title: Johnny Hekker

text: During Week 10 against the San Francisco 49ers, Hekker converted on two fake punt passes for 40 yards, while having four punts with a 31-yard average and placing one of them inside the opponent's 20-yard line in a 24-24 tie. The first of the two passes was an audible called by Hekker himself after gunner Rodney McLeod was left uncovered. Hekker was again nominated for Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: On December 29, 2013, Hekker officially broke the single season record for net punt yards (44.2), previously held by Andy Lee (44) in 2006 for the San Francisco 49ers. Hekker finished his second professional season with 78 punts for 3,609 net yards for a 46.27 average. He earned Pro Bowl and First Team All-Pro honors.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: On October 19, 2014, Hekker threw a pass to running back Benny Cunningham on a fake punt with 1:14 left in a game against the Seattle Seahawks.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: On December 5, 2014, Hekker agreed to a six-year, $18 million contract extension with $9 million guaranteed. His deal is the largest contract ever given to a punter. Hekker finished the 2014 season with 80 punts for 3,721 net yards for a 46.51 average.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: Hekker was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Month for October. On December 27, 2015, early in the second quarter of a game against the Seattle Seahawks, Hekker was penalized 15 yards for unnecessary roughness for shoving Cliff Avril after a 45-yard punt. Later in the game, Hekker dropped to the ground when he thought Michael Bennett was going to hit him as retaliation. Bennett later said that Hekker acted "like a little girl" in a post game interview.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: In the 2015 season, Hekker again led the league in net punting average and was named as an All-Pro by the Associated Press for the second time. He was named to the Pro Bowl for his 2015 campaign. He led the league in punts and punting yards with 96 and 4,601, respectively.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: In 2016, Hekker set NFL records for punts downed inside the 20 (51), had only one touchback, and broke his own record for net punting yardage (46.0). Some speculated his performance ranked as the greatest punting season ever.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: Hekker was named to his third Pro Bowl and his third First-team All-Pro. Hekker finished the 2016 season with 98 punts for a league-leading 4,680 net yards for a 47.76 average.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: On September 11, 2017, Hekker signed a two-year contract extension with the Rams through the 2022 season.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: During Week 2 against the Washington Redskins, Hekker recorded a 28-yard pass to Josh Reynolds on a successful fake punt. On December 19, 2017, he was named to his fourth Pro Bowl. He earned First Team All-Pro honors.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: Hekker finished the 2017 season with 65 punts for 3,113 net yards for a 47.89 average. The Rams finished the season atop the NFC West with an 11–5 record and made the playoffs as the #3-seed. In his playoff debut, Hekker had five punts for 218 net yards for a 43.6 average in the 26–13 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the .


title: Johnny Hekker

text: During Week 2 against the Arizona Cardinals, Hekker (normally the holder) had to take placekicking duties when placekicker Greg Zuerlein was injured. He converted an extra point and a field goal in the 34–0 shoutout victory. During a Week 9 45-35 road loss the New Orleans Saints, Hekker ran three yards on a fake field goal attempt, but was ruled a yard short of the first down marker.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: During the season, Hekker also completed two of four pass attempts for 19 yards on fake punt attempts, with both completions leading to first downs for the Rams. In 2018, he punted a career-low 43 times for 1,992 yards (46.3 average), and only once punted more than four times in any game due to the Rams' prolific offense. Hekker missed Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro honors for the first time since 2014.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: In the playoffs, the Rams defeated both the Dallas Cowboys in the and New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship. In the NFC Championship against the Saints with Rams down 13–0 early in the second quarter, Hekker ran a fake punt and threw a 12-yard pass to Sam Shields to get a first down and put the Rams in position to get their first points of the game. Playing against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII, he set a Super Bowl record with a 65-yard punt, breaking the record set by the Patriots' Ryan Allen, whom Hekker competed with at Oregon State. The Rams went on to lose the Super Bowl 13–3 as Hekker punted nine times for 417 yards.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: During Week 10 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Hekker threw a pass on a fake punt that was intercepted by running back Trey Edmunds in the 17–12 road loss. In Week 17, he earned NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his game against Arizona. For the season, he averaged more than 47 yards per kick for the fourth time in his career. He was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-Decade Team for the 2010s.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: During Week 7 against the Chicago Bears, Hekker punted five times and each one was downed at or inside the opposing 10-yard line. He averaged 44.2 yards per punt with a long of 63 in the Rams' 24–10 victory on Monday Night Football, earning NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for the fourth time in his career. The following day, Hekker was also honored as NFC Special Teams Player of the Month, the third time he had been so honored. In the 2020 season, he punted 68 times for 3,099 net yards for a 45.57 average.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: In 2021, Hekker totaled 51 punts for 2,252 yards, with 23 of 51 punts being downed inside the opponent's own 20-yard line. In the against the Arizona Cardinals, Hekker planted all five of his punts inside the opposing 20-yard line, earning him praise from quarterback Matthew Stafford, who said Hekker's punting played crucial role in the Rams 34-11 victory. He won Super Bowl LVI when the Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals by a score of 23-20 and punted six times for 261 yards in the game.


title: Johnny Hekker

text: Hekker was the main athlete featured in a 2013 Dude Perfect YouTube video titled "NFL Kicking Edition | Dude Perfect" along with Rams teammates Greg Zuerlein and Jake McQuaide.


title: Planetary mnemonic

text: A planetary mnemonic refers to a phrase created to remember the planets and dwarf planet of the Solar System, with the order of words corresponding to increasing sidereal periods of the bodies. One simple visual mnemonic is to hold out both hands side-by-side with thumbs in the same direction (typically left-hand facing palm down, and right-hand palm up). The fingers of hand with palm down represent the terrestrial planets where the left pinkie represents Mercury and its thumb represents the asteroid belt, including Ceres. The other hand represents the gas giants, with its thumb representing Trans Neptunian objects, including Pluto.


title: Planetary mnemonic

text: An English-language mnemonic which was current in the 1950s was "Men Very Easily Make Jugs Serve Useful Needs, Perhaps" (for Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto). The structure of this sentence suggests that it may have originated before Pluto's discovery, and can easily be trimmed back to reflect Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet. Another common English-language mnemonic for many years was "My Very Educated (or Eager) Mother Just Served Us Nine Potatoes (or Pizzas)". Other mnemonics include "My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Porcupines", "My Very Energetic Mother Jumps Skateboards Under Nana's Patio" and "Mary’s violet eyes make Johnnie stay up nights pondering", as well as the apt "My Very Easy Method Just Shows Us Nine Planets", "My Very Efficient Memory Just Stores Up Nine Planets" and "My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets".


title: Planetary mnemonic

text: Many of these mnemonics were made obsolete in 2006, however, with the IAU's 2006 definition of planet which reclassified Pluto (as well as Ceres and Eris) as a dwarf planet.


title: Planetary mnemonic

text: When Pluto's significance was changed to dwarf planet, mnemonics could no longer include the final "P". The first notable suggestion came from Kyle Sullivan of Lumberton, Mississippi, USA, whose mnemonic was published in the Jan. 2007 issue of "Astronomy" magazine: "My Violent Evil Monster Just Scared Us Nuts". In August 2006, for the eight planets recognized under the new definition, Phyllis Lugger, professor of astronomy at Indiana University suggested the following modification to the common mnemonic for the nine planets: "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos". She proposed this mnemonic to Owen Gingerich, Chair of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Planet Definition Committee and published the mnemonic in the American Astronomical Society Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy Bulletin Board on August 25, 2006. It also appeared in Indiana University's IU News Room Star Trak on August 30, 2006. This mnemonic is used by the IAU on their website for the public.


title: Planetary mnemonic

text: Others angry at the IAU's decision to "demote" Pluto composed sarcastic mnemonics in protest. Schott's Miscellany by Ben Schott included the mnemonic, "Many Very Educated Men Justify Stealing Unique Ninth". Mike Brown, who discovered Eris, mentioned hearing "Many Very Educated Men Just Screwed Up Nature". One particular 9 planet mnemonic, "My very easy memory jingle seems useful naming planets", was easily changed once the demotion occurred, becoming the 8 planet mnemonic, "My very easy memory jingle seems useless now". Another mnemonic which was changed from 9 to 8 planets was , "Most Very Elderly Men Just Slept Under Newspapers".Slightly risque versions include, "Mary's 'Virgin' Explanation Made Joseph Suspect Upstairs Neighbor".


title: Planetary mnemonic

text: In 2007, the National Geographic Society sponsored a contest for a new mnemonic of MVEMCJSUNPE, incorporating the then-eleven known planets and dwarf planets, including Eris, Ceres, and the newly demoted Pluto. On February 22, 2008, "My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants", coined by 10-year-old Maryn Smith of Great Falls, Montana, was announced as the winner. The phrase was featured in the song "11 Planets" by Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter Lisa Loeb and in the book "11 Planets: A New View of the Solar System" by David Aguilar ().


title: Planetary mnemonic

text: Since the National Geographic competition, two additional bodies were designated as dwarf planets, Makemake and Haumea, on July 11 and September 17, 2008 respectively. A 2015 "New York Times" article suggested some mnemonics including, "My Very Educated Mother Cannot Just Serve Us Nine Pizzas—Hundreds May Eat!"


title: Planetary mnemonic

text: Longer mnemonics will be required in the future, if more of the possible dwarf planets are recognized as such by the IAU. However, at some point enthusiasm for new mnemonics will wane as the number of dwarf planets exceeds the number that people will want to learn (it is estimated that there may be up to 200 dwarf planets).


title: Proto-Human language

text: The Proto-Human language (also Proto-Sapiens, Proto-World) is the hypothetical direct genetic predecessor of all the world's spoken languages. It would not be ancestral to sign languages.


title: Proto-Human language

text: The concept is speculative and not amenable to analysis in historical linguistics. It presupposes a monogenetic origin of language, i.e. the derivation of all natural languages from a single origin, presumably at some time in the Middle Paleolithic period. As the predecessor of all "extant" languages spoken by modern humans ("Homo sapiens"), Proto-Human language as hypothesised would not necessarily be ancestral to any hypothetical Neanderthal language.


title: Proto-Human language

text: There is no generally accepted term for this concept. Most treatments of the subject do not include a name for the language under consideration (e.g. Bengtson and Ruhlen). The terms "Proto-World" and "Proto-Human" are in occasional use. Merritt Ruhlen used the term "Proto-Sapiens".


title: Proto-Human language

text: The first serious scientific attempt to establish the reality of monogenesis was that of Alfredo Trombetti, in his book "L'unità d'origine del linguaggio", published in 1905. Trombetti estimated that the common ancestor of existing languages had been spoken between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago.


title: Proto-Human language

text: Monogenesis was dismissed by many linguists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the doctrine of the polygenesis of the human races and their languages was widely popular.


title: Proto-Human language

text: The best-known supporter of monogenesis in America in the mid-20th century was Morris Swadesh. He pioneered two important methods for investigating deep relationships between languages, lexicostatistics and glottochronology.


title: Proto-Human language

text: In the second half of the 20th century, Joseph Greenberg produced a series of large-scale classifications of the world's languages. These were and are controversial but widely discussed. Although Greenberg did not produce an explicit argument for monogenesis, all of his classification work was geared toward this end. As he stated: "The ultimate goal is a comprehensive classification of what is very likely a single language family."


title: Proto-Human language

text: Notable American advocates of linguistic monogenesis include Merritt Ruhlen, John Bengtson, and Harold Fleming.


title: Proto-Human language

text: The first concrete attempt to estimate the date of the hypothetical ancestor language was that of Alfredo Trombetti, who concluded it was spoken between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, or close to the first emergence of "Homo sapiens".


title: Proto-Human language

text: It is uncertain or disputed whether the earliest members of "Homo sapiens" had fully developed language. Some scholars link the emergence of language proper (out of a proto-linguistic stage that may have lasted considerably longer) to the development of behavioral modernity toward the end of the Middle Paleolithic or at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, roughly 50,000 years ago.


title: Proto-Human language

text: Thus, in the opinion of Richard Klein, the ability to produce complex speech only developed some 50,000 years ago (with the appearance of modern humans or Cro-Magnons).


title: Proto-Human language

text: Johanna Nichols (1998) argued that vocal languages must have begun diversifying in our species at least 100,000 years ago.


title: Proto-Human language

text: In 2011, an article in the journal "Science" proposed an African origin of modern human languages. It was suggested that human language predates the out-of-Africa migrations of 50,000 to 70,000 years ago and that language might have been the essential cultural and cognitive innovation that facilitated human colonization of the globe.


title: Proto-Human language

text: In Perreault and Mathew (2012), an estimate on the time of the first emergence of human language was based on phonemic diversity. This is based on the assumption that phonemic diversity evolves much more slowly than grammar or vocabulary, slowly increasing over time (but reduced among small founding populations).


title: Proto-Human language

text: The largest phoneme inventories are found among African languages, while the smallest inventories are found in South America and Oceania, some of the last regions of the globe to be colonized.


title: Proto-Human language

text: The authors used data from the colonization of Southeast Asia to estimate the rate of increase in phonemic diversity.


title: Proto-Human language

text: Applying this rate to African languages, Perreault and Mathew (2012) arrived at an estimated age of 150,000 to 350,000 years, compatible with the emergence and early dispersal of "H. sapiens".


title: Proto-Human language

text: Speculation on the "characteristics" of Proto-World is limited to linguistic typology, i.e. the identification of universal features shared by all human languages, such as grammar (in the sense of "fixed or preferred sequences of linguistic elements"), and recursion, but beyond this nothing can be known of it.


title: Proto-Human language

text: Christopher Ehret has hypothesized that Proto-Human had a very complex consonant system, including clicks.


title: Proto-Human language

text: A few linguists, such as Merritt Ruhlen, have suggested the application of mass comparison and internal reconstruction (cf. Babaev 2008). A number of linguists have attempted to reconstruct the language, while many others reject this as fringe science.


title: Proto-Human language

text: According to Murray Gell-Mann and Ruhlen (2011), the ancestral language would have had a basic order of Subject (S) - Object (O) - Verb (V) or SOV.


title: Proto-Human language

text: Ruhlen tentatively traces a number of words back to the ancestral language, based on the occurrence of similar sound-and-meaning forms in languages across the globe. Bengtson and Ruhlen identify 27 "global etymologies". The following table lists a selection of these forms:


title: Proto-Human language

text: In a 2011 paper, Murray Gell-Mann and Merritt Ruhlen argued that the ancestral language had subject–object–verb (SOV) word order. The reason for thinking so is that in the world's natural language families, it is typical for the original language to have an SOV word order, and languages that evolve from it sometimes deviate. Their proposal develops an earlier one made by Talmy Givón (1979:271–309).


title: Proto-Human language

text: For example, instead of saying "The man goes to the wide river", as in English, Ruhlen's Proto-Human speakers would have said "Man wide river to goes". However, half of all current languages have SOV order, and historically languages cycle between word orders, so finding evidence of this order in the reconstructions of many families may reflect no more than this general tendency, rather than reflecting a common ancestral form.


title: Proto-Human language

text: Many linguists reject the methods used to determine these forms. Several areas of criticism are raised with the methods Ruhlen and Gell-Mann employ. The essential basis of these criticisms is that the words being compared do not show common ancestry; the reasons for this vary. One is onomatopoeia: for example, the suggested root for 'smell' listed above, *"čuna", may simply be a result of many languages employing an onomatopoeic word that sounds like sniffing, snuffling, or smelling. Another is the taboo quality of certain words. Lyle Campbell points out that many established proto-languages do not contain an equivalent word for *"putV" 'vulva' because of how often such taboo words are replaced in the lexicon, and notes that it "strains credibility to imagine" that a proto-World form of such a word would survive in many languages.


title: Proto-Human language

text: Using the criteria that Bengtson and Ruhlen employ to find cognates to their proposed roots, Lyle Campbell finds seven possible matches to their root for woman *"kuna" in Spanish, including "cónyuge" 'wife, spouse', "chica" 'girl', and "cana" 'old woman (adjective)'. He then goes on to show how what Bengtson and Ruhlen would identify as reflexes of *"kuna" cannot possibly be related to a proto-World word for woman. "Cónyuge", for example, comes from the Latin root meaning 'to join', so its origin had nothing to do with the word 'woman'; "chica" is related to a Latin word meaning 'insignificant thing'; "cana" comes from the Latin word for 'white', and again shows a history unrelated to the word 'woman'. Campbell's assertion is that these types of problems are endemic to the methods used by Ruhlen and others.


title: Proto-Human language

text: There are some linguists who question the very possibility of tracing language elements so far back into the past. Campbell notes that given the time elapsed since the origin of human language, every word from that time would have been replaced or changed beyond recognition in all languages today. Campbell harshly criticizes efforts to reconstruct a Proto-human language, saying "the search for global etymologies is at best a hopeless waste of time, at worst an embarrassment to linguistics as a discipline, unfortunately confusing and misleading to those who might look to linguistics for understanding in this area."


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: "Vincent and the Doctor" is the tenth episode of the fifth series of British science fiction television series "Doctor Who", first broadcast on BBC One on 5 June 2010. It was written by Richard Curtis and directed by Jonny Campbell and featured an uncredited guest appearance from actor Bill Nighy.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: Intrigued by an ominous figure in Vincent van Gogh's June 1890 painting "The Church at Auvers", alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) go back in time to meet van Gogh (Tony Curran) and discover that Auvers-sur-Oise has been plagued by an invisible creature, known as the Krafayis, which only van Gogh can see. The Doctor and Amy work with van Gogh to defeat the Krafayis, but in their attempt to have van Gogh realise his legacy through bringing him to the future they ultimately realise that not all of time can be rewritten and there are some evils which are out of the Doctor's reach.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: Curtis, inspired by the fact that van Gogh never knew he would be famous, had the idea for an episode centred on him. He left the script open to criticism from the crew and made many revisions as a result. Curtis wanted to portray van Gogh truthfully, rather than being cruel by writing jokes about his mental illness. Most of the episode was filmed in Trogir, Croatia, and many of the sets were modelled after van Gogh paintings. The episode was watched by 6.76 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD. Reception to the episode was mainly positive. While the amount of emotion in the episode was debated, many reviewers praised Curran's performance as van Gogh, but thought that the Krafayis was not a sufficiently threatening "monster".


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: The Eleventh Doctor takes Amy to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where they admire the work of the post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. The Doctor discovers a seemingly alien figure in a window of the 1890 painting "The Church at Auvers", and decides they must travel back in time to speak with Vincent. In 1890 Auvers-sur-Oise, they find Vincent, a lonely man, at a café. A young girl is murdered outside the café. When the trio go out to see what happened they are stoned by locals who blame Vincent's insanity for the killing. The Doctor and Amy talk Vincent into letting them stay the night and they return to his home.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: That evening, Vincent confesses that his works have little value to anyone else. Amy goes outside and is attacked by a creature that only Vincent is able to see. He sketches it for the Doctor, who identifies it as a Krafayis. After initially feeling distraught that everyone leaves him, Vincent joins the Doctor and Amy at the church to paint it. Vincent begins painting and soon spots the Krafayis inside the church. Vincent saves the Doctor and Amy from the Krafayis, which the Doctor realises is blind. The Krafayis is fatally impaled on Vincent's easel when it tries to lunge at Vincent. Vincent empathises with its pain.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: The Doctor and Amy take Vincent in the TARDIS to the van Gogh exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay. Vincent is stunned by the display and becomes emotionally overwhelmed when he overhears art curator Dr. Black say that Vincent was "the greatest painter of them all" and "one of the greatest men who ever lived". They return an emotionally changed Vincent to the past and say their goodbyes. As the Doctor and Amy return to the present, Amy is confident that there will be hundreds of new paintings by Vincent waiting for them, though the Doctor is less certain. Amy is crushed to learn that Vincent still committed suicide weeks after their adventure, at the age of 37. The Doctor explains that life is a mixture of bad and good, and while their brief encounter with Vincent could not undo all of the bad, they added some good to his life. The evidence is in Vincent's displayed works: the face no longer appears in "The Church", and now "Vase with 12 Sunflowers" bears the inscription, "For Amy".


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: Images of the First and Second Doctors are displayed on the Doctor's mirror device and printout from the TARDIS's typewriter. The episode presents these trips as the Doctor's compensation to Amy for her fiancé Rory Williams' death in the previous episode, which Amy herself does not remember since Rory was consumed by a crack in the universe and thus erased from time. Van Gogh is able to sense Amy's sadness at Rory's death, and the Doctor later accidentally addresses Amy and Vincent as Amy and Rory, respectively.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: Writer Richard Curtis was previously executive producer on the "Doctor Who" spoof "The Curse of Fatal Death", a one-off comedy special written for Comic Relief by show-runner Steven Moffat. Based on this experience, Moffat asked Curtis to write an episode of "Doctor Who". Curtis had enjoyed the show's historical episodes and felt comfortable writing one. He had the idea of a story centred on van Gogh for "a long while" and was particularly interested in the fact van Gogh never knew he would be famous, as well as his inspirational story. Curtis was also interested in depression and the price paid for it. He wanted to convey that the Doctor could rewrite time, but van Gogh's "demons" were out of his reach. Moffat was "enthusiastic" about the story idea.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: Curtis asked Moffat to criticise "anything and everything" and later said he was very honest. Executive producer Piers Wenger and director Jonny Campbell also critiqued the script. Moffat told Curtis that it needed to "start quicker" and that the meeting with the Doctor and Vincent was "dull" and needed to be something "cute" like Curtis had done in his films. He also noted that the Doctor did not talk as much as Curtis had written and recommended Curtis watch some episodes to see he was "rather efficient in the way that he talked". Curtis enjoyed the experience, commenting that it was "fun" to work within boundaries rather than doing it all himself. After seeing a read-through performed by leads Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, Curtis made more changes. He commented that it was easy to write for them as they were "so delightful and modern and relaxed". Curtis's original title for the episode was "Eyes That See the Darkness", but he said this was vetoed.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: Curtis wanted to write for "Doctor Who" because he thought it would be "something my kids would like."


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: When writing "Vincent and the Doctor", Curtis put up prints of van Gogh paintings around the house as well as a board with index cards outlining the plot. His children helped him come up with some ideas. Gillan commented that the story had a different style and approach and was more character-driven. Though it was a subject he knew "quite a lot" about, he still read a 200-page biography of van Gogh, which was more research than he normally would have done if working on other projects; he took van Gogh very seriously. As such, he wanted to be "truthful rather than cruel" and refused to write any jokes about van Gogh's ears after he famously cut one of them off. However, he did incorporate other humour as he naturally wanted to "try to make things funny".


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: Curtis stated that casting an actor to play van Gogh was done carefully, as he wanted him to feel to the audience as van Gogh, not "like a bloke they’ve seen acting lots of other parts, in an orange wig". Tony Curran was ultimately cast as the part; Curtis called him a "wonderful actor" who "really could not look more like" van Gogh. Curran, Smith and Gillan got to know each other very well, which Gillan hoped would be evident in their chemistry in the episode. Bill Nighy appears uncredited as the Musée d'Orsay's expert on van Gogh. Nighy was rumoured to have been considered for the role of the Ninth Doctor when the show was revived. Campbell stated that they were "very fortunate" to have Nighy in the role, who he believed was someone people paid attention to, and the audience needed to pay attention to his character as he related facts which would become important later in the story.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: The episode was filmed on location in Trogir, Croatia, in the same production block as "The Vampires of Venice", which sees Trogir depicting 16th-century Venice. Filming took place around November 2009. The scenes at the church were filmed at Llandaff Cathedral in Wales, while the National Museum Cardiff doubled for the interior of the Musée d'Orsay. Some of the sets were intended to reference paintings, such as van Gogh's bedroom. One such set was the café where the Doctor and Amy first meet van Gogh, which was modelled after the painting "Café Terrace at Night". This proved challenging for the art department, which looked extensively for a suitable building in Croatia to use. Once the artists found the one they wanted, they had to redesign it to look like the painting; this involved putting an awning up, changing the windows, and adding a platform with tables and chairs. The song played during the ending scene is "Chances" by the British rock band Athlete.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: "Vincent and the Doctor" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One and simulcast on BBC HD on 5 June 2010. Initial overnight ratings showed that the episode was watched by 5 million, the second rated show of the day and the first on BBC One. Final consolidated ratings rose to 6.76 million, with 6.29 on BBC One and a further 0.47 on BBC HD. It was the second-most-watched programme on BBC One and the highest on BBC HD. It was given an Appreciation Index of 86, considered "excellent".


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: After the original broadcast, viewers were offered a helpline if they had been affected by the issues raised in the programme. "Vincent and the Doctor" was released in Region 2 on DVD and Blu-ray on 6 September 2010 with "The Lodger", "The Pandorica Opens" and "The Big Bang". It was then re-released as part of the Complete Fifth Series boxset on 8 November 2010.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: Since its broadcast, "Vincent and the Doctor" has received mainly positive reviews. Dave Golder of "SFX magazine" gave the episode five out of five stars, calling it "a genuinely magical episode of "Who", high on atmosphere...and bursting with charm". John Moore, writing on Den of Geek, also took a positive stance towards the episode, describing it as "life-affirming" as a "Doctor Who" fan, and, though he did criticise some elements of the plot, likewise wrote positively about the ending, ultimately finding the episode "utterly useless, but absolutely art". Keith Watson in the "Metro" was surprised by the "impressive imagining of Van Gogh's world", praising Curtis's humour throughout the episode. He also praised the performance by Curran as van Gogh, feeling that, with regard to van Gogh's depression, the producers "pulled it off" against the odds. Mark Lawson of "The Guardian" praised it as "exceptionally good" and "thrilling and funny, as well as educational", noting its "historical rigour" and its "good arty jokes", while Deborah Orr wrote that it was "hardly original for someone to alight on [van Gogh's] tale as a tear-jerker, although it is pretty shrewd to think of placing it in a popular time-travel context" and that "the feeling that I'd been gently monstered into life-affirming feel-good sobs by Richard Curtis was not new, not in the least".


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: In the mainstream press, Tom Sutcliffe in "The Independent" praised the episode as "first ingenious and then decidedly poignant", though he felt some aspects of plot would have wider implications not addressed in the episode, and remained "coldly unfeeling" towards the death of the Krafayis. Sam Wollaston of "The Guardian" liked the episode, considering Curtis's dialogue to be "witty and clever" and, despite feeling that some of the moral sentiments expressed during the episode were "as schmaltzy as sugary gloop", described how the emotion of the episode eventually got to him. The A.V. Club's Keith Phipps gave the episode a B−, explaining that it "didn't quite work" and suffered from tonal problems. Matt Wales on IGN was also mixed, giving it a 7.5 out of 10 rating. He was positive toward Curran and Gillan and that the episode "finally gave us a three-dimensional Amy Pond", but thought the "usually excellent" Smith "didn't get much to work with". He also thought that the Krafayis was "a nice idea" for being a metaphor but was not threatening, and he labelled the emotional ending as "self-indulgently mawkish".


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: On "The Guardian" film blog, Peter Bradshaw considered "Vincent and the Doctor" to be a "terrifically clever, funny, likeable wildly surreal episode". He praised the " Curtis dialogue" and the "uproariously emotional ending of the sort only Richard Curtis could get away with". Dan Martin on the same paper's regular "Doctor Who" blog was more critical, writing that its "main problem [was] that it doesn't feel much like a "Doctor Who" story" and would have worked better if "the middle section with the monster had been stripped out". He also criticised the script for its "lashings of weapons-grade sentimentality" and for "throwing up possibilities that weren't followed up" and the monster as an "afterthought [posing]...no tangible threat". However, he did praise Curran's "great performance" along with the episode's treatment of depression, concluding like Wollaston that he enjoyed the episode despite his misgivings.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: One of the most negative reviews came from Gavin Fuller in "The Telegraph", who criticised it as a "bland, inconsequential episode that, once it set up what was a decent enough premise...completely failed to run with it". He compared it unfavourably with the third series episode "The Shakespeare Code" in being centred round a historical "tormented artist" but wrote that it lacked that episode's "narrative drive", with "a serious plot hole" in van Gogh's ability to see the creature and that the Krafayis was "the most pointless monsters ever to appear in the series' long history". He also criticised Smith's Doctor and wrote that van Gogh still committing suicide despite the trip to the Orsay was "nonsensical". He did, however, praise "the Doctor's homily about good things and bad things" (though Sam Wollaston criticised this speech in "The Guardian") and was grateful that Curtis "avoided turning the Doctor into a bumbling Hugh Grant character from his romcoms", concluding however "he did little else right and a crushing disappointment was the result".


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: The scene of van Gogh visiting the Gallery has received particular praise, with Curtis stating the scene has transcended the episode.


title: Vincent and the Doctor

text: "Vincent and the Doctor" was nominated for the Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation in the 2010 Nebula Awards and the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form). It lost both of these; the Bradbury to the film "Inception" and the Hugo to the series finale "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang". In Canada's Constellation Awards, Curran was nominated (alongside Smith) for Best Actor and Curtis for Best Script; Curran came in sixth with 10% of the votes and Curtis came in second, losing out to Christopher Nolan's "Inception" by one percent of the vote.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: Three-dimensional chess (or 3‑D chess) is any chess variant that replaces the two-dimensional board with a three-dimensional array of cells between which the pieces can move. In practical play, this is usually achieved by boards representing different layers being laid out next to each other.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: Three-dimensional variants have existed since at least the late 19th century, one of the oldest being "Raumschach" (), invented in 1907 by Ferdinand Maack and considered the classic 3‑D game. Maack founded a Raumschach club in Hamburg in 1919, which remained active until World War II.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: Chapter 25 of David Pritchard's "The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants" discusses some 50 such variations extending chess to three dimensions as well as a handful of higher-dimensional variants. Chapter 11 covers variants using multiple boards normally set side by side which can also be considered to add an extra dimension to chess.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: "Three-dimensional chess" is used colloquially to describe complex, dynamic systems with many competing entities and interests, including politics, diplomacy and warfare. To describe an individual as "playing three-dimensional chess" implies a higher-order understanding and mastery of the system beyond the comprehension of their peers or ordinary observers, who are implied to be "playing" regular chess.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: Three-dimensional chess has often appeared in science fiction—the "Star Trek" franchise in particular—contributing to the game's familiarity.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: Lionel Kieseritzky (1806–1853) developed Kubikschach (German for Cube Chess) in 1851. He used an 8×8×8 board, labelling the third dimension with Greek letters alpha through theta. This format was later picked up by Maack in 1907 when developing "Raumschach". According to David Pritchard, this format is: the most popular 3‑D board amongst inventors, and at the same time the most mentally indigestible for the players ... Less demanding on spatial vision, and hence more practical, are those games confined to three 8×8 boards and games with boards smaller than 8×8.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: Ferdinand Maack (1861–1930) developed Raumschach (German for Space Chess) in 1907. He contended that for chess to be more like modern warfare, attack should be possible not only from a two-dimensional plane but also from above (aerial) and below (underwater). Maack's original formulation was for an 8×8×8 board, but after experimenting with smaller boards eventually settled on 5×5×5 as best. Other obvious differences from standard chess include two additional pawns per player, and a special piece (two per player) named "unicorn".


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: The Raumschach 3‑D board can be thought of as a cube sliced into five equal spaces across each of its three major coordinal planes. This sectioning yields a 5×5×5 (125 cube) gamespace. The cubes (usually represented by squares and often called "cells") alternate in color in all three dimensions.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: The horizontal levels are denoted by capital letters A through E. Ranks and files of a level are denoted using algebraic notation. White starts on the A and B levels and Black starts on E and D.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: White moves first. The game objective, as in standard chess, is checkmate. Rooks, bishops, and knights move as they do in chess in any given plane.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: "Tri-Dimensional Chess", "Tri-D Chess", or "Three-Dimensional Chess" is a chess variant which can be seen in many "Star Trek" TV episodes and movies, starting with (TOS) and proceeding in updated forms throughout the subsequent movies and spinoff series.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: The original "Star Trek" prop was crafted using boards from 3D Checkers and 3D Tic-Tac-Toe sets available in stores at the time (games also seen in TOS episodes) and adding chess pieces from the futuristic-looking "Classic" chess set designed by Peter Ganine in 1961. The design retained the 64 squares of a traditional chessboard, but distributed them onto separate platforms in a hierarchy of spatial levels, suggesting to audiences how chess adapted to a future predominated by space travel. Rules for the game were never invented within the series – in fact, the boards are sometimes not even aligned consistently from one scene to the next within a single episode.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: The Tri-D chessboard was further realized by its inclusion in the "Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual" by Franz Joseph, who created starting positions for the pieces and short, additional rules.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: The complete Standard Rules for the game were originally developed in 1976 by Andrew Bartmess (with encouragement from Joseph) and were subsequently expanded by him into a commercially available booklet. A free summary in English of the Standard Rules is contained on Charles Roth's website, including omissions and ambiguities regarding piece moves across the four Tri‑D gameboard 2×2 "attack boards".


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: A complete set of tournament rules for Tri-Dimensional Chess written by Jens Meder is available on his website. Meder's rules are based on FIDE's rules more than Andrew Bartmess' Standard Rules, with some deviations too. A repository of Tournament Rules games can be found on the website of Michael Klein.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: Plans for constructing a Tri‑D chessboard can be found on "The Chess Variant Pages", as well as in Bartmess' "Tri‑D Chess Rules". Details for building a travel-size board are included on Meder's website.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: There is software for playing Tri‑D Chess. "Parmen" (potentially named after a lead character in the episode "Plato's Stepchildren") is a Windows application written by Doug Keenan and available free on his website. A free Android version of Tri‑D Chess is offered by AwfSoft.


title: Three-dimensional chess

text: As well as in "Star Trek", multi-dimensional chess games are featured in various fictional works, usually in a futuristic or science fiction setting. Examples include "Nova", "Blake's 7", "UFO", "Starman Jones", "Unreal 2", the Legion of Super-Heroes franchise, "Doctor Who", "The Big Bang Theory", and "The Lego Movie". The concept is parodied in "Futurama" as "tridimensional "Scrabble"".


title: Decantation

text: Decantation is a process for the separation of mixtures of immiscible liquids or of a liquid and a solid mixture such as a suspension. The layer closer to the top of the container—the less dense of the two liquids, or the liquid from which the precipitate or sediment has settled out—is poured off, leaving the other component or the denser liquid of the mixture behind. An incomplete separation is witnessed during the separation of two immiscible liquids. To put it in a simple way, decantation is separating immiscible materials by transferring the top layer to another container. The process does not provide accurate or pure product.


title: Decantation

text: Decantation can be used to separate immiscible liquids that have different densities. For example, when a mixture of water and oil is present in a beaker, after some time a distinct layer between the two liquids is formed, with the oil layer floating on top of the water layer. This separation can be done by pouring oil out of the container, leaving water behind. Generally, this technique gives an incomplete separation as it is difficult to pour off all of the top layer without pouring out some parts of the bottom layer.


title: Decantation

text: A separatory funnel is an alternative apparatus for separating liquid layers. It has a valve at the bottom to allow draining off the bottom layer. It can give better separation between the two liquids.


title: Decantation

text: Decantation can also separate solid and liquid mixtures by allowing gravity to pull the solid fragments to settle at the bottom of the container. In laboratory situations, decantation of mixtures containing solids and liquids occur in test tubes. To enhance productivity, test tubes should be placed at a 45° angle to allow sediments to settle at the bottom of the apparatus.


title: Decantation

text: A centrifuge machine may also be used in decantation as the natural process of settling down is time-consuming and tedious. A centrifuge forces the precipitate to the bottom of the container; if the force is high enough, solids can aggregate to form pellets, making it easier to separate the mixtures. Then the liquid can be more easily poured away, as the precipitate will tend to remain in its compressed form.


title: Decantation

text: Decantation is frequently used to purify a liquid by separating it from a suspension of insoluble particles (e.g. in red wine, where the wine is decanted from the potassium bitartrate crystals to avoid unsavory taste). This makes the wine more tonic and astringent.


title: Decantation

text: Cream accelerates to the top of milk, allowing the separation of milk and cream. This is used in the cheese industry. Fat is determined in butter by decantation.


title: Decantation

text: To obtain a sample of clear water from muddy water, muddy water is poured into another container, which separates the water from the mud.


title: Decantation

text: In the sugar industry, the processing of sugar beets into granular sugar and many liquid - solid separations are encountered e.g. separation of syrups from crystals.


title: Decantation

text: Decantation is also present in nanotechnology. In the synthesis of high quality silver nanowire (AgNW) solutions and fabrication process of high performance electrodes, decantation is also being applied which greatly simplifies the purification process.


title: Decantation

text: After using a desiccant to absorb water from an organic liquid, the organic liquid can often be decanted away from the desiccant.


title: Decantation

text: The process of deriving vinegar also requires decantation to remove fats and biomolecular antioxidants from the raw substance.


title: Decantation

text: Mercury is disposed of in water bodies during mining, turning the water unfit and toxic. The mercury can be removed through decantation.


title: M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi

text: M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language sports dramedy film directed by M. Raja, starring Jayam Ravi, Nadhiya, Asin Thottumkal, and Prakash Raj while Vivek and Subbaraju play supporting roles. This marks the Tamil debut of Asin. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Srikanth Deva. The film became a blockbuster and one of the most profitable movies of 2004. It is a remake of the Telugu film "Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi". It was Nadhiya's comeback movie, after a 10–15 years of hiatus from the industry


title: M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi

text: For Kumaran (Jayam Ravi), life revolves only about his mother Mahalakshmi (Nadhiya), who got separated from her husband Easwar (Prakash Raj). Easwar goes on to pursue his passion in kickboxing and becomes a world-renowned trainer based in Malaysia. Mahalakshmi stays in Chennai and devotes her life to bringing up her son. Kumaran is also passionate about kickboxing and shares a special relationship with his mother. In between, he falls in love with Mythili (Asin), a Malayali girl, but his life is destroyed after his mother's death. On her deathbed, she tells him to meet Easwar, and Kumaran goes to Malaysia to meet him. Kumaran gets a job at his father's kickboxing academy but finds him with another wife, Shalini (Aishwarya), and a daughter Swapna. Kumaran feels betrayed and angry, and this causes plenty of friction between him and his father. Eeshwar trains a boxer named Anand (Subbaraju), who he is sure will win the championship. Easwar considers Anand his protege and, on many occasions, demonstrates his preference for him over Kumaran. However, Anand soon makes Swapna pregnant and dumps her. He then turns traitor to Easwar and joins another team when they offer him a better contract. The rest of the story is about how Easwar trains Kumaran against Anand and wins the kickboxing competition, while Kumaran helps his half-sister with her love. Kumaran wins the kickboxing championship. The movie ends with Kumaran seeing a final apparition of his mother looking at him proudly and waving goodbye.


title: M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi

text: After the success of "Jayam" (2003), Raja decided to remake the successful Telugu film "Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi" (2003) with his brother Ravi in the lead role. Asin, who appeared in the Telugu version, made her debut in Tamil cinema with this film. Nadhiya made her acting comeback with this film portraying Ravi's mother as Raja felt that he wanted to portray her as a modern mother as opposed to the usual portrayal of mothers, and she was the right choice for the role. Prakash Raj, Subbaraju, and Aishwarya reenact their roles from the Telugu film.


title: M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi

text: The team had also initially approached Dhruv, the son of actor Vikram, to star as a child artiste in the film, but he eventually did not feature.


title: M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi

text: The film was originally titled "M. Kumaran S/O Bhagyalakshmi" before reverting to the original title. The film was extensively shot in Malaysia.


title: M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi

text: The songs and background score was done by Srikanth Deva. The song "Ayyo Ayyo" is based on the Malaysian song "Hati Kama", composed by Pak Ngah. The song "Chennai Senthamizh" is based on "Chennai Chandrama" from the original film.


title: M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi

text: The television satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV and VOD rights to Amazon Prime Video.


title: M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi

text: The film received generally positive reviews with Indiaglitz.com saying "If you like films with sentiments, M Kumaran...is for you". Behindwoods.com stated that "Raja has done well for his second film" and "he has well defined the relationship between a mother and a son in this movie", while "The Hindu" wrote that "casting is a main draw", praising the inclusion of Nadhiya. Rediff.com also listed the film amongst the "best Tamil films of 2004", stating that the film was "a big success".


title: M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi

text: The film collected share of 54 crore in 40 days in Chennai and 36 crore throughout Tamil Nadu selling $3 million tickets.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: The Replacement Killers is a 1998 American action film directed by Antoine Fuqua in his feature film directorial debut, and starring Chow Yun-fat (his international film debut), Mira Sorvino, Michael Rooker and Kenneth Tsang. The film was released in the United States on February 6, 1998. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Ken Sanzel. Veteran action director John Woo co-produced and choreographed the action sequences. The film is set in modern-day Los Angeles and follows an emotionally disillusioned assassin who is forced to settle a violent vendetta for a ruthless crime boss. The film marks the American acting debut for Chow, as his previous film credits included Hong Kong action cinema only.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: The film was a co-production between the motion picture studios of Columbia Pictures, Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, and WCG Entertainment Productions. "The Replacement Killers" explores assassination, violence and the influence of triads in modern society. The film score was orchestrated by Harry Gregson-Williams; the soundtrack was released by the Varèse Sarabande music label on March 10, 1998.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: "The Replacement Killers" premiered in theaters nationwide in the United States on February 6, 1998, grossing $19.2 million in US ticket receipts and $39.5 million worldwide from a $30 million budget. The film was screened at 1,936 theaters during its widest release in cinemas. It has a 38% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a consensus of "mixed reviews" on Metacritic. The widescreen DVD edition of the film featured scene selections, a featurette, and interviews among other highlights, and was released in the United States on July 1, 1998.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: During an orchestrated drug bust at a marine loading dock, Los Angeles Police Detective Stan Zedkov kills Triad lieutenant Peter Wei. Looking to exact revenge for his son's death, Peter's crime boss father Terence Wei sends for professional assassin John Lee. Paying off an old debt, Lee has already killed two targets for Wei, and the crime boss tells him that this third and final job will settle the obligation. However, Lee's conscience prevents him from completing his final assignment: to murder Zedkov's seven-year-old son Stevie before the detective's eyes. Realizing that his actions will result in retaliation against his mother and sister, Lee prepares to return to China, enlisting the help of old friend Alan Chan, a monk in a local Buddhist temple, to make arrangements to have his family moved to a secure location. Infuriated by Lee's disobedience, Wei orders his head lieutenant, Michael Kogan, to lead the hunt for Lee, and has his people in China begin the search for Lee's family.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: No longer able to use the Triad network to get out of the country, Lee searches for alternative means outside Wei's sphere of influence, and looks to skilled forger Meg Coburn for a new passport. Before she can finish the job, Wei's men storm her office, destroying the computerized tools of her trade in the ensuing shootout. Lee escapes; Coburn is picked up by the police, unsuccessfully interrogated by Zedkov, and released as bait so the detective can see who tries to kill her. Meanwhile, Wei hires skilled out-of-town professional hitmen named Ryker and Collins to take over the hunt for Lee and the Zedkov contract.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Lee finds Coburn when she returns to her destroyed office. Having been made aware that the Triads are involved, Coburn wants out, but Lee forces her to finish her original task of creating a forged passport. Traveling with Coburn, with the two replacement killers, in pursuit, Lee gets pictures from a photo booth and phones Alan, who offers the use of his passport. When Lee arrives at the temple, he discovers that Alan has been tortured to the point of death. Alan tells Lee that his family was moved to Canton—but he told his torturers they were in Shanghai. Lee has little more than 24 hours before his family is found. The monk gives Lee his passport before dying in his arms.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Holed up in a hotel, Coburn finishes altering Allan's passport for Lee. The two exchange stories, and Coburn becomes sympathetic to Lee. Feeling compelled to stop the killing of Zedkov's son before leaving the country, Lee forces one of Wei's men to reveal the plan, which is to kill Stevie while he and his father are at a cartoon festival in a movie theater. Lee and Coburn, who insists on helping, arrive barely in time to prevent Ryker and Collins from killing the boy, and Ryker is killed by Lee in the subsequent gunfight.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Concerned that Lee and Coburn will make their way back to Wei's base of operations, the crime boss makes plans to flee the country and hunt down Lee's mother and sister himself. However, when two guards open the main gate for Wei and his entourage to leave in a limo, Lee is just outside and launches a two-handed handgun assault. Coburn surfaces moments later, driving a truck through the melee, incapacitating Michael Kogan, and later killing him. When Collins fires from a high perch on Lee and Coburn, Lee soon outflanks him, killing him from behind. Finally, Lee corners Wei on a fire escape platform. Though both men have emptied their guns, Lee is first to reload. Wei promises Lee that the boy and Lee's family will still die, but Lee replies, "Not in your lifetime," and kills him. Though Zedkov arrives before Lee and Coburn can get away, he lets them go, taking only their guns.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Coburn reluctantly bids goodbye to Lee at the airport, presenting him with one last gift, passports for his mother and sister.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Production for the film began on February 10, 1997 in downtown Los Angeles. The first shoot was set in the historic Mayan Theater, refurbished as a trendy nightclub and cast with hundreds of extras for the film's opening scene. The eight-story, nearly condemned Giant Penny building in the middle of LA served as the location for a police station interior, a hotel room, and Meg Coburn's office. A chaotic gunfight was filmed amid the spray, brushes, and hoses of Joe's Car Wash, also in LA. A Chinatown-like streetscape of damp, narrow alleys and blinking red neon lights was created for the night-time finale, where Yun-Fat shot off 546 rounds of two-fisted shooting; the repetitive action left his hands blistered and shaking. More gunplay took place in


title: The Replacement Killers

text: a video arcade replicated at the original Lawry's California Center (now the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens), just north of downtown LA. Lee's tranquil Buddhist temple was fashioned under this same roof.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Director Fuqua stressed to his team that the aim was to design a ""Taxi Driver" for the 1990s". In addition to physical training, Mira Sorvino, who had never handled a gun prior to this film, took weapons training to prepare for her role. Sorvino, who majored in Asian studies at Harvard, speaks Mandarin, and lived for eight months (1988–89) in Beijing, where she studied Chinese, taught English, and saw Chinese films, including Hong Kong action films, felt "The Replacement Killers" brought her a step closer to her goal of making a film in Mandarin and working with a Chinese director. Prior to the start of filming, Sorvino had blown out her voice from screaming in reshoots of "Mimic"; Fuqua liked the effect and asked her to keep it, which required Sorvino to yell prior to each day's shoots to burn out her voice.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: The original motion picture score was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. Alan Meyerson mixed the sound elements for the chorus, while Richard Whitfield edited the film's music. The soundtrack for the film was released on March 10, 1998 by the Varèse Sarabande music label. In an interview with Hideo Kojima, he stated it was the film's soundtrack that lead him to hire Harry to work on the soundtrack of .


title: The Replacement Killers

text: In addition to the film score by Harry Gregson-Williams, several modern songs by cutting-edge artists were included on the soundtrack (although never officially released as a cd) including:


title: The Replacement Killers

text: "The Replacement Killers" premiered in cinemas on February 6, 1998 in wide release throughout the US, and had a five-week theatrical run.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Following its cinematic release in theaters, "The Replacement Killers" was released on DVD and VHS by Columbia TriStar Home Video in the United States on July 1, 1998. Special features for the DVD include scene selections and the featurette specials; Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood along wth an edited HBO special: "Where the Action is". A VHS format edition was released on March 30, 1999.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: On March 5, 2002, a Special Edition DVD was released. Features include: digitally mastered audio and anamorphic video; widescreen presentation; audio in English 5.1 (Dolby Digital), Spanish, French, Portuguese; subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai; director's commentary; HBO making-of, "Where the Action Is"; deleted scenes; alternate ending; exclusive featurette, "Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood"; theatrical trailers; filmographies; animated menus; and scene selections with motion images.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: A UMD version of the film for the Sony PlayStation Portable was released on August 9, 2005. The disc features DVD quality picture; languages in Chinese, English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai, with viewing options for color and black and white.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: An extended-cut DVD adding approximately 10 minutes to the film was released on April 25, 2006. Special features include: "Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood"; digitally remastered picture and sound; and an edited HBO special, "Where the Action Is".


title: The Replacement Killers

text: The widescreen hi-definition Blu-ray version of the film was released on September 11, 2007. Special features include: "The Making of the Replacement Killers: Where the Action Is" and the exclusive featurette, "Chow Yun-Fat Goes Hollywood". A supplemental viewing option for the film in the media format of Video on demand is available as well.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: During its February 6, 1998 US opening weekend, the film ranked second place, grossing $8,046,553 at 1,936 locations. The film "Titanic" came in first place during that weekend grossing $23,027,838. Its revenue dropped by 49% in its second week of release, earning $4,068,335. For that particular weekend, the film fell to sixth place still screening in 1,936 theaters. "Titanic" remained in first place grossing $28,167,947 in box office revenue. During its final week in release, "The Replacement Killers" opened in a distant 21st place with $131,727 in revenue. The film went on to top out domestically at $19,204,929 in total ticket sales through a 5-week theatrical run. For 1998 as a whole, the film would cumulatively rank at a box office performance position of 90. Worldwide, the film grossed $39.5 million in all territories.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Rotten Tomatoes reports that 38% of 37 sampled critics gave the film a positive review; the average score is 5.3 out of 10. The consensus summarizes: "Chow Yun-fat makes his dubious English-language debut in "The Replacement Killers", a stylish but muddled knockoff of the Hong Kong shoot-em-ups that earned the star his international renown." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average out of 100 to critics' reviews, the film received a score of 42 based on 22 reviews, which it classifies as "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Among some of the positive critiques, Roger Ebert writing in the "Chicago Sun-Times" called it "as abstract as a jazz instrumental, and as cool and self-assured." Discussing the film's style, he remarked that it was a "high-gloss version of a Hong Kong action picture, made in America but observing the exuberance of a genre where surfaces are everything." In "Variety", Leonard Klady viewed the film as being a "big, loud music video that's not particularly interested in content. It's a rudderless style piece; as the old saw cautions, accept no substitutes." Regarding the film's set design and production qualities, he noted that, "while an apt homage, the set pieces here are technical but not visceral, feeling manufactured rather than organically integrated into the plot."


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Russell Smith of "The Austin Chronicle" said the film was "so numbingly ritualistic that even the well-choreographed gun battles, probably the most Woo-like aspects of the film, lose much of their potential impact." Writing for "The New York Times", Stephen Holden noted that although the film's "seamless fusion of Hong Kong action-adventure style and cool, Los Angeles street chic has a certain seductive charm, it is the only charm of a movie that is otherwise devoid of content." Edward Guthmann in the "San Francisco Chronicle" said that "As pointless blast-athons go, "The Replacement Killers" isn't bad. It's beautifully shot by first-time feature director Antoine Fuqua, whose eye for sensual surfaces, deft camera moves and elegant framing was refined with commercials and music videos."


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Desson Thomson of "The Washington Post" stated that "Without Chow Yun-Fat, who makes his American screen debut here, there'd be nothing to say about "The Replacement Killers". Antoine Fuqua's action movie is entirely free of surprise. It breaks no rules." He did however muse that "Chow's pretty face and cool presence are inescapable. You don't enjoy this movie, so much as you conduct a road test for the Hong Kong actor. Yes, he can survive in an English language picture!" In "The San Francisco Examiner", Walter Addiego perceived that the film "remains a counterfeit of a Woo movie, even though Woo himself co-produced it. He turned the directing chores over to first-timer Antoine Fuqua, whose previous work was limited to music videos and commercials, and it shows." He added, "The script, by Ken Sanzel, is the work of someone who's seen Woo's movies and wasn't particularly moved by the experience."


title: The Replacement Killers

text: In retrospect, Antoine Fuqua said: "'The Replacement Killers' was a good and bad experience. It was great because Chow Yun-Fat is the coolest guy in the world. He was just beautiful. Mira Sorvino was cool. It was fun working with Mira. But the difficult thing was learning the studio system, learning all the things that go along with that system. There are a lot of people that have a lot of say, especially when you're that young in the studio world. You learn that it is a business. I think for me, what I learned was I still love making movies, and I know what I don't want to do. The thing that I learned the most out of that movie was what I don't want to do."


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Ken Sanzel, who wrote the movie, said: "The script bears very little resemblance to anything I would have written; only the bare bones of the plot really survived. I think that Chow Yun-Fat was incredible, but for me the movie was a series of otherwise bad decisions. I’m glad that people enjoy it, but it was really Antoine Fuqua’s sensibility top to bottom, which is not at all mine (aside from the fact that we both love the work of Michael Mann, though apparently for very different reasons).


title: The Replacement Killers

text: Mira Sorvino said: "I loved working with Antoine, and it was fun to do an action movie. It was kind of like being a kid and playing cowboys and Indians, or cops and robbers. And I enjoyed the role of Meg. I thought she was fun to do."


title: Sapindaceae

text: The Sapindaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1858 accepted species. Examples include horse chestnut, maples, ackee and lychee.


title: Sapindaceae

text: The Sapindaceae occur in temperate to tropical regions, many in laurel forest habitat, throughout the world. Many are laticiferous, i.e. they contain latex, a milky sap, and many contain mildly toxic saponins with soap-like qualities in either the foliage and/or the seeds, or roots. The largest genera are "Serjania", "Paullinia", "Allophylus", and "Acer".


title: Sapindaceae

text: Plants of this family have a variety of habits, from trees to herbaceous plants to lianas. The leaves of the tropical genera are usually spirally alternate, while those of the temperate maples ("Acer), Aesculus", and a few other genera are opposite. They are most often pinnately compound, but are palmately compound in "Aesculus", and simply palmate in "Acer". The petiole has a swollen base and lacks stipules. Some genera and species have laurel forest foliage due to convergent evolution.


title: Sapindaceae

text: The flowers are small and unisexual, or functionally unisexual, though plants may be either dioecious or monoecious. They are usually found in cymes grouped in panicles. They most often have four or five petals and sepals (petals are absent in "Dodonaea"). The stamens range from four to 10, usually on a nectar disc between the petals and stamens, their filaments are often hairy. The most frequent number is eight, in two rings of four. The gynoecium contains two or three carpels, sometimes up to six. The usually single style has a lobed stigma. Most often they are pollinated by birds or insects, with a few species pollinated by wind.


title: Sapindaceae

text: Ripe fruits may be fleshy or dry. They may be nuts, berries, drupes, schizocarps, capsules ("Bridgesia"), or samaras ("Acer"). The embryos are bent or coiled, without endosperm in the seed, and frequently with an aril.


title: Sapindaceae

text: The Sapindaceae are related to the Rutaceae, and both are usually placed in an order Sapindales or Rutales, depending on whether they are kept separate and which name is used for the order. The most basal member appears to be "Xanthoceras". Some authors formerly maintained some or all of Hippocastanaceae and Aceraceae, however this resulted in paraphyly. The former Ptaeroxylaceae, now placed in Rutaceae, were sometimes placed in Sapindaceae. The family is divided into four subfamilies, Dodonaeoideae (about 38 genera), Sapindoideae (about 114 genera), Hippocastanoideae (5 genera) and Xanthoceroideae (1 genus). The largest genera are "Serjania" (about 220 species), "Paullinia" (about 180 species), and "Allophylus" (about 200 species) in the tropical Sapindoideae and "Acer" (about 110 species) in the temperate Hippocastanoideae.


title: Sapindaceae

text: The largely temperate genera formerly separated in the families Aceraceae ("Acer", "Dipteronia") and Hippocastanaceae ("Aesculus", "Billia", "Handeliodendron") were included within a more broadly circumscribed Sapindaceae by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. Recent research has confirmed the inclusion of these genera in the Sapindaceae.


title: Sapindaceae

text: The Sapindaceae include many species of economically valuable tropical fruit, including the lychee, longan, pitomba, guinip/mamoncillo, korlan, rambutan, pulasan, and ackee. Other products include guaraná, soapberries, and maple syrup.


title: Sapindaceae

text: Some species of maple and buckeye are valued for their wood, while several other genera, such as "Koelreuteria", "Cardiospermum", and "Ungnadia", are popular ornamentals. "Schleichera trijuga" is the source of Indian macassar oil. Saponins extracted from the drupe of "Sapindus" species are effective surfactants and are used commercially in cosmetics and detergents.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: Óscar Andres Rivas Torres (born 6 June 1987) is a Colombian professional boxer who has held the WBC bridgerweight title since 2021. He also challenged for the vacant WBC interim heavyweight title in 2019, and previously held the IBF International, WBC-NABF and WBO-NABO heavyweight titles. As an amateur he won a silver medal at the 2007 Pan American Games.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: In Cartagena at the 2006 Caribbean Games, the 212 lbs Rivas lost in the first round to Cuban Olympic Bronze medalist Michel López Núñez 4:6


title: Óscar Rivas

text: 4 February 2007 at a PanAm qualifier Rivas scored his first big win by beating two-time American champ Mike Wilson 24:19 but lost to Cuban Robert Alfonso 12:21.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: In the Pan-American main event in Rio he beat Gerardo Bisbal 22:8, Didier Bence by walkover (injured) and reached the final but lost to Alfonso once again, this time 4:8.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: In Chicago, at the 2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships he stopped Dominican Lequan Carlisle but lost to eventual silver medalist Vyacheslav Glazkov 7:23.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: At the first Olympic qualifier in March 2008, he lost to American Michael Hunter Jr.; however, in April 2008 he qualified for the 2008 Olympics through the second American qualifier with a 16:4 over Mexican Andy Ruiz Jr. and a 6:5 victory over Brazilian Gleison Abreu.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: At the Olympics he upset European champion Kubrat Pulev of Bulgaria 11:5, but lost to Italian world champion and eventual Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle 5:9.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: Rivas turned pro in 2009 for Yvon Michel in Canada. After compiling a perfect record of 20-0, he captured the vacant NABF heavyweight title in his 21st fight after beating former world title challenger Carl Davis Drumond by first-round knockout on 28 September 2017, with the stoppage coming just 68 seconds into the fight.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: After four more consecutive wins, Rivas defeated former WBA interim heavyweight champion Bryant Jennings via twelfth-round technical knockout in his 26th fight on 18 January 2019 to win the IBF International and WBO-NABO heavyweight titles. Jennings was a highly ranked heavyweight at the time, ranked at #2 by the WBO, #7 by the WBA, #8 by the IBF and #14 by the WBC.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: With an undefeated record of 26-0, Rivas challenged Dillian Whyte for the vacant WBC interim heavyweight title. Whyte was ranked #1 by the WBC and #3 by the WBA and WBO at heavyweight. Rivas knocked Whyte down in the ninth round with a right uppercut, but he ultimately lost the fight by unanimous decision with scores of 116–112, 115–111, 115–111.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: Rivas was scheduled to meet Bryant Jennings on 18 June 2021 in Canada in a rematch of their 2019 fight for the inaugural WBC bridgerweight title, but the fight was postponed and ultimately cancelled.


title: Óscar Rivas

text: On 22 October 2021, Rivas outpointed undefeated Ryan Rozicki to a unanimous decision with scores of 116–111 and 115–112 twice to become the inaugural WBC bridgerweight champion.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Michaëlle Jean (; born September 6, 1957) is a Canadian stateswoman and former journalist who served from 2005 to 2010 as governor general of Canada, the 27th since Canadian Confederation. She is the first Haitian Canadian and black person to hold this office.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Jean was the third secretary-general of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie from 2015 until 2019. She was the first woman to hold the position and held the position until the end of 2018.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Jean was a refugee from Haiti—coming to Canada in 1968—and was raised in the town of Thetford Mines, Quebec. After receiving a number of university degrees, Jean worked as a journalist and broadcaster for Radio-Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), as well as also undertaking charity work, mostly in the field of assisting victims of domestic violence. In 2005, she was appointed governor general by Queen Elizabeth II, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Paul Martin, to replace Adrienne Clarkson as vicereine and she occupied the post until succeeded by David Johnston in 2010. Early in her tenure, comments of hers recorded in some of the film works by her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, were construed as supporting Quebec sovereignty and her holding of dual citizenship caused doubt about her loyalties. But Jean denied separatist leanings, renounced her citizenship of France (acquired through her marriage), and eventually became a respected vicereine noted for her attention to the Canadian Forces, Aboriginal Canadians, and the arts, especially youth involvement in them. In 2010, Jean was appointed to a four-year term as the Special Envoy for Haiti for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Michaëlle Jean was sworn in as a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on September 26, 2012.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Jean's family hails from Haiti; she was born in Port-au-Prince, baptized at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, and spent winters in that city and summers and weekends in Jacmel, her mother's hometown. Though her father worked as principal and teacher for a Protestant independent school in Port-au-Prince, Jean was educated at home, as her parents did not want her swearing allegiance to the then Haitian president, François Duvalier, as all Haitian schoolchildren were required to do.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: With her family, Jean fled Haiti to escape Duvalier's regime, under which Jean's father was arrested and tortured in 1965. Jean's father left for Canada in 1967 while she arrived with her mother and sister the following year; the family settled together at Thetford Mines, Quebec. Jean's father, however, became increasingly distant and violent, and her parents' marriage eventually fell apart; she, with her mother and sister, then moved to a basement apartment in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood of Montreal.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Jean received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature from the University of Montreal, and, from 1984 to 1986, taught Italian Studies there, while completing her Master of Arts degree in comparative literature. She then went on with language and literature studies at the University of Florence, the University of Perugia, and the Catholic University of Milan. Besides French and English, Jean is fluent in Spanish, Italian, and Haitian Creole, and can read Portuguese.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Concurrent with her studies between 1979 and 1987, Jean coordinated a study on spousal abuse and worked at a women's shelter, which paved the way for her establishment of a network of shelters for women and children across Canada. She also involved herself in organizations dedicated to assisting immigrants to Canada obtain the entry they desired, and later worked for Employment and Immigration Canada and at the "Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec", where Jean began writing about the experiences of immigrant women. She married French-born, Canadian filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond, and the couple adopted as their daughter Marie-Éden, an orphaned child from Jacmel. Through her marriage to Lafond, Jean has two stepdaughters.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Jean became a reporter, filmmaker, and broadcaster for Radio-Canada in 1988, hosting news and affairs programmes such as "Actuel", "Montréal ce soir", "Virages", and "Le Point"; she was the first person of Caribbean descent to be seen on French television news in Canada. She then moved in 1995 to "Réseau de l'information" (RDI), Radio-Canada's all-news channel, in order to anchor a number of programmes, "Le Monde ce soir", "l'Édition québécoise", "Horizons francophones", "Les Grands reportages", "Le Journal RDI", and "RDI à l'écoute", for example. Four years later, she was asked by CBC's English language all-news channel, CBC Newsworld, to host "The Passionate Eye" and "Rough Cuts", which both broadcast the best in Canadian and foreign documentary films. By 2004, Jean was hosting her own show, "Michaëlle", while continuing to anchor RDI's "Grands reportages", as well as acting occasionally as anchor of "Le Téléjournal".


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Over the same period, Jean made several films with her husband, including the award-winning "Haïti dans tous nos rêves" ("Haiti in All Our Dreams"), in which she meets her uncle, the poet and essayist René Depestre, who fled from the Duvalier dictatorship into exile in France and wrote about his dreams for Haiti, and tells him Haiti awaits his return. She similarly produced and hosted news and documentary programming for television on both the English and French services of the CBC.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Jean was Canada's first governor general of Caribbean origin; the third woman (after Jeanne Sauvé and Adrienne Clarkson); the fourth youngest (after the Marquess of Lorne, who was 33 years old in 1878; the Marquess of Lansdowne, who was 38 years old in 1883; and Edward Schreyer, who was 43 years old in 1979); the fourth former journalist (after Sauvé, Roméo LeBlanc and Clarkson); and the second after Clarkson to not only have neither a political nor military background, but also to be a visible minority, to break the tradition of Canadian-born governors general, and to be in an interracial marriage. Jean was also the first representative of Queen Elizabeth II to have been born during the latter's reign, and her appointment saw the first child living in Rideau Hall, the official residence, since Schreyer and his young family lived there in the early 1980s.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: On August 4, 2005, it was announced from the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada that Queen Elizabeth II had approved Prime Minister Paul Martin's choice of Jean to succeed Adrienne Clarkson as the Queen's representative. At the time, Martin said of Jean that she "is a woman of talent and achievement. Her personal story is nothing short of extraordinary. And extraordinary is precisely what we seek in a governor generalship—who after all must represent all of Canada to all Canadians and to the rest of the world as well." Almost immediately, there was speculation that Martin had been influenced by the political climate in Ottawa at the time, leading the Prime Minister to deny that rejuvenated popularity for his party in Quebec was a motivating factor in his decision.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: From Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, the upcoming appointment was met with mostly favourable comments, Jean's predecessor applauded the choice, saying that Jean was "an exciting and imaginative choice for Governor General." In her first remarks after this announcement, Jean herself encouraged Canadians to involve themselves in their communities, and stated that she wished to reach out to all Canadians, regardless of their background, and made it a goal to focus especially on Canadian youth and the disadvantaged.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: However, by August 11, 2005, reports emerged of a forthcoming piece by René Boulanger for the Quebec sovereigntist publication "Le Québécois" that would reveal Jean and her husband's support for Quebec independence, citing Lafond's associations with former members of the terrorist organization, the "Front de libération du Québec" (FLQ), specifically Jacques Rose. Though Boulanger admitted that he was motivated to incite a rejection of Jean by Anglophone Canadians, Gilles Rhéaume, former president of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, called on the Governor General-Designate to reveal how she voted in Quebec's 1995 referendum on independence, and Members of Parliament, as well as some provincial premiers, demanded that Jean and her husband clarify where their sympathies lay. Then, four days after the Prime Minister publicly explained that Jean and her spouse had both undergone thorough background checks by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, there came to light, on August 17, the existence of a documentary in which Jean had been filmed with several hard-line Quebec separatists, all toasting "to independence" after Jean stated: "Independence can't be given, it must be taken."


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: That same day, Jean responded with a public statement, saying "I wish to tell you unequivocally that both my husband and I are proud to be Canadian and that we have the greatest respect for the institutions of our country. We are fully committed to Canada. I would not have accepted this position otherwise... [We] have never belonged to a political party or the separatist movement," and went on to say that in the documented footage she had been speaking about Haiti, and not Quebec. Martin added on his earlier comments: "There is no doubt in my mind that her devotion to Canada is longstanding and resolute," though some critics continued to argue that Jean's response had been too vague. By late August, polls showed that there had been a 20% drop in support for the recommendation of Jean as the next governor general, in response to which the Haitian community voiced their support for Jean, even holding special church services in her honour. Jean reaffirmed in late 2010 that the rumours of her separatist sympathies were untrue and revealed that she had been upset by those journalists who she saw as capitalizing on sensationalism, rather than seeking accuracy through investigation, but she had been advised repeatedly not to respond.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: The Queen held audience with Jean and her family on September 6, 2005, at Balmoral Castle. Though this type of meeting with a governor general-designate was standard, Jean's was unique in that the presence of her young daughter marked the first time in Elizabeth's reign that her designated viceroy-to-be had brought a child to an audience, which caused some protocol issues. The weekend was informal; for one dinner, coincidentally on the eve of Jean's birthday, the Queen drove Jean and her family to a cottage on the Balmoral estate, where they were joined by Prince Philip and Prince Edward, who, along with the Queen, performed the cooking and washing up. Of it, Jean said "[i]t was probably the best birthday of my life." The commission appointing Jean was issued on September 10 under the royal sign-manual and Great Seal of Canada.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Upon her return to Canada, Jean yet again became a target when the subject of her dual citizenship was raised, in particular the French variety she had obtained through her marriage to the French-born Lafond. A section of the French civil code forbade French citizens from holding government or military positions in other countries, yet Jean, as governor general, would hold a governmental position as the representative of Canada's head of state, and, as such, would have a military role carrying out the duties of Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces, as constitutionally vested in the monarch. The French embassy in Ottawa stated that there was "no question" that the law would not be enforced in Jean's case, but, on September 25, two days before her swearing-in, Jean made it public that she had renounced her French citizenship "[in] light of the responsibilities related to the function of Governor General of Canada and Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces" and "France acceded to my request by decree on September 23, 2005."


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: At her investiture ceremony in the Senate chamber on September 27, 2005, Jean declared in a speech described as "moving" that "the time of the Two Solitudes that for too long described the character of this country is past," and called for the protection of the environment, the shielding of culture against globalization, and an end to the marginalization of young people. According to one media account, "the pomp and circumstance of Canada's most significant state function were blended with humour, passion and even tears." while "The Globe and Mail" columnist John Ibbitson reflected the general captivation with the new governor general in the following way:


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Echoing her inaugural speech, the motto on the personal coat of arms created for Jean upon taking office as governor general was "BRISER LES SOLITUDES", which translates into "breaking down solitudes". One of her first acts as vicereine was then to launch an online chat with Canadians, as part of the larger project of creating within the Governor General's domain name a website dubbed "Citizen Voices: Breaking Down Solitudes", where users could engage each other in discussion forums and prominent individuals could post blog entries. The focus extended beyond simply the relationship between the traditional Two Solitudes of Francophones and Anglophones in Canada to include relations between peoples of all racial, linguistic, cultural, and gender groups.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Over the first two years of her mandate, Jean embarked on the traditional viceregal tours of Canada's provinces and territories. In British Columbia, Jean presented the Grey Cup at the 93rd Canadian Football League championship game; in Iqaluit, Nunavut, she opened the Toonik Tyme Festival, where she donated eighty books in Inuktitut, French, and English to the Centennial Library in commemoration of Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday; and, on May 4, 2006, she became the first governor general to address the Alberta legislature. During these tours, Jean also focused strongly on the plight of female victims of violence, meeting with representatives of women's organisations, such as when, in 2007, she participated in a historic private discussion with aboriginal women chiefs and elders at Saskatchewan's Government House. In contrast to her low approval ratings prior to her appointment, crowds were large and welcoming wherever Jean went. Only as her convoy arrived at the National War Memorial for her first Remembrance Day ceremony, on November 11, 2005, were Jean and Lafond greeted with disapproval from an audience, when veterans turned their backs on the Governor General and her consort to show contempt for two people the veterans felt had worked to break up the country they had fought to defend.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: The viceregal family undertook their first international trip in February 2006, journeying to Italy to attend the closing ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics, meet Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in Torino, and Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Three months later, Jean attended the investiture of René Préval as President of Haiti, Jean's first visit to her homeland in her capacity as the Queen's representative, and where she was greeted with enthusiasm in Jacmel. At the end of the year, between November 18 and December 11, 2006, Jean then embarked on a trip consisting of state visits to five African countries—Algeria, Mali, Ghana, South Africa, and Morocco—wherein the Governor General encouraged women's rights. She also, in a precedent-breaking move, personally explained on her Citizen Voices website the role of the governor general in undertaking such trips and the reason behind these particular tours throughout Africa, after which she continued to post her observations and feelings on her experiences on the continent. In Mali, where she arrived on November 23, 2006, Jean was greeted by tens of thousands of people lining the highway as her motorcade passed and, in the town of Benieli, she was presented with a goat, replete with a Canadian flag on its collar. Male vendors also gave Canadian journalists gifts to be passed on to Jean, provided that she also be given their telephone numbers. Further, during the South African leg of the tour, then President Thabo Mbeki praised the Queen-in-Council's decision to appoint Jean as governor general, citing it as an example to European countries of how African immigrants could be treated.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Jean embraced her role as acting commander-in-chief, one of her first international duties being a trip, from October 29–30, 2005, to France for the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, just after which she returned to Canada for the arrival at Trenton, Ontario, of the bodies of six Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Jean made on March 8, 2007, her first visit to Canadian troops taking part in the offensive in Afghanistan; she had earlier expressed her desire to go, but Harper advised against such a trip on the grounds of security concerns, the relevance of which were demonstrated when two attacks were made against Canadian soldiers on the same day the Governor General landed in Kabul. Jean had the arrival timed specifically for International Women's Day, stating: "the women of Afghanistan may face the most unbearable conditions, but they never stop fighting for survival. Of course, we, the rest of the women around the world, took too long to hear the cries of our Afghan sisters, but I am here to tell them that they are no longer alone. And neither are the people of Afghanistan." Part of the Governor General's itinerary included meeting with Afghan women, Canadian soldiers, Royal Canadian Mounted Police teams, humanitarian workers, and diplomats.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: There was, by early 2007, some perception that Jean's schedule was seemingly thinner than that of her predecessors; an initial explanation of fatigue was further detailed by the Secretary to the Governor General as thyroid problems, and that the vicereine's doctor had advised rest after Jean's previously hectic diary. At the same time, some in the Ottawa Press Gallery opined that Jean had on a few occasions in the previous year overstepped the boundaries of an office that was expected to remain non-partisan; journalist Chantal Hébert said that the Governor General had "been wading uncommonly deep in political territory over the past few months", citing Jean's criticism of Quebec sovereigntists and her expressed support for the mission of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Further, Michael Valpy penned a piece in "The Globe and Mail" critiquing Jean for inviting who Valpy described as "potentially politically charged individuals" to post on her Citizen Voices website. Jean had also made, at the roast-like annual National Press Gallery dinner, satirical remarks about Parti Québécois leadership candidate André Boisclair's admitted cocaine use and, in a September 18, 2006 interview regarding a proposed subsidy for Canadians to travel domestically, she commented that Quebecers "are sometimes very disconnected from the rest of Canada" and that their isolation affected Canada's unity. Jean later clarified her opinion by adding that Canadians from all provinces were disconnected from other parts of the country, and a September 26 editorial in the "Montreal Gazette" supported Jean's statements on the divisions between Canada's peoples, saying that supporting national unity was a part of a governor general's mandate; but, the ire of Quebec separatist politicians was not assuaged. Further, the content of a speech by Jean to mark the 25th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was regarded as thinly veiled criticism of her Cabinet's decision to end the Court Challenges Program and, into 2007, it was reported that Jean's staff at Rideau Hall had been systematically removing royal portraits from the walls of the residence. All of this prompted Valpy to reveal that, early in his time as prime minister, Stephen Harper was told by Alex Himelfarb, then the Clerk of the Privy Council: "Prime Minister, your biggest problem is in Rideau Hall," meaning Jean and her potential to be a "loose cannon".


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: Jean carried out the regular ceremonial duties of state, such as dedicating the new Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum on June 1, 2007 (following in the footsteps of her predecessor, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, the governor general who opened the first expansion of the museum in 1914), and undertaking a state visit to Brazil, from July 6–15, 2007.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: In late 2008, the Governor General had to return to Canada in the midst of a state visit in Europe to contend with a parliamentary dispute, as a coalition of three opposition parties in parliament threatened to rescind their confidence in the Cabinet under the leadership of Stephen Harper and subsequently form the government. After two and half hours of deliberation, Jean chose to follow the constitutional precedent of accepting her prime minister's advice, which was to prorogue parliament until late January 2009. At the end of Jean's viceregal tenure, Peter H. Russell, one of the constitutional experts from whom Jean sought advice, disclosed that the Governor General granted the prorogation on two conditions: parliament would reconvene soon and, when it did, the Cabinet would produce a passable budget. This, Russell said, set a precedent that would prevent future prime ministers from advising the prorogation of parliament "for any length of time for any reason." Jean thus prevented the approaching non-confidence vote, as well as a resulting situation wherein she would be required to choose between asking the coalition to form a government or dissolving parliament and dropping the writs, after having a federal election only six weeks earlier. Along with the subsequent prorogation of parliament in December 2009 and the earlier calling of an election in October 2008, Jean was for almost two years part of a controversy in the Canadian media that focused on the constitutional relationships between the governor general and the prime minister or the leaders of the parties in opposition.


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: During a tour of Nunavut in early 2009, the Governor General again garnered headlines when she participated in a traditional Inuit seal feast at a community festival, gutting a seal that had been recently killed by hunters and consuming a piece of the raw heart. While both her immediate predecessor and Prince Charles had previously partaken in raw seal meat in the Canadian Arctic, Jean's simple act drew attention, both positive and negative, because of its coincidence with the European Parliament's recent ban on the import of Canadian seal products. Dining on seal was a traditional aspect of the annual event and it was proper etiquette for the Governor General, as a guest, to take part. When asked by reporters what her motivations were, Jean replied: "Take from that what you will."


title: Michaëlle Jean

text: A series of state visits followed in 2009, to Norway, Croatia, Greece, and Mexico, as well as another visit to Canadian troops in Afghanistan from September 8–9. In between these diplomatic missions, Jean presided on June 27 over the ceremonies in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for the consecration and presentation of the new Queen's Colour to the Canadian navy; she wore at that time the Commander-in-Chief's naval uniform, marking the revival of a practice that had ceased following the tenure of Ray Hnatyshyn. She, along with Prince Charles, did the same at the 2009 Remembrance Day events in Ottawa, both at that time sporting Canadian army dress uniform. Then, in June 2010, Jean conducted a fleet review in Esquimalt Harbour, to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Canadian Navy.