ellen his concern that Nancy will get fed up with his tics, but she reassures him that he must not let his TS get in the way.


title: Front of the Class

text: An observer at the school assesses Brad's teaching, and the head teacher announces that Brad has been chosen to receive the Teacher of the Year award, which he accepts in front his family, friends and students. The ending titles tell that Brad got his master's degree; he dressed up as Homer, (Atlanta Braves) mascot; he married Nancy in 2006; and a photograph of the real Brad Cohen teaching his class is shown.


title: Front of the Class

text: The script was adapted from the book by Brad Cohen, and the movie was directed by Peter Werner. Production was in Shreveport, Louisiana.


title: Front of the Class

text: Following his 2006 appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", in 2007 Cohen spoke at a conference after Timothy Shriver of the Special Olympics. According to Shriver, "The audience 'was laughing, then crying, then laughing, then crying, then cheering, and at the end, they gave him a huge standing ovation.'" Shriver suggested the movie to Cohen, and became the executive producer one year later.


title: Front of the Class

text: To portray Cohen's tics accurately, Wolk and Kay viewed videotapes and worked with a dialect coach, describing their preparation as a "Tourette's boot camp". Cohen said the portrayal of his tics is "very, very authentic". Heaton, the mother of four children, was attracted to the script because she related to the strong mother: "Finally, she went to the library herself—as mothers will do to fight to the end for their kids and find out what's wrong—and realized he had Tourettes," Heaton explained.


title: Front of the Class

text: Although tics steadily decline for most children as they pass through adolescence, Cohen still has frequent and loud vocal tics and barking. He joked: "I'm hoping I don't get kicked out of my own movie."


title: Front of the Class

text: The movie was released on DVD in January 2009. A signed copy by author Brad Cohen was also released on DVD.


title: Front of the Class

text: Cohen was concerned that the movie should stay truthful and avoid sensationalizing Tourette syndrome. He was pleased with the overall result, although he noted some dates in his life were sped up for effect (for example, the date of his wedding).


title: I'm Glad My Mom Died

text: I'm Glad My Mom Died is a memoir by American former actress and singer Jennette McCurdy based on her one-woman show of the same name. The book is about her career as a child actress and her difficult relationship with her abusive mother who died in 2013. It is McCurdy's first book and was published on August 9, 2022, by Simon & Schuster.


title: I'm Glad My Mom Died

text: McCurdy was a professional actress from age six until she announced that she had permanently stopped acting in 2017. From 2009 to 2012, she was signed to Capitol Records Nashville, who released her self-titled debut studio album in 2012.


title: I'm Glad My Mom Died

text: McCurdy had previously written pieces in publications such as "The Wall Street Journal" and began writing personal essays shortly after. She sent some of the essays to her manager at the time, who encouraged her to write a book about her experiences. Rather than write a book, McCurdy created a one-woman show titled "I'm Glad My Mom Died" which she performed in Los Angeles and New York City. Plans to tour the show in other cities were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she decided to write her material into a memoir.


title: I'm Glad My Mom Died

text: The cover features McCurdy looking up and holding a pink urn with decorative paper spilling out. About the decision to use the photo for the book cover, McCurdy told the "Entertainment Weekly":


title: I'm Glad My Mom Died

text: In the memoir, McCurdy discusses her childhood as a successful child actress (including a strained relationship with a producer described only as "The Creator"), her brief foray into a country music career and the troubled and controlling relationship she had with her mother Debra, who died from cancer in 2013. The book is divided into two sections, "Before" and "After", which describe the events of her life before and after the death of her mother.


title: I'm Glad My Mom Died

text: The book sold out within 24 hours of going on sale at retailers including Amazon, Target, and Barnes & Noble. That same month it became a number one "New York Times" Best Seller for non-fiction in both hardcover and E-book, selling over 200,000 copies across all formats in its first week of release.


title: I'm Glad My Mom Died

text: "I'm Glad My Mom Died" was met with "rave" reviews from critics, with review aggregator Book Marks reporting that none of the nine reviews were negative or mixed. In a starred review, "Publishers Weekly" called the book "Insightful and incisive, heartbreaking and raw." "Kirkus Reviews", which also gave a starred review, wrote that the book is, "The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace." Dave Itzkoff of "The New York Times" wrote that the memoir was, "A coming-of-age story that is alternately harrowing and mordantly funny."


title: Kranti

text: Kranti () is a 1981 Indian historical drama film, produced and directed by Manoj Kumar, with the story and screenplay written by Salim–Javed. It stars an ensemble cast, consisting of Dilip Kumar in the title role along with Manoj Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Parveen Babi in pivotal roles. The film also marked the return of Dilip Kumar after a five-year hiatus. This film celebrated golden jubilee in many centres across India. It ran for 67 weeks straight in the theatres including a theatre where it was housefull for 96 days. It ranks among the top 10 highest grossing Indian films of all time, when adjusted for ticket-price inflation. It was one of the most expensive Indian films of the time and it went on to become the highest grossing Indian film of the 1980s decade by a distance, when adjusted for inflation. "Kranti" is the biggest patriotic hit ever seen in India. It was the second highest grossing Indian film ever behind "Sholay" (1975) at the time of its release. However, it did higher business than "Sholay" in its original/first run. It grossed ₹20 crore as compared to ₹15 crore of "Sholay" in the original run". Sholay" did exceptionally well in re-runs earning more profit during the mean period.


title: Kranti

text: At the time of release it was the fastest earner of all time setting first run records in practically all circuits barring Mumbai and South. It celebrated a silver jubilee in 26 centres and even in places like Mirzapur (UP) and Junagadh (Gujarat) where jubilees were very rare. There are hardly ten films in history that are estimated to have celebrated jubilees in over 25 centres. The craze of the film was such that in places like Delhi, Rajasthan, UP and Haryana there were shops selling "Kranti" T shirts, jackets, vests and even underwear.


title: Kranti

text: The collections in all major centres of UP did not see a drop even weeks after its release. The collections after ten weeks in places like Agra, Gorakhpur and Varanasi were still competing with new releases. "Kranti" grossed 1.25 crore nett in Delhi / UP in ten weeks and then went on to do over 3 crore nett in its full run and before "Hum Aapke Hain Kaun..!" released in 1994 (marking major changes in business of films), there were only three films in history to cross 3 crore nett in Delhi / UP. The film was finally declared a Golden Jubilee Hit. "Kranti" is widely regarded as a cult film.


title: Kranti

text: The film takes place in the 19th Century British India and is the story of the fight for independence from the British between 1825 and 1875. The film tells the story of men that lead the war against British Rule: Sanga (Dilip Kumar), Bharat (Manoj Kumar) known as Kranti, a prince (Shashi Kapoor) and a freedom fighter (Shatrughan Sinha). Sanga is an honest and dedicated employee in the kingdom of Ramgarh, owing allegiance and loyalty to no one except Raja Laxman Singh. When Laxman Singh conditionally permits the British to use the port for trading purposes, Sangha finds out that the British are taking out gold and jewellery and bringing in ammunition, and puts a stop to this. He goes to report this outrage to Laxman Singh, only to find him stabbed to death. Sanga is charged with treason and of killing Laxman Singh. Sentenced to death, he escapes and forms a group of revolutionaries who have only one goal - to drive the British out of India. This group multiplies into several armies, all united with one slogan - an Independent India, also known as Kranti. The film is known for a nude scene of Parveen Babi.


title: Kranti

text: The music is scored by Laxmikant Pyarelal and lyrics written by Santosh Anand. The music was popular with some hit songs like "Zindagi Ki Na Toote Ladi" and "Chana Jor Garam". Laxmikant Pyarelal used famous singers Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, Shailender Singh and Nitin Mukesh to sing for the actors.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordfish, haddock and capelin, as well as shellfish, seabirds and sea mammals.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater plateaus south-east of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. These areas are relatively shallow, ranging from in depth. The cold Labrador Current mixes with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream here, often causing extreme foggy conditions.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: The mixing of these waters and the shape of the ocean bottom lifts nutrients to the surface. These conditions helped to create one of the richest fishing grounds in the world. Fish species include Atlantic cod, swordfish, haddock and capelin; shellfish include scallop and lobster. The area also supports large colonies of seabirds such as northern gannets, shearwaters and sea ducks and various sea mammals such as seals, dolphins and whales.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: Overfishing in the late 20th century caused the collapse of several species, particularly cod, leading to the closure of the Canadian Grand Banks fishery in 1992.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: Extensive glaciation took place in the area of the Grand Banks during the last glacial maximum. By approximately 13,000 years ago the majority of the ice had melted, leaving the Grand Banks exposed as several islands extending for hundreds of kilometres. It is believed that rising sea levels submerged these around 8,000 years ago.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: While no archaeological evidence for a European presence near the Grand Banks survives from the period between the short-lived Greenland Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in 1000 CE and John Cabot's transatlantic crossing in 1497, some evidence suggests that voyagers from the Basque Region and England (specifically from Bristol) and others preceded Cabot. In the 15th century some texts refer to a land called "Bacalao", the land of the codfish, which is possibly Newfoundland. Within a few years of Cabot's voyage the existence of fishing grounds on the Grand Banks became generally known in Europe. Ships from France and Portugal pioneered fishing there, followed by vessels from Spain, while ships from England were scarce in the early years. This soon changed, especially after Bernard Drake's Newfoundland Expedition in 1585, which virtually wiped out the Spanish and Portuguese fishing-industries in this area. The fish stocks became important for the early European-settler economies of eastern Canada and New England.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: On 18 November 1929, the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake struck the southwestern part of the Grand Banks bordering the Laurentian Channel, causing an underwater landslide which resulted in extensive damage to transatlantic cables and generated a rare Atlantic tsunami that struck the south coast of Newfoundland, claiming 29 lives on the Burin Peninsula.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: Technological advances in fishing (such as using large factory-ships and sonar), as well as geopolitical disputes over territorial sea and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundaries, led to overfishing and a serious decline in the fish stocks of the Grand Banks from around 1990. The Canadian Grand Banks fishery was closed in 1993.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: Canada's EEZ covers the majority of the Grand Banks except for the lucrative "nose" (eastern extremity, near the Flemish Cap) and "tail" (southern extremity) of the fishing bank. The 1783 Treaty of Paris gave the United States shared rights to fish in these waters, but that section of the Treaty is no longer in force. The exclusive economic zone of the French territory Saint Pierre and Miquelon occupies a pin-shaped section at the west edge of the Grand Banks, with the radius head of the pin surrounding the islands and the needle heading south for .


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: Canada is performing the hydrographic and geological surveys necessary for claiming the entire continental shelf off eastern Canada, as allowed by the terms of the latest United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: Petroleum reserves have also been discovered and a number of oil fields are under development in this region, most notably the Hibernia, Terra Nova, and White Rose projects. However, the harsh environment on the Grand Banks also led to the "Ocean Ranger" disaster.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: The Northwest Atlantic Ocean is undergoing long-term warming from anthropogenic climate change. The surface water temperatures of the Newfoundland Shelf have increased by 0.13 °C per decade from 1950 to 2016. Depth-averaged ocean temperatures (0–175 m) have not shown a warming trend during that same period.


title: Grand Banks of Newfoundland

text: Semi-fictional depictions of fishermen working on the Grand Banks can be found in Rudyard Kipling's novel "Captains Courageous" (1897) and in Sebastian Junger's non-fiction book "The Perfect Storm" (1997). The Grand Banks are also portrayed in the 1990 film "The Hunt for Red October". Herman Melville described passing through the Banks as a young sailor on his first voyage in his autobiographical novel "Redburn: His First Voyage" (1849), where he saw whales and a haunting shipwreck with weeks-dead sailors still on board. It is also featured in "The Grey Seas Under", a non-fiction book by Canadian author Farley Mowat about the ocean-going maritime salvage tug "Foundation Franklin".


title: Qin Er Shi

text: Qin Er Shi (; (230–October 207 BCE) was the second emperor of the Qin dynasty from 210 to 207 BCE. The son of Qin Shi Huang, he was born as Ying Huhai. He was put on the throne by Li Si and Zhao Gao, circumventing Fusu, Ying's brother and the designated heir. Upon Ying's ascension, both Fusu and the popular general Meng Tian were killed on the orders of Li and Zhao, with Qin Er Shi's role in the assassinations remaining uncertain and controversial. A weak ruler, Qin Er Shi's reign was completely dominated by Zhao Gao, who eventually forced him to commit suicide. By the time of his death, the Qin Empire's power had lessened so much that his successor Ziying ruled as a king, not emperor.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: Huhai () was the personal name of the Second Emperor. Its Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as *"Ga-gə′". Although his parentage was questioned by many historians including Sima Qian, they accepted Qin Er Shi as a member of the Kingdom of Qin's House of Ying. Huhai is the eighteenth son of Qin Shi Huang. As the youngest son, he was doted on by his father. It is not clear who his mother was, although most likely she was "The Hu (barbarian) princess" Hu Ji (胡姬). Although he is sometimes known as "Ying Huhai" according to the practice of modern Chinese names, the ancient custom was not to combine the names in this way: his personal name never appears in combination with Ying, Zhao, or Qin. From an early age, Huhai was apprenticed to the minister Zhao Gao to learn Legalism, by the decree of Qin Shi Huang.There is a strong possibility that Hu Ji was a princess from the Greco-Bactrian Euthydemid dynasty offered to Ying Zheng as an alliance gift from neighboring Gansu in 230 BC.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: The first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, died during one of his tours of Eastern China in July–August 210 BCE at the palace in Shaqiu prefecture (沙丘平台). The announcement of his death was withheld until the entourage, which was accompanied by Premier Li Si and the imperial court, returned to the capital, Xianyang, two months later. Nevertheless, Huhai and Zhao Gao were aware of Qin Shi Huang's death and began plotting an internal intrigue.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: The eldest son, Fusu, was supposed to be elected as the next emperor. However, Premier Li Si and Chief Eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill Fusu to get rid of Fusu's favourite general, Meng Tian, who was their court rival. They were afraid that if Fusu were enthroned, they would lose their power. Li Si and Zhao Gao forged a fake edict by Qin Shi Huang ordering both Fusu and Meng to commit suicide. Their plan worked, and the younger son, Huhai, acceded the throne to become the second emperor, later known as Qin Er Shi (秦二世). However, recent findings of bamboo strips dating from the time of the intrigue note that Huhai would not wait and killed his brother. That would indicate that the fake edict, in the case of Fusu, was an imperial cover story.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: In the first year of his reign in 210 BCE, Huhai was made the second emperor of Qin at the age of 19. His regnal name Qin Er Shi, (), means "Second Generation of the Qin" and is a contraction of Qin Ershi Huangdi (), the "Second-Generation Emperor of the Qin". The name followed the nomenclature established by the First Emperor, who envisioned an empire that would last for ten thousand generations and for his successors to bear the aspiration in their reign names. The practice ended abruptly with the third emperor, Ziying, when the Qin dynasty was overturned by Chu and Han.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: Qin Er Shi depended on the eunuch Zhao Gao so much so that he acted as a puppet emperor, with the eunuch as puppeteer. Zhao Gao was made the Qin prime minister during Qin Er Shi's reign, which was cruel and brought much suffering to the people. From his reign onwards, the Qin dynasty declined.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: After one of the tours, Zhao Gao suggested for him to examine the governors and military commandants and to punish those guilty of some crime. That way, he could do away with those who disapprove of the emperor's actions. Six imperial princes were killed at Tu (杜). The emperor then further punished people for petty crimes. The emperor's brother Jianglu (將閭) and two other brothers were imprisoned. A messenger was then sent to read them a death sentence. Jianglu looked to the heavens and cried out loud three times that he did not commit any crime (天乎! 吾無罪!). All three brothers cried and drew their own swords to commit suicide. Zhao Gao said that the second emperor was young and that as the Son of Heaven, his own voice must never be heard, and his face must never be shown. Accordingly, the emperor remained in the inner palaces and consulted only with Zhao Gao. Therefore, the high ministers rarely had the opportunity to see the emperor in court.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: Bandits and brigands grew in numbers from different directions to attack the Qin. Military leaders such as Chen Sheng delegitimized the rule of Qin Er Shi by claiming Fusu should have been made ruler. One of the immediate revolts was the 209 BCE Dazexiang Uprising. The rebellion occurred in the territory that was formerly Chu state and claimed to be restoring Chu's greatness.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: Overall, Qin Er Shi was not able to contend with nationwide rebellions. He was not as capable as his father, and many revolts against him quickly erupted. His reign was a time of extreme civil unrest, and everything that had worked for the First Emperor had crumbled away within a short period. Later, an envoy reported about the rebellion in court. The emperor was enraged, and the envoy was punished. Then, all other envoys reporting about uprisings would say that the bandits were being pursued and captured. Without any need to worry, the emperor was pleased.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: The bandits and brigands continued to grow in numbers. Chancellor Feng Quqi, Li Si and General Feng Jie came forward to complain that the Qin military could not hold off the increasing number of revolts. They suggested for the construction of Epang Palace to be suspended lest the burden of tax should be too heavy. The emperor then questioned their loyalty. All three of them were handed to law officials, who subjected them to examinations to see if they were guilty of other crimes. Feng Quqi and Feng Jie committed suicide to avoid enduring disgrace. Li Si was put in prison, and then killed via the five pains punishment. Zhao Gao continued to push the emperor to find associates with loyalty and to punish those who show disloyalty with more severe penalties. Meng Yi and other chief ministers were executed. Twelve of the princes were executed in a marketplace in Xianyang. Ten princesses in Du were executed and their bodies were torn apart.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: On 27 September 207 BCE, Eunuch Zhao Gao tested his power against the emperor's. He presented a deer to the Second Emperor but called it a horse. The emperor laughed and said, "Is the chancellor perhaps mistaken, calling a deer a horse?" He questioned those around him. Some remained silent, and some aligned with Zhao Gao and called it a horse. Zhao Gao executed every official who had called it a deer. This incident provides the modern Chinese "chengyu" (idiomatic expression) "point to a deer and call it a horse" ( "zhǐlù-wéimǎ"); (see Zhao Gao § Calling a deer a horse).


title: Qin Er Shi

text: Although Qin managed to suppress most of the nationwide rebellions, they still caused serious damage. Qin's manpower and supplies were greatly reduced. Finally, Qin was decisively defeated at the Battle of Julu. Qin Er Shi foolishly tried to have the Qin general responsible, Zhang Han, killed, which led to the surrender and later to the live burial of 200,000 Qin troops. In total, Qin lost over 300,000 men. Even then, Qin Er Shi failed to take the defeat seriously, as he thought that Qin had many more spare troops. Finally, a daring and loyal eunuch told Qin Er Shi the truth. Shocked, Qin Er Shi tried to capture Zhao Gao and to hold him responsible.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: Zhao Gao, however, had expected that Qin Er Shi would ask him to take the blame. Therefore, Zhao Gao conspired with his loyal soldiers to force the emperor to commit suicide. Surrounded and with no means of escape, Qin Er Shi asked the loyal eunuch why he had not told the truth earlier. The eunuch replied that it was Qin Er Shi himself who had decided to execute anyone who would tell him the truth.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: In 207 BCE, the Qin dynasty collapsed only fifteen years after its establishment. Allegedly, a son of Fusu (there is no firm consensus as to what his relationship to the Qin royal family really was), Ziying, was made "king of Qin state", a reduced title. Ziying soon killed Zhao Gao and surrendered to Liu Bang one year later.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: Qin Er Shi reigned only for three years and was forced to commit suicide eventually by his most trusted minister, Zhao Gao, at the age of 22. Qin Er Shi was condemned by Zhao Gao after his death and was denied a royal burial. He was buried in today's Xi'an, near the Wild Goose Pagoda. Compared to his father, his tomb is much less elaborate and does not have a terracotta army. Qin Er Shi did not have a temple name.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: The name of the emperor, Er Shi (二世), is included in the popular Cantonese term 二世祖. The phrase is a pejorative term used to describe spoiled children raised by wealthy parents who grow up with few or no moral values or everyday skills.


title: Qin Er Shi

text: The incident of the horse-deer has been cited as the etymology of the Japanese word "baka" (), "fool".


title: Knit cap

text: A knit cap is a piece of knitted headwear designed to provide warmth in cold weather. It usually has a simple tapered shape, although more elaborate variants exist. Historically made of wool, it is now often made of synthetic fibers.


title: Knit cap

text: Found all over the world where the climate demands warm clothing, knit caps are known by a variety of local names. In American English this type of hat is known as a "beanie", while in Canadian English, a knit cap is known as a ", , or (pronounced ).


title: Knit cap

text: Most knit caps are tapered at the top. The stretch of the knitting itself hugs the head, keeping the cap secure. They are sometimes topped with a pom-pom or loose tassels. Knit caps may have a folded brim, or none, and may be worn tightly fitting the head or loose on top. A South American tradition from the Andes Mountains is for the cap to have ear flaps, with strings for tying under the chin. A special type of cap called a balaclava folds down over the head with openings for just the face or for the eyes or mouth only.


title: Knit cap

text: Some modern variants are constructed as a parallel sided tube, with a draw-string closure at one end. This version can be worn as a neck-warmer with the draw-string loose and open, or as a hat with the draw-string pulled tight and closed.


title: Knit cap

text: Dating from the 15th century, the earliest type of knitted wool cap was produced in the Welsh town of Monmouth.


title: Knit cap

text: The earliest surviving example of a "Monmouth cap" is held by Monmouth Museum and was knitted from coarse 2 ply wool. The cap was made by casting on at the lower edge and knitting in the round towards the top. The crown consists of a classic rounded top, with the last remaining stitches cast off. The yarn tail was wrapped around just below the castoff stitches to gather them, leaving the little lump commonly, but inexactly, referred to as a button. The doubled brim was formed by picking up stitches inside the body of the cap, and worked down to the original cast on. The cast on loops were picked up, and a 3 needle bind-off worked to finish and join the inner brim to the outer cap, ending with a little loop.


title: Knit cap

text: Each hat was made weatherproof by felting, a process which reduced its size. The distance from the centre to the hem in this example varies between 5 and 6 inches (150 mm).


title: Knit cap

text: Thousands of Monmouth caps were made, but their relatively low cost, and the ease with which the knitting could unravel, means that few remain.


title: Knit cap

text: Historically, the wool knit cap was an extremely common form of headgear for seamen, fishers, hunters and others spending their working day outdoors from the 18th century and forward, and is still commonly used for this purpose in the northern regions of North America, Europe, Asia, and other cold regions of the world.


title: Knit cap

text: Being found all over the world where climate demands a warm hat, the knit cap can be found under a multitude of local names. In parts of the English-speaking world, this type of knitted hat is traditionally called a beanie. However, in parts of Canada and the US, the word 'beanie' can additionally be used to denote a different design of brimless cap, which is floppy and made up of joined panels of felt, twill, or other tightly woven cloth rather than being knitted.


title: Knit cap

text: A knitted cap with ear flaps is often called a bobble hat, toboggan, or sherpa. The term " is also sometimes used for knitted caps in Southern American English.


title: Knit cap

text: Members of the United States military commonly refer to a knitted cap as a watch cap, as it is the headgear worn while "standing watch" on a ship or guard post. The term snookie cap is also frequently used in the US military.


title: Knit cap

text: In Western Pennsylvania English (Pittsburghese), it is known as a tossle cap. It may also simply be called a "winter hat".


title: Knit cap

text: Other names for knitted caps include: woolly hat (British English) or wool hat (American English); sock hat, knit hat, poof ball hat, bonnet, sock cap, stocking cap, skullcap, ski hat, sugan, or chook.


title: Knit cap

text: The pull-down knit cap that goes from the crown over the ears and around the neck, with a hole for the face, was known in the army of the British Empire as an "Uhlan cap" or "Templar cap". During the Crimean War, handmade pull-down caps were sent to the British troops to help protect them from the bitterly cold weather before or after the Battle of Balaclava. The cap became popularly known a "Balaclava helmet" or just "balaclava" among the soldiers.


title: Knit cap

text: In Scandinavia, caps resembling a typical knit cap with a pom-pom have been in use since the Viking period and possibly earlier. The terms "tophue" (Danish), "topplue" (Norwegian), "toppluva" (Swedish) mean 'top cap', and refer to the pom-pom.


title: Knit cap

text: The Viking-age Rällinge statuette, possibly a depiction of the god Freyr, wears what might be a pointed cap with pom-pom.


title: Knit cap

text: Early caps were probably sewn or made with nålebinding, but were knitted from the 17th century onwards, when knitting became known in Scandinavia. Inspired by the phrygian cap of the French revolution, it became largely ubiquitous during the 18th and 19th century. It is still found in many of the Scandinavian folk costumes for men.


title: Knit cap

text: In Canadian English, knit caps are more commonly known as a "tuque" (pronounced ; also spelled ' or '). A proper Canadian tuque has a pom pom on top but there are variations. It is considered cold-weather outerwear and is not commonly worn indoors. "Toque" is also commonly used across New England as well, especially among the working class. In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, it is called a "chook" or "chuke".


title: Knit cap

text: The word "tuque" is French Canadian, and is closely related to the French word "toque", originally referring to a traditional headwear and now used for a type of chef's hat (short for "toque blanche", 'white hat'). The French "toque" is an alternate spelling from Middle Breton, the language spoken by Breton immigrants at the founding of New France. In Old Breton, it was spelled "toc"; in Modern Breton, it is spelled "tok", meaning simply 'hat'.


title: Knit cap

text: The Canadian term likely has its origins with the long hats that were worn by the Voyageurs as they traversed westward on the rivers of North America. The term was picked up among the Blackfeet from them and entered Chinook Jargon all the way to the Pacific and the Klondike. According to the CBC, some etymologists believe it probably comes from an Old Spanish word for a type of headdress—specifically, a soft, close-fitting cap worn about 500 years ago.


title: Knit cap

text: In the 12th and 13th centuries, women wore embroidered "toques", made of velvet, satin, or taffeta, on top of their head-veils. In the late 16th century, brimless, black velvet toques were popular with men and women. Throughout the 19th century, women wore toques, often small, trimmed with fur, lace, bows, flowers, or leaves.


title: Knit cap

text: The tuque is similar to the Phrygian cap, and, as such, a red tuque during the 1837 Patriotes Rebellion became a symbol of French-Canadian nationalism. The symbol was revived briefly by the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) in the 1960s. Despite this, the tuque is also considered a symbol of Canadian identity broadly due to its ubiquity among English and French Canadians alike. It is also notable for having been the headwear of SCTV's Bob and Doug McKenzie.


title: Knit cap

text: The word is also occasionally spelled "touque" and, although this is not considered a standard spelling by the "Canadian Oxford Dictionary", some informal media polls have suggested that it is the preferred spelling by many Canadians.


title: Knit cap

text: In some sections of Canada, a tuque with a brim on it, commonly worn by snowboarders, is nicknamed a bruque (a brimmed tuque).


title: Knit cap

text: In England, a knit cap may be known as a bobble hat, whether or not it has a yarn "bobble" or pom-pom on top.


title: Knit cap

text: Bobble hats were traditionally considered utilitarian cold-weather wear. In the early 21st century they were considered popular only with geeks and nerds. A surprise rise in popularity, driven initially by the Geek-Chic trend, saw them become a fashionable and with a real fur bobble, luxury designer item.


title: Knit cap

text: In the late 20th century, in the United Kingdom, they (like the anorak) were associated with utilitarian un-fashionability or with older football supporters, as they had been popular in club colours during the 1960s and 1970s. Along with the pin-on rosette and the football scarf, the bobble hat was seen as traditional or old-fashioned British working-class football regalia.


title: Knit cap

text: Knitted caps are common in cold climates, and are worn worldwide in various forms. They have become the common headgear for stereotypical dockworkers and sailors in movies and television. Bill Murray wore this type of hat in "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", possibly as a parody of the red tuque (or Phrygian cap) worn by French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.


title: Knit cap

text: Michael Nesmith of The Monkees also wore a knitted cap in his television series, as did Jay in the films of the View Askewniverse, Robert Clothier's character "Relic" in the long-running Canadian TV series "The Beachcombers," and Hanna-Barbera's character Loopy de Loop wore a knit cap as well. Michael Parks wore one as James "Jim" Bronson in the popular series "Then Came Bronson". Robert Conrad also had worn one in his role of coureur des bois in the epic TV series "Centennial". Bruce Weitz's character Mick Belker wore this hat throughout almost every episode of "Hill Street Blues".


title: Knit cap

text: Everest from the series "PAW Patrol" wears a teal knit cap with white trimmings that she is rarely seen without.


title: Knit cap

text: Characters in the animated series "South Park", including Eric Cartman and Stan Marsh, usually wear knitted caps. Jayne Cobb from the TV series "Firefly" wore an orange sherpa knitted and sent to him by his mother in the episode "The Message". The character Compo on the British TV show "Last of the Summer Wine" is almost always seen wearing a knitted cap.


title: Knit cap

text: Edd from "Ed, Edd n Eddy" wears a black, loose knit cap almost every time he's on screen, which covers something on his head that he's embarrassed about.


title: Knit cap

text: The guitarist for the Irish band U2, The Edge, is also known for wearing a knitted cap while performing, or during interviews. Tom Delonge, former guitarist and vocalist of the pop punk band Blink-182 is also known to wear a knitted cap during live performances. Rob Caggiano, music producer and former guitarist for thrash metal band Anthrax, is often seen wearing a black one. Lee Hartney from The Smith Street Band is regularly seen in a black knit cap, even during an Australian summer. Canadian Daniel Powter also wore a blue knitted cap during the music video for "Bad Day". Knitted caps are also worn commonly by hip hop artists. Masao Inaba from "" wears one.


title: Knit cap

text: Santa Claus is often shown with a knitted cap or a sewn cap following the typical Scandinavian-style knitted cap with a pom-pom, a trait he has inherited from the Germanic/Scandinavian tradition. The Scandinavian tomte is likewise usually depicted with a red knitted cap, such a cap is also used as a national symbol (sometimes negatively) in Norway.


title: K. K. Senthil Kumar

text: K. K. Senthil Kumar is an Indian cinematographer who works in Telugu cinema. He is known for his frequent collaborations with S.S. Rajamouli. He graduated with a degree in cinematography from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He made his debut as a cinematographer with the sitcom TV series "Amrutham." He made his film debut with "Aithe" (2003) which brought him recognition.


title: K. K. Senthil Kumar

text: He went on to work in notable films like "Sye" (2004), "Chatrapathi" (2005), "Yamadonga" (2007), "Arundhati" (2009), "Magadheera" (2009), "Eega" (2012), "" (2015), "" (2017), and "RRR" (2022). He has received two Nandi Awards by the Andhra Pradesh government and three Filmfare Awards South among other accolades.


title: K. K. Senthil Kumar

text: K. K. Senthil Kumar was born and brought up in Hyderabad, into a Tamil-speaking family. He is the eldest of three siblings. He graduated with a degree in cinematography from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. He married Ruhee on 25 June 2009. She is a Yoga instructor and heads the Hyderabad division of Bharat Thakur’s Yoga classes.


title: K. K. Senthil Kumar

text: After his graduation from FTII, he joined cinematographer Sarath as an assistant. He worked with Sarath from "Premaku Velayara" (1999) till "Jabili" (2001). He worked for 13 episodes in "Amrutham". When Chandra Sekhar Yeleti directed "Aithe" (2003), he took Senthil on as the cinematographer.


title: Cannabis in Spain

text: Cannabis in Spain is decriminalized for personal cultivation and use, and other purposes other than sale or trade. It's illegal for trade or commercial purposes. Using the legal grey areas in Spanish legislation, cannabis clubs are a popular way for enthusiasts to obtain and use cannabis as a technically-legal private collective. In private places, consumption and possession of reasonable amounts (up to ) is legal.


title: Cannabis in Spain

text: Several cannabis consumption clubs and user associations have been established throughout Spain. These clubs, the first of which was created in 1991, are non-profit associations that grow cannabis and sell it at cost to its members. The legal status of these clubs is uncertain: in 1997, four members of the first club, the Barcelona Ramón Santos Association of Cannabis Studies, were sentenced to four months in prison and a 3000 euro fine, while at about the same time, the court of Bilbao ruled that another club was not in violation of the law. The Andalusian regional government also commissioned a study by criminal law professors on the "Therapeutic use of cannabis and the creation of establishments of acquisition and consumption. The study concluded that such clubs are legal as long as they distribute only to a restricted list of legal adults, provide only the amount of drugs necessary for immediate consumption, and not earn a profit. The Andalusian government never formally accepted these guidelines and the legal situation of the clubs remains insecure. In 2006 and 2007, members of these clubs were acquitted in trial for possession and sale of cannabis and the police were ordered to return seized crops."


title: Cannabis in Spain

text: About 500 private "cannabis clubs" exist in Spain, 400 of them in Barcelona alone, and Spain is spoken of as the "new Amsterdam," a destination for marijuana tourists. All actions related to cannabis apart from sale or trade are not considered criminal offenses, and normally are misdemeanors punishable by a fine.


title: Cannabis in Spain

text: In October 2005, the autonomous government in the region of Catalonia launched a program of therapeutic use of Sativex for 600 patients of a wide set of illnesses, from multiple sclerosis to cancer, in order to avoid nausea or to relax tense muscles. The project involves six hospitals, forty researchers and sixty drugstores. The product is presented as an atomizer to be taken orally, and it will be delivered at drugstores inside some hospitals. The full text of the research initiative can be seen, in Catalan, from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.


title: Cannabis in Spain

text: Sale and importation of any quantity of cannabis is a criminal offence, punishable by jail time. The purchase, possession and consumption of cannabis in a public place constitutes a misdemeanour punishable by a fine and confiscation of the product. Consumption and cultivation by adults in a private space is legal, the latter due to a legal vacuum and provided that it is shown to be for one's own consumption. Cannabis plants that are located somewhere visible from the street/public place (i.e. from balconies) are considered a serious administrative offense, which leads to a fine from 601 to 30,000€.


title: Cannabis in Spain

text: Cannabis laws in Spain can vary by autonomous community. For example, in June 2017, Catalonia legalised the cultivation, consumption and distribution of cannabis for members of designated cannabis clubs. The clubs must be self-sufficient non-profit organisations and only distribute cannabis to those aged 18 years old and over. Cannabis clubs in Catalonia are also limited to producing 150kg of dried cannabis a year and must follow rules intended to stop drug tourism.


title: Cannabis in Spain

text: The political party Podemos supports legalising and regulating cannabis in Spain. In 2021, the political party Más País introduced a motion to legalise the recreational use of cannabis in Spain. It was supported by Unidas Podemos, an electoral alliance of which Podemos is part of. However, the governing Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, often referred to under its abbreviated name, PSOE, voted against the motion.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner (Astrid Maud Ingeborg; born 12 February 1932) is the second daughter of King Olav V and his wife, Princess Märtha of Sweden. She is the older sister of King Harald V of Norway and younger sister of the late Princess Ragnhild.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: Princess Astrid was born on 12 February 1932 at Villa Solbakken to the future King Olav V and Crown Princess Märtha. She was baptized in the Palace Chapel on 31 March 1932 and her godparents were: her paternal grandparents, King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway; her maternal grandparents, Prince Carl and Princess Ingeborg of Sweden; her maternal aunt, Princess Astrid, Duchess of Brabant; Elizabeth, Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother); Princess Thyra of Denmark; Prince Eugen of Sweden; and Prince George of the United Kingdom. Princess Astrid was named after the popular maternal aunt, paternal grandmother, maternal grandmother.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: Princess Astrid grew up on the royal estate of Skaugum in Asker and was privately educated during her childhood. During World War II, she joined her family fleeing the Nazis and spent the war with her mother, brother and sister in exile in Washington, DC. Following the royal family's return to Norway she attended Nissen's Girls' School and graduated with the examen artium university entrance exam in 1950. She then studied economics and political history for two years at Oxford University.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: The princess later learnt other skills including dressmaking and cooking and pursued her interests in handicrafts. Princess Astrid studied ceramics with Halvor Sandøs.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: Princess Astrid's mother died on 5 April 1954 from cancer at age 53 when Astrid was 22 years old. From her mother's death until her brother's marriage in August 1968, Princess Astrid was the senior lady of the court and acted as first lady of Norway, working side-by-side with her father on all representation duties, including state visits. Princess Astrid raised her family in Vinderen; she now lives in Nordmarka, Oslo. Her hobbies include knitting, embroidery, reading and painting porcelain.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: In 2002, the Government granted the Princess an honorary pension in recognition of all her efforts on behalf of Norway both during and following her years as first lady. In 2005, she took part in ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, including the unveiling of a plaque marking the Norwegian monarch's exile in London.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: In February 2012, Princess Astrid celebrated her 80th birthday with a private dinner at the Royal Palace in Oslo.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: Princess Astrid married divorced commoner Johan Martin Ferner in Asker on 12 January 1961. Together, the couple have five children, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: Princess Astrid is chair of the board of Crown Princess Märtha’s Memorial Fund which provides financial support to social and humanitarian initiatives carried out by non-governmental organisations.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: She is a patron of several organisations. She has been particularly involved in work for children and young people with dyslexia, herself having that condition.


title: Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner

text: Astrid is a great-granddaughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and thus a second cousin to Queen Elizabeth II. At the time of her birth, she was 18th in the line of succession to the British throne.


title: Webbed toes

text: Webbed toes is the informal and common name for syndactyly affecting the feet—the fusion of two or more digits of the feet. This is normal in many birds, such as ducks; amphibians, such as frogs; and some mammals, such as kangaroos. In humans it is rare, occurring once in about 2,000 to 2,500 live births: most commonly the second and third toes are webbed (joined by skin and flexible tissue), which can reach partly or almost fully up the toe.


title: Webbed toes

text: The exact cause of the condition is unknown. In some cases, close family members may share this condition. In other cases, no other related persons have this condition. The scientific name for the condition is syndactyly, although this term covers both webbed fingers and webbed toes. Syndactyly occurs when apoptosis or programmed cell death during gestation is absent or incomplete. Webbed toes occur most commonly in the following circumstances:


title: Webbed toes

text: This condition is normally discovered at birth. If other symptoms are present, a specific syndrome may be indicated. Diagnosis of a specific syndrome is based on family history, medical history, and a physical exam. Webbed toes are also known as "twin toes," "duck toes," "turkey toes", "tree toes" and "tiger toes."


title: Webbed toes

text: Severity can vary. Most cases involve the second and third toes but any number of toes can be involved. In some cases the toes are joined part way while in some the webbing can extend right up to the nails. In some cases the entire toes, including the nails and bones, can be fused.


title: Webbed toes

text: Webbed toes can be separated through surgery. Surgical separation of webbed toes is an example of body modification.


title: Webbed toes

text: As with any form of surgery, there are risks of complications. In contrast, when left untreated it is very uncommon for webbed toes to cause complications beyond cosmetic considerations. For this reason, many medical professionals do not recommend surgical separation for typical cases.


title: Webbed toes

text: The end results depend on the extent of the webbing and underlying bone structure. There is usually some degree of scarring, and skin grafts may be required. In rare instances, nerve damage may lead to loss of feeling in the toes and a tingling sensation. There are also reports of partial web grow-back. The skin grafts needed to fill in the space between the toes can lead to additional scars in the places where the skin is removed.


title: Befana

text: In Italian folklore, the Befana () is an old woman who delivers gifts to children throughout Italy on Epiphany Eve (the night of January 5) in a similar way to Santa Claus or the Three Magi Kings.


title: Befana

text: A popular belief is that her name derives from the Feast of Epiphany (). In popular folklore, the Befana visits all the children of Italy on the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany to fill their socks with candy and presents if they are good, or a lump of coal or dark candy if they are bad. In many poorer parts of Italy and in particular rural Sicily, a stick in a stocking was placed instead of coal. Being a good housekeeper, many say she will sweep the floor before she leaves. To some the sweeping means the sweeping away of the problems of the year. The child's family typically leaves a small glass of wine and a plate with a few morsels of food, often regional or local, for the Befana.


title: Befana

text: She is usually portrayed as a hag riding a broomstick through the air wearing a black shawl and is covered in soot because she enters the children's houses through the chimney. She is often smiling and carries a bag or hamper filled with candy, gifts, or both.


title: Befana

text: Christian legend had it that Befana was approached by the biblical magi, also known as the Three Wise Men (or the three kings) a few days before the birth of the Infant Jesus. They asked for directions to where the Son of God was, as they had seen his star in the sky, but she did not know. She provided them with shelter for a night, as she was considered the best housekeeper in the village, with the most pleasant home. The magi invited her to join them on the journey to find the baby Jesus, but she declined, stating she was too busy with her housework. Later, La Befana had a change of heart, and tried to search out the astrologers and Jesus. That night she was not able to find them, so to this day, La Befana is searching for the little baby. She leaves all the good children toys and candy ("caramelle") or fruit, while the bad children get coal or dark candy ("carbone"), onions or garlic.


title: Befana

text: Another Christian legend takes a slightly darker tone as La Befana was an ordinary woman with a child whom she greatly loved. However, her child died, and her resulting grief maddened her. Upon hearing news of Jesus being born, she set out to see him, delusional that he was her son. She eventually met Jesus and presented him with gifts to make him happy. The infant Jesus was delighted, and he gave La Befana a gift in return; she would be the mother of every child in Italy.


title: Befana

text: Popular tradition tells that if La Befana spots that someone sees her, they will receive a playful thump on the shoulder from her broomstick, as she doesn't wish to be seen. This aspect of the tradition may be designed to keep children in their beds.


title: Befana

text: Another commonly heard Christian legend of La Befana starts at the time of the birth of baby Jesus. In this telling, Befana spent her days cleaning and sweeping. One day the magi came to her door in search of the baby Jesus. However, Befana turned them away because she was too busy cleaning. Feeling guilty, she eventually decides to find Jesus on her own by following a bright light in the sky which she believes points the way. She brings along a bag filled with baked goods and gifts for Jesus, and a broom to help the new mother clean. Unfortunately despite her best efforts she never finds him. According to this telling, Befana is still searching after all these centuries for the new born messiah. On the eve of the Epiphany, Befana comes to every house where there is a child and leaves a gift. Although she has been unsuccessful in her search, she still leaves gifts for children everywhere because the Christ Child can be found in all children.


title: Befana

text: Befana was a widespread tradition among the whole Italian people, having originated in Rome and having become well known and practiced by the rest of the population during the centuries.


title: Befana

text: Many people believe that the name Befana is derived from the Italians' mispronunciation of the Greek word "epifania" or "epiphaneia" (Greek, επιφάνεια = appearance, surface, English: epiphany). Others point to the name being a derivative of Bastrina, the gifts associated with the goddess Strina. In the book "Domestic Life in Palestine", by Mary E. Rogers (Poe & Hitchcock, 1865) the author notes:


title: Befana

text: A theory connects the tradition of exchanging gifts to an ancient Roman festivity in honour of Ianus and Strenia (in Italian a Christmas gift used to be called "strenna"), celebrated at the beginning of the year, when Romans used to give each other presents.


title: Befana

text: In the book "Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs, Discoverable in Modern Italy and Sicily" (1823), John J. Blunt says:


title: Befana

text: The tradition of Befana appears to incorporate other pre-Christian popular elements as well, adapted to Christian culture and related to the celebration of the New Year. Historian Carlo Ginzburg relates her to Nicnevin. The old lady character should then represent the "old year" just passed, ready to be burned in order to give place to the new one. In many European countries the tradition still exists of burning a puppet of an old lady at the beginning of the New Year, called Giubiana in Northern Italy, with clear Celtic origins. Italian anthropologists Claudia and Luigi Manciocco, in their book "Una casa senza porte" ("A House without Doors") trace Befana's origins back to Neolithic beliefs and practices. The team of anthropologists also wrote about Befana as a figure that evolved into a goddess associated with fertility and agriculture.


title: Befana

text: The Befana is celebrated throughout all of Italy, and has become a national icon. In the regions of the Marches, Umbria and Latium, her figure is associated with the Papal States, where the Epiphany held the most importance. Urbania is thought to be her official home. Every year there is a big festival held to celebrate the holiday. About 30,000 to 50,000 people attend the festivities. Hundreds of Befanas are present, swinging from the main tower. They juggle, dance and greet all the children.


title: Befana

text: Traditionally, all Italian children may expect to find a lump of "coal" in their stockings (actually rock candy made black with caramel coloring), as every child has been at least occasionally bad during the year.


title: Befana

text: In other parts of the world where a vibrant Italian community exists, traditions involving Befana may be observed and shared or celebrated with the wider community. In Toronto, Canada for example, a Befana Choir shows up on Winter Solstice each December to sing in the Kensington Market Festival of Lights parade. Women, men, and children dressed in La Befana costume and nose sing love songs to serenade the sun to beckon its return. The singing hags gather in the street to give candy to children, to cackle and screech to accordion music, and to sing in every key imaginable as delighted parade participants join in the cacophony. Sometimes, the Befanas dance with parade goers and dust down the willing as parade goers walk by.


title: Befana

text: There are poems about Befana, which are known in slightly different versions throughout Italy. Here is one of the versions:


title: Rabbit vibrator

text: A rabbit vibrator (also known as a Jack Rabbit vibrator or Jessica Rabbit vibrator) is a vibrating sex toy, usually made in the shape of a phallic shaft for vaginal stimulation with a clitoral stimulator attached to the shaft. The name of the device is derived from the fact that the clitoral stimulator looks like a pair of rabbit ears. The first rabbit vibrator appeared on the market in 1984 and, along with the magic wand vibrator, is considered by "Cosmopolitan" magazine to be one of the classic sex toys.


title: Rabbit vibrator

text: Their popularity was boosted in the United States after an episode of HBO's "Sex and the City" ("The Turtle and the Hare") featured Vibratex's Rabbit Pearl. The rabbit was chosen for the show because it was a bestseller at a store in New York.


title: Rabbit vibrator

text: Rabbit vibrators are designed to give more intense sensations than the more traditional dildo or clitoral stimulator, by providing simultaneous vaginal and clitoral stimulation. The Rabbit Pearl, the original device, also had a rotating section.


title: Rabbit vibrator

text: Since then the rabbit vibrator has evolved and become a whole genre of sex toys with many different brands and variations in design including ones with a less phallic shape or without the rotating beads section. The device can be used in a variety of ways and for both solo sexual play and during partnered sex.


title: Rabbit vibrator

text: Company owner Shay Martin says Vibratex was the first company to import dual-action vibrators to the United States in 1983. These vibrators were imported from Japan and were manufactured in bright colours and shaped to look like beavers, kangaroos and turtles to get around the country’s obscenity laws, unlike previous imports from China that had been designed to resemble a realistic phallus. Martin credits their colouring and cuteness as making them more appealing to women and leading to the market success of the Rabbit. Designers at Vibratex had been working on a new version that added rotating pearls to the base of the shaft of the dual-action vibrators. In 1984 the Rabbit Pearl was released. From 1985 onwards Rabbit Pearl imitators flooded the market including Susan Colvin’s Jack Rabbit for adult magazine company CPLC and the Rampant Rabbit for the UK sex toy party company Ann Summers.


title: Rabbit vibrator

text: Normally rabbit vibrators are made out of a jelly-like substance (polyvinyl chloride), silicone (semi-organic polymer), rubber (elastic hydrocarbon polymer) or latex (natural rubber) materials. Silicone vibrators are easier to clean and care for, since this material is not porous; therefore no bacteria or foreign matter is absorbed by the toy. Silicone retains heat and has no odour. Jelly material is porous and cannot be sterilised in boiling water and has a scent of rubber that some find unappealing. In order to escape this smell some producers aromatise the products with more pleasurable scents. Rabbit vibrators made from vinyl, plastic, metal, and elastomer materials can be also found. They are much less porous than jelly, or entirely non-porous, but the texture is smooth and firm.


title: Rabbit vibrator

text: Rabbit vibrators are designed for simultaneous internal (vaginal) and external (clitoral) stimulation. The rabbit-shaped stimulator is held near the clitoris, while the shaft is taken into the vagina, offering deep, "all around" stimulation. Most models offer a choice of shaft rotation speeds and patterns of clitoral stimulation.


title: Rabbit vibrator

text: While using a rabbit vibrator, users may benefit from using additional lubrication, as jelly can absorb the body's natural lubrication, and both jelly and silicone create friction against skin. Lack of moisture may cause irritation, discomfort or pain.


title: Rabbit vibrator

text: The rabbit vibrator has been described as "one of the most visible contemporary signs of active female sexuality". The appeal of the rabbit vibrator is its ability to give clitoral and vaginal stimulation at the same time.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: Red Digital Cinema ("Red Digital Cinema Camera Company") is an American company that manufactures professional digital cinematography cameras and accessories.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: The company's headquarters is in Foothill Ranch, California, with studios in Hollywood, California. It has offices in London, Shanghai, and Singapore, retail stores in Hollywood, New York City, and Miami, as well as various authorized resellers and service centers around the world.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: Red Digital Cinema was founded by Jim Jannard, who had previously founded Oakley. As a self-described "camera fanatic" owning over 1,000 models, Jannard started the company with the intent to deliver a (relatively) affordable 4K digital cinema camera. Jannard dates this idea to a time when he bought a Sony HDR-FX1 video camera and learned that the files had to be converted with software from Lumiere HD and were not viewable on Mac OS. Lumiere HD's owner Frederic Lumiere collaborated with Jannard on developing an alternative and introduced him to Ted Schilowitz who became Red's first employee.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: The early team members engaged in undisclosed research on how to make a digital camera feasible for Hollywood productions. Part of this involved using 4K resolution instead of 2K which was most common at the time. Another technical hurdle was to achieve the focusing quality of DSLR cameras without sacrificing frame rate. Part of Red's solution to this problem was developing a sensor with a physical size comparable to that of analog film. At the 2006 NAB Show, Jannard announced that Red would build a 4K digital cinema camera, called the Red One, and began taking pre-orders.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: In March 2007, director Peter Jackson completed a camera test of two prototype Red One cameras, which became the 12-minute World War I film "Crossing the Line". On seeing the short film, director Steven Soderbergh told Jannard: "I am all in. I have to shoot with this." Soderbergh took two prototype Red Ones into the jungle to shoot his film, "Che". A short documentary, "Che and the Digital Revolution" was made about the Red camera technology that was used in the film's production. The Red One first shipped in August 2007. One of the first television programs to shoot with it was the medical drama "ER".


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: In 2010, Red acquired the historic Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood, and renamed it "Red Studios Hollywood". By 2011, it had over 400 employees. 2011 was also the year in which Panavision, Arri and Aaton announced that they would no longer be producing analog cameras. Red Digital Cinema and the Red One were widely credited as accelerating this transition in the industry. Schilowitz responded to these reviews by saying "It was never our goal to kill film. Instead, we wanted to evolve it."


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: On August 19, 2013, Jim Jannard announced his retirement from RED, leaving Jarred Land the current president to take over in his absence.


title: Red Digital Cinema

text: In 2010, 5% of the top 100 grossing domestic films that were shot on digital video used Red cameras as their primary system. Their share increased to over 25% by 2016, but has declined since then.