title: Umami

text: Some population groups, such as the elderly, may benefit from umami taste because their taste and smell sensitivity may be impaired by age and medication. The loss of taste and smell can contribute to poor nutrition, increasing their risk of disease. Some evidence exists to show umami not only stimulates appetite, but also may contribute to satiety.


title: Umami

text: Many foods are rich in the amino acids and nucleotides imparting umami. Naturally occurring glutamate can be found in meats and vegetables. Inosine (IMP) comes primarily from meats and guanosine (GMP) from vegetables. Mushrooms, especially dried shiitake, are rich sources of umami flavor from guanylate. Smoked or fermented fish are high in inosinate, and shellfish in adenylate.


title: Umami

text: Generally, umami taste is common to foods that contain high levels of L-glutamate, IMP and GMP, most notably in fish, shellfish, cured meats, meat extracts, mushrooms, vegetables (e.g., ripe tomatoes, Chinese cabbage, spinach, celery, etc.), green tea, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and fermented and aged products involving bacterial or yeast cultures, such as cheeses, shrimp pastes, fish sauce, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, and yeast extracts such as Vegemite and Marmite.


title: Umami

text: Studies have shown that the amino acids in breast milk are often the first encounter humans have with umami. Glutamic acid makes up half of the free amino acids in breast milk.


title: Umami

text: Most taste buds on the tongue and other regions of the mouth can detect umami taste, irrespective of their location. (The tongue map in which different tastes are distributed in different regions of the tongue is a common misconception.) Biochemical studies have identified the taste receptors responsible for the sense of umami as modified forms of mGluR4, mGluR1, and taste receptor type 1 (TAS1R1 + TAS1R3), all of which have been found in all regions of the tongue bearing taste buds. These receptors are also found in some regions of the duodenum. A 2009 review corroborated the acceptance of these receptors, stating, "Recent molecular biological studies have now identified strong candidates for umami receptors, including the heterodimer TAS1R1/TAS1R3, and truncated type 1 and 4 metabotropic glutamate receptors missing most of the N-terminal extracellular domain (taste-mGluR4 and truncated-mGluR1) and brain-mGluR4."


title: Umami

text: Receptors mGluR1 and mGluR4 are specific to glutamate whereas TAS1R1 + TAS1R3 are responsible for the synergism already described by Akira Kuninaka in 1957. However, the specific role of each type of receptor in taste bud cells remains unclear. They are G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) with similar signaling molecules that include G proteins beta-gamma, PLCB2 and PI3-mediated release of calcium (Ca) from intracellular stores. Calcium activates a so-called transient-receptor-potential cation channel TRPM5 that leads to membrane depolarization and the consequent release of ATP and secretion of neurotransmitters including serotonin.


title: Umami

text: Cells responding to umami taste stimuli do not possess typical synapses, but ATP conveys taste signals to gustatory nerves and in turn to the brain that interprets and identifies the taste quality via the gut-brain axis.


title: Umami

text: Umami has become popular as a flavor with food manufacturers trying to improve the taste of low sodium offerings. Chefs create "umami bombs", which are dishes made of several umami ingredients like fish sauce. Umami may account for the long-term formulation and popularity of ketchup. The United States Food and Drug Administration has designated the umami enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG) as a safe ingredient. While some people identify themselves as sensitive to MSG, a study commissioned by the FDA was only able to identify transient, mild symptoms in a few of the subjects, and only when the MSG was consumed in unrealistically large quantities. There is also no apparent difference in sensitivity to umami when comparing Japanese and Americans.


title: Umami

text: The five basic tastes (saltiness, sweetness, bitterness, sourness, and savoriness) are detected by specialized taste receptors on the tongue and palate epithelium. The number of taste categories in humans remains under research, with a sixth taste possibly including spicy or pungent.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Alphonso Boyle Davies (born November 2, 2000) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a left-back or winger for club Bayern Munich and the Canada national team. He is regarded as one of the best full-backs in the world due to his pace, dribbling and creativity.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Davies was the first player born in the 2000s to play in a Major League Soccer match. He joined Bayern in January 2019 from MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps FC on a contract lasting until 2023 for a then-record MLS transfer fee. Davies was named the Bundesliga Rookie of the Season for 2019–20. In that season he also was part of the team winning the continental treble after Bayern won the Bundesliga, the UEFA Champions League and the DFB-Pokal.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: In June 2017, Davies became the youngest player to appear for the Canadian men's national team. By scoring two goals in a 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup match against French Guiana, he became the youngest player to score for the Canadian men's national team, the youngest to score at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, and first player born in the 2000s to score at a top level international tournament. He would go on to be named the 2021 CONCACAF Men's Player of the Year. He was called up to play in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where he scored Canada's first ever World Cup goal. He is widely considered both the best player on and the face of the Canadian men's national team.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Davies is the first soccer player, and first Canadian, to become an ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Davies was born to Liberian parents in Buduburam, a refugee camp in Ghana, the fourth youngest of six siblings. His father, Debeah Davies, and his mother, Victoria Davies, originally lived in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. They fled during the Second Liberian Civil War, which displaced more than 450,000 Liberians. In 2005, the family emigrated to Canada, eventually settling in Edmonton. At the age of 15, Davies relocated alone to Vancouver to join the Whitecaps FC Residency program. As part of the program, he attended Burnaby Central Secondary School. On June 6, 2017, he received Canadian citizenship; until then he had been a Liberian national.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Davies attended St Nicholas Catholic Junior High in the Edmonton Catholic School District. His school soccer teammate, Onesphore Hamis recalled, "Soccer was the thing he wanted to get into, but language was a problem." His classmate and fellow Liberian immigrant, Chernoh Fahnbulleh recalled of Davies, "He spoke English but it was, like, broken English".


title: Alphonso Davies

text: As a child in Edmonton, Davies first played organized soccer with Free Footie, an after-school soccer league for inner-city elementary school students who cannot afford registration fees and equipment, or who lack transportation to games.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: After playing for Edmonton Internationals, and Edmonton Strikers, Davies joined the Whitecaps FC Residency in 2015 at the age of 14.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: After joining Vancouver Whitecaps FC during their 2016 MLS preseason tour, Davies signed with Whitecaps FC 2 in the USL on February 23, 2016. At the time of his signing, he became the youngest player signed to a USL contract at 15 years, 3 months. Davies made his professional debut for Whitecaps FC 2 at the age of 15 years, 5 months in April 2016. On May 15, 2016, he scored his first professional goal, making him the youngest goal scorer in USL history at 15 years, 6 months, a record held by Davies until 2020. He scored two goals in 11 games played during the 2016 season.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Davies was named to the Whitecaps roster for the 2016 Canadian Championship on a short-term contract. On June 1, 2016, he made his first team debut in the first leg of the Canadian Championship against Ottawa Fury FC and started the second leg in Vancouver.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: On July 15, 2016, Davies signed a first team contract with the Whitecaps through 2018, with options for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. At the time of his signing, he was the youngest active player in Major League Soccer, and the third youngest player to have signed an MLS contract. Davies made his MLS debut on July 16, 2016, becoming the second youngest player to play in MLS, behind Freddy Adu. In September 2016, he scored his first goal for the first team in the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League against Sporting Kansas City in injury time to send the club through to the knockout round. In September 2016, Davies became the second youngest starter in MLS history when he started a game against the Colorado Rapids. On October 2, 2016, he started against rival club Seattle Sounders FC earning a penalty kick. During the 2016 season, Davies played in eight MLS games, four Canadian Championship games, and three games in the CONCACAF Champions League.<ref name="Alphonso Davies » CONCACAF Champions League 2016/2017"></ref> In the 2017 season, he played in both legs against New York Red Bulls and Tigres UANL in the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively, in which he scored in a 2–0 win over New York Red Bulls.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Following his impressive early MLS appearances, Davies attracted interest and was scouted by European clubs including Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool, and was also named one of the 60 best young soccer talents in the world in 2017. In the 2018 season opener against the Montreal Impact, Davies scored his first goal in MLS action, and assisted on a Kei Kamara goal. On June 10, 2018, he scored a goal and got three assists in a 5–2 win over Orlando City. Davies scored two goals and provided two assists to help his side defeat Minnesota United with a 4–2 victory on July 29. On June 29, 2018, Davies was included in the MLS All-Star roster for the 2018 MLS All-Star Game on August 1 against Juventus. Davies made an appearance during the match, which finished as a 3–5 penalty shoot-out loss following a 1–1 draw. Davies was named the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Player of the Year on October 24, and also received the Whitecaps' Goal of the Year award. In Davies' final game for Vancouver on October 28, he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over the Portland Timbers.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: On July 25, 2018, Vancouver announced that it had agreed to a multi-million-dollar transfer of Davies to Bundesliga club Bayern Munich, with Davies seeing out the 2018 MLS season with Vancouver, before joining Bayern in January 2019. The base fee for the transfer was US$13.5 million, with performance-related bonuses that total $22 million, a then-record for MLS, later eclipsed by the transfer of Miguel Almirón to Newcastle United. Davies had his first training session with Bayern on November 21, 2018, and debuted on January 12, 2019, against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Telekom Cup championship finale, which Bayern won on penalties following a scoreless draw. Davies made his Bundesliga debut on January 27 against VfB Stuttgart, appearing as a late substitute for Kingsley Coman in a 3–1 victory. He scored his first goal for Bayern on March 17, netting the final goal in a 6–0 rout of Mainz 05. In doing so, and at the age of 18 years, 4 months and 15 days, he became the youngest player since Roque Santa Cruz, twenty years prior, to score for the club. He is the first Canadian international to score for Bayern. On May 18, 2019, Davies won his first Bundesliga title as Bayern finished two points above Dortmund with 78 points. A week later, Davies won his first DFB-Pokal as Bayern defeated RB Leipzig 3–0 in the 2019 DFB-Pokal Final. Davies was not selected for the match day squad.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Davies made his first Bundesliga start with Bayern on matchday nine of the 2019–20 Bundesliga season, going the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 home victory over Union Berlin. He made his first UEFA Champions League start on November 6, 2019, in a 2–0 victory against Olympiacos. Throughout the 2019–20 season, coach Niko Kovač moved Davies to the left back position, following long-term injuries to Niklas Süle and Lucas Hernandez, to allow David Alaba to play at centre back. Davies earned high praise during his time in that role, gaining an early reputation as one of the best left backs in the world. On February 25, 2020, Davies set-up Robert Lewandowski's goal in a 3–0 away win over Chelsea in the first leg of the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League; his performance during the match was widely praised in the media, with pundit Gary Lineker commenting that Davies played "beautifully," while former U.S. international Stuart Holden described him as a "world class left back."


title: Alphonso Davies

text: In April 2020, Bayern Munich and Davies agreed to a contract extension to 2025, adding two years onto his existing contract.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Following the restart of the Bundesliga which had halted all matches due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Davies started against both Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund. He scored and assisted in the Frankfurt match and ended up running down Dortmund's Erling Haaland at a speed of . On June 16, 2020, Davies featured for Bayern against Werder Bremen in a game they won 1–0, securing Bayern Munich their eighth consecutive league title. Davies was sent off in the 79th minute for a second yellow card, but not before breaking the record for the fastest speed clocked in the Bundesliga at . Davies was named the Bundesliga Rookie of the Year for the 2019–20 season. On August 14, 2020, Davies, who was playing the left-back position, was applauded for assisting Joshua Kimmich's goal against Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals which Bayern Munich won with an impressive final score of 8–2. On August 23, he started in the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain, which Bayern won 1–0 to complete a continental treble; consequently, Davies became the first Canadian men's international to win the Champions League.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: On October 24, Davies was forced off in the third minute of play in an eventual 5–0 home win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga, after sustaining an injury to his right ankle; it was later announced that he was expected to remain sidelined for 6 to 8 weeks.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Davies finished in third place for the 2020 Golden Boy award, behind Erling Haaland and Ansu Fati. On February 11, 2021, he played in a 1–0 win over Tigres UANL in the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup Final.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: On January 5, 2022, Davies tested positive for COVID-19, prompting Bayern to do further tests and on January 14, it was revealed that he had developed mild myocarditis; he was unable to train with the rest of the Bayern squad. Davies is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and had received his booster shot in December 2021.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: On October 8, Davies sustained a cranial bruise while taking a foot to the face in the 45th minute in a challenge with Dortmund's Jude Bellingham of a 2–2 away draw.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Although a Liberian citizen by birth, Davies was called to numerous Canadian under-15 and under-18 camps in 2014 and 2015. On March 17, 2016, he was called up to the Canada under-20 squad for a friendly against England under-20. In November 2016, Davies attended a Canadian under-17 camp, where he scored against Jamaica. In 2016, he was named the Canada U17 Male Player of the Year for his performances with the under-17 and under-20 squads in friendlies. In March 2017, Davies stated in an interview that, "to be able to represent Canada, it is one of my dreams." In 2017, he was named the Canada under-17 Male Player of the Year for a second time due to his performances with the senior team.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Born a Liberian refugee, Davies was originally only eligible for the Liberian national team. On June 6, 2017, Davies passed his Canadian citizenship test and officially became a citizen of Canada, making him eligible to play for the Canadian national team. On the same day, Davies was added to a senior team camp for a friendly against Curaçao, as well as Canada's preliminary 40-man roster for the 2017 Gold Cup. Davies would debut for the senior team in the friendly against Curaçao at the age of 16, making him the youngest player to play for the national team. On June 27, Davies was named to the final 23-man squad for the 2017 Gold Cup. In Canada's first match of that tournament, Davies scored twice in a 4–2 victory over French Guiana. The goals made him the youngest goalscorer in Gold Cup history. He then scored in their second match against Costa Rica to earn a 1–1 draw. Davies went on to win the Golden Boot as the tournament's top scorer, the Young Player of the Tournament award, and was included in the tournament's Best XI selection.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: On May 30, 2019, Davies was named to the squad for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Davies was called up for a pair of 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League A matches against Cuba on September 7 and 10, 2019. In the second match, Davies scored the decisive goal in a 1–0 victory for Canada. In October 2019, Davies would help lead Canada to their first win over the United States in 34 years, scoring the opening goal of their CONCACAF Nations League match, which ended 2–0.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: In July 2021, Davies was named to the Canada squad for the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup, however he suffered an ankle injury on July 9, two days before Canada's opening match at the tournament, that ruled him out of the competition. On October 13, 2021, in a World Cup qualifying match against Panama, Davies scored a highlight reel goal, making an 80-yard run to keep the ball in play, reaching a top speed of 37.1 km/h. Davies played a central role in Canada's qualification campaign for most of the calendar, but he missed the final two international windows as a result of having developed mild myocarditis. His livestream Twitch commentaries on the remaining games attracted media attention, in particular his reaction to the 4–0 victory over Jamaica that officially qualified Canada for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This was only the second time Canada had managed this feat, and the first time since 1986.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: In May 2022, Davies was called up to the Canadian squad for two CONCACAF Nations League matches and a friendly. In the June 9 game against Curaçao, he marked his return to international competition after his myocarditis-related absence with two goals in a 4–0 victory for Canada.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: In November 2022, Davies was named to Canada's squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In Canada's first match of the tournament against Belgium on November 23, he failed to score an early penalty in an eventual 1–0 loss, with Thibaut Courtois saving his shot. Four days later, he scored Canada's first ever goal at the FIFA World Cup in the match against Croatia; however, Croatia came back to win 4–1, eliminating Canada from the tournament after two matches.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Although mainly playing as an attacking full back on the left flank, Davies is capable of playing as a wing-back, left midfielder, or winger due to his explosive pace, dribbling, creativity, and crossing ability. He is considered to be a highly promising young player in the media.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Davies was in a relationship with fellow Canadian Jordyn Huitema, a forward for Paris Saint-Germain and the Canada women's national team starting from September 2017. In September 2019, he was fined €20,000 for arriving late to a Bayern practice after visiting Huitema in Paris, and by June 2020, French press were aware that Davies might be interested in having Huitema sign with Bayern's women's side. On May 22, 2022, Davies confirmed on social media that he and Huitema had split up.


title: Alphonso Davies

text: Davies is an ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In April 2020, he played a virtual football match against fellow professional Asmir Begović – who also came to Canada as a child refugee – to raise money for the agency.


title: Gattaca

text: Gattaca is a 1997 American dystopian science fiction thriller film written and directed by Andrew Niccol in his filmmaking debut. It stars Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman with Jude Law, Loren Dean, Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal, and Alan Arkin appearing in supporting roles. The film presents a biopunk vision of a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic selection to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents. The film centers on Vincent Freeman, played by Hawke, who was conceived outside the eugenics program and struggles to overcome genetic discrimination to realize his dream of going into space.


title: Gattaca

text: The film draws on concerns over reproductive technologies that facilitate eugenics, and the possible consequences of such technological developments for society. It also explores the idea of destiny and the ways in which it can and does govern lives. Characters in "Gattaca" continually battle both with society and with themselves to find their place in the world and who they are destined to be according to their genes.


title: Gattaca

text: The film's title is based on the letters G, A, T, and C, which stand for guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine, the four nucleobases of DNA. It was a 1997 nominee for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.


title: Gattaca

text: In the "not-too-distant" future, eugenics is common. A genetic registry database uses biometrics to classify those created as "Valids" while those conceived naturally and more susceptible to genetic disorders are known as "In-Valids". Genetic discrimination is illegal, but in practice genotype profiling is used to identify Valids to qualify for professional employment while In-Valids are relegated to menial jobs.


title: Gattaca

text: Vincent Freeman was conceived naturally and his genetic profile indicates a high probability of several disorders and an estimated lifespan of 30.2 years. His parents, regretting their decision, use IVF, PIGD, and genetic engineering in creating their second child, Anton. Growing up, the two brothers often play a game of "chicken" by swimming out to sea as far as possible, with the first one returning to shore considered the loser; Vincent always loses. Vincent dreams of a career in space travel but is always reminded of his genetic inferiority. One day, Vincent challenges Anton to a game of chicken and beats him. Anton starts to drown and is saved by Vincent. Shortly after, Vincent leaves home.


title: Gattaca

text: Years later, Vincent works as an In-Valid, cleaning office spaces including that of spaceflight conglomerate Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. He gets a chance to masquerade as a Valid by using donated hair, skin, blood and urine samples from former swimming star Jerome Eugene Morrow, who was paralyzed after being hit by a car. With Jerome's genetic makeup, Vincent gains employment at Gattaca, and is assigned as navigator for an upcoming mission to Saturn's moon Titan. To conceal his identity, Vincent must meticulously groom and scrub down daily to remove his own genetic material, pass daily DNA scanning and urine tests using Jerome's samples, and hide his heart defect.


title: Gattaca

text: When a Gattaca administrator is murdered a week before a possible launch, the police find one of Vincent's eyelashes near the crime scene. Recognizing it as from an In-Valid rather than an employee, they immediately assume the owner to be a suspect and launch an investigation. During this, Vincent becomes close to a co-worker, Irene Cassini, with whom he shares a mutual attraction. Though a Valid, Irene has an accidental higher risk of heart failure that will bar her from any space mission. Vincent also learns that Jerome's paralysis is self-inflicted; after placing silver in the Olympics, Jerome threw himself in front of a car. Jerome maintains that he was designed to be the best, yet still wasn't, and suffers under the 'burden of perfection'.


title: Gattaca

text: Vincent repeatedly evades the grasp of the investigators. It is finally revealed that one of Gattaca's directors (Josef) killed the mission director because he threatened to cancel the mission. Vincent learns that the detective who closed the case was his brother Anton, who consequently has discovered Vincent's presence at Gattaca. The brothers meet, and Anton warns Vincent about his illegal actions, but Vincent asserts that he has gotten to this position on his own merits. Anton, unwilling to believe this, challenges Vincent to a final game of chicken. As the two swim out at night, Vincent's stamina surprises Anton, and Vincent reveals that he won by not saving energy for the swim back. Anton turns back and begins to drown, but Vincent rescues him again and swims them both back to shore, proving to Anton that his status does not define him.


title: Gattaca

text: On the day of the launch, Jerome reveals that he has stored enough DNA samples for Vincent to last 'two lifetimes' upon his return, and gives him an envelope to open 'upstairs'. After saying goodbye to Irene, Vincent prepares to board but discovers there is a final urine test, and he currently lacks any of Jerome's samples. He is surprised when Dr. Lamar, who oversees health checks, reveals that he knows Vincent has been posing as a Valid. Lamar admits that his son looks up to Vincent and wonders whether he, genetically selected but "not all that they promised", could exceed his potential just as Vincent has. The doctor changes the test results, allowing Vincent to pass. As the rocket launches, Jerome dons his swimming medal and immolates himself in his home's incinerator; in space, Vincent opens the note from Jerome to find a lock of Jerome's hair. As the film ends, Vincent muses that "For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess, I'm suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once a part of a star. Maybe I'm not leaving; maybe I'm going home."


title: Gattaca

text: The film was shot under the working title "The Eighth Day", a reference to the seven days of creation in the Bible. However, by the time its release was scheduled for the fall of 1997, the Belgian film had already been released in the US under the title "The Eighth Day". As a result, the film was retitled "Gattaca".


title: Gattaca

text: The exteriors (including the roof scene) and some of the interior shots of the Gattaca complex were filmed at Frank Lloyd Wright's 1960 Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California. The speakers in the complex broadcast announcements both in Esperanto and English; Miko Sloper from the Esperanto League of North America went to the recording studio to handle the Esperanto part. The parking lot scenes were shot at the Otis College of Art and Design, distinguished by its punch card-like windows, located near Los Angeles International Airport. The exterior of Vincent Freeman's house was shot at the CLA Building on the campus of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Other exterior shots were filmed at the bottom of the spillway of the Sepulveda Dam, Culver City High School, and outside The Forum in Inglewood. The solar power plant mirrors sequence was filmed at the Kramer Junction Solar Electric Generating Station.


title: Gattaca

text: The film is noted for its unique use of color. Cinematographer Slawomir Idziak employed vibrant gold, green, and electric blue tones throughout the film, and shot the film in Super 35mm format, which adds an enlarged layer of grain.


title: Gattaca

text: The movie uses a swimming treadmill in the opening minutes to punctuate the swimming and futuristic themes. The production design makes heavy use of retrofuturism; the futuristic electric cars are based on 1960s car models like Rover P6, Citroën DS19 and Studebaker Avanti.


title: Gattaca

text: The opening title sequence, created by Michael Riley, features closeups of body matter (fingernails and hair), which are later revealed to be from Vincent's daily bodily scourings, hitting the floor accompanied by loud sounds as the objects strike the ground. According to Riley, oversized models of the fingernails and hair were created for the effect.


title: Gattaca

text: The score for "Gattaca" was composed by Michael Nyman, and the original soundtrack was released on October 21, 1997.


title: Gattaca

text: "Gattaca" was released in theaters on October 24, 1997 in the United States by Columbia Pictures and opened at number 5 at the box office; trailing "I Know What You Did Last Summer", "The Devil's Advocate", "Kiss the Girls" and "Seven Years in Tibet". Over the first weekend the film brought in $4.3 million. It ended its theatrical run with a domestic total of $12.5 million against a reported production budget of $36 million.


title: Gattaca

text: "Gattaca" was released on DVD on July 1, 1998, and was also released on Superbit DVD. Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray versions were released on March 11, 2008. Both editions contain a deleted scene featuring historical figures like Einstein, Lincoln, etc., who are described as having been genetically deficient.


title: Gattaca

text: "Gattaca" received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film received an approval rating of 81% based on 64 reviews, with a rating average of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus states that "Intelligent and scientifically provocative, "Gattaca" is an absorbing sci-fi drama that poses important interesting ethical questions about the nature of science." On Metacritic, the film received "generally favorable reviews" with a score of 64 out of 100, based on 20 reviews. Roger Ebert stated, "This is one of the smartest and most provocative of science fiction films, a thriller with ideas." James Berardinelli praised it for "energy and tautness" and its "thought-provoking script and thematic richness."


title: Gattaca

text: Although critically acclaimed, "Gattaca" was not a box office success, but it is said to have crystallized the debate over the controversial topic of human genetic engineering. The film's dystopian depiction of "genoism" has been cited by many bioethicists and laypeople in support of their hesitancy about, or opposition to, eugenics and the societal acceptance of the genetic-determinist ideology that may frame it. In a 1997 review of the film for the journal "Nature Genetics", molecular biologist Lee M. Silver stated that ""Gattaca" is a film that all geneticists should see if for no other reason than to understand the perception of our trade held by so many of the public-at-large".


title: Gattaca

text: On October 30, 2009, "Variety" reported that Sony Pictures Television was developing a television adaptation of the feature film as a one-hour police procedural set in the future. The show was to be written by Gil Grant, who has written for "24" and "NCIS".


title: Gattaca

text: Writer-director Andrew Niccol has called his 2011 film "In Time" a "bastard child of "Gattaca"". Both films feature classic cars in a futuristic dystopia as well as a caste privilege schism which the protagonist challenges and which prejudices the authorities into neglecting a thorough investigation in favor of condemning the protagonist.


title: Gattaca

text: U.S. Senator Rand Paul used near-verbatim portions of the plot summary from the English Wikipedia entry on "Gattaca" in a speech at Liberty University on October 28, 2013 in support of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's campaign for Governor of Virginia. Paul accused pro-choice politicians of advocating eugenics in a manner similar to the events in "Gattaca".


title: Gattaca

text: In the 2004 democratic transhumanist book "Citizen Cyborg", bioethicist James Hughes criticized the premise and influence of the film as fear-mongering, arguing:


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: In Greek mythology, Uranus ( ), sometimes written Ouranos (, ), is the personification of the sky and one of the Greek primordial deities. According to Hesiod, Uranus was the son and husband of Gaia (Earth), with whom he fathered the first generation of Titans. However, no cult addressed directly to Uranus survived into Classical times, and Uranus does not appear among the usual themes of Greek painted pottery. Elemental Earth, Sky, and Styx might be joined, however, in solemn invocation in Homeric epic. Uranus is associated with the Roman god Caelus and the Jewish god Yahweh.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: Most linguists trace the etymology of the name to a Proto-Greek form "*Worsanós" (), enlarged from *"ṷorsó-" (also found in Greek "()" 'to urinate', Sanskrit "varṣá" 'rain', Hittite "ṷarša-" 'fog, mist'). The basic Indo-European root is "*ṷérs-" 'to rain, moisten' (also found in Greek "eérsē" 'dew', Sanskrit "várṣati" 'to rain', or Avestan "aiβi.varəšta" 'it rained on'), making Ouranos the "rain-maker", or the "lord of rain".


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: A less likely etymology is a derivative meaning 'the one standing on high' from PIE *"ṷérso-" (cf. Sanskrit "várṣman" 'height, top', Lithuanian "viršùs" 'upper, highest seat', Russian "verx" 'height, top'). Of some importance in the comparative study of Indo-European mythology is the identification by Georges Dumézil (1934) of Uranus with the Vedic deity "Váruṇa" (Mitanni "Aruna"), god of the sky and waters, but the etymological equation is now considered untenable.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: In Hesiod's "Theogony", which came to be accepted by the Greeks as the "standard" account, from Gaia (Earth), the first entity to come into existence after Chaos (Void), came Uranus, the Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea).


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: Then, according to the "Theogony", Uranus mated with Gaia, and she gave birth to the twelve Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Cronus; the Cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes and Arges; and the Hecatoncheires ("Hundred-Handed Ones"): Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: Further, according to the "Theogony", when Cronus castrated Uranus, from Uranus' blood, which splattered onto the earth, came the Erinyes (Furies), the Giants, and the Meliae. Also, according to the "Theogony", Cronus threw the severed genitals into the sea, around which "a white foam spread" and "grew" into the goddess Aphrodite, although according to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: Other sources give other genealogies. In the lost epic poem the "Titanomachy", Uranus was apparently the son of Aether, while according to others Uranus was the son of one "Acmon". According to Orphic texts, Uranus (along with Gaia) was the offspring of Nyx (Night) and Phanes.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: The poet Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BC), was said to have made Uranus the father of Eros, by either Gaia, according one source, or Aphrodite, according to another.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: The mythographer Apollodorus, gives a slightly different genealogy from Hesiod's. Without mentioning any ancestors, he begins his account by saying simply that Uranus "was the first who ruled over the whole world." According to Apollodorus, the Titans (instead of being Uranus' firstborn as in Hesiod) were born after the three Hundred-Handers and the three Cyclopes, and there were thirteen original Titans, adding the Titanide Dione to Hesiod's list.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: Passages in a section of the "Iliad" called the Deception of Zeus suggest the possibility that Homer knew a tradition in which Oceanus and Tethys (rather than Uranus and Gaia, as in Hesiod) were the parents of the Titans. Plato, in his "Timaeus", provides a genealogy (probably Orphic) which perhaps reflected an attempt to reconcile this apparent divergence between Homer and Hesiod, with Uranus and Gaia as the parents of Oceanus and Tethys, and Oceanus and Tethys as the parents of Cronus and Rhea and the other Titans.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: In Roman mythology, Uranus' counterpart was Caelus (Sky). Cicero says Caelus was the offspring of Aether and Dies (Day), and that Caelus and Dies were the parents of Mercury (Hermes). While, Hyginus says that, in addition to Caelus, Aether and Dies were also the parents of Terra (Earth), and Mare (Sea).


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: As Hesiod tells the story, Gaia "first bore starry Heaven [Uranus], equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods." Then, with Gaia, Uranus produced eighteen children: the twelve Titans, the three Cyclopes, and the three Hecatoncheires (Hundred-Handers), but hating them, he hid them away somewhere inside Gaia. Angry and in distress, Gaia fashioned a sickle made of adamant and urged her children to punish their father. Only her son Cronus, the youngest Titan, was willing to do so. So Gaia hid Cronus in "ambush" gave him the adamantine sickle, and when Uranus came to lie with Gaia, Cronus reached out and castrated his father, casting the severed testicles into the sea. Uranus' castration allowed the Titans to rule and Cronus to assume supreme command of the cosmos.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: For this "fearful deed", Uranus called his sons "Titans (Strainers) in reproach" and said that "vengeance for it would come afterwards." According to Hesiod, from the blood that spilled from Uranus onto the Earth came forth the Giants, the Erinyes (the avenging Furies), the Meliae (the ash-tree nymphs). From the genitals in the sea came forth Aphrodite. According to some accounts, the mythical Phaeacians, visited by Odysseus in the "Odyssey", were also said to have sprung from the blood of Uranus' castration.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: Various sites have been associated with Cronus' sickle, and Uranus' castration. Two of these were on the island of Sicily. According to the Alexandrian poet Callimachus (c. 270 BC), Cronus' sickle was buried at Zancle in Sicily, saying that it was "hidden in a hollow under the ground" there. The other Sicilian site is Drepanum (modern Trapani), whose name is derived from the Greek word for "sickle". Another Alexandrian poet, Lycophron (c. 270 BC), mentions "rounding the Cronos' Sickle's leap", an apparent reference to the "leap" of the sickle being thrown into the sea at Drepanum.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: However other sites were also associated with the sickle. The geographer Pausanias, reports that the sickle was said to have been thrown into the sea from the cape near Bolina, not far from Argyra on the coast of Achaea, and says that "For this reason they call the cape Drepanum". The historian Timaeus located the sickle at Corcyra, which the islanders claimed to be Phaeacia the island home of the Phaeacians, who (as noted above) were said to have been born from the blood of Uranus' castration.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: After his castration, Uranus recedes into the background. Apart from he and Gaia (now reconciled?) warning their son Cronus that he is destined to be overthrown by one of his children, advising their daughter Rhea, Cronus' wife, to go to Lyctus on Crete to give birth to Zeus, so that Zeus would be saved from Cronus, and advising Zeus to swallow his first wife Metis, so that Zeus would not in turn be overthrown by his son, Uranus plays no further role in Greek mythology. He is however identified on the Gigantomachy frieze on the Pergamon Altar, bearded and winged, fighting against the Giants with a sword, not too far from his daughter Themis, who is seen attacking another Giant.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: After his castration, the Sky came no more to cover the Earth at night, but held to its place, and, according to Carl Kerényi, "the original begetting came to an end". Uranus was scarcely regarded as anthropomorphic, aside from the genitalia in the castration myth. He was simply the sky, which was conceived by the ancients as an overarching dome or roof of bronze, held in place (or turned on an axis) by the Titan Atlas. In formulaic expressions in the Homeric poems "ouranos" is sometimes an alternative to Olympus as the collective home of the gods; an obvious occurrence would be the moment in "Iliad" 1.495, when Thetis rises from the sea to plead with Zeus: "and early in the morning she rose up to greet Ouranos-and-Olympus and she found the son of Kronos ..."


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: William Sale remarks that "... 'Olympus' is almost always used [as the home of the Olympian gods<nowiki>]</nowiki>, but "ouranos" often refers to the natural sky above us without any suggestion that the gods, collectively live there". Sale concluded that the earlier seat of the gods was the actual Mount Olympus, from which the epic tradition by the time of Homer had transported them to the sky, "ouranos". By the sixth century, when a "heavenly Aphrodite" (Aphrodite Urania) was to be distinguished from the "common Aphrodite of the people", "ouranos" signifies purely the celestial sphere itself.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: The Greek creation myth is similar to the Hurrian creation myth. In Hurrian religion Anu is the sky god. His son Kumarbis bit off his genitals and spat out three deities, one of whom, Teshub, later deposed Kumarbis. In Sumerian mythology and later for Assyrians and Babylonians, Anu is the sky god and represented law and order.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: It is possible that Uranus was originally an Indo-European god, to be identified with the Vedic , the supreme keeper of order who later became the god of oceans and rivers, as suggested by Georges Dumézil, following hints in Émile Durkheim, "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life" (1912). Another of Dumézil's theories is that the Iranian supreme God Ahura Mazda is a development of the Indo-Iranian *vouruna-*mitra. Therefore, this divinity has also the qualities of Mitra, which is the god of the falling rain.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: Uranus is connected with the night sky, and Váruṇa is the god of the sky and the celestial ocean, which is connected with the Milky Way.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: Georges Dumézil made a cautious case for the identity of Uranus and Vedic at the earliest Indo-European cultural level. Dumézil's identification of mythic elements shared by the two figures, relying to a great extent on linguistic interpretation, but not positing a common origin, was taken up by Robert Graves and others. The identification of the name "Ouranos" with the Hindu Váruṇa, based in part on a posited Proto-Indo-European language root "*-ŭer" with a sense of "binding"—ancient king god Váruṇa binds the wicked, ancient king god Uranus binds the Cyclops, who had tormented him. The most probable etymology is from Proto-Greek "*(W)orsanόj" (worsanos) from a Proto-Indo-European language root "*ers" "to moisten, to drip" (referring to the rain).


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: The detail of the sickle's being flint rather than bronze or even iron was retained by Greek mythographers (though neglected by Roman ones). Knapped flints as cutting edges were set in wooden or bone sickles in the late Neolithic, before the onset of the Bronze Age. Such sickles may have survived latest in ritual contexts where metal was taboo, but the detail, which was retained by classical Greeks, suggests the antiquity of the mytheme.


title: Uranus (mythology)

text: The ancient Greeks and Romans knew of only five "wandering stars" ( ): Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Following the discovery of a sixth planet in 1781 using a telescope, there was long-term disagreement regarding its name. Its discoverer William Herschel named it Georgium Sidus (The Georgian Star) after his monarch George III. This was the name preferred by English astronomers, but others such as the French preferred "Herschel". Finally, the name "Uranus" became accepted in the mid-19th century, as suggested by astronomer Johann Bode as the logical addition to the existing planets' names, since Mars ("Ares" in Greek), Venus, and Mercury were the children of Jupiter, Jupiter ("Zeus" in Greek) the son of Saturn, and Saturn (Cronus in Greek) the son of Uranus. What is anomalous is that, while the others take Roman names, "Uranus" is a name derived from Greek in contrast to the Roman Caelus.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experiments, returns to the Great American Songbook, and fusions of Caribbean sounds. A tenor with a octave range, Nilsson was one of the few major pop-rock recording artists to achieve significant commercial success without ever performing major public concerts or undertaking regular tours.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Born in Brooklyn, Nilsson moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to escape his family's poor financial situation. While working as a computer programmer at a bank, he grew interested in musical composition and close-harmony singing, and was successful in having some of his songs recorded by various artists such as the Monkees. In 1967, he debuted on RCA Victor with the LP "Pandemonium Shadow Show", followed by a variety of releases that included a collaboration with Randy Newman ("Nilsson Sings Newman", 1970) and the original children's story "The Point!" (1971). He created the first remix album ("Aerial Pandemonium Ballet", 1971) and recorded the first mashup song ("You Can't Do That", 1967). His most commercially successful album, "Nilsson Schmilsson" (1971), produced the international top 10 singles "Without You" and "Coconut". His other top 10 hit, "Everybody's Talkin'" (1968), was featured prominently in the 1969 film "Midnight Cowboy". A version of Nilsson's "One", released by Three Dog Night in 1969, also reached the U.S. top 10.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: During a 1968 press conference, the Beatles were asked what their favorite American group was and answered "Nilsson". Sometimes called "the American Beatle", he soon formed close friendships with John Lennon and Ringo Starr. In the 1970s, Nilsson, Lennon and Starr were members of the Hollywood Vampires drinking club. They produced one collaborative album, "Pussy Cats" (1974). After 1977, Nilsson left RCA, and his record output diminished. In response to Lennon's 1980 murder, he took a hiatus from the music industry to campaign for gun control. For the rest of his life, he recorded only sporadically. In 1994, Nilsson died of a heart attack while in the midst of recording what became his last album, "Losst and Founnd" (2019).


title: Harry Nilsson

text: The craft of Nilsson's songs and defiant attitude he projected remain touchstones for later generations of indie rock musicians. Nilsson was voted No. 62 in "Rolling Stone"s 2015 list of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time", where he was described as "a pioneer of the Los Angeles studio sound" and "a crucial bridge" between 1960s psychedelia and the 1970s singer-songwriter era. The RIAA certified "Nilsson Schmilsson" and "Son of Schmilsson" (1972) as gold records, indicating over 500,000 units sold each. He earned two Grammy Awards (for "Everybody's Talkin'" and "Without You").


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson was born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City on June 15, 1941. His paternal great-grandfather, born a Swede who would later emigrate to and become naturalized in the United States, created an act known as an "aerial ballet" (which is the title of one of Nilsson's albums).


title: Harry Nilsson

text: His mother Elizabeth Nilsson ( Martin) was known as "Bette" to the family. She was born in 1920 in New York to Charles Augustus Martin and Florence Madeline ( Stotz) Martin. Bette had a brother, John, and a sister, Mary. Her parents were the cornerstone of her son's young life. While his maternal grandmother played piano, his maternal grandfather Charlie Martin supported the family in a tiny railroad apartment on Jefferson Avenue in Brooklyn. His father, Harry Edward Nilsson Jr., abandoned the family when Harry was three years old. An autobiographical reference to this is found in the opening to Nilsson's song "1941":


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson's "Daddy's Song" also refers to this period in Nilsson's childhood. He grew up with his mother and a younger half-sister. His younger brother, Drake Nilsson, was left with family or friends during their moves between Southern California and New York, sometimes living with a succession of relatives and stepfathers. His uncle, a mechanic in San Bernardino, California, helped Nilsson improve his vocal and musical abilities. In addition to his half-brother and a half-sister through his mother, he also had three half-sisters and one half-brother through his father.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Due to his family's poor financial situation, Nilsson worked from an early age, including a job at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles. When the theatre closed in 1960, he applied for a job at a bank, falsely claiming he was a high school graduate on his application (he completed only ninth grade). He had an aptitude for computers, which were starting to be used at banks at the time. He later performed so well in his role; the bank retained him even after they discovered he had lied about his education. He worked on bank computers at night, and in the daytime pursued his songwriting and singing career.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: By 1958, Nilsson was intrigued by emerging forms of popular music, especially rhythm and blues artists like Ray Charles. He had made early attempts at performing while he was working at the Paramount, forming a vocal duo with his friend Jerry Smith and singing close harmonies in the style of the Everly Brothers. The manager of a hangout Nilsson frequented gave him a plastic ukulele, which he learned to play, and he later learned to play the guitar and piano. In the 2006 documentary "Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?", Nilsson recalled that when he could not remember lyrics or parts of the melodies to popular songs, he created his own, which led to writing original songs.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: His uncle's singing lessons, along with Nilsson's natural talent, helped when he got a job singing demos for songwriter Scott Turner in 1962. Turner paid Nilsson five dollars for each track they recorded. (When Nilsson became famous, Turner decided to release these early recordings, and contacted Nilsson to work out a fair payment. Nilsson replied that he had already been paid – five dollars a track.)


title: Harry Nilsson

text: In 1963, Nilsson began to have some early success as a songwriter, working with John Marascalco on a song for Little Richard. Upon hearing Nilsson sing, Little Richard reportedly remarked: "My! You sing "good" for a white boy!" Marascalco also financed some independent singles by Nilsson. One, "Baa Baa Blacksheep", was released under the pseudonym "Bo Pete" to some small local airplay. Another recording, "Donna, I Understand", convinced Mercury Records to offer Nilsson a contract, and release recordings by him under the name "Johnny Niles".


title: Harry Nilsson

text: By 1964, Nilsson worked with Phil Spector, writing three songs with him. He also established a relationship with songwriter and publisher Perry Botkin, Jr., who began to find a market for Nilsson's songs. Botkin also gave Nilsson a key to his office, providing another place to write after hours.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Through his association with Botkin, Nilsson met and became friends with musician, composer and arranger George Tipton, who at the time was working for Botkin as a music copyist. In 1964, Tipton invested his life savings – $2,500 – to finance the recording of four Nilsson songs, which he also arranged. They were able to sell the completed recordings to Tower label, a recently established subsidiary of Capitol Records, and the tracks were subsequently included on Nilsson's debut album. The fruitful association between Nilsson and Tipton continued after Nilsson signed with RCA Victor. Tipton went on to create the arrangements for nearly all of Nilsson's RCA recordings between 1967 and 1971, but their association ended in the 1970s when the two fell out for unknown reasons.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson's recording contract was picked up by Tower Records, which in 1966 released the first singles actually credited to him by name, as well as the debut album "Spotlight on Nilsson". None of Nilsson's Tower releases charted or gained much critical attention, although his songs were being recorded by Glen Campbell, Fred Astaire, The Shangri-Las, The Yardbirds, and others. Despite his growing success, Nilsson remained on the night shift at the bank.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson signed with RCA Victor in 1966 and released an album the following year, "Pandemonium Shadow Show", which was a critical (if not commercial) success. Music industry insiders were impressed both with the songwriting and with Nilsson's pure-toned, multi-octave vocals. One such insider was Beatles press officer Derek Taylor, who bought an entire box of copies of the album to share this new sound with others. With a major-label release, and continued songwriting success (most notably with The Monkees, who recorded Nilsson's "Cuddly Toy" after meeting him through their producer Chip Douglas), Nilsson finally felt secure enough in the music business to quit his job with the bank. Monkees member Micky Dolenz maintained a close friendship until Nilsson's death in 1994.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Some of the albums from Derek Taylor's box eventually ended up with the Beatles themselves, who quickly became Nilsson fans. This may have been helped by the track "You Can't Do That", in which Nilsson covered the John Lennon penned tune – and also worked references to 17 other Beatles tunes in the mix, usually by quoting snippets of Beatles lyrics in the multi-layered backing vocals. When John Lennon and Paul McCartney held a press conference in 1968 to announce the formation of the Apple Corps, Lennon was asked to name his favorite American artist. He replied, "Nilsson". McCartney was then asked to name his favorite American group. He replied, "Nilsson".


title: Harry Nilsson

text: "You Can't Do That" was Nilsson's first hit as a performer; though it stalled at No. 122 on the US charts, it hit the top 10 in Canada.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: When RCA had asked if there was anything special, he wanted as a signing premium, Nilsson asked for his own office at RCA, being used to working out of one. In the weeks after the Beatles' Apple press conference, Nilsson's office phone began ringing constantly, with offers and requests for interviews and inquiries about his performing schedule. Nilsson usually answered the calls himself, surprising the callers, and answered questions candidly. (He recalled years later the flow of a typical conversation: "When did you play last?" "I didn't." "Where have you played before?" "I haven't." "When will you be playing next?" "I don't.") Nilsson acquired a manager, who steered him into a handful of TV guest appearances, and a brief run of stage performances in Europe set up by RCA. He disliked the experiences he had, though, and decided to stick to the recording studio. He later admitted this was a huge mistake on his part.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: John Lennon called and praised "Pandemonium Shadow Show", which he had listened to in a 36-hour marathon. Paul McCartney called the following day, also expressing his admiration. Eventually a message came, inviting him to London to meet the Beatles, watch them at work, and possibly sign with Apple.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: "Pandemonium Shadow Show" was followed in 1968 by "Aerial Ballet", an album that included Nilsson's rendition of Fred Neil's song "Everybody's Talkin'". A minor US hit at the time of release (and a top 40 hit in Canada), the song would become more popular a year later when it was featured in the film "Midnight Cowboy", and it would earn Nilsson his first Grammy Award. The song would also become Nilsson's first US top 10 hit, reaching No. 6, and his first Canadian #1.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: "Aerial Ballet" also contained Nilsson's version of his composition "One", which was later taken to the top 5 of the US charts by Three Dog Night and also successfully covered in Australia by John Farnham. Nilsson was commissioned at this time to write and perform the theme song for the ABC television series "The Courtship of Eddie's Father". The result, "Best Friend", was very popular, but Nilsson never released the song on record; the original version of the song (titled "Girlfriend") was recorded during the making of "Aerial Ballet" but not included on that LP, and it eventually appeared on the 1995 "Personal Best" anthology, and as a bonus track on a later release of "Aerial Ballet". Late in 1968, The Monkees' notorious experimental film "Head" premiered, featuring a memorable song-and-dance sequence with Davy Jones and Toni Basil performing Nilsson's composition "Daddy's Song". (This is followed by Frank Zappa's cameo as "The Critic", who dismisses the 1920s-style tune as "pretty white".)


title: Harry Nilsson

text: With the success of Nilsson's RCA recordings, Tower re-issued or re-packaged many of their early Nilsson recordings in various formats. All of these reissues failed to chart, including a 1969 single "Good Times". This track, however, was resurrected as a duet with Micky Dolenz for the 2016 Monkees' album of the same name by adding additional parts to an unused Monkees backing track recorded in 1968.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson's next album, "Harry" (1969), was his first to hit the charts, and also provided a Top 40 single with "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City" (written as a contender for the theme to "Midnight Cowboy"), used in the Sophia Loren movie "La Mortadella" (1971) (US title: "Lady Liberty"). While the album still presented Nilsson as primarily a songwriter, his astute choice of cover material included, this time, a song by then-little-known composer Randy Newman, "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear". Nilsson was so impressed with Newman's talent that he devoted his entire next album to Newman compositions, with Newman himself playing piano behind Nilsson's multi-tracked vocals. The result, "Nilsson Sings Newman" (1970), was commercially disappointing but was named Record of the Year by "Stereo Review" magazine and provided momentum to Newman's career. The self-produced "Nilsson Sings Newman" also marked the end of his collaboration with RCA staff producer Rick Jarrard, who recounted in the Nilsson documentary that the partnership was terminated by a telegram from Nilsson, who abruptly informed Jarrard that he wanted to work with other producers, and the two never met or spoke again.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson's next project was an animated film, "The Point!", created with animation director Fred Wolf, and broadcast on ABC television on February 2, 1971, as an "ABC Movie of the Week". Nilsson's self-produced album of songs from "The Point!" was well received and it spawned a top 40 single, "Me and My Arrow".


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Later that year, Nilsson went to England with producer Richard Perry to record what became the most successful album of his career. "Nilsson Schmilsson" yielded three stylistically different hit singles. The first was a cover of Badfinger's song "Without You" (by Welsh songwriters Pete Ham and Tom Evans), featuring a highly emotional arrangement and soaring vocals to match – recorded, according to Perry, in a single take. The performance earned him his second Grammy Award. The second single was "Coconut", a novelty calypso number featuring four characters (the narrator, the brother, the sister, and the doctor) all sung (at Perry's suggestion) in different voices by Nilsson. The song is best remembered for its chorus lyric ("Put de lime in de coconut, and drink 'em both up"). Also notable is that the entire song is played using one chord, C7. The third single, "Jump into the Fire", was raucous rock and roll, including a drum solo by Derek and the Dominos' Jim Gordon and a detuned bass part by Herbie Flowers.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson followed quickly with "Son of Schmilsson" (1972), released while its predecessor was still on the charts. Besides the problem of competing with himself, Nilsson was by then ignoring most of Perry's production advice, and his decision to give free rein to his bawdiness and bluntness on this release alienated some of his earlier, more conservative fan base. With lyrics like "I sang my balls off for you, baby", "Roll the world over / And give her a kiss and a feel", and the notorious "You're breakin' my heart / You're tearin' it apart / So fuck you" (a reference to his ongoing divorce), Nilsson had traveled far afield from his earlier work. The album nevertheless reached No. 12 on the "Billboard" 200, and the single "Spaceman" was a Top 40 hit in October 1972. The follow-up single "Remember (Christmas)", however, stalled at No. 53. A third single, the tongue-in-cheek C&W send up "Joy", was issued on RCA's country imprint Green and credited to Buck Earle, but it failed to chart.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson's disregard for commercialism in favor of artistic satisfaction was on display in his next release, "A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night" (1973). Performing a selection of pop standards by the likes of Berlin, Kalmar, and Ruby, Nilsson sang in front of an orchestra arranged and conducted by veteran Gordon Jenkins in sessions produced by Derek Taylor. This musical endeavor did not do well commercially. The session was filmed, and broadcast as a television special by the BBC in the UK.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: 1973 found Nilsson back in California, and when John Lennon moved there during his separation from Yoko Ono, the two musicians rekindled their earlier friendship. Lennon was intent upon producing Nilsson's next album, much to Nilsson's delight. However, their time together in California became known much more for heavy drinking than it did for musical collaboration. In a widely publicized incident, the two with Ringo Starr were ejected from the Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood for drunken heckling of the Smothers Brothers.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: To make matters worse, at a late night party and jam session during the recording of the album, attended by Lennon, McCartney, Starr, Danny Kortchmar, and other musicians, Nilsson ruptured a vocal cord, but he hid the injury for fear that Lennon would call a halt to the production. The resulting album was "Pussy Cats". In an effort to clean up, Lennon, Nilsson and Ringo Starr first rented a house together, then Lennon, Nilsson and Starr left for New York. After the relative failure of his latest two albums, RCA Records considered dropping Nilsson's contract. In a show of friendship, Lennon and Starr accompanied Nilsson to negotiations, and both intimated to RCA that Lennon and Starr might want to sign with them, once their Apple Records contracts with EMI expired in 1975, but would not be interested if Nilsson were no longer with the label. RCA took the hint and re-signed Nilsson (adding a bonus clause, to apply to each new album completed), but neither Lennon nor Starr signed with RCA.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: In 1973 Nilsson performed in a film with Ringo called "Son of Dracula", a musical featuring many of his songs and a new cut, "Daybreak". The subsequent soundtrack produced by Richard Perry was released in 1974.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson's voice had mostly recovered by his next release, "Duit on Mon Dei" (1975), but neither it nor its follow-ups, "Sandman" and "...That's the Way It Is" (both 1976), were met with chart success. Finally, Nilsson recorded what he later considered to be his favorite album "Knnillssonn" (1977). With his voice strong again, and his songs exploring musical territory reminiscent of "Harry" or "The Point!", Nilsson anticipated "Knnillssonn" to be a comeback album. RCA seemed to agree, and promised Nilsson a substantial marketing campaign for the album. However, the death of Elvis Presley caused RCA to ignore everything except meeting demand for Presley's back catalog, and the promised marketing push never happened. This, combined with RCA releasing a "Nilsson Greatest Hits" collection without consulting him, prompted Nilsson to leave the label.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson's 1970s London residence, at Flat 12, 9 Curzon Place on the edge of Mayfair, was a two-bedroom apartment decorated by the ROR ("Ringo or Robin") design company owned by Starr and interior designer Robin Cruikshank. Nilsson cumulatively spent several years at the apartment, which was located near Apple Records, the Playboy Club, the Tramp nightclub, and the homes of friends and business associates. Nilsson's work and interests took him to the US for extended periods, and while he was away, he lent his place to numerous musician friends. During one of his absences, singer Cass Elliot, formerly of The Mamas & the Papas, and a few members of her tour group stayed at the apartment while she performed solo at the London Palladium, headlining with her torch songs and "Don't Call Me Mama Anymore". Following a strenuous performance with encores on July 29, 1974, Elliot was discovered in one of the bedrooms, dead of heart failure at age 32.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: On September 7, 1978, the Who drummer Keith Moon returned to the same room in the apartment after a night out, and died at 32 from an overdose of Clomethiazole, a prescribed anti-alcohol drug. Nilsson, distraught over another friend's death in his apartment, and having little need for the property, sold it to Moon's bandmate Pete Townshend and consolidated his life in Los Angeles.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson's musical output after leaving RCA Victor was sporadic. He wrote a musical, "Zapata", with Perry Botkin Jr. and libretto by Allan Katz, which was produced and directed by longtime friend Bert Convy. The show was mounted at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, but never had another production. He wrote all the songs for Robert Altman's movie-musical "Popeye" (1980), the score of which met with unfavorable reviews. Nilsson's "Popeye" compositions included several songs that were representative of Nilsson's acclaimed "Point" era, such as "Everything Is Food" and "Sweethaven". The song "He Needs Me" was featured years later in the film "Punch-Drunk Love". Nilsson recorded one more album, "Flash Harry", co-produced by Bruce Robb and Steve Cropper, which was released in the UK but not in the US. From this point onward, Nilsson increasingly began referring to himself as a "retired musician".


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson was profoundly affected by the death of John Lennon on December 8, 1980. He joined the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and overcame his preference for privacy to make appearances for gun control fundraising. He began to appear at Beatlefest conventions and he would get on stage with the Beatlefest house band "Liverpool" to sing either some of his own songs or "Give Peace a Chance".


title: Harry Nilsson

text: After a long hiatus from the studio, Nilsson started recording sporadically once again in the mid to late 1980s. Most of these recordings were commissioned songs for movies or television shows. One notable exception was his work on a Yoko Ono Lennon tribute album, "Every Man Has a Woman" (1984) (Polydor); another was a cover of "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" recorded for Hal Willner's 1988 tribute album "". Nilsson donated his performance royalties from the song to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: In 1985, Nilsson set up a production company, Hawkeye, to oversee various film, TV, and multimedia projects with which he was involved. He appointed his friend, satirist, and screenwriter Terry Southern, as one of the principals. They collaborated on a number of screenplays including "Obits" (a "Citizen Kane"-style story about a journalist investigating an obituary notice) and "The Telephone", a comedy about an unhinged unemployed actor.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: "The Telephone" was virtually the only Hawkeye project that made it to the screen. It had been written with Robin Williams in mind but he turned it down; comedian-actress Whoopi Goldberg then signed on, with Southern's friend Rip Torn directing, but the project was troubled. Torn battled with Goldberg, who interfered in the production and constantly digressed from the script during shooting, and Torn was forced to plead with her to perform takes that stuck to the screenplay. Torn, Southern, and Nilsson put together their own version of the film, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival in early 1988, but it was overtaken by the 'official' version from the studio, and this version premiered to poor reviews in late January 1988. The project reportedly had some later success when adapted as a theatre piece in Germany.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: In 1990, Hawkeye foundered, and Nilsson found himself in a dire financial situation after it was discovered that his financial adviser, Cindy Sims, had embezzled all the funds he had earned as a recording artist. The Nilssons were left with $300 in the bank and a mountain of debt, while Sims was imprisoned for less than two years before her 1994 release and was not required to pay restitution.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: In 1991, the Disney album "For Our Children", a compilation of children's music performed by celebrities to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, included Nilsson's original composition "Blanket for a Sail", recorded at the Shandaliza Recording Studio in Los Angeles. Also in 1991, he recorded a cover of "How About You?" for the soundtrack of the Terry Gilliam film "The Fisher King". In 1992, he wrote and recorded the title song for the film "Me Myself & I".


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson made his last concert appearance September 1, 1992, when he joined Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band on stage at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, to sing "Without You" with Todd Rundgren handling the high notes. Afterward, an emotional Starr embraced Nilsson on stage. Nilsson's final album, tentatively titled "Papa's Got a Brown New Robe" (produced by Mark Hudson) was not released, though several demos from the album were later made available on promotional CDs and online.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Born with congenital heart problems, Nilsson suffered a heart attack on February 14, 1993. After surviving that, he began pressing his former label, RCA Records, to release a boxed-set retrospective of his career, and resumed recording, attempting to complete one final album. He finished the vocal tracks for the album with producer Mark Hudson, who held onto the tapes of that session. Nilsson died of heart failure on January 15, 1994, in his Agoura Hills, California, home at the age of 52. In 1995, the 2-disc CD anthology he worked on with RCA, "Personal Best", was released. The final album was eventually released on November 22, 2019, as "Losst and Founnd". Nilsson is interred in the Valley Oaks Memorial Park at Westlake Village, California.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson married Sandi McTaggart on October 24, 1964. They had no children other than his step-son, Scott Roberts. They divorced in 1967. Nilsson married Diane Clatworthy on December 31, 1969. They had one son, Zak Nine Nilsson, who died of colon cancer on March 4, 2021.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson and Clatworthy divorced in 1974. Nilsson married Una O'Keeffe on August 12, 1976; they remained married until his death on January 15, 1994. They had six children.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: Nilsson is the subject of the 2006 documentary "Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?" Written, directed, and co-produced by


title: Harry Nilsson

text: John Schienfeld, the film was screened in 2006 at the Seattle International Film Festival and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. In August 2006, the film received its Los Angeles premiere when it was screened at the 7th Annual Mods & Rockers Film Festival, followed by a panel discussion featuring the filmmakers and two friends of Nilsson: producer Richard Perry and attorney/executive producer Lee Blackman.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: The filmmakers re-edited the film with rare found footage of Nilsson, additional interviews, and family photographs, and released it on September 17, 2010, at selected theaters in the United States. A DVD, including additional footage not in the theatrical release, was released on October 26, 2010.


title: Harry Nilsson

text: On July 30, 2013, Sony Music released a definitive box-set of his RCA era albums called "The RCA Albums Collection". Each of the albums in the 17-CD set had additional bonus tracks, and three of the 17 discs contained rarities and outtakes spanning his entire career. Several weeks later on August 13, "Flash Harry" was finally issued on CD, which also featured additional material.


title: Talmud

text: The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ("halakha") and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews.


title: Talmud

text: The term "Talmud" normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (), although there is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud (). It may also traditionally be called (), a Hebrew abbreviation of , or the "six orders" of the Mishnah.


title: Talmud

text: The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (, 200 CE), a written compendium of the Oral Torah; and the Gemara (, 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. The term "Talmud" may refer to either the Gemara alone, or the Mishnah and Gemara together.


title: Talmud

text: The entire Talmud consists of 63 tractates, and in the standard print, called the Vilna Shas, there are 2,711 double-sided folios. It is written in Mishnaic Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis (dating from before the Common Era through to the fifth century) on a variety of subjects, including halakha, Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, and folklore, and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature.


title: Talmud

text: Originally, Jewish scholarship was oral and transferred from one generation to the next. Rabbis expounded and debated the Torah (the written Torah expressed in the Hebrew Bible) and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written works (other than the Biblical books themselves), though some may have made private notes (""), for example, of court decisions. This situation changed drastically due to the Roman destruction of the Jewish commonwealth and the Second Temple in the year 70 and the consequent upheaval of Jewish social and legal norms. As the rabbis were required to face a new reality—mainly Judaism without a Temple (to serve as the center of teaching and study) and total Roman control over Judaea, without at least partial autonomy—there was a flurry of legal discourse and the old system of oral scholarship could not be maintained. It is during this period that rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing.


title: Talmud

text: The oldest full manuscript of the Talmud, known as the Munich Talmud (Codex Hebraicus 95), dates from 1342 and is available online.


title: Talmud

text: The process of "Gemara" proceeded in what were then the two major centers of Jewish scholarship: Galilee and Babylonia. Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two works of Talmud were created. The older compilation is called the Jerusalem Talmud or the . It was compiled in the 4th century in Galilee. The Babylonian Talmud was compiled about the year 500, although it continued to be edited later. The word "Talmud", when used without qualification, usually refers to the Babylonian Talmud.


title: Talmud

text: While the editors of Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud each mention the other community, most scholars believe these documents were written independently; Louis Jacobs writes, "If the editors of either had had access to an actual text of the other, it is inconceivable that they would not have mentioned this. Here the argument from silence is very convincing."


title: Talmud

text: The Jerusalem Talmud, also known as the Palestinian Talmud, or (Talmud of the Land of Israel), was one of the two compilations of Jewish religious teachings and commentary that was transmitted orally for centuries prior to its compilation by Jewish scholars in the Land of Israel. It is a compilation of teachings of the schools of Tiberias, Sepphoris, and Caesarea. It is written largely in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, a Western Aramaic language that differs from its Babylonian counterpart.


title: Talmud

text: This Talmud is a synopsis of the analysis of the Mishnah that was developed over the course of nearly 200 years by the Academies in Galilee (principally those of Tiberias and Caesarea.) Because of their location, the sages of these Academies devoted considerable attention to the analysis of the agricultural laws of the Land of Israel. Traditionally, this Talmud was thought to have been redacted in about the year 350 by Rav Muna and Rav Yossi in the Land of Israel. It is traditionally known as the "Talmud Yerushalmi" ("Jerusalem Talmud"), but the name is a misnomer, as it was not prepared in Jerusalem. It has more accurately been called "The Talmud of the Land of Israel".


title: Talmud

text: Its final redaction probably belongs to the end of the 4th century, but the individual scholars who brought it to its present form cannot be fixed with assurance. By this time Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire and Jerusalem the holy city of Christendom. In 325 Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, said "let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd." This policy made a Jew an outcast and pauper. The compilers of the Jerusalem Talmud consequently lacked the time to produce a work of the quality they had intended. The text is evidently incomplete and is not easy to follow.


title: Talmud

text: The apparent cessation of work on the Jerusalem Talmud in the 5th century has been associated with the decision of Theodosius II in 425 to suppress the Patriarchate and put an end to the practice of semikhah, formal scholarly ordination. Some modern scholars have questioned this connection.


title: Talmud

text: Despite its incomplete state, the Jerusalem Talmud remains an indispensable source of knowledge of the development of the Jewish Law in the Holy Land. It was also an important primary source for the study of the Babylonian Talmud by the Kairouan school of Chananel ben Chushiel and Nissim ben Jacob, with the result that opinions ultimately based on the Jerusalem Talmud found their way into both the Tosafot and the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides. Ethical maxims contained in the Jerusalem Talmud are scattered and interspersed in the legal discussions throughout the several treatises, many of which differing from those in the Babylonian Talmud.


title: Talmud

text: Following the formation of the modern state of Israel there is some interest in restoring "Eretz Yisrael" traditions. For example, rabbi David Bar-Hayim of the "Makhon Shilo" institute has issued a siddur reflecting "Eretz Yisrael" practice as found in the Jerusalem Talmud and other sources.


title: Talmud

text: The Babylonian Talmud ("Talmud Bavli") consists of documents compiled over the period of late antiquity (3rd to 6th centuries). During this time, the most important of the Jewish centres in Mesopotamia, a region called "Babylonia" in Jewish sources and later known as Iraq, were Nehardea, Nisibis (modern Nusaybin), Mahoza (al-Mada'in, just to the south of what is now Baghdad), Pumbedita (near present-day al Anbar Governorate), and the Sura Academy, probably located about south of Baghdad.


title: Talmud

text: The Babylonian Talmud comprises the Mishnah and the Babylonian Gemara, the latter representing the culmination of more than 300 years of analysis of the Mishnah in the Talmudic Academies in Babylonia. The foundations of this process of analysis were laid by Abba Arika (175–247), a disciple of Judah ha-Nasi. Tradition ascribes the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud in its present form to two Babylonian sages, Rav Ashi and Ravina II. Rav Ashi was president of the Sura Academy from 375 to 427. The work begun by Rav Ashi was completed by Ravina, who is traditionally regarded as the final Amoraic expounder. Accordingly, traditionalists argue that Ravina's death in 475 is the latest possible date for the completion of the redaction of the Talmud. However, even on the most traditional view, a few passages are regarded as the work of a group of rabbis who edited the Talmud after the end of the Amoraic period, known as the "Savoraim" or "Rabbanan Savora'e" (meaning "reasoners" or "considerers").


title: Talmud

text: There are significant differences between the two Talmud compilations. The language of the Jerusalem Talmud is a western Aramaic dialect, which differs from the form of Aramaic in the Babylonian Talmud. The Talmud Yerushalmi is often fragmentary and difficult to read, even for experienced Talmudists. The redaction of the Talmud Bavli, on the other hand, is more careful and precise. The law as laid down in the two compilations is basically similar, except in emphasis and in minor details. The Jerusalem Talmud has not received much attention from commentators, and such traditional commentaries as exist are mostly concerned with comparing its teachings to those of the Talmud Bavli.


title: Talmud

text: Neither the Jerusalem nor the Babylonian Talmud covers the entire Mishnah: for example, a Babylonian Gemara exists only for 37 out of the 63 tractates of the Mishnah. In particular:


title: Talmud

text: The Babylonian Talmud records the opinions of the rabbis of the "Ma'arava" (the West, meaning Israel/Palestine) as well as of those of Babylonia, while the Jerusalem Talmud seldom cites the Babylonian rabbis. The Babylonian version also contains the opinions of more generations because of its later date of completion. For both these reasons, it is regarded as a more comprehensive collection of the opinions available. On the other hand, because of the centuries of redaction between the composition of the Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmud, the opinions of early "amoraim" might be closer to their original form in the Jerusalem Talmud.


title: Talmud

text: The influence of the Babylonian Talmud has been far greater than that of the "Yerushalmi". In the main, this is because the influence and prestige of the Jewish community of Israel steadily declined in contrast with the Babylonian community in the years after the redaction of the Talmud and continuing until the Gaonic era. Furthermore, the editing of the Babylonian Talmud was superior to that of the Jerusalem version, making it more accessible and readily usable. According to Maimonides (whose life began almost a hundred years after the end of the Gaonic era), all Jewish communities during the Gaonic era formally accepted the Babylonian Talmud as binding upon themselves, and modern Jewish practice follows the Babylonian Talmud's conclusions on all areas in which the two Talmuds conflict.


title: Talmud

text: The structure of the Talmud follows that of the Mishnah, in which six orders ("sedarim"; singular: "seder") of general subject matter are divided into 60 or 63 tractates ("masekhtot"; singular: "masekhet") of more focused subject compilations, though not all tractates have Gemara. Each tractate is divided into chapters ("perakim"; singular: "perek"), 517 in total, that are both numbered according to the Hebrew alphabet and given names, usually using the first one or two words in the first mishnah. A "perek" may continue over several (up to tens of) pages. Each "perek" will contain several "mishnayot".


title: Talmud

text: The Mishnah is a compilation of legal opinions and debates. Statements in the Mishnah are typically terse, recording brief opinions of the rabbis debating a subject; or recording only an unattributed ruling, apparently representing a consensus view. The rabbis recorded in the Mishnah are known as the Tannaim (literally, "repeaters," or "teachers"). These tannaim—rabbis of the second century CE--"who produced the Mishnah and other tannaic works, must be distinguished from the rabbis of the third to fifth centuries, known as amoraim (literally, "speakers"), who produced the two Talmudim and other amoraic works".


title: Talmud

text: Since it sequences its laws by subject matter instead of by biblical context, the Mishnah discusses individual subjects more thoroughly than the Midrash, and it includes a much broader selection of halakhic subjects than the Midrash. The Mishnah's topical organization thus became the framework of the Talmud as a whole. But not every tractate in the Mishnah has a corresponding Gemara. Also, the order of the tractates in the Talmud differs in some cases from that in the "Mishnah".


title: Talmud

text: In addition to the Mishnah, other tannaitic teachings were current at about the same time or shortly after that. The Gemara frequently refers to these tannaitic statements in order to compare them to those contained in the Mishnah and to support or refute the propositions of the Amoraim.


title: Talmud

text: The "baraitot" cited in the Gemara are often quotations from the Tosefta (a tannaitic compendium of halakha parallel to the Mishnah) and the Midrash halakha (specifically Mekhilta, Sifra and Sifre). Some "baraitot", however, are known only through traditions cited in the Gemara, and are not part of any other collection.


title: Talmud

text: In the three centuries following the redaction of the Mishnah, rabbis in Palestine and Babylonia analyzed, debated, and discussed that work. These discussions form the Gemara. The Gemara mainly focuses on elucidating and elaborating the opinions of the Tannaim. The rabbis of the Gemara are known as (sing. "" ).


title: Talmud

text: Much of the Gemara consists of legal analysis. The starting point for the analysis is usually a legal statement found in a Mishnah. The statement is then analyzed and compared with other statements used in different approaches to biblical exegesis in rabbinic Judaism (or – simpler – interpretation of text in Torah study) exchanges between two (frequently anonymous and sometimes metaphorical) disputants, termed the ' (questioner) and ' (answerer). Another important function of Gemara is to identify the correct biblical basis for a given law presented in the Mishnah and the logical process connecting one with the other: this activity was known as "talmud" long before the existence of the "Talmud" as a text.


title: Talmud

text: In addition to the six Orders, the Talmud contains a series of short treatises of a later date, usually printed at the end of Seder Nezikin. These are not divided into Mishnah and Gemara.


title: Talmud

text: Within the Gemara, the quotations from the Mishnah and the Baraitas and verses of Tanakh quoted and embedded in the Gemara are in either Mishnaic or Biblical Hebrew. The rest of the Gemara, including the discussions of the Amoraim and the overall framework, is in a characteristic dialect of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. There are occasional quotations from older works in other dialects of Aramaic, such as Megillat Taanit. Overall, Hebrew constitutes somewhat less than half of the text of the Talmud.


title: Talmud

text: This difference in language is due to the long time period elapsing between the two compilations. During the period of the Tannaim (rabbis cited in the Mishnah), a late form of Hebrew known as Rabbinic or Mishnaic Hebrew was still in use as a spoken vernacular among Jews in Judaea (alongside Greek and Aramaic), whereas during the period of the Amoraim (rabbis cited in the Gemara), which began around the year 200, the spoken vernacular was almost exclusively Aramaic. Hebrew continued to be used for the writing of religious texts, poetry, and so forth.


title: Talmud

text: Even within the Aramaic of the Gemara, different dialects or writing styles can be observed in different tractates. One dialect is common to most of the Babylonian Talmud, while a second dialect is used in Nedarim, Nazir, Temurah, Keritot, and Me'ilah; the second dialect is closer in style to the Targum.


title: Talmud

text: From the time of its completion, the Talmud became integral to Jewish scholarship. A maxim in Pirkei Avot advocates its study from the age of 15. This section outlines some of the major areas of Talmudic study.


title: Talmud

text: The earliest Talmud commentaries were written by the Geonim ( 800–1000) in Babylonia. Although some direct commentaries on particular treatises are extant, our main knowledge of the Gaonic era Talmud scholarship comes from statements embedded in Geonic responsa that shed light on Talmudic passages: these are arranged in the order of the Talmud in Levin's "Otzar ha-Geonim". Also important are practical abridgments of Jewish law such as Yehudai Gaon's "Halachot Pesukot", Achai Gaon's "Sheeltot" and Simeon Kayyara's "Halachot Gedolot". After the death of Hai Gaon, however, the center of Talmud scholarship shifts to Europe and North Africa.


title: Talmud

text: One area of Talmudic scholarship developed out of the need to ascertain the Halakha. Early commentators such as rabbi Isaac Alfasi (North Africa, 1013–1103) attempted to extract and determine the binding legal opinions from the vast corpus of the Talmud. Alfasi's work was highly influential, attracted several commentaries in its own right and later served as a basis for the creation of halakhic codes. Another influential medieval Halakhic work following the order of the Babylonian Talmud, and to some extent modelled on Alfasi, was "the "Mordechai"", a compilation by Mordechai ben Hillel ( 1250–1298). A third such work was that of rabbi Asher ben Yechiel (d. 1327). All these works and their commentaries are printed in the Vilna and many subsequent editions of the Talmud.


title: Talmud

text: A 15th-century Spanish rabbi, Jacob ibn Habib (d. 1516), composed the "Ein Yaakov". "Ein Yaakov" (or "En Ya'aqob") extracts nearly all the Aggadic material from the Talmud. It was intended to familiarize the public with the ethical parts of the Talmud and to dispute many of the accusations surrounding its contents.


title: Talmud

text: The commentaries on the Talmud constitute only a small part of Rabbinic literature in comparison with the responsa literature and the commentaries on the codices. When the Talmud was concluded the traditional literature was still so fresh in the memory of scholars that no need existed for writing Talmudic commentaries, nor were such works undertaken in the first period of the gaonate. Paltoi ben Abaye ("c." 840) was the first who in his responsum offered verbal and textual comments on the Talmud. His son, Zemah ben Paltoi paraphrased and explained the passages which he quoted; and he composed, as an aid to the study of the Talmud, a lexicon which Abraham Zacuto consulted in the fifteenth century. Saadia Gaon is said to have composed commentaries on the Talmud, aside from his Arabic commentaries on the Mishnah.


title: Talmud

text: There are many passages in the Talmud which are cryptic and difficult to understand. Its language contains many Greek and Persian words that became obscure over time. A major area of Talmudic scholarship developed to explain these passages and words. Some early commentators such as Rabbenu Gershom of Mainz (10th century) and Rabbenu Ḥananel (early 11th century) produced running commentaries to various tractates. These commentaries could be read with the text of the Talmud and would help explain the meaning of the text. Another important work is the "Sefer ha-Mafteaḥ" (Book of the Key) by Nissim Gaon, which contains a preface explaining the different forms of Talmudic argumentation and then explains abbreviated passages in the Talmud by cross-referring to parallel passages where the same thought is expressed in full. Commentaries ("ḥiddushim") by Joseph ibn Migash on two tractates, Bava Batra and Shevuot, based on Ḥananel and Alfasi, also survive, as does a compilation by Zechariah Aghmati called "Sefer ha-Ner". Using a different style, rabbi Nathan b. Jechiel created a lexicon called the "Arukh" in the 11th century to help translate difficult words.


title: Talmud

text: By far the best-known commentary on the Babylonian Talmud is that of Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, 1040–1105). The commentary is comprehensive, covering almost the entire Talmud. Written as a running commentary, it provides a full explanation of the words and explains the logical structure of each Talmudic passage. It is considered indispensable to students of the Talmud. Although Rashi drew upon all his predecessors, his originality in using the material offered by them was unparalleled. His commentaries, in turn, became the basis of the work of his pupils and successors, who composed a large number of supplementary works that were partly in emendation and partly in explanation of Rashi's, and are known under the title "Tosafot." ("additions" or "supplements").


title: Talmud

text: The "Tosafot" are collected commentaries by various medieval Ashkenazic rabbis on the Talmud (known as "Tosafists" or "Ba'alei Tosafot"). One of the main goals of the "Tosafot" is to explain and interpret contradictory statements in the Talmud. Unlike Rashi, the "Tosafot" is not a running commentary, but rather comments on selected matters. Often the explanations of "Tosafot" differ from those of Rashi.


title: Talmud

text: In Yeshiva, the integration of Talmud, Rashi and Tosafot, is considered as the foundation (and prerequisite) for further analysis; this combination is sometimes referred to by the acronym ""gefet"" ( גפ״ת - "Gemara", "perush Rashi", "Tosafot").


title: Talmud

text: Among the founders of the Tosafist school were Rabbi Jacob ben Meir (known as Rabbeinu Tam), who was a grandson of Rashi, and, Rabbenu Tam's nephew, rabbi Isaac ben Samuel. The Tosafot commentaries were collected in different editions in the various schools. The benchmark collection of Tosafot for Northern France was that of R. Eliezer of Touques. The standard collection for Spain was that of Rabbenu Asher ("Tosefot Harosh"). The Tosafot that are printed in the standard Vilna edition of the Talmud are an edited version compiled from the various medieval collections, predominantly that of Touques.


title: Talmud

text: Over time, the approach of the Tosafists spread to other Jewish communities, particularly those in Spain. This led to the composition of many other commentaries in similar styles.


title: Talmud

text: Among these are the commentaries of Nachmanides (Ramban), Solomon ben Adret (Rashba), Yom Tov of Seville (Ritva) and Nissim of Gerona (Ran); these are often titled “"Chiddushei" ...” (“Novellae of ...”).


title: Talmud

text: A comprehensive anthology consisting of extracts from all these is the "Shittah Mekubbetzet" of Bezalel Ashkenazi.


title: Talmud

text: Other commentaries produced in Spain and Provence were not influenced by the Tosafist style. Two of the most significant of these are the Yad Ramah by rabbi Meir Abulafia and "Bet Habechirah" by rabbi Menahem haMeiri, commonly referred to as "Meiri". While the "Bet Habechirah" is extant for all of Talmud, we only have the "Yad Ramah" for Tractates Sanhedrin, Baba Batra and Gittin. Like the commentaries of Ramban and the others, these are generally printed as independent works, though some Talmud editions include the "Shittah Mekubbetzet" in an abbreviated form.


title: Talmud

text: In later centuries, focus partially shifted from direct Talmudic interpretation to the analysis of previously written Talmudic commentaries. These later commentaries are generally printed at the back of each tractate. Well known are "Maharshal" (Solomon Luria), "Maharam" (Meir Lublin) and "Maharsha" (Samuel Edels), which analyze Rashi and Tosafot together; other such commentaries include "Ma'adanei Yom Tov" by Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, in turn a commentary on the Rosh (see below), and the glosses by Zvi Hirsch Chajes.


title: Talmud

text: Another very useful study aid, found in almost all editions of the Talmud, consists of the marginal notes "Torah Or", "Ein Mishpat Ner Mitzvah" and "Masoret ha-Shas" by the Italian rabbi Joshua Boaz, which give references respectively to the cited Biblical passages, to the relevant halachic codes ("Mishneh Torah", "Tur", "Shulchan Aruch", and "Se'mag") and to related Talmudic passages.


title: Talmud

text: Most editions of the Talmud include brief marginal notes by Akiva Eger under the name "Gilyon ha-Shas", and textual notes by Joel Sirkes and the Vilna Gaon (see Textual emendations below), on the page together with the text.


title: Talmud

text: Commentaries discussing the Halachik-legal content include "Rosh", "Rif" and "Mordechai"; these are now standard appendices to each volume. Rambam's "Mishneh Torah" is invariably studied alongside these three; although a code, and therefore not in the same order as the Talmud, the relevant location is identified via the ""Ein Mishpat"", as mentioned.


title: Talmud

text: A recent project, "Halacha Brura", founded by Abraham Isaac Kook, presents the Talmud and a summary of the halachic codes side by side, so as to enable the "collation" of Talmud with resultant Halacha.