title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: Amalric led his first expedition into Egypt in 1163, claiming that the Fatimids had not paid the yearly tribute that had begun during the reign of Baldwin III. The vizier, Dirgham, had recently overthrown the vizier Shawar, and marched out to meet Amalric at Pelusium, but was defeated and forced to retreat to Bilbeis. The Egyptians then opened up the Nile dams and let the river flood, hoping to prevent Amalric from invading any further. Amalric returned home but Shawar fled to the court of Nur ad-Din, who sent his general Shirkuh to settle the dispute in 1164. In response Dirgham sought help from Amalric, but Shirkuh and Shawar arrived before Amalric could intervene and Dirgham was killed. Shawar, however, feared that Shirkuh would seize power for himself, and he too looked to Amalric for assistance. Amalric returned to Egypt in 1164 and besieged Shirkuh in Bilbeis until Shirkuh retreated to Damascus.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: Amalric could not follow up on his success in Egypt because Nur ad-Din was active in Syria, having taken Bohemund III of Antioch and Raymond III of Tripoli prisoner at the Battle of Harim during Amalric's absence. Amalric rushed to take up the regency of Antioch and Tripoli and secured Bohemund's ransom in 1165 (Raymond remained in captivity until 1173). The year 1166 was relatively quiet, but Amalric sent envoys to the Byzantine Empire seeking an alliance and a Byzantine wife, and throughout the year had to deal with raids by Nur ad-Din, who captured Banias.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: In 1167, Nur ad-Din sent Shirkuh back to Egypt and Amalric once again followed him, establishing a camp near Cairo; Shawar again allied with Amalric and a treaty was signed with the caliph al-Adid himself. Shirkuh encamped on the opposite side of the Nile. After an indecisive battle, Amalric retreated to Cairo and Shirkuh marched north to capture Alexandria; Amalric followed and besieged Shirkuh there, aided by a Pisan fleet from Jerusalem. Shirkuh negotiated for peace and Alexandria was handed over to Amalric. However, Amalric could not remain there indefinitely, and returned to Jerusalem after exacting an enormous tribute.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: After his return to Jerusalem in 1167, Amalric married Maria Comnena, a great-grandniece of Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus. The negotiations had taken two years, mostly because Amalric insisted that Manuel return Antioch to Jerusalem. Once Amalric gave up on this point he was able to marry Maria in the Cathedral of Tyre on August 29, 1167. During this time the queen dowager, Baldwin III's widow Theodora, eloped with her cousin Andronicus to Damascus, and Acre, which had been in her possession, reverted into the royal domain of Jerusalem. It was also around this time that William of Tyre was promoted to archdeacon of Tyre, and was recruited by Amalric to write a history of the kingdom.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: In 1168 Amalric and Manuel negotiated an alliance against Egypt, and William of Tyre was among the ambassadors sent to Constantinople to finalize the treaty. Although Amalric still had a peace treaty with Shawar, Shawar was accused of attempting to ally with Nur ad-Din, and Amalric invaded. The Knights Hospitaller eagerly supported this invasion, while the Knights Templar refused to have any part in it. In October, without waiting for any Byzantine assistance (and in fact without even waiting for the ambassadors to return), Amalric invaded and seized Bilbeis. The inhabitants were either massacred or enslaved. Amalric then marched to Cairo, where Shawar offered Amalric two million pieces of gold. Meanwhile, Nur ad-Din sent Shirkuh back to Egypt as well, and upon his arrival Amalric retreated.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: In January 1169 Shirkuh had Shawar assassinated. Shirkuh became vizier, although he himself died in March, and was succeeded by his nephew Saladin. Amalric became alarmed and sent Frederick de la Roche, Archbishop of Tyre, to seek help from the kings and nobles of Europe, but no assistance was forthcoming. Later that year however a Byzantine fleet arrived, and in October Amalric launched yet another invasion and besieged Damietta by sea and by land. The siege was long and famine broke out in the Christian camp; the Byzantines and crusaders blamed each other for the failure, and a truce was signed with Saladin. Amalric returned home.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: Now Jerusalem was surrounded by hostile enemies. In 1170 Saladin invaded Jerusalem and took the city of Eilat, severing Jerusalem's connection with the Red Sea. Saladin, who was set up as Vizier of Egypt, was declared Sultan in 1171 upon the death of the last Fatimid caliph. Saladin's rise to Sultan was an unexpected reprieve for Jerusalem, as Nur ad-Din was now preoccupied with reining in his powerful vassal. Nevertheless, in 1171 Amalric visited Constantinople himself, leaving Jobert of Syria as regent, and envoys were sent to the kings of Europe for a second time, but again no help was received. Over the next few years the kingdom was threatened not only by Saladin and Nur ad-Din, but also by the Assassins. In one episode, the Knights Templar murdered some Assassin envoys, leading to further disputes between Amalric and the Templars.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: Nur ad-Din died in 1174, upon which Amalric immediately besieged Banias. On the way back after giving up the siege he fell ill from dysentery, which was ameliorated by doctors but turned into a fever in Jerusalem. William of Tyre explains that "after suffering intolerably from the fever for several days, he ordered physicians of the Greek, Syrian, and other nations noted for skill in diseases to be called and insisted that they give him some purgative remedy." Neither they nor Latin doctors could help, and he died on July 11, 1174.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: Maria Comnena had borne Amalric two daughters: Isabella, who would eventually marry four husbands in turn and succeed as queen, was born in 1172; and a stillborn child some time later. On his deathbed Amalric bequeathed Nablus to Maria and Isabella, both of whom would retire there. The leprous child Baldwin IV succeeded his father and brought his mother Agnes of Courtenay (now married to her fourth husband) back to court.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: William was a good friend of Amalric and described him in great detail. "He had a slight impediment in his speech, not serious enough to be considered as a defect but sufficient to render him incapable of ready eloquence. He was far better in counsel than in fluent or ornate speech." Like his brother Baldwin III, he was more of an academic than a warrior, who studied law and languages in his leisure time: "He was well skilled in the customary law by which the kingdom was governed – in fact, he was second to no one in this respect." He was probably responsible for an assize making all rear-vassals directly subject to the king and eligible to appear at the Haute Cour. Amalric had an enormous curiosity, and William was reportedly astonished to find Amalric questioning, during an illness, the resurrection of the body. He especially enjoyed reading and being read to, spending long hours listening to William read early drafts of his history. He did not enjoy games or spectacles, although he liked to hunt. He was trusting of his officials, perhaps too trusting, and it seems that there were many among the population who despised him, although he refused to take any action against those who insulted him publicly.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: He was tall and fairly handsome; "he had sparkling eyes of medium size; his nose, like that of his brother, was becomingly aquiline; his hair was blond and grew back somewhat from his forehead. A comely and very full beard covered his cheeks and chin. He had a way of laughing immoderately so that his entire body shook." He did not overeat or drink to excess, but his corpulence grew in his later years, decreasing his interest in military operations; according to William, he "was excessively fat, with breasts like those of a woman hanging down to his waist."


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: Amalric was pious and attended mass every day, although he also "is said to have absconded himself without restraint to the sins of the flesh and to have seduced married women..." Despite his piety he taxed the clergy, which they naturally opposed.


title: Amalric of Jerusalem

text: As William says, "he was a man of wisdom and discretion, fully competent to hold the reins of government in the kingdom." He is considered the last of the early kings of Jerusalem. Within a few years, Emperor Manuel died as well, and Saladin remained the only strong leader in the east.


title: Green manure

text: In agriculture, a green manure is a crop specifically produced to be incorporated into the soil while still green. Typically, the green manure's biomass is incorporated with a plow or disk, as is often done with (brown) manure. The primary goal is to add organic matter to the soil for its benefits. Green manuring is often used with legume crops to add nitrogen to the soil for following crops, especially in organic farming, but is also used in conventional farming.


title: Green manure

text: Incorporation of green manures into a farming system can drastically reduce the need for additional products such as supplemental fertilizers and pesticides.


title: Green manure

text: Limitations to consider in the use of green manure are time, energy, and resources (monetary and natural) required to successfully grow and utilize these cover crops. Consequently, it is important to choose green manure crops based on the growing region and annual precipitation amounts to ensure efficient growth and use of the cover crop(s).


title: Green manure

text: Green manure is broken down into plant nutrient components by heterotrophic bacteria that consumes organic matter. Warmth and moisture contribute to this process, similar to creating compost fertilizer. The plant matter releases large amounts of carbon dioxide and weak acids that react with insoluble soil minerals to release beneficial nutrients. Soils that are high in calcium minerals, for example, can be given green manure to generate a higher phosphate content in the soil, which in turn acts as a fertilizer.


title: Green manure

text: The ratio of carbon to nitrogen in a plant is a crucial factor to consider, since it will impact the nutrient content of the soil and may starve a crop of nitrogen, if the incorrect plants are used to make green manure. The ratio of carbon to nitrogen will differ from species to species, and depending upon the age of the plant. The ratio is referred to as C:N. The value of N is always one, whereas the value of carbon or carbohydrates is expressed in a value of about 10 up to 90; the ratio must be less than 30:1 to prevent the manure bacteria from depleting existing nitrogen in the soil. Rhizobium are soil organisms that interact with green manure to retain atmospheric nitrogen in the soil. Legumes, such as beans, alfalfa, clover and lupines, have root systems rich in rhizobium, often making them the preferred source of green manure material.


title: Green manure

text: Many green manures are planted in autumn or winter to cover the ground before spring or summer sowing.


title: Green manure

text: The value of green manure was recognized by farmers in India for thousands of years, as mentioned in treatises like Vrikshayurveda. In Ancient Greece too, farmers ploughed broad bean plants into the soil. Chinese agricultural texts dating back hundreds of years refer to the importance of grasses and weeds in providing nutrients for farm soil. It was also known to early North American colonists arriving from Europe. Common colonial green manure crops were rye, buckwheat and oats. Traditionally, the incorporation of green manure into the soil is known as the fallow cycle of crop rotation, which was used to allow the soil to regain its fertility after the harvest.


title: Jayant (actor)

text: Jayant (born as Zakaria Khan; 15 October 1915 – 2 June 1975) was an Indian actor. He was the father of Amjad Khan and Imtiaz Khan. His notable works are in films like "Amar", "Memdidi" and "Nazneen". He worked in many movies with Dilip Kumar and Madhubala.


title: Jayant (actor)

text: Jayant was born in Nodeh Payan (Nawan Kalli), Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province, British India on 15 October 1915 and was named Zakaria Khan. He was a Pashtun. He was only able to finish his elementary education. Jayant was a police officer in Alwar, Rajasthan before starting the film career.


title: Jayant (actor)

text: Jayant was tall and had a deep voice. He acted in many Indian films under his stage name Jayant. He worked in Vijay Bhatt's first Gujarati movie "Sansaar Leela" (1933). The name Jayant was also given to him by director and producer Vijay Bhatt. He played lead role in many movies like "Bombay Mail" (1935), "Challenge" (1936), "His Highness" (1937) and "State Express" (1938).


title: Jayant (actor)

text: Jayant was married and his children were Amjad Khan (of Gabbar Singh fame), and "Imtiaz Khan". He was the grandfather of Shadaab Khan, "Ahlam Khan", Seemaab Khan and Ayesha Khan and father-in-law of "Shaila Khan" and Krutika Desai Khan (wife of Imtiaz).


title: Jayant (actor)

text: Jayant died on 2 June 1975 at age 60 in Bombay two months prior to the release of his son Amjad Khan's most successful movie Sholay. He died due to throat cancer. He was buried at Naupada Qabarstan of Bandra West in Mumbai.


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: Unplugged is a 1992 live album by Eric Clapton, recorded at Bray Studios, England in front of an audience for the "MTV Unplugged" television series. It includes a version of the successful 1992 single "Tears in Heaven" and an acoustic version of "Layla". The album itself won three Grammy awards at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in 1993 and became the bestselling live album of all time, and Clapton's bestselling album, selling 26 million copies worldwide.


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: Clapton performed the show in front of a small audience on 16 January 1992 at Bray Film Studios in Windsor, England. In addition to the final album tracks, the performance included early versions of "My Father's Eyes" and "Circus Left Town" along with "Worried Life Blues" and a version of "Rollin' and Tumblin'".


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: Shortly after telling the studio audience "that's it," Clapton said they needed to do "two – no, three - no, five" songs over again, adding "if you don't mind, I don't mind." After the second take of "My Father's Eyes" there was a brief break and cameras were off. Clapton broke into an impromptu "Rollin' and Tumblin'", which he had last performed with Cream. The seasoned musicians quickly picked up on it and the crowd clapped along. The director signaled the crew to record, which is why there is such an abrupt start to the song mid-verse. Clapton was so pleased with it that when the song ended, he asked the director, "did you get that?"


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: For much of the performance, Clapton played Martin 000-42 acoustic guitars. In 2004, one of the guitars sold for $791,500 (£434,400) at auction.


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: The album was released on 25 August 1992 to some of the best reviews of his career. The album renewed the public's interest in Clapton, and boosted his popularity. Critical reception has been mixed though muted; in general, reviewers report that the album, if unremarkable, is "relaxed" and "pleasant". Stephen Thomas Erlewine for "AllMusic" feels that people have misrepresented and mythologised the album; that though it came after Paul McCartney's "MTV Unplugged" album, "Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)" (1991), people often mistake it for "the first-ever MTV album", that they often feel that "it alone was responsible for revitalizing Clapton's career", and that "Tears in Heaven" was first recorded here. Erlewine feels that the songs are "lively and relaxed", that Clapton turns "Layla" from an "anguished howl of pain into a cozy shuffle and the whole album proceeds at a similar amiable gait" while "Clapton is embracing his middle age". Robert Christgau was sharper in his comments, feeling that in an effort to be inoffensive "Clapton-the-electric-guitarist" has been relegated "to the mists of memory", and that "Layla" was turned into a "whispery greeting card".


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: Greg Kot of the "Chicago Tribune" calls the release a "blues album for yuppies" and rates it with 2.5 of 4 stars, saying it is between fair and good. "Entertainment Weekly" journalist Steve Simels scores the album an A− calling the album "a charmer, a collection of blues standards and recent Clapton songs rendered with just the right combination of intensity (a deeply felt version of "Tears in Heaven") and giddy fun (Clapton actually plays kazoo on "San Francisco Bay Blues")". Steve Hochman in the "Los Angeles Times" felt that "Tears in Heaven" was "maudlin but moving", "Layla" was "low-key but seductive", but the blues numbers performed in an intimate setting makes the album "Clapton's most passionate collection in years". Commenting on the popularity of the album in his 2007 autobiography, Clapton wishes the reader to understand the great emotional toll he experienced around that time, and suggests that they visit the grave of his son Conor in Ripley to do so. It was voted number 788 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums" (2000).


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: Clapton was nominated for nine Grammy Awards at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in 1993 and won six, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance - Male, Best Rock Vocal Performance – Male, and Best Rock Song. Although "Tears in Heaven" also earned three Grammy Awards, it was the version from "Rush" that the judges awarded.


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: In Germany the album peaked at No. 3 in the German Albums Chart and sold a total of 1.25 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling albums in Germany. In Austria, "Unplugged" held itself 46 weeks in the Austrian Albums Chart and sold more than 100,000 copies in total. In Switzerland the album also reached No. 3 in the country's chart. Selling 60,000 copies in the first two weeks, the live album was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry – a record for any British artist. In the U.S. the album peaked at No. 1.


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: On 15 October 2013 the album and concert DVD were re-released, titled "Unplugged: Expanded & Remastered". The album includes the original 14 tracks, remastered, as well as a bonus disc with six additional tracks, including two versions of "My Father's Eyes". The DVD includes a restored version of the concert, as well as over 60 minutes of unseen footage from the rehearsal.


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: The acoustic rework of "Layla" was released as the single "Layla (Acoustic)", sometimes titled as "Layla (Unplugged)" in September 1992. The release reached top positions in both 1992 and 1993, reaching No. 1 in the "RPM" Canadian Top Singles chart as well as peaking at No. 4 in the Canadian Adult Contemporary Tracks the same year. It also became popular in the US reaching No. 4 on the "Billboard" Pop Singles chart, peaking at No. 9 in the Mainstream Rock chart and reaching place 12 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It also reached the top ten five of other countries.


title: Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)

text: "Running on Faith" was not released as a single, but reached No. 15 on the "Billboard" Mainstream rock chart in 1993 as well as No. 28 on the Adult Contemporary chart which are based on radio airplay. "Tears in Heaven" was not released as a single from "Unplugged", but from the soundtrack for the film "Rush".


title: Billboard Year-End

text: "Billboard" Year-End charts are cumulative rankings of entries in "Billboard" magazine charts in the United States in any given chart year. Several hundred Year-End charts are now published by "Billboard", the most important of which are the single or album charts based on Hot 100 and "Billboard" 200 respectively.


title: Billboard Year-End

text: "Billboard's" "chart year" runs from the first Billboard "week" of December to the final week in November, but because the Billboard week is dated in advance of publication, the last calendar week for which sales are counted is usually the third week in November. This altered calendar allows for "Billboard" to calculate year-end charts and release them in time for its final print issue in the last week of December.


title: Billboard Year-End

text: Due to this methodology, albums at the peak of their popularity at the time of the November/December chart-year cutoff many times end up ranked lower than one would expect on a year-end tally, yet are ranked on the following year's chart as well, as their cumulative points are split between the two chart years.


title: Billboard Year-End

text: Various listings, such as top radio tunes, popular songs on jukebox, top artists, and best-selling sheet music of the year, had been published for a number of years. Best-selling records of the year based on "Billboard"s Music Popularity Charts was also published for 1942. A chart covering the year 1945 based on "Honor Roll of Hits", where the same song by different artists were amalgamated into one, was published. Annual charts, initially called "Annual Music Record Poll", where songs by different artists were listed separately, then began to be released regularly starting with the year 1946. The early annual charts were released in January the following year, but moved earlier to December the same year starting 1952 to provide disk jockeys with listings for their end-of-year programming. The chart year of 1952 covered the first week of the year until the December 20 issue. Billboard's chart year now runs from the first Billboard "week" of December to the final week of November.


title: Billboard Year-End

text: Prior to incorporating chart data from Nielsen SoundScan (from 1991), year-end charts were calculated by an inverse-point system based solely on a title's performance (for example a single appearing on the "Billboard" Hot 100 would be given one point for a week spent at position 100, two points for a week spent at position ninety-nine, and so forth, up to 100 points for each week spent at number one). Other factors including the total weeks a song spent on the chart and at its peak position were calculated into its year-end total. The same method was used for albums based on the "Billboard" 200, and songs appearing on the other charts (e.g. Hot Country Singles).


title: Billboard Year-End

text: After "Billboard" began obtaining sales and airplay information from Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, the year-end charts are now calculated by a very straightforward cumulative total of yearlong sales (or sales and airplay) points. This gives a more accurate picture of any given year's most popular titles, as an entry that hypothetically spent nine weeks at number one in the spring could possibly have earned fewer cumulative points than one spending six weeks at number three in January.


title: Billboard Year-End

text: Exceptions appeared to be in the 1980s as songs with chart runs were as high as they were as if they were in the chart for a whole year. Two examples are "Desire" by U2 and "How Can I Fall?" by Breathe (both in 1988), which both peaked at number 3 in November and December, respectively. "Desire" came in at number 56 in the 1988 year-end, then "How Can I Fall?" would take the number 27 spot in 1989, despite "Desire" appearing in only nine issues of the chart in the 1988 charting year, and "How Can I Fall?" having appeared in five in 1989. ("He's So Shy" had 14 in the 1980 charting year and in 12 in that of 1981, but appeared in neither year-end.)


title: Billboard Year-End

text: Songs are also not always placed as high in the Decade-End and All Time charts as they were in the Year-End. In the Decade-End, an example is in the 2008 year end which showed "No Air" by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown and "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry at numbers six and 14 respectively, but only "I Kissed a Girl" was in the decade-end of the two, at number 66. And another example is from the 1979 year end where "My Sharona" by The Knack is the number one song of 1979, but lower than "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer in the all time chart. ("My Sharona" is number 95, "Hot Stuff" at No. 87 and number seven in the 1979 year-end.)


title: Billboard Year-End

text: George Michael, the Beatles, Elton John (under Dionne & Friends for the song "That's What Friends Are For") and Elvis Presley are the only four artists to have ever achieved two year-end number-ones. The Beatles, Usher and Justin Bieber are the only three artists to hold the top-two positions of the Year-End Hot 100.


title: Billboard Year-End

text: Between 1959 and 1963 the chart was divided in a stereo chart and a mono chart and were named "Best-Selling Stereophonic LPs and Best-Selling Monophonic LPs (1959–1960), Stereo Action Charts and Mono Action Charts (1960–1961), Action Albums—Stereophonic and Action Albums—Monophonic (1961) and Top LPs—Stereo and Top LPs—Monaural (1961–1963)".


title: Lenny Kravitz discography

text: American singer Lenny Kravitz has released 11 studio albums, one greatest hits compilation album, four box set compilation albums, two extended plays, 58 singles, and eight video albums, including three live albums. His debut album "Let Love Rule" (1989) peaked at number 61 in the US, and while receiving generally positive reviews, it became a huge success in Europe but took a long time to reach success in the US. Its followers, "Mama Said" (1991) and "Are You Gonna Go My Way" (1993) sold better overall than his debut, achieving platinum and multi-platinum status respectively, establishing Kravitz in the music industry and expanding his success in Europe and South America. However, despite only a two-year gap between albums, personal issues such as substance abuse problems, the aftermath of divorce, and his mother Roxie Roker's illness led to a decline in commercial sales with "Circus" (1995).


title: Lenny Kravitz discography

text: With "5" (1998), Kravitz embraced a fresh outlook towards his career and also experimented with electronic equipment such as Pro Tools. Initially, the album received only mediocre reviews, and it took a slow and steady process for it to achieve worldwide success after spinning off hits such as "I Belong to You" and "Fly Away" to ultimately become Kravitz's most successful studio album to date. It would be the album to establish his career at a higher level, with increasing worldwide popularity, especially in Europe, and would win him his first two Grammy Awards. "Greatest Hits" (2000) would become Kravitz's most successful album to date, going on to sell over 10.5 million copies worldwide, earning him yet another Grammy Award. While "Lenny" (2001) would prove to be a very fast seller, although not quite comparing to "5" or "Greatest Hits", it managed to win Kravitz his fourth consecutive Grammy Award. However, "Baptism" was somewhat of a commercial disappointment for the multi-platinum selling artist when compared to its predecessors. Most recently, his 2008 release "It Is Time for a Love Revolution" had Kravitz realising some of the best debut positions and opening sales weeks worldwide in years, along with his best critical reviews since "Lenny".


title: Lenny Kravitz discography

text: According to recent sales numbers, a number of his albums ("Let Love Rule", "Mama Said", "5" and "Greatest Hits") have been confirmed to have achieved a sales status high enough to be certified at the next level within the sales threshold, but RIAA still has them certified at the sales level they are currently at, with no official word on whether/when the certifications may occur. In addition to writing and producing all of his own work, Kravitz has produced albums for other artists, some reaching great success. He personally has scored three top 10 albums in the US, while having reached number one in both the UK and Australia. Kravitz has scored hits in virtually every continent: North America (US and Canada), Central America (Bahamas), Europe (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Scandinavia), South America (Brazil, Argentina and Colombia), Asia (Japan), Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), and Africa (Republic of South Africa). Considered one of the most successful and best-selling rock artists of his time, Kravitz has had sales of approximately 40 million albums alone worldwide (not including singles and video releases).


title: Lenny Kravitz discography

text: Other notable works in Kravitz's repertoire are numerous charity albums and collaborations with artists of a wide range of genres. In 1990, he co-wrote and co-produced Madonna's "Justify My Love" single where he also appeared as background vocalist. Kravitz sang a duet titled "Main Squeeze" with Teena Marie on her album "Passion Play" (Sarai Label, 1994). Upon her death, he posted a heartfelt tribute to her saying that she had contributed so much to who he is. In 1993 he appeared in Duff McKagan's debut album "Believe in Me" singing lead vocals in the song "The Majority". He has participated in numerous soundtracks such as "Reality Bites" (1994), "" (1999), and "Bad Boys II" (2003). He contributed tracks to "" and "". The 2004 album "The Unplugged Collection, Volume One" features a live version of "Are You Gonna Go My Way". In 2008, he wrote "Change" for the "" compilation album. Two of Kravitz's songs are featured separately on two different albums of the Big Shiny Tunes compilation series ("Fly Away" on "Big Shiny Tunes 3" and "American Woman" on "Big Shiny Tunes 4"). He also appeared on Michael Jackson's posthumous track "(I Can't Make It) Another Day". Kravitz co-wrote most of the self-titled 1992 album by Vanessa Paradis, which produced the worldwide hit Be My Baby (Vanessa Paradis song).


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: The Walking Dead: Season Two is an episodic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games and based on "The Walking Dead" comic book series. It is the sequel to "The Walking Dead", with the episodes released between December 2013 and August 2014. There was a retail collector's disc edition released after the conclusion of the season. The game employs the same narrative structure as the first season, where player choice in one episode will have a permanent impact on future story elements. The player choices recorded in save files from the first season and the additional episode "400 Days" carry over into the second season. Clementine, who was the player's main companion during the first season, is the playable character in "Season Two.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: "The Walking Dead: Season Two" overall received generally positive reviews from critics; with particular praise going to the atmosphere, protagonist, and its sense of tension; however, its lack of hub areas and certain aspects of its storytelling were criticized. A third season, titled "", was episodically released from December 2016 to May 2017.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: Similar to the previous season, "The Walking Dead: Season Two" is a point-and-click adventure game. The player, in control of Clementine, can direct the character around the environment, examine and interact with various scenery elements and collect and use objects to advance the story. The player can also initiate conversations with non-player characters via conversation trees. Certain replies from other characters may offer the player multiple choices to select from, including the option to stay silent, with a limited amount of time to make the selection; if the player does not select an option, the conversation will continue as if they had stayed quiet. Such choices can affect how the other characters will later react to Clementine which can influence later events in the story. Other scenes are more action-oriented, requiring the player to complete quick time events to prevent Clementine or her allies from getting killed. If the player fails at these events, the game will restart at the start of the scene. Such action scenes may also require the player to make a key decision within a limited time frame, such as which of two characters to save from attacking walkers.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: The player's choices and actions will impact story elements in later episodes; for example, a character that the player does not choose to save will not appear in later scenes. "Season Two" also incorporates the player's choices from the first season and the DLC "400 Days", via the saved game file from these games, to influence the story and events in these episodes.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: "The Walking Dead: Season Two" follows on the first game, and coincides with events of the comic, in which a zombie apocalypse has occurred, turning humans that are bitten or die into zombies, or "walkers"; the only way to stop this conversion is to damage the brain. The game is mostly set more than a year following its predecessor. While the game starts in Georgia, the setting moves to more northern locales as the survivors head towards Michigan, believing there is a large survivor camp there.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: The second season follows Clementine (Melissa Hutchison), a young girl who has been able to survive the walkers thanks to the help of Lee Everett (Dave Fennoy). At the start of the apocalypse, Lee helps to protect Clementine and offers to help her find her parents who had gone to Savannah; they join several survivors in their journey. When Clementine is captured, a bitten Lee rescues her, but both realize her parents have become walkers. She is forced to choose between shooting him or leaving him to reanimate, before venturing off on her own.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: The second season features several new characters, as well as others returning from the first season. Clementine initially accompanies Omid (Owen Thomas) and Christa (Mara Junot), a couple who are the last known survivors of Clementine's previous group. She then encounters a cabin that shelters several survivors: Luke (Scott Porter), a survivalist who quickly befriends Clementine; Luke's friend Nick (Brian Bremer), and his uncle Pete (Brian Sommer), a hunter; doctor Carlos (Kid Beyond), who is protective over his teenage daughter Sarah (Louisa Mackintosh); and Alvin (Dorian Lockett) and his wife Rebecca (Shay Moore), who are expecting a child. The cabin group has fled from William Carver (Michael Madsen), a charismatic yet dangerous dictator who rules a large survivor group in Howe's Hardware. They later encounter another group of survivors, consisting of Kenny (Gavin Hammon), Clementine's friend who was believed to be killed by walkers; Sarita (Julia Farmer), Kenny's new girlfriend; and Kenny's friend, Walter (Kiff VandenHeuvel) and, Matthew (Wylie Herman). Both factions encounter Carver and his men, whose community includes Bonnie (Erin Yvette) and other survivors that were previously introduced in the "400 Days" add-on content from the first season; Jane (Christine Lakin), a lone wolf who had lost her sister to walkers; and Mike (Dan White), a cranky yet humorous survivor. The latter part of the season introduces Arvo (Michael Ark), a Russian teenager with a leg brace who speaks in broken English, later shown to be part of a larger group of other Russian survivors.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: "This is only a broad overview of the plot, and may differ based on the choices made during both this game and the preceding season and its add-on, 400 Days"."


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: After the events of the first season, Clementine regroups with Omid and Christa, but Omid is killed during a rest stop. Months later, Christa and Clementine are seeking refuge in Wellington, Ohio but are separated by scavengers. After being saved from walkers, Clementine joins a new group consisting of Luke, Pete, his nephew Nick, Alvin, his pregnant wife Rebecca, Carlos, and his daughter Sarah.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: After Pete is killed by walkers, Clementine encounters a man named William Carver, the possible father of Rebecca's child, who is hunting down the group. Forced to abandon their cabin, the survivors find a ski lodge occupied by Clementine's old acquaintance Kenny, his girlfriend Sarita, and their friend Walter. Walkers attack the lodge, during which Nick is potentially killed. They are saved by the arrival of an armed group commanded by Carver. Carver executes Walter and possibly Alvin too, depending on Clementine's actions. Regardless, Carver's group captures everyone except Luke.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: Carver takes them to Howe's Hardware, a fortified mall that he tyrannically runs. Luke sneaks in Howe's and warns the others of an oncoming walker horde. The group, joined by two other survivors, Jane and Mike, and one of Carver's minions, Bonnie, devise a plan to escape by drawing the horde to the mall. During the chaos, Alvin (if alive) is killed by one of Carver's men, while Kenny kills Carver. The group makes their way through the walker horde by covering themselves in walker guts, but Carlos and Sarita are killed.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: Everyone gathers at the nearby ruins of a museum. Clementine and Jane set out to find Sarah, Luke, and Nick (if alive), who were separated amidst the horde. Clementine and Jane's search leads to a trailer park where Nick (if alive) has re-animated and Luke and Sarah are trapped by walkers. With Sarah catatonic due to her father's death, Clementine can either coerce her to leave with them or abandon her to be devoured. As Rebecca goes into labor, the survivors retreat to the museum's observation deck, which collapses and causes Sarah (if saved before) to fall and get killed. Rebecca gives birth to a boy whom Kenny names Alvin Jr., "AJ". Jane leaves the group out of fear of getting attached to Clementine. As the group heads north, they are ambushed by Russian survivors. When Rebecca dies of exhaustion and blood loss and turns, either Clementine or Kenny kills her to protect AJ, which starts a gunfight.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: Amidst the gunfight, Jane returns to save the others. Arvo, the sole Russian survivor, is left alive on the promise of supplies. He directs the group to a home across a frozen lake, but the ice breaks and Luke and potentially Bonnie fall through and drown. Kenny brutalizes Arvo, blaming him for Luke's death, which horrifies the others. They find a truck, planning to use it to leave the next morning. However, Clementine catches Arvo, Bonnie (if alive), and Mike attempting to escape from Kenny with the supplies, afraid of his increasing rage. Clementine is shot by Arvo and passes out. She awakens in the truck with Jane, Kenny, and AJ as they are heading north, the others having runoff. The road is blocked amid a blinding blizzard and Kenny leaves to look for a way around. Fed up with Kenny, Jane tries to convince Clementine to abandon him with her, but the two are separated by walkers. Clementine regroups with Kenny, but Jane then arrives without AJ, and it is implied she had to leave him behind. As an enraged Kenny fights and overpowers Jane, Clementine must decide whether to shoot Kenny to save Jane or allow Kenny to kill her.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: If Clementine kills Kenny, she then learns that Jane hid AJ and faked his death to manipulate Clementine into believing Kenny was unstable. Thereafter, Clementine can either forgive Jane and return to Howe's with her or refuse and set off alone with AJ. If Clementine instead allows Kenny to kill Jane, she then has the option of either killing or abandoning Kenny and leaving with AJ or forgiving Kenny and staying with him. If they stay together, the two eventually find Wellington, but the community's overpopulation forces Clementine to decide whether to enter with AJ and leave Kenny or stay with him.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: When Telltale Games acquired the right to make video games based on "The Walking Dead" comics, they signed a contract for a "multi-year, multi-platform, multi-title" license. This license went into effect after the success of the first season of "The Walking Dead", when Telltale commissioned a second series of games based on the franchise. The first season was considered highly successful, helping to revitalize the adventure game genre which had been in decline since the mid-1990s, with Telltale being recognized as one of the top development studios in 2012.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: During an interview on IGN's Up at Noon, writer Gary Whitta teased more "The Walking Dead" from Telltale sooner than later. "You won't have to wait for season two to play more "Walking Dead"", he claimed. "I can tell you what you already know, which is season two is coming. There's not much to say because it really is very early... it's a way off", said Whitta. "But, knowing that it's a way off, and knowing that people are hungry for more "Walking Dead" there may very well be more "Walking Dead" from Telltale before season two. We may have a little something extra for you between season one and two". Whitta continued to tease that something is in the works right now "that will make the wait for season two slightly less agonizing". This was revealed at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo in June 2013 to be an additional episode called "The Walking Dead: 400 Days" that is available as downloadable content for the first season. It introduces five new characters that journalists expect to carry into "Season Two". "400 Days" will use data about the player's decisions in season one, and decisions made in "400 Days" will carry into "Season Two".


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: Writing for "Season Two" was done to contrast the work they had completed in the first season. At the start of the writing cycle for the second season, they had debated who their primary character would be including introducing new group of survivors that they could use to flesh out the backstories of characters from the first season, or with a new "protector" for Clementine. They eventually agreed to use Clementine as the main character as they felt her story needed to be continued. By changing the player's perspective from that of Lee to Clementine, they wanted to create a "different sort of agency" that the player will experience. Instead of the player, as Lee, looking to help Clementine and others, the player as Clementine would now have to determine who to trust to help her. They also emphasize this new perspective by using several camera angles from a low perspective, to emphasize that Clementine is a child compared to others she meets. The developers also recognized that they needed to avoid making Clementine feel like a "carbon copy" of the character from the first season and instead something crafted by the player's decisions. To resolve this they created the first scenario of the game that would separate her from the familiar characters and to make it feel a result of the player's actions, so that the player would directly connect with Clementine's situation. The concept they kept in mind to write for Season Two was "[Clementine is] eleven years old and the world doesn't care."


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: As with the previous season, Telltale plans to release "Season Two" for Microsoft Windows and OS X computers, on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, and on iOS devices. Releases for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles were announced in May 2014 with release at a later date, along with retail versions of the game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. A Nintendo Switch version was released in 2020.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: The season was formally announced in late October 2013. The announcement showcased Clementine as the playable character for the game, set sometime after the events of the first series. Telltale's CEO Dan Conners stated that this will put "players in the shoes of a lead role that will challenge their expectations of how to survive in a world where no one can be trusted". The first episode was released in the fourth quarter of 2013, with subsequent episodes released four to six weeks apart. A collector's disc was announced to purchase at the end of the season, with those who pre-order the game (from the Telltale Games Store) receiving it for just the shipping and handling cost.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: On September 10, 2019, an official soundtrack album of Jared Emerson-Johnson's B.A.F.T.A. Award nominated score to the game was released for digital download and on streaming services, with a special edition set of vinyl lps due to release shortly thereafter.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: Telltale Games and Skybound Entertainment announced spin off mini-series "" released in February 2016 and third season titled "" was released with first two episodes in December 2016, with physical season pass released February 2017.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: "The Walking Dead: Season Two" overall received generally positive reviews from critics; with particular praise going to the atmosphere, protagonist, and its sense of tension; however, its lack of hub areas and certain aspects of its storytelling were criticized.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: "Episode 1 – All That Remains" received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 81.29% and 82/100, the PC version 78.76% and 78/100 and the Xbox 360 version 77.50% and 80/100. Matt Liebl from GameZone gave the episode an 8.5/10, stating that it "...is just a taste of what's to come -- a mere setup for the horror that awaits us in the final four episodes."


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: "Episode 2 - A House Divided" received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 87.29% and 82/100, the PC version 81.39% and 81/100 and the Xbox 360 version 79.44% and 80/100. Mitch Dyer from IGN gave the episode a 9.5/10, saying it is one of the best episodes Telltale Games has ever made.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: "Episode 3 - In Harm's Way" received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 82.43% and 80/100, the Xbox 360 version 82.25% and 82/100 and the PC version 82.22% and 81/100.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: "Episode 4 - Amid the Ruins" received mixed to positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 79.22% and 78/100, the PC version 78.58% and 78/100 and the Xbox 360 version 72.00% and 71/100. Many critics praised Clementine's development while most criticisms were focused on some of the characters' cheap deaths and sub-par writing compared to the episode's predecessors.


title: The Walking Dead: Season Two

text: "Episode 5 – No Going Back" received positive reviews, higher than its predecessor. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 81.67% and 87/100, the PC version 79.19% and 78/100 and the Xbox 360 version 77.00% and 84/100. Mitch Dyer of IGN gave the episode a 9.5/10 saying that the finale is "an impressive and intelligent episode, and among Telltale Games' finest stories."


title: Bob Forrest

text: Robert O'Neil "Bob" Forrest (born February 15, 1961) is an American musician who is best known for his work with the Los Angeles bands Thelonious Monster and The Bicycle Thief. Forrest, a recovering drug addict, has worked for years as a recovery advocate and is cofounder of Oro House Recovery Center. He currently hosts podcasts called "Rehab Bob" and "The Don't Die podcast". Forrest is the former Chemical Dependency Program Director at Las Encinas Hospital. In 2010, he and co-founder Shelly Sprague launched Hollywood Recovery Services.


title: Bob Forrest

text: In September 2006 he released his first solo album, "Modern Folk and Blues Wednesday". He is also a drug counselor, appearing alongside Dr. Drew Pinsky on "Celebrity Rehab" and "Sober House". He contributed the song "Moonshiner" to the "I'm Not There" soundtrack.


title: Bob Forrest

text: In 2008, he began releasing a series of live digital EPs exclusively at his official website. In 2010, Forrest began hosting a weekly radio show, All Up In The Interweb, airing Wednesday nights on Indie1031.com.


title: Bob Forrest

text: On October 1, 2013, Forrest released "Running with Monsters: A Memoir" which he co-wrote with author Mike Albo.


title: Bob Forrest

text: Forrest is the subject of "Bob and the Monster", a documentary about his music career and battles with drug addiction. The documentary was released in March 2011 and continues to play on the film festival circuit. The DVD was released in September 2013.


title: Bob Forrest

text: Forrest released a new album, "Survival Songs", on October 9, 2015 which was produced by Grammy-winning producer, Ian Brennan. It is a folk album featuring new material and folk versions of existing Thelonious Monster and Bicycle Thief songs.


title: Bob Forrest

text: After Keith Levene parted ways with John Lydon, Forrest featured on one of his records, singing on the track "I'm Looking For Something."


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural service cooperatives, which provide various services to their individually-farming members, and agricultural production cooperatives in which production resources (land, machinery) are pooled and members farm jointly.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: Examples of agricultural production cooperatives include collective farms in former socialist countries, the kibbutzim in Israel, collectively-governed community shared agriculture, Longo Maï co-operatives and Nicaraguan production co-operatives.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: The default meaning of "agricultural cooperative" in English is usually an agricultural service cooperative, the numerically dominant form in the world. There are two primary types of agricultural service cooperatives: supply cooperatives and marketing cooperatives. Supply cooperatives supply their members with inputs for agricultural production, including seeds, fertilizers, fuel, and machinery services. Marketing cooperatives are established by farmers to undertake transportation, packaging, pricing, distribution, sales and promotion of farm products (both crop and livestock). Farmers also widely rely on credit cooperatives as a source of financing for both working capital and investments.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: Cooperatives as a form of business organization are distinct from the more common investor-owned firms (IOFs). Both are organized as corporations, but IOFs pursue profit maximization objectives, whereas cooperatives strive to maximize the benefits they generate for their members (which usually involves zero-profit operation). Agricultural cooperatives are therefore created in situations where farmers cannot obtain essential services from IOFs (because the provision of these services is judged to be unprofitable by the IOFs), or when IOFs provide the services at disadvantageous terms to the farmers (i.e., the services are available, but the profit-motivated prices are too high for the farmers). The former situations are characterized in economic theory as market failure or missing services motive. The latter drive the creation of cooperatives as a competitive yardstick or as a means of allowing farmers to build countervailing market power to oppose the IOFs. The concept of competitive yardstick implies that farmers, faced with unsatisfactory performance by IOFs, may form a cooperative firm whose purpose is to force the IOFs, through competition, to improve their service to farmers.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: A practical motivation for the creation of agricultural cooperatives is related to the ability of farmers to pool production and/or resources. In many situations within agriculture, it is simply too expensive for farmers to manufacture products or undertake a service. Cooperatives provide a method for farmers to join in an 'association', through which a group of farmers can acquire a better outcome, typically financial, than by going alone. This approach is aligned to the concept of economies of scale and can also be related as a form of economic synergy, where "two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently". While it may seem reasonable to conclude that larger the cooperative the better, this is not necessarily true. Cooperatives exist across a broad membership base, with some cooperatives having fewer than 20 members while others can have over 10,000.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: While the economic benefits are a strong driver in forming cooperatives, it is not the sole consideration. In fact, it is possible for the economic benefits from a cooperative to be replicated in other organisational forms, such as an IOF. An important strength of a cooperative for the farmer is that they retain the governance of the association, thereby ensuring they have ultimate ownership and control. This ensures that the profit reimbursement (either through the dividend payout or rebate) is shared only amongst the farmer members, rather than shareholders as in an IOF.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: As agricultural production is often the main source of employment and income in rural and impoverished areas, agricultural cooperatives play an instrumental role in socio-economic development, food security and poverty reduction. They provide smallholder farmers with access to natural and educational resources, tools, and otherwise inaccessible marketplaces. Producer organisations can also empower smallholders to become more resilient; in other words, they build the capacity of farmers to prepare for and react to economic and environmental stressors and shocks in a way that limits vulnerability and promotes their sustainability. Research suggests that membership in a producer organisation is more highly correlated with farmer output or income than other standalone investments such as training, certification, or credit.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: In agriculture, there are broadly three types of cooperatives: a machinery pool, a manufacturing/marketing cooperative, and a credit union.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: The first agricultural cooperatives were created in Europe in the seventeenth century in the Military Frontier, where the wives and children of the border guards lived together in organized agricultural cooperatives next to a funfair and a public bath.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: The first civil agricultural cooperatives were created also in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. They spread later to North America and the other continents. They have become one of the tools of agricultural development in emerging countries.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: Agricultural supply cooperatives aggregate purchases, storage, and distribution of farm inputs for their members. By taking advantage of volume discounts and utilizing other economies of scale, supply cooperatives bring down the cost of the inputs that the members purchase from the cooperative compared with direct purchases from commercial suppliers. Supply cooperatives provide inputs required for agricultural production including seeds, fertilizers, chemicals, fuel, and farm machinery. Some supply cooperatives operate machinery pools that provide mechanical field services (e.g., plowing, harvesting) to their members.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: Agricultural marketing cooperatives are cooperative businesses owned by farmers, to undertake transformation, packaging, distribution, and marketing of farm products (both crop and livestock.)


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: New Zealand has a strong history of agricultural cooperatives, dating back to the late 19th century. The first was the small Otago Peninsula Co-operative Cheese Factory Co. Ltd, started in 1871 at Highcliff on the Otago Peninsula. With active support by the New Zealand government, and small cooperatives being suitable in isolated areas, cooperatives quickly began to dominate the industry. By 1905, dairy cooperatives were the main organisational structure in the industry. In the 1920s–'30s, there were around 500 co-operative dairy companies compared to less than 70 that were privately owned.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: However, after World War II, with the advent of improved transportation, processing technologies and energy systems, a trend to merge dairy cooperatives occurred. By the late 1990s, there were two major cooperatives: the Waikato-based New Zealand Dairy Group and the Taranaki-based Kiwi Co-operative Dairies. In 2001 these two cooperatives, together with the New Zealand Dairy Board, merged to form Fonterra. This mega-merger was supported by the New Zealand Government as part of broader dairy industry deregulation, which allowed other companies to directly export dairy products. Two smaller cooperatives did not join Fonterra, preferring to remain independent – the Morrinsville-based Tatua Dairy Company and Westland Milk Products on the West Coast of the South Island.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: The other main agricultural co-operatives in New Zealand are in the meat and fertiliser industries. The meat industry, which has struggled at times, has proposed various mergers similar to the creation of Fonterra; however, these have failed to gain the necessary member support.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: In Canada, the most important cooperatives of this kind were the wheat pools. These farmer-owned cooperatives bought and transported grain throughout Western Canada. They replaced the earlier privately and often foreign-owned grain buyers and came to dominate the market in the post-war period. By the 1990s, most had demutualized (privatized), and several mergers occurred. Now all the former wheat pools are part of the Viterra corporation.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: The Amazon region of Ecuador is known for producing world-renowned cacao beans. In the Napo region 850 Kichwa families have come together with help from American biologist, Judy Logback, to form an agricultural marketing cooperatives, Kallari Association. This cooperative has helped increase benefits for the families involved as well as to protect and defend their Kichwa culture and the Amazon rainforest.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: In India, there are networks of cooperatives at the local, regional, state and national levels that assist in agricultural marketing. The commodities that are mostly handled are food grains, jute, cotton, sugar, milk and nuts


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: Dairy farming based on the Anand Pattern, with a single marketing cooperative, is India's largest self-sustaining industry and its largest rural employment provider. Successful implementation of the Anand model has made India the world's largest milk producer. Here small, marginal farmers with a couple or so heads of milch cattle queue up twice daily to pour milk from their small containers into the village union collection points. The milk after processing at the district unions is then marketed by the state cooperative federation nationally under the Amul brand name, India's largest food brand. With the Anand pattern three-fourths of the price paid by the mainly urban consumers goes into the hands of millions of small dairy farmers, who are the owners of the brand and the cooperative. The cooperative hires professionals for their expertise and skills and uses hi-tech research labs and modern processing plants & transport cold-chains, to ensure quality of their produce and value-add to the milk.


title: Agricultural cooperative

text: Production of sugar from sugarcane mostly takes place at cooperative sugar cane mills owned by local farmers. The shareholders include all farmers, small and large, supplying sugarcane to the mill. Over the last sixty years, the local sugar mills have played a crucial part in encouraging rural political participation and as a stepping stone for aspiring politicians. This is particularly true in the state of Maharashtra where a large number of politicians belonging to the Congress party or NCP had ties to sugar cooperatives from their respective local areas. Unfortunately, mismanagement and manipulation of the cooperative principles have made a number of these operations inefficient.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are a series of sculptures of dinosaurs and other extinct animals, incorrect by modern standards, in the London borough of Bromley's Crystal Palace Park. Commissioned in 1852 to accompany the Crystal Palace after its move from the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, they were unveiled in 1854 as the first dinosaur sculptures in the world. The models were designed and sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins under the scientific direction of Sir Richard Owen, representing the latest scientific knowledge at the time. The models, also known as Dinosaur Court, were classed as Grade II listed buildings from 1973, extensively restored in 2002, and upgraded to Grade I listed in 2007.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The models represent 15 genera of extinct animals, only three of which are true dinosaurs. They are from a wide range of geological ages, and include true dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and plesiosaurs mainly from the Mesozoic era, and some mammals from the more recent Cenozoic era. Today, the models are notable for representing the scientific inaccuracies of early paleontology, the result of improperly reconstructed fossils and the nascent nature of the science in the 19th century, with the "Iguanodon" and "Megalosaurus" models being particularly singled out.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Following the closure of the Great Exhibition in October 1851, Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace was bought and moved to Penge Place atop Sydenham Hill, South London, by the newly formed Crystal Palace Company. The grounds that surrounded it were then extensively renovated and turned into a public park with ornamental gardens, replicas of statues and two new man-made lakes. As part of this renovation, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins was commissioned to build the first-ever life-sized models of extinct animals. He had originally planned to just re-create extinct mammals before deciding on building dinosaurs as well, which he did with advice from Sir Richard Owen, a celebrated anatomist and palaeontologist of the time. Hawkins set up a workshop on site at the park and built the models there. The dinosaurs were built full-size in clay, from which a mould was taken allowing cement sections to be cast. The larger sculptures are hollow with a brickwork interior.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The models were displayed on three islands acting as a rough timeline, the first island for the Paleozoic era, a second for the Mesozoic, and a third for the Cenozoic. The models were given more realism by making the water level in the lake rise and fall, revealing different amounts of the dinosaurs. To mark the launch of the models, Hawkins held a dinner on New Year's Eve 1853 inside the mould of one of the "Iguanodon" models.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Hawkins benefited greatly from the public's reaction to the dinosaurs, which was so strong it allowed for the sale of sets of small versions of the dinosaur models, priced at £30 for educational use. But the building of the models was costly (having cost around £13,729) and in 1855, the Crystal Palace Company cut Hawkins's funding. Several planned models were never made, while those half finished were scrapped, despite protest from sources including the Sunday newspaper, "The Observer".


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Hawkins later worked on a "Paleozoic Museum" in New York's Central Park, an American equivalent to the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. In May 1871 many of the exhibits in Hawkins' workshop were destroyed by vandals and their fragments buried, possibly including elements of the original "Elasmosaurus" skeleton, which the American palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope had loaned to Hawkins for preparation at the time.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: With progress in palaeontology, the reputation of the Crystal Palace models declined. In 1895, the American fossil hunter Othniel Charles Marsh scorned the dinosaurs' friends as doing them a great injustice, and spoke angrily of the models. The models and the park fell into disrepair as the years went by, a process aided by the fire that destroyed the Crystal Palace itself in 1936, and the models became obscured by overgrown foliage. A full restoration of the animals was carried out in 1952 by Victor H.C. Martin, at which time the mammals on the third island were moved to less well-protected locations in the park, where they were exposed to wear and tear. The limestone cliff was blown up in the 1960s.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: In 2001, the display was totally renovated. The destroyed limestone cliff was completely replaced using 130 large blocks of Derbyshire limestone, many weighing over , rebuilt according to a small model made from the same number of polystyrene blocks. Fibreglass replacements were created for the missing sculptures, and badly damaged parts of the surviving models were recast. For example, some of the animals' legs had been modelled in lead, fixed to the bodies with iron rods; the iron had rusted, splitting the lead open.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The models and other elements of Crystal Palace Park were classed as Grade II listed buildings from 1973. The models were extensively restored in 2001, and upgraded to Grade I listed in 2007.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: In 2018, the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs ran a crowd funding campaign, endorsed by the guitarist Slash, to build a permanent bridge to Dinosaur Island. The bridge was designed by Tonkin Liu with engineering by Arup. The bridge swings on a pivot so it can be parked when not in use, to prevent unauthorised access. It was installed in January 2021.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: In May 2021, the nose and mouth of the "Megalosaurus" sculpture was given an emergency renovation, after it had fallen off the previous year. Twenty-two new teeth and a 'prosthetic jaw' were installed on the sculpture. The renovation was funded by a grant from the Cultural Recovery Fund and fundraising from Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Fifteen genera of extinct animals, not all dinosaurs, are represented in the park. At least three other genera ("Dinornis", a mastodon, and "Glyptodon") were planned, and Hawkins began to build at least the mastodon before the Crystal Palace Company cut his funding in 1855. An inaccurate map of the time shows planned locations of the "Dinornis" and mastodon.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The Palaeozoic era is represented in the park by the model rock exposure showing a succession of beds, namely the Carboniferous (including Coal Measures and limestone) and Permian.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Crystal Palace's two "Dicynodon" models are based on incomplete Permian fossils found in South Africa, along with Owen's guess that they were similar to turtles, no evidence has been found to suggest "Dicynodon" had protective shells.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The Mesozoic era is represented in the park by the model rock exposure showing a succession of beds, namely the Jurassic and Cretaceous, by models of dinosaurs and other animals known from mesozoic fossils, and by suitable vegetation – both living plants and models.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Curiously, it is "Hylaeosaurus", from the Cretaceous of England, not "Iguanodon", that most resembles the giant iguana stereotype of early ideas of dinosaurs. The "Hylaeosaurus" in reality is much like "Ankylosaurus" - smallish quadrupedal herbivore with a knobbled armoured back, and spines along its sides. Hawkins's depiction is of a large Iguana-like beast with long sharp spines along its back, which Owen noted were "accurately given in the restoration [by Hawkins, to Owen's instructions, but] necessarily at present conjectural". The head of the "Hylaeosaurus" model is a fibreglass replica; the original head is on the ground, on a hill above the ichthyosaur end of the lake.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The "Ichthyosaurus" models are based on Triassic or Jurassic fossils from Europe. Though the three ichthyosaurs are partly in water, they are implausibly shown basking on land like seals. Owen supposed they resembled crocodiles or plesiosaurs. Better fossil evidence shows that they have more in common with sharks and dolphins, having a dorsal fin and fish-like tail, whereas in Hawkins's models the tail is a flat protuberance from a straight backbone. A further discrepancy is that the models' eyes have exposed bony sclerotic plates, Owen conjecturing that with such large eyes they had "great powers of vision, especially in the dusk". They became one of the three mascots of Crystal Palace Park, along with the "Iguanodon" and "Megalosaurus" (although ichthyosaurs are not dinosaurs). Coincidentally, the models more closely resemble more basic ichthyosaurs such as "Cymbospondylus".


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The "Iguanodon" models represent fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of Europe. Gideon Mantell sketched the original fossil, found in Sussex in 1822 by his wife, Mary Ann Mantell, as like a long slender lizard climbing a branch (on four legs), balancing with a whiplike tail; lacking a skull, he conjectured that the thumb bone was a nose horn. The nose horn in particular is used repeatedly in popular textbooks and documentaries about dinosaurs to make fun of Victorian inaccuracies; actually, even in 1854, Owen commented "the horn [is] more than doubtful".


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Three "Labyrinthodon" models were made for Crystal Palace, based on Owen's guess that, being amphibian in lifestyle, the Triassic animals might have resembled frogs; he named them Batrachia, from the Greek 'Batrachios', frog. One is smooth skinned and is based on the species ""Labyrinthodon salamandroides"" ("Mastodonsaurus jaegeri"); the other two were based on ""Labyrinthodon pachygnathus"" ("Cyclotosaurus pachygnathus"). Casts of "Chirotherium" footprints that Owen thought were made by the animals were included in the ground around the models.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Gigantic and visually impressive, the "Megalosaurus" became one of the park's three 'mascot dinosaurs' along with the "Iguanodon" and (less so) the Ichthyosaurs. Working from fragmentary evidence from Jurassic fossils found in England, consisting mainly of a hip and femur (thigh bone), with a rib and a few vertebrae, Owen conjectured the animal was quadrupedal; palaeontologists now believe it to have been bipedal (standing like "Tyrannosaurus rex"). The first suggestion that some dinosaurs might have been bipedal came in 1858, just too late to influence the model.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: When the models were built, only skulls of the Cretaceous fossil "Mosasaurus" had been discovered in the Netherlands, so Hawkins only built the head and back of the animal. He submerged the model deep in the lake, leaving the body unseen and undefined. The "Mosasaurus" at Crystal Palace is positioned in an odd place near the secondary island that was originally a waterfall, and much of it is not visible from the lakeside path.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The three "Plesiosaurus" models represents three species of marine reptile, "P. macrocephalus", "P. dolichoderius" and "P. hawkinsii", from the Jurassic of England. Two of them have implausibly-flexible necks.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Owen noted that the "Pterodactylus" fossils from the Jurassic of Germany had scales, not feathers, and while "somewhat bird-like" they had conical teeth, suggesting they were predatory. The two surviving models are perched on a rock outcrop; there were originally two more 'pterodactyls of the Oolite'.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Owen correctly identified "Teleosaurus" as similar to gharials, being slender Jurassic Crocodilians with very long thin jaws and small eyes, inferring from the sediment in which they were found that they were "more strictly marine than the crocodile of the Ganges [the gharial]."


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: "Anoplotherium" is an extinct mammal from the Eocene to Oligocene epochs, first found near Paris. Hawkins's models draws on Owen's speculation about its camel-like appearance. Three models were made, forming a small herd.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: "Megaloceros giganteus" or Irish Elk is a species from the Pliocene to Pleistocene epochs in Eurasia. Hawkins built a family unit of male, female and fawn; the adult male bore antlers made from actual fossil antlers, long since replaced. Moved from the third island, they had fallen into disrepair as they were in a place easily accessible by vandals. With their original but fragile antlers, the Irish Elks were the most accurate of the cenozoic models; since they are of recent geological age (dying out 11,000 years ago), Hawkins was able to model them on living deer.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The giant ground sloth "Megatherium" is from the Pliocene to Pleistocene epochs in South America, where Charles Darwin had excavated some fossils in 1835. The model was built hugging a live tree which subsequently grew and broke the model's arm. The arm was replaced and later the tree died. The model depicts the sloth as having a short trunk like a tapir, something the real animal never had. This model used to be in the children's zoo which has now been demolished.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The models of "Palaeotherium" represent an extinct Eocene mammal thought by Georges Cuvier to be tapir-like. They have suffered the most wear and tear of all of the models, and the standing model no longer looked much like the original made by Hawkins. During the 1960s these models were lying discarded in the bushes about fifty yards from the original site and, prior to the 2002 restoration, they were in such bad shape that they were removed and put into store. Some sources state that these models were added at a later date, but an "Illustrated London News" illustration of Hawkins's workshop shows them in the background. Models of the "fearfully great bird" "Dinornis" of New Zealand (extinct by 1500 AD), and of the extinct elephant-like "Mastodon" (or "Deinotherium" of the Miocene and Pliocene of East Africa), were planned for the 'Tertiary Islands' but not completed.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: Charles Dickens's 1853 novel, "Bleak House", begins with a description of muddy streets, whose primordial character is emphasized by a dinosaur in the streets of London:


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: In H. G. Wells's 1905 novel "Kipps", Kipps and Ann visit Crystal Palace and sit "in the presence of the green and gold Labyrinthodon that looms so splendidly above the lake" to discuss their future. There is a brief description of the dinosaurs and their surroundings and the impact they have on the characters. Several of E. Nesbit's children's books feature the Crystal Palace dinosaur sculptures coming to life, including "The Enchanted Castle" (1907). The 1932 novel "Have His Carcase", by Dorothy L. Sayers, has the character Lord Peter Wimsey mention the "antediluvian monsters" of the Crystal Palace. Ann Coates's 1970 children's book "Dinosaurs Don't Die", illustrated by John Vernon Lord, tells the story of a young boy who lives near Crystal Palace Park and discovers that Hawkins' models come to life; he befriends one of the "Iguanodon" and names it 'Rock' and they visit the Natural History Museum.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: The travel writer Paul Theroux mentions the dinosaurs in his 1989 novel "My Secret History". The novel's narrator, Andre Parent, accidentally learns of his wife's infidelity when his young son, Jack, reveals that he has visited the dinosaurs in the company of his mother's 'friend' during Andre's prolonged absence gathering material for a travel book. The title story in Penelope Lively's 1991 novel "Fanny and the Monsters" is about a Victorian girl who visits the Crystal Palace dinosaurs and becomes fascinated by prehistoric creatures.


title: Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

text: George Baxter, a pioneer of colour printing, made a well-known engraving which imagines Crystal Palace, set in its landscaped grounds with tall fountains and the dinosaurs in the foreground, before the 1854 opening.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: The second season of the American television drama series "House of Cards" began filming a set of 13 episodes on April 29, 2013, and concluded on November 8. Filming occurred primarily in Baltimore. On December 4, 2013, Netflix announced that the season would be released in its entirety on February 14, 2014. Set in Washington, D.C., season two deals with topics such as entitlement reform, state-sponsored cyberespionage, money laundering in campaign finance, anthrax scares, sexual assault in the United States military, public opinion regarding abortion in the United States, parliamentary procedure of the United States Senate, and Federal government shutdowns. The plot picks back up where season one ends.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Critics previewed the first four episodes of the season under non-disclosure agreements not to reveal any spoilers. Reviews began appearing as early as January 31. Many critics who previewed the season noted the first episode was shocking, but withheld the surprises of the four episodes made available for preview. Willa Paskin of "Slate" broke the embargo nearly a day early revealing several spoilers. Whereas critics had been somewhat split on the propriety of binge-watching the first season, they were more supportive of the practice for season two.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Early reviews were largely positive, noting that the second season had a darker tone than the first. Molly Parker was praised as an addition to the cast. Nonetheless, many critics were concerned at the domineering presence of Underwood, who appears to have no worthy adversaries. Viewership of the second season was many times higher than season one. The season earned thirteen Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards and three nominations at both the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards. Kevin Spacey won Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama for playing Frank Underwood in season two. Season two of "House of Cards" was one of the first shows available in 4K video format on Netflix's streaming service.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Francis spends most of the season as the newly appointed Vice President of the United States. In early episodes Frank vanquishes reporters on the trail of a murder he committed in the previous season. However, the drama soon shifts to tensions involving Frank, President Walker, the Chinese government, and billionaire businessman Raymond Tusk, eventually culminating in a bitter political war between Frank and Tusk. Frank's wife Claire publicly reveals that she was raped in college by a prominent general and pursues anti-rape legislation. The most significant new character is Jackie Sharp, Frank's successor as House Whip, who soon finds herself embroiled in Frank's plans. As the war between Frank and Tusk consumes the Presidency, things culminate in a scandal that leads to Walker resigning, Tusk being arrested, and Frank ascending to the Oval Office.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Among the new cast members in season two are Molly Parker and Sam Page, while directors include Carl Franklin, Jodie Foster, James Foley, and Wright. The season features cameos by several notable journalists, including Ashleigh Banfield, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Matt Bai, Morley Safer, Sean Hannity, and Kelly O'Donnell.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: The second season was made available in its entirety on February 14, 2014 (Valentine's Day) at 12:01 a.m. PT. Prior to the release of season 1, three reviewers, Hank Stuever of "The Washington Post", Nancy deWolf Smith of "The Wall Street Journal", and Alessandra Stanley of "The New York Times", commented on possible binge viewing by Netflix customers. Stanley notes that the show "is probably seen best one episode at a time. It's a delicious immorality play with an excellent cast, but the tempo is slow and oddly ponderous—a romp slowed down to a dirge". Smith also notes that due to its "relentless theme", ""House of Cards" might go down better in smaller portions and thus be enjoyably prolonged", deriding potential binge watchers as people who liken a delicacy to a "bag of M&M's". However, Stuever disagreed about season 1 saying "So, on the iffy chance that "House of Cards" draws you in and you simply cannot stop watching, then, yes, you may power-binge your way through all 13 hours at once". Upon viewing the four episode season 2 preview "Time" James Poniewozik says "I could easily see powering through the season in a free weekend, precisely because no individual episode needs much time to sink in". Stanley also felt the second season was "binge-worthy" upon viewing the preview. However, Ellen Gray of Philly.com supports not binge-watching the season, as she believes it does not serve it well.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: In interviews during the writing and filming of season 2 showrunner Beau Willimon said he had drawn inspiration for the series from a variety of sources including Robert Caro's "The Years of Lyndon Johnson" and Jeremy Larner's "Nobody Knows". Lyndon B. Johnson was a repeated source for themes and issues. Willimon also commented on the fictional world of politics that the show represented: "It's a rough-and-tumble game whenever power is involved—people's ambitions, their desires, their competitive spirit will often push them to play outside the rules." Willimon noted that "I don't think about topping things ... The evolution of character is not a game of one-upmanship. It is about change. Souls are vast and so the opportunity to explore ways in which characters contradict themselves and evolve is also vast" and that season 2 provided the opportunity "to expand the world and more deeply explore the characters".


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: For Spacey, the portrayal of Underwood for a second season was a learning process. "There is so much I don't know about Francis, so much that I'm learning ... I've always thought that the profession closest to that of an actor is being a detective ... We are given clues by writers, sometimes clues they're aware of and sometimes not. Then you lay them all out and try to make them come alive as a character who's complex and surprising, maybe even to yourself". Gerald McRaney spoke about his expanded role by saying that whereas in season 1 the challenge to playing his character, Raymond Tusk, was in "having to learn Mandarin", in season 2 his character has become "somebody who you don't know which color hat he's wearing".


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Netflix had ordered two seasons of 13 episodes when it made its original commitment to the series in 2011. According to Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley, production of the first season brought $140 million in the form of 2,200 jobs and transactions with 1,800 vendors to the Baltimore metropolitan area economy and the Maryland General Assembly expanded its Film Production Tax Credit so that season two could have similar impact over the course of 150 days of filming. Like the first season, the second season was largely filmed in the Baltimore area. Although production was publicized as being in Baltimore, Season 1 had based production in Harford County, Maryland, and season 2 also had its production office in Edgewood and a Joppa sound stage. The April 27, 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner spoofed "House of Cards" from the Maryland set prior to the beginning of the filming of season 2. Filming began on Monday April 29, 2013, which was just a few weeks later in the year than season 1 had started. On May 14, O'Malley visited the set to publicize the success of the tax incentives.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: During spring and summer 2013, the show hosted several large casting calls some of which had over 1000 hopefuls. On June 13, crews began preparing the State House for filming on June 17 and 18. The Maryland State House is not available for rent so the producers made donations to various organizations. The show filmed in Annapolis at the Maryland House of Delegates and the wife of House Speaker Michael E. Busch, Cynthia, was cast as an extra. She played a United States senator as the set depicted the United States Senate chamber. The scenes were used as part of "Chapter 16" (season 2, episode 3). On July 24, the show announced that it would film at the Baltimore County Circuit Courthouses in Towson, Maryland on July 31. The filming occurred at this location on August 7.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: On August 3, "House of Cards" was going to film a presidential motorcade at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. at 3 PM. However, Chief of police Cathy L. Lanier of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD) revoked the permits that morning. An MPD spokesperson explained "The Metropolitan Police Department is not the lead agency on presidential motorcades and we did not want to portray ourselves as such". As a result, the production crews did a last minute filming of the desired scenes back in Baltimore. The next day, Mayor of the District of Columbia Vincent Gray stated that there was confusion on what role the MPD would play in the filming. A spokesperson from his office stated that ""MPD is not going to rent itself out as extras for film ... That's what MPD's decision was focused on. We're not going to be actors." On October 2, all issues were resolved and the motorcade was filmed as originally planned without any MPD personnel "actively participate in the filming".


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: In August, several areas in Harford County were used for filming season 2, including areas in Bel Air and Edgewood. Havre de Grace had been used in season 1 to depict Underwood's home district in South Carolina. The Liriodendron mansion was the scene of filming on August 12 and 13. Bel Air police were paid $1550 for August 13 duties at another filming location.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Although there were reports that the filming was largely completed by October 1, Willimon tweeted on that date that he had just finished writing the season finale. Willimon and others tweeted that filming was completed on November 8. The following week, "House of Cards" workers got involved in the Typhoon Haiyan relief efforts.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: According to an October 10 story in "The Huffington Post", executive producer Rick Cleveland stated that he believed that season 2 would be the final season because both Spacey and Wright prefer to act in movies than in television. However, Willimon remained optimistic that the show will continue. "The Baltimore Sun" reporter, David Zurawik contested the journalistic process of "The Huffington Post" report because he says Modi Wiczyk, CEO of Media Rights Capital, the company that produces "House of Cards", told him "I would basically be shocked if there wasn't [a season 3, 4 and 5]". A few weeks later, Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos confirmed that Netflix had an earnest interest in continuing "House of Cards" beyond its second season.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: On December 4, 2013, Netflix announced that the 13-episode season would be released in its entirety on February 14, 2014. Along with the scheduling announcement, Netflix confirmed that Francis (now Vice President) and Claire would "continue their ruthless rise to power as threats mount on all fronts". After season 1 received four nominations for the 71st Golden Globe Awards on December 12, a season 2 trailer was released on December 13. However, the first official full trailer was released on January 6.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Willimon has stated "In conception of the second season, I put a lot of thought into the doors open to us in seasons three and beyond ... I didn't want to paint ourselves into a corner in the second season." On February 4, 2014, Netflix announced it had renewed the web series for a season 3 of undisclosed length. In May 2014, the season became one of the first Netflix streaming offerings available in 4K video format.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: The season was generally well received. The review aggregator Metacritic gave the season a score of 80 out of 100, based on 25 critics. Another review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes gave the season a rating of 88%, based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""House of Cards" proves just as bingeworthy in its second season, with more of the strong performances, writing, and visual design that made the first season so addictive."


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: James Poniewozik of "Time" says "It is the same show you saw last season, the same weaknesses and strengths intact, but, as it makes clear before the first hour is over, every bit as brutal and sanguinary." According to Sara Smith of "The Kansas City Star", "The shock and delight of the showy storytelling ... has faded a bit". Smith says that Barnes, Skorsky, and Goodwin's "investigation sucks them down a rabbit hole into a surreal underworld no sane reporter would explore". Regarding Frank, Smith says "A show can successfully revolve around one man, but a flawless winning streak gets monotonous" and that "it's time for someone to take Frank down a notch".


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Willmore says that since characters have been introduced, "season two of "House of Cards" begins in a fashion that's far more free and quick-paced" than season 1. Willmore also notes that, "If season one slowly grew blacker in tone as it went from serious games of power and manipulation to life-and-death ones, season two starts off there and looks to only get darker in content." However, she stated that season 2 appeared to be lighter than season 1: "delivered with more of a wink by Frank than before. It may be darker, but it's also less heavy".


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Stanley praises the series saying "It's not clear exactly why this bleak series is so exhilarating and binge-worthy. It could be that just as victims of tragedy find it hard to accept that their suffering is random and purposeless, voters find it intolerable that so many of the petty, shortsighted moves by elected officials have no greater meaning than small-time expediency." She also notes that the series "is more cynical than "The Americans" on FX and more pessimistic about human nature than "The Walking Dead" on AMC". However, "The Americans" "is more complex and inventive" according to Stanley who concurs that season 2 is darker but notes it is more compelling than season 1. Stuever compares the show unfavorably to both "Veep" for its "bumbling chaos and ego implosions" over "House of Cards" "prohibitively sinister" execution and "The Good Wife" for its superior delivery of "nastiness and self-interest in power plays".


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Many critics criticized the lack of reasonable challenge for the Underwoods. James Poniewozik notes that "Francis needs a stronger nemesis, if not for the sake of justice then for the sake of excitement. And "House of Cards" would be a greater show if it had characters who were people more than game pieces. Still, on its limited terms, it's absorbing to watch". According to "Entertainment Weekly" Karen Valby, the show's fundamental problem is that "The Underwoods have no worthy opponents." According to "Variety" Brian Lowry, as conniving as Underwood is, it is unfathomable that "nobody else in a town built on power seems particularly adept at recognizing this or combating him". Valby notes that neither Tusk nor Goodwin is an effective foe, leaving the audience longing for a comeuppance in the first four episodes that served as a preview for critics and his hopeful that Sharp provides a good foil as the season progresses. He also wrote that "House of Cards" overplays its depiction of the edginess of "Washington being venal and corrupt". He describes the show as a "mixed bag".


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Tim Goodman of "The Hollywood Reporter" describes the preview of the season by saying "It's entertaining and cruises along with a strong pulse. There's a core mystery and American politics is mocked, appropriately, for being a two-party hustle of recrimination and separatism." Goodman notes that writer Beau Willimon has Frank "pontificate to the point of spouting cliches from time to time" and Frank's "conniving wins too often". Goodman sums things up by saying "There's a heavier hand than is necessary at times" and ""House of Cards" needs to stay more focused to be successful."


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Chuck Barney of the "San Jose Mercury News" had a more mixed response, noting that the preview episodes show that the series is as "handsomely crafted and marvelously acted as ever" but the episodes don't "provoke the same kind of adrenaline rush as last season". Barney was also impressed with newcomer Parker: "She's an agile actress who can deliver a sense of soft-spoken warmth but also a steely fierceness that comes with an underlying message: 'Underestimate me at your own peril.'"


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: The addition of Parker was well received among critics. Stanley notes that as Underwood's "protégée and, like everyone else in his poisoned orbit, soon discovers that Underwood expects his people to cast aside principle and pursue his grand plan." Valby describes her performance as one "played with throbbing edge". Goodman notes she serves to somewhat counterbalance Frank.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Verne Gay of "Newsday" notes that "Spacey's Underwood is even more sinuous, more complex, more treacherous and so—as a result—is the deeply pleasurable show that surrounds him."


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: On July 10, 2014, "House of Cards" earned thirteen Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards. Among its nominations were Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Kevin Spacey, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Robin Wright, Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for Beau Willimon and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for Carl Franklin. The second season was also nominated for several 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, including Kate Mara for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series and Reg E. Cathey for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. Other Creative Arts nominations were received for Casting, Cinematography, Picture Editing, Music Composition, Sound Mixing, and Art Direction.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Other recognitions included a TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama nomination at the 30th TCA Awards and the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for Wright at the 4th Critics' Choice Television Awards. For the 67th Writers Guild of America Awards, the series was nominated for . For the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards, the cast was nominated for Best Drama Ensemble, Spacey won for Best Drama Actor, and Wright was nominated for Best Drama Actress. For the 72nd Golden Globe Awards, the series was nominated for Best Television Series – Drama, Wright was nominated for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, and Spacey won for Best Actor – Television Series Drama. For the 67th Directors Guild of America Awards, Jodie Foster was nominated for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series for the episode "Chapter 22".


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: U.S. President Barack Obama quipped about his interest in an advance copy of the second series: "I wish things were that ruthlessly efficient ... It's true. I was looking at Kevin Spacey thinking, 'this guy's getting a lot of stuff done'." The evening before the season was posted, someone responsible for the @BarackObama Twitter account (which is run by Organizing for Action) tweeted a request that no spoilers be posted online. Since the season debuted on Valentine's Day, "The New York Observer" created themed cards in honor of the series with quotes such as "A great man once said everything is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power" (an Oscar Wilde quote Underwood had stated during season 1).


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: Whereas less than 2% of Netflix subscribers streamed season 1 during the first weekend last year, over 15% streamed at least one hour during the business day on February 14.


title: House of Cards (season 2)

text: The second season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on , in region 2 on , and in region 4 on .


title: John Duttine

text: John Arthur Duttine (born 15 March 1949) is an English actor noted for his roles on stage, films and television. He is well known for his role as Sgt George Miller in "Heartbeat" and also Bill Masen in the TV series "The Day of the Triffids".


title: John Duttine

text: He attended Buttershaw Secondary School; Stephen Petcher from his school would also appear in "Heartbeat". He grew up in Buttershaw, in south-west Bradford. He trained at the Drama Centre London in north London. In London he shared a flat with Bradford actor Ken Kitson.