title: LGBT culture

text: In 2010, the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) was a great step in the inclusion of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals in the military. "The repeal of DADT reversed the practice of discharging LGB service members on the basis of sexual identity." Although this was a large shift in policy by the U.S. for those identifying as LGB, those who are transgender are still not fully included in this change.


title: LGBT culture

text: Criticism of LGBTQ+ culture comes from a variety of sources, much of which is critique from within the community itself. Some, like Michael Musto, view the culture as conforming to caricatures or stereotypes that alienate "fringe" members of the community. Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore and movements like Gay Shame have argued that LGBT culture has been depoliticized by a tiny minority of relatively privileged queer people, who participate in "institutions of oppression" at the expense of the vast majority of LGBT people. Some consider the very notion of "separatism", or a group lifestyle, alienating (including of LGBTQ+ members in the broader society).


title: LGBT culture

text: Another problem is that bisexual and transsexual/transgender individuals experience social pressure to identify as gay or lesbian, and may face ostracism and discrimination from the mainstream LGBTQ+ culture. For bisexuals, this pressure is known as bisexual erasure. New York University School of Law professor Kenji Yoshino has written, "Gays de-legitimatize bisexuals...the lesbian and gay community abounds with negative images of bisexuals as fence-sitters, traitors, cop-outs, closet cases, people whose primary goal in life is to retain 'heterosexual privilege'".


title: LGBT culture

text: Criticism has been made that the LGBTQ+ community represents an artificial separation, rather than one based on tangible customs or ethnic identification. In particular, labels that LGBTQ+ members use to describe themselves vary widely; some simply prefer to identify as loving a particular gender. Some believe that the LGBTQ+-community concept is alienating; the term itself implies estrangement from straight people as a separate group. Further, including three groups involved with "sexuality" and one group exploring transsexual/transgender "identity" (a broader phenomenon) is artificial.


title: LGBT culture

text: Mattilda Berstein Sycamore argues that the single-issue focus of LGBT politics, which ignores all intra-group differences, has naturally led to a movement and culture focused on the needs of white, middle-class gay cisgender men, which alienates anyone who does not fit that description.


title: LGBT culture

text: Some gay male commentators who are in monogamous relationships argue that mainstream gay culture's disdain of monogamy and its promotion of promiscuity has harmed efforts to legalize same-sex marriage. Yuvraj Joshi argues that efforts to legalize same-sex marriage have emphasized the sameness of gay people to heterosexuals, while privatizing their queer differences.


title: LGBT culture

text: British journalist Mark Simpson's 1996 book, "Anti-Gay", describes forms of intolerance by the mainstream gay community towards subgroups. "The Times" wrote that Simpson succeeded in "pointing out that oppression and prejudice do not become legitimate just because they happen to be practiced by the previously oppressed". Aiden Shaw of "Time Out New York" wrote that "Thank fucking God someone did this, because...whatever happened to our individuality, our differences?" Other commentators harshly criticized Simpson's argument, with "Boyz" declaring that "Simpson is a cunt."


Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE) (; literally "Special Police Operations Battalion") or BOPE is the police tactical unit and gendarmerie of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State ("PMERJ") in Brazil. Due to the nature of crime in favelas, BOPE units utilize equipment deemed more powerful than traditional civilian law enforcement, and have extensive experience in urban warfare as well as progression in confined and restricted environments.


title: Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais

text: BOPE of PMERJ is one of the best known units of its kind among Brazil's military police organizations. Military Police of Alagoas, Pernambuco, and Santa Catarina states also call their tactical units "BOPE", while the military police of the Federal District, Piauí, and Rio Grande do Sul states call their forces "Special Operations Battalion(s)" (""Batalhão de Operações Especiais"" or ""BOE"").


text: The force has a fleet of armoured fighting vehicles, which are known as "Pacificador" ("Peacemaker"), or "Caveirão" ("Big Skull") and one UH-1 Huey. These vehicles are used in operations in the slums (favelas) where BOPE face intense conflicts with heavily armed drug dealers. BOPE also operates a wheel loader in order to remove obstacles, barricades and street blockades.


text: BOPE has generated notoriety due to their role in the violent drug war in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and they have been referred to as a "Death Squad" by multiple newspapers. One aspect that has been pointed out specifically is their logo, which bears a knife in a skull over crossed pistols (popularly known in Brazil as "faca na caveira", Portuguese for "knife in the skull"). According to the official BOPE website, the knife in the skull symbolizes "victory over death" and the crossed pistols are the symbol of the military police.


text: A 2005 report on extra judicial executions by the New York University School of Law indicated that BOPE was involved in the deaths of 4 teenagers under the pretext that they were drug traffickers who were resisting arrest: "BOPE officers falsified the crime scene in order to incriminate the victims. Hoping this way to make them appear to be gang members. No weapon was found on any of the victims. None of them had any previous history of criminal activity."


text: Amnesty International declared that "the police forces in Brazil adopt violent and repressive methods. These cause violations of fundamental rights of large parts of the population on a regular basis", and attributes a certain number of killed civilians to BOPE in particular. In March 2006, Amnesty International specifically condemned the use of vans with armoured plating, known as a Caveirão. It stated that deploying the vehicle aggressively, indiscriminately targeting whole communities, highlighted the ineffectiveness of excessive use of force.


text: In 2006, the book "Elite da Tropa" was published. Written by sociologist Luiz Eduardo Soares and two BOPE officers, Major André Batista and Captain Rodrigo Pimentel, it provides a semi-fictional account of the daily routine of BOPE as well as some historical events, based on the experiences of the latter two. It describes BOPE as a "killing machine" and details an alleged aborted assassination attempt by some police officers on then-governor Leonel Brizola. The book was controversial at the time of release, and reportedly resulted in Batista being reprimanded and censored by the Military Police.


text: The book has been made into a movie, "Tropa de Elite" ("Elite Squad"), directed by José Padilha (the director of Bus 174), with a screenplay by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Bráulio Mantovani. In 2010 the movie gained a sequel, "".


text: Two BOPE operators make an appearance in "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege" as playable operators. These operators are Capitão (Captain) and Caveira (Skull).


text: OPES is a Brazilian special police unit in the online first-person shooter Crossfire. The OPES logo features a skull and a knife similar to that of the BOPE. The OPES were introduced with the release of the 2011 Brazilian release of the game.


text: BOPE is featured on Season 1, Episode 2 of Elite World Cops, a television show hosted by former SAS soldier and author Chris Ryan.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Pakistan Television Corporation (; reporting name: PTV) is the Pakistani state-owned broadcaster. Pakistan entered the television broadcasting age in 1964, with a pilot television station established at Lahore.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: The idea of establishing a media and television industry was conceived in late 1956 and created by the privately set up national education commission, with the support of President Ayub Khan in 1960. In 1961, the private sector media mogul and industrialist Syed Wajid Ali launched a television industrial development project, bringing the role of Ubaidur Rahman, an electrical engineer in the Engineering Division of Radio Pakistan, as the project director of the first television station in Lahore. Ali reached a milestone in 1961 after establishing a private television broadcasting company with the cooperation of Nippon Electric Company (NEC) of Japan and Thomas Television International of the United Kingdom.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: In 1963, a public meeting was chaired by President Ayub Khan; in which the government made decisions about the Pakistan Television stations and the media industry in the country. Since 1963, its headquarters are in Islamabad, near the Cabinet Secretariat. From 1961 to 1962, a television headquarters was established in Lahore and several pilot transmission tests were taken by Rahman's team. Subsequently, many television divisions were established throughout Pakistan by this team, including East-Pakistan.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: On 26 November 1964, after an introduction by Syed Wajid Ali, the first-ever news broadcast was done which was beamed as a black and white transmission by the PTV. The first programme, formatted by Thomas Television International, telecast amateur programmes with foreign films; the television division in the Punjab Province was established with the help of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Colombo Plan, and the Government of Japan. Aslam Azhar (1932–- 29 December 2015) was appointed the first managing director of the Pakistan Television in charge of all the staffing requirements at the first PTV Lahore Center. This first managing director and executive Aslam Azhar is widely considered to be the "father of Pakistan Television". Private industries commercials were permitted with no fee; initially all the commercials of industrial conglomerates were tax-free with no additional charges.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: The PTV remained under the private sector management with more than half of the shares were sold to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in a fear that all shares would fall into the hands of government in the name of greater interest of the country. President Ayub Khan appointed Ubaidur Rahman in the Ministry of Information to continue with the NEC joint venture collaboration in launching the PTV.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: The project began with a tent on the back lot of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation by Ubaidur Rahman where a transmission tower and a studio were constructed by his team. On 26 November 1964, President Ayub Khan inaugurated the first official television station commencing transmission broadcasts from Lahore, followed by Dacca on 25 December 1964 (then the capital of East Pakistan; renamed to Bangladesh Television in 1971), a third centre was established in Rawalpindi and Islamabad in 1965 and the fourth in Karachi in 1966. On 29 May 1967, a private company was established as Pakistan Television Corporation under the Company Act, 1913, whereas the private sector remained charged with broadcasting on the television. At that time, all studio programmes were telecasted live as no VTR recording machines were available, which were made available in 1968.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: After the Indo-Pakistani war in 1971, the PTV was nationalized and brought in completely under the government-ownership management by then-President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government. Communication network expansion was vast by the PTV and government publicly funded its infrastructure expansion all over the country.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Promotion of regional literature, science-fiction miniseries, country music, and romanticizing rural values in drama playwrights were on-aired by the PTV, at the behest of public funding by the Government of Pakistan. The PTV was considered as source of major national integration.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Microwave National Network was established among the centres of PTV in 1973 while Quetta and Peshawer centers were started in 1974.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: The PTV transmission switched over from its original black and white to color transmission in 1975. Regional headquarters of PTV and television centers were established in Peshawar and Quetta in 1974. In 1977–78, the PTV broadcast the live Cricket match between England vs. Pakistan. During this time, the PTV's interview programming series brought many scientists, politicians, sportsmen, actors, musicians, and artists to public fame.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: By the 1980s, the transmissions of PTV could be reached over 90% area of Pakistan. In 1980s, the PTV was the sole provider of television, and dominated the electronic media industry. During 1980s, the conservative ideas were promoted on the PTV as part of the government policy, and heavy investments were made on the promotion of education programming series.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: During the decades of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, PTV dramas and teleplays were considered as the best in the Indian subcontinent. These included "Khuda Ki Basti (1969–74)", "Unkahi (1982)", "Tanhaiyaan (1985)", "Aangan Terha", "Fifty Fifty (1979–84)", "Studio Dhai (2-1/2)", "Studio Ponay Teen (2-3/4)", "Andehra Ujala (1984)", "Sona Chandi (1983)", "Uncle Urfi", "Taleem-e-Baalighan", "Alif Noon (1981–82)", "Waaris (1979)", "Dhoop Kinare (1987)", "Sunehray Din", "Guest House" "Alpha Bravo Charlie", "Ana", "Akhri Chatan", "Zair, Zabar, Pesh (1974–75)" and block buster serials like "Dhuwan", "Kath Putli", "Wafa Ham Nibhaein Gai", "Bandhan", "Kaghaz Kay Phool", "Muqqdas", "Bint-e-Adam", "Malangi (2006)", "Sawan", "Sheela Bagh", "Tinkay", "Aisa Bhi Hota Hai", "Rasta De Zindagi", "Chubhan", "Kuch Lamhay", "Khuwahesho Kay Sarab", and many others.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: In 1990s, the PTV's programming was said initially to have intellectual appeal but succumbed to commercial pressure. In 1992, the composition of PTV's programming was based upon on 56% of entertainment, and only 25% of news and educational programmes. About 54% of national programming was based on Urdu and only 16% accounted for English. In response to challenges by private channels such as STN and NTM as well as Indian channels. PTV started its second TV Channel PTV-2 in 1992, it was the first-ever satellite channel of Pakistan as well. PTV-2 was the first Pakistani channel to appear on airwaves of Asia, Africa and Australia. PTV/PTV-1 joined this very satellite beam in 1993–94. PTV-2 was renamed as PTV World in 1998 and became digital on satellite in 1999. PTV expanded its broadcast area to Europe and later in North America in public-private partnership as PTV-Prime. STN came under PTV in 1999 as Channel-3 and started its regular broadcast with new name in 2000 as an all purpose channel. STN/Channel-3 was also visible on satellite.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Unlike other state-run corporations, Pakistan Television Corporation was allowed by the Government of Pakistan to raise a sizable amount of private capital to finance the stations. This includes a Rs. 35 per month TV fee charge to all consumers of electricity.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: The broader perspective to start electronic media in the country was to inform and educate the people through wholesome entertainment and to inculcate in them a greater awareness of their own history, heritage, current problems and development as well as knowledge of the world at large.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: In fulfillment of its broad and main objectives, PTV's broadcast policy concerning matters of national and international interests has always been motivated and guided by the cardinal principles of educating viewers about the values that are vitally important in building a united, integrated and disciplined society. These objectives have successfully been achieved through programmes centered towards Islam, education, entertainment and culture.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: The projection of new, emerging social order is highlighted in PTV's general programming, focusing on themes like morality, civic or national responsibilities, drive against narcotics, environmental pollution, agricultural reforms etc. through discussions, shows, and through anchorpersons in its broadcasting schedule.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: PTV had been received via satellite in South Asia, East Asia and the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America. Selected programming could be seen on a satellite channel named Prime TV (with a partnership with PTV) in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America until 22 April 2006. On 22 April 2006, Pakistan Television Corporation started broadcasting directly to overseas viewers including the US. This remains true as of January 2016.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: In May 2021, PTV News & PTV World started broadcasting on YouTube with high definition transmission to start from June 2021.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Pakistan Television News informs its viewers across the country on the latest newsworthy happenings on the national and international levels. During the past few years, there has been rapid expansion in the area and scope of news coverage.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Current affairs programmes have been a regular feature of PTV Transmission, ever since its inception. A separate PTV Current Affairs Directorate was established in 1982.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Current affairs programmes, including regional languages, produced by each of the TV Centre are accommodated in regular PTV transmission. The themes of regional language programs mainly revolve around local and provincial matters of current affairs nature. The Current Affairs Division produces programs on special occasions such as live telecast of Armed Forces Parade on Pakistan Day, live telecast of flag hoisting ceremony on Independence Day, Head of State's Address to the Nation, documentaries on important national projects, live telecast of certain sessions of Senate and National Assembly. In the program Open Forum, Federal Ministers/Minister of States are invited to answer the questions through e-mail, on Telephone and by Media/Experts sitting in the various studios of Ptv. This program is live and is very popular amongst viewers.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: On 9 June 2022 Minister of Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb and PTV launches PTV Films Division along with another initiative was being launched by the name of PakFlix which would feature the 75 years of rich content in the form of dramas, films and other genres in the archives of PTV, The purpose of these is to bring films to the PTV screen but also to generate quality content in the country.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: International Relations Division of Pakistan Television Corporation participates in the international television festivals/competitions sending best of its PTV programs to them. PTV has won distinguished prizes and commendations at those events.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: A large number of PTV programs have been sold for telecast in other countries which resulted in strengthening of the financial condition of PTV. Such companies as Shalimar Recording and Broadcasting Company and Sports Star International Company are the major distributors of PTV programmes.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: A lot of PTV plays and documentaries have been provided to foreign countries through government ministries and missions abroad free of charge for the projection of Pakistan and its people.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Dubbing and editing is carried out by PTV International Relations Division. Some selected programs are subtitled in English and Arabic languages for overseas projection especially for Muslim countries. Documentaries from National Geographic Magazine are being televised with Urdu dubbing.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: PTV has procured foreign canned programs on hire/rental basis. PTV procures foreign programs including feature films, cartoons, science fiction, comedy, adventure, classic drama serials/series and public general-interest programs.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: The Engineering Division takes care of the day-to-day operations and maintenance of PTV centers and Rebroadcast Stations, new projects, Planning & Procurement, as well as Research and Development activities.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: It was an engineering feat at the time Pakistan began television transmissions in 1964 at Lahore, long before its neighbors Iran in 1966 and India in 1965. Over the years, the system has grown into a countrywide network offering two programming channels. The engineering feat was a success because NEC (Nippon Electronic Corporation) co-operated with and helped PTV launching.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: The IT Department was established as a Division of PTV in 1988 and as of today has a team of 450 IT professionals with representation in all PTV Centres namely Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Multan, Quetta and Muzafarabad, AJK as well as at the PTV Headquarters in Islamabad. The IT Department provides in-house software for the News systems for PTV-News, which includes all electronic news collection, relay and on-screen presentation. In-house software created by the IT Department including mNIMS & NAPeS for PTV-News, MAPS-RT for playback installed at all PTV Centres, software for Accounting and Medical database management as well as numerous others for the automation of processes at PTV.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Shortly after the VTR was brought to PTV in 1967, they needed a way to know if the recorded programs were suitable for TV airing. Therefore, PTV Censor Board was formed in 1968 and is headed by Director Programs Administration. It was separately instituted within PTV on the approval of the Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in December 1980 to clear and certify bulk of imported and locally acquired programs with speed and efficiency. PTV Consultant of News/Current Affairs/Presentation presently heads the PTV Censor Board.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Established in 1987, Pakistan Television Academy is an apex TV institution in Pakistan, which imparts professional training in disciplines of television broadcast technology. It is headed by a full-time director and assisted by a team of television professionals who are members of the academic faculty.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: As of June 1998, over 3100 people had attended training programmes conducted by PTV Academy. They attended training courses in engineering, computers, finance, administration, news, current affairs and programme production. They included visiting participants from other countries including SAARC country members.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: Ubaidur Rahman the first general manager and originator of PTV commissioned Pakistan's supremo artist Abdur Rahman Chughtai to design a conceptual logo for PTV, this logo was later redesigned with minor modifications by another leading artist Shahzad Nawaz Khan for a more up-to-date look. Recently in the year 2016, PTV's channel logos were redesigned by PTV's Creative Manager (Design) Babur Saghir. By redesigning the logos of these ten channels of PTV his design philosophy was as follows: "The harmony in the design of our new logos depicts unity and connectivity. The non-conventional shape represents modernity, innovation and the new age of PTV. PTV engraved on gold symbolizes the last 50 years of our very strong connection with our audience (PTV Golden Anniversary was celebrated in 2014). The diverse colour palette is representative of the diversity of our people. The golden stroke shows dynamism and the transformation of PTV."


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: The chairman/CEO is appointed by the prime minister and, finally confirmation approved by the president. The chairman heads the board of governors that are appointed by the Government of Pakistan to manage its affairs and reports directly to the Information Secretary of Pakistan.


title: Pakistan Television Corporation

text: The managing director (MD) is the administrative head of the PTV with executive responsibilities. The appointment of MD comes from the approval from the Government of Pakistan and approval from the chairman of the PTV.


title: APS underwater rifle

text: The APS underwater assault rifle (APS stands for Avtomat Podvodny Spetsialnyy (Автомат Подводный Специальный) or "Special Underwater Assault Rifle") is an underwater firearm designed by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s. It was adopted in 1975. Made by the Tula Arms Plant (Тульский Оружейный Завод, "Tul'skiy Oruzheynyy Zavod") in Russia, it is exported by Rosoboronexport.


title: APS underwater rifle

text: Under water, ordinary bullets are inaccurate and have a very short range. The APS fires a 120 mm (4.75 in) long 5.66 mm calibre steel bolt specially designed for this weapon. Its magazine holds 26 rounds. The APS's barrel is not rifled; the fired projectile is kept in line by hydrodynamic effects; as a result, the APS is somewhat inaccurate when fired out of water.


title: APS underwater rifle

text: The APS has a longer range and more penetrating power than spearguns. This is useful in such situations such as shooting an opposing diver through a reinforced dry suit, a protective helmet (whether air-holding or not), thick tough parts of breathing sets and their harnesses, and the plastic casings and transparent covers of some small underwater vehicles.


title: APS underwater rifle

text: The APS is more powerful than a pistol, but is bulkier, heavier and takes longer to aim, particularly swinging its long barrel and large flat magazine sideways through water.


title: APS underwater rifle

text: The rising threat of attacks by frogmen in naval bases caused various anti-frogman techniques to be developed. In the USSR, one of these techniques was guard frogmen sent to stop the attackers. At first these guard frogmen were armed only with knives and AK-type rifles. The rifle was carried in a waterproof case and could be used only on the surface, so the only effective underwater weapon against enemy frogmen was the knife.


title: APS underwater rifle

text: The SPP-1 underwater pistol was accepted in 1971, but soon proved to be useful for close-up self-defence rather than in attacking more distant targets. Vladimir Simonov undertook the job of developing an underwater assault rifle. To allow the rifle's mechanism to work under water, there had to be room for the flow of the water pushed aside by moving parts and by the gas produced by the propellant explosive in the cartridge. The APS rifle was accepted for use in the mid-1970s. One special improvement was a perforated gas tube, and in the sighting. Its design engineer received a state award in 1983.


title: APS underwater rifle

text: As with the SPP-1 the first stage of the work was to develop a cartridge. A by cartridge was lengthened by about to fit the sharp-fronted steel bolt. Another cartridge version was designed that contained a miniature rocket, which when fired makes a visible streak in the water. Next, Vladimir Simonov designed the rifle. The objective was ambitious; nobody had ever before tried to build a functioning automatic underwater firearm. The most important problem was designing a receiver that could work under water. Water is essentially incompressible, so the structure had to let water move around easily; as a result, its receiver is open at the rear. Since it operates on the principle of gas discharge, it has a gas controller to let it work both underwater and on land.


title: APS underwater rifle

text: The APS was adopted in the mid-1970s. Afterwards, there was lengthy improvement work on the APS. One improvement was fitting a perforated gas pipe with a special shield to break up the emitted gas bubbles, making targeting easier and reducing the visibility of the bubbles, allowing stealthier firing of the weapon.


title: APS underwater rifle

text: However, since the conception of this new weapon there were objections. It was the perfect weapon for the Soviet frogmen's underwater operations, but it was less useful for Spetsnaz soldiers fighting both on land and underwater. The APS can operate on land, but its effective range does not exceed 50 metres, and the rifle's lifetime drops to 180 shots in air from 2,000 shots underwater. Therefore, they mostly carried a SPP-1 pistol for self-defence under water and an AK-74 to fight on land. At the end of the 1980s the ASM-DT amphibious rifle was developed.


title: The Jayhawks

text: The Jayhawks are an American alternative country and country rock band that emerged from the Twin Cities music scene in the mid-1980s. Led by vocalists/guitarists/songwriters Gary Louris and Mark Olson, their country rock sound was influential on many bands who played the Twin Cities circuit during the 1980s and 1990s, such as Uncle Tupelo, the Gear Daddies and the Honeydogs. They have released eleven studio albums, with and without Olson (who left the band for the first time in 1995), including five on the American Recordings label. After going on hiatus from 2005 to 2009, the 1995 lineup of the band reunited and released the album "Mockingbird Time" in September 2011; Olson left the band for the second time after the tour to promote the album. After another hiatus in 2013, the 1997 lineup led by Louris reunited to play shows in 2014 to support the reissue of three albums originally released between 1997 and 2003. Since then, the band has continued to tour and record, releasing the albums "Live at The Belly Up" in 2015; "Paging Mr. Proust", co-produced by Peter Buck, in 2016; "Back Roads and Abandoned Motels" in 2018; and "XOXO" in 2020.


title: The Jayhawks

text: The Jayhawks was formed in 1984 by Minneapolis musicians Mark Olson (guitar and vocals) and Caleb Palmiter (bass), with the duo adding Tommy Rey (drums) for its first shows. In 1985 the short-lived trio was relaunched as a four-piece band after Olson recruited Steve Retzler (guitar), Marc Perlman (bass), and Norm Rogers (drums). Later that year Gary Louris (guitar and vocals) replaced Retzler.


title: The Jayhawks

text: Their first album, "The Jayhawks", was released by Bunkhouse Records, a small independent label, in 1986. Their music at the time, mostly written by Olson, showed a strong roots/country rock influence. Rogers left and was replaced by Thad Spencer, and the band worked for the next years on demo tapes in search of a major label recording contract. During this period, Louris left the band briefly (following a car accident) and Dan Gaarder replaced him. Louris returned, and the collected demos from 1986 to 1989 were brought together to create "Blue Earth", released on the Minneapolis label Twin Tone in 1989. On this album Louris shared more of the songwriting with Olson. After touring the U.S. in support of "Blue Earth", Spencer left the band and was replaced in 1988 by Ken Callahan, who stayed with the band until 1993.


title: The Jayhawks

text: In 1991, Dave Ayers, the head of A&R for Twin Tone, was on a phone call with A&R representative George Drakoulias of Def American while "Blue Earth" played in the background. Drakoulias asked about the music and eventually met with and signed the band to the label later that year.


title: The Jayhawks

text: In 1992 the Jayhawks had their major label release, "Hollywood Town Hall", on Def American. The album was produced by Drakoulias and recorded primarily in Los Angeles and at Pachyderm Recording Studio in Minnesota. Though Louris's fuzzy guitar was at the forefront, a clear folksy influence was also emerging in Olson and Louris's songwriting. The album was successful, powered by the single "Waiting for the Sun", and it brought the Jayhawks a wider fan base. Adding Karen Grotberg on keyboards and vocals, the band toured extensively.


title: The Jayhawks

text: That year Olson, Louris and Perlman, along with Olson's longtime friend and future collaborator in the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers, Mike Russell, were recruited by Joe Henry as the backing band for his album ""Short Man's Room" and its 1993 followup, "Kindness of the World."


title: The Jayhawks

text: In 1995 they went into the studio to produce "Tomorrow the Green Grass" on the renamed American Recordings label. The lead track, "Blue", was a Top 40 hit in Canada (peaking at No. 33), but the record's production had been very expensive and the album failed to sell as expected in the U.S. Among the album's songs is "Miss Williams' Guitar," a love song for Olson's then-girlfriend, singer-songwriter Victoria Williams (the pair later married, but divorced in February 2006). Drummer, singer and songwriter Tim O'Reagan joined the band for the 1995 tour; session drummer Don Heffington had played on the album.


title: The Jayhawks

text: By the end of 1995, Olson unexpectedly left the band to spend more time with Williams (with whom he would later form the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers). The band continued to record as the Jayhawks, adding Kraig Johnson on guitar. Johnson, another Minneapolis musical fixture, had played in the seminal SST band Run Westy Run, Iffy and Golden Smog.


title: The Jayhawks

text: The Jayhawks released "Sound of Lies" in 1997, with Louris composing most of the songs and allowing all of his influences a share in the proceedings. The result mixed straight rock (the ironic "Big Star"), psychedelic, acoustic (the title track) and even some dub elements, taking the band far from its country-influenced origins.


title: The Jayhawks

text: "Smile" (2000), produced by Bob Ezrin, had more of a pop music feel (which utilized new sounds for the band, like drum loops and synthesizers), jarring some of the band's long-time fans. The "New York Times" positively reviewed the album, but in a nod to the band's lack of widespread recognition, titled the review "What If You Made a Classic and No One Cared?" Though still a member through the recording of the album, a pregnant Grotberg left the band before the "Smile" tour and was replaced by Jen Gunderman. The song "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" appeared in a Ralph Lauren commercial, the second soundtrack released from Dawson's Creek "Songs from Dawson's Creek Volume 2", and the 2001 film "All Over the Guy".


title: The Jayhawks

text: "Rainy Day Music" (2003), was stripped down, more acoustic, and generally seen as a return to their alt-country roots ("Tailspin," "Stumbling Through the Dark," "You Look So Young"). The band now consisted of founding members Louris and Perlman, along with drummer O'Reagan and touring band member ex-Long Ryder Stephen McCarthy, from Richmond, Virginia, who also played with Johnny Hott and the Piedmont Surprise. McCarthy added pedal steel, lap steel, banjo, guitar and backing vocals to the album and subsequent live shows. This lineup toured in 2003 and early 2004, including their first appearance on PBS's long-running series Austin City Limits. The band's final show was in Valencia, Spain.


title: The Jayhawks

text: In addition to their studio albums, the Jayhawks released "Live from the Women's Club", an all-acoustic live recording of Louris, Perlman and O'Reagan from 2002. It was sold only at concerts as an "Official Jayhawks Bootleg." It includes the demo of the original version of "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me", called "Someone Will", and a cover of David Wiffen's "(Lost My) Driving Wheel", originally popularized by Tom Rush. A follow-up, "Live from the Women's Club 2", contains the rest of the concert, including a cover of Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe" and a rendition of "Jennifer Save Me" from Golden Smog, the alt/country supergroup of which Louris was a founding member (and which Perlman later joined).


title: The Jayhawks

text: Both old and new Jayhawks members progressed to solo efforts and side projects, and the band as a whole was generally considered to be broken up and not expected to produce new material soon. However, the band members appeared to have kept in touch, tour together in their other projects, and reunited on occasion. Olson and Louris toured together in the winter of 2005 and spring of 2006, billed as "From the Jayhawks: An Evening with Mark Olson & Gary Louris, Together Again."


title: The Jayhawks

text: In September 2008, the 1995 lineup of Louris, Olson, O'Reagan, Grotberg and Perlman reunited briefly for the Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.


title: The Jayhawks

text: In April 2009, "Billboard" reported that the Jayhawks had reunited. The band's mid-1990s lineup played two shows that summer, one at Barcelona's Primavera Sound Festival on May 30 and one at Minneapolis's Basilica Block Party on July 10. Band co-leader Louris told "Billboard" that the reunion would be a part-time thing: "I think the plan is that we're going to play festivals. Next year, we're hoping to play Bonnaroo and things like that. We'll see if it grows from there."


title: The Jayhawks

text: In July 2009, Sony Legacy and American Recordings released "Music from the North Country, The Jayhawks Anthology", a project supervised by Louris. The standard CD features highlights from the band's studio albums, while a deluxe version adds rarities, B-sides, and unreleased material, as well as a DVD of the band's music videos.


title: The Jayhawks

text: On May 18, 2010, the initial release "The Jayhawks" was digitally remastered from reel-to-reel and reissued on Lost Highway Records. The re-release features an eleven-page booklet designed by Olson. In fall 2010, the Jayhawks returned to the recording studio, planning to have a new album out by spring or early summer 2011.


title: The Jayhawks

text: In January 2011, Legacy Recordings reissued collector's editions of both "Hollywood Town Hall" and "Tomorrow the Green Grass," each featuring outtakes and B-sides. "Tomorrow the Green Grass" features a second disc, entitled "The Mystery Demos," featuring tracks from two recording sessions with Olson and Louris in 1992. Prior to the release of "The Mystery Demos", several of the featured tracks had been re-recorded and released on various Jayhawks related albums, such as Olson's solo release, "The Salvation Blues" and the Olson–Louris collaboration "Ready for the Flood." To celebrate the release of the reissues, the Jayhawks—Louris, Olson, Perlman, Grotberg, and O'Reagan—launched a concert mini-tour in January 2011, with shows in Toronto (January 18), New York City (January 20 and 21), Philadelphia (January 22), Chicago (January 27 and 28), and Minneapolis (January 29). For the January 20 show at New York's Webster Hall, the band performed "Hollywood Town Hall" in its entirety, followed by the complete "Tomorrow the Green Grass" the following evening.


title: The Jayhawks

text: In 2011 the band reunited again and recorded a new studio album. The lineup consisted of Olson, Louris, Perlman, Grotberg, and O'Reagan, and, as Louris said, "Our goal is to make the best Jayhawks album that's ever been done". Eighteen songs were recorded, 16 of them new, but only 12 made it to the final release. The album, "Mockingbird Time", was released September 20. From 2009 to 2012 this lineup performed over 100 shows in North America and Europe before once again going on hiatus in the fall of 2012.


title: The Jayhawks

text: 2014 saw new activity from the band once again. The final phase of the career-spanning reissue project started in 2009 commenced in the summer of 2014 with the reissue (on CD and LP) of the three albums the band made after Olson left in 1995: "Sound of Lies" (1997), "Smile" (2000) and "Rainy Day Music" (2003). The reissues, on American Recordings/UME, feature bonus tracks, new liner notes and fresh remastering from original analog sources by Vic Anesini. Deluxe two-LP vinyl editions were also released; this was the first vinyl release in the U.S. of "Smile" and the first time vinyl copies of "Sound of Lies" and "Rainy Day Music" had been available after having been long out of print. Most of the 1997 touring lineup (Louris, Perlman, O'Reagan, Grotberg and Johnson) toured in 2014 and 2015 to support the reissues, concentrating on material from the 1997–2004 era of the band that had largely gone unplayed in concert for over a decade. The band released "Live at the Belly-Up," a digital-only album on April 7, 2015.


title: The Jayhawks

text: The band announced in September 2015 that they were recording a new studio album with the 2014–2015 lineup. The album was recorded in Portland, Oregon, with Peter Buck from R.E.M and Tucker Martine producing. In January 2016 The Jayhawks announced on their Tumblr account that their new album would be titled "Paging Mr. Proust" and it was released on April 29, 2016 on Thirty Tigers. Kraig Johnson left the band again before the release of "Paging Mr. Proust". Jeff "Chet" Lyster was added as a touring member on guitar, pedal steel and background vocals prior to the 2016 tour.


title: The Jayhawks

text: The band collaborated with Ray Davies, formerly of The Kinks, for an album released in April, 2017 titled "Americana", based on Davies' experiences in the USA.


title: The Jayhawks

text: 2018 saw The Jayhawks backing Ray Davies again on his album "Our Country - Americana Act II" (released June 2018) as well as releasing their own album "Back Roads and Abandoned Motels" (July 2018). The band also recorded "What Would I Dreamer Do?" for the compilation album "Forever Words", setting lyrics by Johnny Cash to music for the first time.


title: The Jayhawks

text: On July 13, 2018 the Jayhawks released "Back Roads and Abandoned Motels" on Sony Legacy Recordings label, featuring new fifth member John Jackson, who co-produced the album and served previously as a touring member on some tour dates since 2014.


title: The Jayhawks

text: The band has been honored with a star on the outside mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue, recognizing performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue. Receiving a star "might be the most prestigious public honor an artist can receive in Minneapolis," according to journalist Steve Marsh.


title: The Jayhawks

text: In 2020, the core lineup of Louris, Pearlman, O'Reagan, and Grotberg released the new album, "XOXO", that featured songwriting and lead vocals from each member of the band. Previous / part-time members John Jackson and Stephen McCarthy recorded on select songs, as well. The band appeared on the national morning show on June 27, 2020. The band resumed touring in 2021, with multiple dates on the Fall 2021 tour featuring McCarthy in the performing lineup for just the second time in 17 years.


title: The Jayhawks

text: Since the departure of John Jackson as a full-time member, the current lineup of the Jayhawks consists of:


title: Annabelle Attanasio

text: Annabelle Attanasio (born May 11, 1993) is an American actress and filmmaker of Italian descent. Best known as Cable McCory in ‘’Bull’’ (2016-2018).


title: Annabelle Attanasio

text: Attanasio was a member of the main cast of the CBS television legal drama "Bull", co-created by her father, Paul Attanasio, when it originally premiered in 2016 (Season 1) and through Season 2 (2017-2018). She played Cable McCrory, the team's computer expert. On July 13, 2018, it was revealed that she would not be returning for season three, leaving for the opportunity to direct a feature film.


title: Annabelle Attanasio

text: Her feature film, "Mickey and the Bear", premiered at South by Southwest 2019. It premiered to critical acclaim, described as “a sharp, affecting film that's brimming with darkness and hope, every instant of it vividly alive,” by The Hollywood Reporter, and named one of Variety's Best Movies of SXSW. The Washington Post called the film “one of the most exciting breakout films of the year”, and RogerEbert.com sang the movie's praises, calling it “an almost perfectly realized drama that feels as if it was time-warped in from 40 or 50 years ago, in the tradition of great American cinema chamber pieces like ‘The Last Picture Show,’ ‘Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,’ ‘The Great Santini,’ and more recently, ‘Winter's Bone.’" It went on to make its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as a part of the Acid Official Selection and later played in competition at the Deauville American Film Festival, where it was distinguished by The New York Times as one of the standout films directed by a female filmmaker. It holds a 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.


title: Annabelle Attanasio

text: Before starring in "Bull", she played Dorothy Walcott in season 2 of the Cinemax drama "The Knick". She also appeared in the Netflix original film "Barry" (2016).


title: Hashem

text: HaShem (Hebrew: "hšm", literally ""the name""; often abbreviated to ["h′"]) is a title used in Judaism to refer to God. It is also a given name and surname.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: Bonkers is an American animated television series and a spinoff as segment series called "He's Bonkers" of "Disney's Raw Toonage". It aired from February 28, 1993, to February 23, 1994, in first-run syndication (after a "preview airing" on The Disney Channel in early 1993). The syndicated run was available both separately and as part of the programming block The Disney Afternoon. Reruns of the show continued in syndication until 1996 and were later shown on Toon Disney until late 2004. The show is currently available for streaming on Disney+, having been included upon its November 2019 launch. However, this only applies to US territories. It is also currently available in Europe.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: The premise of the series was that Bonkers D. Bobcat, an anthropomorphic bobcat who was a popular cartoon star, had washed out of show business and became a cop. He was made the junior partner of Detective Lucky Piquel, a grim and ill-tempered human who hates toons. Throughout the series, the pair work together to solve crimes in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, region. Bonkers repeatedly tried to win Piquel's praise, but usually just ended up ruining missions with his antics. But often those goofy antics would prove to save the day.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: After multiple episodes of working with Bonkers, Piquel was given an FBI job in Washington, D.C., and with great glee was finally able to leave Bonkers, but finally realized that after all the time spent hating working with Bonkers he had grown to love him. He took along the police radio, the light, Toots and Fall-Apart Rabbit. At the end of the "Lucky" episodes, Bonkers was given a new partner, the attractive cool-headed Officer Miranda Wright. Although also human, she was far more patient and tolerant of his antics than was Piquel. With Miranda, Bonkers was more the brunt of the slapstick.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: Bonkers D. Bobcat (voiced by Jim Cummings) is an overly energetic and hyperactive cartoon anthropomorphic bobcat that works in the Toon Division of the Hollywood PD. Once a big name cartoon star for Wackytoons Studios, he was fired due to his show being bumped out of first place in the ratings. He was introduced to law enforcement when he unknowingly saved cartoon celebrity Donald Duck from a park mugger (mostly due to the help of officer Lucky Piquel) and was given full credit for the mugger's capture.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: For his actions, he received the Citizen of Valor award by the Chief of Police, Leonard Kanifky. Bonkers, while soaking in the praise, told the chief about how his experiences starring in police cartoons helped in the capture of the mugger. Chief Kanifky mistook his fictional roles as real life, worldwide police accounts and, thinking that Bonkers would be a benefit to the police force, asked if the former cartoon star would like a job working for the Hollywood PD, which Bonkers accepted because of his recent unemployment from Wackytoons Studios. Bonkers then requested Lucky as his partner, and the two established the beginning of the Toon Division. When Bonkers first came home to Lucky's house, he was treated as a sort of adopted son to Lucky.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: Although Bonkers means well, he usually messes up cases for his fellow officers due to his lack of experience in law enforcement and his wild, exaggerated, cartoony nature. He even tells Lucky at one point that he is not good at logical police thinking because he is a toon. Not only does Bonkers make a design change between the 'Lucky' and 'Miranda' episodes, his personality is slightly tweaked as well. Despite being a police officer, Bonkers is unarmed. However, he still carries a badge.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: In the 'Miranda' episodes, he's portrayed as a rather clumsy, somewhat foolish character who ends up being the show's punching bag. In the Lucky episodes, he's less of a buffoon and more of an Inspector Clouseau-type, in control of himself (though still hyperactive), and carries an extensive knowledge about the toon and their behavior, which is an asset on cases dealing with rogue toons (Lucky would very rarely acknowledge this, although he knows it deep inside). The joke is his lack of law enforcement experience and procedure is still his "Achilles' heel".


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: The series played 65 episodes, as part of "The Disney Afternoon". They were not created in chronological order: The "Miranda" episodes were actually produced first, excluding the two-part series premiere, which featured Piquel and Bonkers meeting for the first time. This discrepancy becomes evident when observing the look of the main character in both sets of episodes. In the "Raw Toonage" shorts, Bonkers was orange with one brown spot, golf-club-like ears, and an undone tail. When the Lucky Piquel-era episodes (produced by Robert Taylor) were made, the character had a major overhaul: skinnier ears, two black spots on each his tufts, black Tigger-like stripes on his tail, and a different uniform. The Miranda Wright-era episodes (produced by Duane Capizzi, Robert Hathcock & Greg Weisman) use Bonkers's original look from "Raw Toonage". The series also occasionally featured episodes of "cartoons" from Bonkers's pre-police actor days, all lifted from the "Raw Toonage" series. The two-part premiere can be seen to show the reason for the difference in appearance as he mostly appears with his Black Dot Lucky design, but when he goes into makeup, his sweater is put on, and when his head re-appears, his spots have turned brown, then his ears are 'puffed' up. While this works for explaining the two designs in context, New partners does not show or explain why he then decided to use his 'make up' version for every day.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: The "Raw Toonage" shorts were an after-thought of production. While "Bonkers" was in pre-production, the "Raw Toonage" team headed by Larry Latham produced 12 "He's Bonkers" shorts. These shorts were, in the context of "Bonkers", explained to be some of the shorts Bonkers made at Wackytoons Studios before he was fired. The animated short entitled "Petal to the Metal" was originally shown in theaters in 1992 before the feature movie "3 Ninjas", while the rest were shown on the program "Raw Toonage". In syndication, the shorts were collected into four full episodes with fillers of new material in between.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: Meanwhile, Duane Capizzi, making his producing debut, was brought into the fold and teamed with animation veteran Robert Hathcock and charged with making 65 episodes (a full season's worth in syndication). The episodes theoretically would feature Bonkers with Wright as his partner. These episodes came back from overseas animation studios looking less than spectacular, causing considerable concern at Disney. Ultimately, the original team was replaced, and a team headed by Robert Taylor came in. Only 19 of the original-order shows survived to air; they are what is known as the "Miranda Wright episodes" of "Bonkers". Nine of these episodes were aired on The Disney Channel during the first half of 1993 as a preview for the series, before its syndicated premiere in the fall. The 19 Miranda Wright episodes are shown toward the end of the series in the official continuity. Greg Weisman (co-creator of Disney's Gargoyles) worked on the Miranda episodes, and Bonkers's relationship with Miranda inspired Goliath's relationship with Elisa Maza.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: Taylor threw out the old premise of the show. He replaced it with the Lucky Piquel scenario, but his episodes were revised and established to occur before the original episodes. 42 episodes of the "Piquel Era" were made, including one ("New Partners on the Block"), which attempted to bridge the gap between the two somewhat contradictory storylines.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: The series was long incorrectly rumored to have originally been intended as a "Roger Rabbit" spin-off series which ended up being scrapped due to licensing issues from Amblin Entertainment, with "Bonkers" being created instead. However, in 2008, Greg Weisman, who was a writer on the series, denied this. While confirming that the title character was inspired by Roger, and the Toontown concept had also been influenced by the film, Weisman insists that Bonkers was always meant to be his own character.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: The syndicated version of the series (which omits several of the original episodes that survived first-run) was last seen on Toon Disney until late 2004.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: New Partners on the Block was a transition episode that showed how Bonkers went from having Lucky Piquel as a partner to having Miranda Wright as his newest partner. The episode was much like the pilot episode/movie "Going Bonkers", using the CGI rain and bringing back the characters that were associated with Bonkers, those characters being Fawn Deer, Jitters A. Dog, and Grumbles Grizzly and, unlike the pilot, had more speaking and screen time.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: At the end of the episode, Bonkers, along with Miranda and Lucky, captured the main villain, bomber Fireball Frank and Rescues FBI Agent Tolson in the process, making Bonkers and Miranda a team and giving Lucky a job as an FBI Agent in Washington, D.C. Piquel, his family Dyl (wife) and Marilyn (daughter), Fall-Apart Rabbit, Toots and Brodrick the toon radio all subsequently relocated to Washington, D.C., allowing them to be written out of the show.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: This episode was removed from rotation in the United States after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing due to its bombing/terrorism plot, and was consequently never rerun on Toon Disney, even before Disney's stricter censorship policies following the September 11 attacks. Another episode, "Fall Apart Bomb Squad," was also not shown on Toon Disney for similar reasons. However, both episodes have been rerun in Europe (especially in Italy). In addition, both episodes are available to stream on Disney+.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: "Bonkers" was released on three VHS tapes and Betamax tapes in 1995 by Walt Disney Home Video, each containing no more than two episodes. They include the following:


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: The series inspired three video games. The first, titled "Bonkers", is a platform game by Capcom, released for the Super NES in October 1994. In the game, Bonkers must retrieve three items stolen from a museum.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: An action game by Sega, also titled "Bonkers", was released in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It consists of four mini-games in which Bonkers attempts to apprehend criminals from the series.


title: Bonkers (American TV series)

text: The third game, "", was published for the Game Gear in 1995, followed three years later by a Brazilian-only release on the Master System. In the game, Bonkers sets out to rescue Lucky and several toons who have been captured.


title: Island-class patrol boat

text: The Island-class patrol boat is a class of cutters of the United States Coast Guard. 49 cutters of the class were built, of which 37 remain in commission. Their hull numbers are WPB-1301 through WPB-1349.


title: Island-class patrol boat

text: The Island-class patrol boats are a U.S. Coast Guard modification of a highly successful British-designed Vosper Thornycroft patrol boat built for Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Singapore. With excellent range and seakeeping capabilities, the Island class, all named after U.S. islands, replaced the older s. These cutters are equipped with advanced electronics and navigation equipment and are used in support of the Coast Guard's maritime homeland security, migrant interdiction, drug interdiction, defense operations, fisheries enforcement, and search and rescue missions. The 58 ordered s, selected under the Fast Response Cutter (FRC) program, are slated to replace the Island class. Six Island class cutters are currently stationed in Manama, Bahrain as a part of Patrol Forces Southwest Asia to provide the Navy's Fifth Fleet with combat ready assets. The cutters have 10 tons worth of space and weight reservations for additional weapons.


title: Island-class patrol boat

text: As built, these vessels were all in length. In 2002 as part of the Integrated Deepwater System Program, the Coast Guard began refitting some of these vessels, adding to the stern to make room for a high-speed stern launching ramp, and replacing the superstructure so that these vessels had enough room to accommodate mixed-gender crews. The refit added about 15 tons to the vessel's displacement, and reduced its maximum speed by approximately one knot. The eight cutters modified were;


title: Island-class patrol boat

text: In 2005, then-Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thomas H. Collins made the decision to stop the contractor's conversion at eight hulls when sea trials revealed intractable structural flaws.


title: Island-class patrol boat

text: In August 2006, a Lockheed Martin engineer went public with allegations that the company and the Coast Guard were ignoring serious security flaws in the refitting project, and that they were likely to repeat the same mistakes on similar projects. The flaws included blind spots in watch cameras, FLIR equipment not suitable for operating under extreme temperatures, and the use of non-shielded cables in secure communications systems, a violation of TEMPEST standards.


title: Island-class patrol boat

text: In late November 2006 all eight of the WPBs were taken out of service due to debilitating problems with their lengthened hulls – all eight hulls were cracking when driven at high speed in heavy seas. These as well as other issues – such as C4ISR problems – drove the program $60 million over budget, triple the original bid for the eight boats converted. The 41 unmodified 110s are now being pressed harder to take up the slack. The eight modified were moved to the United States Coast Guard Yard and moored in Arundel Cove.


title: Island-class patrol boat

text: Defense Security Cooperation Agency's Office of International Acquisition's Excess Defense Articles Program (EDA).


title: Island-class patrol boat

text: Greece will receive three Island-class patrol boats from the United States Coast Guard under the EDA agreement.


title: The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)

text: "The Middle" is a song by American rock band Jimmy Eat World. It was released in October 2001 as the second single of their fourth album, "Bleed American" (2001). It was a number-five hit on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 in 2002 and reached the top 50 in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The song was a breakthrough hit for Jimmy Eat World, who had self-financed the recording of the "Bleed American" album after being dropped by Capitol Records in 1999. It is considered the band's signature song.


title: The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)

text: "The Middle" was written after Jimmy Eat World had been dropped from Capitol Records following the release of "Clarity", their previous album. Their second album, "Static Prevails," had sold just 10,000 copies in 1996 and Capitol Records decided to drop the band in 1999 due to a change in priorities. Singer and guitarist Jim Adkins explained to the "Dallas Observer": "We were just about invisible there and it wasn't going to get any better."


title: The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)

text: "The Middle" reflects these trying times for the band with lyrics about "Don't write yourself off yet" when feeling "left out or looked down on." The band decided to finance the recording of the album and keep things simple on the new record rather than experiment, as they had done on previous records. "On our new stuff, rather than challenging ourselves [by] getting real experimental, we kind of went in the other direction, challenging ourselves by getting very simple."


title: The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)

text: When "The Middle" was released, the success of the album and the band was dependent on the single breaking through. By early 2002, the song had reached the top of the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song then crossed over to top 40 radio, resulting in it reaching a peak of number five on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Although they would have more Top 40 hits on the former chart, "The Middle" remains their sole Top 40 hit on the Hot 100 to date. It was also the band's only appearance on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, peaking at number 39. The song also charted in the UK, reaching a peak of number 26 in 2002. "The Middle" was the most commercially successful single released from "Bleed American". The band toured extensively behind the album, touring with Weezer, Tenacious D, Green Day, Blink-182, and the Vans Warped Tour as well as the band's own headlining tour.


title: The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)

text: "The Middle" was the most played song on radio in Canada in 2002. "Pitchfork Media" named the track number 165 on its list of the top 500 tracks of the 2000s. Reviewer Mark Richardson wrote of the track: "And if your band delivers that message of hope with the kind of power-pop chorus hook that gives the best couple of Weezer songs a run for their money, you've accomplished something."


title: The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)

text: In 2012, "The A.V. Club" published an article entitled, "How Jimmy Eat World's 'The Middle' Became the Best Song for a Bad Time", with Jason Heller noting, "'The Middle' wasn't a sellout. It was a return to form, one made by a band that had a lot more wisdom, scars, and songwriting talent than it did seven years prior—and a band that was in a position where do or die looked like the only options."


title: The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)

text: Critics compared Kelly Clarkson's single "Heartbeat Song" (2015) to "The Middle" due to a notable similarity between the melodies of the songs' verses, as well as their choruses. In his review for Idolator, Stern observed both songs' similitude. Hunter Hauk of "The Dallas Morning News" also remarked of the two songs' similarities, but was ambivalent of "Heartbeat Song"'s lack of innovation as compared to Clarkson's previous lead singles.


title: The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)

text: In July 2022, a bootleg recording of Prince covering the song at an after-party for the 2009 Oscars resurfaced online. Adkins and drummer Zach Lind were played the cover during an interview with "Rock Sound", with Adkins describing the cover as "such a trip".


title: The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)

text: The song's video (directed by Paul Fedor) featuring young people in underwear received plenty of play on MTV, especially on "Total Request Live".


title: The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)

text: The music video features a fully clothed teenage boy (Josh Keleher) who attends a pool party at which Jimmy Eat World is playing, only to find everyone, except the band, in their underwear. Much of the crowd is making out, but the boy is excluded. Finally, out of frustration, he starts to strip to be like the others, only to bump into a teenage girl doing the same thing in the closet he is in. The kids keep their clothes on and leave the party, arms around each other, as the song concludes.


title: D'Brickashaw Ferguson

text: D'Brickashaw Montgomery Ferguson (born December 10, 1983) is a former American football offensive tackle who played ten seasons for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the University of Virginia and received All-American honors. He was picked by the Jets fourth overall in the 2006 NFL Draft, and was selected for the Pro Bowl three times. Ferguson made 160 consecutive regular season starts and never missed a game in his entire career.


title: D'Brickashaw Ferguson

text: Ferguson's given name was inspired by Father Ralph de Bricassart, a character in the 1977 novel "The Thorn Birds". He attended Freeport High School in the Long Island village of Freeport, New York. He nearly gave up football during his freshman year in high school.


title: D'Brickashaw Ferguson

text: Considered a three-star recruit by "Rivals.com", Ferguson was ranked as the No. 29 offensive guard prospect in the nation. He chose Virginia over Michigan State.


title: D'Brickashaw Ferguson

text: While attending the University of Virginia, Ferguson played for the Virginia Cavaliers football team. He started his college career listed at , often dropping to through the regular season. He started 49 games for the Cavaliers, and he was named to the consensus All-America first-team during his final season. He was placed on the all-Atlantic Coast Conference first-team two years in a row, and he became Virginia's first All-ACC offensive tackle since 1998. Ferguson started at left tackle in four consecutive bowl games for the Cavaliers. He played linebacker on a special defensive package employed sparingly in 2003. He did this while earning a religious studies degree in only 3.5 years. He was an All-America selection in 2004 by "Pro Football Weekly".


title: D'Brickashaw Ferguson

text: Considered an undersized tackle after playing at 295 pounds during his senior year at Virginia, Ferguson officially weighed in at 312 for the NFL combine. As a tackle, Ferguson's talent is found in his lower body strength, athleticism and flexibility. This athleticism and flexibility is further evidenced in his attaining a black belt in Shotokan karate and brown belt in taekwondo. Adding to that ability is his natural build, as Ferguson has an armspan of .


title: D'Brickashaw Ferguson

text: Ferguson was one of six players the NFL invited to New York for the 2006 NFL Draft events. He was selected 4th overall by the New York Jets. The last time the Jets used their first pick on a tackle was 1988, when they selected Dave Cadigan of USC at No. 8.


title: D'Brickashaw Ferguson

text: Ferguson was drafted by the New York Jets with the 4th overall pick of the 2006 NFL Draft. On July 26, 2006, Ferguson signed a five-year deal with the team. The deal was similar to the $35 million deal that 2005’s No. 4 pick, Cedric Benson, signed with the Chicago Bears. Designated as Jason Fabini's successor, Ferguson started every game at left tackle for the Jets since the beginning of the 2006 NFL season. On January 8, 2010, Miami Dolphins Tackle Jake Long withdrew from the 2010 Pro Bowl due to injuries and Ferguson was named as his replacement. He was invited to the 2011 Pro Bowl.


title: D'Brickashaw Ferguson

text: On April 8, 2016, Ferguson announced his retirement from the NFL after 10 seasons, having made 160 consecutive starts and never missing a game. He played 10,707 out of 10,708 regular season offensive snaps in his career. In his retirement statement, Ferguson wrote, "I would like to thank every coach, every teammate, and every fan that has shown me support throughout my career. I sincerely thank you all from the bottom of my heart."


title: D'Brickashaw Ferguson

text: Ferguson's hometown of Freeport, New York, dedicated a street to him on September 29, 2009. South Ocean Avenue, where he grew up, received secondary signage as D'Brickashaw Ferguson Way. His father, Ed Ferguson Sr., is a native of Nassau, Bahamas, and his older brother, Edwin, also graduated from the University of Virginia. He is also a black belt in Karate and brown belt in Taekwondo.


title: D'Brickashaw Ferguson

text: Ferguson was the inspiration for the recurring East–West College Bowl sketch on the Comedy Central sketch comedy series "Key & Peele", in which comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele portray football players with humorous names when introducing themselves. One iteration of the sketch featured real-life football players, including Ferguson himself.


title: Algerians in France

text: Algerians in France are people of Algerian descent or nationality living in France. People of Algerian origin account for a large sector of the total population in France. Some immigrated during colonial rule in Algeria starting in the 1920s, and large numbers chose to emigrate to France from the 1960s onwards due to political turmoil in Algeria.


title: Algerians in France

text: The migration of Algerians to France happened in multiple waves: from 1913–1921, from 1922–1939, and from 1940–1954. During the years of 1947–1953, specifically, France saw a large influx of Maghrebi immigrants. Legal Algerian immigrants numbered 740,000 between these years


title: Algerians in France

text: In the 1950s, the French government began encouraging Algerian migration, as a result of pressure from businesses. This pressure was partly caused by the lack of workers in post-WWII France (Germain 23). In December 1958, they instituted the Social Action Fund, which supported African immigrants by allocating 500 million Francs towards Maghrebi immigrant shelters and housing. However, the situation these immigrants in were still unpleasant as a result of their employers, who took them as indentured servants. Thus, they were paid low wages and given little government aid compared to other workers. Ultimately, many of them were deported back to Africa. However, by the late 1950s, France's intake of Algerian migrants began to outnumber those being deported, resulting in a sharp uptick in the French Algerian population.


title: Algerians in France

text: In the 1960s, Algerians continued to attempt to immigrate to France. Many of these people obtained three month work visas, reflecting their intent to work in France for a short time period before returning home. However, the French government viewed this is as a hostile move, assuming that these immigrants intended to stay in the country permanently. Thus, the government continued to regularly deport Algerians. They were required to have a French address to remain in the country, which most Algerian immigrants did have. However, officials simply didn't believe the authenticity of their identification and paperwork; thus, in the 1960s, the French government deported 5–8% of African immigrants. By 1968, there were 40,000 Africans in France.


title: Algerians in France

text: The migratory movement of Maghrebis into France is generally attributed to push factors. There was little opportunity to move freely throughout society in Algeria, so many were motivated to migrate to France for a better life. The presence of a post-colonial economic opportunity gap when Algeria was freed after the Algerian War also contributed to the increase of Algerian immigrants. Additionally, some Maghrebis migrated to France because they would have more political freedom to protest French suppression in Algeria than they would in their Home Country.


title: Algerians in France

text: From 1943–1945, approximately 200,000 Maghrebis enlisted into France's armed forces. Additionally, an additional ≈100,000 Maghrebis participated in the war effort through working in wartime industries.


title: Algerians in France

text: While Maghrebis played a significant role in France's war effort, their contribution was ignored after the war. Rather, the French government continued their oppression in Algeria, angering North Africans in France and causing the rise of African rights groups. African rights groups include the Algerian Populist Party and the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties.


title: Algerians in France

text: In the 1950s, the French government used racism as a tool to delegitimize the efforts of African Nationalist groups. The government used tensions between different groups to depict Algerian immigrants as barbaric in propaganda campaigns. This was massively effective, negatively impacting public opinion on African immigrants. The 1953 survey by the National Institute of Demographic Studies showed that North Africans and Germans were ranked last in sympathy levels for immigrants. This impact is exemplified by a piece published by the "L'Aurore", a French periodical, in which it was written:


title: Algerians in France

text: ""In Paris, North Africans are specialists and record makers in the nocturnal attack. The Arab is, quite precisely, the thief who waits on the corner of the road for the late passerby, whom he clubs for the sake of a watch…""


title: Algerians in France

text: In the 1960s, this sort of racial propaganda continued with the help of public health institutes. They targeted Algerian immigrants along with other African immigrants from Mauritius, Mali and other countries. A study, published in 1963, entitled "Black workers in the Parisian region" ("Les travailleurs noirs dans la region parisienne")"," outlined reasons for why, for public health reasons, African immigrants were not beneficial for France:


title: Algerians in France

text: ""They are accustomed to wearing practically nothing in Africa where the temperature ranges from 90 to 100 degrees, and when they arrive in Paris, especially during the cold winter, they are highly prone to catching disease like tuberculosis"."


title: Algerians in France

text: This report also cited Africans' perceived diets as reason to reject them as workers. These public health officials were under the impression that Africans ate only simple foods such as rice and beans, and therefore, could not survive the heavy workload required of them in France. In reality, Africans ate a variety of healthy food and balanced meals. This report further argued that these food deficiencies meant Africans were ridden with disease. Thus, African immigrants in France were required to carry around passbooks with detailed medical information, and were often randomly stopped and checked by French officials.


title: Algerians in France

text: This type of racial bias showed a resurgence in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the French political party, the National Front. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, led with the slogan "Two million immigrants, two million unemployed". Le Pen is also quoted as saying "Yes, I believe in racial inequality… they do not all have the same capacity to evolve". During this time, books with black children featured on the covers were banned. As the 1990s progressed, the National Front's influence grew. The group took political control of the French city of Toulon, and promised to deny housing to African immigrants living in the city.


title: Algerians in France

text: Following Algerian independence in 1962, most of Algeria's Jews, having been granted French citizenship in 1870, left with the pied-noirs. The vast majority moved to France, and the rest moved to Israel. Today, most Jews in France are of Maghrebi origin.


title: Algerians in France

text: There are several thousand Algerian Turks living in France, having emigrated or descended from parents who came to the country from Algeria rather than Turkey. Some Algerians with Turkish origins have contributed to the arts, sports and politics in France. For example, Nafissa Sid-Cara, who was the first female minister to serve in the French Fifth Republic as well as the first ever Muslim woman to serve as a minister in a French government, was born into a family of Turkish origin which had been established in Algeria; her brother Chérif Sid Cara was also a notable politician and doctor. Other notable French politicians of Algerian-Turkish origin include Mourad Kaouah who served as the deputy of Algiers from 1958 to 1962. Notable writers include Moroccan-born Leïla Chellabi whose father was an Algerian Turk who obtained French citizenship; Mustapha Haciane was born in Algeria into a Turkish family and currently resides in Paris; and Leïla Sebbar is paternally of Turkish origin through her grandmother. There are also several notable sportsman of Algerian-Turkish origin, including the former pole vaulter and Olympian Patrick Abada as well as footballers Benjamin Stambouli and Mustapha Stambouli. Numerous sources claim that the actress Isabelle Adjani is paternally of Algerian-Turkish origin.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: My Stepmother Is an Alien is a 1988 American science fiction comedy film directed by Richard Benjamin, and starring Dan Aykroyd, Kim Basinger, Jon Lovitz, and Alyson Hannigan. Its plot follows Celeste, an extraterrestrial woman sent on a secret mission to Earth, after her home planet's gravity is mistakenly disrupted by Steven Mills, a widowed scientist raising his daughter Jessie as a single father.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: The film's screenplay was written by Herschel Weingrod, Timothy Harris, and Jonathan Reynolds, based on an earlier script by Jericho Stone, who originally pitched the film to Paramount Pictures as a drama that would serve as an allegory about child abuse. When Paramount optioned the story, they suggested that it would be more believable as a comedy. The film was unproduced for four years until Weintraub Entertainment Group put it into production in 1988.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: "My Stepmother Is an Alien" was a box-office bomb, grossing $13.8 million against a $19 million budget. The film also received negative reviews from critics, with most of the responses panning the film's humor and screenplay. Basinger and costar Lovitz generally received favorable reviews for their comedic performances, but in a "New York Times" review, Aykroyd was singled out for criticism in his performance as a romantic lead.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: Steven Mills is a widowed scientist working on different ways to send radio waves into deep space. After he sends a radio wave out of the galaxy, it hits a planet (Cosine N to the 8th), causing a disruption of gravity on the planet. Celeste is sent to investigate who could have done it and how it was done, believing it was an attack. She is aided by a device called Bag: an alien tentacle with a single eye and a mind of its own disguised as a designer purse. Bag is able to create any object, such as diamonds and designer dresses, almost instantaneously. Celeste crashes a party hosted by Steven's brother, Ron, and immediately draws attention to herself by making outdated references to TV shows and political slogans under the mistaken belief that they are current (information that had actually taken 92 years to get from Earth to her home world).


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: Celeste's inexperience almost results in her exposing herself as alien as she struggles with simple tasks such as cooking and trying to kiss for the first time. She goes home with Steven and spends the night (after Bag teaches her what sex is, which she greatly enjoys). Jessie, Steven's 13-year-old daughter, is at first happy that her father has found someone (her mother having died five years previously), but becomes suspicious when she observes Celeste eating the acid out of batteries and pulling eggs out of boiling hot water with her bare hands. However, she cannot convince her smitten father that something is unusual about Celeste. When Celeste tells him that she must leave in 24 hours, he impulsively proposes, and she accepts. Ron also has his doubts about Celeste and tries to dissuade Steven from marrying her on the idea she is an illegal immigrant or planning economic espionage, but then admits he is just jealous his brother has found his dream girl, whereas he will never find a girl like Princess Stéphanie of Monaco.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: Celeste begins enjoying life as a human as she encounters new experiences such as sneezing and love. When Jessie finally confronts her about being an extraterrestrial, Celeste admits her home world has no emotion and that she plans to depart once she gets Steven to recreate the radio signal and send it (which she says will reverse the gravity problems on her world). However, she begins to question her decisions when Jessie says it will devastate her father, for whom Celeste has now developed feelings. After Jessie argues with Steven, she runs away and is nearly hit by a car but is saved by Celeste, revealing her powers. Steven accepts that Celeste is indeed an alien and that she has fallen in love with him and sees Jessie as her own daughter. He further ingratiates her to human society by showing her how to eat real food.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: Steven figures out how to recreate the radio wave and saves Celeste's planet. Bag, however, had been sent to Earth to destroy it and eliminate the danger to Celeste's world entirely. After throwing Bag into the power field of the wave transmitter (destroying Bag), the leaders of Celeste's home world report in and tell her to finish Bag's job. Steven and Celeste manage to convince them it was an accident, not an act of aggression, and that Earth has many benefits that require further studying. They accept the explanation and demand that Celeste return to explain human culture to them. Not wanting to leave, Celeste negotiates having a native of Earth become an ambassador to their world as a token of goodwill. Ron is selected and accepts; he departs for Celeste's world in a spaceship served by several flight attendants, all of whom look like Princess Stéphanie.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: Screenwriter Jericho Stone developed the story under the working title "They’re Coming" as a drama, an allegory about child abuse. He pitched this version of the story to Paramount Pictures in 1981. Paramount agreed to option the story and paid him to write the screenplay, but felt it would be more believable as a comedy. On June 20, 1984, "Variety" reported that Catalina Production Group was planning to start principal photography on "They're Coming" in late 1984 for Paramount, naming the screenwriters as Stone and Richard Benner; actresses considered for the lead by Paramount included Bette Midler, Shelley Long, Julie Andrews and Raquel Welch. Subsequently, the production moved to 20th Century Fox, which hired Herschel Weingrod and Timothy Harris to rewrite the screenplay. Fox considered Cybill Shepherd and Joan Rivers for the role, but ultimately never produced the film, and it went into turnaround to Weintraub Entertainment Group, where the title was changed to "Two Kids".


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: Director Richard Benjamin read an unfinished version of the screenplay in the early 1980s, but did not become interested in the project until reading a completed draft he received via Weintraub in 1987, and agreed to direct. From Benjamin's recollection, Stone's original screenplay resembled a horror film. By 1988, the screenplay had received further rewriting by Jonathan Reynolds. Stone was ultimately credited only for the story, under his first name, Jericho. The film went into principal photography on February 29, 1988, and wrapped in May of that year; the total cost of production and marketing was reported as $26 million, with $19 million representing the production costs. Some scenes were filmed at Van Nuys High School and Anaheim Stadium.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: Don Correia served as the choreographer for "My Stepmother Is an Alien". Micaela Esdra dubbed for Kim Basinger in Italian while Choi Seong-woo dubbed for Basinger for South Korean audiences.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: Dan Aykroyd and Kim Basinger performed impressions of Jimmy Durante from "The Man Who Came to Dinner" singing "Did You Ever Have the Feeling" in "My Stepmother Is an Alien".


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: A July press release for the film stated that "My Stepmother Is An Alien" would be released on November 23, 1988, but it was later pushed to December 9. The film premiered on December 3, 1988, in Washington, D.C., an event attended by stars Aykroyd and Basinger, as well as President George H. W. Bush, First Lady Barbara Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle. Upon general release, Mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley declared December 9 “Stepmother Day”, to honor the “importance, dedication, and contribution of stepmothers everywhere”, and an appreciation of the film shooting in Los Angeles.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: The film opened at number seven, grossing $2,066,980 in the opening weekend. It went on to gross $13,854,000 in the United States, becoming a box-office failure.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: The film was met with negative reviews. Roger Ebert wrote, "Basinger gets most of the good comic moments in the movie and does with them what she can, but Benjamin and his writers seem to have run short of invention. Most of the plot developments are foregone conclusions, and most of the big set pieces (like a wedding) are handled routinely, without inspiration." Janet Maslin, reviewing the film for "The New York Times", panned the film's screenplay and humor, as well as the performance of Dan Aykroyd, who she felt was not only miscast as the film's romantic lead, but also unfunny. However, Maslin praised the performances of Kim Basinger and Jon Lovitz, whose character she categorized as a "scene-stealing sleazeball".


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: In a generally favorable review, the "Los Angeles Times" criticized the film's sex humor, calling it "needlessly crass", but overall praised the film, writing, ""My Stepmother Is an Alien" is solid, wide-appeal holiday fare. It makes the best use of Aykroyd's warmth and proven talents in quite some time, and it does even more for Basinger, showing that she can be as funny and smart as she is sexy." The "Radio Times" gave the film three out of five stars, writing, "Fine moments of inspired lunacy jostle with predictably slight comic relief, but Basinger's eager-to-please freshness and verve make this intergalactic muddle impossible to dislike."


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: "Variety" called the film a "failed attempt to mix many of the film genres associated with the 'alien' idea into a sprightly romp. "TV Guide" gave the film one star, calling it "A standard formula comedy [which] tries to emulate popular alien-on-Earth films like "Starman". Had it actually been told from the perspective of the scientist's daughter, as the title suggests, it might have been more appealing, but instead a predictable, amateurish script shifts the focus elsewhere." "People" said that director Richard Benjamin "tries to disguise the threadbare plot with explosions and special-effects hardware", and called the film "a clanking bore, except for Basinger—a potential star still waiting for the vehicle that will let her shine. Her comic talent glimmers in a scene where she learns what a kiss is". "Time Out" wrote, "The film offers several entertaining sequences, [but "My Stepmother Is an Alien"] is marred by cruel and juvenile gags."


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 20% based on reviews from 25 critics, with an average rating of 4/10. The consensus states: "Kim Basinger is otherworldly funny in this harebrained sci-fi rom com, but she still can't save "My Stepmother Is an Alien" from alienating intelligent earthlings." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.


title: My Stepmother Is an Alien

text: A South Korean branch of Baskin-Robbins released an ice cream flavor called "Mom is an alien" named after the movie.


title: Chevening

text: Chevening House () is a large country house in the parish of Chevening in Kent, in Southeast England. Built between 1617 and 1630 to a design reputedly by Inigo Jones and greatly extended after 1717, it is a Grade I listed building. The surrounding gardens, pleasure grounds and park are listed Grade II*.


title: Chevening

text: Formerly the principal seat of the earls Stanhope, the house and estate are owned and maintained at the expense of the trust of the Chevening Estate, under the Chevening Estate Act 1959 (amended 1987), to serve as a furnished country residence for a person nominated by the prime minister, so qualified by being a member of the Cabinet or a descendant of King George VI. The nominee pays for their own private living expenses when in residence but government departments arrange and effect official business at the estate. Chevening House is not an official residence, but has been traditionally used by the Foreign Secretary.


title: Chevening

text: There has been a house on the site since at least 1199 and the estate originally formed part of the archiepiscopal manor of Otford. The present 15-bedroomed house is a three-storey, symmetrical red brick structure in the early English Palladian style, attributed to Inigo Jones, set at the foot of the North Downs in extensive parkland. A garden to the south encircles a man-made lake. The house was extended from 1717 by the addition of symmetrical wings by Thomas Fort, a master carpenter and royal clerk of works who had worked under Christopher Wren at Hampton Court. Much remodelled by the 3rd Earl Stanhope in the late 18th century, the house was extensively restored in the 1970s by Donald Insall Associates for the Board of Trustees of the Chevening Estate.


title: Chevening

text: The house was for 250 years the principal seat of the earls Stanhope, a cadet (and ultimately the final) branch of the earls of Chesterfield, from 1717 to 1967. James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, was a general under Marlborough and a Whig politician who served as chief minister to King George I until his death in 1721. Through marriage he was the uncle of William Pitt the Elder. Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl Stanhope, was tutored by the 4th Earl of Chesterfield and became a distinguished patron of science during the Enlightenment. Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, both first cousin and brother-in-law to William Pitt the Younger, was a prolific inventor whose major achievements in such diverse fields as printing, building a mechanical calculator, steam navigation, optics, musical notation and fire-proofing in buildings were overshadowed at the time and subsequently by his reputation, as the self-styled "Citizen Stanhope", for eccentricity and political radicalism.


title: Chevening

text: Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope, was a gifted amateur landscape gardener and architect, half-brother to Lady Hester Stanhope, and the legal guardian of Kaspar Hauser. Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope, was the driving force behind the foundation of the National Portrait Gallery and the Historical Documents Commission: writing as Viscount Mahon he was a distinguished 19th-century historian and established the Stanhope Essay Prize at Oxford. Arthur Stanhope, 6th Earl Stanhope, was a Conservative MP before inheriting and served as First Ecclesiastical Estates Commissioner from 1878 to 1903. Both his brothers made their careers in politics. The Rt Hon Edward Stanhope (Conservative) was a reforming Secretary of State for War (1887–1892), while the 1st Lord Weardale (Liberal) was president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (1912–22) and of the Save the Children Fund. James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope (also 13th Earl of Chesterfield), was a Conservative politician who held office almost continuously from 1924 to 1940, serving in Cabinet posts from 1936 under Baldwin and Chamberlain. He founded the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.


title: Chevening

text: Having no children of his own and his only brother having been killed in the Great War, the last Earl Stanhope wished to create at Chevening a lasting monument to a family that had provided for two and a half centuries politicians across the political spectrum and no fewer than five fellows of the Royal Society. He therefore drafted what became the Chevening Estate Act 1959 to ensure that the estate would not be broken up after his death, but would instead retain a significant role as a private house in public life. The ownership of the property would pass to a Board of Trustees, who would maintain it as a furnished country residence for a suitably qualified nominated person chosen by the prime minister. The nominated person would have the right to occupy the house in a private capacity and would pay for their private living expenses. The Board of Trustees would maintain the house and estate by means of their stewardship of the estate, with no grant from the Government. The Act was passed with cross-party support and, as amended by the Chevening Estate Act 1987, governs the estate to this day. The first beneficiary of the Act was the 7th Earl, who died in 1967, following which the Board of Trustees launched a major programme of restoration of the house, gardens and parklands funded partly by his endowment and partly through their own management of the estate.


title: Chevening

text: In 1974 Charles, Prince of Wales, accepted the prospect of living on the estate. According to his biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby (for whom Prince Charles arranged access to unpublished royal diaries and family correspondence), at that time he was contemplating an eventual marriage to Hon. Amanda Knatchbull, granddaughter of his great-uncle the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma: "[I]n 1974, following his correspondence with Mountbatten on the subject, the Prince had tentatively raised the question of marriage to Amanda with her mother (and his godmother), Lady Brabourne. She was sympathetic, but counselled delaying mention of the matter to her daughter, who had yet to celebrate her seventeenth birthday." Amanda's paternal great-aunt had been Lady Eileen Browne, daughter of the 6th Marquess of Sligo, whose childless marriage to the last Earl Stanhope led to Chevening's being designated by law as a potential home for a member of Britain's royal family. If Amanda were to become Princess of Wales by marriage, the Prince's acceptance of Chevening would make some familial sense. But this was not to be, although the Prince did visit the house several times. In a note of 24 April 1978 to his private secretary, Sir David Checketts, Prince Charles observed, "I know there are advantages — particularly financial ones — in the Chevening set up, but I regret to say I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that they are the "only" advantages." In June 1980 Prince Charles wrote to the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, to renounce residency at Chevening (without actually having resided there). Weeks later, he purchased Highgrove in Gloucestershire. By then, according to Dimbleby, Amanda Knatchbull, several of whose close family members had been recently murdered, had declined the Prince's proposal of marriage, and he would soon begin courtship of Lady Diana Spencer.


title: Chevening

text: Under the terms of the Chevening Act, the prime minister has the responsibility of nominating a person to occupy the house privately as a furnished country residence. This person can be the prime minister, a minister who is a member of the Cabinet, a lineal descendant of King George VI or the spouse, widow or widower of such a descendant. The Canadian high commissioner, the American ambassador and the National Trust all have remainder interests in Chevening in the unlikely event that none of the others requires the house.


title: Chevening

text: The usual nominee is the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. Under special arrangements with the Board of Trustees, the house is also available to the Secretary of State for International Trade and was available to the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. When circumstances permit, the house may be used for meetings or conferences, usually by other Government departments, through arrangement with the Trustees.


title: Chevening

text: The poet Robert Selby was a longstanding resident of the Chevening area. His poetry collection "The Coming-Down Time" (Shoestring Press, 2020) includes a sequence entitled 'Chevening', partially set in the grounds of Chevening House and in St Botolph's church opposite.


title: Chevening

text: It has sometimes been suggested that Chevening served Jane Austen as a model for Rosings Park in her novel "Pride and Prejudice", but the only established fact that links the novelist with Chevening is that the Revd John Austen, her second cousin and grandson of the solicitor Francis Austen, who lived in the Red House, Sevenoaks, became Rector of Chevening in 1813, the novel having been published in that January. However, it was written from October 1796 to August 1797. John Halperin also relates that Francis Austen, an uncle of Jane Austen's father, was solicitor to the owners of Chevening during the latter third of the 18th century; that Francis Austen owned property in the area, and that Jane Austen visited him and relatives in Kent several times between 1792 and 1796.