title: Bill Laswell

text: Laswell got his earliest professional experience as a bass guitarist in R&B and funk bands in Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan. He saw shows that combined genres, such as Iggy and the Stooges, MC5, and Funkadelic. He was also influenced by jazz musicians John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and Miles Davis.


title: Bill Laswell

text: In the late 1970s Laswell moved to New York City, immersing himself in the thriving New York music scene. He moved into producer Giorgio Gomelsky's loft and became part of a group of musicians that would become the first version of Material. Material became the backing band for Daevid Allen and New York Gong. The band consisted of Laswell, keyboardist Michael Beinhorn, and drummer Fred Maher. They were usually supplemented by guitarists Cliff Cultreri or Robert Quine.


title: Bill Laswell

text: He worked with Brian Eno, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Daniel Ponce, Ginger Baker, Peter Brötzmann, Kip Hanrahan, Sonny Sharrock, and with musicians in no wave, a genre that combined avant-garde jazz, funk, and punk.


title: Bill Laswell

text: He started a recording studio with Martin Bisi and met Jean Karakos, owner of Celluloid Records. Under the Material name Laswell became the "de facto" house producer for Celluloid until the label was sold in the 1980s. He recorded music that was experimental, combining jazz, funk, pop, and R&B, by musicians such as Whitney Houston, Sonny Sharrock, Archie Shepp, Henry Threadgill, and the band Massacre with Fred Frith and Fred Maher. His association with Celluloid allowed his first forays into "collision music", a term coined by British writer Chris May of "Black Music & Jazz Review". Recordings with the Golden Palominos and production on albums by Shango, Toure Kunda, and Fela Kuti appeared on the label. Celluloid was an early advocate of hip hop, producing albums by Fab 5 Freddy, GrandMixer D.ST, Phase II, and Afrika Bambaataa. The album "World Destruction" paired John Lydon with Afrika Bambaataa years before Aerosmith and Run–D.M.C. collaborated on their rock/hip hop version of "Walk This Way".


title: Bill Laswell

text: In 1982, Laswell released "Baselines", his solo debut album. A year later, he had a breakthrough with "Rockit", a song he co-wrote and produced for Herbie Hancock's album "Future Shock". He played bass guitar and co-wrote other songs on the album, leading to collaborations with Hancock through the 2000s. He won a Grammy Award for producing Hancock's next album, "Sound-System".


title: Bill Laswell

text: He became a member of the band Last Exit in 1986 with Peter Brötzmann, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Sonny Sharrock. Aside from one album that Laswell cobbled together in the studio, the band was primarily a live one, showing up at gigs with no rehearsal. The first time the four members played together was on stage at their first show.


title: Bill Laswell

text: Laswell produced albums for Sly and Robbie, Mick Jagger, PiL, Motörhead, Ramones, Iggy Pop and Yoko Ono. Many of these bands afforded Laswell the opportunity to hire his working crew to record on more mainstream records. Sly and Robbie hired him to produce their 1985 album "Language Barrier" and 1987 album "Rhythm Killers".


title: Bill Laswell

text: Island Records founder Chris Blackwell gave him the opportunity to begin a label in 1990, thus forming Axiom Records. In addition to albums by Material that included Sly and Robbie, William S. Burroughs, Bootsy Collins, Wayne Shorter, and Bernie Worrell, he produced and released albums by Ginger Baker, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Sonny Sharrock, Nicky Skopelitis, and Umar Bin Hassan. Among the studio-based albums, Palestinian oud and violinist Simon Shaheen recorded an album of music by Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab. Gambian virtuoso Foday Musa Suso recorded an album of dance music with his electric Kora, and Turkish saz master Talip Oezkan recorded an album. Master Musicians of Jajouka recorded an album in their village in the Rif Mountains. There were albums by Mandinka and Fulani recorded at Suso's family compound in Gambia and Gnawa music from Morocco.


title: Bill Laswell

text: Praxis featured guitarist Buckethead on "Transmutation" with Bootsy Collins, Bryan Mantia, Bernie Worrell, and Afrika Baby Bam from the Jungle Brothers. The album blended funk grooves and heavy metal riffs with many tracks co-written by Laswell.


title: Bill Laswell

text: "Funkcronomicon" included previously released tracks by Praxis and Skopelitis and tracks with members of Parliament-Funkadelic. George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, and the last recordings of Eddie Hazel are featured prominently. The album includes DXT, Umar Bin Hassan, Abiodun Oyewole and Torture. Laswell remixed the Axiom catalog for "Axiom Ambient", blending seemingly disparate tracks, releasing some of the music for "Sample Material – International Free Zone", a sample library for other musicians to use as material.


title: Bill Laswell

text: Subharmonic, conceived by Laswell and ex-Celluloid A&R Robert Soares, though not owned by Laswell, was essentially a vehicle for his projects, most in the ambient or ambient-dub categories. The label licensed a few releases from European labels for American re-release, notably "Psychonavigation" with Pete Namlook and "Cymatic Scan" with Tetsu Inoue from Pete Namlook's FAX label; "Somnific Flux" with Mick Harris and "Cold Summer" by Lull from the Sentrax label. Other collaborators included Jonah Sharp and Terre Thaemlitz. The label also released albums by Painkiller, Praxis, and Divination, an ambient dub project by Laswell. A sub-label called Strata was created with five releases in a more experimental dub/noise/ambient vein. Each of these releases (Death Cube K, Cypher 7, Azonic, and two under his alias Automaton) came in a black jewel case with the name of the project and album title printed on the front.


title: Bill Laswell

text: Three other short-lived labels were created after the demise of the Subharmonic deal. One was Meta, which was intended to be a spoken word label. The second label, Submeta, managed four releases before folding. Meta, formed with Janet Rienstra, released only one album, "Baptism of Solitude" with novelist Paul Bowles reading excerpts from his work over soundscapes by Laswell. Meta would appear periodically, distributed by other labels, over the next few years until it returned as a spiritual/yogic label run by Rienstra. The third label, Black Arc, was an associated label of Rykodisc focusing on "Black Rock, Cyber Funk, and Future Blues", according to a sampler. The label featured members of P-Funk on most of the albums and released albums by Bootsy Collins (under the name "Zillatron"), Bernie Worrell (Japan-only), Mutiny (Jerome Brailey), and Billy Bass.


title: Bill Laswell

text: "Charged" (1999) by Eraldo Bernocchi and Toshinori Kondo was released by Laswell's label Innerythmic. After a brief inactive period, the label restarted in 2001, releasing over the next few years and albums by Nicky Skopelitis, Raoul Björkenheim, James Blood Ulmer, Shin Terai, and Gonervill. Innerhythmic also released a live recording by Praxis and reissued Black Arc albums from the 1990, including Zillatron, The Last Poets' "Holy Terror" and Buddy Miles' "Hell & Back".


title: Bill Laswell

text: Laswell moved his studio to West Orange, New Jersey and called it Orange Music Sound Studios. Under Palm's umbrella, though, four albums and a DVD set were released, including a studio album and a live 2-disc set from Tabla Beat Science centered on tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, son of Alla Rakha. The album included Karsh Kale, Trilok Gurtu, Ustad Sultan Khan, and Talvin Singh. This group has performed in the US, Lebanon, and Japan. Laswell, Kale, Kahn, and Hussain are usually supplemented by other musicians, which have included Gigi, DJ Disk, Serj Tankian from System of a Down, Sussan Deyhim, and artist Petulia Mattioli. In 2001 "Life Space Death" was released with Japanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, Laswell on bass, guitar, and keyboards, and words by the 14th Dalai Lama interviewed by Kondo. At the request of Blackwell, Laswell oversaw the debut album by Ethiopian singer Gigi for Palm Pictures with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Laswell. He also produced "Abyssinia Infinite" and "Gold & Wax".


title: Bill Laswell

text: Laswell has stated in interviews that he met with Miles Davis a number of times and discussed working together, but busy schedules kept them from arranging such a recording before Davis' death. He remixed some of Davis's music for "" (Axiom, 1998).


title: Bill Laswell

text: He signed a contract with Sanctuary Records that led to the creation of his label Nagual. He worked in the drum and bass genre, starting with "Brutal Calling" credited to Bill Laswell vs. Submerged that was released by Avant in 2004. He and Submerged worked together again on "The Only Way to Go is Down" (2006) under the name Method of Defiance. After this album, they assembled producers in drum and bass to collaborate with musicians from jazz. Evol Intent, Future Prophecies, and SPL recorded with Buckethead, Herbie Hancock, and Pharoah Sanders.


title: Bill Laswell

text: In 2010, Laswell created the label M.O.D. Technologies. Its first releases were the albums "Jahbulon" and "Incunabula" by Method of Defiance and "Mesgana Ethiopia" by Material with Gigi.


title: Bill Laswell

text: Along with live dates around the world with Massacre, Material, Method of Defiance, and Painkiller, Laswell travels to Japan every year for recordings and live dates, including with Tokyo Rotation.


title: Bill Laswell

text: Laswell works frequently with a small group of collaborators. These include bassists Jah Wobble, Jonas Hellborg, and Bootsy Collins; guitarists Buckethead and Nicky Skopelitis; keyboardists Jeff Bova and Bernie Worrell; percussionists Aïyb Dieng and Karsh Kale, and musicians from P-Funk. Robert Musso has been his chief engineer for over twenty years. Oz Fritz has occasionally filled the role. Fritz is usually Laswell's live engineer of choice, known for live mixing technique. Remixes have been done for Sting, Nine Inch Nails, Almamegretta, Scorn, Ozzy Osbourne, and Tori Amos. He has done much work for John Zorn's Tzadik Records.


title: Bill Laswell

text: In 2005, Laswell was invited to appear on the PBS series "Soundstage". The show featured musicians he has played with over the years, including members of Praxis and Tabla Beat Science, Pharoah Sanders, Foday Musa Suso, Bootsy Collins, and Catfish Collins.


title: Bill Laswell

text: Laswell worked with Sony Creative Software on a box set loop library called "The Bill Laswell Collection".


title: Bill Laswell

text: He has also worked with Eraldo Bernocchi and Mick Harris on a project called "Equations of Eternity", which is an ambient music project started in 1995 by Eraldo. Since its members live in separate parts of the world (Mick Harris in England; Bill Laswell in the US; and Eraldo Bernocchi in Italy), the project has been predominantly studio-based, with its members recording music in their respective countries.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: Remarkable (styled as reMarkable) is an E Ink writing tablet for reading documents and textbooks, sketching and note-taking that attempts to fully replicate paper writing. Developed by a Norwegian startup company of the same name, the device is geared towards students and academics.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: The reMarkable uses electronic paper reading display and tablet computer writing system, and operates on a Linux operating system.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: The company was founded by Magnus Wanberg and started product development in Oslo in early 2014. It has collaborated with Taiwanese company E Ink. Development was started in 2013 and a crowdfunding campaign launched in late 2016. Pre-orders began in 2017.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: Second generation reMarkable 2 was announced on March 17, 2020. It was marketed as the 'World's Thinnest Tablet' (measuring 187 x 246 x 4.7 mm) and sold in batches since mid-2020 for 458 €/US$ including the pen.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: ReMarkable uses its own operating system, named Codex. Codex is based on Linux and optimized for electronic paper display technology.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: As Codex is based on Linux and an open source ecosystem, it has gained community projects and 3rd party software for it. The device is accessible through SSH, allowing the installation of 3rd party software. Many packages are accessible through Toltec, a community-maintained free software repository. The Cloud system has been reverse engineered and an open source alternative has been created.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: An alternative free operating system, Parabola-rM, has been made to replace Codex. Parabola-rM aims to turn the device into a full-fledged computer, allowing typical desktop Linux applications to be run.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: As of October 2021, Connect required a monthly subscription of $5 for its Connect Lite plan or $8 for the Connect plan with unlimited cloud storage.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: As of September 2022, some features of the Connect plan were made available to all ReMarkable owners, the Connect plan price was reduced to $2.99 per month, and the Connect Lite plan discontinued with previous subscribers being upgraded to the Connect plan.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: ReMarkable RM100, launched in late 2017, has been criticized due to the sluggishness when loading and unloading files. According to Wired, reMarkable 2 "excels at taking your handwritten notes, but it doesn't do much else well." According to the podcast Bad Voltage, the lack of integrations with other software limits the device's usefulness for taking notes for some users, and there is no official third-party app ecosystem, but the ability to add software via unofficial hacks offers interesting possibilities.


title: Remarkable (tablet)

text: Like many other e-readers, reMarkable tablet uses electronic paper technology for the display. The pen uses EMR technology.


title: Milton Academy

text: Milton Academy (also known as Milton) is a highly selective, coeducational, independent preparatory, boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts consisting of a grade 9–12 Upper School and a grade K–8 Lower School. Boarding is offered starting in 9th grade. It is a highly selective school, accepting only 14% of applicants in the 2020–21 school year. Historically, it has been an unofficial feeder school for Harvard University.


title: Milton Academy

text: Milton is a member of the Independent School League (ISL). Milton's historic athletic rival is Noble and Greenough.


title: Milton Academy

text: The original Milton Academy was founded by a Massachusetts bill granting a charter in 1798, but operations ceased in 1866 with the opening of the public Milton High School. The academy, however, was re-established in 1884 on a new 125-acre site by John Murray Forbes, with the approval of the old board of trustees.


title: Milton Academy

text: Milton offers 15 interscholastic sports for both boys and girls each, as well as nine intramural teams. It is a member of both the Independent School League and the New England Schools Sailing Association division of the Interscholastic Sailing Association. Since 1886, Milton's traditional rival has been the Noble and Greenough School of Dedham. Recently, the ultimate team was ranked seventh in the nation and the varsity football team "entered the 2005 season with the best ten-year record of all ISL prep programs". Between 1998 - 2004 and led by coach Herb Chennel, The Boys' Tennis Team won the ISL Championship 6 times, and The New England Intercollegiate Tennis Championship 6 times. During that time Milton amassed a record of 74 wins and 1 loss. More than 10 players from those teams went on to Division I tennis careers. The coed sailing team has won two national championships—one in team racing and one in fleet racing. They have also won team racing worlds in 2015. Milton's boys' hockey team has had several players go on to successful professional careers, most notably 12-year NHLer Marty McInnis and current Boston Bruin Josh Hennessy. In 2011, Milton's boys hockey team won the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) championship. The team featured two NHL draft picks: Patrick McNally and Rob O'Gara. In 2012, the Girls' Cross Country team placed 1st and the Boys' Cross Country team placed 2nd in the ISL, earning the team's highest finish in 25 years. In 2013 the Girls Track & Field team clinched the ISL title while the Boys did the same in 2015. The Boys' Varsity Soccer team earned a first-round bid in the playoffs for the NEPSC in 2013. In 2014 they went undefeated until a semi-final elimination in the playoffs but returned to a perfect untied and unbeaten 22–0 season the following year, earning the ISL title, the New England Class A championship and the ISL Sportsmanship award.


title: Milton Academy

text: In February 2017, the academy announced the results of a nine-month sexual misconduct investigation by T&M Protection Resources. The firm interviewed 60 alumni, parents, current and former staff and came to the conclusion that four former employees had engaged in illegal sexual conduct with students in the 1970s and 80s. The most egregious abuse came from a drama teacher named Reynold Buono who had abused at least 12 male students before being terminated by the school in 1987. On June 27, 2018, Buono was arraigned in Norfolk Superior Court on three counts of rape of a child and three counts of rape of a child with force. Six of those counts were reversed in 2019 and four were reinstated in 2020 by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The original District Attorney alleged the rapes happened while Buono was teaching at the school between 1975 and 1987. Buono was terminated in 1987 after admitting to molesting a student and had been living in southeast Asia.


title: Milton Academy

text: In 2005, the school expelled five members of the boys varsity ice hockey team for rape/sexual assault of a female student. Following the county criminal investigation and prosecution by the state of Massachusetts, the three defendants over the age of 18 were found guilty of rape in adult court, and the two who were 16 at the time of the incident were found guilty in juvenile court. This incident was used for fictional accounts in both print and a Lifetime movie.


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: "Holiday" is a protest song by American rock band Green Day. It was released as the third single from the group's seventh studio album "American Idiot", and is also the third track. The song is in the key of F minor. Though the song is a prelude to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Holiday" was released as a single later on, on March 14, 2005.


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: The song achieved considerable popularity across the world and performed moderately well on the charts. In the US, it reached number 19 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and number one on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. It debuted at number 11 in the United Kingdom and reached the top 20 in Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, and Norway.


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: One of two explicitly political songs on the album (the other being fellow single "American Idiot"), "Holiday" took two months to finish writing, because Armstrong continually felt his lyrics were not good enough. Aided by the encouragement of Cavallo, he completed the song. "Holiday" was inspired by the music of Bob Dylan. Armstrong wanted to write something stronger than "American Idiot", with harsh language to illustrate his points. The song takes aim at American conservatism. Armstrong felt that Republican politicians were "strategic" in alienating one group of people—for example, the gay community—in order to buy the votes of another. He later characterized the song as an outspoken "fuck you" to then-President George W. Bush. Armstrong for the first time imagined how he would perform the songs he was writing, and envisioned an audience responding to his lyric "Can I get another Amen?" The song's bridge, which Armstrong hoped to be as "twisted as possible," was designed as a "politician's worst nightmare."


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: The chorus's refrain—"This is our lives on holiday"—was intended to reflect the average American's apathy on the issues of the day. Armstrong characterized the song as "not anti-American, it’s anti-war."


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: In live performances, video screens would display footage of helicopters dropping bombs. In New Jersey, at the Revolution Radio Tour, the lyrics "Pulverize the Eiffel Towers" were changed to "Pulverize the Donald Trump Towers".


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: Depending on the location of the performance, the lyric "the representative from California now has the floor" will be changed to reference the country or state where the song is being performed (e.g. "the representative from United Kingdom now has the floor").


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: The first half of the video takes place in a car (a 1968 Mercury Monterey convertible), where Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool are partying around in Las Vegas. In the second half they are cavorting in a bar where each of the band members portrays several different characters. Billie Joe Armstrong plays the mentioned Representative of California, two fighting clients, a punk rocker and a nerd. Tré Cool plays a drunken priest, an arrested patron, and a female prostitute. Mike Dirnt plays the barman, another punk, and a policeman. There are also scenes featuring seemingly worn-down can-can dancers. At the end of the video, the car smokes to a halt in the field that "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" begins in. Like the video for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", this video was directed by Samuel Bayer.


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: The band arrived at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards in the same car, this time "pimped out" by James Washburn, a friend of the band.


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: The song was first covered by the Irish pop punk band Scuba Dice in 2006 and charted at number eight on the Irish Singles Chart, number two on the download chart that week, and went on to be the 42nd-best-selling single of 2008 by an Irish artist.


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: Hayseed Dixie also performed a bluegrass cover of the song on the band's album "A Hot Piece of Grass".


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: The song "Dr. Who on Holiday", from the mash-up album "American Edit", combines "Holiday", The KLF single "Doctorin' the Tardis", and the original theme from the television show "Doctor Who", while the intro juxtaposes George W. Bush with the Daleks, a race of monsters from the aforementioned British television series.


title: Holiday (Green Day song)

text: "Holiday" was used as the goal song of the Vancouver Canucks during their run to the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals; the Canucks also reused it for Henrik Sedin's personal goal song in 2016–17 and for the team as a whole during the 2018–19 NHL season. Another NHL team, the San Jose Sharks, used this song as their theme song from 2005–06 to 2006–07. "Holiday" was also included on the soundtrack of the video game "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland".


title: Graham Gooch

text: Graham Alan Gooch, (born 23 July 1953) is a former English first-class cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation, and through a career spanning from 1973 until 2000, he became the most prolific run scorer of all time, with 67,057 runs across first-class and limited-overs games.<ref name="Records / Combined First-class, List A and Twenty20 / Batting records / Most runs in career"></ref> His List A cricket tally of 22,211 runs is also a record. He is one of only twenty-five players to have scored over 100 first-class centuries.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Internationally, despite being banned for three years following a rebel tour to ostracized South Africa, Gooch is the third highest Test run scorer for England. His playing years spanned much of the period of domination by the West Indies, against whom his mid-forties batting average is regarded as extremely creditable. His score of 154 against them at Headingley in 1991 is regarded as one of the greatest centuries of all time by many critics and former players. His career-best score of 333 – added to his second innings century – remains the highest match aggregate at Lord's. He was the first player to make 20 Test


title: Graham Gooch

text: appearances at Lord's. As captain, Matthew Engel noted, "his fanatical fitness and work-ethic gave the team more purpose than it had shown in a decade."


title: Graham Gooch

text: After 118 Tests, aged forty-two, he retired into coaching and as team selector, before becoming a commentator. In 2009 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He returned to coach Essex, before becoming England batting coach in 2012.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Gooch was born in Whipps Cross University Hospital, Leytonstone, London. He was educated at Norlington School for Boys and Leyton County High School for Boys, in Leyton.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Gooch played first-class cricket regularly between 1973 and 1997. Famous for his upright stance, a high bat-lift and heavy bat he became one of the most prolific run scorers top-class cricket has ever seen. On 8 November 2011, he received an honorary award from University of East London.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Gooch made his debut in Test cricket in 1975 at 21 against the touring Australia side captained by Ian Chappell. His debut was not a great success as Gooch got a pair, and England lost the first Test by an innings and 85 runs. In the second Ashes Test in the series he scored 6 and 31 and was then dropped from the side. He was not selected for the Test team again until 1978 (although making his one-day international debut in 1976), when his scoring rate for Essex meant that he could not be ignored and he became a mainstay in the England line-up. On his return to Test cricket he immediately had more success, making a first Test half-century, and 91 not out in his fifth Test, although it was his 22nd Test and five years after his debut before he made his first Test (or any international) century. In 1980 he was awarded the Wisden Cricketer of the Year. His first three Test centuries all came against the West Indies.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Gooch had a further hiatus in his career when he went on the controversial 1982 South African rebel tour, which resulted in all of the players concerned, including Geoff Boycott, Alan Knott and Bob Woolmer, being banned from Test cricket for three years. Geoffrey Boycott was generally perceived as the key player organising the tour party but it was Graham Gooch as captain of the team who gained the most media attention and in some cases vilification. Gooch was not handed the captaincy until the team arrived in South Africa at the beginning of March. It could be argued that more attention was on Gooch however as he was reaching his peak as a Test player, others were in the twilight years of their cricket careers and so the ban was arguably felt more acutely by the captain. Gooch claimed in the film "Out of the Wilderness" that 'others' decided he "had no place in England cricket", hence his decision to join the tour.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Upon the expiration of the ban, Gooch was restored to the England team in 1985. Opting to miss the 1986–87 tour of Australia for personal reasons, a severe loss of form resulted in failing to win back his England place for the 1987 summer and Test series against Pakistan – indeed at one stage he was even dropped to the Second XI at Essex, but his form returned at the end of the summer, with a superb century in the MCC Bicentennial match. He returned to the England team for the Cricket World Cup in India and Pakistan, and the subsequent winter tour of Pakistan. His career blossomed later after being appointed captain, a position he held twice: first briefly, at the end of the "summer of four captains" in 1988, as a replacement for the injured Chris Cowdrey (who never played another Test). In his first match (the fifth and last of the series against the West Indies), England at least showed some spirit, taking a first-innings lead for the only time in the series. Gooch's second-innings 84 stood alone as the rest of the batting collapsed, England losing the match (and with it the series 4–0). His second match, the one-off Test against Sri Lanka, was won, and all seemed fair for Gooch to remain as captain for the tour of India that winter. But that tour was cancelled over the Indian government's refusal to grant visas to the eight players who had sporting links with South Africa, including Gooch himself. David Gower returned as captain for the losing 1989 Ashes series – in which, for a second time, Gooch's loss of form with the bat resulted in his being dropped, by his own request this time.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Graham Gooch played in 3 different world cups in 3 decades - the 1979 Cricket World Cup, the 1987 Cricket World Cup, and the 1992 Cricket World Cup. He has the distinction of featuring in the finals of all the three World Cups that he played in. He would probably be best remembered in the competition for the stupendous century in the 1987 semi-final against India at the Wankhede Stadium when he repeatedly swept the spinners to carry England into the final. England made the finals in 1979 in their home ground to take on the mighty West Indies. The West Indies scored 286 for the loss of 9 wickets in 60 overs with Vivian Richards hammering an unbeaten 138. In reply, England had an impressive start with 129 for no loss. They lost openers Mike Brearley and Geoff Boycott in quick succession but Gooch and Derek Randall held it together. They added 48 runs for the third wicket and once Gooch was castled by Joel Garner on 32, the English side collapsed like a pack of cards. From 183 for 2, England were all out for 194, losing the final by 92 runs. In 1987 Cricket World Cup Final, Powered by David Boon's 75, Australia posted 253 for the loss of 5 wickets in 50 overs. The fateful reverse sweep by English skipper Mike Gatting at a crucial moment of the match saw his team losing the way after a good start and England fell short of Australia's score by just 7 runs. Gooch scored 35 off 57 balls as an opener in that match. Gooch was the leading run-scorer in the 1987 Cricket World Cup. In the 1992 Cricket World Cupfinal, Pakistani skipper Imran Khan won the toss and scored a 72 to propel his team to a formidable 249 for 6 wickets in 50 overs. Gooch had an ordinary outing this time, scoring 29 off 66 balls with just one boundary. They lost to Pakistan by 22 runs. Graham Gooch is the highest run-scorer for England in World cups, with 897 runs in 21 innings at an average of 44.85 and strike rate of 63.25. He scored one century and eight fifties. His highest score of 115 was against India in Mumbai in 1987.


title: Graham Gooch

text: After Gower's resignation following the 4–0 Ashes defeat of 1989, and the loss of a large number of players with Test experience to a second rebel tour of South Africa under Gatting, Gooch was re-appointed captain for the 1989–90 winter tour of the West Indies. England unexpectedly won the first Test, which was England's first victory over the Windies since 1973 and came close to winning the third Test. However, Gooch suffered a broken hand and missed the rest of the tour – England lost the two remaining matches and the series.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Returning for the summer of 1990, Gooch had a golden summer both as batsman and captain against India and New Zealand, scoring runs seemingly at will. Gooch scored a record 456 runs in the Lord's Test against India in 1990, 333 in the first innings and 123 in the second. Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka is the only other player to score a triple century in the first innings and a century in the second innings. His aggregate of 456 for the match remains a world record for a Test match, as does his aggregate of 752 for the 3-match series. Both series were won, and in 1990 Gooch was awarded the Professional Cricketers' Association Player of the Year.


title: Graham Gooch

text: The winter tour of Australia did not, however, go according to plan, England losing 3–0 despite holding first-innings leads in the first two tests (both of which were lost), although Gooch scored a marvellous hundred chasing an improbable total in the drawn 4th test.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Gooch had a public falling-out with David Gower, the England batsman, particularly after Gower hired a vintage aircraft and 'buzzed' the ground where England was playing during the unsuccessful tour of Australia in 1990/91. Gooch contributed to the decision to omit Gower from England's tour of India in 1993, which proved so controversial that an extraordinary vote of no confidence in the selectors was passed at the MCC. Gower never played another Test, lending an ironic edge to Gooch's surpassing him as England's leading run scorer in the 1993 Ashes series. It is this relationship between the two men that perhaps highlights best the differences between their approaches to the game, as Gower himself identified in 1995 in an interview in The Independent "I was never destined to be on the ball 100 per cent of the time. I don't have the same ability that Graham Gooch has, to produce something very close to his best every time he plays.'


title: Graham Gooch

text: In 1991 at Headingley against the West Indies he scored a match-winning 154 not out, carrying his bat throughout England's second innings against a highly rated pace attack, in overcast conditions on an unpredictable pitch, while only two of his colleagues reached double figures in a total of 252. The veteran sportswriter Frank Keating rated this as the finest Test innings he had ever seen in England. This opinion was backed up by the ICC rankings, which listed it as the highest-ranking innings of all time at any venue. In the rest of the series (drawn 2–2), Gooch was one of England's most consistent run-scorers, although no further centuries followed.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Gooch made a habit of leading by example, his batting average as captain being almost twice his average in the ranks. New Zealand were beaten in the winter tour of 1991–92, the decisive Second Test including another Gooch century (which he described as his worst ever, but his luckiest). He also led England to the World Cup final later that winter, and batted well during the 1992 series defeat by Pakistan – again, his runs contributing to England's series-levelling victory in the fourth Test.


title: Graham Gooch

text: After the fourth Test match of the 1993 Ashes series, and with England now 3–0 down in the series, he resigned as captain: the job being given to his fellow opening batsman, Mike Atherton. He continued playing for England for a couple of years, notably scoring another double century against New Zealand in 1994, and retired from test cricket as England's all-time highest run scorer. Over his 118 Test career, Gooch played with a record 113 different teammates.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Gooch made his debut for Essex in 1973 at the age of 19, and played for the county until his retirement as a player in 1997. For Essex, Gooch scored 120 in the 1979 Benson and Hedges Cup final against Surrey, a match which saw Essex win a major domestic trophy for the first time in their history. This heralded a highly successful period for the county, with Gooch a key member of a team that won the county championship six times in the years 1979–1992, and also won every other major domestic trophy at least once in the same period. Gooch holds numerous Essex batting records: in particular he scored the most first-class runs in a season (2559, scored in 1984 while banned from playing for England), and made more first-class centuries (94) for the county than any other player. The Essex record partnership for the second wicket was set by Gooch and Paul Prichard.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Gooch also bowled occasional medium pace, and took over 200 first-class wickets. He could be a prodigious swinger of the ball if conditions suited. In dead matches he could sometimes be seen doing impressions of fellow professionals' bowling styles.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Upon his retirement, Christopher Martin-Jenkins wrote an article in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack arguing that Gooch was the all-time highest run scorer in top level cricket. He scored 44,846 runs in all first-class cricket at an average of 49.01, including 128 centuries. (A number of players have scored more first-class runs.) Martin-Jenkins took into consideration Gooch's List A matches, in which he scored a further 22,211 runs, itself a world record.


title: Graham Gooch

text: In October 2001, Gooch returned to his beloved Essex in the capacity of head coach, taking over from Keith Fletcher. Gooch held this role until stepping down in March 2005 to Paul Prichard, his long running opening partner. Gooch remains at the club, continuing as the squad's specialist batting coach whilst also assuming commercial duties for the county.


title: Graham Gooch

text: In November 2009 Gooch was selected as a "temporary" batting coach for the impending four test tour of South Africa and to support ex-Essex colleague, Head England Coach Andy Flower


title: Graham Gooch

text: He has since remained as England's batting coach on a permanent basis, continuing this role for the 2010 series against Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the winter Ashes series against Australia in Australia. Double-centurion Alastair Cook (at the first test at the Gabba in Brisbane) hailed Gooch's influence on England's and his own batting prowess. Gooch subsequently has supervised England's batting (or 'run-scoring', as Ian Bell has noted Gooch refers to it) throughout their rise to number 1 in the Test cricket ICC Rankings. Prior to Gooch taking over, English batsmen had scored 6 test double-centuries in 15 years. 15 months after he became the batting coach, England had already beaten that total.


title: Graham Gooch

text: In March 2012 Gooch took the full-time role as England Batting coach which came in the wake of the disappointing three-match Test series against Pakistan, in which England were beaten 3–0, largely down to the failure of their batsmen. "I am delighted to be taking on the role of England batting coach on a full-time basis," said Gooch, "I will now have the opportunity to spend a lot more time with the players and other coaches both in the build-up to series and during the series themselves."


title: Graham Gooch

text: He was the subject of "This Is Your Life" in 1990, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at a gathering of the England Cricket Team in the Excelsior Hotel at Heathrow Airport.


title: Graham Gooch

text: In the mid-1990s Gooch began promoting hairpieces for a London-based clinic, as well as the Australian-based Advanced Hair Studio. Two licensed computer games were made by Audiogenic, Graham Gooch's Test Cricket in 1985 and Graham Gooch World Class Cricket in 1993.


title: Graham Gooch

text: He made a one-off return to first-class cricket in July 2000, just a few days before his 47th birthday, when he captained Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against New Zealand A at The Parks. It was not a successful comeback: Gooch made only 0 and 5 in the game.


title: Graham Gooch

text: In 2007 he announced his intention to compete in a beach cricket competition against Courtney Walsh's Team and Allan Border's team.


title: Graham Gooch

text: Graham Gooch is a West Ham United supporter. In 2014, he was appointed patron of The Rob George Foundation.


title: Howard Finkel

text: Howard Finkel (June 7, 1950 – April 16, 2020) was an American professional wrestling ring announcer, best known for his appearances in WWE. He began working for Vincent J. McMahon's World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in 1975, and was a Madison Square Garden ring announcer since 1977. Finkel was WWE's longest-serving employee (40 years) and was widely regarded as the greatest ring announcer of all time. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.


title: Howard Finkel

text: Finkel was born on June 7, 1950, in the city of Newark, New Jersey, and grew up with a Jewish family.


title: Howard Finkel

text: Finkel, debuted as a ring announcer at Madison Square Garden on January 17, 1977. By 1979, he was the World Wide Wrestling Federation's lead ring announcer for its biggest events. He became the first WWE employee on April 1, 1980, and later its longest-serving. Throughout his career, his distinctive voice was sometimes used in the title sequence for the company's various television programs. His signature call was his announcement of a new champion following a title change, in which he would place extra emphasis on the word "new" in order to draw the greatest reaction from the crowd. He came up with the event name "WrestleMania", as well as Ricky Steamboat's "Dragon" nickname. In 1984, he became WWF's lead ring announcer for television tapings, replacing Joe McHugh.


title: Howard Finkel

text: During a 2011 interview, he said he and his knowledge of history had also played a part in the talent relations and creative departments during the early days of the WWF. On January 19, 1987, Finkel was presented a plaque by Gene Okerlund, commemorating ten years of announcing at Madison Square Garden. In 1993, at the "Roman"-themed WrestleMania IX, he was introduced in a toga as Finkus Maximus. In 1995, Finkel took a seven-month hiatus from ring announcing on pay-per-views and television broadcasts (but not at house shows) and was replaced by Manny Garcia. He returned to full-time ring announcing at Royal Rumble 1996.


title: Howard Finkel

text: As an announcer, Finkel was generally separate from the scripted angles, but occasionally he became part of the company's storylines. In November 1990, Finkel played a tangential role in Curt Hennig defeating Kerry Von Erich to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship after he accepted a bribe from Ted DiBiase (whom Von Erich had recently attacked on "The Brother Love Show") to let him take over as guest ring announcer for the match. DiBiase eventually helped Hennig win the title by hitting Von Erich with the championship belt and afterwards taunted Von Erich over his defeat. 1992 saw the beginning of a feud with manager Dr. Harvey Wippleman, who regularly complained about Finkel's announcing. In 1992, Finkel was attacked by Wippleman's wrestler Adam Bomb. At WrestleMania X, Wippleman berated Finkel and tore off part of the announcer's tuxedo, who finally retaliated by pushing the manager to the ground. This led to Finkel's first match on January 9, 1995; on "Monday Night Raw", he won a tuxedo match over Wippleman, by stripping him to his underwear.


title: Howard Finkel

text: Finkel became involved in a feud between X-Pac and Jeff Jarrett, when Jarrett shaved the already near-bald Finkel's head. This feud culminated in a Hair versus Hair Match at SummerSlam 1998, with Finkel in the corner of X-Pac. X-Pac won the match and Finkel assisted him in cutting Jarrett's hair. In August 1999, Finkel became a lackey of the recently debuted Chris Jericho. On August 26, during the network debut episode of "WWF SmackDown," Jericho encouraged Finkel to attack SmackDown announcer Tony Chimel and take back his place as lead announcer. Finkel ran down the aisle, shoving Chimel and ordering him to step aside. As Finkel started to announce, Chimel threw Finkel from the ring. While Jericho helped Finkel to the back, they crossed paths with Ken Shamrock, who jostled with Jericho. Jericho convinced Finkel to distract Shamrock during his match.


title: Howard Finkel

text: After Finkel berated Shamrock, Shamrock began twisting Finkel's finger, permitting Jericho to hit Shamrock from behind with a steel chair. Several weeks later, Finkel adopted the role of El Dopo, a masked referee who unfairly officiated a Shamrock match, awarding the win to Curtis Hughes. On the October 14 episode of "SmackDown!", Jericho defeated Hughes with help from Finkel, but gave Finkel to Curtis Hughes after the match. Four days later on "Monday Night Raw", Hughes bet and lost Finkel in a game of poker, to The Acolytes. Finkel turned heel on an August 2002 episode of "Raw" and began a brief feud with "Raw" ring announcer Lilian Garcia over the lead spot, before both were attacked by 3-Minute Warning. The following week, Garcia defeated Finkel in an evening gown/tuxedo match with help from Trish Stratus and Stacy Keibler, who were insulted by a remark made by Finkel.


title: Howard Finkel

text: By 2000, Howard Finkel had taken a lighter schedule with the additions of Lilian Garcia and Tony Chimel to Raw and SmackDown, respectively, but he still announced for some of the WWF/E's pay-per-view events. By 2006, Finkel was rarely heard from even at pay-per-view wrestling events. However, he regularly announced at house shows and introduced the WWE Hall of Fame inductees at WrestleMania. Finkel himself was inducted on April 4, 2009, by Gene Okerlund. Because Finkel was one of that year's inductees, SmackDown announcer Justin Roberts replaced him in introducing the group at WrestleMania XXV. Finkel's television appearances were sporadic, at major pay-per-views and occasional episodes of Raw and SmackDown. Finkel appeared at every WrestleMania from 1985 to 2016.


title: Howard Finkel

text: Finkel did the voiceover in the intro for the WWE.com video show, "The Dirt Sheet", and also conducted interviews for various WWE.com programs. He was WWE's chief statistician. On September 7, 2009, he announced in special guest host Bob Barker's "The Price is Right"-inspired segments. He was in the background of the "Decade of SmackDown" celebrations on the October 2 episode. Finkel returned to ring announcing (for one night only) on the November 15, 2010, "Old School" episode of Raw. He appeared on an episode of NXT, in an "Outthink the Fink" challenge. In an interview on March 28, 2011, Finkel stated his favorite (and career-defining) accomplishment was announcing at WrestleMania III, in front of over 93,000 fans. On November 20, 2011, at Survivor Series in Madison Square Garden, Finkel was the special ring announcer for CM Punk, in his WWE Championship match against Alberto Del Rio.


title: Howard Finkel

text: On April 10, 2012, Finkel appeared on the "Blast from the Past" episode of SmackDown. On July 23, 2012, Finkel was a special ring announcer on the 1,000th episode of Raw. In 2014, Finkel was a cast member on the WWE Network original reality show, Legends' House. He also served as the off-screen announcer for the network's comedy series, The Edge and Christian Show. Finkel regularly appeared in the WWE web series "The JBL and Cole Show", until the show's cancellation in June 2015. His role in announcing the WWE Hall of Fame inductees at WrestleMania passed to other ring announcers in the WWE beginning in 2017. On January 22, 2018, at the 25th anniversary of Monday Night Raw, Finkel was the announcer to introduce The Undertaker, although it was a recording due to him being unable to attend the event.


title: Howard Finkel

text: During the final years of his life, Finkel worked in a backstage role for WWE. On June 14, 2020, at the Backlash PPV, a recording of Howard Finkel introducing both Edge and Randy Orton to the 'Greatest Wrestling Match Ever' was played, introducing the pair of combatants.


title: Howard Finkel

text: Finkel died on April 16, 2020, at the age of 69. He had been unwell since a stroke in February 2019. On the podcast "Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard", Prichard mentioned that Finkel had been a resident of an assisted living facility for some time prior to his death.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: The firehose of falsehood, or firehosing, is a term coined by RAND Corporation for a propaganda technique in which a large number of messages are broadcast rapidly, repetitively, and continuously over multiple channels (such as news and social media) without regard for truth or consistency. RAND Corporation, a US military-funded organisation which claims to promote the "public welfare and security of the United States", describes the firehose of falsehood as a contemporary model for Russian propaganda under president Vladimir Putin.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: The firehose of falsehood has been used in propaganda across the world, including by the governments of the United States, Russia, and Brazil, former Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte, Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, former U.S. president Donald Trump, the Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom, and the anti-vaccine movement.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: According to the 2016 RAND Corporation publication that coined the term, the firehose of falsehood differs from many older propaganda techniques in its method and aims. Much larger numbers of messages and channels are used in the internet age, and a "shameless" approach is employed to disseminating falsehoods and contradictory messages. The immediate aim of the firehose is to entertain, confuse, and overwhelm the audience. The firehose takes advantage of modern technology, such as the Internet and social media, as well as recent changes in how people produce and consume news.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: The high volume of messages, the use of multiple channels, and the use of internet bots and fake accounts are all effective because people are more likely to believe a story when it seems to have been reported by multiple sources. In addition to official news sources, for example, actors disseminate propaganda using dozens of proxy websites, whose connection to said actors are "disguised or downplayed." People are also more likely to believe a story when they think many others believe it, especially if those others belong to a group with which they identify. Thus, an army of trolls can influence a person's opinion by creating the false impression that a majority of that person's neighbors support a given view.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: The RAND Corporation analysis focuses exclusively on Russia, with firehosing presented as a uniquely Russian technique. Conversely, Michael Collins, White House Correspondent for USA Today, writes that Russia was not the first to use this technique, and that propaganda has always been a common tool used by governments throughout history to try and justify conflict. He cites examples of similar propaganda efforts from Western governments and intelligence services going as far back as 1941. Collins quotes Nicholas J. Cull, a professor, historian and propaganda specialist at the University of Southern California, as saying: “It’s important to remember that the good guys, as we now think of them, have used fakes and disinformation”.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: RAND describe the Russian government's use of the firehose of falsehood as having evolved "since" the Russo-Georgian War, "if not before". According to RAND, the Russian government has continued to use this propaganda technique as part of its disinformation campaigns targeting Ukraine. Christian Caryl, writing for The Washington Post, describes the Russian government's use of the technique in news and entertainment aimed at Russian-speaking minorities in the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. RAND also noted Russia's use of the firehose technique during its involvement in the Syrian civil war. For example, in November 2017, Russian state media published a set of images which claimed to show U.S.-backed coalition forces collaborating with Islamic State militants. This was met with a U.S. counter-claim that the images were screen captures from a video game. In 2019, according to the science writer William J. Broad of "The New York Times", Russian state-funded broadcaster RT America began a "firehose of falsehood" campaign to convince Americans that 5G phones were a health hazard.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: Writing for the Bangladesh Institute of Peace & Security Studies, Simen Agnalt Nilsen describes U.S. state-run media outlets, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Marti, as following the Russian "firehose of falsehood" model.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: Andi Sweet, writing for the student-reviewed MacEwan University journal, MUSe, likens the digital PR agency Topham Guerin's campaigns for the Conservative Party of Canada and the Liberal Party of Australia to a firehose of falsehood model:"Guerin stated that an effective social media campaign needs to “surprise, shock, and arouse,” with anger being the most critical arousal emotion. Low-quality memes are more effective than high-quality professional ads because of three factors...volume, variety, and speed". The Australian Broadcasting Corporation described Topham Guerin as a “social media firehose... designed to corral the faithful and convert the fence-sitters”.Brazilian journalist Renan Borges Simão defines the political campaign of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as a firehose of falsehood, noting the great extent to which it has affected the Brazilian political sphere, the grave consequences, and the difficulty in finding effective tactics to counter it.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: In the United Kingdom, the Leave Campaign have been described as using a firehose of falsehood model during the 2016 Brexit referendum.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: According to the author and former military intelligence officer John Loftus, Iran has been using similar methods to incite hatred against Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Israel. He claims that some fake news that is attributed to Russia was actually planted in the Western press by Iran.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: During Indonesia's 2019 presidential race, the incumbent, Joko Widodo, accused Prabowo Subianto's campaign team of disseminating hateful propaganda aided by foreign consultants and cited "Russian propaganda" and the "firehose of falsehood" model.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: According to the "Mother Jones" editor Monika Bauerlein, the firehose technique is increasingly being used against the press by American politicians. She warns readers to expect an increase in the use of several related tactics: the lawsuit threat, the "fake news" denial, and the ad hominem attack. Deepfake video also poses a serious threat, according to the Belgian journalist , who warns that "we've only seen the beginning of fake news."


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: The firehosing technique has been successfully used by the anti-vaccine movement to spread debunked theories about the supposed dangers of vaccination.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: Amy Zegart writes that the firehose of falsehood is available for hire from private espionage services and information warfare specialists such as Psy-Group. This now-defunct company, staffed by former Israeli intelligence officers, whose brochures featured the tagline “Reality is a matter of perception”, was contracted for a variety of firehosing activities, some of which resulted in their investigation as part of the inquiry into interference in the 2016 United States presidential election. Zegart writes: "The company’s alleged activities included everything from creating a sham European think tank that churned out reports favoring the parliamentary election campaign of a client to creating websites making false claims disparaging the opponent of a client running for the local hospital board in Tulare, California, a town of just sixty thousand people. As former senior Israeli intelligence official Uzi Shaya put it, “Social media allows you to reach virtually anyone and to play with their minds. . . . You can do whatever you want. You can be whoever you want. It’s a place where wars are fought, elections are won, and terror is promoted. There are no regulations. It’s a no-man’s land"."


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: Conventional counterpropaganda efforts are ineffective against this technique. As researchers at RAND put it, "Don't expect to counter the firehose of falsehood with the squirt gun of truth." They suggest:


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: Researchers at the German Marshall Fund suggest, among other things, being careful not to repeat or amplify the original false claim; repeating a false story, even to refute it, makes people more likely to believe it. Security expert Bruce Schneier recommends teaching digital literacy as part of an 8-step information operations kill chain.


title: Firehose of falsehood

text: Another countermeasure is to respond quickly as events unfold, and to be the first to tell the story. In "How We Win the Competition for Influence", a 2019 article for the U.S. Military Review journal, army strategists Wilson C. Blythe and Luke T. Calhoun cite an example of this happening in the aftermath of the Battle of Khasham during the Syrian civil war. In February 2018, U.S. airstrikes killed approximately 100 pro-government fighters in a contested set of events. Immediately afterwards, the U.S.-led coalition published a news release titled "Unprovoked attack by Syrian pro-regime forces prompts coalition defensive strikes". In response to the news, reporters from around the world flooded the coalition with queries, and so the coalition "succeeded in setting the agenda for the media coverage that followed", with media outlets "forced to lead their stories with the coalition narrative of events". In their article, Blythe and Calhoun stress the importance of consistent messaging. They compare information operations to other weapons used by the military to target an enemy and achieve a desired result: "The information environment is an inherent part of today's battlefields."


title: Unchained (Johnny Cash album)

text: Unchained, also known as American II: Unchained, is the second album in Johnny Cash's American Recordings series (and his 82nd overall). It was released on November 5, 1996, by American Recordings. Like all of Cash's albums for American Recordings, "Unchained" was produced by Rick Rubin. The album received a Grammy for Best Country Album and Cash was nominated for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for his version of "Rusty Cage."


title: Unchained (Johnny Cash album)

text: In contrast to the first album – on which Cash played alone – he is backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. There are guest appearances by country music veteran Marty Stuart (additional guitar on more than half the songs); Flea (bassist from Red Hot Chili Peppers), on "Spiritual"; and by Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, both of Fleetwood Mac, on "Sea of Heartbreak".


title: Unchained (Johnny Cash album)

text: "Unchained" focuses on covers. In addition to three of Cash's own compositions, "Unchained" contained songs by Jude Johnstone ("Unchained"), Tom Petty ("Southern Accents"), Spain ("Spiritual"), Soundgarden ("Rusty Cage"), and Beck ("Rowboat"). The album also included a cover of the classic 1962 Hank Snow song, "I've Been Everywhere", written by Geoff Mack. From 2003 to 2009 Johnny Cash’s version of "I’ve Been Everywhere" from this album "Unchained" has been used in several Choice Hotels commercials and has been the theme for these commercials. Cash’s I’ve Been Everywhere has also been used as a soundtrack in Season 2 of the animated series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. According to biographer Robert Hilburn, Cash also recorded a cover version of Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" during the recording sessions for "Unchained", but it was not released.


title: Unchained (Johnny Cash album)

text: The album was recorded over a six-month period with engineer Sylvia Massy at Sound City Studios, Ocean Way Studios, Rick Rubin's home studio and the Cowboy Arms And Recording Spa in Nashville, Tennessee and mastered at Oasis Mastering, Studio City, California.


title: Bullet time

text: Bullet time (also known as frozen moment, dead time, flow motion or time slice) is a visual effect or visual impression of detaching the time and space of a camera (or viewer) from those of its visible subject. It is a depth enhanced simulation of variable-speed action and performance found in films, broadcast advertisements, and realtime graphics within video games and other special media. It is characterized by its extreme transformation of both time (slow enough to show normally imperceptible and unfilmable events, such as flying bullets), and of space (by way of the ability of the camera angle—the audience's point-of-view—to move around the scene at a normal speed while events are slowed). This is almost impossible with conventional slow motion, as the physical camera would have to move implausibly fast; the concept implies that only a "virtual camera", often illustrated within the confines of a computer-generated environment such as a virtual world or virtual reality, would be capable of "filming" bullet-time types of moments. Technical and historical variations of this effect have been referred to as time slicing, view morphing, "temps mort" (French: "dead time") and virtual cinematography.


title: Bullet time

text: The term "bullet time" was first used with reference to the 1999 film "The Matrix", and later in reference to the slow motion effects in the 2001 video game "Max Payne". In the years since the introduction of the term via the "Matrix" films it has become a commonly applied expression in popular culture.


title: Bullet time

text: The technique of using a group of still cameras to freeze motion occurred before the invention of cinema itself with preliminary work by Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne Jules Marey on chronophotography. In "The Horse in Motion" (1878), Muybridge analyzed the motion of a galloping horse by using a line of cameras to photograph the animal as it ran past. Eadweard Muybridge used still cameras placed along a racetrack, and each camera was actuated by a taut string stretched across the track; as the horse galloped past, the camera shutters snapped, taking one frame at a time. Muybridge later assembled the pictures into a rudimentary animation, by having them traced onto a glass disk, rotating in a type of magic lantern with a stroboscopic shutter. This zoopraxiscope may have been an inspiration for Thomas Edison to explore the idea of motion pictures. In 1878–1879, Muybridge made dozens of studies of foreshortenings of horses and athletes with five cameras capturing the same moment from different positions. For his studies with the University of Pennsylvania, published as "Animal Locomotion" (1887), Muybridge also took photos from six angles at the same instant, as well as chronophotic series of 12 phases from three angles.


title: Bullet time

text: A debt may also be owed to MIT professor Harold Edgerton, who, in the 1940s, captured now-iconic photos of bullets using xenon strobe lights to "freeze" motion.


title: Bullet time

text: Bullet-time as a concept was frequently developed in cel animation. One of the earliest examples is the shot at the end of the title sequence for the 1966 Japanese anime series "Speed Racer": as Speed leaps from the Mach Five, he freezes in mid-jump, and then the "camera" does an arc shot from front to sideways.


title: Bullet time

text: In 1980, Tim Macmillan started producing pioneering film and later, video, in this field while studying for a BA at the (then named) Bath Academy of Art using 16mm film arranged in a progressing circular arrangement of pinhole cameras. They were the first iteration of the Time-Slice' Motion-Picture Array Cameras" which he developed in the early 1990s when still cameras for the array capable of high image quality for broadcast and movie applications became available. In 1997 he founded Time-Slice Films Ltd. (UK). He applied the technique to his artistic practice in a video projection, titled "Dead Horse" in an ironic reference to Muybridge, that was exhibited at the London Electronic Arts Gallery in 1998 and in 2000 was nominated for the Citibank Prize for photography.


title: Bullet time

text: The first music video to use aspects of bullet-time was "Midnight Mover", a 1985 Accept video. In the 1990s, a morphing-based variation on time-slicing was employed by director Michel Gondry and the visual effects company BUF Compagnie in the music video for The Rolling Stones' "Like A Rolling Stone", and in a 1996 Smirnoff commercial the effect was used to depict slow-motion bullets being dodged. Similar time-slice effects were also featured in commercials for The Gap (which was directed by M. Rolston and again produced by BUF), and in feature films such as "Lost in Space" (1998) and "Buffalo '66" (1998) and the television program "The Human Body".


title: Bullet time

text: It is well-established for feature films' action scenes to be depicted using slow-motion footage, for example the gunfights in "The Wild Bunch" (directed by Sam Peckinpah) and the heroic bloodshed films of John Woo. Subsequently, the 1998 film "Blade" featured a scene that used computer generated bullets and slow-motion footage to illustrate characters' superhuman bullet-dodging reflexes. The 1999 film "The Matrix" combined these elements (gunfight action scenes, superhuman bullet-dodging, and time-slice effects), popularizing both the effect and the term "bullet-time". "The Matrix" version of the effect was created by John Gaeta and Manex Visual Effects. Rigs of still cameras were set up in patterns determined by simulations, and then shot either simultaneously (producing an effect similar to previous time-slice scenes) or sequentially (which added a temporal element to the effect). Interpolation effects, digital compositing, and computer generated "virtual" scenery were used to improve the fluidity of the apparent camera motion. Gaeta said of "The Matrix" use of the effect:


title: Bullet time

text: For artistic inspiration for bullet time, I would credit Otomo Katsuhiro, who co-wrote and directed "Akira", which definitely blew me away, along with director Michel Gondry. His music videos experimented with a different type of technique called view-morphing and it was just part of the beginning of uncovering the creative approaches toward using still cameras for special effects. Our technique was significantly different because we built it to move around objects that were themselves in motion, and we were also able to create slow-motion events that 'virtual cameras' could move around – rather than the static action in Gondry's music videos with limited camera moves.


title: Bullet time

text: Following "The Matrix", bullet time and other slow-motion effects were featured as key gameplay mechanics in various video games. While some games like Cyclone Studios' "", released in March 1999, featured slow-motion effects, Remedy Entertainment's 2001 video game "Max Payne" is considered to be the first true implementation of a bullet-time effect that enables the player to have added limited control (such as aiming and shooting) during the slow-motion mechanic; this mechanic was explicitly called "Bullet Time" in the game. The mechanic is also used extensively in the "F.E.A.R." series, combining it with squad-based enemy design encouraging the player to use bullet time to avoid being overwhelmed.


title: Bullet time

text: Bullet time was used for the first time in a live music environment in October 2009 for Creed's live DVD "Creed Live".


title: Bullet time

text: The popular science television program, "Time Warp", used high speed camera techniques to examine everyday occurrences and singular talents, including breaking glass, bullet trajectories and their impact effects.


title: Bullet time

text: The bullet time effect was originally achieved photographically by a set of still cameras surrounding the subject. The cameras are fired sequentially, or all at the same time, depending on the desired effect. Single frames from each camera are then arranged and displayed consecutively to produce an orbiting viewpoint of an action frozen in time or as hyper-slow-motion. This technique suggests the limitless perspectives and variable frame rates possible with a virtual camera. However, if the still array process is done with real cameras, it is often limited to assigned paths.


title: Bullet time

text: In "The Matrix", the camera path was pre-designed using computer-generated visualizations as a guide. Cameras were arranged, behind a green or blue screen, on a track and aligned through a laser targeting system, forming a complex curve through space. The cameras were then triggered at extremely close intervals, so the action continued to unfold, in extreme slow-motion, while the viewpoint moved. Additionally, the individual frames were scanned for computer processing. Using sophisticated interpolation software, extra frames could be inserted to slow down the action further and improve the fluidity of the movement (especially the frame rate of the images); frames could also be dropped to speed up the action. This approach provides greater flexibility than a purely photographic one. The same effect can also be simulated using pure CGI, motion capture and other approaches.


title: Bullet time

text: Bullet time evolved further through "The Matrix" series with the introduction of high-definition computer-generated approaches like virtual cinematography and universal capture. Universal capture, a machine vision guided system, was the first ever motion picture deployment of an array of high definition cameras focused on a common human subject (actor, Neo) in order to create volumetric photography. Like the concept of bullet time, the subject could be viewed from any angle yet, at the same time, the depth based media could be recomposed as well as spatially integrated within computer generated constructs. It moved past a visual concept of a virtual camera to becoming an actual virtual camera. Virtual elements within the Matrix Trilogy utilized state-of-the-art image-based computer rendering techniques pioneered in Paul Debevec's 1997 film "The Campanile" and custom evolved for "The Matrix" by George Borshukov, an early collaborator of Debevec. Inspiration aside, virtual camera methodologies pioneered within the "Matrix" trilogy have been often credited as fundamentally contributing to capture approaches required for emergent virtual reality and other immersive experience platforms.


title: Bullet time

text: For many years, it has been possible to use computer vision techniques to capture scenes and render images of novel viewpoints sufficient for bullet time type effects. More recently, these have been formalized into what is becoming known as free viewpoint television (FTV). At the time of "The Matrix", FTV was not a fully mature technology. FTV is effectively the live action version of bullet time, without the slow motion.


title: Swagger stick

text: A swagger stick is a short stick or riding crop usually carried by a uniformed person as a symbol of authority. A swagger stick is shorter than a staff or cane, and is usually made from rattan. Its use derives from the vine staff carried by Roman centurions as an emblem of office.


title: Swagger stick

text: In the British Army before World War I, swagger sticks were carried by all other ranks when off duty, as part of their walking out uniform. The stick took the form of a short cane of polished wood, with an ornamented metal head of regimental pattern. The usual custom was for the private soldier or non-commissioned officer (NCO) to carry the stick tucked under his arm. Cavalrymen carried a small riding cane instead of the swagger stick of infantry and other branches. This practice was restricted to the army and Royal Marines, and was never imitated by the other services, although T. E. Lawrence when he had enlisted in the Royal Air Force under the name of Ross, mentions that airmen under training at the RAF Depot at Uxbridge carried swagger sticks. It is thought that this practice was limited to the depot.


title: Swagger stick

text: Until 1939 swagger sticks were still carried by peacetime regular soldiers when "walking out" of barracks, but the practice ceased with the outbreak of World War II. Uniforms are no longer worn by British army personnel when off-duty, and the swagger stick has accordingly become obsolete.


title: Swagger stick

text: In the British Army and other military forces following the Commonwealth traditions, commissioned officers of most infantry regiments formerly carried swagger sticks (described as canes) when on duty, whilst warrant officers and senior NCOs carried pace sticks instead. This practice continues in some regiments, especially by warrant officers when in Barrack Dress. Cavalry officers would often carry a riding crop rather than a swagger stick, in deference to their mounted traditions. In some Irish regiments in the British army, such as the Royal Irish Regiment (1992), officers carried a blackthorn walking stick, based on the shillelagh. In the Royal Tank Regiment, officers carried an 'ash plant' or walking stick instead, in reference to World War I tank attacks, when officers would prepare lines of advance by testing the ground's firmness and suitability for tanks.


title: Swagger stick

text: Swagger sticks were once in vogue in the United States Marine Corps, starting as an informal accessory carried by officers in the late 19th century. In 1915, it gained official approval as recruiters were encouraged to carry them to improve their public image. This tradition grew when Marines deployed for World War I encountered European officers carrying swagger sticks, leading to an entry in the uniform regulations in 1922 authorizing enlisted marines to carry them as well. The usage died down in the 1930s and 40s, with the exception of China Marines, and came back into vogue with a 1952 regulation encouraging them, reaching a peak from 1956 to 1960 when on 4 January 1960, the Commandant, General David M. Shoup, commented on their use with regard to uniforms and equipment.


title: Swagger stick

text: There is one item of equipment about which I have a definite opinion. It is the swagger stick. It shall remain an optional item of interference. If you feel the need of it, carry it…


title: Swagger stick

text: Few, if any, contemporary officers carry a swagger stick, and it has no official sanction in any branch.


title: Swagger stick

text: General George S. Patton carried a swagger stick throughout World War II; however, his contained a concealed blade, similar to a Victorian gentleman's sword cane.


title: Swagger stick

text: General Paul D. Harkins, United States commander in Vietnam from 1962 to 1964, habitually carried a swagger stick.


title: Swagger stick

text: General William J. Livsey, who was the commanding general of the Eighth United States Army in South Korea from 1984 to 1987, publicly carried a swagger stick that was carved from wood collected from the poplar tree at the center of the Axe Murder Incident.


title: Strawweight (MMA)

text: The strawweight division in mixed martial arts is for competitors weighing between 106 and 115 lb (48 to 52 kg). It sits between the lighter atomweight division and the heavier flyweight division.


title: Strawweight (MMA)

text: Until recently, the strawweight division in mixed martial arts was not defined by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, which since the inception of the Unified Rules had grouped all competitors below 125 lb (57 kg) together as flyweights. Support for the class has grown steadily since about 2013:


title: Andhaka

text: In Hindu literature, Andhaka (Sanskrit: अन्धक, IAST: Andhaka; lit. "He who darkens") refers to a malevolent asura, whose pride is vanquished by Shiva and Parvati.


title: Andhaka

text: His story finds mention in various Hindu texts, including the "Matsya Purāṇa", the "Kūrma Purāṇa", the "Liṅga Purāṇa", the "Padma Purana," and the "Shiva Purana". He is believed to have one thousand heads, and one thousand arms, and also having two thousand eyes. In another version, he has two thousand arms, and two thousand legs. In some versions of his story, Andhaka is described as a son of Shiva and Parvati.


title: Andhaka

text: In the Shiva Purana, when Shiva was meditating on Mount Mandara, Parvati was in a playful mood and covered Shiva's eyes. This caused the whole universe to become covered in darkness. The sweat that oozed out of Parvati's hands, due to touching Shiva's powerful third eye, fell to the ground and created a horrible looking and blind boy. Parvati was terrified on seeing him, but Shiva rebuked her, claiming that since he was born due to their physical contact, he was their child.


title: Andhaka

text: When the demon king Hiraṇyākṣa performed penance to please Shiva in order to beget a child, Shiva gifted the boy to him and named him Andhaka due to his blindness. After Hiraṇyākṣa's death by Vishnu, Andhaka became the new king, but was not regarded as an Asura since he was born of the Devas. Disowned by majority of his clan, he performed a severe penance to please Brahmā. Brahmā thus appeared to him and offered him a boon. Andhaka requested that Brahmā give and make divine vision and immortality. Brahmā granted Andhaka these wishes, but warned him that he could still be killed by Shiva. Andhaka went back to his kingdom and subdued all his opponents as well as the Devas.


title: Andhaka

text: Andhaka asked his minister if there was anyone who could match him in strength, majesty and riches. The minister informed him that he did not have the company of a beautiful woman. The world's most beautiful woman, he explained, was Parvati, who belonged to a matted ascetic who lived on Mount Kailāśa. Andhaka was advised that if he wished to be truly matchless, he should possess her. Andhaka sent a messenger to Shiva with the demand to hand over his wife. Andhaka attacked Shiva with his greatest warriors, but they were defeated by Shiva's army.


title: Andhaka

text: One day, when Shiva and his Gaṇas were away, Andhaka found Parvati alone. She resisted Andhaka's advances, but when she found him to be too overwhelming, she requested aid from the gods. The battle went on for many years and when Shiva found out about this he declared a truce. Many attempts were made for a peaceful resolution, but Andhaka insisted on acquiring Parvati.


title: Andhaka

text: He renewed the assault and his trusted general Bali single-handedly defeated all the gods and swallowed them. Shiva fired powerful weapons at Bali, which forced him to disgorge all the gods. In retaliation, Shiva swallowed Śukra, the guru of the Asuras. Andhaka then launched an attack on Indra. Shiva intervened to save Indra and assaulted the demon with his trident. However, whenever Andhaka's blood fell on the ground, a copy of him would spawn. Vishnu created several Mātṛkās to drink the blood of the demon every time he was hurt, preventing the spread of new demons. Finally, Shiva managed to decapitate Andhaka. According to Shiva Purana, in a twist of events, since Andhaka had chanted Shiva's name in repentance after which he was told of his biological parentage and he was made a Gaṇa chief.


title: Andhaka

text: the Purāṇa in which Andhaka's birth story and disownment by his clan remains the same. His kingdom was taken over by his cousins, including Prahlāda, when he went to the forest to perform penance to Brahmā. During his penance he abstained from both water and food while severing his own limbs as an act of desperation to please Brahmā.


title: Andhaka

text: His actions proved successful. A pleased Brahmā appeared before him and offered him a boon of his choice. Andhaka asked Brahma to repair his vision and also asked him to make him immortal. Brahmā replied that he could not make him immortal since all that take birth must die, although he could choose the condition of his death. Andhaka asked that he could only be killed if he lusted after a woman who was like a mother. Brahma agreed and granted all his boons.


title: Andhaka

text: When Andhaka returned to his kingdom, his cousins became fearful of his new power and returned his kingdom as well as their own. After becoming the lord of all Asuras, Andhaka fought with the Devas along with his army and conquered heaven. He then proceeded to conquer the Nāgas, Gandharvas, Rākṣasas, Yakṣas and the humans. He thus became the lord of the three worlds.


title: Andhaka

text: He was a cruel ruler and disrespected the Vedas, the Brahmins and the Devas. Once while on a journey, Andhaka happened to visit Mount Mandara. Charmed by the beauty of the mountain, he decided to stay there and ordered his three generals Duryodhana, Vighasa and Hasti to search for a place suitable to stay.


title: Andhaka

text: While searching, his generals found a cave where a hermit was meditating and saw a beautiful woman along with him. They told their master about this, who ordered them to bring the woman to him. The hermit happened to be Shiva and the woman his wife Parvati. When they told the ascetic to hand over the woman to their master, Shiva refused, stating that if their master wanted her, he should take her himself.


title: Andhaka

text: When his generals informed Andhaka about this, he became furious and proceeded to fight Shiva. With his army of Asuras, Andhaka fought Nandi and Shiva's Gaṇas, but were defeated and forced to flee. Andhaka soon returned to battle, which lasted for seven hundred years.


title: Andhaka

text: Vishnu, Brahmā and the Devas joined the battle against Andhaka and his army. Andhaka's general Vighasa swallowed all the gods, to which Shiva retaliated by charging with his bull and plowing into the demon. Śukra, the preceptor of Asura, brought the dead Asuras back to life by using his medicinal herb, the Mṛtasañjīvanī. Shiva ordered the Gaṇas to capture Śukra. When they brought him to Shiva, he swallowed the demon guru.


title: Andhaka

text: Shiva attacked Andhaka with his trident, but every drop of Andhaka's blood that fell to the ground spawned another demon like him. Shiva requested the goddess chandi to drink the blood while he took care of the rest of Andhaka's duplicates. After vanquishing the remaining Asura, Shiva impaled Andhaka with his trident and lifted him thereupon, where he remained for a very long time. Once he had realised.


title: Andhaka

text: In the Vāmana Purāṇa, the story of Andhaka's birth remains same. Andhaka was the son of Hiraṇyākṣa and cousin of Prahlāda. Andhaka and Prahlāda, along with their army defeated the Devas, making Prahlāda the king of the three worlds. Sometime later, Prahlāda battled Vishnu, but lost the battle due to a curse the sages have placed upon him. After his loss, he appointed Andhaka as king and successfully acquires Vishnu's forgiveness. Upon returning, Andhaka tries to make him king again, but is met with refusal. At one point, Mahiṣāsura and Tārakāsura are killed by the gods, a feat which Andhaka thought was impossible.


title: Andhaka

text: After this incident, Andhaka came to desire a beautiful wife and was informed about Parvati, said to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Unaware that Parvati is his mother, Andhaka makes his way to Shiva's abode. There he tried to abduct Parvati, but she assumed a hundred forms and knocked him unconscious in battle. Andhaka fled back to Pātāla with the intention to recuperate and make another attempt at procuring Parvati.


title: Andhaka

text: Prahlāda tried to dissuade him. He revealed to Andhaka his true origins about being born from the sweat of Shiva when Parvati covered his eyes. His explanation falls on deaf ears and he fails to persuade the Asura. Andhaka attacked Shiva and the other deities with his army, most of whom were obliterated. Andhaka then disguised himself as Shiva to fool Parvati, but she managed to recognised him and hid among her servants. Unable to find her, Andhaka returns to the battle.


title: Andhaka

text: Kārttikeya and Gaṇeśa, accompanied by the Gaṇas, destroyed Andhaka's chariot. Shiva engaged him in battle and pierced his heart, but Andhaka was able to recover and strike Shiva with his mace. The blood that fell on the ground from the wound gave rise to the eight forms of Bhairava.


title: Andhaka

text: Shiva impaled Andhaka on his trident and lifted him upon it. The sweat that emanated from Shiva gave rise to a girl and a boy of the colour of charcoal, who proceed to consume Andhaka's blood before it falls onto the ground. Shiva names the girl Cārcikā and the boy Maṅgala. He holds Andhaka impaled on his trident for thousands of years, reducing his body to a mere skeletal appearance. Andhaka begged for forgiveness and began praising Shiva, upon which Shiva agreed to release him on the condition that he accept Parvati as his mother. Andhaka does so and also accepts Shiva as his father. He is forgiven and made a Gaṇa chief. Shiva takes him to the Mandara mountain where Parvati also blesses the same boon to him and he later becomes famous by the name of Bhṛṅgi.


title: Andhaka

text: In the Kūrma Purāṇa too, Andhaka is the natural son of Hiraṇyākṣa and becomes the king of the Asuras after the death of Prahlāda. Like other variants, he lusts after Parvati and goes to Mount Mandara to abduct her when Shiva is away. Shiva had entrusted Nandi to guard his household and the gods including Vishnu, to attend to and protect Parvati. When Andhaka arrives, Nandi battles with him and pierces him with a trident. Upon spilling of his blood, a thousand more Asura like him spawn and defeat Nandi and the Devas. Nandi prays to Vishnu for aid.


title: Andhaka

text: When Vishnu arrives he creates several Mātṛkā goddesses who vanquish the demons. When Shiva returns, Andhaka returns in another attempt to abduct Parvati. Shiva and Vishnu wage battle against Andhaka and his army. Shiva succeeds in impaling Andhaka on his trident and begins to dance. By his mere touch, Andhaka's sins are burned away and he begs for forgiveness. He is later named a Gaṇa chief. Shiva also makes Andhaka a handsome man who then prostrates before Parvati in repentance. Parvati forgives him and accepts him as her son.


title: Andhaka

text: In the Matsya Purāṇa, Andhaka, the son of Hiraṇyākṣa, tries to abduct Parvati from Shiva. A battle ensues in the Mahākāla forest and the blood that flows from Andhaka gives rise to a thousand more demons. Shiva creates numerous divine mothers, the Mātṛkā, who drink the demon's blood every time it issues forth. After they become satiated, Vāsudeva creates the goddess Śuṣkarevatī who drinks the blood of all the demons and kills them. When Shiva is about to blow the final strike, Andhaka surrenders and begs for forgiveness by praying to him. Pleased by his devotion, Shiva makes him a Gaṇa.


title: Andhaka

text: According to the Harivaṃśa Purāṇa, Andhaka was a Daitya and the son of Diti and the sage Kaśyapa. After the defeat of Daityas by Vishnu, Diti pleaded with Kaśyapa to give her such a son who couldn't be defeated by the gods. Kaśyapa granted her boon and told her that only Shiva had the power to destroy her son, as no one could match his power. Kaśyapa then touched her belly and a child was born with a thousand eyes and limbs. Although he wasn't blind, Andhaka walked like a blind person, thus bearing the name. Over time, Andhaka became arrogant since he cannot be harmed by anyone.


title: Andhaka

text: At one time, Andhaka went to the court of Indra, abducted all the Apsaras, and defeated all of the gods in battle. He also hindered the performance of yajñas by the gods. Being so tormented, the gods approached Nārada for assistance. Nārada visited Andhaka to counsel with him. Andhaka was intrigued by the fragrant garland of Mandara flowers worn by Nārada and inquired as to the source of the flowers. Nārada tells him that the flowers come from the Mandara forest, protected by guards so that no one may enter without Shiva's permission.


title: Andhaka

text: Andhaka conversed with Mount Mandara, informing the mountain of his invulnerability, and asked about the whereabouts of the forest. The mountain refuses to answer and disappears. Andhaka erupts in anger and uproots the entire mountain and with the help of his Asura army. They manage to grind the mountain down, destroying all of its natural beauty. Once Shiva become informed of this, he blesses the mountain with a boon which restored it to its original splendor. The mountain summits began to kill the Asuras who had attempted to destroy them. Upon seeing this, Andhaka calls out the owner of the mountain, wishing to burn the entire Mandara mountain. In response, Shiva, with his mace, mounts his bull and charges Andhaka. When Shiva releases his spear, it strikes the demon in the chest and reduces him to ash.


title: Andhaka

text: In the Liṅga Purāṇa, Andhaka's story is related as a variation of accounts of Harvamsa and Kurma Purana. Andhaka was the son of Hiraṇyākṣa and was given immunity to death by Brahmā after he performed a severe penance. He traversed the three worlds and conquered the heavens. The Devas retreated to Mount Mandara, where the demon followed them. Shiva, on the request of the Devas, challenges Andhaka, destroys his army and impales him on his trident. However, the divine sight of Shiva burns away all of Andhaka's sins, prompting the latter to eulogizing him. Shiva was pleased with his devotion and forgave him, making him the chief of all his Gaṇas.


title: Andhaka

text: Another version of the tale states that Andhaka fought with the Gaṇas and Shiva's sons, but that the gods lost the battle. Shiva sends Vīrabhadra to battle it out with Andhaka, but every time Vīrabhadra kills Andhaka, another form arises from his blood that falls upon the earth. Parvati becomes furious and assumes the form of Kālī. She destroys each and every copy of Andhaka, except for the real one, who is saved by Shiva and given a new life.


title: Andhaka

text: In the Rāmāyaṇa, the story of Kālī killing Andhaka is briefly noted in Chapter 30 of the Araṇya Kāṇḍa, at the moment when Khara, the younger brother of Rāvaṇa is killed by Rāma. The scripture reads that Andhaka was killed by Shiva's third eye in the forest of the sage Śveta.


title: The Day Today

text: The Day Today is a British comedy television show that parodies television news and current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994 on BBC2. It was created by Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris and is an adaptation of the radio programme "On the Hour", which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992 and was written by Morris, Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, David Quantick, and the cast. For "The Day Today", Peter Baynham joined the writing team, and Lee and Herring were replaced by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews. The principal cast of "On the Hour" was retained for "The Day Today".


title: The Day Today

text: "The Day Today" is composed of six half-hour episodes and a selection of shorter, five-minute slots recorded as promotion trailers for the longer segments. The six half-hour episodes were originally broadcast from 19 January to 23 February 1994 on BBC2. "The Day Today" has won many awards, including Morris winning the 1994 British Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. All six episodes are available on BBC DVD, having previously been issued on VHS.


title: The Day Today

text: Each episode is presented as a mock news programme, and the episodes rely on a combination of ludicrous fictitious news stories, covered with a serious, pseudo-professional attitude. Each episode revolves around one or two major stories, which are pursued throughout the programme, along with a host of other stories usually only briefly referred to. In addition, the programme dips into other channels from time to time, presents clips of fictitious upcoming BBC programmes, and conducts street interviews with members of the public, in a segment titled "Speak Your Brains".


title: The Day Today

text: The programme frequently comments on other programmes, most often a spoof soap opera called "The Bureau", set in a 24-hour bureau de change, incorporating clichéd soap opera-style plots, which apparently produces and airs 2,000 episodes between the first and third segments of "The Day Today" and becomes a hit in Italy. The programme also contains clips from a spoof documentary series called "The Pool", featuring a public swimming pool and its neurotic staff, Morris's character explaining that "The Day Today" has funded a documentary on every public building in the country. The final episode features reports from the fictitious documentary "The Office", which follows office workers as they go on a retreat with an efficiency expert. Other non-news segments of the programme include the occasional "physical cartoons" of current events set in the studio. Chris Morris frequently parodies entirely separate channels, including RokTV (spoofing MTV); reporting on the fictitious and psychotically violent African-American rapper Fur-Q; and "Genutainment", a segment which reports on a sheepdog averting a helicopter disaster in a parody of the real-life rescue show "999".


title: The Day Today

text: The programme occasionally features producer Armando Iannucci and writer Peter Baynham, the latter playing Gay Desk reporter Colin Poppshed, among other characters. John Thomson, Graham Linehan, Tony Haase, and Minnie Driver also appear. Michael Alexander St John provides the voiceover stings, as he did in "On the Hour".


title: The Day Today

text: Much of the programme's humour derives from its bombastic style of reporting, and its unnecessarily elaborate graphics. The theme tune is deliberately overdramatic and self-important and the opening sequence of each episode is lengthy and complex, a parody of the overuse of computer-generated credit sequences on news programmes (the graphics throughout were developed by ITN graphics designers). One episode presents false adverts featuring depictions of "The Day Today" being broadcast in bizarre locations; the night sky over Paris, the sides of the Great Pyramid in Egypt, the "International Hackenbacker Building" in Chicago, and the handles of 400 million petrol pumps across the globe; this is a parody of CNN International's promotions advertising the hotels in which the channel could be seen. Morris presents aggressively, often arguing with reporters and insulting guests on-air, and at one stage provoking a war between Australia and Hong Kong.


title: The Day Today

text: The programme frequently lambasts Conservative government politicians in office at the time of the programme's production. Those repeatedly lampooned by the series include John Major, Michael Heseltine (who had his picture swapped with an old Bosnian woman), Chris Patten, Douglas Hurd, Virginia Bottomley, and Michael Portillo, in addition to US President Bill Clinton.


title: The Day Today

text: Each episode is brought to an interrupted ending with just enough time to quickly overview the following day's newspapers (a parody of Jeremy Paxman on BBC2's "Newsnight") printed with absurd headlines such as "Lord Mayor's pirouette in fire chief wife decapitation" or "Russia elects cobweb" and a final humorously misused video. Each episode ends in a familiar style for news reports, with the camera panning out as the studio lights dim on Morris. Instead of shuffling his papers in clichéd newsreader style, Morris takes advantage of the dimming lights to perform bizarre activities; putting many pens in his jacket pockets, placing a tourniquet around his arm in preparation to inject heroin, removing his normal hair to reveal long blonde locks underneath, and, in the last episode, prostrating himself before the newsdesk.


title: The Day Today

text: Other stories included a report of two French boys who break into the Roman Catholic Church's computer databanks in order to change the Catholic catechism; an urgent report that the British pound had been stolen; reports of wild horses disrupting the London Underground; and reports that Crete had been kidnapped by Libya and that Japan had manufactured 16 identical Japans.


title: The Day Today

text: One-off correspondents in the series have absurd names, and include Hellwyn Ballard (Armando Iannucci), Iggy Pop Barker (Marber), Romella Belx (Front), Dônnnald Bethl'hem (Marber), Eugene Fraxby (Morris), Suzanna Gekkaloys (Mackichan), Pheeona Haahlahm (Mackichan), Collin Haye (Morris), Remedy Malahide (Front), Spartacus Mills (Coogan), Colin Poppshed (Peter Baynham), Beverley Smax (Mackichan) and Suki Bapswent (Morris in drag, as part of the "RokTV" spoof which also features Harfynn Teuport, with Morris putting on a generic Dutch accent). David Schneider also plays "The Day Today"s News Dancer, who performs an energetic interpretive dance routine as an accompaniment to some news stories.


title: The Day Today

text: "The Day Today" was described as "achingly funny" by "The Daily Mirror" and "the freshest and funniest comedy since Monty Python" by "The Independent". "NME"s review was mixed, calling it "not exactly hilarious".


title: The Day Today

text: "The Day Today" also features appearances by Armando Iannucci, Peter Baynham, Jean Ainslie, John Thomson, Graham Linehan, Alan Stocks and Minnie Driver.


title: The Day Today

text: The DVD features extensive bonus material including short mini-episodes featuring original material which were broadcast the night before the original broadcast of each episode, the original pilot episode, and an Open University programme about news presentation which includes an analysis of how and why parodies such as "The Day Today" work.


title: The Day Today

text: The DVD also includes several "Easter eggs" including: a version of a State of the Union Address by George W. Bush, edited to make United States policy seem insanely belligerent; a new audio discussion between Morris and Alan Partridge discussing Partridge's bizarre theories of how Diana, Princess of Wales, and John F. Kennedy died; a further discussion between Morris and Partridge about the environment; a re-union of Morris, Partridge, Brant, Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan, Collaterlie Sisters and Valerie Sinatra; and another audio sketch featuring Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan pretending to file a report from the World Trade Center covering up the fact that he had overslept, while blithely unaware that the September 11, 2001 attacks have just taken place. Pressing the Angle button during Episode 3 unveils brief, intermittent visual descriptions of the episode by Andy Hodgson and Jennifer Reinfrank, whilst a half-hour interview with Steve Coogan, conducted by Mark Radcliffe on 17 January 1994 edition of his radio show, can be accessed through the Extended Scenes menu.