title: Bobby Layne

text: Robert Lawrence Layne (December 19, 1926 – December 1, 1986) was an American football quarterback who played for 15 seasons in the National Football League. He played for the Chicago Bears in 1948, the New York Bulldogs in 1949, the Detroit Lions from 1950–1958, and the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1958–1962.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Layne was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the third overall pick of the 1948 NFL draft. He played college football at the University of Texas. Layne was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1968. His number, 22, has been retired by the University of Texas Longhorns and Detroit Lions.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Born in Santa Anna, Texas, Layne grew up on a farm in Coleman County just north of Santa Anna. His father, only 36, died of a heart attack when Layne was eight years old. His mother, Bea, was so destitute, she could not afford to keep the family together. Layne's two sisters stayed with his mother while he was sent to Fort Worth to live with his aunt and uncle, Mimi and Wade Hampton. The Hamptons eventually adopted Layne and moved to Highland Park, Texas, which was then a suburb just north of Dallas. He attended Highland Park High School in University Park. Layne's best friend and football teammate was fellow future hall of famer Doak Walker, the Heisman Trophy winner in 1948 for the SMU Mustangs and a pro teammate with the Detroit Lions.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In his senior year, Layne was named to the all-state football team, played in the Oil Bowl All-Star game, and led Highland Park to the state semifinals where they fell to eventual state champions San Angelo, 21–20.


title: Bobby Layne

text: One of the most successful quarterbacks ever to play for Texas, Layne was selected to four straight All-Southwest Conference teams from 1944 to 1947, and was a consensus All-American in his senior year. World War II caused a shortage of players, and rules were changed to allow freshmen to play on the varsity, thereby allowing Layne a four-year career.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Freshman play was sporadically allowed by various conferences during wartime, but would not be allowed universally until the rules were permanently changed in 1972. In his freshman season, Layne became a very rare player (in that era) to start his first game. He missed his second game due to an injury and was replaced by future North Texas transfer Zeke Martin, but Layne played the rest of the season and led the Longhorns to within one point of the Southwest Conference Championship when they lost to TCU 7–6 on a missed extra point.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Prior to and during his sophomore year, he spent eight months in the Merchant Marine, serving with his friend Doak Walker. He missed the first six games of the season, and was replaced by Jack Halfpenny. The last game he missed was the team's only loss, to Rice, by one point. Texas went 10–1, won the Southwest Conference, and despite playing only half a season, Layne again made the all-conference team.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In the Cotton Bowl Classic following that season, Texas beat Missouri 40–27, and Layne played perhaps the best game of his career. He set several NCAA and Cotton Bowl records that have lasted into the 21st century. In that game, he completed 11 of 12 passes and accounted for every one of the team's 40 points, scoring four touchdowns, kicking four field goals, and throwing for two other scores, thus he was named one of the game's outstanding players.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In 1946, the Longhorns were ranked first in the preseason for the first time, but after beating #20 Arkansas, they were upset by #16 Rice and later by unranked TCU. They went 8–2, finished third in the conference, ranked fifteenth nationally, and missed out on any bowl games. Layne led the Southwest Conference in total offense (1420 yards), total passing (1115 yards), and punting average (42 yards). Despite the unexpected finish, Layne was named All-Conference again and finished eighth in Heisman Trophy balloting to Glenn Davis of Army.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In 1947, Blair Cherry replaced Dana X. Bible as head coach at Texas and he decided to install the T-formation offense. Cherry, Layne, and their wives spent several weeks in Wisconsin studying the new offense at the training camps of the Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League. The change was a success, as Layne led the Southwest Conference in passing yards, made the All-Conference and All-American teams, and finished sixth in Heisman Trophy voting to John Lujack of Notre Dame. The Longhorns, after beating #19 North Carolina, started the season ranked third. They then beat #15 Oklahoma, but as happened in 1945, Texas was again denied an undefeated season by a missed extra point. After coming back once against Walker's number-8 SMU, Texas again found itself behind late in the game.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Layne engineered a fourth-quarter touchdown drive that would have tied the game, but kicker Frank Guess pushed the extra point wide and the Longhorns lost 14–13. They fell to eighth, and finished behind SMU in the Southwest Conference, but gained an invitation to the Sugar Bowl, where Layne and the Longhorns beat number-six Alabama. As a result of his 10-of-24, 183-yard performance, Layne won the inaugural Miller-Digby award presented to the game's most valuable player. The Longhorns finished ranked fifth, the best finish in Layne's career. Layne finished his Texas career with a school-record 3,145 passing yards on 210 completions and 400 attempts and 28 wins.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Layne was one of the first inductees into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame and made the Cotton Bowl's All-Decade team (1937–1949) for the 1940s. Later, both of Layne's sons, Rob and Alan, played college football. Robert L. Layne Jr., was a kicker for Texas, playing on the 1969 national championship team, and Alan played tight end for TCU in 1973.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Layne was one of the best pitchers to ever play at Texas. He made the All-Southwest Conference team all four years he played, and played on teams that won all three Conference Championships available to them (none was named in 1944 due to World War II). He won his first career start, in 1944, when he was managed by his future football coach Blair Cherry, versus Southwestern, 14–1, in a complete-game, 15-strikeout performance. Similar to football, he missed the 1945 season because he was in the Merchant Marines, but returned to play three more seasons. In 1946, he threw the school's first and second no-hitters and posted a 12–4 record. In 1947, he went 12–1 and led Texas to a third-place finish in the first NCAA baseball Tournament.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In 1948, he went 9–0 and again helped Texas win the Southwest Conference, but though they qualified for it, Texas decided not to attend the 1948 NCAA tournament because the players felt they had too many obligations with family and jobs.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Texas went 60–10 overall, and 41–2 in the SWC during Layne's final three years in Austin. When his career was over, Layne had a perfect 28–0 conference record and set several school and conference records during his time on the team, including a few that still stand today. Between baseball and football, he was All-Conference an astounding eight times and won four conference championships.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In 1948, after earning his degree in physical education, Layne played a season of minor league ball for the Lubbock Hubbers baseball team of the Class C West Texas–New Mexico League. He went 6–5 with a 7.29 ERA, and had bids from the New York Giants, the Boston Red Sox, and the St. Louis Cardinals to join their staffs, but he preferred to go to the National Football League, where he could play immediately rather than grind out several years in the minor-league system.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Bold means "active" record; as the Southwest Conference became defunct in 1996, these records have essentially become permanent


title: Bobby Layne

text: Drafted into the National Football League by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Layne was the third overall selection in the 1948 NFL draft and was the second overall selection in the 1948 AAFC Draft by the Baltimore Colts. Layne did not want to play for the Steelers, the last team in the NFL to use the single-wing formation, so his rights were quickly traded to the Chicago Bears.


title: Bobby Layne

text: He was offered $77,000 to play for the Colts, but George Halas, who attended the Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama and sat with Cherry and Layne after the game, "sweet talked" him into signing with the Bears. He promised a slow rise to fame in the "big leagues" with a no-trade understanding.


title: Bobby Layne

text: After one season with the Bears in 1948, during which Layne was the third-string quarterback behind both Sid Luckman and Johnny Lujack, Layne refused to return and tried to engineer his own trade to the Green Bay Packers. Halas, preoccupied with fending off a challenge from the AAFC, traded Layne to the New York Bulldogs for their first-round pick in the 1950 draft and $50,000 cash. The cash was to be paid in four installments.


title: Bobby Layne

text: With Layne at quarterback, the Bulldogs won only one game and lost 11, but Layne played well and developed quickly. Layne compared one season with the soon-to-be-defunct New York Bulldogs as worth five seasons with any other NFL team.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In 1950, he was traded to the Detroit Lions for wide receiver Bob Mann, and the Lions agreed to make the final three payments to Halas (Halas later remarked that the Lions should have continued the yearly payments indefinitely to him in view of Layne's performance). For the next five years, Layne was reunited with his great friend and Highland Park High School teammate Doak Walker, and together they helped make Detroit into a champion.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In 1952, Layne led the Lions to their first NFL Championship in 17 years, and then did so again in 1953 for back-to-back league titles. They fell short of a three-peat in 1954 when they lost 56–10 to Cleveland Browns in the NFL championship game, a loss which Layne explained by saying, "I slept too much last night."


title: Bobby Layne

text: In 1955, the team finished last in their conference and Walker surprisingly retired at the top of his game. As Walker had been the team's kicker, Layne took over the kicking duties in 1956 and 1957, and in 1956 led the league in field-goal accuracy. In 1956, the Lions finished second in the conference, missing the championship game by only one point. In 1957, the season of the Lions' most recent NFL championship, Layne broke his leg in three places in a pileup during the 11th game of the 12-game season. His replacement, Tobin Rote, finished the season and led the Lions to victory in the championship game in Detroit, a 59–14 rout of the Cleveland Browns.


title: Bobby Layne

text: After the second game of the season, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Buddy Parker, formerly in Detroit, arranged a trade on October 6 that brought Layne to the Steelers. During his eight seasons in Detroit, the Lions won three NFL championships and Layne played in four Pro Bowls, made first-team All-Pro twice, and at various times led the league in over a dozen single-season statistical categories.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Following the trade, Layne played five seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Though he made the Pro Bowl two more times, he never made it back to the playoffs, and the team's best finish was second in the conference in 1962. During his last year in the NFL, he published his autobiography "Always on Sunday". Later he stated that the biggest disappointment in his football career was having never won a championship for the Pittsburgh Steelers and specifically, Art Rooney.


title: Bobby Layne

text: By the time Layne retired before the 1963 season, he owned the NFL records for passing attempts (3,700), completions (1,814), touchdowns (196), yards (26,768), and interceptions (243). He left the game as one of the last players to play without a face mask and was credited with creating the two-minute drill. Doak Walker said of him, "Layne never lost a game...time just ran out on him."


title: Bobby Layne

text: Following his retirement as a player, Layne served as the quarterback coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1963 to 1965 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 1965. He was a scout for the Dallas Cowboys from 1966–67. He later unsuccessfully sought the head coaching job at Texas Tech, his last professional involvement with the sport.


title: Bobby Layne

text: For his on-the-field exploits, Layne was inducted into a vast assortment of halls of fame. These included the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1960, the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 1963, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967, the state halls of fame in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and the Texas High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1973. In 1981, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Tom Landry. He was presented alongside fellow honoree Doak Walker.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In 2006, he was a finalist on the initial ballot for pre-1947 inductees to the College Baseball Hall of Fame. He was a finalist again the following year.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In a special issue in 1995, "Sports Illustrated" called Layne "The Toughest Quarterback Who Ever Lived." In 1999, he was ranked number 52 on the "Sporting News"' list of Football's 100 Greatest Players. After retirement, Layne spent 24 years as a businessman back in Texas in Lubbock, working with his old college coach, Blair Cherry. His business ventures included farms, bowling alleys, real estate, oil, and the stock market.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In his younger days, he was often accompanied by Alex Karras, and was well known for his late-night bar-hopping and heavy drinking. It was said of him, "He would drink six days a week and play football on Sunday", and Layne would in fact drink during games - this heavy drinking may have contributed to his death.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Layne is reported to have stated: "If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken a lot better care of myself." That line was later used by baseball player Mickey Mantle, a Dallas neighbor and friend of Layne's, who also died in part due to decades of excess alcohol consumption. Layne suffered from cancer during his last years.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In November 1986, he traveled to Michigan to present the Hall of Fame ring and plaque to his old friend and teammate Doak Walker, but was hospitalized with intestinal bleeding in Pontiac after a reunion dinner with his former Detroit teammates. He returned to Lubbock on November 12, but three days later was hospitalized again. He died of cardiac arrest on December 1 in Lubbock and was buried there. Doak Walker and three other members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame were among the pallbearers.


title: Bobby Layne

text: "My only request," he once said, "is that I draw my last dollar and my last breath at precisely the same instant."


title: Bobby Layne

text: In 1958, the defending NFL champion Lions traded Layne to the Pittsburgh Steelers in early October for Earl Morrall and two draft choices. Layne responded to the trade by supposedly saying that the Lions would "not win for 50 years."


title: Bobby Layne

text: While this story has been called a hoax, particularly because the quote was never published at the time, over the next half-century after this trade, the Lions had the sixth lowest winning percentage of any team in the NFL.


title: Bobby Layne

text: The Lions have had multiple consecutive losing seasons and have been swept by division rivals constantly, and are 1–12 in postseason appearances since their 1957 championship, the worst record of any team; their lone playoff win was over Dallas in 1991. In 2008, the last year of the supposed curse, the Lions lost all sixteen games.


title: Bobby Layne

text: As for the Steelers, they won the Super Bowl that year, as well as in their previous appearance (in Detroit) in 2006, and would become one of the most dominant teams in the NFL, though this took place after Layne's career, winning six Super Bowls: 1974 (IX), 1975 (X), 1978 (XIII), 1979 (XIV), 2005 (XL) and 2008 (XLIII).


title: Bobby Layne

text: In the 2009 NFL draft, immediately after the supposed curse had expired, the Detroit Lions selected University of Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford first overall. Stafford was an alumnus of Layne's former school Highland Park High School and lived in a house on the same street as Layne's. In the 2011, Stafford's first full injury-free season, he led the Lions to their since 1999, but lost to Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints.


title: Bobby Layne

text: In 2021, the Detroit Lions traded Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams for Jared Goff in a blockbuster trade. Stafford would go on to win Super Bowl LVI in his first season with the Rams, while the Lions would start the 2021 season 0–10–1, and eventually finish 3–13–1, the second worst record in the NFL.


title: Bobby Layne

text: Further, in the 63 years since the curse, the Lions also endured multiple playoff droughts lasting more than six years: including the year of the trade, the Lions did not make the playoffs for twelve consecutive seasons (1958–1969; 1971–1981; 1984–1990; 2000–2010).


title: Bobby Layne

text: In October 2022, Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning - who once lead his Indianapolis Colts to a blowout victory over the Lions in a nationally televised game on Thanksgiving Day in 2004 - dedicated an episode of his ESPN series "Peyton's Places" to the curse and its effects on the Lions. Manning placed a bathtub in an endzone at Ford Field and filled it with whiskey (in place of water, owing to Layne's hard drinking) and a cup of salt and performed a chant over it with actor Jeff Daniels in attempt to lift the curse. After starting their 2022 season 1-6, the Lions performance notably improved as they have gone 6-1 after the episode aired, prompting speculation that Manning may have succeeded in lifting the curse.


title: Ceremonials

text: Ceremonials is the second studio album by English indie rock band Florence and the Machine. It was released on 28 October 2011 by Island Records. The band started working on the album in 2010 and finished it in 2011. The standard edition of the album was entirely produced by Paul Epworth, who also worked prominently on the band's debut album "Lungs" (2009).


title: Ceremonials

text: "Ceremonials" received generally positive reviews from music critics, who drew comparisons to artists such as Kate Bush, while also praising the instrumentation, Florence Welch's vocals and the production of the songs. It appeared on several year-end critics' lists in late 2011. At the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, the album received a nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album, while "Shake It Out" was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. "Ceremonials" debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the band's second consecutive number-one album. It also debuted at number one in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, and peaked at number six on the US "Billboard" 200, becoming the band's first top-10 album in the United States. It has sold 2 million copies worldwide.


title: Ceremonials

text: Five singles were released from "Ceremonials". "What the Water Gave Me" was released on 23 August 2011 as a teaser for the album. "Shake It Out" was released on 30 September 2011 as the album's official lead single, becoming one of the band's most commercially successful singles to date. "No Light, No Light" was released on 16 January 2012 as the second single from the album, and "Never Let Me Go" was released on 30 March 2012. "Spectrum (Say My Name)" was released on 5 July 2012, and fuelled by a remix by Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, became Florence and the Machine's first number-one single in the UK. The album's fifth and final single, "Lover to Lover", was released on 30 November 2012. "Ceremonials" was also promoted by the band by a worldwide tour, the Ceremonials Tour (2011–12). The album's sound is described as baroque pop, art pop, indie pop, neo soul, power pop and gothic pop.


title: Ceremonials

text: "NME" magazine confirmed that after the release of the song "Heavy in Your Arms" for the to "" (2010), lead singer Florence Welch entered the studio for a two-week session to record with producer Paul Epworth, with whom she worked on the band's debut album, "Lungs" (2009). She said that the two recordings that came out of that session were inspired by science because "a lot of her family are doctors or trying to become doctors, so much of her conversations are fixated on medical stuff." In an interview with the Gibson website on 17 February 2011, guitarist Rob Ackroyd stated, "Work on the second album has begun with Paul Epworth and there is talk of booking out Abbey Road for a month in April/May to record." In June 2011, Epworth told BBC 6 Music that the album would probably be finished "by the end of July" and described the sound as "a lot less indie and lot more soulful". He also indicated that there were 16 songs up for inclusion on the album, but that this would be reduced upon the time of release. "Pitchfork" confirmed on 23 August 2011 that the album was produced solely by Epworth. On 12 September 2011, Canadian radio broadcaster Alan Cross revealed that Florence and the Machine's second album would be titled "Ceremonials". He also commented on the album by saying, "I've heard a little more than half the record and it is big, soulful and powerful. Think Adele or Tori Amos but with some serious Kate Bush DNA, especially with the rhythm section."


title: Ceremonials

text: Regarding the album's title, Welch told MTV News, "It was an art installation done in the '70s, this video piece all done on Super 8, this big procession of kind of coquette-style hippies and all these different colored robes and masks, and it was all to do with color, really saturated, brightly colored pastas and balloons. I saw it a couple years ago, and it was called 'Ceremonials' and then, like, Roman numerals after it. And the word sort of stuck with me, and I think the whole idea of performance, and kind of putting on this outfit and going out almost to find some sort of exorcism or absolution, to kind of get outside yourself, there's a sense of ceremony to it." Welch also revealed that she wanted to call the album "Violence", stating, "I wanted to make an album that sounded like the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet", the violence mixed with the classical Shakespearean drama mixed with the pop and the pulp, extreme neon stuff." In an interview with "The Guardian", she described the album as "much bigger" and categorised its genre as "chamber soul", a mixture of chamber pop and soul. The liner notes of "Ceremonials" contain an essay by English writer Emma Forrest, dated 21 September 2011.


title: Ceremonials

text: The song "Strangeness and Charm"—which was ultimately included on the deluxe edition of "Ceremonials"—was debuted on 2 May 2010 at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, during the band's Cosmic Love Tour. The song was later recorded live at the Hammersmith Apollo on another stop of The Cosmic Love Tour and was included on the re-release of "Lungs", titled "Between Two Lungs", along with other live tracks and previously unreleased B-sides. Welch describes the song as "about seven minutes long and pretty relentless" and also "dancey, but it's also dark as well", featuring "relentless drums and heavy, droning bass." During their North American tour, Florence and the Machine debuted "What the Water Gave Me" at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California, on 12 June 2011. On 23 August 2011, the song was released as a promotional single from the album, along with an accompanying music video.


title: Ceremonials

text: Florence and the Machine embarked on several live performances to promote "Ceremonials". The band premiered four tracks from the album—"Only If for a Night", "Never Let Me Go", "Heartlines" and "Spectrum"—at The Creators Project, a partnership between "Vice" and Intel, in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighbourhood on 15 October 2011. They launched the album with an exclusive gig at the Hackney Empire in London on 25 October, which was live-streamed on "The Guardian" website. On 1 November, they performed "What the Water Gave Me" and "No Light, No Light" on the British music television show "Later... with Jools Holland". On 6 November, the band made their first appearance on "The X Factor", where they performed "Shake It Out" on the double elimination results show. "Shake It Out" was also performed on the Irish late-night talk show "The Late Late Show" (28 October), "The X Factor Australia" (15 November) and "Good Morning America" (21 November).


title: Ceremonials

text: They performed "Shake It Out" and "What the Water Gave Me" on the Canal+ show "La Musicale" in France on 18 November. The following day, Florence and the Machine appeared on the American sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" for the second time, performing "Shake It Out" and "No Light, No Light". The group stopped by BBC Radio 1 on 25 November for a special Live Lounge set, which included performances of "Shake It Out", "What the Water Gave Me", "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)", "Dog Days Are Over" and "No Light, No Light", as well as a cover of "Take Care" by Drake featuring Rihanna. They performed "Spectrum" on "The X Factor USA" semi-final results show on 15 December. The band performed at the Los Angeles portion of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest", which was broadcast live on 31 December on ABC. The band performed "No Light, No Light" at the 2012 Brit Awards at the O2 Arena in on 21 February 2012. On 2 July 2012, a music video for "Breaking Down" was officially released.


title: Ceremonials

text: The song "Heartlines" was featured in the 10th episode of the fifth season of The CW's teen drama series "Gossip Girl", originally aired 5 December 2011. "Seven Devils" appeared in the trailer to promote the second season of the HBO series "Game of Thrones", as well as in the season one finale of the ABC series "Revenge", which was broadcast 23 May 2012. It was also used in the trailer for the 2013 romantic fantasy film "Beautiful Creatures". "Never Let Me Go" was used in the 19th episode of the third season of "The Vampire Diaries" on 19 April 2012, in the pilot of "Beauty & the Beast" on 11 October 2012 and in the second episode of the third season of "Nikita" on 26 October 2012 "Leave My Body", "No Light, No Light" and "Never Let Me Go" were all featured during the ninth and final season of "One Tree Hill". "Bedroom Hymns" was featured in a trailer for the 2013 romantic drama film "The Great Gatsby".


title: Ceremonials

text: "What the Water Gave Me" was released on 23 August 2011 as the first taster of "Ceremonials". The promotional single debuted at number 24 on the UK Singles Chart. It saw moderate chart success elsewhere, reaching number 13 in Ireland, number 15 in New Zealand and number 35 in Australia.


title: Ceremonials

text: "Shake It Out" was released as the album's official lead single on 30 September 2011. It premiered exclusively on XFM London on 14 September 2011. The song peaked at number 12 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Florence and the Machine's fourth top-20 single. Internationally, it reached number two on the Irish Singles Chart, while charting inside the top 20 in Austria, New Zealand and Norway, the top 30 in Germany and Switzerland, the top 40 in Australia, and the top 50 in Sweden.


title: Ceremonials

text: "No Light, No Light" was released on 13 January 2012 as the second single from the album. The single reached number 63 on the UK Singles Chart. The accompanying video, released on 18 November 2011, caused controversy after it was accused of racism due to its perceived use of blackface by an actor in the video, and was also criticised for its depiction of voodoo.


title: Ceremonials

text: "Never Let Me Go" was released on 30 March 2012 as the third single from the album. The music video was released on 7 March 2012. The track charted at number 82 in the UK, while reaching number three in Australia, the band's highest-peaking single in that country to date.


title: Ceremonials

text: A remix of "Spectrum" by Scottish DJ and producer Calvin Harris, subtitled "Say My Name", was released on 5 July 2012 as the album's fourth single. It became the band's first number-one single in both the UK and Ireland.


title: Ceremonials

text: "Lover to Lover" was released as the fifth and final single from the album on 30 November 2012. Directed by Vincent Haycock, the music video debuted on 19 November and features a new single version of the song.


title: Ceremonials

text: To promote the album, Florence and the Machine embarked on their second worldwide tour titled the Ceremonials Tour on 13 October 2011. The set list includes songs from the band's two studio albums. The tour included numerous performances at music festivals as that is Welch's favourite way to perform live. During an interview with MTV News, Welch discussed the nature of the tour, saying, "In a way, it's not going to be too big a production; we've done a lot of quite extravagant stuff, and that's been amazing, but for this tour, it's definitely going to be about showcasing the music [...] The songs are going to be the most important thing. It will be heavily based on the music [...] no bells and whistles just yet, we're going to try and keep it quite pure." The tour ended in December 2012, after two years of worldwide touring.


title: Ceremonials

text: "Ceremonials" received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 75, based on 36 reviews. Laura Foster of "Clash" called the album a "confident, cohesive effort" and found that "[t]he steady hand of Paul Epworth on production has helped Florence to take the winning formula of her distinctive vocals and melodies, the twinkling harps and thundering drums, and augment it with string arrangements, subtle electro touches, and gospel choirs." "Entertainment Weekly"s Kyle Anderson praised it as a "confident, unflinching "tour de force"" and commented, "If her acclaimed 2009 debut, "Lungs", was a scrappy shrine to survival and empowerment, its follow-up is a baroque cathedral, bedecked with ornate tapestries made of ghostly choirs, pagan-rhythmic splendor, and a whole lot of harp." AllMusic critic James Christopher Monger wrote, "Bigger and bolder than 2009's excellent "Lungs", "Ceremonials" rolls in like fog over the Thames, doling out a heavy-handed mix of Brit-pop-infused neo-soul anthems and lush, movie trailer-ready ballads that fuse the bluesy, electro-despair of Adele with the ornate, gothic melodrama of Kate Bush and "Floodland"-era Sisters of Mercy." Margaret Wappler of the "Los Angeles Times" found that Welch had "found a way to honor her Bjorkian appetites for lavish orchestral spectacle while finding the depth and subtlety of her voice".


title: Ceremonials

text: Barry Nicolson of "NME" noted that "by taking what worked about "Lungs" and amplifying those qualities to a natural, satisfying conclusion, Florence has made a near-great pop record that should afford her the creative freedom to do whatever the hell she wants next time around." "Rolling Stone" writer Jody Rosen commented that the album contains "turbulent ballads, powered by booming drums and vocal chorales rising like distant thunder, full of Welch's banshee wails. The music touches on Celtic melodies, bluesy rock stomps, nods to goth and gospel." "The Daily Telegraph"s Neil McCormick viewed "Ceremonials" as "a giant, fluid, emotionally resonant album" and stated, "Contrary to the name she has given her band, the Machine feel organic and human, providing an epic, full-blooded soundtrack to Welch's voodoo, in which rhythm, melody and chanting are employed to drive out neuroses and insecurities, characterised as ghosts and devils." Rob Harvilla of "Spin" described Welch as "a bloodied, bloodying songbird in a gilded cage of immaculately crafted, slow-burn, chest-beating empowerment anthems, gripping steel bars that her elegantly volcanic voice could shred at any moment", adding, "She's so much better than her material that her material is rendered immaterial."


title: Ceremonials

text: Michael Hann of "The Guardian" concluded that the album "always sounds wonderful—producer Paul Epworth has created a warm, soft, four-poster featherbed of sound for Welch to emote over—but it never really satisfies. One yearns for Welch's wonderful voice to be delivering lines of more import than the nonsense she's often delivering here." In a mixed review, "Slant Magazine"s Matthew Cole wrote that "[t]he first four tracks of "Ceremonials" are essentially flawless", but felt that the album "can't help but get weaker as it continues, a fact which owes less to the quality of the songwriting than to the album's length [...] and a far less dynamic second act." Andy Gill of "The Independent" expressed, "[I]n cementing one style, some of the possibilities offered by "Lungs" have been choked off. The only time [Welch] and The Machine stray from the formula is the Krautrock-disco motorik of 'Spectrum'; elsewhere, declamatory piano chords and burring organ underpin the banked, soaring vocals that are her trademark". "Pitchfork"s Ryan Dombal argued, "Instead of "Lungs"' largely charming yet discombobulating diversity, "Ceremonials" suffers from a repetitiveness that's akin to looking at a skyline filled with 100-story behemoths lined-up one after the other, blocking out everything but their own size."


title: Ceremonials

text: "Ceremonials" was named the best album of 2011 by "Q" magazine. "Time" magazine ranked it as the second best album of 2011, stating, "Despite her penchant for emotive gloom, Welch's tales of heartache can be oddly uplifting; when she sings about darkness and demons, we know she will ultimately conquer them." "Entertainment Weekly", on its list of the 10 Best Albums of 2011, listed the album at number five and wrote, "A big believer in Red Sea-parting melodrama, she's got the orchestral grandeur to pull it off. Of course, it helps that she attacks the harp as if she were wielding an ax." "Billboard" placed it at number eight on its list of the 10 Best Albums of 2011, noting that "Shake It Out" and "What the Water Gave Me" "possess an anthemic quality, but they're far from the only epic moments on the rock-tinged record, which finds Welch channeling avant-pop luminaries like Annie Lennox and Kate Bush." "Slant Magazine" included "Ceremonials" at number 22 on its list of The 25 Best Albums of 2011, commenting that the album is "steeped in melodrama, with pump organs, choirs, and strings expertly deployed as pure pomp on already rousing singles like 'Shake It Out' and 'No Light, No Light.' But Welch is perfectly capable of doing delicate too, as evidenced by the gorgeously textured lead single 'What the Water Gave Me' and 'Never Let Me Go,' while tracks like "Lover to Lover" are reminiscent of the Eurythmics at their most soulful." "PopMatters" ranked the album at number 25 on its list of The 75 Best Albums of 2011, calling it "an expansive album, haunted by tragedy but boldly offering a comforting embrace in reply."


title: Ceremonials

text: "The A.V. Club" named it the 26th best album of 2011 and claimed, "A perfect blend of majestic and morose, "Ceremonials" establishes Welch as one of the most boundary-pushing divas in the business." "Rolling Stone" ranked the album at number 27 on its list of the 50 Best Albums of 2011, adding, "From 'Shake It Out' to the arena-scale Motown of 'Lover to Lover', Big Red brings it again and again, choirs and string players backing a voice that soars so high, it makes them seem like ants on the ground below." "Clash", on its list of The Top 40 Albums of 2011, included "Ceremonials" at number 28 and opined that the album "heralded the triumphant return of one of Britain's most exciting pop stars. Bettering the sound she first developed on "Lungs", the only problem she faces now is deciding which of its massive songs to release as singles." The "NME" placed the album at number 31 on its list of the 50 Best Albums of 2011, writing that the album "amounted to pop in its purest sense, as something grand and strange and with ambitions higher than mere humanity, as the triple-headed priestess-muse Florence depicted on its sleeve suggested."


title: Ceremonials

text: The album earned the band nominations for British Female Solo Artist and MasterCard British Album of the Year at the 2012 Brit Awards. The following year at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, "Ceremonials" received a nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album, and "Shake It Out" was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.


title: Ceremonials

text: The cover artwork for "Ceremonials" was photographed by Florence and the Machine's longtime collaborator Tom Beard. In November 2019, it was announced that Beard's portrait of Welch for the album cover would be on permanent display at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) of London in their New Acquisitions exhibition. According to the NPG, the portrait "signalled a new, sleeker aesthetic for Welch, inspired by Art Deco and early-twentieth-century fashion illustration."


title: Ceremonials

text: "Ceremonials" debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling approximately 38,000 copies in its first two days of release and 94,050 copies altogether in its first week. It fell to number three the following week, selling 58,278 copies. On 18 January 2013, "Ceremonials" was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), and by June 2015, it had sold 715,275 copies in the United Kingdom.


title: Ceremonials

text: The album also debuted at number one in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, and was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) in its first week of sales. It was ultimately certified triple platinum by the ARIA in early 2013, signalling shipments of 210,000 copies. Selling 105,000 units in its opening week in the United States, "Ceremonials" entered the "Billboard" 200 at number six, while debuting atop the Alternative Albums, Rock Albums and Digital Albums charts. The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on 8 January 2015, and had sold 1,002,000 copies in the US by March 2015. As of May 2012, "Ceremonials" had sold 2 million copies worldwide.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The Czech Pirate Party or Pirates ( , abbreviated "Piráti" ) is a liberal progressive political party in the Czech Republic, founded in 2009. The party was founded as a student-driven grassroots movement campaigning for political transparency, civil rights and direct democracy.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The party's program focuses on safeguarding of civil liberties from state or corporate power via government transparency and public participation in democratic decision making. It aims to achieve its agenda by enacting laws for political accountability, anti-corruption, lobbying transparency, tax avoidance prevention, simplifying of state bureaucracy through e-government, supporting small and medium-sized business, funding of local development, promotion of environmental protection, consumer protection and sustainability. The party also aims to reform laws on copyright, financial markets and banking, taxation of multinational corporations, and while it is a pro-European party, it aims to address the perceived democratic deficit in the European Union by decentralization and subsidiarity.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The party contested the 2021 Czech parliamentary election as part of the alliance Pirates and Mayors with the Mayors and Independents party. The alliance gained 37 seats, out of which four are Pirate MPs, and joined the governing Cabinet of Petr Fiala with Spolu. The Pirate party is represented by five Members of the Senate of the Czech Republic, the most recently elected being Adéla Šípová and David Smoljak in 2020 and Lukáš Wagenknecht in 2018. That same year, the party entered a number of municipal assemblies and formed a governing coalition in the Prague City Assembly, with Zdeněk Hřib becoming the Mayor of Prague. In the 2019 European election, the party gained three MEPs, joined the Greens–European Free Alliance parliamentary group and campaign leader Marcel Kolaja was elected one of fourteen Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. The party holds 99 out of 675 seats in regional councils since the October 2020 elections.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The Czech Pirate Party was founded as a student-driven grassroots movement campaigning for political transparency, civil rights and direct democracy. The party was initially inspired by the Swedish Pirate Party, which like most other Pirate Parties was a single-issue party focusing on Internet freedom; however, the Czech Pirate Party has developed a broad political platform.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: On 27 May 2009 an application was submitted to the Ministry of the Interior for registration of the party. On 17 June, the party was registered under the code MV-39553-7/VS-2009. Within the first two days of the launch of their website in April, 1,800 people had signed an online petition to register the party. Czech law requires a paper petition with 1,000 signatures for registration. In the student elections, the Pirate Party received 7.7% of the vote.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: On 28 June 2009 the party held a constitutive forum in Průhonice, near Prague, where the board was elected and main elements of the program were declared. Kamil Horký was elected as chairman. At the end of October 2009 in Albrechtice nad Orlicí, the General Assembly (GA) met for the first time, to complete statutes and elect a new board, commission and committee. Ivan Bartoš became party chairman.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: In December 2010, the party launched its own national whistle-blowing site similar to WikiLeaks, called PirateLeaks. The site was intended as a primary source for journalists, dedicated to evidence of corruption in the Czech government and public administration documents which should be publicly available according to law 106/1999 Sb. (Free Access to Information Act) but which the authorities refused to disclose without a formal request defined by the law.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: Standing in a local senate election on 18–19 March 2011 in Kladno, they obtained 0.75% of the vote. In the 2012 Czech Senate election, the Czech Pirate Party nominated three candidates; one of them was a co-nomination with two other parties. This candidate, the whistleblower Libor Michálek, was elected as Senator in the second round of voting, with the Czech Pirate Party becoming a parliamentary party for the first time.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: In local elections in 2014 the party entered many local assemblies, including a clear majority in Mariánské Lázně, which resulted in Vojtěch Franta being elected as the party's first mayor. This city became the party's main stronghold outside Prague and its suburbs.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: In the 2016 Senate election, the Pirates won two additional seats in the Senate with Ladislav Kos and Renata Chmelová, who were nominated by multi-party coalitions with the Pirates' support.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: Following the 2017 legislative election, the party became the third largest party in the Chamber of Deputies with 22 out of 200 seats and sat in opposition to the ruling cabinet. Economist and auditor Lukáš Wagenknecht was elected Senator in the 2018 election, when Michálek's term ended.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The Pirates ranked second in the 2018 Prague municipal election with 13 out of 65 seats and formed a governing coalition with the third and fourth-ranked parties that holds 39 out of 65 seats in the Prague City Assembly. The leading Pirate candidate with 75,082 votes, Zdeněk Hřib, was elected as Mayor of Prague.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: With leading candidate Marcel Kolaja in the 2019 European Parliament election, the party ran on a common platform with the European Pirate Party. Kolaja was elected along with Markéta Gregorová and Mikuláš Peksa as Members of the European Parliament. In May 2019, the party negotiated to join the Greens–European Free Alliance parliamentary group along with German Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer. In June, all four members of the European Pirate Party joined the parliamentary grouping. On 3 July, Kolaja was elected one of fourteen Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: In January 2020, Bartoš was re-elected as party leader. With 14.67% of the vote in the October 2020 regional elections, the party gained 99 out of 675 seats in regional councils. In the 2020 Senate election, the party nominated two successful candidates, David Smoljak and Adéla Šípová, who became the youngest ever member of the Senate at the age of 40, breaking the previous record of Pirate Senator Wagenknecht.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: During late 2020 and early 2021, the Pirates formed the Pirates and Mayors electoral alliance for the 2021 legislative election with liberal centre-right party Mayors and Independents (STAN). The alliance won 37 seats, of which four are Pirate MPs, and joined the governing coalition with Spolu. The party nominated three ministers for the incoming Cabinet of Petr Fiala: Ivan Bartoš as Minister of Regional Development and Digitalisation, Jan Lipavský as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Michal Šalomoun as Minister of Legislation.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The Czech Pirate Party is a centrist to centre-left progressive "liberal" party (in contrast to "conservative") within the context of politics of the Czech Republic. The party's leadership expressed that it considers the left–right political spectrum to be obsolete. The party itself describes its stance as economically centrist and socially liberal, in the context of Czech politics.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The party's program focuses on safeguarding of civil liberties from state or corporate power through government transparency, accountability and anti-corruption measures, introducing elements of participatory democracy by enabling law proposals by the public through petitions and simplification of state bureaucracy through e-government.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The party proposes a lobby register and a lobbying law reform, measures to address tax avoidance of multinational corporations and limit capital outflow, a bank tax, the strengthening of the Czech National Bank's authority, prevention of financial speculation that leads to financial crises and financial crime; and it is against any taxpayer-funded bank bailouts.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The party has an environmental policy platform entitled "Ecology without ideology", which focuses on the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies, scientific research and development-based support for alternative energy (i.e. renewables and nuclear), sustainable materials management from product design to waste management, sustainable transport with a preference for public transport, and sustainable city planning and urban development.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The party's agricultural policy proposes support for small-scale farmers and community farms instead of subsidizing intensive farming and large agribusinesses. The program promotes biodiversity of crops, and forest management and land management that address the environmental impact of agriculture rather than subsidizing monoculture crops that cause land degradation and have a variety of unsustainable environmental impacts. The Pirates also propose to simplify the producer–consumer chain by supporting infrastructure for the sale of local and seasonal produce.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: Furthermore, the Pirates announced policies on transport and logistics, finance, IT, culture, international relations, local development, defence, labour and social issues, industry and trade, justice, interior policy, education and science, healthcare, agriculture and the environment.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The Czech Pirate Party is generally pro-European and pro-Eurozone, while advocating major reforms in both institutions to address the perceived democratic deficit in the European Union. The Pirates propose that the Czech Republic should participate in the mainstream of the European integration and should participate in EU decision making, but should adopt the Euro only if specific conditions are fulfilled. The party also supports Czech membership of NATO, but it is critical of aggression by NATO members and argues that any engagement of NATO forces outside of the territories of its member states should take place only if supported by a United Nations resolution. The party leadership has criticized military invasions by NATO and questioned the legality of the United States-initiated wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq and the 2011 military intervention in Libya by NATO forces.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: Among the party's European priorities is technological competitiveness of the EU on the world market, limiting corporate lobbying in the EU and addressing Europe-wide tax avoidance by multinational corporations that offshore profits via tax havens. Furthermore, the party addresses digital rights and prevention of increasing Internet censorship; promotion of environmental protection and consumer protection. The Pirates oppose the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The program for the European Parliament elections in 2019 was published under the auspices of the European Pirate Party. Its core lies in addressing the democratic deficit in the European Union, decentralization and enacting of the subsidiarity principle: decision making on local and national affairs at the local levels of governance that are close to the citizens of the Member States. In addition to copyright reform or the digital agenda, it covers topics such as education, environment and agriculture, foreign policy, defense, transport and taxation and space programs. The party published its own European priorities in five points:


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The party is a member of Pirate Parties International and European Pirates (PPEU). Mikuláš Peksa is a board member of PPEU, and Vojtěch Pikal was a co-chairman of PPI in 2013 and 2014. In April 2012, the party organised a conference of the Pirate Parties International (PPI) in Prague. More than 200 representatives of Pirate parties from 27 countries attended, including the founder of the Pirate movement, Rick Falkvinge; writer Cory Doctorow; and Swedish MEP Amelia Andersdotter.


title: Czech Pirate Party

text: The party expressed support for the pan-European political movement Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25).


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: Microsoft Lumia (previously the Nokia Lumia) is a discontinued line of mobile devices that was originally designed and marketed by Nokia and later by Microsoft Mobile. Introduced in November 2011, the line was the result of a long-term partnership between Nokia and Microsoft—as such, Lumia smartphones run on Microsoft software, the Windows Phone operating system; and later the newer Windows 10 Mobile. The Lumia name is derived from the partitive plural form of the Finnish word "lumi", meaning "snow".


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: On 3 September 2013, Microsoft announced its purchase of Nokia's mobile device business, with the deal closing on 25 April 2014. As a result, the Lumia line's maintenance was transferred to Microsoft Mobile. As part of the transition, Microsoft continued to use the Nokia brand on Lumia devices until October 2014, when it began to officially phase out the Nokia name in its promotion and production of smartphones in favor of Microsoft branding. In November 2014, Microsoft announced the first Microsoft (non-Nokia) branded Lumia device, the Lumia 535. In October 2015, Microsoft announced the first Lumia devices running on Windows 10 Mobile, the Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL and Lumia 550. The most recent Lumia smartphone, the Lumia 650, was announced by Microsoft on 15 February 2016.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: Sales decreased sharply after the introduction of Windows 10 in 2015 and Microsoft briefly stopped selling Lumia devices from the Microsoft Store at the end of 2016—by which time sales were estimated to have dropped below one million units—although availability was restored at the beginning of 2017. In October 2017, Microsoft's corporate vice president, Joe Belfiore, confirmed that Microsoft would no longer sell or manufacture new Windows 10 Mobile devices. The existing devices would receive bug fixes and security updates only, ending for the latest devices in December 2019.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: From 1998 to 2012, Nokia was the largest vendor of mobile phones in the world, which included early smartphones built on its Symbian platform. However, in recent years, its market share declined as a result of the growing use of touchscreen smartphones from other vendors, such as Apple's iPhone line and Android-based products. In 2010, its market share had declined to 28%, and in April 2012, Samsung Electronics (a prominent user of Android) ultimately overtook Nokia as the largest mobile phone vendor in the world. Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop vetoed the idea of producing Android devices, believing the company wouldn't be able to suitably differentiate its Android products from that of other vendors. In an employee memo, Elop infamously described the company as being on a "burning platform", blaming the "war of ecosystems" between iOS and Android as part of Nokia's overall struggle, and asserting that the company needed to make major changes to its operation.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: In February 2011, Stephen Elop and Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer jointly announced a major business partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, which would see Nokia adopt Windows Phone as its primary platform on future smartphones, replacing both Symbian and MeeGo. The deal also included the integration of Bing as the search engine on Nokia devices, and the integration of Nokia Maps into Microsoft's own mapping services. Nokia had planned to use the MeeGo platform as part of its future plans prior to the announcement, although the company announced that it would still release one MeeGo device in 2011. Aligning with Microsoft had been considered a possibility by analysts due to Elop's prior employment with the company.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: Nokia unveiled its first Windows Phone 7-based devices, the mid-range Lumia 710 and high-end Lumia 800, on 26 October 2011 at its Nokia World conference. Motivated by requests from the U.S. carrier AT&T for an LTE-enabled device, Nokia quickly developed the Lumia 900 as a follow-up, first unveiled at the 2012 International CES. The Lumia 900 received heavy promotion by the carrier as a flagship device, but its launch was dampened by a software bug that prevented the device from connecting to certain mobile data networks, forcing AT&T to issue credits to those who purchased the device. Upon its launch in April 2012, the Lumia 900 was listed as a top seller on Amazon.com, but online sales began to taper off by May. While not revealing further details, a Nokia representative stated that the company was "pleased with the consumer reaction, as well as the support we have received from AT&T", while AT&T's mobility chief Ralph de la Vega stated that the Lumia 900 had "exceeded expectations".


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: In early 2012, Nokia released the Lumia 610, a new entry-level device taking advantage of the lower system requirements introduced by Windows Phone 7's "Tango" update. These new low-end devices were intended to improve Windows Phone adoption in emerging markets such as China. In June 2012, both Nokia and Microsoft received much criticism after it was revealed that the Windows Phone 7 Lumia devices will not be upgradable to Microsoft's second generation Windows Phone platform, Windows Phone 8. It has been said that those devices won't be upgraded because Windows Phone 8 uses an entirely different kernel (Windows NT). The original Lumia range instead received a different update called Windows Phone 7.8.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: Later in September 2012, Nokia unveiled the Lumia 820 and the Lumia 920, its first two devices to use Windows Phone 8. Both featured NFC, with the Lumia 820 embedding a microSD card slot, and an optional Wireless Charging Shell for Qi wireless charging. The Lumia 920 also notably featured Qi wireless charging, and a "PureView" camera with optical image stabilization. While Nokia received criticism when it was revealed that a demonstration video of its image stabilization technology was, in fact, filmed using a professional camera, the Lumia 920 was a commercial success for the company.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: At MWC 2013, Nokia introduced two more Windows Phone 8 devices: the mid-range Nokia Lumia 720 and the budget Nokia Lumia 520, the latter of which has become the highest selling Windows phone device ever. In 2013, Nokia also introduced the Lumia 925, a revised version of the 920 with a slimmer build incorporating aluminium, and the Lumia 1020, which features a 41-megapixel camera based on technology from its Symbian-based 808 PureView. On 22 October 2013, Nokia extended the Lumia brand into the tablet market with the unveiling of the Lumia 2520; running Microsoft's Windows RT operating system, it was the company's first tablet since the Nokia Internet tablet range. Some critics believed that the usage of Windows RT rather than full Microsoft Windows 8.1 led to bad sales, as most major Windows tablet makers have used Windows 8.1 in favour of Windows RT. Alternatively, others have claimed that the device's failure was due to its heavy weight and high price. Lumia 2520 was discontinued in early 2015.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: Although sales of the Lumia line had exceeded those of BlackBerry in the same period, Nokia still made an operating loss of €115m, with revenues falling 24% to €5.7bn following the second quarter of 2013. Over the past nine quarters, Nokia sustained €4.1 billion worth of operating losses. In Q3 2013, Lumia sales hit 8.8 million worldwide; over three times higher than the same period the year before; and double the figure in North America compared to the previous quarter. At the same time, overall Windows Phone market share hit double figures in several countries in Europe and other regions.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: On 3 September 2013, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Nokia's mobile phone business (including rights to the Lumia and low-end Asha brands) in an overall deal of over US$7bn. Stephen Elop stepped down as Nokia's CEO and returned to Microsoft as its head of devices as part of the deal, which closed in early 2014. While Microsoft will license the Nokia name under a 10-year agreement, the company will only be able to use it on feature phones: those running the Series 30, Series 30+ and the Series 40 mobile operating systems based on Java ME and MediaTek technology, respectively. These changes resulted in future Lumia models being first-party hardware produced by Microsoft.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: Codenames for Lumia phones developed from late 2013 were based on James Bond movies, including "Moneypenny" (which became Nokia Lumia 630) and "Goldfinger" (which would be the cancelled Lumia "McLaren").


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: On 13 September 2013, the "New York Times" writer Nick Wingfield revealed that Nokia had been testing the Android operating system on its Lumia hardware. It was one of two known Android projects at the company; the other was running the OS on low–end Asha hardware, which resulted in the Nokia X family of devices. Despite the testing, the Android-based Lumia handsets were never released and only altered Asha devices were brought to the market.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: In July 2014, Microsoft announced that it would discontinue the majority of its Nokia-branded devices, including the Asha, S30, S40, and X platforms, in favor of low-cost Lumia devices inheriting their design. This left S30+ as Microsoft's only remaining Nokia-branded phone platform until it was sold to HMD Global in May 2016, who, the following February, would announce the first Nokia-branded true Android phone, the Nokia 6, in January 2017.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: Even after the acquisition of Nokia's mobile device business by Microsoft, several Lumia devices were unveiled by Microsoft Mobile in September 2014 that still carried the Nokia name, including the Lumia 830 and Lumia 735. In July 2014, it had been reported by evleaks that Microsoft was attempting to license the Nokia name in a co-branding scheme, which would have possibly seen future devices branded as "Nokia by Microsoft". As a part of the change of ownership, the social network pages have also been rebranded as Microsoft Lumia rather than Microsoft Mobile; this sought to emphasize the Windows Phone over other Nokia mobile phones while also updating social network pages of Windows Phone to the new Microsoft Lumia branding. To reflect this change, Nokia Conversations was also rebranded as Lumia Conversations, and NokNok.tv to Lumia Conversations UK. However, the rebranding has not been consistent, as the Nokia Army was renamed the Spartan Nation and the support site for legacy phones, accessories, various Nokia-branded devices, and services, originally Nokia Discussions, was renamed the Microsoft Mobile Community. The Lumia Beamer was the last Lumia-branded application to have its URL changed from Nokia to Lumia, signifying the end of the transitional term during which Microsoft was allowed to use Nokia.com and related sites.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: However, in October 2014, Microsoft officially announced that it would phase out the Nokia brand in its promotion and production of Lumia smartphones, and that future Lumia models would be branded solely with the name and logo of Microsoft. In November 2014, Microsoft announced its first self-branded phone, Microsoft Lumia 535. Rebranding the Lumia line did not affect sales, though some critics believed that it might negatively influence consumers' decisions due to Nokia's established reputation for durability compared to the relative infancy of Microsoft's brand in the consumer phone space. The Nokia Lumia 638 was the last Lumia product to bear the Nokia brand, and was only released in India in December 2014.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: In November 2014, a post by a Microsoft Twitter account stated that all Nokia and Microsoft Lumia smartphones running Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 would receive updates to Windows 10; however, following the official unveiling, Microsoft denied this, stating that they instead were targeting the "majority" of Lumia phones and that not all phones would receive the update or support all of its features. Later, Microsoft confirmed that low-end devices with 512 MB of RAM (including the Nokia Lumia 520, which represents 24.5% of all Windows Phone devices sold), would also get the Windows 10 upgrade, but reaffirmed that not all of its features would be supported on these devices. Additionally, Microsoft stated on January 16, 2015 that low-end Windows Phone 8.1 phones will not get some Lumia Denim features.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: In July 2015, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft had a planned restructuring of Microsoft Mobile, which includes the Microsoft Lumia range. This would reportedly include a write down of approximately US$7.6 billion on the acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone business and a layoff of around 7,200 employees. It was also reported that Microsoft would release fewer first-party devices each year. As part of a larger restructuring, the Microsoft Devices & Studios engineering group was merged with the Operating Systems Engineering Group to form the larger Windows & Devices Engineering Group. In July 2015, it was announced that the head of Surface, Panos Panay, would head the new Microsoft devices unit, which would include the Microsoft Lumia as well as various other Microsoft hardware products such as the Band, HoloLens, and Xbox.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: In October 2015, Microsoft launched the first Lumia devices running on Windows 10 Mobile: the Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL and Lumia 550. In February 2016, the Lumia 650, which also runs Windows 10 Mobile, was launched. Sales of Lumia devices declined between fiscal years 2015 and 2016, with phone revenue decreasing by $4.2 billion or 56%. When Microsoft announced the acquisition in September 2013, 7.3 million devices were sold in the quarter, but this shrunk to 1.2 million at the quarter ending June 2016. Since the Lumia series make up 95% of total Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile sales, the operating system market share also shrunk along with it. Throughout 2016 Microsoft slowed down production volumes of Lumia devices, and it was speculated that the series would be discontinued by the end of 2016.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: Shortly after the discontinuation of the Elite X3, HP's attempt to bring Windows 10 Mobile to a niche market, Microsoft's corporate vice president Joe Belfiore confirmed that Microsoft would no longer sell or manufacture new mobile devices. The existing devices would receive bug fixes and security updates only.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: Nokia and Microsoft Mobile have released several updates unique to Lumia devices which feature a combination of firmware and software updates. The latter of these includes imaging improvements, new technology support, feature updates, and bug fixes. Because Lumia devices exclusively use Windows Phone, major operating system updates are often bundled with the firmware updates upon release.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: Similar to how Windows Phones receive operating system updates, Lumia update releases are dependent on carriers who decide if and when devices are to receive them. However, operating system updates are not subject to these constraints if users are part of Microsoft's "Windows Insider" or "Preview for Developers" programs.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: All devices in the Lumia line were smartphones (including one tablet computer) running Microsoft Windows software. All the smartphones were full-touch in a candybar form. There were no QWERTY devices, although there were reports in 2012 that Nokia was working on such device similar to the Nokia Eseries. An alleged prototype device with full keyboard was leaked in 2017.


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: The first digit (or the first two digits for devices with four-digit model numbers) indicates the device's family, with larger numbers generally denoting a higher-end device. Under Nokia, numbers larger than 10 indicated a phablet (e.g. 1320, 1520) or tablet (2520). Following the sale of the Lumia line to Microsoft, four-digit model numbers were discontinued, with larger models instead being denoted by an "XL" suffix (e.g. 950 XL).


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: The second digit indicates the generation of the device, based on the operating system it originally shipped with:


title: Microsoft Lumia

text: The third digit is used to distinguish between variants in the same family and generation. 0 indicates the base model, while other numbers indicate either a minor upgrade (e.g. 920 and 925), a 4G-capable variant (e.g. 730 and 735) or a regional or carrier-specific variant.


title: Immunosuppression

text: Immunosuppression is a reduction of the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immunosuppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reaction to treatment of other conditions.


title: Immunosuppression

text: In general, deliberately induced immunosuppression is performed to prevent the body from rejecting an organ transplant. Additionally, it is used for treating graft-versus-host disease after a bone marrow transplant, or for the treatment of auto-immune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, or Crohn's disease. This is typically done using medications, but may involve surgery (splenectomy), plasmapheresis, or radiation. A person who is undergoing immunosuppression, or whose immune system is weak for some other reasons (such as chemotherapy or HIV), is said to be "immunocompromised".


title: Immunosuppression

text: Administration of immunosuppressive medications or immunosuppressants is the main method for deliberately inducing immunosuppression; in optimal circumstances, immunosuppressive drugs primarily target hyperactive components of the immune system. People in remission from cancer who require immunosuppression are not more likely to experience a recurrence. Throughout its history, radiation therapy has been used to decrease the strength of the immune system. Dr. Joseph Murray of Brigham and Women's Hospital was given the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990 for work on immunosuppression.


title: Immunosuppression

text: Immunosuppressive drugs have the potential to cause immunodeficiency, which can increase susceptibility to opportunistic infection and decrease cancer immunosurveillance. Immunosuppressants may be prescribed when a normal immune response is undesirable, such as in autoimmune diseases.


title: Immunosuppression

text: Steroids were the first class of immunosuppressant drugs identified, though side-effects of early compounds limited their use. The more specific azathioprine was identified in 1960, but it was the discovery of ciclosporin in 1980 (together with azathioprine) that allowed significant expansion of transplantation to less well-matched donor-recipient pairs as well as broad application to lung transplantation, pancreas transplantation, and heart transplantation. After an organ transplantation, the body will nearly always reject the new organ(s) due to differences in human leukocyte antigen between the donor and recipient. As a result, the immune system detects the new tissue as "foreign", and attempts to remove it by attacking it with white blood cells, resulting in the death of the donated tissue. Immunosuppressants are administered in order to help prevent rejection; however, the body becomes more vulnerable to infections and malignancy during the course of such treatment.


title: Immunosuppression

text: Non-deliberate immunosuppression can occur in, for example, ataxia–telangiectasia, complement deficiencies, many types of cancer, and certain chronic infections such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The unwanted effect in non-deliberate immunosuppression is immunodeficiency that results in increased susceptibility to pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses.


title: Immunosuppression

text: Immunodeficiency is also a potential adverse effect of many immunosuppressant drugs, in this sense, the scope of the term "immunosuppression" in general includes both beneficial and potential adverse effects of decreasing the function of the immune system.


title: Immunosuppression

text: B cell deficiency and T cell deficiency are immune impairment that individuals are born with or are acquired, which in turn can lead to immunodeficiency problems. Nezelof syndrome is an example of an immunodeficiency of T-cells.


title: Katie White

text: Katie Rebecca White (born 18 January 1983) is an English musician and member of the pop duo The Ting Tings. After some success with a girl group punk trio TKO, which supported Steps and Atomic Kitten, her father David White brought in Jules De Martino to write songs for TKO. Katie White and De Martino subsequently formed the Ting Tings in 2007.


title: Katie White

text: White was raised on a farm in Lowton with her father David K. White, mother Lynne C. (Sharples) and sister Helena. White went to Lowton High School in Lowton, which has a large performing arts department. When White was 12 years old, her grandfather Ken White won £6.6million on the National Lottery and gave each of his three sons, David, Stephen and Richard, £1million. As well as buying ponies for White and her sister Helena, White's father used his share of the money to start a music management company.


title: Katie White

text: White started her music career aged 14 in 1997 in a girl group punk trio TKO, short for technical knock out, with two friends from Lowton school, Joanne Leeson and Emma Lally. TKO was managed by White's father's music management company. They had some success and supported Steps and Atomic Kitten. TKO also appeared on ITV's "". In March 2001, David White brought in songwriter Jules De Martino, who wrote four songs for TKO. TKO were not able to secure a record deal but released a single on the Internet.


title: Katie White

text: White got back in touch with Jules De Martino when she was at Leeds University and he moved to Manchester. They formed a band called Dear Eskiimo (often misreported as "Dead Eskimo") with a DJ friend Simon Templeman. The name was intended to be as nomadic, tribal and independent as possible. There were already several bands called "Eskimo" but Jules, who wrote the lyrics, wanted his songs to tell good stories as if in a letter, hence "Dear Eskiimo" with the odd spelling of 'Eskimo" with two 'I"s to make it stand out. Their first performance was as a support between two rock bands but it went well and they were signed up by Mercury Records at the end of 2004. Creative differences and the management style of the record label caused them to split up.


title: Katie White

text: White and De Martino started a band in 2007 with White on vocals, guitar, piano and bass drum and De Martino on vocals, drums, bass, guitar and keyboards. They started writing songs together and doing short concerts. White was working in a boutique with a Chinese girl named "Ting Ting", which sounds like Mandarin Chinese for "band stand" (亭) or "listening" (聽) and White used it as the name for the band. The Ting Tings started by playing for private parties at the Islington Mill arts centre in Salford, and their debut album "We Started Nothing" was released on 19 May 2008. Their follow-up album "Sounds from Nowheresville" was released on 27 February 2012 in the UK and 15 March in the United States. In 2014, White told the "Daily Record" that comments by Internet trolls previously caused her to stop writing songs for six months. In 2015, she sustained a tendon injury to her left hand that caused the band to cancel its U.S. tour.


title: Katie White

text: The Ting Tings released their debut album "We Started Nothing" on 19 May 2008. Their follow-up album "Sounds from Nowheresville" was released on 27 February 2012 in the UK and 15 March in the United States. "Super Critical", their third album, was released on 27 October 2014.


title: Katie White

text: In a February 2022 BBC interview, White and De Martino spoke of their 20-month-old daughter and personal relationship: "The pair have previously avoided saying whether they are romantic as well as musical partners. 'We never particularly spoke about it,' the singer says. 'We always wanted to keep it quite separate from the music, but it's quite hard when you have literally a mini person. We've been together a long time now.'"


title: Opendoor

text: Opendoor Technologies Inc. is an online company that buys and sells residential real estate. Headquartered in San Francisco, it makes instant cash offers on homes through an online process, makes repairs on the properties it purchases and relists them for sale. It also provides mobile application-based home buying services along with financing. As of November 2021, the company operates in 44 markets in the US.


title: Opendoor

text: The company was founded in March 2014 by serial entrepreneurs Keith Rabois, Eric Wu, who previously founded Movity, a real-estate startup acquired by Trulia, and JD Ross, now a general partner at Atomic. After raising a $9.95m venture capital round led by Khosla Ventures in May 2014, the company began operations. In 2018, Opendoor raised $400m in funding from the SoftBank Group Vision Fund. In 2019, it raised $300m in a funding round led by General Atlantic. At the time, the enterprise valuation was $3.8b.


title: Opendoor

text: In August 2019, Opendoor launched mortgage services through Opendoor Home Loans, an in-house mortgage business. In September 2019, it acquired national title and escrow company OS National, allowing integration of title, escrow and closing services under its business offerings.


title: Opendoor

text: In early 2020, Opendoor expanded services to more cities in partnership with Redfin. Later, the company laid off 600 employees, which made up 35% of its team, partially due to business impact from the COVID-19 shutdown. In March, Opendoor announced they would suspend home buying during the COVID-19 pandemic out of concerns for the safety of their customers. The company resumed its operations in May 2020 by introducing a contact-free platform to help people buy and sell homes digitally.


title: Opendoor

text: On April 27, 2020, Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp II, a special-purpose acquisition company steered by Chamath Palihapitiya, commenced trading on the New York Stock Exchange.


title: Opendoor

text: On September 15, 2020, Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp II announced its intention to merge with Opendoor. The deal valued Opendoor at an enterprise value of $4.8 billion.


title: Opendoor

text: On December 17, 2020, shareholders of Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp II approved the merger. On December 21, 2020, the merger was finalized and the company began trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange under its new name, Opendoor.


title: Opendoor

text: On August 1, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission reported that Opendoor has agreed to pay a settlement of $62 million over charges of misleading potential home sellers in its marketing campaigns.


title: Opendoor

text: Property owners bid to sell their properties on the online platform. When a bid is accepted, Opendoor purchases the property as-is, charging a fee comparable to the commissions real estate agents collect in return for the convenience of closing a sale quickly without home showings.


title: Opendoor

text: Opendoor then makes necessary repairs before relisting the property. By following this process, the company is known as an "iBuyer” in the real estate industry. Through this process, Opendoor carries an inventory of homes. In 2019, the company reported that the average time a property is held by the company is 90 days. The company has considered renting properties to make use of excess inventory.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: Refiloe Maele Phoolo (born 16 December 1990), professionally known as Cassper Nyovest, is a South African rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur, record producer and amateur boxer. Born and raised in Mahikeng, North West, he is regarded as one of the most successful artists in South Africa. In 2014, he established his own record label, Family Tree Records. Nyovest rose to fame with the release of his debut studio album, "Tsholofelo" (2014) which produced the hit singles "Gusheshe" and "Doc Shebeleza".


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: With his success of selling out tickets for his concert, "Fill Up The Dome" (2015) which was held at Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg. The success of the event pursued Nyovest with the affix "Fill Up" to instigate more concerts in different stadiums annually, including Orlando Stadium (2016) and FNB Stadium (2017), also both in Johannesburg, Moses Mabhida Stadium (2018) in Durban, and Royal Bafokeng Stadium (2019) in North West.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: Nyovest released his eponymous studio album, "Refiloe", released on 31 October 2015, at his "Fill Up The Dome" concert. The album collaborates with several artists including The Game, DJ Drama, Stonebwoy and Casey Veggies. He followed this success with his critically acclaimed third studio album "Thuto" (2018), and his Kwaito-focused fourth studio album, "Sweet and Short" (2019).


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: Refiloe Maele Phoolo was born on 16 December 1990 in Mafikeng, a borough of North West, to Muzuki and Letsebela Phoolo. Nyovest has a sister Tsholofelo Phoolo, and his late brother, Khotso Phoolo who passed on in 2003. He attended the Sol Plaatjie Secondary School where he was an athlete and partook in various sports. Nyovest started rapping at the age of 12. In 2006, he failed his Grade 10 exams which led him moving to his grandmother's house in Potchefstroom. Therefore, in 2007, he decided to drop out of high school at the age of 16.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: In 2008, Nyovest relocated to Johannesburg to pursue a career in music as a rapper and producer, after telling his parents he would rather chase his dream, which he believed would work out, rather than playing it safe and regretting it his whole life.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: In 2004, Nyovest formed a hip hop group "Childhood Gangsta" with his friends while he was 13. He then left to join his following group, "Slow Motion" which had eight members including record producer, Aashish Gangaram of Ganja Beatz. After dropping out of school, Nyovest signed with motswako record label Impact Sounds, which also signed artists including Tuks Senganga and Morafe in 2006, but the relationship between Nyovest and Impact Sounds soured because of creative differences. In 2008, both parties separated making Nyovest an independent artist at the time.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: Nyovest moved back home, and created his own record label. Before establishing his label, Nyovest was discovered by late rapper Hip Hop Pantsula while performing, and he featured Nyovest on his song "Wamo Tseba Mtho".


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: Nyovest released his debut single, "Gusheshe", featuring Okmalumkoolkat, in 2013, and in 2014 then established his record label, Family Tree Records. His second single, "Doc Shebeleza", was released that year, named for kwaito artist Doc Shebeleza. The song received positive reviews from the public and was praised by notable acts including singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: On 18 July 2014, Nyovest released his debut album "Tsholofelo" named after his sister. The album was an outstanding success, peaking number 1 on the iTunes "SA" album chart for 2 consecutive months (July and August). In October 2014, Nyovest was ranked no. 1 on the MTV Base show, The Hottest MC in Africa, and was ranked no. 2 on that same year.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: With the success of "Tsholofelo", Nyovest released the platinum edition of the album with new songs added and collaborations with Casey Veggies, DJ Drama, Wizkid and Anatii. The platinum edition was released on 17 April 2015 with a limit of 10,000 copies printed.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: On the third quarter of 2015, Nyovest announced that he was planning to headline a concert at "Ticketpro Dome", Johannesburg on 31 October 2015 called "Fill Up The Dome". He quoted, "I want to fill the dome, which currently accommodates up to 20,000 people ... to its full capacity". He also mentioned that his second album "Refiloe" will be released on the day of the event.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: On 14 August 2015, Nyovest released Mama I Made It "(#MIMI)", which is the lead single from his second album and one of the promoting songs for "Fill Up The Dome". Nyovest managed to sell out tickets for his event as he announced on 25 October 2015, on his Twitter account. On the day of the event, ticket buyers received a complimentary copy of the "Refiloe" album. The action resulted the album being certified gold on that day. The album was then certified platinum for shipments in excess of 40,000 copies domestically.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: Nyovest also announced his second same affix event "Fill Up Orlando Stadium" at Orlando Stadium, Soweto in Johannesburg on 29 October 2016. The event was a success as there was a total of 40,000 (stadium's capacity) attendance. For both 2015 and 2016, Nyovest was ranked no. 1 on list. He was also ranked no. 1 on the 2016 Hottest Rapper in Africa since 2014.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: On 4 March 2017, Nyovest released the lead single "Tito Mboweni" from his third album "Thuto". Named after the South Africa's Minister of Finance and former SARB governor Tito Mboweni, the song commercially trended for its lyric quote, "Shaa Shaa" which is an onomatopoeia for a money note sound.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: "Thuto" was released on 5 May 2017. It was certified gold by RiSA on the day of its release and was then certified platinum within the following weeks. Nyovest announced his third "Fill Up" event, which was held on 17 November 2017, at the 94,736 capacity stadium, FNB Stadium, Johannesburg. The event was planned to fill only 75,000 of its capacity which was his biggest challenge. Nyovest had some struggles in funding the show, but finally got 3 major sponsors in assisting him: Cîroc SA, SABC 1 and Budweiser. The event did not sell all its tickets but was a success.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: In 2018, Nyovest released his fourth album "Sweet and Short". The album was certified platinum on its day of release. Nyovest's following "Fill Up" event venue was at Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban which was scheduled on 1 December 2018. He managed to sell 68,000 tickets which was a favorable outcome. The following day, Nyovest performed at the Motsepe Foundation presented event, Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 headlined by Beyoncé and Jay-Z. At the Mzansi Kwaito and House Music Awards, his single "Gets Getsa 2.0" won Best New Age Kwaito Song award. On 15 December 2019, Nyovest performed at his fifth annual "Fill Up" event which was held at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, a city of North West – the province where he was born.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: After being criticized by hip hop fans for leaving the genre, Nyovest returned in 2020 with a hip hop track titled Good For That.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: On September 11, 2020, his fifth studio album "Any Minute Now" was released. The album features Zola 7, Samthing Soweto, Langa Mavuso, Tellaman, YoungstaCPT, Busiswa, Nadia Nakai, Khuli Chana, Tuks, Mo' Molemi, Towdee Mac and DJ Lemonka.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: At the 2020 South African Hip Hop Awards he won three awards includes; "Song of the Year", "Album of the Year" and "Best Male".


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: On July 30, 2021, Cassper dropped his first ever Amapiano studio album "Sweet And Short 2.0", which consists of 10 tracks featuring Abidoza, Samthing Soweto, LuuDadeejay, Kammu Dee, Lady Du, Ma Lemon, Semi Tee, Boohle, DJ Sumbody, Reece Madlisa, Thulz, and Zuma.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: On September 4, 2021, he embarked to United Kingdom for AmaFest Tour along with DJ Maphorisa, DBN Gogo and Focalistic to promote Amapiano genre.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: Nyovest garnered several endorsement deals with various companies, notably with vodka brand, "Ciroc" which is one of his biggest endorsement deal in his career so far. Their endorsement began in 2017, when Nyovest displayed in his music video, "Tito Mboweni" several Cîroc bottles. Ciroc then unveiled their deal with Nyovest. In 2015, Nyovest endorsed with MTN and "AG Mobile" in launching a smartphone named, "AG Hashtag" which was inspired and partly designed by him. He also endorsed with other brands including, Shoprite, Samsung "South Africa", Coca-Cola, KFC "SA", Castle Lite, Nike "SA" and Bitcasino.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: As an entrepreneur, Nyovest has founded the Family Tree Records. The record label was established in 2014 after his departure of label, "Impact Soundz".


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: A boxing match titled "Actor vs Musician" was held at Sun City Stadium on the 9th of April 2022. Cassper Nyovest lost to NaakMusiQ after taking him on to the fifth round.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: In July 2015, after months of denying any romantic involvement with each other, Nyovest and actress Boity finally confirmed in a July issue of "DRUM" that they were dating. The headline on the cover of the magazine implied that the couple was engaged but Nyovest and Thulo later denied this claiming that the magazine used the headline as a ploy to increase sales. The couple broke up in December 2015.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: In 2014, Nyovest was embroiled in a feud with long-time rival, AKA. As Nyovest claimed his song "Doc Shebeleza" was the biggest song in South African Hip-Hop, AKA who was promoting his new single "Congratulate", showed contradiction when he tweeted, "There's a rapper running around saying he got the biggest song in the country ... I challenge you to find his song in the iTunes Top 100". Thereafter, Nyovest responded with a tweet stating reasons why his song was bigger than AKA's. The argument escalated as both rappers were responding to each other multiple times. In August 2014, the pair were scheduled to both perform on SABC 1 music show, "Live Amp" when a member of AKA's entourage allegedly pulled a gun on Cassper and his team. Further controversy arose in 2015, when Cassper accused AKA of slapping him which led both rappers to release diss tracks. In 2018 when Nyovest was asked about the status of his feud with AKA, he stated the two would never reconcile, which has so far proven true.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: In 2018, Xitsonga musician, Benny Mayengani was to do his concert named, "#FillUpGiyaniStadium". As Mayengani used a similar affix ("Fill Up"/"#FillUp") as Nyovest, Nyovest then accused Mayengani for using his trademark in a form of sending him a cease and desist letter. Investigation revealed that Nyovest does not yet own the #FillUp trademark and can not take any action.


title: Cassper Nyovest

text: Nyovest has been awarded and nominated for various music awards both locally and internationally. His first set of awards were in 2013 when he won four awards at the second edition of the "South Africa Hip Hop Awards". On 13 April 2018, he received a nomination at the 12th Headies Award in Nigeria in the category of Best African Artiste alongside Nasty C, Sarkodie from Ghana, Kenyan group Sauti Sol, and Tanzanian singer Vanessa Mdee.


title: Homeric Greek

text: Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the "Iliad", "Odyssey", and Homeric Hymns. It is a literary dialect of Ancient Greek consisting mainly of Ionic, with some Aeolic forms, a few from Arcadocypriot, and a written form influenced by Attic. It was later named Epic Greek because it was used as the language of epic poetry, typically in dactylic hexameter, by poets such as Hesiod and Theognis of Megara. Compositions in Epic Greek may date from as late as the 5th century CE, and it only fell out of use by the end of Classical antiquity.


title: Homeric Greek

text: In the following description, only forms that differ from those of later Greek are discussed. Omitted forms can usually be predicted from patterns seen in Ionic Greek.


title: Homeric Greek

text: Homeric Greek is like Ionic Greek, and unlike Classical Attic, in shifting almost all cases of long to : thus, Homeric for Attic "Troy", "hour", "gates (dat.)". Exceptions include nouns like "goddess", and the genitive plural of first-declension nouns and the genitive singular of masculine first-declension nouns: "of goddesses, of the son of Atreus".


title: Homeric Greek

text: In most circumstances, Homeric Greek did not have available a true definite article. , , and their inflected forms do occur, but they are in origin and usually used as demonstrative pronouns.


title: Homeric Greek

text: Homer (in the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey") uses about 9,000 words, of which 1,382 are proper names. Of the 7,618 remaining words 2,307 are hapax legomena. According to classical scholar Clyde Pharr, "the "Iliad" has 1097 "hapax legomena", while the "Odyssey" has 868". Others have defined the term differently, however, and count as few as 303 in the "Iliad" and 191 in the "Odyssey".


title: Homeric Greek

text: Sing, O goddess, the destructive wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, which brought countless woes upon the Greeks, and hurled many valiant souls of heroes down to Hades, and made themselves a prey to dogs and to all birds but the will of Jove was being accomplished, from the time when Atrides, king of men, and noble Achilles, first contending, were disunited.


title: Larry Mathews

text: Larry Mathews (born Larry Mazzeo August 15, 1955, in Burbank, California) is an American actor known for his role as Ritchie Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show".


title: Larry Mathews

text: After the series ended in 1966, Larry Mathews left acting to pursue a more conventional childhood and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1976. He has worked as an account executive and appeared on numerous television programs to discuss his role on "The Dick Van Dyke Show".


title: Compressive strength

text: In mechanics, compressive strength or compression strength is the capacity of a material or structure to withstand loads tending to reduce size (as opposed to tensile strength which withstands loads tending to elongate). In other words, compressive strength resists compression (being pushed together), whereas tensile strength resists tension (being pulled apart). In the study of strength of materials, tensile strength, compressive strength, and shear strength can be analyzed independently.


title: Compressive strength

text: Some materials fracture at their compressive strength limit; others deform irreversibly, so a given amount of deformation may be considered as the limit for compressive load. Compressive strength is a key value for design of structures.


title: Compressive strength

text: Compressive strength is often measured on a universal testing machine. Measurements of compressive strength are affected by the specific test method and conditions of measurement. Compressive strengths are usually reported in relationship to a specific technical standard.


title: Compressive strength

text: When a specimen of material is loaded in such a way that it extends it is said to be in "tension". On the other hand, if the material compresses and shortens it is said to be in "compression".


title: Compressive strength

text: On an atomic level, the molecules or atoms are forced apart when in tension whereas in compression they are forced together. Since atoms in solids always try to find an equilibrium position, and distance between other atoms, forces arise throughout the entire material which oppose both tension or compression. The phenomena prevailing on an atomic level are therefore similar.


title: Compressive strength

text: The "strain" is the relative change in length under applied stress; positive strain characterizes an object under tension load which tends to lengthen it, and a compressive stress that shortens an object gives negative strain. Tension tends to pull small sideways deflections back into alignment, while compression tends to amplify such deflection into buckling.


title: Compressive strength

text: By definition, the ultimate compressive strength of a material is that value of uniaxial compressive stress reached when the material fails completely. The compressive strength is usually obtained experimentally by means of a "compressive test". The apparatus used for this experiment is the same as that used in a tensile test. However, rather than applying a uniaxial tensile load, a uniaxial compressive load is applied. As can be imagined, the specimen (usually cylindrical) is shortened as well as spread laterally. A stress–strain curve is plotted by the instrument and would look similar to the following:


title: Compressive strength

text: The compressive strength of the material would correspond to the stress at the red point shown on the curve. In a compression test, there is a linear region where the material follows Hooke's law. Hence, for this region, "formula_1", where, this time, E refers to the Young's Modulus for compression. In this region, the material deforms elastically and returns to its original length when the stress is removed.


title: Compressive strength

text: This linear region terminates at what is known as the yield point. Above this point the material behaves plastically and will not return to its original length once the load is removed.


title: Compressive strength

text: There is a difference between the engineering stress and the true stress. By its basic definition the uniaxial stress is given by:


title: Compressive strength

text: As stated, the area of the specimen varies on compression. In reality therefore the area is some function of the applied load i.e. A = f(F). Indeed, stress is defined as the force divided by the area at the start of the experiment. This is known as the engineering stress and is defined by,


title: Compressive strength

text: The compressive strength would therefore correspond to the point on the engineering stress-strain curve formula_5 defined by


title: Compressive strength

text: In engineering design practice, professionals mostly rely on the engineering stress. In reality, the "true stress" is different from the engineering stress. Hence calculating the compressive strength of a material from the given equations will not yield an accurate result. This is because the cross sectional area A changes and is some function of load A = φ(F).


title: Compressive strength

text: Concrete and ceramics typically have much higher compressive strengths than tensile strengths. Composite materials, such as glass fiber epoxy matrix composite, tend to have higher tensile strengths than compressive strengths. Metals are difficult to test to failure in tension vs compression. In compression metals fail from buckling/crumbling/45deg shear which is much different (though higher stresses) than tension which fails from defects or necking down.