title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Employees and their families stayed at Treasure Island a couple days before the opening to put the resort through a trial run. Treasure Island opened to the public at 10:00 p.m. on October 26, 1993, following a private opening for VIPs, including Nevada governor Bob Miller. The resort's facade featured a free pirate show taking place in a man-made lagoon. Wynn's other Strip resort, the shuttered Dunes, was imploded the following night in a grand ceremony which incorporated the pirate show. One of the ships fired its cannon as the implosion began, simulating the resort's destruction by cannonballs.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: In 1996, Treasure Island hosted a naturalization ceremony for 93 workers. It was the first Las Vegas resort to hold such an event.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: A man robbed the casino twice in 2000, stealing more than $30,000. He was arrested after a failed third attempt, during which he shot a security guard. He was sentenced to 130 years in prison.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: The Prairie Island Indian Community, owners of a Treasure Island casino resort in Minnesota, filed a $250 million damages lawsuit against Mirage Resorts in May 2000. The suit alleged that Wynn violated trademark law by using the "Treasure Island" name for his own casino resort. The suit also requested that Wynn be barred from using the name, which Wynn said he registered in 1993.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Wynn departed Mirage Resorts in 2000, when it was acquired by MGM Grand Inc., later renamed MGM Mirage.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Treasure Island's family amenities included the pirate show and an arcade. However, the pirate theme and family appeal would be gradually scaled back in subsequent years. In April 2003, Treasure Island announced a major revamp to transform the resort into a more sophisticated property aimed primarily at adults, although children would still be welcomed. Describing the resort's transformation, Treasure Island president Scott Sibella said, "We've seen a return of Las Vegas to its roots as an adult destination. As the city has evolved, so too has Treasure Island." He said, "We've evolved from a yo-ho-ho feel to a more sophisticated feel. We want to change the exterior to introduce the outside to what we've already done inside." As part of the revamp, Treasure Island began using the abbreviated name "TI". Sibella described the new name as trendy and sexy, and said it was a name that residents and guests already used. He compared the abbreviated name to the former Desert Inn resort, also known as "D.I." MGM Mirage began a marketing campaign for TI in June 2003, including advertisements in various publications.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: MGM struggled financially during the Great Recession, and businessman Phil Ruffin made an offer to buy Treasure Island. MGM accepted and announced the deal at the end of 2008. The purchase was finalized on March 20, 2009, at a cost of $755 million. At the time, Treasure Island was the only hotel-casino on the Strip to be owned by a single individual, as others are corporate-owned. Because of the sale, Treasure Island was removed from MGM's extensive customer database. Later that year, the resort joined K Hotels, a worldwide collection of approximately 50 hotels. Amid the recession, Ruffin spent $20 million on various changes to target a middle-class clientele. The hotel rooms were left untouched, as MGM had conducted a $92 million renovation of them shortly before selling the resort to Ruffin.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: A rooftop swamp cooler caught fire in July 2012, sending smoke through hallways of the upper hotel floors, which were evacuated. The fire caused $20,000 in damage, but resulted in only minor injuries for guests.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Ruffin is a business partner of Donald Trump's and a supporter of his presidential campaign. Trump has held several campaign rallies at Treasure Island, including one in 2016 during which an audience member attempted to assassinate him.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: In 2019, Treasure Island's hotel joined Radisson Hotel Group. Under the agreement, the resort kept its name and exterior signage. Room renovations began that year. State casinos were temporarily closed in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nevada, and the closure allowed planned renovations across the resort to accelerate. Among the additions was an expanded sportsbook.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Treasure Island includes a casino, and has 2,885 rooms, located in a 36-story tower. As part of the 2003 transformation, the tower was given a darker paint color, using 6,200 gallons of terra cotta/"Salmon Stream" paint, replacing an earlier pink coloring. Treasure Island received a Four Diamond Award every year from 1999 to 2013.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Tangerine, a nightclub featuring an orange and white interior, operated from 2004 to 2007. Fashion designer Christian Audigier opened an eponymous nightclub at Treasure Island in 2008, in partnership with Pure Management Group. The decor included rhinestone-encrusted skulls and two large tanks containing jellyfish. Audigier said, "When you're going into a club, you want to see sparkling and glitter and rhinestones". Christian Audigier did not perform as well as Ruffin would have liked, prompting its closure in 2010. Ruffin's other changes included a $3 million makeover of the spa, with renovations overseen by his wife Oleksandra Nikolayenko. At one point, Treasure Island had of convention space, which received a $4 million renovation in 2012. Four years later, the space was expanded to .


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: In 2013, the resort announced plans to build a three-story mall, replacing the northern portion of the pirate lagoon area. It was completed two years later, and includes a CVS Pharmacy on the first floor. At the end of 2015, the resort announced that it would lease the upper floors to Victory Hill Exhibitions. In 2016, the company opened the Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N., an interactive self-guided exhibit based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Various themes were considered for the resort, until a friend of Wynn's suggested the name "Treasure Island", resulting in a pirate theme. It is named after the 1880s novel "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson. The resort was designed by Joel Bergman, who previously designed the Mirage. Bergman designed the Treasure Island tower with a floorplan that branched out three ways in a Y-shape, with elevators in the center. This was done for convenience to guests, making the walk to their rooms brief. The Y-shape was modeled after the Mirage hotel tower.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Wynn's Atlandia Design worked with Jon Jerde and Olio Design to create the pirate village and lagoon area, originally known as Buccaneer Bay, and later as Siren's Cove. During the design phase, the hotel's lobby entrance was moved to the resort's south side, in order to maintain Buccaneer Bay's location on the east side along the Strip. Jerde's assistants traveled across Europe, India and Nepal searching for historic objects such as doors and columns, which were then replicated for Buccaneer Bay. The lagoon is 65 feet deep, and originally contained 2 million gallons of water. It uses wastewater recycled from a water treatment plant located beneath the resort's parking garage. A maintenance team, including divers, works to keep the lagoon clean.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: According to interior designer Roger Thomas, "We thought it would be great fun to create a pirate village with sinking ships and pyrotechnics. The day after it opened we all looked at each other and said, 'What have we done? This is so not us'". Executives realized that the resort's heavy pirate theme did not appeal to people interested in a weekend getaway. By 1998, efforts had begun to downplay the theme. Mirage conducted focus group testing to determine upcoming renovation plans for Treasure Island. A $60 million remodeling of the hotel rooms took place in 1999.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: The resort initially included a roadside sign featuring an 8,000-pound pirate skull, made of fiberglass and measuring 27 1/2 feet. The skull sign was removed on July 10, 2003, in a ceremony accompanied by fireworks. Sibella said, "It's a cool sign, but it needs to complement what we're doing inside", referring to the property's revamp. The skull portion was donated to the city's Neon Museum, while much of the remaining sign was scrapped. The sign was replaced by an LED neon "TI" sign with a modern and sophisticated design. The new sign measures 137 feet high and 84 feet wide.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Various pirate memorabilia had been removed from the resort over the course of three years, and was auctioned in September 2003.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Treasure Island opened with several restaurants, including Buccaneer Bay Club, which overlooked the lagoon and its pirate shows. Its menu included steak and seafood. A fine-dining Italian restaurant, Francesco's, was added in 1998. It featured artwork by celebrities such as Tony Bennett and Phyllis Diller.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: The arcade was replaced in 2001 by a tropical-themed restaurant and bar named Kahunaville, part of efforts to appeal to a more-adult demographic. Kahunaville included a dinner show space for live entertainment. A new buffet, Dishes, was added in 2005. An Asian restaurant known as Social House opened a year later, replacing Buccaneer Bay Club.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Ruffin made numerous restaurant changes upon taking ownership. In 2009, he replaced Francesco's with a pizzeria by the same name, stating, "It's quick and it's cheap and that's what people are looking for these days". Ruffin also replaced Social House with his own Asian restaurant, Khotan, featuring jade and ivory antiques from his personal collection. In 2010, he opened Gilley's Saloon, a popular Western-themed restaurant, bar and dance hall. It previously operated at Ruffin's New Frontier hotel-casino, which closed in 2007. The new location replaced Treasure Island's Mist Lounge.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: In 2012, Ruffin opened a Señor Frog's restaurant and bar to complement Kahunaville and Gilley's. It replaced Christian Audigier and Khotan, the latter relocating elsewhere in the resort. Another new restaurant, Seafood Shack, also opened in 2012. Its interior was created with recycled materials, including reclaimed wood which lines the walls. The restaurant's centerpiece is an anchor pulled from the Atlantic Ocean. The resort also has Phil's Steak House, named after Ruffin. Kahunaville closed in 2016.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Treasure Island opened with the free "Battle of Buccaneer Bay" pirate show, performed in the lagoon along the Strip. The 15-minute show was performed several times a day and featured 22 actors. It depicted the landing and subsequent sacking of a Caribbean village by pirates, serving to attract customers from the Strip and into the resort after each show in the same fashion as the volcano fronting the Mirage resort. Notable special effects included a full-scale, crewed British Royal Navy sailing ship that sailed nearly the full width of the property, a gas-fired "powder magazine" explosion, pyrotechnics, and the sinking of the sailing ship "Brittania" along with its captain.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: "Battle of Buccaneer Bay" held its final performance on July 6, 2003, with a total of 16,334 shows performed over the course of nearly 10 years. It ended as part of the resort's ongoing revamp, which would include a new pirate show. Sibella described the original show as something that would be expected at Disneyland, while calling its successor a "sexy and beautiful, adult Broadway-caliber show."


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: The new "Sirens of TI" pirate show debuted in October 2003, marking the resort's 10th anniversary. The Buccaneer Bay was renamed Sirens' Cove and the new show utilized many of the technical elements of its predecessor. The live, free show was intended to appeal more to adults by including singing, dancing, audio-visual effects, bare-chested pirates and attractive women in the large outdoor show produced by Kenny Ortega. The original two ships were kept for the new show but repainted and altered, as well as some special effects.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: "Sirens of TI" was closed on October 21, 2013. The closure was initially intended to be temporary, but was made permanent the following month, to the dismay of the show's actors. The reason cited by Treasure Island was the construction of the new retail space nearby. The shows had cost $5 million to put on annually. While Ruffin said the shows brought "a tremendous amount of attention" to Treasure Island, they amounted to minimal foot traffic inside the resort. The pirate ships remain on display in the lagoon, and are lit up at night.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: Treasure Island is home to Cirque du Soleil's "Mystère", which introduced the entertainment style of Franco Dragone. It opened on December 25, 1993, and has been voted nine times as the best production show in the city by the "Las Vegas Review-Journal" reader's poll. It is Cirque's longest-running Las Vegas show, reaching 13,000 performances in 2022. "Mystère", which takes place in a 1,600-seat theater, has been updated several times throughout its run. To maximize use of the Mystère theater, Ruffin signed entertainers to perform there on nights when the show is not running. Such entertainers have included Bill Cosby, LeAnn Rimes, and Sinbad. The resort has also hosted boxing matches.


title: Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

text: An hour-long promotional program, "Treasure Island: The Adventure Begins", aired on NBC in January 1994. It stars Corey Carrier as a 12-year-old on vacation with his parents at the resort. There, he meets and teams up with Long John Silver (Anthony Zerbe) to find lost treasure. Mirage Resorts paid NBC $1.7 million to air the program. It was directed and produced by Scott Garen, and written by James V. Hart. The special includes an appearance by Wynn, and incorporates the Dunes' implosion as its climax. The program received low viewership ratings, and was considered an infomercial by critics, who lambasted NBC for not labeling it as such.


title: Solano County, California

text: Solano County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 453,491. The county seat is Fairfield.


title: Solano County, California

text: Solano County comprises the Vallejo–Fairfield, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area. Solano County is the northeastern county in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region.


title: Solano County, California

text: Solano County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood.


title: Solano County, California

text: At the request of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the county was named for Chief Solano of the Suisun people, a Native American tribe of the region and Vallejo's close ally. Chief Solano at one time led the tribes between the Petaluma River and the Sacramento River. The chief was also called "Sem-Yeto", which signifies "brave or fierce hand." The Chief was given the Spanish name Francisco Solano during baptism at the Catholic Mission, and is named after the Spanish Franciscan missionary, Father Francisco Solano. "Solano" is a common surname in the north of Spain, especially in Navarra, Zaragoza and La Rioja.


title: Solano County, California

text: Solano County is the easternmost county of the North Bay. As such, it is sometimes reported by news agencies as being in the East Bay. Additionally, a portion of the county extends into the Sacramento Valley, geographically.


title: Solano County, California

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and , comprising 9.3%, is water.


title: Solano County, California

text: Solano County has several inactive cinnabar mines, including the Hastings Mine and St. John's Mine, both of which are subject to ongoing mercury monitoring. These mines were worked in the first half of the twentieth century.


title: Solano County, California

text: Solano County has a number of rare and endangered species, including the beetle "Elaphrus viridis", the wildflower "Lasthenia conjugens", commonly known as Contra Costa goldfields and the annual plant "Legenere limosa" or False Venus' looking glass.


title: Solano County, California

text: Each agency interconnects with the others, enabling transit trips throughout the county. Service also connects with BART stations in Contra Costa County. Transit links are provided to Napa, Yolo and Sacramento counties as well.


title: Solano County, California

text: General aviation airports in Solano County which are open to the public are the Nut Tree Airport and Rio Vista Municipal Airport.


title: Solano County, California

text: "Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race."


title: Solano County, California

text: A 2014 analysis by "The Atlantic" found Solano County to be the 5th most racially diverse county in the United States, behind Aleutians West Census Area and Aleutians East Borough in Alaska, Queens County in New York, and Alameda County in California.


title: Solano County, California

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that Solano County had a population of 413,344. The racial makeup of Solano County was 210,751 (51.0%) White, 60,750 (14.7%) African American, 3,212 (0.8%) Native American, 60,473 (14.6%) Asian, 3,564 (0.9%) Pacific Islander, 43,236 (10.5%) from other races, and 31,358 (7.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 99,356 persons (24.0%). At 52,641 Filipinos in the county making up 12% of the population, Solano County has the largest percentage Filipino population of any county in the United States.


title: Solano County, California

text: At the 2000 census there were 394,542 people, 130,403 households, and 97,411 families in the county. The population density was . There were 134,513 housing units at an average density of 162 per square mile (63/km). The racial makeup of the county was 56.4% White, 14.9% Black or African American, 0.8% Native American, 12.8% Asian, 0.8% Pacific Islander, 8.0% from other races, and 6.4% from two or more races. 17.64% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 8.5% were of German, 6.4% Irish and 6.0% English ancestry according to Census 2000. 75.7% spoke English, 12.1% Spanish and 6.6% Tagalog as their first language.


title: Solano County, California

text: Of the 130,403 households 39.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.7% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.3% were non-families. 19.6% of households were one person and 6.5% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.90 and the average family size was 3.33.


title: Solano County, California

text: The age distribution was 28.3% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 31.3% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 9.5% 65 or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 101.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.2 males.


title: Solano County, California

text: The median household income was $54,099 and the median family income was $60,597. Males had a median income of $41,787 versus $31,916 for females. The per capita income for the county was $21,731. About 6.1% of families and 8.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.3% of those under age 18 and 6.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Solano County, California

text: The following table includes the number of incidents reported and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense (2011).


title: Solano County, California

text: The Government of Solano County is defined and authorized under the California Constitution and law as a general law county. The County government provides countywide services such as elections and voter registration, law enforcement, jails, vital records, property records, tax collection, public health, and social services. In addition the County serves as the local government for all unincorporated areas.


title: Solano County, California

text: The County government is composed of the elected five-member Board of Supervisors, several other elected offices including the Sheriff-Coroner, District Attorney, Assessor/Recorder, Auditor-Controller, and Treasurer/Tax Collector/County Clerk, and numerous county departments and entities under the supervision of the County Administrator. As of January 2013 the members of the Solano County Board of Supervisors were:


title: Solano County, California

text: Solano County has been a Democratic stronghold in presidential and congressional elections, with Californians Richard Nixon (in 1972) and Ronald Reagan (in 1980 and 1984) being the only Republicans to win the county since 1928.


title: Solano County, California

text: Solano County is split between California's 3rd and 5th congressional districts, represented by and , respectively.


title: Solano County, California

text: In the California State Assembly, Solano County is split between , and . In the California State Senate, it is in .


title: Solano County, California

text: On November 4, 2008, Solano County voted 55.82% in favor of Proposition 8, which amended the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. It was the only Bay Area county to approve the initiative. In the 2008 presidential election that day, Barack Obama carried the county by a 28.5% margin over John McCain, a larger margin than statewide (24%).


title: Solano County, California

text: According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 10, 2019, Solano County has 236,028 registered voters. Of those, 106,452 (45.1%) are registered Democrats, 50,006 (21.2%) are registered Republicans, and 66,558 (28.2%) have declined to state a political party. Democrats hold voter-registration advantages in all incorporated cities and towns in Solano County. However, Republicans lead in registration in the unincorporated communities of the county (40%-35%), making Solano the only county in the Bay Area where Republicans out-number Democrats in unincorporated communities. The Democrats' largest registration advantage in Solano is in the city of Vallejo, wherein there are only 8,242 Republicans (14.6%) out of 56,313 total voters compared to 33,753 Democrats (59.9%) and 12,157 voters who have declined to state a political party (21.6%).


title: Insular area

text: In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of the 50 states or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three sovereign states each with a Compact of Free Association with the United States. The term also may be used to refer to the previous status of the Philippine Islands and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands when it existed.


title: Insular area

text: Three of the U.S. territories are in the Caribbean Sea, eleven are in the Pacific Ocean, and all three freely associated states are also in the Pacific. Two additional Caribbean territories are disputed and administered by Colombia.


title: Insular area

text: A U.S. territory is considered "organized" when the U.S. Congress passes an organic act for it. All of the five U.S. territories with a permanent non-military population have constitutions, locally elected territorial legislatures and executives, and some degree of political autonomy. Four of the five are "organized", but American Samoa is technically "unorganized" and subject to the direct jurisdiction of the Office of Insular Affairs.


title: Insular area

text: The first insular areas that the United States occupied were Baker Island, Howland Island and Navassa Island (1857) then Johnston Atoll and Jarvis Island (both in 1858) would be claimed. After the War between the United States and Spain in 1898, several territories were taken that are still under U.S. sovereignty (Puerto Rico and Guam, both in 1898). Palmyra Atoll was annexed along with the Republic of Hawaii (formerly a Kingdom) that same year. American Samoa was reclaimed the following year (1899). In 1917, at the height of World War I, Denmark sold the Danish Virgin Islands to the United States.


title: Insular area

text: The former British-American condominium of Canton and Enderbury, consisting of the atolls of Canton and Enderbury in the northeast of the Phoenix Islands, became part of this new island state on July 12, 1979, the day of independence from the State of Kiribati.


title: Insular area

text: The U.S. Navy annexed Kingman Reef in 1922. Spain had sold the Northern Mariana Islands to Germany in 1899. The islands passed to Japan, which in turn lost them to the United States in 1945 after the end of World War II. The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, located on the southern side of Guantanamo Bay and taken from Spain in 1898, is not a U.S. outlying territory but a U.S. military base on formally "leased" land on the island of Cuba.


title: Insular area

text: The Marshall Islands became self-governing in 1979 and fully independent along with the Federated States of Micronesia in 1986. Palau achieved independence in 1994. The three countries maintain sovereignty with free association status with the United States, which provides them with defense assistance and economic resources.


title: Insular area

text: Congress has extended citizenship rights by birth to all inhabited territories except American Samoa, and these citizens may vote and run for office in any U.S. jurisdiction in which they are residents. The people of American Samoa are U.S. nationals by place of birth, or they are U.S. citizens by parentage, or naturalization after residing in a State for three months. Nationals are free to move around and seek employment within the United States without immigration restrictions, but cannot vote or hold office outside American Samoa.


title: Insular area

text: Residents of the five major populated insular areas do not pay U.S. federal income taxes but are required to pay other U.S. federal taxes such as import and export taxes, federal commodity taxes, Social Security taxes, etc. Individuals working for the federal government pay federal income taxes while all residents are required to pay federal payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare). According to IRS Publication 570, income from other U.S. Pacific Ocean insular areas (Howland, Baker, Jarvis, Johnston, Midway, Palmyra, and Wake Islands, and Kingman Reef) is fully taxable as income of United States residents.


title: Insular area

text: The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Code also use the term "insular area" to refer not only to territories under the sovereignty of the United States, but also those independent nations that have signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States. While these nations participate in many otherwise domestic programs, and full responsibility for their military defense rests with the United States, they are legally distinct from the United States and their inhabitants are neither U.S. citizens nor nationals.


title: Insular area

text: Three sovereign UN member states which were all formerly in the U.S. administered United Nations Trust Territory and are currently in free association with the U.S. The U.S. provides national defense, funding, and access to social services.


title: Insular area

text: After achieving independence from the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, these states are no longer under U.S. sovereignty and thus not considered part of the United States. Some programs in these states are administered by the U.S. Office of Insular Affairs, along with other federal entities such as the Department of Defense.


title: Orkun Kökçü

text: Orkun Kökçü (born 29 December 2000) is a Dutch-Turkish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for the Dutch club Feyenoord whom he captains in the Eredivisie. Born in the Netherlands, Kökçü represents Turkey internationally.


title: Orkun Kökçü

text: A youth product of FC Groningen, where he arrived after having played for local clubs around his hometown Haarlem, Kökçü joined the Feyenoord youth academy in 2014. He made his debut for Feyenoord at the age of 17 in a 4–0 win over VV Gemert in the first round of the KNVB Cup on 17 September 2018, scoring Feyenoord's second goal. He made his Eredivisie debut against FC Emmen on 9 December 2018, and contributed with a goal and an assist after coming on as a substitute. On 10 April 2019, he extended his contract at Feyenoord until 2023. On 26 June 2020, he reached an agreement to extend his contract with Feyenoord for another two years, a deal to the end of the 2024–25 season.


title: Orkun Kökçü

text: Following Jens Toornstra's departure, Feyenoord head coach Arne Slot chose Kökçü as his club captain on 2 September 2022.


title: Orkun Kökçü

text: Kökçü was a youth international for the Netherlands, having represented the Netherlands U18s, and Netherlands U19s. In July 2019 Kökçü announced the intent to play for the Turkish national team. He represented the Turkey U21s in a 3–2 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification loss to the England U21s on 6 September 2019.


title: Orkun Kökçü

text: He made his Turkey national team debut on 6 September 2020 in a Nations League game against Serbia, he started the game and played the first hour of the 0–0 away draw.


title: Orkun Kökçü

text: Born in the Netherlands, Kökçü is of Turkish and Azerbaijani descent. He is the younger brother of the professional footballer Ozan Kökçü. He is a lifelong fan of Beşiktaş and in the future he wants to play for the club he's been supporting since childhood.


title: Jessie Graff

text: Jessica Lauren Graff (born January 12, 1984) is an American professional stunt woman and athletics-based television personality. She is a black belt in Taekwondo, a black sash in Kung Fu, and is trained in five other styles of martial arts. She is also a championship pole vaulter and a competitive gymnast.


title: Jessie Graff

text: Graff has become well known for her athletic achievements on the obstacle course show "American Ninja Warrior". In 2016, she became the first woman ever to complete Stage 1 of the Las Vegas Finals course. In 2017, Graff became the first woman to compete in, and to successfully finish, Stage 2 in Las Vegas, although this was part of the "USA vs. The World" competition instead of a regular season, and that had no time requirement. She was the first woman representing the United States in that competition. Later on in Sasuke 34, she became the first and so far the only woman (now also Stefanie Noppinger from Austria) worldwide to finish Stage 2 in the Sasuke/Ninja Warrior franchise, only defeated by Ultra Crazy Cliffhanger later in Stage 3. She was the second woman ever to conquer the Stage 1 of the Sasuke course (excluding "Kunoichi"), after Chie Tanabe in Sasuke 2.


title: Jessie Graff

text: At age 6, Graff started taking circus classes. She started doing gymnastics at age 9 and did competitive gymnastics for 6 years. She was a member of the Frederick Gymnastic Club for 6 years. By age 12 she was catching other performers on the trapeze. She has stated about her time as a 12-year-old trapeze artist, "The rule was I wasn’t allowed to catch anyone who outweighed me by more than 20 pounds."


title: Jessie Graff

text: Graff was a pole vaulter in high school, and graduated in 2002 from Urbana High School, Frederick, Maryland, as a Track Team Leader, honor roll student, and member of the National Honor Society.


title: Jessie Graff

text: She majored in aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech, and theatre at the University of Nebraska. She graduated from University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in 2007.


title: Jessie Graff

text: Graff is tall. In 2004, she set her personal best (PB) in the 5000m run at 15:56.30; she set her outdoor pole vault PB at ; and indoor pole vault PB at . Graff held the pole vault record at Georgia Tech and University of Nebraska.


title: Jessie Graff

text: Graff started doing stunt work in 2007 and has appeared in several television shows and movies, including "", "Make It or Break It", "Another Period", "Bridesmaids", "Knight and Day", "Bad Teacher", "John Carter", "Leverage", and "Sons of Anarchy".


title: Jessie Graff

text: As a stuntwoman, she has done tumbling on "Make It or Break It", trampolined on "Another Period" and has done many stunts on rooftops, the sides of bridges or buildings and dramatic wipeouts. She has said she continues to learn new skills from other stunt people who specialize in different areas.


title: Jessie Graff

text: In the first scene of the 2020 feature film "Wonder Woman 1984", young Diana takes part in an Amazon athletic contest that resembles Ninja Warrior; Graff portrays a competitor. She was also one of lead actress Gal Gadot’s stunt doubles.


title: Jessie Graff

text: Graff was a contestant on the obstacle course show "Wipeout"'s tenth episode of its first season in 2008. In that appearance, she fell in the penultimate round and thus did not make it to the Wipeout Zone.


title: Jessie Graff

text: In the summer of 2017 she competed in "Sasuke" 34, the original Japanese version of "ANW". She was the second woman in the show's history to clear Stage 1 (the first being another stuntwoman, Chie Nishimura of "Super Sentai", 19 years beforehand at "Sasuke 2".) She also became the first woman ever to clear Stage 2, but failed in Stage 3.


title: Jessie Graff

text: Jessie made her second appearance in SASUKE 37, with number #98. She cleared First Stage with 31.5 seconds left and she became the only woman to complete the First Stage twice, even though the timer showed zero seconds (due to the fact that production forgotten to tune the timer to its correct value). She easily beat Second Stage with a time of 16.8 seconds left. On the Third Stage, she easily made it through the first three obstacles with little trouble, but ended up failing on the first transition of the Cliffhanger Dimension, a similar fall to her attempt at its predecessor, the Ultra Crazy Cliffhanger in SASUKE 34. This time though, she managed to grab the second ledge but was unable to hold on.


title: Jessie Graff

text: In 2020, Graff came on "The Titan Games" season 2, as a professional Titan. She had a possibility of not competing as she had started stem cell treatment of injured shoulders and neck.


title: Jessie Graff

text: On season 5 (2013) of "American Ninja Warrior" she became the first woman to qualify to compete in a City Finals course (although she did not complete the qualifier course). In season 6 (2014) of "American Ninja Warrior" she did not compete because she had a serious knee injury. In season 7 (2015), she appeared at Stage One in Las Vegas, but she did not make it up the Warped Wall.


title: Jessie Graff

text: In season 8, in the Los Angeles qualifying round, she became the first woman in "American Ninja Warrior" history to make it up the new 14 1/2-foot Warped Wall and moved on to the city finals along with professional rock climber Natalie Duran. This was the first time two women made it into the Top 30. In the Los Angeles city finals, Graff did not complete the course but finished second overall based on the show's "the farthest the fastest" metric. This broke her own record for the highest finish by a woman in a city competition through 2016. At the season 8 national finals at Mt. Midoriyama, Graff became the first woman to ever complete Stage 1, finishing fourth overall. She was also the first woman to ever ascend the Warped Wall on Stage 1 in Las Vegas. A stop-motion LEGO video inspired by her performance was released soon after her win.


title: Jessie Graff

text: In 2017, she became the first woman to compete in, and to successfully finish, Stage 2 in Las Vegas, although this was part of the "USA vs. The World" competition instead of a regular season, and had no time limit. She was the first woman representing the United States in that competition. In the 2017 regular season, "American Ninja Warrior" season 9, she fell on the 5th obstacle in the Daytona city qualifier. During the city finals she got past it, then got past all of the back half obstacles until the 10th and final Elevator Climb, which she did not finish. Overall, she finished 4th out of all the athletes competing in this city finals. In the National Finals, she fell on the last obstacle of stage 1.


title: Jessie Graff

text: In 2018, for "American Ninja Warrior" season 10, she completed the Miami City qualifier course atop the Warped Wall, with a 10th place finish overall for the night. In the Miami city finals, she made it to the ninth obstacle, the Stair Hopper, before falling, but it was still far enough fast enough to give her a 5th place finish overall and another trip to Las Vegas. She was ultimately unable to compete at the Las Vegas National Finals due to filming commitments in the Canary Islands for stuntwork on her project, "Wonder Woman 1984".


title: Jessie Graff

text: In 2019 Graff returned to Ninja competition, appearing in "American Ninja Warrior" season 11, finishing 8th overall. In the city finals, she finished 3rd overall but made it farther into the 9th obstacle than any other competitor. However in the Las Vegas finals, she fell early on Stage 1 when she failed to make the transition halfway through the Double Dipper obstacle (other ninjas had benefited from their experience the previous year with this difficult obstacle, whereas Graff had not that experience due to her "Wonder Woman" work).


title: Jessie Graff

text: Also in 2020, Graff competed in "American Ninja Warrior" season 12. She had expected to skip the season due to having stem cell treatment of an injury to her shoulders and neck, but decided to compete anyway after having participated in "The Titan Games" without issue during treatment. She competed in the first filming, but that was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which further allowed her to rest and recover from her medical treatment.


title: Jessie Graff

text: In 2021, Graff had to sit out season 13 due to recovery from surgery after an injury suffered in season 12.


title: Jessie Graff

text: In 2020, she received stem cell treatment for her injured shoulders and neck. This had expected to interfere with American Ninja Warrior (season 12), and "The Titan Games" season 2, though that eventuality did not come to pass. She did TG2 without issue, and entered ANW12 filming. ANW12 filming was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, giving her recovery time from her medical treatment.


title: Jessie Graff

text: Jessie Graff is sponsored by Under Armour and has her own athletic apparel collection. Her motto with the company is "Unlike Any".


title: Seventy disciples

text: The seventy disciples or seventy-two disciples, known in the Eastern Christian traditions as the seventy apostles or seventy-two apostles, were early emissaries of Jesus mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. The correct Greek terminology is evdomikonta (εβδομήκοντα) apostoli or evdomikonta mathetes.


title: Seventy disciples

text: According to the Gospel of Luke, the only gospel in which they appear, Jesus appointed them and sent them out in pairs on a specific mission which is detailed in the text. The number of those disciples varies between either 70 or 72 depending on the account.


title: Seventy disciples

text: In Western Christianity, they are usually referred to as disciples, whereas in Eastern Christianity they are usually referred to as apostles. Using the original Greek words, both titles are descriptive, as an "apostle" is one sent on a mission (the Greek uses the verb form: "apesteilen") whereas a "disciple" is a student, but the two traditions differ on the scope of the words "apostle" and "disciple".


title: Seventy disciples

text: This is the only mention of the group in the Bible. The number is "seventy" in some manuscripts of the Alexandrian (such as Codex Sinaiticus) and Caesarean text traditions but "seventy-two" in most other Alexandrian and Western texts. It may derive from the seventy nations of Genesis 10 or the many other occurrences of the number seventy in the Bible, or the seventy-two translators of the Septuagint from the Letter of Aristeas. In translating the "Vulgate", Jerome selected the reading of seventy-two.


title: Seventy disciples

text: The "Gospel of Luke" is not alone among the synoptic gospels in containing multiple episodes in which Jesus sends out his followers on missions. The first occasion () is closely based on the "limited commission" mission in "Mark" , which however recounts the sending out of the twelve apostles, rather than seventy, though with similar details. The parallels (also Matthew , , ) suggest a common origin in the hypothesized Q document. Luke also mentions the Great Commission to "all nations" () but in less detail than Matthew's account and mentions the Dispersion of the Apostles.


title: Seventy disciples

text: The feast day commemorating the seventy is known as the "Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles" in Eastern Orthodoxy, and is celebrated on January 4. Each of the seventy apostles also has individual commemorations scattered throughout the liturgical year (see Eastern Orthodox Church calendar).


title: Seventy disciples

text: A Greek text titled "On the Seventy Apostles of Christ" is known from several manuscripts, the oldest in Codex Baroccianus 206, a ninth-century palimpsest lectionary. The text is ancient, but its traditional ascription to Hippolytus of Rome is now considered dubious. An 1886 translation is:


title: Seventy disciples

text: Similar to an earlier list attributed to Irenaeus, Bishop Solomon of Basra of the Church of the East in the 13th century "Book of the Bee" offers the following list:


title: Seventy disciples

text: It is said that each one of the twelve and of the seventy wrote a Gospel; but in order that there might be no contention and that the number of 'Acts' might not be multiplied, the apostles adopted a plan and chose two of the seventy, Luke and Mark, and two of the twelve, Matthew and John.


title: Seventy disciples

text: Matthias, who would later replace Judas Iscariot as one of the twelve apostles, is also often numbered among the seventy, since John Mark ("John, surnamed Mark", "Mark, who is also John") is typically identified with Mark the Evangelist.


title: Seventy disciples

text: Some accounts of the legendary Saint Mantius of Évora regard him as one of the disciples, having witnessed the Last Supper and Pentecost.


title: Mara Branković

text: Mara Branković () or Mara Despina Hatun (c. 1416 – 14 September 1487), also known as "Sultana Marija" or "Amerissa", was the daughter of Serbian monarch Đurađ Branković and Eirene Kantakouzene. As the daughter of Despot


title: Mara Branković

text: George, wife of Sultan Murad II, and stepmother of Mehmed II, she came to play a significant role in the diplomatic negotiations of the Ottoman Empire.


title: Mara Branković

text: Mara and her relations are named in ""Dell'Imperadori Constantinopolitani"", a manuscript held at the Vatican Library. The document is also known as the "Massarelli manuscript" because it was found in the papers of Angelo Massarelli (1510–1566). Masarelli is better known as the general secretary of the Council of Trent, who recorded the daily occurrences of the council.


title: Mara Branković

text: The Massarelli manuscript names her as one of two daughters of Đurađ Branković and Eirene Kantakouzene. The other sister is Catherine (Kantakuzina Katarina Branković or Katarina of Celje), who was married to Ulrich II, Count of Celje (1406-1456). "The Byzantine Lady: Ten Portraits 1250–1500" (1994) by D. M. Nicol questioned her maternity, suggesting Đurađ had a prior marriage to a daughter of John IV of Trebizond. However, his theory presented no sources and failed to take into account that John IV was born between 1395 and 1417. He would be unlikely be a grandparent by the 1410s.


title: Mara Branković

text: On 11 September 1429, Đurađ made a donation to Esphigmenou Monastery at Mount Athos. The charter for the document names his wife Irene and five children. The Masarelli manuscript also names the same five children of Đurađ and Eirene. Other genealogies mention a sixth child, Todor Branković. He could be a child who died young and is thus not listed with his siblings.


title: Mara Branković

text: The oldest sibling listed in the Massarelli document is Grgur Branković. The 1429 document mentions him with the title of Despot. According to "The Late Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest" (1994) by J. V. A. Fine, Grgur was appointed governor of territories of southern Serbia associated with the House of Branković. He was reportedly appointed by Murad II of the Ottoman Empire in 1439. In April 1441, Grgur was accused of plotting against Murad and his governorship terminated. He was imprisoned in Amasya and blinded on 8 May 1441. According to "Monumenta Serbica Spectantia Historiam Serbiae, Bosniae, Ragusii" (1858) by Franz Miklosich, Grgur and his brothers co-signed a charter by which Đurađ confirmed the privileges of the Republic of Ragusa. The charter was dated 17 September 1445. According to the ""Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten"" (1978) by Detlev Schwennicke, Grgur retired to a monastery under the monastic name "German". According to Fine, Grgur resurfaced in 1458, claiming the succession of the vacant throne of Serbia for himself or his son. The Massarelli manuscript describes Grgur as unwed. Later genealogies name his wife as "Jelisaveta". Vuk Grgurević, a son of Grgur, was later a titular Serbian despot (1471–1485). He was possibly illegitimate.


title: Mara Branković

text: Mara is mentioned as the second child in the manuscript. Next are listed Stefan Branković and "Cantacuzina", a sister with the Latinized form of their mother's last name. Later genealogies give her name as Katarina. She married Ulrich II of Celje. The last sibling mentioned is Lazar Branković, the youngest of the five.


title: Mara Branković

text: According to Fine, Mara was betrothed to Murad II in June 1431. The betrothal was an attempt to prevent an invasion of Serbia from the Ottoman Empire, though periodic Ottoman raids continued. On 4 September 1435, the marriage took place at Edirne. Her dowry included the districts of


title: Mara Branković

text: According to the chronicle of George Sphrantzes, Mara was going back to her parents when Murad II died, dating her return to 1451. Sphrantzes records that the widow rejected a marriage proposal by Constantine XI, Byzantine Emperor. Sphrantzes records that when her parents died (in 1456–1457), Mara joined the court of her stepson Mehmed II. According to Nicol, Mara maintained a presence at court but was also offered her own estate at "Ježevo". Nicol identifies Ježevo with the modern settlement of near Serres. When Mehmed became sultan, she often provided him with advice. Her court at Ježevo included exiled Serbian nobles.


title: Mara Branković

text: According to Nicol, Mara was joined at "Ježevo" by her sister "Cantacuzina" in 1469. The two ladies acted as intermediaries between Mehmed and the Republic of Venice during the second Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479). In 1471, Branković personally accompanied a Venetian ambassador to the Porte for negotiations with the Sultan.


title: Mara Branković

text: She retained her influence over the appointment of leaders of the Orthodox Church, and remained influential during the reign of Mehmed's successor, Bayezid II. The monks of Rila monastery begged her to have the remains of John of Rila transferred to Rila monastery from Veliko Tarnovo, and thanks to her their wish was fulfilled in 1469. Because of her influence, special privileges were offered to the Greek Orthodox Christians of Jerusalem, later extended to the community of Athos Monastery. After the unsuccessful Battle of Vaslui (Moldavia, 1475), Mara remarked that the battle was the worst defeat for the Ottoman Empire.


title: FM-2030

text: FM-2030 (originally born as Fereidoun M. Esfandiary; ; October 15, 1930 – July 8, 2000) was a Belgian-born Iranian-American author, teacher, transhumanist philosopher, futurist, consultant, and Olympic athlete.


title: FM-2030

text: He became notable as a transhumanist with the book "Are You a Transhuman?: Monitoring and Stimulating Your Personal Rate of Growth in a Rapidly Changing World", published in 1989. In addition, he wrote a number of works of fiction under his original name F.M. Esfandiary.


title: FM-2030

text: FM-2030 was born Fereydoon M. Esfandiary on October 15, 1930 in Belgium to Iranian diplomat Abdol-Hossein “A. H.” Sadigh Esfandiary (1894–1986), who served from 1920 to 1960. He travelled widely as a child, having lived in 17 countries including Iran, India, and Afghanistan, by age 11. He represented Iran as a basketball player and wrestler at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. He attended primary school in Iran and England and completed his secondary education at Colleges Des Freres, a Jesuit school in Jerusalem. By the time he was 18, aside from his native Persian,he learned to speak 4 languages: Arabic, Hebrew, French and English. He then started his college education at the University of California, Berkeley, but later transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated in 1952. Afterwards, he served on the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine from 1952 to 1954.


title: FM-2030

text: In 1970, after publishing his book "Optimism One", F.M. Esfandiary started going by FM-2030 for two main reasons: firstly, to reflect the hope and belief that he would live to celebrate his 100th birthday in 2030; secondly, and more importantly, to break free of the widespread practice of naming conventions that he saw as rooted in a collectivist mentality, and existing only as a relic of humankind's tribalistic past. He legally changed in 1988. He viewed traditional names as almost always stamping a label of collective identity – varying from gender to nationality – on the individual, thereby existing as prima facie elements of thought processes in the human cultural fabric, that tended to degenerate into stereotyping, factionalism, and discrimination. In his own words, "Conventional names define a person's past: ancestry, ethnicity, nationality, religion. I am not who I was ten years ago and certainly not who I will be in twenty years. [...] The name 2030 reflects my conviction that the years around 2030 will be a magical time. In 2030 we will be ageless and everyone will have an excellent chance to live forever. 2030 is a dream and a goal." As a staunch anti-nationalist, he believed "There are no illegal immigrants, only irrelevant borders."


title: FM-2030

text: In 1973, he published the political manifesto "UpWingers: A Futurist Manifesto" in which he views the ideological left and right as outdated and instead proposed a schema of UpWingers: those who looked into the sky and future and DownWingers, those who looked into the Earth and past. FM-2030 identified with the former. He argued that the nuclear family structure and the idea of a city would disappear, being replaced by modular social communities called "mobilia", powered by communitarianism and would persist and then disappear.


title: FM-2030

text: FM-2030 believed that synthetic body parts would one day make life expectancy irrelevant and shortly before his death, he described the pancreas as a "a stupid, dumb, wretched organ."


title: FM-2030

text: In terms of civilization, he stated: “No civilization of the past was great. “They were all primitive and persecutory, founded on mass subjugation and mass murder.” In terms of identity, he stated “The young modern is not losing his identity. He is gladly disencumbering himself of it.” He believed that eventually, nations would disappear and that identities would shift from cultural to personal. In a 1972 op-Ed in The New York Times, he wrote that the Arab-Israeli conflict had failed leadership, the warring sides “acting like adolescents, refuse to resolve their wasteful 25-year-old brawl” and believed that the World was “irreversibly evolving beyond the concept of national homeland.”


title: FM-2030

text: He was a lifelong vegetarian and said he would not eat anything that had a mother. He famously refused to answer any questions about his nationality, age and upbringing, deeming them to be irrelevant and that he was a “global person”. FM-2030 once said, "I am a 21st century person who was accidentally launched in the 20th. I have a deep nostalgia for the future." As he spent much of his childhood in India, he was noted to have spoken a slight Indian accent. He taught at The New School, University of California, Los Angeles, and Florida International University. He worked as a corporate consultant for Lockheed and J. C. Penney. He was also an atheist.


title: FM-2030

text: FM-2030 was, in his own words, a follower of "upwing" politics, in which he meant that he endorsed universal progress. He had been in a non-exclusive "friendship" (his preferred term for relationship) with Flora Schnall, a lawyer and fellow Harvard Law Class of 1959 graduate from the 1960s until his death. FM-2030 and Schnall attended the same class as Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He resided in Westwood, Los Angeles as well as Miami.


title: FM-2030

text: FM-2030 died on July 8, 2000 from pancreatic cancer at a friend’s apartment in Manhattan. He was placed in cryonic suspension at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona, where his body remains today. He did not yet have remote standby arrangements, so no Alcor team member was present at his death, but FM-2030 was the first person to be vitrified, rather than simply frozen as previous cryonics patients had been. FM-2030 was survived by four sisters and one brother.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: Obinze Angelo Ogbonna (; born 23 May 1988) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club West Ham United.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: Ogbonna signed for Torino in 2002, having previously been a member of Nuova Cassino's youth set-up. Ogbonna made his debut in Serie A at the age of 18 under Alberto Zaccheroni. After a loan spell at Crotone in Serie C1, he returned to Torino, with whom he played for a further five seasons. In July 2013, he transferred to city rivals, Juventus, winning the "Scudetto" in 2013–14 and 2014–15, as well as the 2013 Supercoppa Italiana and the 2014–15 Coppa Italia.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: He was a member of the Italian side which finished runners-up at UEFA Euro 2012, and also represented his nation at UEFA Euro 2016.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: Ogbonna began his early career in the youth set-up of Cassino, where he played as a central defender. In 2002, he was noticed by Torino, which, on the recommendation of Antonio Comi, bought him for €3,000 and assigned him to their youth team. In the 2006–07 season he was regularly called up to the first team and on 11 February 2007 he made his debut in Serie A at age 18, against Reggina (1–2), as a starter under coach Alberto Zaccheroni. At the end of season he totalled 4 league appearances.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: The following August he moved on loan to Crotone in Serie C1, making 22 league appearances in the league and nearly earning promotion to Serie B, losing in the semi-final play-offs.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: In the 2008–09 Serie A season he returned to Torino, collecting 19 league appearances and four in Coppa Italia. Torino, however, were relegated to Serie B at the end of the season. Starting from 2009, after the relegation of the club to Serie B, he earned his place as a starter for the "Granata". On 17 April 2010, Ogbonna scored his first goal for Torino in the match against Cesena, finishing 1–1. On 15 August 2010, in the second round of Coppa Italia against Cosenza (won 3–1 in extra time), he wore the captain's armband for the first time. In three Serie B seasons with Torino, Ogbonna made 105 appearances, helping the club return to Serie A after finishing second to Pescara during the 2011–12 season.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: On 11 July 2013, Ogbonna underwent a medical at Turin's Fornaca, Isokinetic and the Istituto di Medicina dello Sport ahead of his proposed cross-town move to Juventus. After passing the medical, he officially signed for Juventus for a transfer fee of €13 million, with an additional €2 million to be paid in future bonuses. He became the first player to become captain of the "Granata" and transfer to rivals Juventus, sparking much dislike with his old supporters of Torino.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: He made his Champions League debut in on 17 September 2013, against F.C. Copenhagen. In his first season, despite being behind Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini in the pecking order at centre back, Ogbonna managed 25 appearances in all competitions, mostly starting in matches in the latter half of the season as the team was heavily rotated for league, Coppa Italia and Champions League matches. Ogbonna played 16 league games for Juventus in the 2013–14 season, as they won Serie A title. He was also a member of the side which won the 2013 Supercoppa Italiana In the 2014–15 season, Juventus defended the Serie A title once again, with Ogbonna making 25 league appearances, and the 2014–15 Coppa Italia. On 6 June 2015, he was an unused substitute as Juventus lost the Champions League Final 3–1 to Barcelona in Berlin.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: On 10 July 2015, Ogbonna joined Premier League club West Ham United, on a four-year contract, for €11 million to be spread over the next three financial years. He made his debut 20 days later in the Europa League third qualifying round, starting against Astra Giurgiu; in the 82nd minute he netted an own goal equaliser as West Ham drew 2–2 at the Boleyn Ground. On 9 February 2016, Ogbonna scored his first goal for the club, netting an injury-time match-winning header in the 121st minute of a 2–1 home win over Liverpool, in the fourth round FA Cup replay.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: Having played 18 of a possible 22 Premier League games for West Ham in the 2016–17 season, he was ruled out for the remainder of the season as he required an operation. West Ham manager, Slaven Bilić, said that Ogbonna had played every game of the season despite carrying the injury. He returned for the final game of the 2016–17 season, a 2–1 away win against Burnley. In June 2017, Ogbonna signed a new contract with West Ham committing him to the club until 2022.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: On 11 December 2020, Ogbonna scored the winning goal in a 2–1 away win over Leeds United which secured West Ham's first win at Elland Road since 2000. In November 2021, Ogbonna damaged his anterior cruciate ligament in a home win against Liverpool. The injury ruled him out for the rest of the 2021–22 season. Ogbonna made his return on 18 August 2022 in the 2022–23 Europa Conference League in a 3-1 home win against Danish team Viborg.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: On 12 August 2009, he made his debut with the Italian under-21 team in a friendly game against Russia.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: Ogbonna made his senior debut on 11 November 2011 in a 2–0 friendly victory against Poland, where he came on as a substitute for Domenico Criscito in the 77th minute.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: Ogbonna was included by manager Cesare Prandelli in the Italian 23-man final squad for Euro 2012, but did not play during the competition.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: In May 2016, Ogbonna was included in the provisional 30-man Italy squad for Euro 2016; On 31 May 2016, he was named in Antonio Conte's final 23-man squad for the tournament. Ogbonna made his only appearance of the tournament on 22 June, in Italy's final group match, which ended in a 1–0 defeat to Ireland. In October 2020, after a two-year absence, Ogbonna was called into the Italian squad by manager, Roberto Mancini, for two games in the Nations League.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: A strong and powerful central defender, Ogbonna is primarily known for his outstanding physical attributes; he is also a competent tackler, and possesses a good positional sense, as well as an ability to read the game. He is also capable of playing as a left-back on occasion, due to his pace, technique, ball skills, vision, and distribution with his left foot.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: Ogbonna was born to Nigerian parents who emigrated to Italy from Nigeria in 1983, settling in the city of Cassino in the central part of the country, but managed to obtain Italian citizenship only after his 18th birthday.


title: Angelo Ogbonna

text: On 22 December 2008, Ogbonna survived a car accident near Turin after he lost control of his Smart car and drove off a bridge into a torrent at around 5:00 AM.


title: Shotti

text: Kifano Jordan (born April 14, 1982), better known as Shotti, is a Trinidadian-American convicted felon and former affiliate of Tr3yway Entertainment rapper 6ix9ine. During their tenure, Shotti provided interludes on his singles such as "Billy" and "Blood Walk". He is also a known member of the Nine Trey Gangsters, a set of the larger United Blood Nation which is the East Coast branch of the Bloods gang.


title: Shotti

text: Kifano Jordan was born on April 14, 1982, in the Caribbean island of Trinidad, in the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and later moved at a young age to the United States, settling in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City.


title: Shotti

text: Jordan has stated that he met 6ix9ine through a mutual friendship with Maino before their musical careers. In April 2018, Jordan was sentenced to 7 months of community jail after being ruled as a person of interest in a Barclays Center shooting. He has affiliation with the street gangs United Blood Nation's set Nine Trey Gangsters.


title: Shotti

text: In late 2018, Jordan was tied to a series of felony assaults, including 3 shootings and multiple drug and firearm charges. Jordan has also served as a co-defendant for 6ix9ine's November 2018 racketeering trial. On March 28, 2019, Jordan pled guilty in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to multiple charges with a sentencing possibility of up to 15 years to life in prison. On September 6, 2019, Jordan was sentenced to 15 years in prison.


title: Coconut Grove

text: Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as The Grove, is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The neighborhood is roughly bound by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, South Dixie Highway (US 1) and Rickenbacker Causeway to the north, and Biscayne Bay to the east. It is south of the neighborhoods of Brickell and The Roads and east of Coral Gables. The neighborhood's name has been sometimes spelled "Cocoanut Grove" but the definitive spelling "Coconut Grove" was established when the city was incorporated in 1919.


title: Coconut Grove

text: What is today referred to as Coconut Grove was formed in 1925 when the city of Miami annexed two areas of about equal size, the city of Coconut Grove and most of the town of Silver Bluff. Coconut Grove approximately corresponds to the same area as the 33133 ZIP Code although the ZIP Code includes parts of Coral Way and Coral Gables and a small portion of ZIP Code 33129. The area is often referred to as "The Grove" and many locals take pride that Coconut Grove is one of the greenest areas of Miami.


title: Coconut Grove

text: Several waves of immigration established Coconut Grove, the first in 1825, when the Cape Florida lighthouse went into operation, kept by John Dubose. Dr. Horace P. Porter is credited for coming up with the name when in 1873 he rented a home from Edmond D. Beasley's widow, who homesteaded 160 acres of bay front property. He lived there for only a year but during that time he established a post office which he named Coconut Grove. Around the same time the area saw an influx of Americans from the Northeastern US, as well as British and white Bahamian immigrants. The first hotel on the South Florida mainland was located in Coconut Grove. Called the Bay View Inn (later known as the Peacock Inn), it was built in 1882, on the site of present-day Peacock Park, by English immigrants Isabella and Charles Peacock, who had been the owner of a wholesale meat business in London. Coconut Grove's first black settlement, in the 1880s, was established by Bahamian laborers who worked at the Peacock Inn. The Barnacle Historic State Park is the oldest house in Miami-Dade County still standing in its original location. It was built in 1891 and was home to Ralph Middleton Munroe, also known as "The Commodore" for being the first commodore and founder of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, an American yacht designer and early resident of Coconut Grove.


title: Coconut Grove

text: Formerly an independent city, Coconut Grove was annexed by the city of Miami in 1925. In the 1960s, bay-shore Coconut Grove served as the center of South Florida's youth countercultural movement, notably hosting several love-ins and concerts (including a now-infamous Doors concert at Dinner Key Auditorium) during the latter part of the decade. The Bahamian community continued to grow in Coconut Grove through the 1970s.


title: Coconut Grove

text: A surge of commercial development in Coconut Grove was driven by the construction of three major residential complexes during the late 1970s and early 1980s: Yacht Harbour Condominiums in 1975; Grove Isle, a condominium, club and hotel complex, in 1979; and L'Hermitage in 1980. This was followed with the opening of 2575 S. Bayshore Drive in 1982 and the 1983 opening of Grove Towers. Further development was proposed for Grove Isle in 2013.


title: Coconut Grove

text: Coconut Grove has a number of outdoor festivals and events, the most prominent of which is the annual Coconut Grove Arts Festival. Others include the King Mango Strut, which began as a parody of the Orange Bowl Parade, and which continues each year on the last Sunday in December. The Great Taste of the Grove Food & Wine Festival takes place each April. Each June, the Goombay Festival transforms Grand Avenue in Coconut Grove into a Carnaval (Caribbean Carnival), celebrating Bahamian culture, with Bahamian food and Caribbean music (Junkanoo).


title: Coconut Grove

text: The Grove has numerous restaurants, open air and streetside cafes, and several waterfront restaurants and bars. By night, the Grove becomes a center of nightlife frequented by locals, young professionals, students from the nearby University of Miami and Florida International University, and tourists.


title: Coconut Grove

text: Shopping is abundant in the Grove, with two open-air malls, CocoWalk, the Streets of Mayfair, and many other street shops and boutiques.


title: Coconut Grove

text: The Village Center, the three blocks radiating from and focusing on the intersection of Main, McFarland, and Grand Avenues, home to the majority of the retail and restaurant business in the Grove, is also home to three gyms, a multiplex movie house in CocoWalk, several parking garages, a state historic site, an elementary school, a City of Miami fire station, several large condos and residential rental towers, the Coconut Grove Post Office, and two sizable parks. Development and redevelopment continue to redefine and transform the area.


title: Coconut Grove

text: Major corporations including Arquitectonica, Spanish Broadcasting System, and Watsco are located in the Grove.


title: Coconut Grove

text: The eastern border of Coconut Grove is Biscayne Bay, which lends itself to the local boating and sailing communities. The area features the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, a sizable municipal marina, Dinner Key Marina, and others The US Sailing Center is on the Bay between Kennedy Park and the Coral Reef Yacht Club. Pan Am's seaplane operations were based at Dinner Key, and the Miami City Hall is based in the old Pan Am terminal building.


title: Coconut Grove

text: Demographically, Coconut Grove is split up into "Northeast Coconut Grove" and "Southwest Coconut Grove", and as of 2000, the total population of both of the neighborhood's sections made up between 18,953 and 19,646 people. The zip codes for all of Coconut Grove include 33129 and 33133. The area covers . As of 2000, there were 9,695 males and 9,951 females. The median age for males were 38.4 years old, while the median age for females were 40.3 years old. The average household size had 2.1 people, while the average family size had 2.8 members. The percentage of married-couple families (among all households) was 33.6%, while the percentage of married-couple families with children (among all households) was 11.1%, and the percentage of single-mother households (among all households) was 7.6%. The percentage of never-married males 15 years old and over was 18.3%, while the percentage of never-married females 15 years old and over was 14.3%. The percentage of people that speak English not well or not at all made up 8.1% of the population. The percentage of residents born in Florida was 31.6%, the percentage of people born in another U.S. state was 34.7%, and the percentage of native residents but born outside the U.S. was 2.3%, while the percentage of foreign born residents was 31.4%.


title: Coconut Grove

text: As of 2000, Northeast Grove had a population of 9,812 residents, with 5,113 households, and 2,221 families residing in the neighborhood. The median household income was $63,617.82. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 35.24% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 2.25% Black or African American, 60.96% White (non-Hispanic), and 1.55% other races (non-Hispanic).


title: Coconut Grove

text: As of 2000, Southwest Grove had a population of 9,141 residents, with 3,477 households, and 2,082 families residing in the neighborhood. The median household income was $63,617.82. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 14.80% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 48.27% Black or African American, 35.27% White (non-Hispanic), and 1.66% other races (non-Hispanic).


title: Coconut Grove

text: The "West" Grove is predominantly composed of people who are of Afro-Bahamian descent. Bahamian sailors were one of the first groups of settlers in the area. The Goombay festival is a celebration of the rich history of this historically Bahamian neighborhood.


title: Coconut Grove

text: Metrobus' Coconut Grove Connection connects at Coconut Grove and Douglas Road stations, going to many popular areas within the Grove, including CocoWalk and Peacock Park.


title: Coconut Grove

text: The movie "All About The Benjamins" was filmed in Coconut Grove (specifically, ShakeAleg water sports' parking lot & boatyard) in 2002, starring Ice Cube and Mike Epps.


title: Coconut Grove

text: Established in 1825, Coconut Grove is one of Miami's oldest neighborhoods. As such, many of Miami's oldest buildings and homes are located in the Grove. Some of these include:


title: Creed Humphrey

text: Creed Humphrey (born June 28, 1999) is an American football center for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Oklahoma, where he was named the Big 12 Conference's offensive lineman of the year in 2019 and 2020. He was drafted by the Chiefs in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft.


title: Creed Humphrey

text: Humphrey attended the Shawnee High School in Shawnee, Oklahoma. He played both center and defensive line on the football team. Humphrey played in the 2017 U.S. Army All-American Game. Humphrey was a highly-touted prospect, with a four-star rating from 247Sports. He was ranked 294th overall in his recruiting class, but was the 5th-best prospect from the State of Oklahoma and the 3rd-best center in the country. Humphrey received nineteen scholarship offers from programs like Alabama, Texas A&M, Texas, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, and Virginia Tech. He initially committed to Texas A&M in June 2016 but decommitted two months later and signed a National Letter of Intent with Oklahoma.


title: Creed Humphrey

text: Humphrey redshirted his first year at Oklahoma in 2017. He played in all 14 games with 12 starts in 2018. He returned as the starting center for Oklahoma in 2019 and 2020, being named the Big 12 Conference's offensive lineman of the year in both seasons. Following the 2020 season Humphrey announced he would be forgoing his final year of eligibility and declared for the 2021 NFL Draft.


title: Creed Humphrey

text: Humphrey was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the second round (63rd overall) of the 2021 NFL Draft. On May 13, 2021, he signed his rookie contract with the Chiefs. He made his first career start in the Chiefs week 1 game against the Cleveland Browns. On November 3, 2021, the midway point of the 2021 season, Pro Football Focus named Humphrey to their mid-season All-Rookie and All-Pro teams. He was named to the PFWA All-Rookie team.


title: Youn's Kitchen

text: Youn's Kitchen () is a South Korean television reality show that aired on tvN on Fridays nights from March 24, 2017 to March 23, 2018, for a total of twenty episodes.


title: Youn's Kitchen

text: Youn's main ingredient was bulgogi, which was available in three dishes: Bulgogi Rice, Bulgogi Noodles and Bulgogi Burger. Prior to filming, Youn met with Lee Won-il and Hong Seok-cheon to ask for advice, and received expertise on how to operate Youn's Kitchen, including menu development and restaurant management. From the 4th episode, new items were added to the menu, such as fried dumplings and buns, egg rolls, dumplings, and ramyeon. From the 5th episode, chicken was added.


title: Youn's Kitchen

text: The main dish of Youn's Restaurant was bibimbap, and there were initially three varieties: bulgogi bibimbap, spicy pork bibimbap, and vegetable bibimbap. For this season, Youn again met chef Lee Won-il and Hong Seok-cheon for advice and received further know-how on restaurant operations. Kimchi was also on the initial menu. From the 2nd episode, a traditional noodle dish called japchae was added. From the 3rd episode, the spicy pork bibimbap was removed and Korean fried chicken was added. From the 4th episode, ribs were added. From the 6th episode, kimchi fried rice was added.


title: HD1 (galaxy)

text: HD1 is a proposed high-redshift galaxy, and is considered, as of April 2022, to be one of the earliest and most distant known galaxies yet identified in the observable universe. The galaxy, with an estimated redshift of approximately z = 13.27, is seen as it was about 324 million years after the Big Bang, 13.787 billion years ago. It has a light-travel distance (lookback time) of 13.463 billion light-years from Earth, and, due to the expansion of the universe, a present proper distance of 33.288 billion light-years.


title: HD1 (galaxy)

text: The discovery of the proposed high-redshift galaxy HD1 (RA:10:01:51.31 DEC:+02:32:50.0) in the Sextans constellation, along with another high-redshift galaxy, HD2 (RA:02:18:52.44 DEC:-05:08:36.1) in the Cetus constellation, was reported by astronomers at the University of Tokyo on 7 April 2022. These two galaxies were found in two patches of sky surveyed by the Cosmic Evolution Survey and by the Subaru Telescope in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey Field respectively. They were found by looking for objects that are much brighter in the so-called K band of infrared than in the H band (around 1.6 microns), which could indicate a Lyman-break galaxy red-shifted by a factor of around 13. For this reason they were named "HD 1" and "HD 2" (for "H band dropout", not to be confused with stars HD 1 and HD 2 in the Henry Draper Catalog.


title: HD1 (galaxy)

text: HD1 is one of the earliest and most distant known galaxies yet identified in the observable universe, having a spectroscopic redshift of , meaning that the light from the galaxy travelled for 13.5 billion years on its way to Earth, which due to the expansion of the universe, corresponds to a proper distance of approximately . The observed position of HD1 was determined to be about 330 million years after the Big Bang. Another similar high-redshift galaxy, HD2, was determined to be nearly as far away as HD1.


title: HD1 (galaxy)

text: HD1's unusually high brightness has been an open question for its discoverers; it has a significantly more luminous ultraviolet emission than similar galaxies at its redshift range. Possible explanations have been proposed, one being that it is an active Lyman-break galaxy, or a rather extreme starburst galaxy producing stars at a rate far higher than any previously observed. It is also considered that it may have a significant population of Population III stars that are far more massive and luminous than present-day stars. Another scenario is that it may be a quasar hosting a supermassive black hole; such a scenario would put constraints on models of black hole growth in such an early stage of the universe. A resolution to the true nature of the galaxy would likely await confirmations from the James Webb Space Telescope.


title: HD1 (galaxy)

text: The previous farthest known galaxy, GN-z11, discovered in 2015, had a redshift of 11, suggesting that the observed position of the galaxy is about 420 million years after the Big Bang.


title: HD1 (galaxy)

text: According to the discoverers of HD1 and HD2, "If spectroscopically confirmed, these two sources [ie, HD1 and HD2] will represent a remarkable laboratory to study the Universe at previously inaccessible redshifts." The researchers expect even further clarification of the astronomical objects, including better identifying the objects as galaxies, or, possibly as quasars or black holes, when carefully examined by the James Webb Space Telescope, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and GREX-PLUS space missions. HD1, on close examination, may also reveal the first visible Population III stars, due to its very early age. In addition, the researchers claim that the use of the new upcoming space telescopes could help discover over 10,000 galaxies at this early epoch of the Universe.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Joseph Andrew Duplantier (born 19 October 1976) is a French-American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist, vocalist, and lyricist of heavy metal band Gojira. He is also a record producer and environmental activist.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Duplantier was born in Paris and grew up in Ondres. He was raised in an environment where music and arts held a prominent place. He learned to play the guitar at the age of fourteen and formed his first band in high school. He studied art and began working as a graphic designer before co-founding the death metal band Godzilla with his younger brother Mario in 1996. He was also a member of the band Empalot along with his brother. Godzilla changed its name to Gojira, which rose from obscurity to international prominence. He is also the former bassist of Cavalera Conspiracy, to which Gloria and Max Cavalera invited him.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Duplantier possesses United States nationality by parentage, which led him to settle in New York City in 2011. He is a recording studio owner in Ridgewood, Queens, called Silver Cord Studio. Throughout his career, he affirmed his concern for nature and animals. He is engaged in thinking about ecological problems and environmental protection, reflected in his lyrics. Duplantier also expressed his support for indigenous peoples in Brazil through fundraising efforts.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Duplantier was born on 19 October 1976 in Paris. His mother, Patricia ("née" Rosa; 6 October 1950 – 5 July 2015), was American. She was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in Los Angeles. His father, Dominique Duplantier, born in 1945 in Bordeaux, is a French painter and architectural drafter, a former student in history at the "Faculté des Lettres" and engraving at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. Due to this, Joe Duplantier (and his brother) has dual nationality of France and the United States. He is "franco-américain" (French-American) based primarily on the principle of "jus sanguinis" (right of blood), applied through "attribution à la naissance" (attribution at birth), because born outside the US but obtained its nationality as he fulfilled the condition stipulating that "at least one of his parents is American".


title: Joe Duplantier

text: In 1977, the family left Paris and moved to Ondres, a small seaside town in the Landes department, in an old house with no heating system dating from the Louis XV period. He was raised there, in southwest France, near the Basque country, at north of Biarritz. His sister, Gabrielle, was born in 1978 in Bayonne, and his brother, Mario, was born in 1981. His mother, manifesting a marked interest in art activities, was a yoga and dance teacher in the periphery of Bayonne. The work of precision and patience of his father, who got up every day at 4:30 am to work, had a significant influence on him. His mother described him as "always active, very creative. Sensitive, gentle", with "some secret force within him, some unusual maturity". As a child, the awakening of his ecological conscience had begun after walking on oil traces on the beach.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: When Duplantier was thirteen, he discovered New York City for the first time, accompanied by his cousin during a visit to his family in Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg. Greeted at the airport by his maternal uncle, it was then that he realized how attracted he was to the city. He grew up in an environment where his parents listened to blues, fado, pop, Mozart, Chopin, Piaf, L. Shankar, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Pink Floyd, the Police, Supertramp, and Joan Baez. His sister listened to world music, country music, and African percussion. According to Duplantier's recollection, he began by taking piano lessons but soon realized that he preferred the guitar. He began playing his mother's classical guitar, which only had two strings. He listened to hip hop music during a period of time while his cousin was passionate about Iron Maiden and Metallica. He experienced bullying at school.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Subsequently, a second incident marked him when his brother contracted ear infections after swimming in polluted water. With his brother, he was dismayed by the household and industrial wastes and dead animals stranded in the protected area of the dunes of Ondres. Through the influence of his cousin, he began learning to play Metallica's "Fade to Black" on the guitar when he developed his understanding on this matter. At the age of fourteen, Duplantier began listening to Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" to find out more about this musical genre which aroused his curiosity. He continued his interests in metal music with "Master of Puppets", then Sepultura, and seeking to define his own musical identity he pursued death metal through the band Death.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: In high school, at seventeen years of age, he formed his first band, called Eclipse, and embarked on jam sessions with his brother, who had a growing interest and aptitude for drumming. Duplantier went to university for two years and spent between three and four years in art school, after which he began working as a graphic designer for a short time. "Dead Man Walking" by Tim Robbins has been his favorite movie growing up. When he was a young man, he distinguished himself by picking up trash on a beach and scattering it on a French parking lot, attracting the attention of the local media. Duplantier said: "I found it so weird; people aren't bothered by what's on the beach, but when it's on a parking lot, it becomes a problem".


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Duplantier and his brother began their band and established themselves on the southwest France live circuit. Initially called Godzilla in 1996, the band was later renamed Gojira. He recalled building cabins in the forest as a child. Then, at the age of twenty-four, he decided to return to the forest and built a new one where he would live with his girlfriend for two years without income or electricity. Gojira's 2001 debut studio album, "Terra Incognita", was written during this experience.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: When launching the band, singing in French was irrelevant for Duplantier; he chose instead to sing in English in efforts to globally project the band's aspirations. Thus, he said he did not sing about the problems of France but international issues and the damage inflicted on the planet. He said, "We consider ourselves above all as human, not French." According to Duplantier, the band's primary goal was to maintain complete autonomy and "total control over the band's music". He has been responsible for the artworks for Gojira's albums, each representing an idea that he spontaneously designs, highlighting visual minimalism and conciseness while trying to stand out from the codes of the metal scene.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Touring in support of their second album, "The Link", Duplantier used to let his imagination run free when performing the songs' extended outro, developing a propensity to experience a "vision" while in a "trance"; saying, One of his first achievements was when the band reached headliner status in France and performed at the Paris' Élysée Montmartre, promoting "From Mars to Sirius" and then initiating their first tours overseas, notably in America. In 2008, Randy Blythe flew from the US to France to record his vocals on and was hosted at Duplantier's home in the southwest for a week. In 2012, he also occasionally played drums in live performances when he and his brother switched places.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: A week before the release of Gojira's "Magma", he expressed his disillusionment when he said that the metal genre did not receive the attention of the main French-language media. He described the genre as a niche that has been perceived as culturally unimportant in the country, compared to Scandinavia and Germany. Benoit Guerin, department director of "Ouest-France", echoed his view and wrote, "In France, [modern] "chanson" is the queen", noting that it took Gojira a significant impact on the metal music scene and decades-long experience "to benefit from media spotlights worthy of their rank in their own country". Throughout 2016 and 2017, the French press would publish after scrutiny that Gojira ended up being one of the largest exporters of music from France, leading the country's metal category. In 2017, Gojira performed two consecutive sold-out concerts at the Paris' Olympia, at a time when the band was at its peak of popularity.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: In 2021, "Fortitude" increased Gojira's media exposure in France and earned them global chart success through the album revolving around Duplantier's committed and positive lyrics. The band was scheduled for its first headlining arena tour in Europe and the UK in 2022, including the 20,300-capacity Accor Arena in Paris (it was postponed to 2023 due to COVID-19 restrictions).


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Duplantier portrayed the band's lifestyle as "marginal", comprising musicians more creative than "self-destructive", and more interested in art than partying. He later said they were "lucky" to meet because communication was the indicator of their personality matching and also noted that none of them have drug addiction problems. Thus, the line-up, including Jean-Michel Labadie and Christian Andreu, has never changed. Duplantier portrays Gojira as "four brothers, united, to live our passion".


title: Joe Duplantier

text: He was also in a festive and theatrical band playing a fusion of musical genres called Empalot, involving his brother and friends, which toured in France from 1999 to 2004. For him, the project was synonymous with fits of laughter and happiness.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: In 2007, Max and Igor Cavalera initially asked Labadie, bassist of Gojira, to do bass duties for their band, Cavalera Conspiracy; however, Labadie was busy with prior commitments, including Gojira. Instead, Duplantier ended up being the band's bassist through the influence of Max Cavalera's wife, Gloria. Playing Sepultura's "Territory" with the Cavalera brothers during the first jam session in the presence of all the families left him indelible memories. Moreover, while working with the band on their debut album, he experienced a diametrically different studio process, as the songs composed in the morning were recorded "spontaneously" in the afternoon. The studio session lasted fifteen to twenty days. Duplantier stated that Gojira and the recording of "The Way of All Flesh" had been his main priority, which led him not to do extensive touring with Cavalera Conspiracy. In 2008, he was replaced by Johny Chow on bass duties for Cavalera Conspiracy. Max Cavalera regretted that Duplantier did not appear on the band's second album, "Blunt Force Trauma". Cavalera said, "He is a great musician, with a lot of good ideas."


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Duplantier is the owner of Silver Cord Studio, a recording studio located in Ridgewood, Queens, New York, which he designed himself. After the experience of Gojira's recording studio in the Landes, called Le Studio des Milans, Duplantier sought to continue producing albums independently and planned to create new premises for the band in the US. A friend brought his attention to the Rockwall Studios complex, which contains 100 spaces for artists. Following the project initiation, he teamed up with a friend and sound engineer from Atlanta. With the DIY ethic, he built the studio with the help of friends and people he hired. Duplantier managed the construction project and was involved daily over a period of six months. The studio's construction began in November 2014 and was completed at the pivotal moment of the recording start of Gojira's "Magma".


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Becoming the band's headquarter in the US, Duplantier's Silver Cord Studio was inaugurated in April 2015. The studio's name refers to Gojira's instrumental acoustic song, "The Silver Cord", from "The Way of All Flesh"; he said that like the song, it "now means something else, something very different". On 6 June 2015, it became available for other bands, artists, and producers.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: In 2016, by acknowledging that he appreciated creating musical arrangements while being responsible for the overall production of recorded music, Duplantier saw himself more as a producer than a musician. That year, Gojira has been considered a "bi-national band". Following a vocal collaboration with Car Bomb on "Third Revelation" in 2012, Duplantier decided to undertake his production activities (apart from Gojira) in 2016 for their album, "Meta". He mainly produces American bands at Silver Cord Studio.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: In September 2018, Nick John, the Gojira, Mastodon, and Slayer manager, died from cancer. Mastodon performed a rendition of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven at his funeral while Duplantier recorded it on his cell phone. Afterward, Duplantier readjusted the audio taken from his phone and recorded it in his studio with Mastodon for an enhanced version. It was released for Record Store Day on a 10-inch album limited to 1,500 copies with the studio version of the song on the A-side and the live version on the B-side, whose sale proceeds were donated to the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Duplantier has written and recorded hundreds of demo songs since the early 2000s, which are of an experimental genre. With his music, he explores different sounds, ventures into clean singing, and continues his "personal development", which thus indirectly influences Gojira's compositions.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Duplantier's early influences include bands such as Death, Metallica, Morbid Angel, Sepultura, Cannibal Corpse, and Slayer. He said that the ambition of Gojira in their early days was to be "violent and dissonant and weird". Duplantier cites Mike Oldfield and his 1983 album "Crises" as a significant musical inspiration. As he grew older, Duplantier mentioned other musical styles as influences, such as progressive rock, traditional rock, Americana, and blues. In 2021, he has also discussed how Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix are continuing inspirations to him. Other artists who Duplantier has cited as influences include Portishead, Radiohead, and Sade. He has also been surrounded by non-musical influences, such as noise, landscape, and emotion. Duplantier has a wide range of musical tastes. He has an interest in the music of Massive Attack, "old jazz", Dead Can Dance, classical music, traditional music, and Stephan Micus. He has expressed admiration for French singer and songwriter Alain Bashung.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Duplantier has been known for his aggressive vocals and own signature style, going from a typical death growl to an emphasis on clean singing in Gojira's latest works. He began using the screaming and guttural vocal styles in an instinctive response to his "rage about the world", the planet's environmental problems, the "cruelty of other kids" at school, and politics; he said, "I had to grab a guitar and start screaming". Duplantier's clean singing had already appeared on "Terra Incognita"s "Clone", conveying the message of human interference with Mother Nature. He used different techniques on the "From Mars to Sirius" album, going from a "growling timbre" to "semi-clean" vocals in an intonation echoing post-punk singer Jaz Coleman. He experimented with his voice on "The Way of All Flesh", and then he continued the clean vocals with the low note on "L'Enfant Sauvage"s "Born in Winter". In addition, he brought the vocoder for robotic voice effects in "A Sight to Behold". In 2016, Duplantier said he redefined his vocal style with an even greater emphasis on singing. He has expanded his vocal range by personal choice, citing a "vital" need to sing to develop vocal versatility and style diversity. He would take a new vocal approach to his performances during the recording of "Magma". On "Fortitude", music writer Chad Bowar regarded his vocal performances as a combination of all of his previous techniques: "harsh and melodic". His throat singing was incorporated with various musical forms punctuating "Amazonia", such as the woodwind instrument and the Jaw harp. For their review of this album, "Forbes" stated that Duplantier's "vocals and lyrical writing remain at the top of his game, and they further cement him as one of the most unique sounding aggressive vocalists of all time."


title: Joe Duplantier

text: In 2016, Duplantier gave a broad interpretation of the lyrical theme of Gojira's songs, saying, "My lyrics speak above all about the liberation of the soul, encourage to see the beauty of things." According to Duplantier, the title of Gojira's second album, "The Link", was a symbolic "link" between earth and sky, in allusion to an individual spiritual journey toward self-knowledge. The roots of the tree symbolized the unconscious, while the branches symbolized the divine; thus, the link represented the trunk. Thematically, Gojira's third album recounted the transition from a situation of conflict and war to a situation of serenity that he hoped to see accomplished within humanity, hence the album's title, "From Mars to Sirius". Duplantier paid homage to the intelligence of whales on the album and was also inspired by an idea of extraterrestrial life on the "ocean planet" Sirius C. At that time, he said he has been interested in "other worlds" beyond the earth and "different realities". While he theorized that whales would inhabit Sirius C, "From Mars to Sirius" was also ecologically themed. Some of the lyrical themes of Gojira reflect Duplantier's personal beliefs in preserving the environment.


title: Joe Duplantier

text: Adrien Begrand of "PopMatters" noted that he explored the metaphysical, "elemental", environmental, and spiritual themes on "The Way of All Flesh", using words "often poetic" in an approach exhibiting "sincerity and complete lack of pretension". The album "L'Enfant Sauvage" elaborated on the theme of man's relationship with nature and was juxtaposed with his "difficult" choice he made—collectively with Gojira—to integrate himself "to a certain extent" into society to devote his life to music, rather than living "in a cabin surrounded by nature". The newspaper "Voir" describes him as "caught between the concrete and the bark" and writes that he has nevertheless retained his lucidity to focus on art. The philosophical reflection on the relationship of man to nature has been a theme that perpetually fascinated Duplantier.