title: Dying-and-rising deity

text: In the 2010s, Paola Corrente conducted an extensive survey of the status of the dying and rising god category. While she agrees that much of Frazer's specific evidence was faulty, she argues that the category as a whole is valid, though she suggests modifications to the specific criteria. Corrente specifically focuses her attention on several Near Eastern and Mesopotamian gods as examples which she argues have been largely ignored, both by Frazer (who would not have had access to most relevant texts) and his more recent critics. These examples include the goddess Inanna in Sumerian texts and Ba'al in Ugaritic texts, whose myths, Corrente argues, offer concrete examples of death and resurrection. Corrente also utilizes the example of Dionysus, whose connection to the category is more complicated, but have still been largely ignored or mischaracterized by other scholars including Frazer himself in her view.


title: Magic Castle

text: The Magic Castle is a clubhouse for magicians and magic enthusiasts, as well as the clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts. It is in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California and it bills itself as "the most unusual private club in the world".


title: Magic Castle

text: Only members and their guests are allowed entrance, though courtesy invitations can be obtained. During a typical evening there are numerous magic shows and historic displays, as well as a full-service dining room and numerous bars. The atmosphere is reminiscent of classic night club days, and a strict dress code is enforced. Once a private residence, the Castle was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1989.


title: Magic Castle

text: Many celebrities have performed at the Magic Castle, including Orson Welles, Johnny Carson, Steve Martin, and Neil Patrick Harris. One of the Castle's most esteemed performers was the late Dai Vernon, an expert in sleight of hand.


title: Magic Castle

text: The Magic Castle is a performance venue, restaurant and private club. A typical evening features magic and variety arts performances, as well as a full-service dining room and several bars in a country club atmosphere.


title: Magic Castle

text: The lobby of the Castle has no visible doors to the interior, and visitors must say a secret phrase to a sculpture of an owl to gain access, exposing the entrance to the club. Magicians perform in several theaters, including the intimate Close-up Gallery, a larger Parlour of Prestidigitation, and the large stage in the Palace of Mystery. Nightly, five different magic performances are showcased in these three theaters, and on weekends additional performances are added in the Peller theatre as well as Hat and Hare Pub and W.C. Fields Bar. Informal performance areas near the five bars give magician members the space for impromptu magic for guests and other patrons. In the music room, a piano is played by invisible "Irma", the Castle's "resident ghost", who takes musical requests.


title: Magic Castle

text: In addition, there are regular Houdini séances at the castle in the Houdini Séance room, conducted by Leo Kostka, Rob Zabrecky, or Misty Lee. The club is said to be haunted by the ghost of Houdini.


title: Magic Castle

text: Those under 21 years of age are not permitted during evening performances. However, on Saturdays and Sundays, the Castle hosts an "all-ages" brunch and performances which are open to members and their guests, including those under the age of 21. During brunch, the Castle's "Junior Members" (ranging in age from 13 to 20 years old) perform in the Close-up Gallery.


title: Magic Castle

text: The Magic Castle is also known for its Junior Program (the Magic Castle Junior Group). The Junior Group comprises highly skilled young magicians, many of whom have gone on to professional careers in magic. One week a year, billed as "Future Stars Week", performers from the Junior Group are showcased in evening performances in the Castle's showrooms.


title: Magic Castle

text: The Magic Castle is a châteauesque residence built in 1909 by real estate investor, lawyer, banker, newspaper editor, and philanthropist, Rollin B. Lane. The house was designed by architects Lyman Farwell and Oliver Dennis and constructed as a near duplicate of the 1897 Kimberly Crest House and Gardens in Redlands, California, that the architects had designed over a decade earlier. Ownership of the building remained in the Lane family until 1955 when it was sold to Thomas O. Glover. In September 1961, the building was leased to Milt Larsen, Bill Larsen, and Irene Larsen, who began converting it to its present state. The Magic Castle opened for business on January 2, 1963. Over the years several additions have been made to the original structure, allowing for the inclusion of several theaters, bars, a library and other meeting spaces. The Magic Castle was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1989.


title: Magic Castle

text: One of the Castle's performers was the Dai Vernon, an expert in sleight of hand. Vernon would sit in the bar area entertaining and teaching. Vernon lived at the Castle for many years, up until his death in 1992.


title: Magic Castle

text: On October 31, 2011, the Magic Castle was damaged in fire that had started in the attic. Interior refurbishing was necessary as a result of water damage and the Magic Castle reopened in February 2012.


title: Magic Castle

text: In April 2022 the Magic Castle was purchased by Randy Pitchford, the CEO of The Gearbox Entertainment Company and a member of the AMA. Under his ownership, it will remain a magic performance venue and the Academy's clubhouse.


title: Magic Castle

text: The Academy of Magical Arts is a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation organized and devoted to the promotion and development of the art of magic.


title: Magic Castle

text: The Academy of Magical Arts was started in 1952 by William Larsen, Sr. as a loose association of magicians, although it was not officially incorporated and its organization formalized until 1962, when Larsen's sons, William Larsen, Jr. and Milt Larsen, built the Academy into an international organization. The Academy's headquarters has been the Magic Castle since 1963.


title: Magic Castle

text: The Academy of Magical Arts was created by William Larsen and announced in the April 1952 issue of his independent magazine of magic, "Genii"; of which all the subscribers were automatically accorded membership. "Academy Awards" were presented by Larsen over the next several months for outstanding contributions in various areas of the magic arts. William Larsen, Sr. died at the age of 48 in July 1953. His wife and his eldest son, Bill Jr. continued the publication of the magazine, but the "Academy" lacked any formal structure, and the organization became dormant. In 1962, William Larsen's younger son, Milt, undertook the job of leasing and restoring an ornately styled, 3-story 1909 house in Hollywood, California and turning it into a meeting place for magicians which he called the "Magic Castle". As part of their plan to revive the Academy and locate it in the "Magic Castle", William Larsen, Jr. filed articles of incorporation and created a nonprofit corporation, in 1962. The Magic Castle opened its doors on January 2, 1963 as the home of the Academy of Magical Arts, Inc. From an initial membership of 50, the Academy has grown to a membership of over 5,000 in 2019.


title: Magic Castle

text: There are about 2,500 magician members in the academy today. To become a regular member, one must first be actively practicing or involved with magic as a career or hobby and audition before the academy's membership reviewing committee.


title: Magic Castle

text: Associate members are people who love magic and the academy. Most of the members are in the entertainment business, law, finance, and medical fields. Some of these associate members are friends of magician members who enjoy the atmosphere of the academy. Associate member applications must be approved by the board of directors.


title: Magic Castle

text: Honorary and VIP memberships are presented by the board of directors to magicians, celebrities and individual members of the academy who have contributed to the advancement of the art of magic.


title: Magic Castle

text: It is also possible to become a junior magician if you are between the age of 13 and 20. Membership in the Junior Group is open to anyone seriously interested in magic who is from 13 to 19 years of age. One may apply if 20 years old, but must be able to be a member in the group for one full year. These junior magicians are only allowed limited use of the facilities.


title: Magic Castle

text: The Academy of Magic offers classes that are available to the public. The Basic Magic class is designed to provide the skills and knowledge necessary to perform basic magic. The classes combines instructor presentation, step-by-step explanation, hands-on instruction, group practice sessions and individual performance.


title: Magic Castle

text: Performing awards are given in different categories at the annual "Academy of the Magical Arts Awards" event. Nominees for the performing awards are chosen from among that year's performers at The Magic Castle.


title: Magic Castle

text: Other awards include various "Fellowship", "Merit", and "Achievement" awards which go to individuals who, in the view of the Academy, have made significant contributions to the field of magic.


title: Magic Castle

text: Additionally, there are some other awards that have been given once or very infrequently. These include the "Junior Award of Merit" and "Honorary Life Membership".


title: Fred McGriff

text: Frederick Stanley McGriff (born October 31, 1963) is an American former first baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for six teams from 1986 through 2004. He was one of the most consistently productive powers hitters of the 1990s, posting over 80 runs batted in (RBI) every year from 1988 through 2002, and became the first player since the dead-ball era to lead both leagues in home runs — the American League (AL) in 1989 and the National League (NL) in 1992. A five-time All-Star, he was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1994 contest after his pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the ninth inning tied the score at 7–7, with the NL winning in 10 innings. McGriff finished in the top ten in voting for his league's Most Valuable Player Award every year from 1989 through 1994, during which time he led the major leagues in home runs.


title: Fred McGriff

text: After spending the first third of his career with the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres, McGriff became a major component in the Atlanta Braves' long run of division champions, posting over 90 RBI for five straight years after joining the club in a midseason 1993 trade, and helped lead the team to the 1995 World Series title. In 50 career postseason games, McGriff batted .303 with 10 home runs and 37 RBI. He then joined his hometown Tampa Bay Devil Rays when that club was established in 1998, and was the team's main power hitter for its first four seasons, establishing various franchise records which lasted several years before being broken. He hit 20 or more home runs fifteen times, becoming the first player to hit 30 home runs with five different teams, drove in 100 runs eight times, and batted .300 four times.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff's 493 career home runs were tied for tenth in major league history among left-handed hitters when he retired, and put him only seven away from joining the 500 home run club; his 462 home runs as a first baseman ranked fourth. He also ended his career with 1,550 RBI, and a .509 slugging percentage. One of the most durable first basemen in history, he ranked third in career games at first base (2,239), ninth in assists (1,447) and third in double plays (1,775). McGriff also became known for his nickname, "Crime Dog", created by sports broadcaster Chris Berman; the name is a play on McGruff, a cartoon dog created for American police to raise children's awareness on crime prevention. McGriff currently works in the Braves' front office as Special Assistant to Baseball Operations. He will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2023.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff was born in Tampa, Florida. His mother, Eliza, was a schoolteacher and his father, Earl, was an electronics repairman. As a child, he hung out at Al Lopez Field during Cincinnati Reds spring training and worked as a vendor at Tampa Stadium.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff went out for the baseball team at Jefferson High School as a sophomore but was cut. He made the team the following year after undergoing a growth spurt. He was a high school teammate of Al Pardo. He first attracted the attention of professional ball clubs after hitting a long home run off of Hillsborough High School's Dwight Gooden with scouts in attendance to watch Gooden pitch. McGriff accepted a scholarship offer to play college baseball for the Georgia Bulldogs.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff signed with the New York Yankees after being selected in the 9th round of the 1981 amateur draft. He received a $20,000 signing bonus. In 1982, the Yankees dealt McGriff, Dave Collins and Mike Morgan to the Toronto Blue Jays for Dale Murray and Tom Dodd. The trade is now considered one of the most one-sided deals in baseball history; in 2006, Rob Neyer wrote that the trade looked particularly lopsided because it was one of the few instances that a player of McGriff's stature was traded before getting to the majors.


title: Fred McGriff

text: At the time, the trade appeared to make some sense from the Yankees' perspective, since McGriff was blocked from first base by Don Mattingly. Nonetheless, the Yankees didn't get nearly enough in return. Murray won only three games in three years with the Yankees, and was out of baseball by 1986. Dodd was released at the end of the season, and apart from a month with the Baltimore Orioles in 1986 spent the remainder of his career in the minors. Before McGriff became a regular major leaguer, baseball great Ted Williams took note of his power at a batting practice session during spring training. Williams was drawn to McGriff when he heard the sound of the ball leaving McGriff's bat.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff played two innings at first base on May 17, 1986, and the next day started his first career game as the designated hitter. His first at-bat was in the bottom of the second inning against Don Schulze, during which he hit a line drive to left field for his first career hit. McGriff played in only one more MLB game that season.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff reached the majors full-time in 1987, and hit 34 home runs the next year, his first of seven consecutive seasons with over 30 homers. He emerged as the top power hitter in the American League in 1989, leading the league with 36 home runs, including the first home run hit at the SkyDome, helping the Blue Jays win the AL East division title. His power numbers remained steady in 1990, as McGriff batted .300 and established himself as a consistent producer.


title: Fred McGriff

text: On December 5, 1990, the Blue Jays traded McGriff and Tony Fernández to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter.


title: Fred McGriff

text: His numbers remained consistent in the National League, where he hit .278/.396/.474 for San Diego in 1991. He made his first All-Star appearance the following year and led the NL in home runs in 1992, three years after he had accomplished the same feat in the AL.


title: Fred McGriff

text: On July 18, 1993, the Padres, out of contention and seeking to unload their high-priced veterans, dealt McGriff to the Atlanta Braves for prospect Vince Moore, Donnie Elliott and Melvin Nieves. McGriff hit a home run in his first game with the Braves, who acquired him to replace the struggling Sid Bream at first and to provide an offensive spark, and was a key player in the Braves' 51–19 finish to overtake the San Francisco Giants and claim first place in the National League West for a third consecutive season. He finished with a career high 37 homers and fourth place in the NL MVP voting.


title: Fred McGriff

text: In the strike-shortened 1994 season, McGriff was batting .318 and had 34 home runs when play ended in August 1994. He won the All-Star Game MVP Award that year after hitting the game-tying home run for the National League, after the NL trailed, 7–5, in the bottom of the ninth inning. McGriff was runner-up to Ken Griffey Jr. in the 1994 Home Run Derby.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff remained with the Braves in 1995 and continued to be a successful cleanup hitter. He hit two home runs in the 1995 World Series en route to his only World Series championship ring.


title: Fred McGriff

text: A free agent after the 1995 season, McGriff signed a four-year contract worth $20 million with the Braves. McGriff hit .295/.365/.494 with a career-best 107 RBIs on his way to another World Series appearance in 1996. McGriff hit 22 home runs in the 1997 season. He was called out on strikes by umpire Eric Gregg on a pitch thrown by Liván Hernández during the 1997 NLCS, which was the last significant event for McGriff as a member of the Braves. The team allowed him to be picked up by the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays after the season.


title: Fred McGriff

text: The Braves did not protect McGriff in the 1997 expansion draft after the season, and he was not selected. The Braves traded McGriff to the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays for a player to be named later after the draft.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff batted .278 with nineteen home runs in his first season with the Devil Rays. His numbers experienced a minor renaissance in 1999 when he hit .310 with 32 home runs the following season.


title: Fred McGriff

text: After another solid season in 2000, McGriff got off to a good start in 2001 and was heavily pursued by the contending Chicago Cubs around the trade deadline. He waived his no-trade clause to allow himself to be dealt to Chicago on July 27, 2001, for Manny Aybar and a player to be named later. He hit .282 with twelve homers in 49 games with the Cubs, but the team did not reach the postseason.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff had thirty home runs during a strong 2002 campaign, which earned him a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2003 season. Twenty-two homers shy of 500 for his career, the forty-year-old McGriff only hit thirteen with a .249 batting average and spent a significant amount of time on the disabled list.


title: Fred McGriff

text: During spring training in 2004, the Devil Rays re-signed McGriff. He ended up with a .181 average and had hit just two home runs in his sporadic play from the end of May until mid-July. The Devil Rays released McGriff on July 28, 2004, seven home runs shy of 500.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff officially declared his retirement during spring training of 2005 when he received no calls from any teams requesting his services.


title: Fred McGriff

text: In January 2007, McGriff joined the Devil Rays as a special adviser. He stayed with the Rays until 2010. McGriff joined the Braves as a special assistant to the baseball operations department in 2015, working with their minor league players.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff ended his career with ten seasons with at least thirty home runs. He and Gary Sheffield are the only players ever to hit at least thirty home runs in one season for five different teams, with McGriff accomplishing the feat with Toronto three times, San Diego twice, and Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and the Chicago Cubs once each. He led MLB in total home runs hit from 1989 to 1994, and hit the third-most home runs in the decade from 1988 to 1997 (after Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire). During the latter period, he was eighth in the majors in the fWAR statistic (Wins Above Replacement as calculated by FanGraphs), behind six Hall of Famers and Bonds.


title: Fred McGriff

text: As of 2019, McGriff stood as one of only 16 players to record a career .280 batting average, .375 on-base percentage, and .500 slugging percentage along with at least 490 home runs.


title: Fred McGriff

text: He became eligible for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. In his first year of eligibility, he was named on 21.5% of the ballots cast by 10-year members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA); this fell short of the 75% requirement for induction, but surpassed the 5.0% threshold for continued eligibility on future BBWAA ballots. Over the next four elections, McGriff's vote percentage ranged from a high of 23.9% (137 votes) in 2012 to a low of 11.7% (67 votes) in 2014. He remained eligible through 2019, when his time on the ballot expired after ten unsuccessful appearances. On his final ballot, McGriff achieved his highest vote total ever of 39.8% (169 votes), still short of the necessary 75%.


title: Fred McGriff

text: On December 4, 2022, it was announced that McGriff was unanimously elected by the Contemporary Era Committee to the Baseball Hall of Fame.


title: Fred McGriff

text: McGriff appeared in commercials for Tom Emanski's Baseball Fundamentals training videos in 1991. The commercials ran for over a decade on ESPN, making them the longest running sports infomercial on television.


title: Cru (wine)

text: Cru is a wine term used to indicate a high-quality vineyard or group of vineyards. It is a French word which is traditionally translated as "growth", as is the past participle of the verb "croître" (to grow); it literally means 'grown'. The term is often used within classifications of French wine. By implication, a wine that displays (or is allowed to display) the name of its "cru" on its wine label is supposed to exhibit the typical characteristics of this "cru". The terms "Premier Cru" and "Grand Cru" designate levels of presumed quality that are variously defined in different wine regions.


title: Cru (wine)

text: "Premier cru" is a French language wine term corresponding to "first growth" and which can be used to refer to classified vineyards, wineries and wines, with different meanings in different wine regions:


title: Cru (wine)

text: "Grand cru" (French for 'great growth') is a regional wine classification that designates a vineyard known for its favorable reputation in producing wine. Although often used to describe grapes, wine or cognac, the term is not technically a classification of wine quality per se, but is intended to indicate the potential of the vineyard or terroir. It is the highest level of classification of "Appellation d'origine contrôlée" (AOC) wines from Burgundy or Alsace. The same term is applied to "châteaux" in Saint-Émilion although in that region, it has a different meaning and does not represent the top tier of classification.


title: Cru (wine)

text: Early Burgundian wine history is distinctly marked by the work of the Cistercians with the Catholic Church being the principal vineyard owner for most of the Middle Ages. Receiving land and vineyards as tithes, endowments and as exchanges for indulgences the monks were able to studiously observe the quality of wines from individual plots and, over time, began to isolate those areas that would consistently produce wine of similar aroma, body, color and vigor and designate them as "crus".


title: Cru (wine)

text: Following the success of the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, Jules Lavalle developed an informal classification of vineyards of the Côte d'Or in his book "History and Statistics of the Côte d'Or". In 1861, Lavalle's classification was formalized by the Beaune Committee of Agriculture. The designations of "grand cru" and "premier cru" were later developed and expanded on in the 1930s with the creation of the AOC system.


title: Moth to a Flame

text: "Moth to a Flame" is a song by Swedish house music supergroup Swedish House Mafia and Canadian singer the Weeknd. It was released on 22 October 2021 through Republic Records, as the third single from the group's debut studio album "Paradise Again". The song is also included as a bonus track on the "Alternate World" edition of the Weeknd's fifth studio album "Dawn FM."


title: Moth to a Flame

text: A potential collaboration between Swedish House Mafia and the Weeknd was first speculated when the group signed with the Weeknd's longtime manager Wassim "Sal" Slaiby in April 2021. It was later teased by the Weeknd during an episode of his Apple Music 1 radio show "Memento Mori", in which he stated in the introduction "The Swedes just landed in L.A." A snippet of "Moth to a Flame" was then revealed by Swedish House Mafia during their performance at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards in September. On 19 October, the group and the singer teased the single once again before announcing that it would be released on 22 October. In celebration of its release, Swedish House Mafia hosted the twentieth episode of "Memento Mori".


title: Moth to a Flame

text: Dani Blum of "Pitchfork" named "Moth to a Flame" the best song on "Paradise Again", writing that the "tingling production is more elegant than Swedish House Mafia seemed capable of a decade ago." Robin Murray of "Clash" described it as "a sizzling 80s tinged burner that places [the Weeknd] within an electronic orchestra." Thomas Stremfel of "Spectrum Culture" wrote that "equally unique framing and biblical stakes elevate the track to a pop epic." "Billboard"s Starr Bowenbank compared "Moth to a Flame" to the Weeknd's "Blinding Lights", highlighting its synth as being menacing in a manner akin to the song.


title: Moth to a Flame

text: In the United Kingdom, "Moth to a Flame" debuted at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart with first-week sales of 19,853 units, making it Swedish House Mafia's seventh top 20 single and the Weeknd's 19th. In the United States, "Moth to a Flame" entered the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart at number two with 12.9 million streams, 1.7 million radio impressions and 3,800 downloads sold in its opening week. It marked Swedish House Mafia's third top 10 single on the chart and was the highest debut on the chart since Kygo and Whitney Houston's "Higher Love" in July 2019.


title: Moth to a Flame

text: The music video for the song premiered on 22 October 2021 alongside the single's release and was directed by Alexander Wessely. The music video ends with a snippet of "Mafia", the track that follows "Moth to a Flame" on "Paradise Again".


title: Moth to a Flame

text: Swedish House Mafia and the Weeknd performed "Moth to a Flame" at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on 17 April 2022.


title: Bonnie McFarlane

text: Bonnie McFarlane (born March 28, 1969) is a Canadian-American comedian and writer. She is best known for appearing on the second season of the TV reality show "Last Comic Standing" and for co-hosting the podcast "My Wife Hates Me" with her husband Rich Vos.


title: Bonnie McFarlane

text: McFarlane was born March 28, 1969 in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada, the youngest of four daughters. She was raised on her parents' rural farm outside Cold Lake.


title: Bonnie McFarlane

text: McFarlane did her first open mic in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The manager of the club told her that she should enter a contest, "The Search for Canada's Funniest New Comic." McFarlane entered the contest and won. She then moved to New York where she landed a manager and an agent. She also spent time in Los Angeles doing stand-up and writing. McFarlane has appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Late Show with David Letterman", and "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn". She appeared as a panelist on "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn" and "Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld" and as one of Dr. Katz's patients on "Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist". In 2004, she appeared on season two of the NBC reality show "Last Comic Standing". She was the first comedian eliminated. In 2005, she had her own HBO "One Night Stand" special. In 2008, she had her own "Comedy Central Presents" half-hour special. She is also one of the hosts of the Nickelodeon show "NickMom Night Out". McFarlane made occasional appearances on the Opie and Anthony radio program and on the Opie and Jim Norton show. She has also hosted Comedy.tv.


title: Bonnie McFarlane

text: McFarlane wrote and directed the film, "Women Aren't Funny", which was previewed at Caroline's on Broadway in November 2012. The film was released in August 2014.


title: Bonnie McFarlane

text: In 2016, McFarlane released "You're Better Than Me" a memoir published by Anthony Bourdain which recounts McFarlane's upbringing and comedic career.


title: Escaype Live

text: Escaype Live is an 2022 Indian Hindi-language streaming television series created and directed by Siddharth Kumar Tewary. It is Written by Jaya Misra and Siddharth Kumar Tewary and has been dialogued by Vinod Sharma, Amol Surve and Ranveer Pratap Singh. Produced by Siddharth Kumar Tewary under the banner of One Life Studios. The series stars Siddharth, Jaaved Jaaferi, Shweta Tripathi, Sumedh Mudgalkar, Waluscha De Sousa, Plabita Borthakur and Ritvik Sahore. Escaype Live 9 episodes were launched on Disney+Hotstar in two instalments within a week of each other. Episode 1- 7 were dropped on 20 May 2022 and the finale two a week later thereby


title: Escaype Live

text: glimpse into the minds of people living in the world of social media and how far they’re willing to go


title: Escaype Live

text: The trailer of the series was released on 26 April 2022 consisting of seven episodes premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 20 May 2022 and remaining two episodes were released on 27 May 2022.


title: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (film)

text: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a 1966 period musical comedy film, directed by Richard Lester, with Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford reprising their stage roles. It also features Buster Keaton in his final screen role; Phil Silvers, for whom the stage musical was originally intended; and regular Lester collaborators Michael Crawford, Michael Hordern and Roy Kinnear.


text: The film was adapted for the screen by Melvin Frank and Michael Pertwee from the stage musical of the same name with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, which was inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (251–183 BC) – specifically "Pseudolus", "Miles Gloriosus" and "Mostellaria" – and tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door.


text: In the city of Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero, Pseudolus is "the lyingest, cheatingest, sloppiest slave in all of Rome", whose only wish is to buy his freedom from his master's parents, the henpecked Senex and his overbearing wife, Domina. When he finds out that his master, Senex's handsome but dim son Hero, has fallen in love with the beautiful Philia (destined to be a courtesan) from the house of Marcus Lycus, next door, Pseudolus makes a deal: he will get the girl for Hero in return for his freedom.


text: Unfortunately, the virgin has been sold to the great Roman soldier Miles Gloriosus, who even now is on his way from conquering Crete to claim her as his bride. In an attempt to fake out the great Gloriosus and buy enough time to come up with a plan that will give Philia to Hero, Pseudolus and his overseer, Hysterium, stage a sit-down orgy for fourteen. Pseudolus informs the captain that his bride is dead and blackmails Hysterium into masquerading as the corpse of Philia to fool the captain and send him heartbroken away; but things go wrong at every turn.


text: When the supposedly dead "Philia" suddenly comes back to life after the great Gloriosus announces his intention of cutting "her" heart out as a memorial, a chase across Rome and on into the countryside ensues. Eventually, Miles Gloriosus collars Hero, the real Philia, Hysterium, Marcus Lycus, Pseudolus, and Gymnasia, the silent courtesan fancied by Pseudolus, and brings them back to Rome to untangle the skein of deception and see that justice is done.


text: In the end Hero gets Philia; Senex's next-door neighbor Erronius learns that Philia and Miles Gloriosus are in fact his long-lost children; Marcus Lycus is spared from execution for breaking a marriage contract; Miles Gloriosus takes the gorgeous Gemini twins as his consorts; and Pseudolus gets his freedom, the beautiful and Amazonian Gymnasia to be his wife, and a dowry of 10,000 minae, compliments of Marcus Lycus.


text: Songs from the original Broadway score which were cut for the film: "Love I Hear" (Hero), "Free" (Pseudolus and Hero), "Pretty Little Picture" (Pseudolus, Hero, Philia), "I'm Calm" (Hysterium), "Impossible" (Senex and Hero), "That Dirty Old Man" (Domina) and "That'll Show Him" (Philia).


text: Sondheim's music was adapted for the film version of "Forum" by Ken Thorne, who previously worked with The Beatles on "Help!" (1965).


text: Although the musical had originally been written with Phil Silvers in mind, Zero Mostel starred on Broadway as Pseudolus, and Richard Lester was his choice to direct the film version. Other directors who were considered included Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Mike Nichols. It was filmed at the Samuel Bronston Studios in Madrid, Spain, and on location around that city, on an estimated budget of $2 million. Filming took place from September to November 1965.


text: Jack Gilford was also re-creating his stage role, as Hysterium, and there are other connections to the Broadway production. Tony Walton, who designed the production, including the costumes, was also the designer of the Broadway show. For Walton, who was married to Julie Andrews from 1959 to 1967, "Forum" came at the beginning of both his film and stage careers: it was his second Broadway production, and his third film - he had designed costumes for "Mary Poppins" in 1964, and did the overall production design of "Fahrenheit 451" in 1966. Bob Simmons, a renowned stunt coordinator, designed and performed many of the action scenes in the film.


text: "Forum" is remarkable as one of the few films in which Buster Keaton appeared where he employed a double. Keaton was suffering from terminal cancer at the time – a fact of which he was not aware – and Mick Dillon stood-in for him for the running sequences. However, Buster performed the pratfall after running into a tree in the chase sequence near the end of the film himself, as no one could properly imitate his pratfalls.


text: The animated end credits created by Richard Williams feature many houseflies, a reminder of the fly problem the production suffered through when the fruits and vegetables which festooned the set were left out to rot overnight after the end of the shooting day.


text: George Martin, who with Ethel Martin is credited with the choreography of the film, was the assistant to choreographer Jack Cole on Broadway. (Jerome Robbins also did some uncredited work on the stage show.) Other members of the "Forum" team are notable as well. Cinematographer Nicholas Roeg moved up to the director's chair to make films such as "Performance" (1970), with Mick Jagger, "Walkabout" (1971), "Don't Look Now" (1973), and "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976) with David Bowie.


text: "Forum" premiered in New York City on October 16, 1966 and in London on December 14 of that year. It went into general release in January 1967.


text: The movie obtained $8.5 million in actual box office domestic gross receipts during 1966–67. When adjusted for current (2019) movie costs, its box office revenue would be equivalent to $69.3 million. It was the 26th-most-popular film shown in U.S. theaters that year.


text: The film received generally positive notices, with a current 86% score on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews, with an average of 7.00/10. "Variety" wrote, "Flip, glib and sophisticated, yet rump-slappingly bawdy and fast-paced, 'Forum' is a capricious look at the seamy underside of classical Rome through a 20th-Century hipster's shades [...] Generally assayed with satirical thrust and on-target accuracy, almost all of the performances are top-rung and thoroughly expert." In a generally favorable review for "The New York Times", Vincent Canby praised the "handsomely realistic settings" and determined that "Stephen Sondheim's music and lyrics hold up well," but also found it "hard to decide whether Mr. Lester has gone too far, or not far enough, in translating into film terms the carefully calculated nonsense originally conceived for the theater. He's done a lot of tricky things — with his penchant for quick cutting and juxtaposition of absurd images — but there are times when this style seems oddly at variance with the basic material, which is roughly 2,000 years older than the motion-picture camera."


text: Philip K. Scheuer of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that the film moved so fast that "I simply couldn't ingest it all in one viewing," but "I was able to register enough to realize I was enjoying myself hugely. 'Forum' is a bawdy, ribald romp that rips Rome's Great Society right up the middle, an out-and-out burlesque show that may even—underneath all the frenetic foolery, the flourishing of floozies and the pratfalls—have something satirical and cynical to tell us about nations and why they fall." Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" raved, ""Bawdy, gaudy and lawry, how funny! 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' has arrived at the Cinema, where laughter should be exploding for months."


text: Brendan Gill of "The New Yorker" wrote "I laughed my way mindlessly through ninety percent of the picture," calling the jokes "both awful and exactly right for Mostel, Silvers and company." A review in the UK's "Monthly Film Bulletin" thought that Lester's fast-moving direction style made for a "curious effect of dislocation," writing that Mostel and Silvers "constantly find the editor snapping at their tails while Lester dashes down some attractive byway and the laugh they probably would have got is stopped short." The review concluded, "Apart from the long chase at the end, which is boring and irrelevant, this is an odd, good-humoured mess of a film, in spite of everything decidedly likeable."


text: A negative review came from Rex Reed who opined in his review of the tape version of the film's soundtrack album that "the real wit in Stephen Sondheim's score for the very funny Broadway burlesque "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" was all but totally demolished in Richard Lester's vulgar, witless, and over-stylized film version. All but a handful of the marvelous Sondheim songs were ditched, the few remaining musical numbers were so integrated into the action that they took a back seat to Lester's self-conscious visual gimmicks, and the riotous Zero Mostel was nearly crowded out of the plot completely."


text: Music director Ken Thorne received an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment in 1966. In addition, the film was nominated that year for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy".


title: Hyperkeratosis

text: Hyperkeratosis is thickening of the stratum corneum (the outermost layer of the epidermis, or skin), often associated with the presence of an abnormal quantity of keratin, and also usually accompanied by an increase in the granular layer. As the corneum layer normally varies greatly in thickness in different sites, some experience is needed to assess minor degrees of hyperkeratosis.


title: Hyperkeratosis

text: It can be treated with urea-containing creams, which dissolve the intercellular matrix of the cells of the stratum corneum, promoting desquamation of scaly skin, eventually resulting in softening of hyperkeratotic areas.


title: Hyperkeratosis

text: Follicular hyperkeratosis, also known as "keratosis pilaris" (KP), is a skin condition characterized by excessive development of keratin in hair follicles, resulting in rough, cone-shaped, elevated papules. The openings are often closed with a white plug of encrusted sebum. When called "phrynoderma" the condition is associated with nutritional deficiency or malnourishment.


title: Hyperkeratosis

text: This condition has been shown in several small-scale studies to respond well to supplementation with vitamins and fats rich in essential fatty acids. Deficiencies of vitamin E, vitamin A, and B-complex vitamins have been implicated in causing the condition.


title: Hyperkeratosis

text: The term hyperkeratosis is often used in connection with lesions of the mucous membranes, such as leukoplakia. Because of the differences between mucous membranes and the skin (e.g. keratinizing mucosa does not have a stratum lucidum and non keratinizing mucosa does not have this layer or normally a stratum corneum or a stratum granulosum), sometimes specialized texts give slightly different definitions of hyperkeratosis in the context of mucosae. Examples are "an excessive formation of keratin (e.g., as seen in leukoplakia)" and "an increase in the thickness of the keratin layer of the epithelium, or the presence of such a layer in a site where none would normally be expected."


title: Hyperkeratosis

text: The word "hyperkeratosis" () is based on the Ancient Greek morphemes "hyper-" + "kerato-" + "-osis", meaning 'the condition of too much keratin'.


title: Hyperkeratosis

text: Nasodigitic hyperkeratosis in dogs may be idiopathic, secondary to an underlying disease, or due to congenital abnormalities in the normal anatomy of the nose and fingertips.


title: Hyperkeratosis

text: In the case of congenital anatomical abnormalities, contact between the affected area and rubbing surfaces is impaired. It is roughly the same with finger pads - in animals with an anatomical abnormality part of the pad is not in contact with rubbing surfaces and excessive keratin deposition is formed. The idiopathic form of nasodigitic hyperkeratosis in dogs develops from unknown causes and is more common in older animals (senile form). Of all dog breeds, Labradors, Golden Retrievers, Cocker Spaniels, Irish Terriers, Bordeaux Dogs are the most prone to hyperkeratosis.


title: Hyperkeratosis

text: Since the deposition of excess keratin cannot be stopped, therapy is aimed at softening and removing it. For moderate to severe cases, the affected areas should be hydrated (moisturised) with warm water or compresses for 5-10 minutes. Softening preparations are then applied once a day until the excess keratin is removed.


title: Hyperkeratosis

text: In dogs with severe hyperkeratosis and a significant excess of keratin, it is removed with scissors or a blade. After proper instructions, pet owners are able to perform this procedure at home and it may be the only method of correction.


title: Cerro Torre

text: Cerro Torre is one of the mountains of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in South America. It is located in Argentina and Chile, west of Fitz Roy (also known as Cerro Chaltén). The peak is the highest of a four mountain chain: the other peaks are Torre Egger (), Punta Herron, and Cerro Standhardt. The top of the mountain often has a mushroom of rime ice, formed by the constant strong winds, increasing the difficulty of reaching the actual summit.


title: Cerro Torre

text: Cesare Maestri claimed in 1959 that he and Toni Egger had reached the summit and that Egger had been swept to his death by an avalanche while they were descending. Maestri declared that Egger had the camera with the pictures of the summit, but this camera was never found. Inconsistencies in Maestri's account, and the lack of bolts, pitons or fixed ropes on the route, have led most mountaineers to doubt Maestri's claim. In 2005, Ermanno Salvaterra, Rolando Garibotti and Alessandro Beltrami, after many attempts by world-class alpinists, put up a confirmed route on the face that Maestri claimed to have climbed. They did not find any evidence of previous climbing on the route described by Maestri and found the route significantly different from Maestri's description.


title: Cerro Torre

text: Maestri went back to Cerro Torre in 1970 with Ezio Alimonta, Daniele Angeli, Claudio Baldessarri, Carlo Claus and Pietro Vidi, trying a new route on the southeast face. With the aid of a gas-powered compressor drill, Maestri equipped of rock with bolts and got to the end of the rocky part of the mountain, just below the ice mushroom. Maestri claimed that "the mushroom is not part of the mountain" and did not continue to the summit. The compressor was left, tied to the last bolts, below the top. Maestri was heavily criticized for the "unfair" methods he used to climb the mountain.


title: Cerro Torre

text: The route Maestri followed is now known as the "Compressor route" and was climbed to the summit in 1979 by Jim Bridwell and Steve Brewer. Most parties consider the ascent complete only if they summit the often-difficult ice-rime mushroom.


title: Cerro Torre

text: The first undisputed ascent was made in 1974 by the "Ragni di Lecco" climbers Daniele Chiappa, Mario Conti, Casimiro Ferrari, and Pino Negri. The controversies regarding Maestri's claims are the focus of the 2014 book on Cerro Torre, "The Tower", by Kelly Cordes.


title: Cerro Torre

text: In 1977, the first Alpine style ascent was completed by Dave Carman, John Bragg and Jay Wilson (USA). They took a week to summit Cerro Torre, which had taken the Italian group two months to summit. In 1980, Bill Denz (New Zealand) attempted the first solo of the Compressor Route. Over a five-month period, he made 13 concerted attempts but was driven back by storms on every occasion. On his last attempt, in November 1980, he got to within of the summit.


title: Cerro Torre

text: In January 2008, Rolando Garibotti and Colin Haley made the first complete traverse of the entire massif, climbing Aguja Standhardt, Punta Herron, Torre Egger and Cerro Torre together. They rate their route at Grade VI 5.11 A1 WI6 Mushroom Ice 6, with total vertical gain. This had been "one of the world's most iconic, unclimbed lines", first attempted by Ermanno Salvaterra.


title: Cerro Torre

text: In 2010, Austrian climber David Lama was held responsible for around 30 new bolts and hundreds of meters of fixed rope added to the Compressor Route on the mountain (due to bad weather conditions, much of the gear was left on the mountain and later removed by local climbers). Although the bolts were drilled by Austrian guide Markus Pucher, and not by Lama himself, it was done as part of his trip sponsored by Red Bull, and many climbers regard Lama and Red Bull as responsible. Many of the bolts were drilled next to cracks, which are usually used by climbers for protection on the route. This has caused a large controversy in certain climbers' circles, as his actions are unethical according to climbing purists. Although Lama was not aware of the sheer number of bolts that were drilled, he took full responsibility for the actions. In the upcoming years, he publicly regretted what happened.


title: Cerro Torre

text: On 16 January 2012, American Hayden Kennedy and Canadian Jason Kruk made the first "fair-means" (a term used to describe a reasonable use of bolts for safety and aesthetics, "a long-accepted practice in [the Patagonian] mountain range") ascent of the Southeast Ridge, near the controversial Compressor Route, using only two of Maestri's original belay anchors on the headwall. After summiting, Kennedy and Kruk removed 125 of the bolt-ladder bolts during their descent. Colin Haley, who watched the ascent from Norwegos, estimated the climb took them thirteen hours from their bivy on the shoulder to the summit. "The speed with which they navigated virgin ground on the upper headwall is certainly testament to Hayden's great skills on rock", Haley reported. There has been much discussion concerning the removal of bolts from the compressor route by Kennedy and Kruk. However, the consensus amongst the climbing community is that of agreement for removing the bolts and it has embraced their actions as having "restored Cerro Torre's southeast ridge to the realm of genuine adventure".


title: Cerro Torre

text: In contrast to David Lama's free ascent (also "fair-means"; January 2012, together with Peter Ortner), Kennedy and Kruk used bolts (although not Maestri's) during their ascent. Lama estimated the difficulties of his free ascent (which followed a new line circumventing the bolt traverse and in the upper headwall) as grade X- (hard 8a but mentally highly demanding; e.g., climbing on loose flakes, long runouts). Lama stated that a free repetition of the original Compressor Route is virtually impossible (in particular as the rock of the last pitches comprise no climbable features).


title: Cerro Torre

text: Cerro Torre was featured in the 1991 film "Scream of Stone", directed by Werner Herzog and starring Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Hans Kammerlander, and Donald Sutherland.


title: Cerro Torre

text: Jon Krakauer, aside from the detailed recounting of the climb of the mountain in his book "Eiger Dreams", mentions it briefly in "Into Thin Air" as one of his earlier difficult ascents (1992): "I'd scaled a frightening, mile-high spike of vertical and overhanging granite called Cerro Torre; buffeted by hundred-knot winds, plastered with frangible atmospheric rime, it was once (though no longer) thought to be the world's hardest mountain".


title: Cerro Torre

text: In March 2014, an adventure documentary was released following the "first ever free ascent" of Cerro Torre, featuring David Lama. "Cerro Torre - A Snowball's Chance in Hell" premiered at San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2013.


title: Qadr Night

text: The Qadr Night or Laylat al-Qadr (), variously rendered in English as the Night of Decree, Night of Power, Night of Value, Night of Destiny, or Night of Measures, is, in Islamic belief, the night when the Quran was first sent down from Heaven to the world and also the night when the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and it is described to be better than a thousand months of worshipping. According to many Muslim sources, its exact date is uncertain but it was one of the odd-numbered nights of the last ten days of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Since that time, Muslims have regarded the last ten nights of Ramadan as being especially blessed. Muslims believe that the Night of Qadr comes with blessings and mercy of God in abundance, sins are forgiven, supplications are accepted, and that the annual decree is revealed to the angels who carry it out according to God's grace.


title: Qadr Night

text: Qadr, (قدر) in Arabic, means measure and limit or value of something or destiny. Some reasons have been offered for its naming:


title: Qadr Night

text: Other names such as "Laylat al-'Azama" (Arabic:ليلة العظمة; night of the greatness) and "Laylat al-Sharaf" (Arabic:ليلة الشرف; night of the honor) have also been mentioned for this night.


title: Qadr Night

text: The Quran uses the word "anzal" () which justifies 'the immediate revelation', according to Allamah Tabatabai. However some others believe that the revelation of Quran occurred in two phases, with the first phase being the revelation in its entirety on Laylat al-Qadr to the angel Gabriel (Jibril in Arabic) in the lowest heaven, and then the subsequent verse-by-verse revelation to Muhammad by Gabriel. The revelation started in 610 CE at the Hira cave on Mount Jabal al-Nour in Mecca. The first Surah that was revealed was Sūrat al-ʿAlaq (in Arabic ). During Muhammad's first revelation, the first five verses of this Surah, or chapter, were revealed.


title: Qadr Night

text: A specific date of Laylat al-Qadr is not mentioned in the Quran. Muhammad received the information about the exact date of Laylat al-Qadr from God in a dream. He went to tell the Sahabah about that date. However, he saw two people fighting and forgot what the date was because Allah took the knowledge of Al Qadr from him. With the day of the week, a Muslim date can be fixed exactly.


title: Qadr Night

text: Sunni Islam holds that God alone answers humanity's supplications and that He alone receives them and forgives humanity and gives them what they ask for, and that on this particular night Muslims should actively seek God's forgiveness and engage in various acts of worship.


title: Qadr Night

text: For Muslim communities all over the world; Laylat al-Qadr is found to be on the last 5 odd nights of Ramadan (21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th or 29th) whereby night precedes day. Many cultures celebrate it on the 27th, while certain scholars state that if a Friday night coincides with an odd numbered night, it is likely to be the one.


title: Qadr Night

text: Shia Muslims similarly believe that Laylat al-Qadr is to be found in the last ten odd nights of Ramadan but mostly on the 19th, 21st or 23rd of Ramadan with 23rd being the most important night. The 19th, according to the Shia belief, coincides with the night Ali was attacked in the Mihrab while worshipping in the Great Mosque of Kufa. He died on 21 Ramadan.


title: Qadr Night

text: Shia Muslims believe that Ali (the first Shia Imam, and the fourth caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate to Sunnis) had special insight and intimacy with Allah on this night. Imam Sadiq is quoted as saying (Tafsir "al-Burhan", vol. 4, p. 487):Once Imam Ali was reciting Surat al-Qadr and his sons, Imam Hasan (a) and Imam Husayn (a) were near him. Imam Husayn (a) asked his father: “Father, how come we feel a different sensation when you recite this surah?” Imam Ali(a) replied, “O son of the Prophet and my son! I know things from this chapter that you are not aware of now. When this surah was sent down to the Prophet he asked me to go to him. When I went to him he recited this surah, then he put his hand on my right shoulder and said: O my brother and my successor! O the leader of my nation after me! O tireless fighter with my enemies! This surah is yours after me, and is for your two sons after you. Gabriel who is my brother among the angels informs me of the events of one year of my nation at the night of Qadr. And after me he will give this information to you. This surah will always have a shining light in your heart and in the heart of your successors until the rising of the dawn of the day of reappearance of Qa'im [the one who rises, a title for the Islamic Messiah, Mahdi]."Ibn Abbas was aware of both the date and the day of the week. Hence the Shia's have generally concluded that it is the 23rd


title: Qadr Night

text: According to other hadiths, destinies are written on the night of Ramadan 19, are finalized on the night of Ramadan 21, and are ultimately confirmed on the night of Ramadan 23.


title: Qadr Night

text: Two other possibilities about the time of the Night of Qadr are the nights of Ramadan 27 and Sha'ban 15.


title: Qadr Night

text: The night is not comparable to any others in view of Muslims and according to a tradition, the blessings due to the acts of worship during this night cannot be equaled even by worshipping throughout an entire lifetime. The reward of acts of worship done in this one single night is more than the reward of a thousand months of worship. Laylat al-Qadr is referenced in the Quran:


title: Qadr Night

text: Shi'as practice the rituals of the Night of Qadr every year in mosques, tekyehs, shrines of Imams or children of Imams, Husayniyyas or their own houses. They stay vigilant the whole night until dawn and worship God. The most important practices of the Night of Qadr include congregational prayers, recitation of the Iftitah Supplication, Abu Hamza al-Thumali Supplication, and al-Jawshan al-Kabir, and collective supplications while they keep volumes of the Qur'an on top of their heads. Other rituals of the night include donations of dawn food, payment of their nadhr for the dead, feeding the poor, and emancipation of financial prisoners.


title: Qadr Night

text: Since the assassination of Ali (a) occurs in the last ten days of the Ramadan month, Shi'as mourn in these nights.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: An anti-tank mine (abbreviated to "AT mine") is a type of land mine designed to damage or destroy vehicles including tanks and armored fighting vehicles.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Compared to anti-personnel mines, anti-tank mines typically have a much larger explosive charge, and a fuze designed to be triggered by vehicles or, in some cases, remotely or by tampering with the mine.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: The first anti-tank mines were improvised during the First World War as a countermeasure against the first tanks introduced by the British towards the end of the war. Initially they were nothing more than a buried high-explosive shell or mortar bomb with its fuze upright. Later, purpose-built mines were developed, including the Flachmine 17, which was simply a wooden box packed with explosives and triggered either remotely or by a pressure fuze. By the end of the war, the Germans had developed row mining techniques, and mines accounted for 15% of U.S. tank casualties during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, Third Battle of the Aisne, Battle of Selle and Meuse-Argonne Offensive.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: The Soviet Union began developing mines in the early 1920s, and in 1924 produced its first anti-tank mine, the EZ mine. The mine, which was developed by Yegorov and Zelinskiy, had a 1 kg charge, which was enough to break the tracks of contemporary tanks. Meanwhile, in Germany, defeat spurred the development of anti-tank mines, with the first truly modern mine, the Tellermine 29, entering service in 1929. It was a disc-shaped device approximately 30 cm across filled with about 5 kg of high explosives. A second mine, the Tellermine 35 was developed in 1935. Anti-tank mines were used by both sides during the Spanish Civil War. Notably, Republican forces lifted mines placed by Nationalist forces and used them against the Nationalists. This spurred the development of anti-handling devices for anti-tank mines.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: The Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland also saw widespread use of anti-tank mines. Finnish forces, facing a general shortage of anti-tank weapons, could exploit the predictable movements of motorized units imposed by difficult terrain and weather conditions.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: The German Tellermine was a purpose-built anti-tank mine developed during the period between the first and second world wars, the first model being introduced in 1929. Some variants were of a rectangular shape, but in all cases the outer casing served only as container for the explosives and fuze, without being used to destructive effect (e.g. shrapnel). Tellermine was the prototypical anti-tank mine, with many elements of its design emulated in the Pignone P-1, NR 25, and M6 mine (among others). Because of its rather high operating pressure, a vehicle would need to pass directly over top of the mine to set it off. But since the tracks represent only about 20% of a tank's width, the pressure fuse had a limited area of effect.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: As one source has it: "Since they were pressure-detonated, these early anti-tank mines typically did most of their damage to a tank's treads, leaving its crew unharmed and its guns still operational but immobilised and vulnerable to aircraft and enemy anti-tank weapons ... During World War II they (the Wehrmacht) began using a mine with a tilt-rod fuze, a thin rod standing approximately two feet up from the center of the charge and nearly impossible to see after the mine had been buried. As a tank passed over the mine, the rod was pushed forward, causing the charge to detonate directly beneath it. The blast often killed the crew and sometimes exploded onboard ammunition. Now that tank crews were directly at risk, they were less likely to plow through a minefield."


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Although other measures such as satchel charges, sticky bombs and bombs designed to magnetically adhere to tanks were developed, they do not fall within the category of land mines as they are not buried and detonated remotely or by pressure. The Hawkins mine was a British anti-tank device that could be employed as a mine laid on the road surface for a tank to run over setting off a crush fuze or thrown at the tank in which case a timer fuze was used.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Shaped charge devices like the Hohl-Sprung mine 4672 were also developed by Germany later in the war, although these did not see widespread use. The most advanced German anti-tank mine of the war was their minimal metal Topfmine.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: In contrast to the "dinner plate" mines such as the German Tellermine were "bar mines" such as the German Riegel mine 43 and Italian B-2 mine. These were long mines designed to increase the probability of a vehicle triggering it, the B2 consisted of multiple small shaped-charge explosive charges along its length designed to ensure a mobility kill against enemy vehicles by destroying their tracks. This form of mine was the inspiration for the British L9 bar mine.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: More modern anti-tank mines are usually more advanced than simple containers full of explosives detonated by remote or the vehicles pressure. The biggest advances were made in the following areas:


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Most modern mine bodies or casings are made of plastic material to avoid easy detection. They feature combinations of pressure or magnetically activated detonators to ensure that they are only triggered by vehicles.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: There are several systems for dispersing mines to quickly cover wide areas, as opposed to a soldier laying each one individually. These system can take the form of cluster bombs or be artillery fired. Cluster bombs contain several mines each, which could be a mixture of anti-personnel mines. When the cluster bomb reaches a preset altitude it disperses the mines over a wide area. Some anti-tank mines are designed to be fired by artillery, and arm themselves once they impact the target area.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Off-route mines are designed to be effective when detonated next to a vehicle instead of underneath the vehicle. They are useful in cases where the ground or surface is not suitable for burying or concealing a mine. They normally employ a Misznay–Schardin shaped charge to fire a penetrating slug through the target armour. This self forging projectile principle has been used for some French and Soviet off route mines and has earned infamy as an improvised explosive devices (IED) technique in Israel and especially Iraq.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Due to the critical standoff necessary for penetration and the development of standoff neutralization technologies, shaped charge off-route mines using the Munroe effect are more rarely encountered, though the British/French/German ARGES mine with a tandem warhead is an example of one of the more successful.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: The term "off-route mine" refers to purpose designed and manufactured anti-tank mines. Explosively Formed Projectiles (EFPs) are one type of IED that was used in Iraq, but most "home made" IEDs are not employed in this manner.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: The most effective countermeasure deployed against mine fields is mine clearing, using either explosive methods or mechanical methods. Explosive methods, such as the Giant Viper and the SADF Plofadder 160 AT, involve laying explosives across a minefield, either by propelling the charges across the field with rockets, or by dropping them from aircraft, and then detonating the explosive, clearing a path. Mechanical methods include plowing and pressure-forced detonation. In plowing, a specially designed plow attached to the front end of a heavily armored tank is used to push aside the earth and any mines embedded in it, clearing a path as wide as the pushing tank. In pressure-forced detonation, a heavily armored tank pushes a heavy spherical or cylindrical solid metal roller ahead of it, causing mines to detonate.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: There are also several ways of making vehicles resistant to the effects of a mine detonation to reduce the chance of crew injury. In case of a mine's blast effect, this can be done by absorbing the blast energy, deflecting it away from the vehicle hull or increasing the distance between the crew and the points where wheels touch the ground–where any detonations are likely to centre.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Another way to protect a vehicle from mines was to attach wooden planks to the sides of armored vehicles to prevent enemy soldiers from attaching magnetic mines. In the close combat on Iwo Jima, for example, some tanks were protected in this manner. A Japanese soldier running up from a concealed foxhole would not be able to stick a magnetic mine on the side of a tank encased in wood.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: A simple, and highly effective, technique to protect the occupants of a wheeled vehicle is to fill the tires with water. This will have the effect of absorbing and deflecting the mine's blast energy. Steel plates between the cabin and the wheels can absorb the energy and their effectiveness is enhanced if they can be angled to deflect it away from the cabin. Increasing the distance between the wheels and passenger cabin, as is done on the South African Casspir personnel carrier, is an effective technique, although there are mobility and ease of driving problems with such a vehicle. A V-hull vehicle uses a wedge-shaped passenger cabin, with the thin edge of the wedge downwards, to divert blast energy away from occupants. Improvised measures such as sandbags in the vehicle floor or bulletproof vests placed on the floor may offer a small measure of protection against tiny mines.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Steel plates on the floor and sides and armoured glass will protect the occupants from fragments. Mounting seats from the sides or roof of the vehicle, rather than the floor, will help protect occupants from shocks transmitted through the structure of the vehicle and a four-point seat harness will minimise the chance of injury if the vehicle is flung onto its side or its roof–a mine may throw a vehicle 5 – 10 m from the detonation point.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Anti-tank mines played a major role on the Eastern front, where they were used in huge quantities by Soviet troops. The most common AT mines included the TM-41, TM-44, TMSB, YAM-5, and AKS. In the Battle of Kursk, combat engineers laid a staggering 503,663 AT mines, for a density of 1500 mines per kilometer. This was four times greater than what was seen in the Battle of Moscow.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Furthermore, mobile detachments were tasked with laying more mines directly in the path of advancing enemy tanks. According to one source: "... Each artillery battalion and, in some cases, each artillery battery, had a mobile reserve of 5 to 8 combat engineers equipped with 4 to 5 mines each. Their function was to mine unguarded tank approaches after the direction of the enemy attack had been definitely ascertained. These mines proved highly effective in stopping and even in destroying many enemy tanks."


title: Anti-tank mine

text: The Wehrmacht also relied heavily on anti-tank mines to defend the Atlantic Wall, having planted six million mines of all types in Northern France alone. Mines were usually laid in staggered rows about 500 yards (460 meters) deep. Along with the anti-personnel types, there were various model of Tellermines, Topfmines, and Riegel mines. On the Western front, anti-tank mines were responsible for 20-22% of Allied tank losses. Since the majority of these mines were equipped with pressure fuzes (rather than tilt-rods), tanks were more often crippled than destroyed outright.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: During the Vietnam War, both 'regular' NVA and Viet Cong forces used AT mines. These were of Soviet, Chinese or local manufacture. Anti-tank mines were also used extensively in Cambodia and along the Thai border, planted by Pol Pot's Maoist guerrillas and the Vietnamese army, which invaded Cambodia in 1979 to topple the Khmer Rouge. Millions of these mines remain in the area, despite clearing efforts. It is estimated that they cause hundreds of deaths annually.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Conflict in southern Africa since the 1960s have often involved Soviet, United States or South African supported irregular armies or fighters engaged in guerrilla warfare. What makes these conflicts significant to the study of anti-tank mines is that they featured the widespread use of these mines in situations other than conventional warfare (or static minefields) and also saw the development of effective mine resistant vehicles. As a result, both Angola and Mozambique are littered with such devices to this day (as with Cambodia).


title: Anti-tank mine

text: In the Angolan Civil War or South African Border War that covered vast sparsely populated area of southern Angola and northern Namibia, it was easy for small groups to infiltrate and lay their mines on roads before escaping again often undetected. The anti-tank mines were most often placed on public roads used by civilian and military vehicles and had a great psychological effect.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Mines were often laid in complex arrangements. One tactic was to lay multiple mines on top of each other to increase the blast effect. Another common tactic was to link together several mines placed within a few metres of each other, so that all would detonate when any one was triggered.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: It was because of this threat that some of the first successful mine protected vehicles were developed by South African military and police forces. Chief amongst these were the Buffel and Casspir armoured personnel carriers and Ratel armoured fighting vehicle. They employed v-shaped hulls that deflected the blast force away from occupants. In most cases occupants survived anti-tank mine detonations with only minor injuries. The vehicles themselves could often be repaired by replacing the wheels or some drive train components that were designed to be modular and replaceable for exactly this reason.


title: Anti-tank mine

text: Most countries involved in Middle Eastern peace keeping missions deploy modern developments of these vehicles like the RG-31 (Canada, United Arab Emirates, United States)


title: The Temptations discography

text: This article presents the discography of Motown group The Temptations. They had 37 singles reach the "Billboard" Top 40 in the US, with four reaching #1. On the R&B singles chart, the group scored a record 71 Top 40 singles, with 14 reaching #1.


title: Politeness theory

text: Politeness theory, proposed by Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson, centers on the notion of politeness, construed as efforts on redressing the affronts to a person's self-esteems or effectively claiming positive social values in social interactions. Such self-esteem is referred as the sociological concept of face (as in "save face" or "lose face") to discuss politeness as a response to mitigate or avoid face-threatening acts such as requests or insults. Notable components in the framework of the theory include positive and negative faces, face threatening act (FTA), strategies for doing FTAs and factors influencing the choices of strategies; each described below.


title: Politeness theory

text: Among the studies of politeness in a variety of cultures for many years, Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson's politeness theory has become very influential. Though Brown and Levinson proposed their model as universally applicable, their theory has been challenged by other scholars in varied aspects such as its cross-cultural applicability or ways to interpret and conceptualize politeness.


title: Politeness theory

text: The concept of face was derived from Chinese into English in the 19th century. “Face” conceptualized as an individual’s positive claim of social values in socializing contact was introduced into academia by Erving Goffman through his theories of "face" and "facework". According to Brown and Levinson's assumption in politeness theory based on Goffman's “face”, one's face is categorized into two forms: positive and negative. Brown and Levinson defined positive face two ways: as "the want of every member that his wants be desirable to at least some others executors" (p. 62), or alternatively, "the positive consistent self-image or 'personality' (crucially including the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of) claimed by interactants" (p. 61). Negative face was defined as "the want of every 'competent adult member' that his actions be unimpeded by others", or "the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, rights to non-distraction—i.e. the freedom of action and freedom from imposition". Whereas positive face involves a desire for connection with others, negative face needs include autonomy and independence.


title: Politeness theory

text: Ten years later, Brown characterized positive face by desires to be liked, admired, ratified, and related to positively, noting that one would threaten positive face by ignoring someone. At the same time, she characterized negative face by the desire not to be imposed upon, noting that negative face could be impinged upon by imposing on someone. Positive face refers to one's self-esteem, while negative face refers to one's freedom to act. These two aspects of face are the basic wants in any social interaction; during any social interaction, cooperation is needed amongst the participants to maintain each other's face. Participants can do this by using positive politeness and negative politeness, which pay attention to people's positive and negative face needs respectively.


title: Politeness theory

text: According to Brown and Levinson, positive and negative face exist universally in human culture; it has been argued that the notion of face is the actual universal component to their proposed politeness theory. A face threatening act is an act that inherently damages the face of the addressee or the speaker by acting in opposition to the wants and desires of the other. Face threatening acts can be verbal (using words/language), paraverbal (conveyed in the characteristics of speech such as tone, inflection, etc.), or non-verbal (facial expression, etc.). Based on the terms of conversation in social interactions, face-threatening acts are at times inevitable. At minimum, there must be at least one of the face threatening acts associated with an utterance. It is also possible to have multiple acts working within a single utterance.


title: Politeness theory

text: Negative face is threatened when an individual does not avoid or intend to avoid the obstruction of their interlocutor's freedom of action. It can cause damage to either the speaker or the hearer, and makes one of the interlocutors submit their will to the other. Freedom of choice and action are impeded when negative face is threatened.


title: Politeness theory

text: Positive face is threatened when the speaker or hearer does not care about their interactor's feelings, wants, or does not want what the other wants. Positive face threatening acts can also cause damage to the speaker or the hearer. When an individual is forced to be separated from others so that their well being is treated less importantly, positive face is threatened.


title: Politeness theory

text: In their study of refusals to requests, Johnson et al. argue refusals can threaten both the positive and negative face of the refuser (the person who was asked a favor), and the positive face of the requester (the person asking for a favor). Obstacles, or reasons for non-compliance with a person's request, can "vary on three dimensions: willingness-unwillingness, ability-inability, and focus on-focus away from the requester".


title: Politeness theory

text: Choosing to refuse or not refuse a request can threaten the requester's positive and negative faces in different ways. When a person refuses to comply with a request from an intimate, they are violating relational expectations and increasing threat to their positive face; however, focusing attention away from the requester can decrease threat to the requester's positive face even if they are unwilling to help. In contrast, focusing attention on the requester can increase threat to positive face since it highlights the refuser's unwillingness. Accepting a request is the least threatening act.


title: Politeness theory

text: Threats to the refuser's negative face vary along the ability and focus dimensions. Focusing away from the requester allows the refuser to maintain their autonomy while maintaining the relationship; this leads to less face-threat if the refuser has high ability because they can choose whether to comply or not. Focusing on the requester would threaten their relationship with the requester and their long-term autonomy (the requester may be unwilling to comply to future requests when the roles are reversed); however, if the refuser has low ability, focusing on the requester can actually decrease threats to negative face by showing they are unable to comply even if they wanted to.


title: Politeness theory

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Note: the requester and refuser would be analogous to the "speaker" and "hearer" roles discussed earlier in the section "Face-threatening acts".


title: Politeness theory

text: Politeness strategies are used to formulate messages in order to save the hearer's positive and negative face when face-threatening acts are inevitable or desired. Brown and Levinson outline four main types of politeness strategies: bald on-record, negative politeness, positive politeness, and off-record (indirect) as well as simply not using the face-threatening act.


title: Politeness theory

text: Bald on-record strategy does not attempt to minimize the threat to the hearer's face, although there are ways that bald on-record politeness can be used in trying to minimize face-threatening acts implicitly, such as giving advice in a non-manipulative way. Often using such a strategy will shock or embarrass the addressee, and so this strategy is most often utilized in situations where the speaker has a close relationship with the listener, such as family or close friends. Brown and Levinson outline various cases in which one might use the bald on-record strategy, including:


title: Politeness theory

text: Positive politeness strategies seek to minimize the threat to the hearer's positive face. These strategies are used to make the hearer feel good about themselves, their interests or possessions, and are most usually used in situations where the audience knows each other fairly well, or an individual's positive face needs, or self-worth, have to be met. In addition to hedging and attempts to avoid conflict, some strategies of positive politeness include statements of friendship, solidarity, compliments, and the following examples from Brown and Levinson:


title: Politeness theory

text: Positive politeness strategies can also emerge in situations where the speakers do not know each other well. For example, Charlotte Rees and Lynn Knight have explored the role politeness theory plays in general practice consultations. They found that, in an effort to remain polite, patients agreed to the presence of a student observer during a general practice consultation even when the patient preferred a private consultation. Rees and Knight concluded that politeness strategies in the medical field can inhibit patients from providing complete and accurate information.


title: Politeness theory

text: Another use of positive politeness is polite or formal speech such as Japanese honorifics. Again, this type of formal speech can be used to protect the hearer's positive face.


title: Politeness theory

text: Negative politeness strategies are oriented towards the hearer's negative face and emphasize avoidance of imposition on the hearer. By attempting to avoid imposition from the speaker, the risk of face-threat to the hearer is reduced. These strategies presume that the speaker will be imposing on the listener and there is a higher potential for awkwardness or embarrassment than in bald on record strategies and positive politeness strategies. Examples from Brown and Levinson include:


title: Politeness theory

text: Favor seeking, or a speaker asking the hearer for a favor, is a common example of negative politeness strategies in use. Held observes three main stages in favor-seeking: the preparatory phase, the focal phase, and the final phase:


title: Politeness theory

text: McCarthy and Carter provide an example of negative politeness using the following dialogue from the Australian television soap opera, "Neighbours":


title: Politeness theory

text: All of this is done in attempt to avoid imposition on the hearer. Negative politeness is concerned with proceeding towards a goal in the smoothest way and with sensitivity to one's interlocutors. In English, deference ('Excuse me, sir, could you please close the window') is associated with the avoidance or downplaying of an imposition; the more we feel we might be imposing, the more deferential we might be. It is clearly a strategy for negative politeness and the redressing of a threat to negative face, through actions such as favor-seeking.


title: Politeness theory

text: The final politeness strategy outlined by Brown and Levinson is the indirect strategy; This strategy uses indirect language and removes the speaker from the potential to be imposing. The strategy of doing off-record is to express something general or different than the speaker’s true meaning and relies on the hearer's interpretation to have the speaker's purpose get conveyed. The speaker can get credit for not imposing on the hearer or give the hearer a chance to be helpful and generous. This strategy relies heavily on pragmatics to convey the intended meaning while still utilizing the semantic meaning as a way to avoid losing face (see below in Choice of strategy).


title: Politeness theory

text: Paul Grice argues that all conversationalists are rational beings who are primarily interested in the efficient conveying of messages. Brown and Levinson use this argument in their politeness theory by saying that rational agents will choose the same politeness strategy as any other would under the same circumstances to try to mitigate face. They show the available range of verbal politeness strategies to redress loss of face. Face-threatening acts have the ability to mutually threaten face, therefore rational agents seek to avoid face-threatening acts or will try to use certain strategies to minimize the threat. In certain situations, an over application of any particular strategy may actually achieve the opposite of the intended effect, as "certain speakers consistently evaluate polite behavior as unnecessary and offensive."


title: Politeness theory

text: In most cooperative circumstances where 3. is greater than 2., S will want to minimize the face-threatening act.


title: Politeness theory

text: Three sociological factors affect the choice of politeness strategy and the seriousness of the face threatening action: distance between speaker and listener; the power difference between the speaker and listener; and ranking of the seriousness of the face threat.


title: Politeness theory

text: The greater potential for loss of face requires greater redressive action. If the potential for loss of face is too great, the speaker may make the decision to abandon the face-threatening acts completely and say nothing.


title: Politeness theory

text: The number next to each strategy corresponds to the danger-level of the particular face-threatening act. The more dangerous the particular face-threatening act is, the more S will tend to use a higher numbered strategy.


title: Politeness theory

text: Although the politeness theory originated from the curiosity of linguistics and language forming, scholars are beginning to see its other benefits: its ability to not only help with interpersonal relationships, workplace environments, and beyond.


title: Politeness theory

text: One study by Cynthia Dunn observed a Japanese business that required etiquette training for their new employers. Employers were taught the company's definition of politeness; they were expected to incorporate these beliefs into their day-to-day behavior, such as "kindness," "consideration for others," and "deference and respect". However, self-presentation was also a critical feature employers wanted their employees to improve upon. An attractive self-presentation through various nonverbals and word choice would not only reflect the individual's politeness but the corporation's as well. This decision had very positive consequences in the workplace environment.


title: Politeness theory

text: Through new studies there is the possibility that the politeness theory may penetrate deeper areas. For example, maybe more businesses will begin to take on these concepts and incorporate them into their discussion and conflict-resolution strategies. These could be effective in achieving long-term goals. Whatever the case may be, the politeness theory has a solid foundation in the field of communication and will certainly contribute positively to the assimilation of language and civility.


title: Politeness theory

text: In his 1967 work, "Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior", Goffman posits numerous times that with every remark people make, they risk maintaining their face and the face of others. Politeness theory is generally applied when assessing speech acts or remarks. However, a study conducted by Jurgita Sribaitė looked at politeness theory as it applied to written art reviews. The study focused on art reviews in Lithuania in the early and mid-1970s and analyzed the different strategies used by the art reviewers as they attempted to critique pieces of art while maintaining their face as well as the face of the artists. The study was able to identify face-saving acts and all four politeness strategies at work. The author states, "Reviewers usually appear to have in mind the addressee's positive "face" (the desire to be liked and be approved of) as well as his negative "face" (the desire to be left free to act as he chooses)." The examples given show that even the reviewers, who hold the obvious advantage over the addressees, cared to save both their face and the face of the artists.


title: Politeness theory

text: Positive politeness strategies are used as a way of giving someone a sense of belonging and as seen in the politeness strategies section, jokes are considered a positive politeness strategy. Therefore, joking can be a way of making someone feel as if though they belong. However, some contemporary researchers have noted that humor is complex and not all jokes can be considered polite. In fact, many instances of humor usage can negatively affect face for a number of reasons: the hearers ability to understand the joke is tested, the hearer may interpret verification of the willingness to hear a joke as aggressive, and the hearer can be threatened even by non aggressive humor if it tests their ability to understand the joke or their emotions. In a study conducted by Marta Dynel, in 2016, different occasions of humor used in the television show, House, were assessed and analyzed as polite or (im)polite. In reference to the conclusions of study Dynel states, "Specifically, humor may serve politeness and/or impoliteness depending on the speaker's intention and awareness of the consequences his/her utterance may carry, the hearer's recognition of the speaker's intention, as well as his/her ultimate amusement or taking offense." In general, humor can provide face-saving tactics that enable solidarity, but it can also be a risky strategy to use because the speaker and the hearer must be on the same page.


title: Politeness theory

text: When delivering bad news the speaker has a lot to consider regarding his or her own face and the face of the hearer. In 2015, Miroslav Sirota and Marie Juanchich conducted a study on uncertainty communication with negative outcomes. The authors suggest "First, speakers making a prediction may intend not only to inform about a probability level, but also to manage the hearer's faces or their own...Second, speakers perform face-managing intentions by altering (e.g. lessening or magnifying) the explicitly communicated probablility of a negative outcome...Thus, politeness theory posits that speakers use uncertainty quantifiers to pursue informative intentions and also to sugar-coat threatening news to manage the hearers' or their own faces."


title: Politeness theory

text: The study conducted required people to communicate bad news to a friend regarding two scenarios. In the first scenario the subjects had to communicate a 50% probability that their friend's new car was going to break-down, and in the second scenario the subjects communicated a 50% chance that their friend's stock were going to lose their value. The subjects of the study reported that "speakers intended to manage hearer's faces from threatening news or to manage their own faces from being wrong… speakers communicated an altered (in the case of our scenarios, lower) outcome probability when they intended to be tactful or cautious than when they intended to be informative."


title: Politeness theory

text: In 2002, an oncologist by the name of Jerome Groopman wrote an article entitled, "Dying Words; How should doctors deliver bad news?". In his article he recalls one of the first experiences in which he had to tell a young woman that she has malignant terminal cancer. He said to her, "Claire, with this disease, a remission would ordinarily last three to six months. A person could expect to survive between one to two years." He found that this type of strategy (bald on-record) deeply shook the patient (negatively threatened her negative face). He now uses different strategies and realized that with sensitive information tact must be used, but also that the patient must be aware of the true probability of negative outcome. Many doctors, he argues, do not find that balance and tend to hedge information, "More than forty percent of oncologists withhold a prognosis from a patient if he or she does not ask for it or if the family requests that the patient not be told. A similar number speak in euphemisms, skirting the truth." This statement reads similarly to the Sirota and Juanchich study; bad news is very frequently sugar-coated in attempt to save face.


title: Politeness theory

text: In his book, "Outliers", Malcolm Gladwell wrote a chapter entitled, "The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes." The chapter attempts to explain why so many planes that crash end up crashing from human error, and not mechanical issues. One of the most prominent reasons, Gladwell points out, is the lack of effective communication due to the power dynamic between the captain and the first officer. He uses numerous examples of black box recordings in which the first officer hints at a problem instead of addressing it outright. He introduces the linguistic term, mitigated speech, and states, "We mitigate when we're being polite, or when we're ashamed or embarrassed, or when we're being deferential to authority." First officers tend to use mitigated speech when addressing their captain and this has caused plane crashes in the past.


title: Politeness theory

text: Linguists Ute Fischer and Judith Orasanu conducted a study with a group of captains and first officers. They gave them a scenario in which they had to communicate to each other the need to change course to avoid a thunderstorm. Overwhelmingly the captains used commands, or what Brown and Levinson would consider bald on-record politeness strategy, to communicate with their first officer. On the other hand, the first officers only used hints, similar to what politeness theory would consider an off-record politeness strategy, to communicate with their superior, the captain. Airlines have been taking this issue seriously and have made strides in teaching captains and first officers how to communicate with each other effectively.


title: Politeness theory

text: Various researches have analyzed the application of politeness theory in communication between different cultural groups. Communicative expectations, patterns of communicative activities and choice of politeness strategies vary among cultures. For instance, Morisaki and Gudykunst argue that members from individualist cultures prefer to use negative politeness strategies in conflict management, while members from collectivist cultures would rather use positive politeness strategies. 12


title: Politeness theory

text: In addition, some other researchers focused on the acquaintance of politeness strategies and knowledge about politeness difference in foreign language education. Japanese researcher Kawai found that there is a lack of “cultural learning” in English education makes the Japanese student weak in effectively use politeness strategies in English, such as the reliance on context understanding in Japanese may cause face-threatening acts when in inter-cultural communication with western cultures. Tanaka and Kawade found differences in the usage pattern of politeness strategies among native English speakers and ESL learners.


title: Politeness theory

text: Brown and Levinson's politeness theory is very applicable not only in the area of study within the communication field but also helpful in guiding individuals in ways to improve their speech and actions Two qualities in particular stand out:


title: Politeness theory

text: On the other hand, Although Brown and Levinson's theory is widely applicable, some weaknesses in their theory have been noted.


title: Politeness theory

text: Many academics have critiqued that many cultures use politeness strategies differently than how Brown and Levinson theorized. Many sociologists criticize that politeness theory is heavily based on Western cultures where individualism is highly valued compared to many non-Western cultures where group identity is valued over the individual. Some of this intracultural difference is, in part, due to diverse "knowledge and values" within a particular society, but Brown and Levinson argue that their theory is universal.


title: Politeness theory

text: Although everyone has face wants, there are different ways strategies they use to accomplish these wants or mitigate face threats based on their culture. For example, negative politeness is the norm in some cultures (Japan and Britain) but not others that prefer positive politeness (Australia) and some cultures use politeness strategies when there is no face threat, such as the Japanese honorific system. Ide et al. shows that the roughly equivalent term in Japanese, "teneina", has different sets of connotations associated with it from the English term "politeness". Gu (1998) pointed out that some face concerns in Western culture are not taken into account in Eastern cultures. In a series of interviews conducted by Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper in 1989 of fifty-two Israeli families, they conclude that as suggested already by the semantic definitions offered for the term "politeness" by Israelis, the constituents of "tact" and its appropriate modes of expression are very much subject to cultural interpretation.


title: Politeness theory

text: Some claim that a few of these techniques may be used in more than one type of situation or more than one at a time. Additionally, a given speech act (of any politeness strategy) can have multiple consequences, rather than affecting only positive face or negative face as the current theory suggests.


title: Politeness theory

text: Sometimes nonverbal actions speak louder than verbal communication and might alter how the politeness strategy is interpreted or which politeness strategy is used.


title: Politeness theory

text: An individual may have a pattern or way of communicating that they have habitually used in the past that others may consider face threatening or vice versa. Mood may also drive how they choose to respond to a situation regardless of politeness strategies.


title: Politeness theory

text: Various definitions of 'politeness' which make reference to considering others' feelings, establishing levels of mutual comfort, and promoting rapport have been found to be lacking, in that often whether a verbal act is face threatening or not depends upon preemptively knowing how the hearer will interpret it. This view shifts the focus from predominantly upon the speaker to upon both speaker and hearer, implying that politeness is socially constructed and therefore not universal, requiring cross-cultural examination. Additionally, a distinction has been made between first- and second-order politeness, due to the appropriation of an English word for a scientific concept: first-order politeness "correspond[s] to the various ways in which polite behavior is perceived and talked about by members of socio-cultural groups", meaning the connotation of 'politeness' for those not studying it, and second-order politeness is "a theoretical construct, a term within a theory of social behavior and language usage", meaning the scientific application of the term.


title: Politeness theory

text: Spencer-Oatey argues that sociality rights also plays a role in relationship management other than "face", and Brown and Levinson's "negative face" is not about face concerns but should be conceptualized into sociality rights. Watts (2003) argues that "it is impossible to evaluate (im) politeness behaviour out of the context of real, ongoing verbal interaction" and also "social interaction is negotiated on-line."


title: Politeness theory

text: Scholars suggest power differences vary between strangers and acquaintances, which in turn, shape the effects of the politeness strategies. Social similarity and intimacy are other aspects to consider, as these connections create an increased awareness of the other person's meaning and request and therefore minimize the face-threatening act. In 1964, socio-psychologist Edward E. Jones wrote a book on ingratiation and defines it as "a class of strategic behaviors illicitly designed to influence a particular other person concerning the attractiveness of one's personal qualities." The concept of ingratiation has helped spur further investigation into how its power dynamics play into Brown and Levinson's politeness theory. The claim has been made that Brown and Levinson's theory does not take into account the effect unique dynamic power relations and rankings has on the way people interact with one another (i.e. ingratiation).