title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: Phi Gamma Delta (), commonly known as Fiji, is a social fraternity with more than 144 active chapters and 10 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1848. Along with Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Gamma Delta forms a half of the Jefferson Duo. Since its founding in 1848, the fraternity has initiated more than 196,000 brothers. The nickname FIJI is used commonly by the fraternity due to Phi Gamma Delta bylaws that limit the use of the Greek letters.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: The organization was founded on April 22, 1848, at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. Six college students gathered in a dormitory room (known by the students as "Fort Armstrong") to establish a secret society. The society they formed was initially called "The Delta Association". The founders, referred to by members as the "Immortal Six", were John Templeton McCarty, Samuel Beatty Wilson, James Elliott Jr., Ellis Bailey Gregg, Daniel Webster Crofts, and Naaman Fletcher.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: The first regular meeting of Phi Gamma Delta and the adoption of the Fraternity's Constitution took place on May 1, 1848. Consequently, May 1 was chosen to be "Founder's Day" at the 43rd Convention held in 1891 and has traditionally been celebrated as the founding date of the Fraternity.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: Contrary to popular belief, the Immortal six were not Freemasons when they entered Jefferson College.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: Phi Gamma Delta has chosen not to use the term alumni for members who have graduated; post collegiate members are referred to as Graduate Brothers, to imply that membership extends past the undergraduate experience. Similarly, one of the mottoes used by the organization is, "Not For College Days Alone".


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: Phi Gamma Delta's mission statement lists five core values for its members: friendship, knowledge, service, morality, and excellence. In addition, members are encouraged to live by three priorities by these respective order: scholarship, fraternity, and self. This ordering is because members attend university with the foremost goal of receiving an education, and that Phi Gamma Delta is a fraternity that promotes scholastic achievement amongst its members.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: Phi Gamma Delta limits the written display of its Greek letters. In accordance with the fraternity's international bylaws, Fiji chapters and members only inscribe their letters in the following seven locations:


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: The fraternity instructs its members to consider the letters sacred and to never display them on an object that can be easily destroyed. Whereas other fraternities often display their letters on clothing or other items, this tradition prevents Fijis from doing so. In place of the actual Greek letters, "Fiji," "Phi Gam," or the English spelling "Phi Gamma Delta" is used in their place.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: The Fiji nickname started at New York University as a suggested name for the Fraternity magazine (Fee Gee). It was officially adopted by the national fraternity at the 1894 convention in the belief that the term would be distinctive and appeal to the imagination. Prior to its formal appropriation by the organization at large, nicknames for members of the fraternity varied greatly; ranging from "Phi Gamm" and "Delta" by brothers across the nation, "Fee Gee" in New York, and "Gammas" in the South. As of now though, "Fiji" and "Phi Gam" are considered by the fraternity to be the only appropriate nicknames for Phi Gamma Delta members on the international scale, though local nicknames related to a chapter's Greek name or other colloquialisms do exist.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: The fraternity is composed of chapters of two types. Most chapters serve primarily undergraduate students and are established at a single college or university . There are also chapters to serve members of the fraternity who have graduated from college and are established to serve a city or larger region. The chapters are governed by the fraternity's international headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: Each year the Phi Gamma Delta organization gives out a number of awards, both to chapters, and to individual members.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: The Frank Norris Pig Dinner is an annual graduate dinner held by all Phi Gamma Delta chapters. The dinner is named for author Frank Norris, a member of the Fiji chapter at the University of California, Berkeley where the first Pig Dinner was held in 1893. Pig Dinner is sanctioned by the International Fraternity and it serves to welcome graduate brothers back to their undergraduate chapters.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: It is the longest continually running, chapter-based, annual Graduate event in the world of fraternities and sororities.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: Affectionately built upon the "Fiji" nickname, many chapters hold an annual "Fiji Islander" party. These are typically large festivities with tropical themes often using banana and palm trees as decoration, although they can vary widely from chapter to chapter. Some are large parties where alcohol, sand and tropical foliage are present, others may be alcohol free, and some Fiji Islander events are charity projects rather than parties.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: The fraternity once used a mascot named "Fiji Man," a thick-lipped, dark-skinned man in a grass skirt, sometimes holding a spear or with a bone in his nose, in the style of a once-common stereotype of a Pacific Islander. Fraternity members built large sculptures of this racist caricature as a party decoration. The Phi Gamma Delta national organization has since banned Fiji Man, and now prohibits appearing in blackface at fraternity events.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: The appearance of "Fiji Man", Phi Gamma Delta's historical racist mascot, caused complaints from the 1970s to 1990s.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: A Fiji Man snow sculpture at Colgate University in 1979 and a t-shirt depicting Fiji man at the University of Texas in 1989 both caused campus-wide apprehension about racism. A "slave auction" with Fiji Man decorations at the University of Southern California in 1989 resulted in mandatory diversity training for the fraternity members. The women who conducted the training characterized it as not one of her more successful efforts.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 1987 the Phi Gamma Delta chapter at University of Wisconsin–Madison was suspended twice for racism. In May it was closed because of Fiji Island party featuring a large caricature of a Pacific Islander with a bone through his nose. Eight days after it was reinstated the chapter was closed again because Phi Gamma Delta members entered Zeta Beta Tau, a majority-Jewish fraternity, where they began shoving and punching people. Two Fiji members were charged with battery.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 1990 Phi Gamma Delta members at the University of Texas in Austin handed out t-shirts with a racist Little Black Sambo drawing during a basketball tournament. 500 students protested outside the fraternity house after the incident.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: A federal lawsuit filed by a student at Butler University in 2019 describes being raped by a Wabash College Phi Gamma Delta member while she was black-out drunk during a Phi Gamma Delta party. She told her attacker to stop and attempted to escape while blacking out repeatedly. Other Phi Gamma Delta fraternity members tried to block the woman's friends from finding her as she was being raped, according to the lawsuit. She says that Crawfordsville, Indiana police told her Wabash College has no formal code of conduct and that the student who assaulted her would face few consequences, so encouraged her not to pursue the complaint.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: On August 30, 2021, an online petition alleged a sexual assault at the University of Iowa Phi Gamma Delta chapter, said to have occurred about one year prior. The allegation appeared a few days after a reported assault at the Nebraska chapter, where students protested in front of the Phi Gamma Delta house.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In September 2012, University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL) campus police fielded a report of a rape at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: On January 21, 2017, Phi Gamma Delta fraternity members at UNL were claimed to have screamed pro-rape slurs at participants of the 2017 Women's March. Chants of "no means yes, yes means anal" were allegedly aimed at thousands of women, children, and men walking past the fraternity house on the University of Nebraska campus. Fraternity members were accused on social media of waving Donald Trump signs and screaming, "grab them by the pussy," and then announcing which marchers they would and would not want to "grab by the pussy". Multiple protesters have said that they heard the fraternity members chanting, which a spokesperson for the fraternity has denied. One week later, a protest was held outside the fraternity's chapter-house. The protest was attended by about 50 people, include an antifa group which flung tampons dipped in red paint at the building. The fraternity was suspended from UNL from March 2017 to May 2020 because of "a pattern of sexually harassing conduct" and other patterns of misconduct.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: The UNL chapter was accused of sexual misconduct in October 2019, while it was still suspended because of the events of 2017.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: A sexual assault was reported to University of Nebraska police on August 24, 2021, as having been committed by a Phi Gamma Delta member. Hundreds of protesters converged on the fraternity house that night, calling for an end to rape on campus and for the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity to be shut down. Fraternity members stayed inside the house, and shared a video via the internet of them laughing at the protestors out the window. The next day, chancellor Ronnie Green announced that the university would be closing the fraternity house and suspending the chapter while the allegation of sexual assault were investigated.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: Campus protests against Phi Gamma Delta continued through the next week. State senator Megan Hunt spoke at one, confirming that although she did not attend UNL, she was aware of the "open secret" of frequent sexual assault at Phi Gamma Delta and certain other UNL fraternities. During the week of protests, university police received an influx of reports of rape; many were previously unreported events from years ago.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In October 2021 the UNL chapter of Phi Gamma Delta was suspended until 2026. The suspension was because of alcohol use, and not officially connected to the recent protests or ongoing sexual assault investigation.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: A member at the University of Tennessee was accused of drugging and raping two women during a party in 2019. The accused apologized to one of the women in a text message, which was later used as evidence of his guilt. The fraternity house was sanctioned.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 1997, as part of an allegedly mandatory hazing event at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology chapter, 18-year-old freshman Scott Krueger died as a result of excessive alcohol consumption. Manslaughter charges were brought against the Phi Gamma Delta organization itself, rather than any individuals. In response, the chapter dissolved and the case was suspended. MIT later settled with Krueger's family for 4.75 million dollars.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 1999 a 19-year-old pledge was tackled and taken to the Phi Gamma Delta house at the University of Nebraska where he was handcuffed and forced to drink 15 shots of brandy and whisky and three to six cans of beer over two and a half hours. He broke loose from the handcuffs and attempted to escape by sliding down a drainpipe from a third story window. He fell and suffered head injuries. The incident lead to the Nebraska Legislature making hazing a crime. In a resulting lawsuit, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the university should have taken more steps to protect the student, as the university was aware of a pattern of hazing, sexual assault, and other problems at the Phi Gamma Delta house.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 2006, 19 year old Danny Daniels was found dead in the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house at Fresno State University, prompting an investigation and immediate suspension of the chapter. It was found out that the fraternity hosted a large party the night before, and that members forced Daniels to drink large amounts of alcohol for initiation. Once he became sick, a few FIJI brothers carried him to a secluded room at the fraternity and left him. Daniels died in the early morning of January 8, 2006 from acute alcohol intoxication and later tests showed that Daniels had a blood-alcohol level of 0.34, more than four times the legal limit. The university suspended the chapter for 5 years and as of 2019, they are still inactive.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: On September 17, 2010, a prospective member (pledge), Matt Fritzie, was partially paralyzed after diving into a shallow pool during a Fiji Islander party in Lawrence, Kansas. In response to the incident, the University of Kansas placed the chapter on a two-year probation for hazing. Fritzie has since sued both the chapter and the national organization.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 2012, West Virginia University banned the fraternity in response to alcohol related hazing. The fraternity reinstated the chapter in 2014.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: On April 4, 2014, Michael Evan Anderson, member of the University of Arizona chapter of FIJI died after an unsanctioned FIJI event, after falling from the top of an air conditioning unit onto the roof of his dormitory. The investigation of his death by the University Police led to an investigation from the Dean of Students Office which included several counts of hazing, including kicking new members in the stomach, new members cleaning the house before and after parties and performing personal acts of servitude to members.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 2015, five members of the fraternity at the University of Alabama were arrested after an investigation into hazing of their pledges. Per a legitimate anonymous source, fraternity members required pledges to stand in buckets of ice and salt, resulting in severe injuries.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 2017, the fraternity at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln was suspended by the university until 2020 for reckless alcohol use, hazing pledges and inappropriate sexually based behavior, including a pattern of sexually harassing conduct.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: Police at the University of Missouri - Columbia were alerted to an unresponsive freshman, Daniel Santulli, brought to a local hospital by members after a fraternity party in 2021. Lawsuits are in process, and two of the members have been charged with felonies. One lawsuit states Santulli’s "skin was pale and his lips were blue, yet no one called 911." Instead, "the decision was made to drive Santulli to University Hospital in Columbia in one of the brother’s cars." It was also alleged that "this was not just an alcohol overdose, but was hazing on a pledge during their 'dad reveal'." The university announced it would no longer recognize Phi Gamma Delta as a student organization because of multiple violations of its standard of conduct.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 2021, the fraternity at the University of Missouri had their recognition as an officially registered student organization on campus withdrawn due to multiple violations of the university's standard of conduct.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 2022, the fraternity at Bowling Green State University was suspended after an investigation by the university revealed hazing and underage drinking by the group.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: In 2022, the chapter at University of Kansas was suspended for several years due to extreme verbal, emotional, and physical abuse of pledges. One pledge reported to authorities his entire pledge class was "under the control and authority of members every waking minute each day" during the fall 2021 semester.


title: Phi Gamma Delta

text: Fijis at the Lambda chapter at Indiana Asbury University (now known as DePauw University) played an important role in the founding of Kappa Alpha Theta women's fraternity. Bettie Locke, the sister of George W. Locke (DePauw, 1871), was one of the first women enrolled at DePauw. Bettie had many Fiji friends and one of them asked her to wear his badge. She contended that she would do so only if she knew the secrets behind the letters. The fraternity, after debate, declined to initiate her. So, upon suggestion of her father, Dr. John Wesley Locke, a Beta Theta Pi, she formed Kappa Alpha Theta with Alice Allen, Bettie Tipton and Hannah Fitch; four of the small number of women enrolled at DePauw at the time. Kappa Alpha Theta was founded on January 27, 1870. Phi Gamma Delta later presented Bettie Locke with an engraved silver cake basket as a token of friendship.


title: Donna Jean Godchaux

text: Donna Jean Thatcher Godchaux-MacKay (born August 22, 1947) is an American singer who was a member of the Grateful Dead from 1972 until 1979.


title: Donna Jean Godchaux

text: Donna Jean Thatcher was born in Florence, Alabama. Prior to 1970, she had worked as a session singer in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, eventually singing with a group called Southern Comfort and appearing as a backup singer on at least two #1 hit songs: "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge in 1966 and "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley in 1969. Her vocals were featured on other classic recordings by Boz Scaggs and Duane Allman, Cher, Joe Tex, Neil Diamond and many others. She then moved to California and met future fellow Grateful Dead member Keith Godchaux, whom she married in 1970.


title: Donna Jean Godchaux

text: Donna introduced Keith to Jerry Garcia after Garcia's performance at San Francisco's Keystone Korner in September 1971. At the time, Donna Jean was not working as a musician. She joined the band shortly afterwards, remaining a member until February 1979.


title: Donna Jean Godchaux

text: Donna Jean provided backing and lead vocals in the group's music. During their membership in the Grateful Dead, the couple also issued the mostly self-written "Keith & Donna" album in 1975 with Jerry Garcia as a Keith and Donna Band member. In turn, they performed as part of the Jerry Garcia Band. Godchaux possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range.


title: Donna Jean Godchaux

text: Donna did not perform again with any Grateful Dead band members until after the death of Jerry Garcia. Shortly after her husband's death in 1980, she married bassist David MacKay (former Fiddleworms member and bassist for the Donna Jean Godchaux Band) and the couple moved to her childhood town of Florence, Alabama, to record at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.


title: Donna Jean Godchaux

text: In 2009, Donna Jean formed a brand new band, the Donna Jean Godchaux Band, with Jeff Mattson (of Phil Lesh and Friends, Zen Tricksters, and Dark Star Orchestra), after re-entering the music scene with Mattson and Mookie Siegel (of David Nelson Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, and Ratdog) to form Kettle Joe's Psychedelic Swamp Revue, later known as Donna Jean & the Tricksters. She occasionally makes guest appearances with Bob Weir & RatDog, Zero & Steve Kimock, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Dark Star Orchestra and Dead & Company. She also continues to be involved in archival Grateful Dead projects.


title: Donna Jean Godchaux

text: In 1994, Donna Jean was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead. She resides in Killen, Alabama, and remains an active member of the Muscle Shoals music scene when not touring with the Donna Jean Godchaux Band with Jeff Mattson.


title: Donna Jean Godchaux

text: Donna Godchaux was a member of the Grateful Dead from 1972 to 1979 and appears on many of the band's albums.


title: Donna Jean Godchaux

text: Donna Godchaux (née Donna Thatcher) has contributed background or lead vocals on many albums by different artists.


title: Mount Tabor

text: Mount Tabor () (Har Tavor) is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, west of the Sea of Galilee.


title: Mount Tabor

text: In the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges), Mount Tabor is the site of the Battle of Mount Tabor between the Israelite army under the leadership of Barak and the army of the Canaanite king of Hazor, Jabin, commanded by Sisera.


title: Mount Tabor

text: The Hebrew name of the, "tabor", has long been connected with the name for "navel", "ṭabbur", but this is probably due to popular etymology.


title: Mount Tabor

text: In the Greek Septuagint's translation of the Book of Jeremiah, the name Itabyrium (, "Itabýrion") was used for Mount Tabor. Josephus used the same name in his Greek works.


title: Mount Tabor

text: From the connection with the Transfiguration of Jesus, the mountain has been known in the past as the or . It was the namesake of Tabor light in Christian theology, of the Czech sect of the Taborites, and of numerous other settlements and institutions.


title: Mount Tabor

text: The Arabic form of the name is (, ) or "Mount Tur" (, "Jebel eṭ-Ṭūr"). The name "Jabal aṭ-Ṭūr" is shared with Sinai and Mount Gerizim.


title: Mount Tabor

text: Mount Tabor is shaped almost like half a sphere, suddenly rising from rather flat surroundings and reaching a height of 575 metres (1,886 feet), thus dominating by a good 450 metres the town in the plain below, Kfar Tavor.


title: Mount Tabor

text: At the top of the mountain are two Christian monasteries, one Greek Orthodox on the northeast side and one Roman Catholic on the southeast side. The Catholic church at the top is easily visible from afar.


title: Mount Tabor

text: The mountain is a monadnock: an isolated hill or small mountain rising abruptly from gently sloping or level surrounding land, and is not volcanic. In spite of its proximity to the Nazareth mountains, it constitutes a separate geological form.


title: Mount Tabor

text: At the base it is almost fully surrounded by the Arab villages of Daburiyya, Shibli, and Umm al-Ghanam. Mount Tabor is located off Highway 65, and its summit is accessible by road via Shibli.


title: Mount Tabor

text: At the bottom of the mountain was an important road junction: Via Maris passed there from the Jezreel Valley northward towards Damascus. Its location on the road junction and its bulgy formation above its environment gave Mount Tabor a strategic value and wars were conducted in its area in different periods in history.


title: Mount Tabor

text: The mountain is mentioned for the first time in the Hebrew Bible, in , as border of three tribes: Zebulun, Issachar and Naphtali. The mountain's importance stems from its strategic control of the junction of the Galilee's north–south route with the east–west highway of the Jezreel Valley.


title: Mount Tabor

text: According to the Book of Judges, Hazor was the seat of Jabin, the king of Canaan, whose commander, Sisera, led a Canaanite army against the Israelites. Deborah the Jewish prophetess summoned Barak of the tribe of Naphtali and gave him God's command, "Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun" (Judges ). Descending from the mountain, the Israelites attacked and vanquished Sisera and the Canaanites.


title: Mount Tabor

text: In the Second Temple period (c. 516 BCE – 70 CE), Mount Tabor was one of the mountain peaks on which it was the custom to light beacons in order to inform the northern villages of Jewish holy days and of the beginning of new months.


title: Mount Tabor

text: In 55 BCE, during a Hasmonean rebellion against the Roman proconsul of Syria, Aulus Gabinius, Alexander of Judaea and his army of 30,000 Judeans was defeated in battle at Mount Tabor. As many as 10,000 Jewish fighters were killed in the battle and Alexander was forced to flee, apparently to Syria.


title: Mount Tabor

text: In 66 CE, during the First Jewish-Roman War, the Galilean Jews retrenched on the mountain under the command of Yosef Ben Matityahu, better known as Josephus Flavius, the later historian, whence they defended themselves against the Roman assault. "Itabyrium", as Josephus calls it, was one of the 19 sites fortified by the rebels in Galilee under his very orders. According to what is written in his book "The Wars of the Jews", Vespasian sent an army of 600 riders, under the command of Placidus, who fought the rebels. Placidus understood that he could not reach the top of the steep mountain with his forces, and therefore called the fortified rebels to walk down the mountain. A group of Jewish rebels descended from the mountain, supposedly, in order to negotiate with Placidus, but they attacked him. The Roman forces initially retreated, but while they were in the valley, they returned towards the mountain, attacked the Jewish rebels, killed many of them, and blocked the road for the remaining rebels who tried to flee back to the top of the mountain. Many of the Jewish rebels left Mount Tabor and returned to Jerusalem. The rest of the fortified rebels in the fortress on the mountain surrendered after their water ran out. They then handed over the mountain to Placidus.


title: Mount Tabor

text: From the late times of the Roman province Judaea (6–135 CE) and on, the writers of the Christian New Testament relate that Jesus had brought Peter, James, and John his brother into a high mountain apart, and that Jesus became radiant there. However, none of these accounts identifies the "high mountain" of the scene by name. The earliest identification of the Mount of Transfiguration as Tabor is by Origen in the 3rd century. This early speculation is recounted by St. Cyril of Jerusalem and St. Jerome in the 4th century. It is later recounted in the 5th century "Transitus Beatae Mariae Virginis".


title: Mount Tabor

text: Due to the importance of Mount Tabor in Christian tradition, from the 4th century onward it became a pilgrimage site. According to descriptions of the pilgrims, during the 6th century there were three churches on the top of the mountain.


title: Mount Tabor

text: During the 8th century there were four churches and a monastery on the mountain. During the Arab Caliphate period, in 947, a battle occurred on Mount Tabor between different factions over the control of the Land of Israel on behalf of the Abbasid Caliphate.


title: Mount Tabor

text: During the period of the Crusades, the mountain changed hands many times between Muslims and Christians. In 1099 the Crusaders fortified the area of the monastery which was on the peak of the mountain, in order to protect the pilgrims from Muslim attacks. In 1101, when Crusaders controlled the area, the Benedictine monks rebuilt a ruined basilica and erected a fortified abbey. In 1212 the mountain was occupied by the Ayyubid Sultan Al-Adil I who built a large fortress at its top, which was unsuccessfully besieged by the armies of the Fifth Crusade in 1217, but in 1229 it was again occupied by the Christians. In 1263, the Mamluk ruler Baibars occupied the fortress and destroyed the buildings on the mountain.


title: Mount Tabor

text: In 1799, during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte's Syrian expedition, in the valley between mount Tabor and the Hill of Moreh, the Battle of Mount Tabor was fought in which a French force of about 3,000 soldiers under the command of Napoleon and general Jean Baptiste Kléber won against an Ottoman force of about 35,000 soldiers.


title: Mount Tabor

text: At the end of the 19th and the beginning the 20th century, the Bedouin tribe Arab Al-Sabehi settled on the mountain. It was one of the strongest tribes in that region.


title: Mount Tabor

text: During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War members from the Arab Al-Sabehi tribe participated in the army of the Arab Liberation Army of Fawzi al-Qawuqji and amongst others killed seven members of the kibbutz Beit Keshet.


title: Mount Tabor

text: At the start of May 1948 the Golani Brigade occupied Mount Tabor. Most members of the tribe were forced out to Syria and to the Kingdom of Jordan, except for one branch of the tribe, the clan of Shibli, whose members refused to leave their land. After the war their village was established, Arab Al-Shibli, which is nowadays part of the village Shibli-Umm al-Ghanam.


title: Mount Tabor

text: Many tribes in the region, like Arab-Al Hieb, began their military cooperation with the Jewish underground forces before the establishment of the state, in the late 1930s.


title: Mount Tabor

text: Since the late 1960s many of the tribesmen joined the Israeli security forces (such as IDF, Border Guarding Unit and police).


title: Mount Tabor

text: In April each year, the regional council of Lower Galilee holds a 12-kilometre race around Mount Tabor in memory of Yitzhak Sadeh, the first commander of the Palmach and one of the founders of the Israel Defense Forces at the time of the establishment of the State of Israel.


title: Mount Tabor

text: Between 1919 and 1924 a Roman Catholic church of the Franciscan order named "Church of the Transfiguration" was built on the peak of Mount Tabor. The architect who designed the church was Antonio Barluzzi. The church was built upon the ruins of a Byzantine church from the fifth or sixth century and a Crusader church from the 12th century. In the upper part of the church, above the altar, is a mosaic which depicts the Transfiguration. On the Feast of the Transfiguration, celebrated on August 6, it is illuminated by sunbeams which are reflected by a glass plate on the floor of the church.


title: Mount Tabor

text: A rock near the entrance of the church has an engraving in ancient Greek and beside it there is an engraving of a cross. Nearby there are the remains of the 12th-century Benedictine abbey.


title: Mount Tabor

text: The main church of the Greek Orthodox monastery is dedicated to the Transfiguration. The construction was started by a Romanian monk, Irinarh Rosetti, in 1859, the year of his death, and finished by his disciple, Nectarie Banul, in 1862. Northeast of the Church of the Transfiguration is the Church of the Prophet Elijah.


title: Mount Tabor

text: Northwest of the main church is a small cave-church named after Melchizedek, the King of Salem. According to the Christian tradition, this cave was the place where Abraham met the king of Salem. The cave was known to pilgrims and local Christians during the Middle Ages. An all-night vigil is held at the church every year on the Orthodox Feast of the Transfiguration on August 19 (which corresponds to August 6 according to the Julian Calendar).


title: Mount Tabor

text: The ruins of the al-Tujjar Caravansarai are located on the slopes of Mount Tabor, opposite the entrance to Beit Keshet. The caravanserai was established by Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha around 1581. The reason given for its establishment was that the place was insecure for merchants and people making pilgrimage, and it was argued that if a khan was built, the place would become "inhabited and cultivated."


title: Mount Tabor

text: Mount Tabor was covered with vegetation typical of northern Ancient Israel until the reign of the Ottoman Empire, during which period most of the trees were felled. The trees were felled for use in the charcoal industry. As part of the Jewish National Fund's efforts to recreate the landscapes of the country, during the 1960s and 1970s the area was reforested with trees which are similar to its original vegetation. Today, most of Mount Tabor is covered with trees such as Mount Tabor Oak ("Quercus ithaburensis") and Palestine oak ("Quercus calliprinos"). Up to 400 plant species have been found on the Mount including large yellow crocuses ("Sternbergia clusiana"), the Persian lily ("Fritillaria persica") rain-bells flowers ("Muscari parviflorum"), black-eyed red tulips ("Tulipa agenensis"), orchids, irises (including "Iris haynei") and yellow asphodel ("Asphodeline Lutea"), spontaneous barley ("Hordeum spontaneum"), Mt. Tabor larkspur, a rather rare perennial grass with blue spring flowers ("Delphinium ithaburense"), sweet cicely ("myrrhoides nodosa"), a very rare plant of the family Umbelliferae, Galilean alkanet ("Alkanna galilaea") and parsley-piert ("Aphanes arvensis").


title: Mount Tabor

text: The woodland vegetation provides a habitat for wolves and jackals, foxes, porcupines, hyraxes, mongooses and the broad-toothed field mouse (Apodemus mysticanus). In a cave at the top of the Mount, long-fingered bats ("Myotis capaccini"), can be found roosting. Various reptiles can also be found including; the Greek tortoise ("Testudo graeca"), the hardun lizard ("Laudakia stellio"), the Lebanon lizard ("Phoenicolacerta laevi") and the red whip snake ("Platyceps collaris"). The woodland is also a good habitat for various birds including jays ("Garrulus"), Syrian woodpeckers ("Dendrocopos syriacus"), Sardinian warblers ("Sylvia melanocephala"), Eurasian hobbies ("Falco subbuteo"), great tits ("Parus major"), great spotted cuckoos ("Clamator glandarius") and snake eagles ("Circaetus").


title: Sfumato

text: Sfumato (, ) is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. It is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci was the most prominent practitioner of sfumato, based on his research in optics and human vision, and his experimentation with the camera obscura. He introduced it and implemented it in many of his works, including the "Virgin of the Rocks" and in his famous painting of the "Mona Lisa". He described sfumato as "without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke".


title: Sfumato

text: According to the theory of the art historian Marcia B. Hall, which has gained considerable acceptance, "sfumato" is one of four modes of painting colours available to Italian High Renaissance painters, along with cangiante, chiaroscuro, and unione.


title: Sfumato

text: The word "sfumato" comes from the Italian language and is derived from "fumo" ("smoke", "fume"). Sfumato translated into English means soft, vague, or blurred. In Italian, the word is used often as an adjective (such as "biondo sfumato" for pale blonde hair) or as a verb ("l'affare è sfumato" would mean "the deal has gone up in smoke"). The use of the term (unlike some others) dates back to the period when da Vinci introduced it.


title: Sfumato

text: The technique is a fine shading meant to produce a soft transition between colours and tones, in order to achieve a more believable image. It is most often used by making subtle gradations that do not include lines or borders, from areas of light to areas of dark. The technique was used not only to give an elusive and illusionistic rendering of the human face, but also to create rich atmospheric effects. Leonardo da Vinci described the technique as blending colours, without the use of lines or borders "in the manner of smoke".


title: Sfumato

text: Besides Leonardo and his followers, the Leonardeschi, who often used it heavily, other prominent practitioners of sfumato included Correggio, Raphael, and Giorgione. Raphael's "Madonna of the Meadow" is a famous example, particularly around Mary's face. The Leonardeschi include Bernardino Luini and Funisi.


title: In Absentia

text: In Absentia is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the first to move into a more progressive metal direction, contrary to past albums' psychedelic and alternative rock sounds. Additionally, it was their first release on a major record label, Lava Records. It was very well received critically and commercially, with it often being considered the band's crowning achievement, and selling three times as many copies as any of the band's earlier albums.


title: In Absentia

text: In the band's earlier years, while under Delerium Records, the band's music typically possessed more extended and abstract qualities typically associated with psychedelic rock and space rock. The band shifted their sound in the late 1990s when signing to Kscope/Snapper Record labels, to a more commercial, radio friendly sound that entailed shorter compositions and traditional song structures, while retaining progressive rock qualities as well. However, by around 2001, they had again outgrown a smaller record label, and after changing labels again to Lava Records, decided to move in a more progressive metal direction. The band had originally been opposed to major record labels, believing that most labels didn't "get" the band, and their emphasis on albums over singles approach in this era of music. However, they chose Lava because they appeared to support this philosophy, frontman Steven Wilson attributing this due to other bands, namely Tool and Radiohead, achieving success with the same mindset.


title: In Absentia

text: A number of other factors affected the change in sound beyond the change in record label. Many were key personnel changes and relationships. Most prominently was Wilson's rediscovering of heavy metal music through his fascination with Burzum and the book "Lords of Chaos", which led him to listen to many extreme metal bands and finally the Swedish acts Meshuggah and Opeth whom he described as "the holy grail" of this new scene (both groups were thanked on "In Absentia's" sleeve notes). Furthermore, Wilson would end up meeting Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth, which occurred when the two were separately interviewed by an interviewer who had interviewed both of them. Impressed with their music, Wilson eventually agreed to produce the next Opeth album, "Blackwater Park", which inspired Wilson to move Porcupine Tree in a more metal direction as well.


title: In Absentia

text: Another factor in the change of the band's sound was due to Wilson's meeting of Israeli rock singer Aviv Geffen. The two met when Geffen, a fan of Wilson's music, invited Porcupine Tree on a tour in 2000 in support of the band's previous album, "Lightbulb Sun". Touring together lead to a separate musical collaboration named Blackfield. Geffen, not being a fan of metal music, kept that project in more of a pop rock genre, sounding more like prior Porcupine Tree albums "Stupid Dream" and "Lightbulb Sun". This gave Wilson an outlet for that side of his music, allowing him to concentrate on more metal sounds with Porcupine Tree without abandoning the prior genre altogether either. Rounding out the changes was the departure of drummer Chris Maitland, with the replacement being Gavin Harrison, who joined in early 2002. Maitland was unable to make a larger commitment with being signed to a major record label, and the band found Harrison's style more fitting to a more metal-sounding album. Wilson summarized the band's changes at the time as: "In Absentia" was all written before Gavin came on; even the drum parts were kind of programmed. But it’s one of those times sometimes in life when everything comes together. I’d written these songs and I was very much more interested at that time—having worked with Opeth—in the idea of combining a more kind of brutal or metal aspect back again into the fabric of the music. At the same time Gavin came along and Gavin was a very different drummer to our previous drummer, Chris Maitland. He was much more of a powerhouse and he was much more technical. He had more of a contemporary edge to his sound so it was just one of those really lucky things that he just came in and he played those songs and just blew everyone away and everything just kind of came together. And of course it was the first record we made for our new label and we got signed to a big American label for the first time [Lava Records]. Gavin was the final piece of that equation in a way—he just totally raised the bar in terms of not just the drumming but just the musicianship right throughout the band. Everyone was listening to Gavin and saying, “Fuck, wow. We really need to step up our game.”


title: In Absentia

text: After the recording process was complete, Steven Wilson then took the album to Larrabee Studios in Los Angeles to work with Tim Palmer and his engineer Mark O'donoughue mixing the record on the J-Series SSL console.


title: In Absentia

text: While not a formal concept album, many of the songs still have common themes related to serial killers, youthful innocence gone wrong, and criticisms of the modern world. Wilson said of the title:


title: In Absentia

text: The album's title evokes the same theme, with the phrase being Latin for "in absence" or "in one's absence", a term often used in relation to criminal proceedings that occur despite the absence of the defendant.


title: In Absentia

text: The album was released on 24 September 2002 on CD and vinyl formats, the latter containing bonus track "Chloroform" after "The Creator Has a Mastertape." A few weeks prior to the album's release, a sampler containing "Blackest Eyes" and shortened versions of "Trains" and "Strip the Soul" was released. The opening track, "Blackest Eyes", was picked up for airplay by major rock radio stations, but the song was not officially released as a single, nor did it chart. The band toured in support of the album with the band Yes. This is something Wilson would later regret doing, stating that the audiences of the two bands were too different, stating " the problem was that most of the people who came to see Yes had stopped caring about new music many years before and were really there just to hear their favourite Yes oldies." The band would later do a second tour in support of the album with Opeth as well. During this tour, in July and August 2003, the band released the "Futile EP", which included songs recorded during the "In Absentia" recording sessions. In 2017, Kscope purchased the album as well as the follow-up Deadwing and re-mastered both for 2018 release on Kscope Records citing less compression and overall improvement in sound quality. On 21 February 2020, Kscope released a 4-disc Deluxe edition of "In Absentia". The first disc features Steven Wilson's 2017 mix of the album, the second disc features additional studio recordings omitted from the finished album, the third disc comprises over 70 minutes of demos recorded at Wilson's home studio, and the fourth disc is a Blu-ray that features a 109-minute documentary chronicling the making of the album. The entire deluxe edition is housed in a 100-page hardback book filled with exclusive content.


title: In Absentia

text: Reception for the album has been positive. It was Metal Storm's number 2 of the Top 20 albums of 2002 and number 46 on the Top 200 albums of all time. AllMusic strongly praised the album, stating that overall, the album "...has the most immediate appeal of anything Wilson has released under this moniker up to this point. By keeping the songs at manageable lengths and avoiding the avant-garde electronica flourishes of the band's early days, Porcupine Tree has grown into a fully realized pop group without cutting any of the elements that also make them an important force in the neo-prog movement." "Billboard" stated that "with In Absentia, the group delivers a jarring tour-de-force, replete with strong songs, cryptic lyrical musings, virtuoso musicianship, and lush orchestration." "PopMatters" similarly praised it, calling it "...an impressive album that drips with [King] Crimson’s progressive rock influence. But what sets this album apart is that Steven Wilson, the band’s frontman who wrote the songs and produced the album, was clearly set upon constructing intelligent popular music."


title: In Absentia

text: The surround sound version of the album won the award for best 5.1 mix at the 2004 Surround Sound Music awards in Los Angeles.


title: In Absentia

text: In a 2009 interview, Wilson acknowledged that both he and his general fanbase have come to view the album as the crowning achievement and best album of his career so far.


title: In Absentia

text: By April 2004, the album had sold over 100,000 copies worldwide, which was stated to be over three times more than any of their prior albums. The album sold 45,000 copies in the United States alone, compared to the 2,000 copy range of prior albums. As of 2005, it had sold 120,000 copies.


title: In Absentia

text: Released in March 2004, the album was re-released on the DVD-A format, featuring the original album, the two special edition songs recorded during the sessions, ("Drown with Me" and "Chloroform"), and an additional song ("Futile"), all remixed in 5.1 surround sound, and the music videos for "Strip the Soul", "Blackest Eyes", and "Wedding Nails".


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: Emma Clare Thynn, Marchioness of Bath ("née" McQuiston; born 26 March 1986) is a British socialite and fashion model. She is married to Ceawlin Thynn, 8th Marquess of Bath. In 2020, she became the first mixed race marchioness in British history.


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: Emma Clare McQuiston was born on 26 March 1986, in London, the daughter of a Nigerian father and an English mother. Her father, Chief Oladipo Jadesimi, is a Nigerian oil billionaire who is the founder and executive chairman of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Company, while her mother, Suzanna McQuiston, is an English socialite. She has several half-siblings, including Amy Jadesimi.


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: McQuiston was raised in South Kensington. She was head girl at Queen's Gate School during her secondary education and later attended University College London to study art history. After university, she studied classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: McQuiston and Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth announced their engagement in November 2012, after a year of dating. They were married at Longleat, the family seat in Wiltshire, on 8 June 2013. Upon her marriage McQuiston became Viscountess Weymouth. The wedding took place in front of 355 guests, the largest ceremony held at the estate. Her wedding dress, designed by Angelina Colarusso, featured a fitted bodice, square neckline and sheer lace sleeves embroidered with a pattern of the traditional Bath flower. She wore a diamond tiara with a ribbon scroll and bow designs, estimated to be 60-70 carats. The following year, Viscountess Weymouth hosted an exhibition focusing on weddings hosted at Longleat, featuring her gown and portrait in display.


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: The Marquess and Marchioness of Bath were not present at the wedding; the groom's father was engaged in a family dispute about Longleat's artwork at the time, while his mother was prohibited from attending after making racist remarks regarding their marriage. Subsequently, Emma Thynn and her family are reportedly estranged from her mother-in-law. Thynn claimed in an interview that she had been on the receiving end of "snobbishness, particularly among the much older generation. There’s class and then there’s the racial thing... I’m not super-easily offended but it’s a problem when someone’s making you feel different or separate because of your race".


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: When her husband succeeded his father as the Marquess of Bath, she became the first black marchioness in British history.


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: The couple's first child, John Alexander Ladi Thynn, Viscount Weymouth was born in October 2014, in London by emergency caesarian section after Thynn suffered from hypophysitis. His birth took place at the Lindo Wing, St. Mary's Hospital. As a result of her health struggles during her previous pregnancy, their second child, Lord Henry Richard Isaac Thynn was born in December 2016, in Los Angeles after being carried by a surrogate.


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: After her marriage, she became "chatelaine" at Longleat's estate and safari park. There, she founded the food and lifestyle brand "Emma's Kitchen".


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: Lady Bath was featured alongside her husband in "All Change at Longleat", a three-part documentary filmed in 2014 and broadcast on BBC One in September 2015.


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: In 2017, she became a brand ambassador for Fiorucci. She also modelled for Dolce & Gabbana, walking in runway shows at Harrods.


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: In February 2018, Lady Bath began working as a fashion editor at British "Vogue". She is also contributing editor at "HuffPost".


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: From September 2019, she was a contestant in the 17th season of the prime-time BBC television program, "Strictly Come Dancing", partnered with professional dancer Aljaž Škorjanec. The couple was eliminated in week seven.


title: Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

text: On 18 September 2021, she was a contestant alongside Lauren Steadman in the "Strictly" celebrities special of "Pointless"; her duo was the first eliminated duo of the episode.


title: Messianic Age

text: In Abrahamic religions, the Messianic Age is the future period of time on Earth in which the messiah will reign and bring universal peace and brotherhood, without any evil. Many believe that there will be such an age; some refer to it as the consummate "kingdom of God" or the "world to come". Jews believe that such a figure is yet to come, while Christians and Muslims believe that this figure will be Jesus.


title: Messianic Age

text: According to Jewish tradition, the Messianic Era will be one of global peace and harmony; an era free of strife and hardship, conducive to the furtherment of the knowledge of the Creator. The theme of the Messiah ushering in an era of global peace is encapsulated in two of the most famous scriptural passages from the Book of Isaiah:


title: Messianic Age

text: According to the Talmud, the Midrash, and the Kabbalistic work, the Zohar, the Messiah must arrive before the year 6000 from the time of creation. In Orthodox Jewish belief, the Hebrew calendar dates to the time of creation, making this correspond to the year 2240 on the Gregorian calendar.


title: Messianic Age

text: "Six eons for going in and coming out, for war and peace. The seventh eon is entirely Shabbat and rest for life everlasting."


title: Messianic Age

text: There is a kabbalistic tradition that maintains that each of the seven days of the week, which are based upon the seven days of creation, correspond to the seven millennia of creation. The tradition teaches that the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath day of rest, corresponds to the seventh millennium, the age of universal 'rest' - the Messianic Era. The seventh millennium perforce begins with the year 6000, and is the latest time the Messiah can come. Supporting and elaborating on this theme are numerous early and late Jewish scholars, including Rabbeinu Bachya, Abraham ibn Ezra, the Ramban, Isaac Abrabanel, the Ramchal, the Vilna Gaon, Aryeh Kaplan, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe.


title: Messianic Age

text: In Chabad Hasidic Judaism, the event that marked a start of the building of the messianic era was destruction of the 2nd Temple by the Romans in 70 CE and by subsequent times of the exile. They last until today. According to Yehuda Leib Schapiro, dean of the Yeshiva Gedola Rabbinical College of Greater Miami, what was old had to be destroyed to give room to the construction of the New Messianic Temple and to the future revelation of Ha-Shem that will surpass anything which is known until now. That is the meaning of the festival of Tisha B'Av.


title: Messianic Age

text: Christian understanding of the messianic age heavily depends on Jewish Scriptures, especially the prophets. The characteristic of the messianic age, as shown in the Scriptures, was to be an extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit on all people. It should bring them special gifts and charisms. Most eminent prophecies are found in the Book of Zechariah 4:6b; 6:8 and the Book of Joel 3:1-2 (cf. Nb 11:29). Acts of the Apostles refer to them proclaiming that the word of the prophets was made flesh in Jesus on the day of Pentecost. Now, "he has received from the Father the Holy spirit, who was promised." (Acts 2:16-21.17.33) According to Isaiah, the messianic age was to have its anointed leader, the Messiah, who would be filled with the gifts of the spirit to be able to accomplish his saving work. (Is 11:1-3; 42:1; 61:1; see also Mt 3:16)


title: Messianic Age

text: Jesus used miracles to convince people that he was inaugurating the messianic age. (cf. Mt 12:28). Scholars have described Jesus' miracles as establishing the kingdom during his lifetime.


title: Messianic Age

text: According to the Book of Ezekiel, apart from bestowing special charismatic gifts, the Spirit would build the messianic age in the hearts of people by exercising their inward renewal resulting in exceptional adherence to the Law of God (cf. Ezk 11:19; 36:26-27; 37:14; Ps 51:12-15; Is 32:15-19; Zc 12:10). According to the Book of Jeremiah, messianic times would be sealed by the "new covenant", final and eternal one, written ″on their hearts″ (Jr 31:31). Paul spoke about that new covenant in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians 3:6. Isaiah used the image of the life-giving water "poured out on the thirsty soil". People, "like willows on the banks of a stream" would have access to the Spirit which would enable them to bring fruits of integrity and holiness (Is 44:3) The Gospel of John would refer to that in the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob: "the water that I shall give will become a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life." (Jn 4:14) Ezekiel would say that the holiness of the people would in turn be met by special love, favour and protection from God: "I will make a covenant of peace" and "set up my sanctuary among them for ever." (Ezk 37:24; 39:29)


title: Messianic Age

text: Christian eschatology points out to gradual character of the Messianic Age. According to realized eschatology, the Messianic Era, a time of universal peace and brotherhood on the earth, without crime, war and poverty, to some extent, is already here. With the crucifixion of Jesus the Messianic Era had begun, but according to inaugurated eschatology it will completed and brought to perfection by the parousia of Christ.


title: Messianic Age

text: In the past, the messianic age was sometimes interpreted in terms of Millenarianism. The Book of Revelation 20:2-3 gives an image of a 1000-year period in which Satan is to be bound so that he cannot influence those living on the Earth, and Jesus Christ will reign on the Earth with resurrected saints. After that Satan will be defeated once and for all, the Earth and heaven will pass away, and people will face judgment by Jesus Christ to determine whether or not they will enter the new heaven and earth that will be established. (Revelation 21)


title: Messianic Age

text: According to the Nicene Creed (381), professed by most Christians, after his ascension, enthronement at the Right hand of God, the time will come when Jesus will return to fully establish the Kingdom of God of the World to Come.


title: Messianic Age

text: Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormons) believe that after Jesus' second coming, there will be a 1000-year period of peace on the Earth where Jesus reigns as king. Their beliefs of this time are very similar to the beliefs of Judaism and mainstream Christianity, but have a few additional thoughts:


title: Messianic Age

text: The Quran states that Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus, son of Mary) was the Messiah and prophet sent to the Jews. Muslims believe he is alive in Heaven, and will return to Earth to defeat the Masih ad-Dajjal, an anti-messiah comparable to the Christian Antichrist and the Jewish Armilus.


title: Messianic Age

text: Both Sunni and Shia Muslims agree the Mahdi will arrive first, and after him, Jesus. Jesus will proclaim that the true leader is the Mahdi. A war, literally jihad (Jihade Asghar) will be fought, the Dajjal against the Mahdi and Jesus. This war will mark the approach of the coming of the Last Day. After Jesus slays the Dajjāl at the Gate of Lud, he will bear witness and reveal that Islam is the true and final word from Allah to humanity as Yusuf Ali's translation reads:


title: Messianic Age

text: He will live for several years, marry, have children, and will be buried in the fourth spot next to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the first two caliphs Abu Bakr and Omar under the Green Dome in the Masjid Nabawi, Medina.


title: Messianic Age

text: Very few scholars outside of mainstream Islam reject all the quotes (hadith) attributed to Muhammad that mention the second return of Jesus, the Dajjal and Imam Mahdi, believing that they have no Quranic basis. However, Quran emphatically rejects the implication of termination of Jesus' life when he was allegedly crucified. Yusuf Ali's translation reads:


title: Messianic Age

text: Many classical commentators such as Ibn Kathir, At-Tabari, al-Qurtubi, Suyuti, al-Undlusi (Bahr al-Muhit), Abu al-Fadl al-Alusi (Ruh al-Maani) clearly mention that sura az-Zukhruf verse 43:61 of the Quran refers to the descent of Jesus before the Day of Resurrection, indicating that Jesus would be the Sign that the Hour is close.


title: Messianic Age

text: In Ahmadiyya Islam, the present age (the Messianic age) has been a witness to the wrath of God with the occurrence of the World Wars and the frequency of natural disasters. In Ahmadiyya, Ghulam Ahmad (d.1908) is seen as the promised Messiah whose teachings will establish spiritual reform and ultimately establish an age of peace upon earth. This age continues for around a thousand years as per Judeo-Christian prophecies; and is characterised by the assembling of mankind under one faith as per Ahmadiyya belief.


title: Messianic Age

text: In the Baháʼí Faith, the "Messianic Age" refers to a 1000-year period beginning with the Declaration of Baháʼu'lláh in 1863. Baháʼís believe the period of peace and prosperity is gradually unfolding and will culminate in the appearance of "The Most Great Peace".


title: Avis Car Rental

text: Avis Car Rental is an American car rental company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. Avis, Budget Rent a Car, Budget Truck Rental and Zipcar are all units of Avis Budget Group.


title: Avis Car Rental

text: Avis Budget Group operates the Avis brand in South Africa, North America, South America, India, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2011, Avis announced it was acquiring Avis Europe plc, which had been a separate corporation licensing the Avis brand.


title: Avis Car Rental

text: Since the late 1970s, Avis has featured mainly General Motors (GM) vehicles such as Chevrolet and Cadillac, but today also rents popular non-GM brands including Ford and Toyota.


title: Avis Car Rental

text: Avis is a rental car provider to the commercial segment serving business travelers at major airports internationally, and to leisure travellers at off-airport locations. Many of the off-airport locations are franchised operations rather than company-owned and -operated, as is the case with most airport locations. Avis was the first car rental business to be located at an airport.


title: Avis Car Rental

text: The company was founded in 1946 with three cars at Willow Run Airport, Ypsilanti, Michigan, by Warren Avis (August 4, 1915 – April 24, 2007). It established branch operations across the United States over the next few years, becoming the second largest car rental company in the country by 1953. By its tenth anniversary in 1956 it had opened its first international offices in Europe, Canada and Mexico.


title: Avis Car Rental

text: The Avis corporate motto of "We Try Harder" was adopted in 1962, during CEO Robert Townsend's tenure. The company aimed to put a positive spin on Avis' status as the second largest car rental company in the United States while also taking a shot at larger competitor The Hertz Corporation. The slogan was used for 50 years before a re-branding in 2012, when Avis unveiled a new slogan—"It's Your Space."


title: Avis Car Rental

text: In 1972, Avis introduced Wizard, the first computer-based information and reservations system to be used in the United States car rental business; to this day, almost all frequent Avis customers are identified by their unique "Wizard number". In 1981, the company instituted its system of vehicle tracking, that was named Advanced Vehicle Identification System (AVIS).


title: Avis Car Rental

text: Avis has been owned by a number of other companies over the years, along with several periods of being a public company. These include:


title: Born 2 Rap

text: Born 2 Rap is the tenth studio album by American rapper the Game. It was released on November 29, 2019 via eOne Music (now known today as MNRK Music Group). Its release coincided with the Game's fortieth birthday. It was advertised as his final album before retiring, although Game resumed his recording career in 2021. It features guest appearances from Dom Kennedy, Ed Sheeran, 21 Savage, Anderson .Paak, Bryson Tiller, Chris Brown, D Smoke, J. Stone, Just Liv, Masego, Marsha Ambrosius, Miguel, Mozzy, Nipsey Hussle, Osbe Chill, Red Café, Sly Pyper, ToBi, Travis Barker and Trey Songz.


title: Born 2 Rap

text: The Game announced "Born 2 Rap" as his final album, stating on social media: "I've had a great run & surpassed my rap goals a long time ago. It will always be 'QUALITY' over 'QUANTITY' from where I stand. The REAL music will always prevail & this album will cap off an amazing run".


title: Born 2 Rap

text: "Born 2 Rap" was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 82, based on four reviews.


title: Born 2 Rap

text: RapReviews.com critic Steve 'Flash' Juon said, "Both the length and the effort he put into it justify why it took over three years for it to come out and all the bases are covered here. ... It's hard to find anything to complain about". AllMusic's Fred Thomas said, "It's a dense volume of street storytelling and especially reflective lyricism from this rap MVP, and even at its extensive running time, "Born 2 Rap" delivers lots of highlights". Will Lavin of "NME" said, ""Born 2 Rap" isn't just a library of classic records blended together: it's a lesson in storytelling, something The Game has never received enough credit for. ... There's a flawless project somewhere among the album's 25 tracks, which could certainly do with trimming". Aaron McKrell of "HipHopDX" said, "As it stands, "Born 2 Rap" is a proclaimed swan song that feels more like a playlist. Let's hope Jayceon has one more in him".


title: Stratigraphy

text: Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks.


title: Stratigraphy

text: Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostratigraphy (lithologic stratigraphy), biostratigraphy (biologic stratigraphy), and chronostratigraphy (stratigraphy by age).


title: Stratigraphy

text: Catholic priest Nicholas Steno established the theoretical basis for stratigraphy when he introduced the law of superposition, the principle of original horizontality and the principle of lateral continuity in a 1669 work on the fossilization of organic remains in layers of sediment.


title: Stratigraphy

text: The first practical large-scale application of stratigraphy was by William Smith in the 1790s and early 19th century. Known as the "Father of English geology", Smith recognized the significance of strata or rock layering and the importance of fossil markers for correlating strata; he created the first geologic map of England. Other influential applications of stratigraphy in the early 19th century were by Georges Cuvier and Alexandre Brongniart, who studied the geology of the region around Paris.


title: Stratigraphy

text: Variation in rock units, most obviously displayed as visible layering, is due to physical contrasts in rock type (lithology). This variation can occur vertically as layering (bedding), or laterally, and reflects changes in environments of deposition (known as facies change). These variations provide a lithostratigraphy or lithologic stratigraphy of the rock unit. Key concepts in stratigraphy involve understanding how certain geometric relationships between rock layers arise and what these geometries imply about their original depositional environment. The basic concept in stratigraphy, called the law of superposition, states: in an undeformed stratigraphic sequence, the oldest strata occur at the base of the sequence.


title: Stratigraphy

text: Chemostratigraphy studies the changes in the relative proportions of trace elements and isotopes within and between lithologic units. Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios vary with time, and researchers can use those to map subtle changes that occurred in the paleoenvironment. This has led to the specialized field of isotopic stratigraphy.


title: Stratigraphy

text: Cyclostratigraphy documents the often cyclic changes in the relative proportions of minerals (particularly carbonates), grain size, thickness of sediment layers (varves) and fossil diversity with time, related to seasonal or longer term changes in palaeoclimates.


title: Stratigraphy

text: Biostratigraphy or paleontologic stratigraphy is based on fossil evidence in the rock layers. Strata from widespread locations containing the same fossil fauna and flora are said to be correlatable in time. Biologic stratigraphy was based on William Smith's principle of faunal succession, which predated, and was one of the first and most powerful lines of evidence for, biological evolution. It provides strong evidence for the formation (speciation) and extinction of species. The geologic time scale was developed during the 19th century, based on the evidence of biologic stratigraphy and faunal succession. This timescale remained a relative scale until the development of radiometric dating, which was based on an absolute time framework, leading to the development of chronostratigraphy.


title: Stratigraphy

text: One important development is the Vail curve, which attempts to define a global historical sea-level curve according to inferences from worldwide stratigraphic patterns. Stratigraphy is also commonly used to delineate the nature and extent of hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir rocks, seals, and traps of petroleum geology.


title: Stratigraphy

text: Chronostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy that places an absolute age, rather than a relative age on rock strata. The branch is concerned with deriving geochronological data for rock units, both directly and inferentially, so that a sequence of time-relative events that created the rocks formation can be derived. The ultimate aim of chronostratigraphy is to place dates on the sequence of deposition of all rocks within a geological region, and then to every region, and by extension to provide an entire geologic record of the Earth.


title: Stratigraphy

text: A gap or missing strata in the geological record of an area is called a stratigraphic hiatus. This may be the result of a halt in the deposition of sediment. Alternatively, the gap may be due to removal by erosion, in which case it may be called a stratigraphic vacuity. It is called a "hiatus" because deposition was "on hold" for a period of time. A physical gap may represent both a period of non-deposition and a period of erosion. A geologic fault may cause the appearance of a hiatus.


title: Stratigraphy

text: Magnetostratigraphy is a chronostratigraphic technique used to date sedimentary and volcanic sequences. The method works by collecting oriented samples at measured intervals throughout a section. The samples are analyzed to determine their detrital remanent magnetism (DRM), that is, the polarity of Earth's magnetic field at the time a stratum was deposited. For sedimentary rocks this is possible because, as they fall through the water column, very fine-grained magnetic minerals (< 17 μm) behave like tiny compasses, orienting themselves with Earth's magnetic field. Upon burial, that orientation is preserved. For volcanic rocks, magnetic minerals, which form in the melt, orient themselves with the ambient magnetic field, and are fixed in place upon crystallization of the lava.


title: Stratigraphy

text: Oriented paleomagnetic core samples are collected in the field; mudstones, siltstones, and very fine-grained sandstones are the preferred lithologies because the magnetic grains are finer and more likely to orient with the ambient field during deposition. If the ancient magnetic field were oriented similar to today's field (North Magnetic Pole near the North Rotational Pole), the strata would retain a normal polarity. If the data indicate that the North Magnetic Pole were near the South Rotational Pole, the strata would exhibit reversed polarity.


title: Stratigraphy

text: Results of the individual samples are analyzed by removing the natural remanent magnetization (NRM) to reveal the DRM. Following statistical analysis, the results are used to generate a local magnetostratigraphic column that can then be compared against the Global Magnetic Polarity Time Scale.


title: Stratigraphy

text: This technique is used to date sequences that generally lack fossils or interbedded igneous rocks. The continuous nature of the sampling means that it is also a powerful technique for the estimation of sediment-accumulation rates.


title: Isabella Calthorpe

text: Isabella Amaryllis Charlotte Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe (born 3 March 1980) is an English socialite, actress and model.


title: Isabella Calthorpe

text: Isabella Amaryllis Charlotte Calthorpe, known by intimates as Bellie, was born on 3 March 1980 in Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. She is the daughter of John Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe and Lady Mary-Gaye Georgiana Lorna Curzon. Her paternal grandfather is Sir Richard Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, 2nd Baronet and her maternal grandfather is Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe.


title: Isabella Calthorpe

text: She has two full siblings (elder sister Georgiana, an artist, and younger brother Jacobi), and four half-siblings: two from her father's second marriage, including actress Gabriella Calthorpe; one from her mother's first marriage; and one from her mother's third marriage, the actress Cressida Bonas.


title: Isabella Calthorpe

text: Calthorpe was educated at Heathfield School, Ascot, and Bradfield College, before going on to study Classics and Art History at the University of Edinburgh.


title: Isabella Calthorpe

text: After attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 2003 to 2005, she became a stage actress. She has also appeared in films "Stage Beauty" and "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People", and the television series "Harley Street" and "Trinity".


title: Isabella Calthorpe

text: While single, she appeared regularly in the society pages of "Tatler," "Harper's Bazaar" and "Hello!"


title: Isabella Calthorpe

text: On 6 March 2013, she married Sam Branson, filmmaker, former model, and son of business tycoon Sir Richard Branson. The couple married at his father's private safari lodge near Kruger National Park, with guests including Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York.


title: Isabella Calthorpe

text: On 9 September 2014, it was announced on the Virgin website that the couple were expecting their first child, a daughter named Eva Deia Branson, who was born on 19 February 2015. They had their second child, a son named Bluey Rafe Richard Branson, on 18 January 2017.


title: Leva Bates

text: Leva Bates (born May 21, 1983) is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling. She also had a successful tenure on the independent circuit, most notably for Shimmer Women Athletes. She has also appeared in WWE on their developmental territory NXT under the ring name Blue Pants.


title: Leva Bates

text: Leva Bates was trained at the Team 3D Academy under D-Von Dudley and Bubba Ray Dudley (The Dudley Boyz), and made her professional wrestling debut in 2006. She spent the next three years wrestling primarily in the Southeastern United States, for promotions such as Southeastern Championship Wrestling (SCW) and Coastal Championship Wrestling. In SCW, she won the SCW Women's Championship on November 8, 2008, by defeating Betsy Ruth and Lexie Fyfe in a three-way match. She also appeared for World Xtreme Wrestling, beginning in 2009, wrestling against Betsy Ruth and Malia Hosaka, among others.


title: Leva Bates

text: Bates debuted for Shimmer Women Athletes in 2009 at "Volume 28", when she and Kimberly Kash lost a tag team match to Kacey Diamond and Sassy Stephie. She returned at the next show in 2010, defeating She Nay Nay in a dark match, before losing to Malia Hosaka on "Volume 30". At "Volumes 33" and "34", she lost to Allison Danger and Melanie Cruise respectively, before defeating Cat Power at "Volume 36". Beginning at "Volume 37" in March 2011, Bates formed a tag team with Allison Danger, known as Regeneration X. Over the next year, they defeated the teams of Jamilia Craft and Mia Yim, and Sassy Stephie and Nevaeh, but lost to Nikki Roxx and Ariel and The Knight Dynasty (Britani and Saraya Knight). On March 17, 2012, Regeneration X failed to win the Shimmer Tag Team Championship from Ayako Hamada and Ayumi Kurihara, and were unsuccessful again in a four-way match at "Volume 48" the next day. In 2013, Bates returned to singles competition, and unsuccessfully challenged Cheerleader Melissa for the Shimmer Championship on October 19 at "Volume 58".<ref name="58/59"></ref> She spent the rest of 2013 and 2014 wrestling matches against Nikki Storm, Marti Belle, Veda Scott, and Jessicka Havok.


title: Leva Bates

text: Bates debuted in Shine Wrestling at their first event in July 2012. Initially a singles competitor, she faced Mercedes Martinez, Portia Perez, and Jessicka Havok, before having a series of matches with Kimberly, with the pair trading wins. This prompted at a Last Woman Standing match at "Shine 7", which Bates won. After being attacked post-match by Kimberly, they faced off again at "Shine 8" in a Fans Bring the Weapons I Quit match, which Kimberly won by referee stoppage. The feud ended at "Shine 9", when Bates won an "Arkham Asylum" steel cage match. Bates then competed in the tournament to determine the inaugural Shine Champion; she defeated Taylor Made before losing to Mia Yim. This was followed by a feud with Nevaeh, which culminated in a hardcore match at "Shine 15" won by Bates.


title: Leva Bates

text: In February 2014, Bates teamed with Mia Yim to enter the tournament to determine the inaugural Shine Tag Team Champions. Collectively known as The Lucha Sisters, Bates and Yim defeated The Kimber Bombs (Cherry Bomb and Kimber Lee) and Jessie Belle Smothers and Sassy Stephie en route to the final, where they defeated Made in Sin (Taylor Made and Allysin Kay) to win the championship. They successfully defended the title against Evie and Madison Eagles, and Candice LeRae and Ivelisse, before losing to Legendary (Brandi Wine and Malia Hosaka) at "Shine 20" on June 27, 2014. The Lucha Sisters failed to regain the championship in a rematch at "Shine 21" in August. Bates then transitioned back in singles competition, and unsuccessfully challenged LuFisto for the Shine Championship in 2017.


title: Leva Bates

text: Bates first appeared in WWE, accompanying Adam Rose as one of his "Rosebuds". Bates made her debut in WWE's developmental territory on the October 16, 2014, episode of "NXT", as an enhancement talent, losing to the debuting Carmella. She was introduced as "Blue Pants" by Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady because of her blue ring attire, and retained the name for her subsequent appearances. She returned at the "NXT" television tapings on October 23, losing again to Carmella; the match aired on November 27. Blue Pants earned her first victory on the January 1, 2015, episode of "NXT", defeating Carmella in their third match. She made further appearances on the February 18, April 15, and June 10 episodes, losing to NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks, Dana Brooke, and Emma respectively. Blue Pants made a surprise appearance at on August 22, managing The Vaudevillains (Aiden English and Simon Gotch) to a NXT Tag Team Championship. During the match, she had an altercation with Alexa Bliss, prompting a match on the September 2 episode of "NXT", which Bliss won. Blue Pants made her final appearance on the December 2 episode of "NXT", facing Nia Jax in a losing effort.


title: Leva Bates

text: Bates described the character of Blue Pants as the "ultimate fangirl", and felt the character became so popular because the audience connected with the joy the character felt in wrestling. Blue Pants was noted to be very popular with the crowd at NXT shows, receiving enthusiastic applause and cheering when she appeared, despite being intended initially only as an enhancement talent and not being under contract with WWE.


title: Leva Bates

text: Bates appeared on the May 28, 2008, episode of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's "Impact!", accepting Awesome Kong's $25,000 challenge, which she would lose. She later had a try-out match for the company against Isis the Amazon in February 2011, but lost the match. In September 2012, Bates made a further appearance on "Impact Wrestling", portraying a villainous stagehand who helped the Aces & Eights faction abduct Sting and Hulk Hogan. Bates made a brief return to TNA for the Knockouts Knockdown 2016 pay-per-view as her cosplayer character losing a well received match to TNA Knockouts champion Jade. Bates returned to Impact Wrestling again for One Night Only: Victory Road – Knockouts Knockdown defeating Allie. Later the same night she teamed with ODB, Alisha, and Santana Garrett in an eight-man tag team match where they defeated Angelina Love, Rosemary, Diamanté, and Laurel Van Ness.


title: Leva Bates

text: Bates debuted in Full Impact Pro (FIP) in May 2008, when she and Rain defeated Portia Perez and Mimi in a tag team match. She returned five years later, as part of a Shine Wrestling showcase match against Solo Darling on August 9, 2013. She continued making appearances for FIP throughout 2013 and 2014, as the manager of Dos Ben Dejos (Jay Rios and Eddie Cruz), along with Mia Yim. She also made sporadic wrestling appearances for the company, usually against Darling or Su Yung.


title: Leva Bates

text: On April 22, 2019, it was announced that Bates would join the women's roster of All Elite Wrestling as The Librarian. She debuted at Fyter Fest, losing to Allie in a singles match after a superkick. She turned face after slapping Peter Avalon.


title: Leva Bates

text: Bates has a degree in theater and radio and television production with a minor in dance from Murray State University. She works during the week as one of the entertainers at the Universal Orlando theme park. She also video blogs for The Geek Soapbox.


title: Leva Bates

text: Bates is known for her use of cosplay in her ring outfits; she regularly dresses as characters from TV, movies, video games, and comic books. While cosplaying, she incorporates aspects of the character into her wrestling style.


title: The Simpsons (season 4)

text: The fourth season of the American animated television series "The Simpsons" originally aired on the Fox network between September 24, 1992 and May 13, 1993, beginning with "Kamp Krusty". The showrunners for the fourth production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss, with the season being produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. The aired season contained two episodes which were hold-over episodes from season three, which Jean and Reiss also ran. Following the end of the production of the season, Jean, Reiss and most of the original writing staff left the show. The season was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and Dan Castellaneta would win one for his performance as Homer in "Mr. Plow". The fourth season was released on DVD in Region 1 on June 15, 2004, Region 2 on August 2, 2004 and in Region 4 on August 25, 2004.


title: The Simpsons (season 4)

text: The season was executive produced by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who had also run the previous season. Several of the show's original writers who had been with the show since the first season left following the completion of the season's production run. "Cape Feare", which was the final episode to be produced by the "original team", aired during season five as a holdover. Jay Kogen, Wallace Wolodarsky and Jeff Martin wrote their final episodes for the season four production run. David M. Stern and Jon Vitti also left but returned to write episodes for later seasons. Reiss and Jean left to produce their own series, "The Critic", but later returned to produce several more "The Simpsons" episodes, and Jean again became the showrunner starting with season thirteen. Rich Moore, one of the show's original directors, also left to work on "The Critic", but returned years later to assist with animation on "The Simpsons Movie". George Meyer and John Swartzwelder stayed on, while Conan O'Brien, Frank Mula and future show runners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein received their first writing credits. One-time writers for the season include Adam I. Lapidus and the team of Gary Apple and Michael Carrington, although Carrington later returned to voice characters in "Simpson Tide" and "Million Dollar Abie".


title: The Simpsons (season 4)

text: Sam Simon, who had been showrunner for the show's first two seasons, assembled the original writing team, been the series' creative supervisor from its inception, and has been credited as "developing [the show's] sensibility", departed at the end of season four. Simon was involved in a series of creative disputes with the show's creator Matt Groening, producer James L. Brooks and production company Gracie Films. Simon commented that he "wasn't enjoying it anymore," and "that any show I've ever worked on, it turns me into a monster. I go crazy. I hate myself." Before leaving, he negotiated a deal that saw him receive a share of the show's profits every year and an executive producer credit despite not having worked on the show since then until his death.


title: The Simpsons (season 4)

text: This season's production run (9F) was the first to be animated by Film Roman, after Gracie Films opted to switch domestic production of the series from Klasky Csupo. Sharon Bernstein of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that "Gracie executives had been unhappy with the producer Csupo had assigned to "The Simpsons" and said the company also hoped to obtain better wages and working conditions for animators at Film Roman." Klasky Csupo co-founder Gábor Csupó had been "asked [by Gracie Films] if they could bring in their own producer [to oversee the animation production]," but declined, stating "they wanted to tell me how to run my business." Simon commented that: "There won't be any change in the quality or look of the show. We're not going to compromise the quality of the show, and key creative personnel will continue on the show."


title: The Simpsons (season 4)

text: "A Streetcar Named Marge" and "Kamp Krusty" were holdovers from the previous season and so were the last of the Klasky Csupo produced episodes to air. Brooks suggested that the script for "Kamp Krusty" be expanded and produced as a feature-length theatrically released film. However, the episode ran very short, barely reaching the minimum length allowed, with the episode's musical number having to be lengthened by a number of verses. The episode had also been selected to be the season's premiere. As Jean told Brooks, "First of all, if we make it into the movie then we don't have a premiere, and second if we can't make 18 minutes out of this episode how are we supposed to make 80?"


title: The Simpsons (season 4)

text: 1993 marked the first year that the producers of "The Simpsons" did not submit episodes for the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)". Prior to this season, the series had only been allowed to compete in the animation category, but in early 1993 the rules were changed so that animated television shows would be able to submit nominations in the "Outstanding Comedy Series" category. The producers submitted "A Streetcar Named Marge" and "Mr. Plow" but the Emmy voters were hesitant to pit cartoons against live action programs, and "The Simpsons" did not receive a nomination. Several critics saw the show's failure to gain a nomination as one of the biggest snubs of that year. Dan Castellaneta was awarded an Emmy for "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance". "Treehouse of Horror III" was nominated for Emmys for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)" (Alf Clausen) and "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special".


title: The Simpsons (season 4)

text: The series won several other awards this season, including an Annie Award for "Best Animated Television Program", a Genesis Award for "Best Television Prime Time Animated Series" for the episode "Whacking Day" and a Saturn Award for "Best Television Series".


title: The Simpsons (season 4)

text: At the 9th annual Television Critics Association Awards, the fourth season of the show was nominated for 'Outstanding Achievement in Comedy' but lost to "Seinfeld." Additionally, it was nominated for 'Program of the Year,' losing to "Barbarians at the Gate."


title: The Simpsons (season 4)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season of "The Simpsons" has a 100% approval rating based on 11 critical reviews. The sites critical consensus reads: "One word: Monorail".


title: The Simpsons (season 4)

text: The DVD boxset for season four was released by 20th Century Fox in the United States and Canada on June 15, 2004, eleven years after it had completed broadcast on television. As well as every episode from the season, the DVD release features bonus material including deleted scenes, Animatics, and commentaries for every episode. The menus are a different format than the previous seasons.


title: Common-mode rejection ratio

text: In electronics, the common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of a differential amplifier (or other device) is a metric used to quantify the ability of the device to reject common-mode signals, i.e. those that appear simultaneously and in-phase on both inputs. An ideal differential amplifier would have infinite CMRR, however this is not achievable in practice. A high CMRR is required when a differential signal must be amplified in the presence of a possibly large common-mode input, such as strong electromagnetic interference (EMI). An example is audio transmission over balanced line in sound reinforcement or recording.


title: Common-mode rejection ratio

text: Ideally, a differential amplifier takes the voltages, formula_1 and formula_2 on its two inputs and produces an output voltage formula_3, where formula_4 is the differential gain. However, the output of a real differential amplifier is better described as :


title: Common-mode rejection ratio

text: where formula_6 is the "common-mode gain", which is typically much smaller than the differential gain.


title: Common-mode rejection ratio

text: The CMRR is defined as the ratio of the powers of the differential gain over the common-mode gain, measured in positive decibels (thus using the 20 log rule):


title: Common-mode rejection ratio

text: As differential gain should exceed common-mode gain, this will be a positive number, and the higher the better.


title: Common-mode rejection ratio

text: The CMRR is a very important specification, as it indicates how much of the common-mode signal will appear in your measurement. The value of the CMRR often depends on signal frequency as well, and must be specified as a function thereof.


title: Common-mode rejection ratio

text: It is often important in reducing noise on transmission lines. For example, when measuring the resistance of a thermocouple in a noisy environment, the noise from the environment appears as an offset on both input leads, making it a common-mode voltage signal. The CMRR of the measurement instrument determines the attenuation applied to the offset or noise.


title: Common-mode rejection ratio

text: CMRR is an important feature of operational amplifiers, difference amplifiers and instrumentation amplifiers, and can be found in the datasheet. The CMRR often varies depending upon the frequency of the common-mode signal. CMRR is often much higher at higher gain settings. The key to achieving a high CMRR is usually the use of very precisely matched resistors (better than 0.1%) to minimise any difference in the amplification of the negative and positive sides of the signal. Single-chip instrumentation amplifiers typically have laser-trimmed resistors to achieve a CMRR in excess of 100 dB, sometimes even 130 dB.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: Alessandro de' Medici (22 July 1510 – 6 January 1537), nicknamed "il Moro" due to his dark complexion, Duke of Penne and the first Duke of the Florentine Republic (from 1532), was ruler of Florence from 1530 to his death in 1537. The first Medici to rule Florence as a hereditary monarch, Alessandro was also the last Medici from the senior line of the family to lead the city. His assassination at the hands of distant cousin Lorenzaccio caused the title of Duke to pass to Cosimo I de Medici, from the family's junior branch.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: Born in Florence, Alessandro was recognized by a plurality of his contemporaries as the only son of Lorenzo II de' Medici, grandson of Lorenzo de' Medici "the Magnificent". Others believed him to be the illegitimate son of Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII), but at the time that was a minority view. Scipione Ammirato, the court historian of the medicean Grand Dukedom writes that "...some whose authority is credible and that have obtained this secret from penetralia servants, think he was son of Clement, born of a servant of the house when he was a knight of Saint John."


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: Alessandro's nickname "il Moro" is attributed to his relatively dark pigmentation and because Mauro (Maurice) was one of his Christian names.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: Some historians, such as Christopher Hibbert, present two hypotheses as to Alessandro de Medici's ancestry: he was "rumoured to be Cardinal Giulio's son either by black slave from Naples or by a peasant woman from the Roman Campagna". His mother was identified in documents as . French author Jean Nestor reported in the 1560s that the claim of a slave origin was a false rumor first spread by Alessandro's exiled enemies in Naples. University of Florence historian too, described this rumour as unfounded, instead tracing Alessandro's mother to a peasant who would later go on to marry a carrier from Lazio.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: What we do know is that Alessandro spent his early childhood in Rome, where he received a humanist education by Valeriano, under the supervision of Pope Leo X and Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici. During those years, a number of unexpected deaths occurred in the Medici family’s senior line: Giuliano, Duke of Nemours (1516); Lorenzo II, Duke of Urbino (1519); and eventually Pope Leo X (1521). This prompted Cardinal Giulio (then Gran Maestro of Florence, later Pope Clement VII), to relocate the remaining Medici heirs to Poggio a Caiano, near Florence: Alessandro; his half-sister Catherine, (later Queen Consort of France); and his cousin Ippolito, (later Vice-Chancellor of the Catholic Church). In 1522, Cardinal Giulio purchased the title 'Duke of Penne' for Alessandro from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: When Cardinal Giulio became Pope Clement VII in 1523, he left leadership of Florence to Alessandro and Ippolito, under the regency of papal representative Cardinal Silvio Passerini. Unfortunately, Alessandro and Ippolito were “alike in one respect only, their mutual hatred of each other.” They openly feuded throughout their short lives. Passerini was extremely unpopular with the anti-Medici faction in Florence, as well as with members of the Medici family such as Clarice Strozzi, daughter of Piero di Lorenzo ("the Unfortunate"). She disparaged not only Passerini but Alessandro as well, calling him unworthy of the family name. Outrage over the Medici-backed Passerini regency led to a popular revolt four years later.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: During the Sack of Rome in 1527, a faction of Florentines overthrew the Medici and installed a theocratic, Savonarola-influenced Republic. Alessandro and Ippolito de' Medici were advised to leave the city with Cardinal Passerini. Many of the Medicis’ main supporters fled Florence; but eight-year-old Catherine de' Medici was left behind. Alessandro lived in exile for the next three years.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: In 1530, after a nearly ten month siege of Florence supported by Spanish troops, Alessandro was named head of state. Pope Clement VII chose him for the position over Ippolito, who was made cardinal. Clement’s choice increased tension between the Medici cousins; for the rest of Ippolito’s life, he spoke openly about wanting to overthrow Alessandro and lead Florence. Alessandro arrived in Florence to rule on 5 July 1531. Nine months later he was made hereditary Duke by Charles, as Tuscany lay outside the Papal States. This ended the Florentine Republic and started over 200 years of Medici monarchy.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: The Florentine Constitution of 1532 consolidated Duke Alessandro’s power. While Clement lived, Alessandro ruled "with the advice of elected councils, trying to calm the nerves of the defeated republicans"; however, as his reign progressed he showed authoritarian tendencies. In 1534, he ordered construction of Florence’s Fortezza da Basso, “to secure the Medici’s control of the city following their recent return after the Siege of Florence, and to provide lodging for a massive contingent of troops.”


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: Duke Alessandro’s government drew both praise and criticism. His “common sense and his feeling for justice won his subjects’ affection”; and he “enjoyed some status as the champion of the poor and the helpless, as ballads and novelle record.” He was also a patron of the arts, commissioning notable works by Giorgio Vasari, Jacopo Pontormo, Benvenuto Cellini, and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. Conversely, Florence’s vocal exile community judged his rule as harsh, depraved, and incompetent, an assessment debated by historians. In 1535, the exiles enlisted Cardinal Ippolito to meet with Emperor Charles V to denounce Alessandro's government; however, en route to the meeting, Ippolito died under questionable circumstances. Rumors spread that he was poisoned on Alessandro's orders. After the exiles voiced their complaints to Charles, Florentine diplomat Francesco Guicciardini responded, “his Excellency’s virtue, his fame, the opinion of him held throughout the city, of his prudence, of his virtuous habits, are a sufficient reply". Emperor Charles dismissed the complaints, continuing to support Alessandro.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: In 1536, Emperor Charles kept a promise to Pope Clement by marrying his daughter, Margaret of Austria, to Duke Alessandro. He seems to have remained faithful to one mistress, Taddea Malaspina, who bore his only children: Giulio de' Medici (c. 1533/37–1600), who had illegitimate issue, and Giulia de' Medici.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: In 1537, Duke Alessandro's distant cousin and close friend Lorenzino de' Medici, "Lorenzaccio" ("bad Lorenzo"), assassinated him. The event is the subject of Alfred de Musset’s play "Lorenzaccio"; Alexandre Dumas’ play "Lorenzino"; and the basis for Thomas Middleton’s play "The Revenger's Tragedy", among other works.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: On January 5/6, the Night of Epiphany, Lorenzino entrapped Duke Alessandro through the ruse of a promised sexual encounter with a beautiful widow. As Duke Alessandro waited alone and unarmed, Lorenzino and his servant Piero di Giovannabate, also called Scoronconcolo, ambushed him and "stabbed Alessandro with a dagger several times while the Duke fought back to the point that he bit off a significant portion of one of Lorenzino's fingers. Eventually, Alessandro succumbed to his wounds and Lorenzino and Scoronconcolo fled from the palace – after locking the door to the chamber to prevent their crime from being discovered too quickly."


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: For fear of starting an uprising if news of his death became public, Medici officials wrapped Alessandro's corpse in a carpet and secretly carried it to the cemetery of San Lorenzo, where it was hurriedly buried. In Valladolid, Spain, at the imperial court of Charles V, a solemn funeral was held for Alessandro.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: Lorenzino, in a declaration published later, said that he had killed Alessandro to preserve the Republic of Florence. When Florence's anti-Medici faction failed to rise, Lorenzino fled to Venice, where he was killed in 1548 at the direct orders of Emperor Charles V. Florence's Medici supporters – called Palleschi from the balls on the Medici arms – ensured that power passed to Cosimo, the first of the "junior" branch of the Medici to rule Florence.


title: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

text: Alessandro was survived by two children: son Giulio (aged four at the time of his father's death) married to Lucrezia Gaetani, and daughter Giulia, married firstly to Francesco Cantelmo, the Duke of Popoli, and then to Bernadetto de' Medici, the Prince of Ottajano.