title: Porsche Panamera

text: As of 2011, the largest national market was the United States with 6188 sold. Sales by cities: Los Angeles (890), New York (760), Hong Kong (300), Dubai (285), Tokyo (223), Munich (206), Moscow (203), Shanghai (188), Hamburg (117) and Berlin (108). Sales internationally by model variant: Panamera 4S (9394), Turbo (6171), S (4563) and V6 (2390—introduced weeks earlier).


title: Porsche Panamera

text: In 2012, U.S. sales of the Panamera totaled 7614 and Canadian sales of the Panamera totaled 422. In 2017, most of the Panameras sold in Northern Europe were hybrids.


title: Porsche Panamera

text: In September 2008, Porsche released the first teaser image for the Panamera. In early October 2008, an undisguised Panamera was captured on film in Busan, South Korea.


title: Porsche Panamera

text: On 28 November 2008, Porsche sent a mailer containing two photos of the Panamera which were labeled as "the first official images of the Porsche Panamera" with an invitation to have online access to Porsche USA's website.


title: Porsche Panamera

text: On 19 April 2009, Porsche finally unveiled the Porsche Panamera sedan to the public at the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show. One of the highlights of the Panamera's debut was fitting the car in the freight elevator of the Shanghai World Financial Center and sending it to the skyscraper's 94th floor.


title: Porsche Panamera

text: An estate version concept of the Panamera was introduced at the 2012 Paris Motor Show called Sport Turismo. Powered by an advancement of Porsche's current hybrid system utilized in the Panamera S Hybrid, the Sport Turismo concept's new "e-Hybrid" system uses the 333-horsepower, supercharged 3.0-litre V6 and a 95-horsepower electric motor for 416 combined horses and a 30-kilometer electric range. As opposed to the current production system, this e-Hybrid setup prioritizes all-electric motivation unless the driver instructs the car otherwise. The Sport Turismo is technically a plug-in hybrid since the lithium-ion battery pack can be fully charged in as little as 2.5 hours when plugged into a wall outlet. Porsche declares that the combined powertrain is proficient for 0– acceleration in less than six seconds, and that the Sport Turismo can exceed while running purely on electric power. In 2010, a variant for Taxis named "Taxamera" was created.


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: Poke (Hawaiian for "to slice" or "cut crosswise into pieces"; sometimes anglicised as 'poké' to aid pronunciation) is diced raw fish served either as an appetizer or a main course and is one of the popular dishes in Hawaii. Traditional forms are "aku" (skipjack tuna) and "he""e" (octopus). "Heʻe poke" is sometimes called "tako poke" in places where the Hawaiian language is not spoken. Poke differs from other raw fish dishes in that it does not use citrus fruits as a curing agent.


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: Poke began with fishermen seasoning the cut-offs from their catch to serve as a snack. According to the food historian Rachel Laudan, the present form of poke became popular around the 1970s. It used skinned, deboned, and filleted raw fish served with Hawaiian salt, seaweed, and roasted, ground candlenut meat. This form of poke is still common in the Hawaiian islands.


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: Beginning around 2012, poke became increasingly popular in North America. From 2014 to mid-2016, "the number of Hawaiian restaurants on Foursquare, which includes those that serve poke," doubled, going from 342 to 700. These restaurants serve both traditional and modern versions of the dish. The modern version is sometimes called poké bowl and may have the ingredients arranged in a grouped way rather than mixed. Contemporary poke restaurants are mostly—but not exclusively—fast casual style restaurants where the dish is fully customizable from the base to the marinade on the fish.


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: There is a three-day "I Love Poke" festival held in San Diego yearly to celebrate the dish and its many variations.


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: Traditional Hawaiian poke may consist of cubed raw fish, maui onions, inamona (roasted, crushed and salted candlenut), green onions, and/or sesame oil. It is served with traditional condiments such as Hawaiian sea salt and limu.


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: Modern Hawaiian versions of traditional poke seasonings have been heavily influenced by Japanese and other Asian cuisines, such as soy sauce, furikake (mix of dried fish, sesame seeds, and dried seaweed), chopped dried or fresh chili pepper, fish eggs, and wasabi. Fish types may include cured "hee" (octopus), other types of raw tuna, raw salmon and various kinds of shellfish.


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: North American variations may include ponzu sauce, teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, sriracha sauce, and mayonnaise as sauces, and avocado, mushrooms, crispy onions, pickled jalapeño, cilantro, pineapple, cucumber, edamame, green onions, and a variety of other fusion cuisine vegetables among the chopped ingredients. Unlike traditional Hawaiian poke, the mainland style is typically not pre-marinated but is instead prepared with sauces on demand. A variety of fish may be available, with ahi tuna the most popular, and yellowtail, salmon, octopus, crab, and imitation crab as common additional choices. An option to add a base of cooked rice is not uncommon.


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: Poke is similar to other Polynesian fish salads such as "ika mata" in the Cook Islands, "kokoda" in Fiji, oka in Samoa and 'ota 'ika in Tonga.


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: A very similar dish is the "kinilaw" of the Philippines. "Kinilaw" is usually raw diced fish marinated in citrus juice, sour fruits, or vinegar with extracts from mangrove bark or fruits (and sometimes coconut milk). This process can also be applied to other seafood and lightly blanched or grilled meat (the latter being generally differentiated as "kilawin"). The dish was introduced to Guam during the Spanish colonial period, resulting in the derivative Chamorro dish of "kelaguen".


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: The Ilocano dish poqui poqui of the Philippines also likely derived its name from poke, after the influx of Ilocano sugarcane workers to Hawaii during the American colonization of the Philippines. However, they are very different dishes, with poqui poqui being a scrambled egg dish with grilled eggplants and tomatoes.


title: Poke (Hawaiian dish)

text: Raw fish dishes similar to poke that are often served in Europe are fish carpaccio and fish tartare. Also similar to poke are Korean hoe-deopbap, marinated raw tuna served over rice, and Peruvian ceviche. Japanese sashimi also consists of raw seafood; other similar Japanese dishes are zuke don, a donburi dish topped with cured fish (usually tuna or salmon) along with avocado topped with furikake, and kaisendon, a more elaborate version served with additional non-fish toppings.


title: Troll

text: A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.


title: Troll

text: In later Scandinavian folklore, trolls became beings in their own right, where they live far from human habitation, are not Christianized, and are considered dangerous to human beings. Depending on the source, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted, or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them.


title: Troll

text: Trolls are sometimes associated with particular landmarks in Scandinavian folklore, which at times may be explained as formed from a troll exposed to sunlight. Trolls are depicted in a variety of media in modern popular culture.


title: Troll

text: The Old Norse nouns "troll" and "trǫll" (variously meaning "fiend, demon, werewolf, jötunn") and Middle High German "troll, trolle" "fiend" (according to philologist Vladimir Orel likely borrowed from Old Norse) developed from Proto-Germanic neuter noun *"trullan". The origin of the Proto-Germanic word is unknown. Additionally, the Old Norse verb "trylla" 'to enchant, to turn into a troll' and the Middle High German verb "trüllen" "to flutter" both developed from the Proto-Germanic verb *"trulljanan", a derivative of *"trullan".


title: Troll

text: In Norse mythology, "troll", like "thurs", is a term applied to "jötnar" and is mentioned throughout the Old Norse corpus. In Old Norse sources, trolls are said to dwell in isolated mountains, rocks, and caves, sometimes live together (usually as father-and-daughter or mother-and-son), and are rarely described as helpful or friendly. The "Prose Edda" book "Skáldskaparmál" describes an encounter between an unnamed troll woman and the 9th-century skald Bragi Boddason. According to the section, Bragi was driving through "a certain forest" late one evening when a troll woman aggressively asked him who he was, in the process describing herself:


title: Troll

text: Bragi responds in turn, describing himself and his abilities as a skillful skald, before the scenario ends.


title: Troll

text: There is much confusion and overlap in the use of Old Norse terms "jötunn", "troll", "þurs", and "risi", which describe various beings. Lotte Motz theorized that these were originally four distinct classes of beings: lords of nature ("jötunn"), mythical magicians ("troll"), hostile monsters ("þurs"), and heroic and courtly beings ("risi"), the last class being the youngest addition. On the other hand, Ármann Jakobson is critical of Motz's interpretation and calls this theory "unsupported by any convincing evidence". Ármann highlights that the term is used to denote various beings, such as a jötunn or mountain-dweller, a witch, an abnormally strong or large or ugly person, an evil spirit, a ghost, a "blámaðr", a magical boar, a heathen demi-god, a demon, a brunnmigi, or a berserker.


title: Troll

text: Later in Scandinavian folklore, trolls become defined as a particular type of being. Numerous tales are recorded about trolls in which they are frequently described as being extremely old, very strong, but slow and dim-witted, and are at times described as man-eaters and as turning to stone upon contact with sunlight. However, trolls are also attested as looking much the same as human beings, without any particularly hideous appearance about them, but living far away from human habitation and generally having "some form of social organization"—unlike the "rå" and "näck", who are attested as "solitary beings". According to John Lindow, what sets them apart is that they are not Christian, and those who encounter them do not know them. Therefore, trolls were in the end dangerous, regardless of how well they might get along with Christian society, and trolls display a habit of "bergtagning" ('kidnapping'; literally "mountain-taking") and overrunning a farm or estate.


title: Troll

text: Lindow states that the etymology of the word "troll" remains uncertain, though he defines trolls in later Swedish folklore as "nature beings" and as "all-purpose otherworldly being[s], equivalent, for example, to fairies in Anglo-Celtic traditions". They "therefore appear in various migratory legends where collective nature-beings are called for". Lindow notes that trolls are sometimes swapped out for cats and "little people" in the folklore record.


title: Troll

text: A Scandinavian folk belief that lightning frightens away trolls and jötnar appears in numerous Scandinavian folktales, and may be a late reflection of the god Thor's role in fighting such beings. In connection, the lack of trolls and jötnar in modern Scandinavia is sometimes explained as a result of the "accuracy and efficiency of the lightning strokes". Additionally, the absence of trolls in regions of Scandinavia is described in folklore as being a "consequence of the constant din of the church-bells". This ringing caused the trolls to leave for other lands, although not without some resistance; numerous traditions relate how trolls destroyed a church under construction or hurled boulders and stones at completed churches. Large local stones are sometimes described as the product of a troll's toss. Additionally, into the 20th century, the origins of particular Scandinavian landmarks, such as particular stones, are ascribed to trolls who may, for example, have turned to stone upon exposure to sunlight.


title: Troll

text: Lindow compares the trolls of the Swedish folk tradition to Grendel, the supernatural mead hall invader in the Old English poem "Beowulf", and notes that "just as the poem "Beowulf" emphasizes not the harrying of Grendel but the cleansing of the hall of Beowulf, so the modern tales stress the moment when the trolls are driven off."


title: Troll

text: Smaller trolls are attested as living in burial mounds and in mountains in Scandinavian folk tradition. In Denmark, these creatures are recorded as "troldfolk" ("troll-folk"), "bjergtrolde" ("mountain-trolls"), or "bjergfolk" ("mountain-folk") and in Norway also as "troldfolk" ("troll-folk") and "tusser". Trolls may be described as small, human-like beings or as tall as men depending on the region of origin of the story.


title: Troll

text: In Norwegian tradition, similar tales may be told about the larger trolls and the Huldrefolk ("hidden-folk"), yet a distinction is made between the two. The use of the word "trow" in Orkney and Shetland, to mean beings which are very like the Huldrefolk in Norway, may suggest a common origin for the terms. The word "troll" may have been used by pagan Norse settlers in Orkney and Shetland as a collective term for supernatural beings who should be respected and avoided rather than worshipped. "Troll" could later have become specialized as a description of the larger, more menacing Jötunn-kind whereas "Huldrefolk" may have developed as the term for smaller trolls.


title: Troll

text: John Arnott MacCulloch posited a connection between the Old Norse vættir and trolls, suggesting that both concepts may derive from spirits of the dead.


title: Troll

text: Troll, a Norwegian research station in Antarctica, is so named because of the rugged mountains which stand around that place like trolls. It includes a ground station which tracks satellites in polar orbit.


title: Troll

text: Trolls have appeared in many works of modern fiction, most often, in the fantasy genre, with classic examples being the portrayal of trolls in works such as in Tolkien's Middle-earth or the "Dungeons & Dragons" roleplaying game.


title: Troll

text: "Troll" is the name, and main antagonist, of a 2022 Norwegian movie released by Netflix on December 1, 2022.


title: Lewis Tan

text: Lewis Singwah Tan (born 4 February 1987) is an English actor and martial artist best known for portraying Lu Xin Lee in Netflix's "Wu Assassins", Shatterstar in "Deadpool 2" (2018), Gaius Chau in AMC's "Into the Badlands" and Cole Young in "Mortal Kombat" (2021).


title: Lewis Tan

text: Lewis Singwah Tan was born on 4 February 1987 in Salford, England. He was raised primarily in Los Angeles, having lived in China, France, Thailand and Spain. Tan identifies himself as half-Chinese and half-British. His father, Philip Tan, is a Chinese Singaporean martial artist, actor, and stunt coordinator. His mother, Joanne Cassidy, is a retired British fashion model. His family moved to Los Angeles when his father was hired as a fight coordinator for Tim Burton's 1989 film "Batman". He is the eldest of four brothers. His younger brother, Sam Tan, is also an actor. His youngest brother, Evan Tan, is a photographer based in Los Angeles whose work has been featured on the art for songs from artists such as Kali Uchis and Zack Villere. Tan's father trained him in martial arts from a young age. He also began training in theatre as a young teenager, leading many plays. He studied performing arts with coach John Kirby.


title: Lewis Tan

text: Tan studies acting under coach John Kirby, performing plays from Tennessee Williams to John Patrick Shanley. Tan performs his own stunts, using multiple styles including Muay Thai, Kung Fu, Ju-Jitsu and Japanese katana swordplay.


title: Lewis Tan

text: Tan appeared in small supporting roles in other major pictures such as "Hangover 3" and "Olympus Has Fallen". He began working on major television shows such as "", "", "", "Hawaii 5-0", "24", and "Rush Hour".


title: Lewis Tan

text: In 2016, Tan was cast in a guest role in the first season of the Netflix television series "Iron Fist". He starred in the role of Zhou Cheng. In the same year, Tan was cast in the action film "Den of Thieves" starring Gerard Butler.


title: Lewis Tan

text: In 2018, Tan starred as Shatterstar in the superhero film "Deadpool 2". In the same year, it was announced that Tan was cast in the series regular role of Lu Xin Lee on the Netflix crime drama series, "Wu Assassins". Tan reprised his role in the sequel film "Fistful of Vengeance". It was released on February 17, 2022.


title: Lewis Tan

text: In August 2019, Tan was cast in the "Mortal Kombat reboot" as Cole Young. The film was released on 23 April 2021. He was previously involved with the "Mortal Kombat" media franchise when he underwent filming as Kung Jin for the unreleased web series "Mortal Kombat X: Generations"; Tan was recruited for the role by Garrett Warren, an experienced action director for live action media productions.


title: Lewis Tan

text: In April 2021, Tan was cast in the leading role of CIA officer Harris Chang on the upcoming television adaptation based on "The Quantum Spy" thriller novel by David Ignatius.


title: Lewis Tan

text: In May 2021, Tan was cast alongside Emma Roberts in the romantic comedy "About Fate", which was directed by Marius Balčiūnas-Weisberg.


title: Lewis Tan

text: In January 2022, it was announced that Tan would play Tolya Yul-Bataar in the second season of Netflix's "Shadow and Bone".


title: Gareth Barry

text: Gareth Barry (born 23 February 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He made 653 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa, Manchester City, Everton and West Bromwich Albion, the highest number of appearances in the Premier League. He also represented England at international level.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry moved to Aston Villa from Brighton & Hove Albion as a youngster, and spent 12 years at the club. He captained Aston Villa and is eighth in their all-time list of appearances, with 441 across all competitions, including 365 in the Premier League. He joined Manchester City for a fee of £12 million in June 2009, where he won the FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League title the following season. After a season on loan, he joined Everton on a three-year contract in July 2014, and on its expiration he signed for West Bromwich Albion.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry is a former England international, having won his first full cap in 2000 and captained the side in 2010 in a friendly against Egypt. He earned 53 caps in total, scoring 3 goals, and was included in England's squads at UEFA Euro 2000 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry joined Aston Villa from Brighton and Hove Albion as a trainee in 1997, along with Michael Standing. The move was controversial, for the Brighton board had demanded £2.5 million for the two players; the Football Association's transfer tribunal panel came up with a deal which would have seen Brighton make £2.4 million in the event of Barry and Standing making international appearances for England, as well as sell-on clauses. Following a season in the reserves and academy sides he played his first senior match for Villa on 2 May 1998, a 3–1 win at Sheffield Wednesday, as a 49th-minute substitute for Ian Taylor. On 24 April 1999, on at half time for the injured Dion Dublin, he finished Steve Stone's cross 12 minutes later for his first professional goal, concluding a 2–0 win over Nottingham Forest at Villa Park. He started in the 2000 FA Cup Final at the old Wembley Stadium, which Villa lost 1–0 to Chelsea. In August 2001, he featured as Villa defeated FC Basel 5–2 on aggregate in the final of the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup.


title: Gareth Barry

text: In November 2007, it was reported that Aston Villa were set to award Barry a testimonial, at the age of just 26, to recognise his 10 years at the club. On 5 April 2008, Barry helped to break a run of bad form, scoring in a 4–0 victory over Bolton Wanderers. He scored two goals (his first two from open play that season) and he was also credited with two assists.


title: Gareth Barry

text: As of April 2008, Barry, approaching 400 total appearances for Aston Villa, was the longest serving player in the team. During the league game against Bolton Wanderers on 28 October 2007, Barry became the youngest player to appear in 300 Premier League games (aged 26 years 247 days), surpassing former record-holder Frank Lampard.


title: Gareth Barry

text: In May 2008, Liverpool made a series of bids to buy Barry, all of which were rejected by Aston Villa. Barry publicly criticised his manager, Martin O'Neill, accusing him of making no attempt to keep him at the club, and further stating a desire to join Liverpool in order to compete in the Champions League. O'Neill denied this claim and Barry was officially disciplined for giving an unauthorised interview. A further bid from Liverpool of around £15 million was rejected as it was still short of Villa's £18 million asking price. Steve Finnan had then been offered in part-exchange in the deal, but the fee Villa wanted in this case was understood by BBC Sport to be £17 million with Finnan included. Barry was then stripped of the team captaincy, fined two weeks' wages and banned from training with the Villa squad.


title: Gareth Barry

text: He remained an Aston Villa player, starting in a UEFA Cup tie against Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar, in which he scored in a 4–1 win. The goal against Hafnarfjordur was Barry's first European goal since he scored a penalty in the Intertoto Cup against Celta Vigo in 2000. On 18 September 2008, he made his 400th appearance in a Villa shirt in the UEFA Cup away to Litex Lovech, scoring a penalty as Villa won the match 3–1. Barry scored again for Villa as they beat Ajax 2–1 in their first UEFA Cup group match on 23 October 2008. Owing to the transfer saga, O'Neill had taken the captaincy away from him and handed it to centre-back Martin Laursen for the 2008–09 season. Following Laursen's injury, the captaincy was restored to Barry in January 2009. In total, he made 441 appearances for Aston Villa, scoring 52 goals in the process.


title: Gareth Barry

text: On 2 June 2009, Barry signed a five-year contract with Manchester City for a fee of £12 million and wore the number 18 shirt. Many Aston Villa fans publicly criticised Barry for this move considering his alleged desire to play in the UEFA Champions League. However, Barry responded to this positively and wrote a letter to the "Birmingham Mail" in which he thanked the Villa fans for their support while he was there, claiming that his move to City was for a "new challenge". He made his debut for City in the opening league game of the season against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–0 victory.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry scored his first Premier League goal for City against Manchester United at Old Trafford on 20 September 2009 levelling the scores at 1–1, but City went on to lose the match 4–3. Three days later, he scored a header in a League Cup tie with Fulham to make the scores 1–1 and City went on to win in extra time. On 16 February 2010, a week before his 29th birthday he played the full 90 minutes and scored a late equaliser in a 1–1 draw against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. Barry started the 2011 FA Cup Final as City defeated Stoke 1–0.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry scored his first goal of the 2011–12 season on 21 August in a 3–2 win against Bolton Wanderers. On 3 January 2012 he was sent off for the first time since joining Manchester City, in a 3–0 league win against Liverpool. Barry made 34 Premier League appearances in the 2011–12 season as Manchester City won the league title, the club's first in 44 years. On 11 December 2012, Barry was charged with misconduct by the Football Association, and two days later he was fined £8,000 and banned for one match for the offence, having verbally abused a match official.


title: Gareth Barry

text: On 2 September 2013, transfer deadline day, Barry was loaned to Everton in a season-long deal. He made his debut on 15 September in a 1–0 home league win against Chelsea during which he made a block on Samuel Eto'o which prevented a certain goal, later being named man of the match. Later in the month Barry became the 10th player in Premier League history to make 500 career appearances in a 3–2 win over Newcastle United. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–1 victory over Hull City on 19 October; the goal was originally awarded to Kevin Mirallas; however, the goals panel ruled that en route to the goal, Barry was deemed to have got the last touch on the ball before it beat Hull keeper Allan McGregor. He scored a long range effort in a 2–0 victory against Norwich City on 11 January 2014. He became a mainstay in Everton's midfield during the season and forged a partnership with James McCarthy. Barry completed the most passes of any Everton player during his spell as he helped the club amass a club record of 72 Premier League points to finish fifth. Barry was booked 10 times during the season to have the worst disciplinary record at the club.


title: Gareth Barry

text: On 8 July 2014, following his successful loan spell at Goodison Park, Barry completed a permanent move to Everton, signing a three-year deal having been released by Manchester City following the expiry of his contract. On 26 December, he was booked for a foul on Steven Nzonzi in a 1–0 home loss to Stoke City, making him the first player to receive 100 yellow cards in the Premier League era. Barry was sent off with two minutes remaining away to Chelsea on 11 February 2015 for a foul on Willian, causing a melée in which he was confronted by Branislav Ivanović; the game was scoreless at the incident and Everton eventually lost 1–0.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry was sent off in added time at the end of a 2–1 loss at Arsenal on 24 October 2015, receiving a second yellow card for a foul on Kieran Gibbs. Following Everton's 2–1 win over Manchester City in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final on 6 January 2016, manager Roberto Martínez described Barry as "one of the best English players ever." On 12 March 2016 in a 2–0 win over Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-final, Barry was booked for a confrontation with Diego Costa, who was given a second yellow card for his part and sent off. Barry, who was later sent off himself, denied suggestions that he had been bitten on the neck by his opponent. Facing Sunderland in May 2016, he set a new record by starting a Premier League game for the 572nd time.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry became the third player (after Ryan Giggs and Frank Lampard) to make 600 Premier League appearances when he played against Middlesbrough on 17 September 2016, and equalised from a corner-kick routine in a 3–1 victory.


title: Gareth Barry

text: On 15 August 2017, Barry signed for fellow Premier League side West Bromwich Albion for an undisclosed fee. Four days later he made his debut for the Baggies in a 1–0 win at Burnley and manager Tony Pulis praised him as "absolutely fantastic". On 25 September, Barry captained West Brom as he made his 633rd Premier League appearance, beating Ryan Giggs' record of 632, in a 2–0 loss to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. At the time of breaking the record, Barry was eighth in English top-flight appearances since the Second World War.


title: Gareth Barry

text: After an injury brought his 2018–19 season to a premature end, Barry was released by West Brom in July 2019. After he recovered, the club expressed interest in re-signing him in October 2019, but a clause in his previous deal meant his former club, Everton, would be due a further payment if he received a contract extension. He was eventually re-signed on 4 November 2019 until the end of the 2019–20 season.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry first represented England at under-16 level, and also played for the under-18s. He made his England under-21 debut against the Czech Republic in 1998, and made 27 appearances for the under-21 side between 1998 and 2003. This was a record at the time, though has since been surpassed.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry was first picked for the senior England side by Kevin Keegan. After an injury to Jason Wilcox, he travelled to UEFA Euro 2000, but did not feature in any of the side's games. Barry made his England debut as a substitute in a pre-Euro 2000 friendly against Ukraine on 31 May 2000. His first start for England was in the 1–1 draw against France on 2 September 2000. He appeared as a half-time substitute in England's first 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Germany in the final match played at the old Wembley Stadium. After the resignation of Keegan, Barry was selected to start at left-back in England's next qualifier away in Finland by caretaker coach Howard Wilkinson.


title: Gareth Barry

text: After Sven-Göran Eriksson's appointment, Barry returned to play for the England under-21 team. The emergence of Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge as England's first- and second-choice left-backs restricted Barry's chances of a recall; however, he was named in May 2003 in England's squad to play friendly matches against South Africa and Serbia & Montenegro, making a late substitute appearance in both matches.


title: Gareth Barry

text: On 2 February 2007, Barry was recalled to the England squad, following a four-year international exile, by Eriksson's replacement Steve McClaren. The midfielder had been resigned to never winning another cap under Eriksson. He was brought on at the beginning of the second half of the friendly match against Spain five days later, as substitute for Steven Gerrard, and played left midfield for the majority of the game, moving to left-back when Stewart Downing was brought on; England lost 1–0. On 25 May, Barry played for England B in a 3–1 victory over Albania, getting an assist for England's first goal scored by Alan Smith.


title: Gareth Barry

text: In August 2007, Barry became one of the few players to represent England at both the old and new Wembley Stadiums by coming on as a substitute, replacing Michael Carrick in a friendly against Germany.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry started in central midfield for England against Israel on 8 September 2007, as a replacement for the injured Owen Hargreaves, and recorded two assists. He kept his place with Hargreaves declared unfit for the match against Russia on 12 September 2007, and produced another impressive display. BBC pundits Ian Wright and Alan Shearer commented that Barry was immense in the centre of midfield alongside Gerrard, forming a wonderful partnership together, and further commented that he should have been made man of the match overall for the two performances against Israel and Russia.


title: Gareth Barry

text: He was also given the official man of the match for England's UEFA Euro 2008 home qualifier against Estonia. He was selected to start against Switzerland on 6 February 2008, England's first match under new coach Fabio Capello. He was again selected to start in England's friendly away to France on 26 March 2008. Barry scored his first international goal against Trinidad and Tobago on 1 June 2008; this completed a personal treble for Barry, as he also captained England in the second half of his 20th cap.


title: Gareth Barry

text: He appeared in every one of England's ten games during the 2008–09 season up until the game against Andorra on 10 June 2009, for which he was suspended, having picked up yellow cards in the games against Ukraine and Kazakhstan. In the game against Kazakhstan on 6 June, he scored his second international goal on his 13th cap, heading home a cross from Steven Gerrard.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Playing for England in a friendly against Egypt at Wembley, Barry was handed the captaincy in a game that they won 3–1, with his then Manchester City teammate Shaun Wright-Phillips on the scoresheet. However, an ankle injury picked up while playing for Manchester City made him uncertain for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, yet he was included in the 23-man England squad for the tournament. He missed the first game but played in the remaining three games for England, including the full 90 minutes of the second-round 4–1 defeat against Germany in Bloemfontein, which sent England out of the competition.


title: Gareth Barry

text: On 9 February 2011, he was again made captain for the final 10 minutes of the match against Denmark, after Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole had already worn the skipper's armband. On 29 March 2011, Barry skippered England against Ghana in a friendly match at Wembley in a 1–1 draw. On 4 June 2011, he was an unused substitute against Switzerland in a Euro 2012 qualifier at Wembley in a 2–2 draw. On 12 November 2011, he earned his 50th cap for England in the 1–0 win over Spain in a friendly after coming on as a substitute.


title: Gareth Barry

text: On 15 November 2011, Barry scored England's 2,000th international goal in a 1–0 friendly win over Sweden.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry was called into the England squad for UEFA Euro 2012 but ruled out of the tournament after picking up a groin injury. He was forced off less than 30 minutes after being introduced as a half-time substitute in the pre-tournament friendly against Norway in Oslo on 26 May 2012.


title: Gareth Barry

text: Barry is best friends with Michael Standing, who signed for Aston Villa on the same day as him from Brighton in 1997. The pair have known each other since they were both ten years old. In 2009, Barry appointed Standing as his new agent after terminating his partnership with previous agent Alex Black.


title: Billionaire

text: A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American business magazine "Forbes" produces a global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an Internet version of this list in real time. The American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916.


title: Billionaire

text: As of 2018, there are over 2,200 U.S. dollar billionaires worldwide, with a combined wealth of over US$ 9.1 trillion, up from in 2017. According to a 2017 Oxfam report, the top eight richest billionaires own as much combined wealth as "half the human race". As of 2021, eight people have reached the status of USD hectobillionaires, meaning that each has had a net worth of at least $100 billion.


title: Billionaire

text: According to the "UBS/PwC Billionaires Report 2019" report released in November 2019, there are currently 2,101 U.S. dollar billionaires worldwide, from 66 countries, with a combined net worth of $8.5 trillion. Also according to the report, billionaires have a substantial positive impact on the sustainability and success of companies controlled by them. Billionaire-controlled companies listed on the equity market returned 17.8 percent, compared with the 9.1 percent of the MSCI AC World Index. According to the authors of the report, this Billionaire Effect is connected with smart risk taking and willingness to plan and invest for the long term.


title: Billionaire

text: The majority of billionaires are male, as fewer than 11% (197 of 1,826) on the 2015 list were female billionaires. The United States has the largest number of billionaires of any country, with 536 , while China, India and Russia are home to 213, 90 and 88 billionaires, respectively. , only 46 billionaires were under the age of 40, while the list of American-only billionaires, as of 2010, had an average age of 66.


title: Billionaire

text: Different authorities use different methodologies to determine net worth and to rank them, and not all information about personal finances is publicly available. In 2019, Forbes counted a record 607 billionaires in the U.S.. Over the course of the 2020s, depending on the source and the year, the world's richest person has been reckoned to be Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault and family, or Elon Musk.


title: Billionaire

text: Billionaires come from a very wide number of backgrounds. A review of the education and work histories of the top 400 billionaires shows little correlation between education and success. Nearly 30% of billionaires do not have a college degree, greatly exceeding any other educational background. The most common field of university education was finance and economics, which only contributed to a combined 15.5% of billionaire educations.


title: Billionaire

text: There is little correlation between any university and becoming a billionaire. The top 10 Universities produced just 99 of the top 400 billionaires combined, significantly less than the total number of billionaires who were not college educated. Military service produced 21 billionaires, more than any single University.


title: Billionaire

text: Very few college educated billionaires pursued business interests in their field of study, with the exception of computer science majors. All twelve of the twelve computer science major billionaires worked in computer science, while only half of Engineers worked in Engineering, and less than a quarter of finance and economics majors ever worked in finance or economics. The most common field for billionaires to enter was sales and military service.


title: Billionaire

text: According to a 2016 Oxfam report, the wealth of the poorest 95% dropped by 38% between 2010 and 2015, due to an increase in the global population of 400 million. In the same period, the wealth of the richest 62 people between the World's Billionaires increased by $500bn (£350bn) to $1.76tn. More recently, in 2017 an Oxfam report noted that just eight billionaires have as much net worth as "half the human race". However, the Oxfam report has been criticized for considering debt as negative wealth, which leads to wealthy people with large amounts of debt to be considered poor or not wealthy.


title: Billionaire

text: In 2019, 19 people became billionaires. Four of the members joined as a result of death or divorce, including Julia Koch and Jeff Bezos's former wife Mackenzie Scott.


title: Billionaire

text: New members now also include more and more women. In the last five years, the number of female billionaires has grown by 46 percent, that is more than the number of male billionaires in the same period (39 percent). There are now 233 female billionaires in the world, a steep growth from 160 in 2013.


title: Billionaire

text: These aggregated statistics for billionaires include the total number of known billionaires and the net worth of the world's wealthiest individual for each year since 2008. Data for each year is from the annual "Forbes" list of billionaires, with currency figures given in U.S. dollars. Data since 2018 also includes the Wealth-X billionaire census which typically finds higher numbers than "Forbes".


title: Indian Standard Time

text: Indian Standard Time (IST), sometimes also called India Standard Time, is the time zone observed throughout India, with a time offset of . India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments. In military and aviation time, IST is designated E* ("Echo-Star"). It is indicated as Asia/Kolkata in the IANA time zone database.


title: Indian Standard Time

text: After Independence in 1947, the Union government established IST as the official time for the whole country, although Kolkata and Mumbai retained their own local time (known as Calcutta Time and Bombay Time) until 1948 and 1955, respectively. The Central observatory was moved from Chennai to a location at Shankargarh Fort in Allahabad district, so that it would be as close to as possible.


title: Indian Standard Time

text: Daylight Saving Time (DST) was used briefly during the China–India War of 1962 and the Indo-Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971.


title: Indian Standard Time

text: Indian Standard Time is calculated from the clock tower in Mirzapur nearly exactly on the reference longitude of IST at 82°30'E, within 4 angular minutes. In 1905, the meridian passing east of Allahabad was declared as a standard time zone for British India and was declared as IST in 1947 for the dominion of India. The longitude of 82°5'E passing through Naini near Allahabad was chosen as the standard meridian for the whole country, because there is a time lag of more than an hour between western India () and northeastern India (), hence approximately standardizing with of central India. Currently, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research- National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL) maintains the Indian Standard Time with the help of the Allahabad Observatory.


title: Indian Standard Time

text: The country's east–west distance of more than covers over 29 degrees of longitude, resulting in the sun rising and setting almost two hours earlier on India's eastern border than in the Rann of Kutch in the far west. Inhabitants of the northeastern states have to advance their clocks with the early sunrise to avoid the extra consumption of energy after daylight hours.


title: Indian Standard Time

text: In the late 1980s, a team of researchers proposed separating the country into two or three time zones to conserve energy. The binary system that they suggested involved a return to British-era time zones; the recommendations were not adopted.


title: Indian Standard Time

text: In 2001, the government established a four-member committee under the Ministry of Science and Technology to examine the need for multiple time zones and daylight saving. The findings of the committee, which were presented to Parliament in 2004 by the Minister of Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, did not recommend changes to the unified system, stating that "the prime meridian was chosen with reference to a central station, and that the expanse of the Indian State was not large."


title: Indian Standard Time

text: Though the government has consistently refused to split the country into multiple time zones, provisions in labour laws such as the "Plantations Labour Act, 1951" allow the Union and State governments to define and set the local time for a particular industrial area. In Assam, tea gardens follow a separate time zone, known as the "Chaibagan" or "Bagan" time ('Tea Garden Time'), which is one hour ahead of IST. Still Indian Standard Time remains the only officially used time.


title: Indian Standard Time

text: In 2014, Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi started campaigning for another time zone for Assam and other northeastern states of India. However, the proposal would need to be cleared by the union government.


title: Indian Standard Time

text: In June 2017, Department of Science and Technology (DST) indicated that they are once again studying feasibility of two time zones for India. Proposals for creating an additional Eastern India Time (EIT at ), shifting default IST to and Daylight saving (Indian Daylight Time for IST and Eastern India Daylight Time for EIT) starting on 14 April (Ambedkar Jayanti) and ending on 2 October (Gandhi Jayanti) was submitted to DST for consideration.


title: Indian Standard Time

text: Official time signals are generated by the Time and Frequency Standards Laboratory at the National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi, for both commercial and official use. The signals are based on atomic clocks and are synchronised with the worldwide system of clocks that support the Coordinated Universal Time.


title: Indian Standard Time

text: IST is taken as the standard time as it passes through almost the centre of India. To communicate the exact time to the people, the exact time is broadcast over the national All India Radio and Doordarshan television network. Telephone companies have dedicated phone numbers connected to mirror time servers that also relay the precise time. Another increasingly popular means of obtaining the time is through Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has offices worldwide. Its U.S. offices are located in the states of California, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, Michigan, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its Canada offices are located in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.


title: Autodesk

text: The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, who was a coauthor of the first versions of AutoCAD. AutoCAD, which is the company's flagship computer-aided design (CAD) software and Revit software are primarily used by architects, engineers, and structural designers to design, draft, and model buildings and other structures. Autodesk software has been used in many fields, and on projects from the One World Trade Center to Tesla electric cars.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk became best known for AutoCAD, but now develops a broad range of software for design, engineering, and entertainment—and a line of software for consumers. The manufacturing industry uses Autodesk's digital prototyping software—including Autodesk Inventor, Fusion 360, and the Autodesk Product Design Suite—to visualize, simulate, and analyze real-world performance using a digital model in the design process. The company's Revit line of software for building information modeling is designed to let users explore the planning, construction, and management of a building virtually before it is built.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk's Media and Entertainment division creates software for visual effects, color grading, and editing as well as animation, game development, and design visualization. 3ds Max and Maya are both 3D animation software used in film visual effects and game development.


title: Autodesk

text: The company was founded by John Walker and a team of programmers in 1982. Walker founded the company after acquiring Interact, a computer-aided design program that operated on microcomputers running the 8-bit CP/M operating system and two of the new 16-bit systems, the Victor 9000 and the IBM Personal Computer (PC). This tool provided made it affordable for smaller design, engineering, and architecture companies to create detailed technical drawings. The program had been developed by Michael Riddle in 1979. Riddle had struggled to sell the program, and agreed to sell it to Walker in exchange for royalties. The program was further developed and renamed AutoCAD.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk became a public company in 1985. John Walker did not enjoy the process of writing the prospectus, relating the process to "lying on the beach or juggling chainsaws".


title: Autodesk

text: Release 2.1 of AutoCAD, released in 1986, included AutoLISP, a built-in Lisp programming language interpreter initially based on XLISP. This opened the door for third party developers to extend AutoCAD's functionality, to address a wide range of vertical markets, strengthening AutoCAD's market penetration.


title: Autodesk

text: Subsequent to AutoCAD Release 13, the company stopped supporting the Unix environment and the Apple Macintosh platform. After AutoCAD Release 14 (R13 was last DOS & Unix release), first shipped in 1997, Autodesk discontinued development under DOS, and focused exclusively on Microsoft Windows.


title: Autodesk

text: AutoCAD has grown to become the most widely used CAD program for 2D non-specialized applications. The native file formats written by AutoCAD, DXF and DWG, are also widely used for CAD data interoperability.


title: Autodesk

text: Walker remained a programmer at Autodesk until 1994, when he left due to disagreements with changes at the company. With the purchase of Softdesk in 1997, Autodesk started to develop specialty versions of AutoCAD, targeted to broad industry segments, including architecture, civil engineering, and manufacturing. Since the late 1990s, the company has added several significant non-AutoCAD-based products, including Revit, a parametric building modeling application (acquired in 2002, from Massachusetts-based Revit Technologies for $133 million), and Inventor, an internally developed parametric mechanical design CAD application.


title: Autodesk

text: In 2007, Timothy Vernor sued Autodesk ("Vernor v. Autodesk, Inc."), alleging that he was entitled to resell "used" copies of AutoCAD software on eBay. He had obtained the software from an Autodesk licensee at an office liquidation sale. A federal district judge in Washington denied Autodesk's initial motion to dismiss in early 2008. In February and March 2009, both sides filed motions for summary judgment addressing the issue whether the First Sale Doctrine applies to previously licensed software. The Court ruled in Vernor's favor, holding that when the transfer of software to the purchaser materially resembled a sale (non-recurring price, right to perpetual possession of copy) it was, in fact, a "sale with restrictions on use" giving rise to a right to resell the copy under the first-sale doctrine. As such, Autodesk could not pursue an action for copyright infringement against Vernor, who sought to resell used versions of its software on eBay. Autodesk appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which reversed the lower court ruling, denying Vernor the right to resale Autodesk software due to Autodesk's nontransferable licensing restrictions. In October 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk introduced a new logo at the TED conference in Long Beach, California, on February 26, 2013.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk announced the largest lay off in its history on November 27, 2017, with the lay off of 1,150 jobs. This was in addition to the almost 1,000 job cuts announced in January 2016. The number of Autodesk employees decreased from approximately 9,200 to 7,200 in less than 2 years.


title: Autodesk

text: In 2022, Autodesk moved their headquarters to San Francisco from San Rafael, California — which served as their headquarters since 1994.


title: Autodesk

text: Platform Solutions and Emerging Business (PSEB) division develops and manages the product foundation for most Autodesk offerings across multiple markets, including Autodesk's flagship product AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD for Mac, and AutoCAD mobile app (formerly AutoCAD 360). Autodesk Suites, Subscription and Web Services, which include Autodesk Cloud, Autodesk Labs, and Global Engineering are also part of PSEB. In what was seen as an unusual step for a maker of high-end business software, Autodesk began offering AutoCAD LT 2012 for Mac through the Apple Mac App Store. Also part of PSEB is the Autodesk Consumer Product Group, which was created in November 2010 to generate interest in 3-D design and “foster a new wave of designers who hunger for sophisticated software”. Users range from children, students and artists to makers and DIYers.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk offers certificates in two categories: Autodesk Certified User and Advanced Certified Professional.


title: Autodesk

text: The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry group is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, in a LEED Platinum building designed and built using Autodesk software. Autodesk's architecture, engineering, and construction solutions include AutoCAD, and Revit, which is their flagship product for relational Building information modeling. The AEC division also develops and manages software for the Construction industry, including Autodesk Construction Cloud, Advance Steel, and the Navisworks (formerly JetStream) product tools; the Infrastructure industry, including Civil 3D, and InfraWorks; and the MEP industry, including Fabrication CADmep. The Autodesk Services Marketplace offering helps its clients train their team in AEC Industry. Projects that have used software from the Autodesk AEC division include the NASA Ames building, the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the Shanghai Tower, and New York's One World Trade Center.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk Life Sciences is an extensible toolkit for genetic engineering. It visualises DNA code (Molecule Viewer), and has a tool for writing DNA code (genetic constructor). The tool allows work on molecule-level, rather than nucleobase-level (A, C, G, T) constructs.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk's manufacturing industry group is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. The company's manufacturing software is used in various manufacturing segments, including industrial machinery, electro-mechanical, tool and die, industrial equipment, automotive components, and consumer products. The principal products are Fusion 360, and its family (Fusion 360 with FeatureCAM, PowerMill, PowerShape, PowerInspect, or Netfabb), Autodesk Alias, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Vault, Autodesk CFD (formerly Autodesk Simulation CFD), Moldflow, VRED, and the Product Design & Manufacturing Collection, which includes Inventor Nastran (formerly Nastran In-CAD), Inventor CAM (formerly Autodesk HSM and Inventor HSM), Inventor Nesting, Inventor Tolerance Analysis, and Factory Design Utilities.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk Media and Entertainment products are designed for digital media creation, management, and delivery, from film and television visual effects, color grading, and editing to animation, game development, and design visualization. Autodesk's Media and Entertainment Division is based in Montreal, Quebec. It was established in 1999 after Autodesk, Inc. acquired Discreet Logic, Inc. and merged its operations with Kinetix. In January 2006, Autodesk acquired Alias, a developer of 3D graphics technology. In October 2008, Autodesk acquired the Softimage brand from Avid. The principal product offerings from the Media and Entertainment Division are Flame, and the Media & Entertainment Collection, which include Maya, 3ds Max, Arnold, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, and ReCap Pro.


title: Autodesk

text: Much of "Avatar"'s visual effects were created with Autodesk media and entertainment software. Autodesk software enabled "Avatar" director James Cameron to aim a camera at actors wearing motion-capture suits in a studio and see them as characters in the fictional world of Pandora in the film. Autodesk software also played a role in the visual effects of "Alice in Wonderland", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1", "Inception", "Iron Man 2", "King Kong", "Gladiator", "Titanic", and other films. Walt Disney Animation Studios also utilizes Autodesk Maya for character rigging and animation, being used in films such as Frozen II.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk develops and purchased many specific-purpose renderers but many Autodesk products had been bundled with third-party renderers such as NVIDIA Mental Ray or Iray.


title: Autodesk

text: Autodesk CFD (formerly Autodesk Simulation CFD) includes modeling and thermal modeling tools for architectural and MEP applications. Common applications for environmental sustainable design include mechanical ventilation, external flow (wind loading), natural ventilation, and occupant comfort. Other energy applications include analysis for building energy, solar load, advanced energy and heating and cooling. Autodesk introduced C-FACT, an open-source, science-driven approach to setting greenhouse gas reduction targets, which calls for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions to be made in proportion to a company's gross domestic product (GDP). Unlike other carbon accounting methods, Autodesk's C-FACT measures carbon dioxide emissions that are proportional to a company's global GDP contribution. Autodesk will derive its own targets using this approach through 2020.


title: Autodesk

text: In 2006, Autodesk sponsored a PBS program named "e² Design", which focused on green building design around the world, describing the leaders and technologies that drive sustainable design.


title: Sports equipment

text: Sports equipment, sporting equipment, also called sporting goods, are the tools, materials, apparel, and gear used to compete in a sport and varies depending on the sport. The equipment ranges from balls, nets, and protective gear like helmets. Sporting equipment can be used as protective gear or a tool used to help the athletes play the sport. Over time, sporting equipment has evolved because sports have started to require more protective gear to prevent injuries. Sporting equipment may be found in any department store or specific sporting equipment shops.


title: Sports equipment

text: Historically many sports players have developed their own sporting equipment over time. For instance, the use of a football dates back to ancient China, between 225 BC and 220 AD. As football remains the most popular sport in the 21st century, the material of the ball has completely changed over the centuries; from being made out of animal skin, to being lined with multiple layers of polyester or cotton.


title: Sports equipment

text: As the sporting equipment industry improves, so does the athletes performance. This is due to the fact that the equipment is more efficient, lighter and stronger it forming a bio-mechanical system, interacting with the athlete.


title: Sports equipment

text: Since the massive adoption of wearable, new sport equipment tend to be electronics and connected to deliver data performances.


title: Sports equipment

text: Standards and monitoring processes apply in certain industries aimed at elimination of child labour in the manufacture of sports goods, for example the Atlanta Agreement of 1997 in relation to child labour in the football-making industry in Pakistan.


title: Sports equipment

text: The ball is often what a sport requires and revolves around. A sports ball is typically round, but can also be in the shape such as association football, American football, baseball and basketball, or the ball is named after the sport. Other cases are the Gaelic ball. In other cases, the name of the sport is indicated, just as the cricket ball, golf ball, lacrosse ball or tennis ball.


title: Sports equipment

text: In many games, goal posts are at each end of the playing field, there are two vertical posts (or uprights) supporting a horizontal crossbar. In some games, such as football, hockey or water polo, the object is to pass the ball or puck between the posts below the crossbar, while in others, such as those based on rugby, the ball must pass over the crossbar instead.


title: Sports equipment

text: Nets are used for tennis, volleyball, football, basketball, hockey and badminton. A different type of net is used for various forms of fishing.


title: Sports equipment

text: Racquets are used for racquet sports such as tennis, squash and badminton, and are used to hit a ball between opposing players or teams.


title: Sports equipment

text: Sticks are used for sports such as hockey and lacrosse. Bats are used for sports such as baseball, cricket and rounders (UK). Clubs are used mainly for golf (Golf club)


title: Sports equipment

text: Protective equipment is often worn for sports including motor sport and contact sports, such as ice hockey and American football or sports where there is a danger of injury through collision of players or other objects. Protective equipment includes:


title: Sports equipment

text: Examples for training equipment include swiss balls, resistance bands, balance discs, weights, chin-up bars, equipment for the gym. Also protective equipment such as weight lifting belts and bench shirts for weight training and powerlifting.


title: Sports equipment

text: Special sports equipment, is the equipment usually worn by the athletes according to their needs or desires.


title: Sports equipment

text: Vehicles (sometimes specialized) are used as equipment for some sports, including motor sport, cycling, aeronautics, sailing and hot air ballooning.


title: Sports equipment

text: Small vehicles with flatbeds are often used to carry injured athletes off the field, most commonly in American football.


title: Theri (film)

text: Theri ( "Spark") is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Atlee Kumar and produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu under the banner V Creations. The film stars Vijay, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Amy Jackson. The film's music is composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, with cinematography handled by George C. Williams and editing done by Ruben. In the film, a former police officer is on a mission to protect his daughter from his past enemies.


title: Theri (film)

text: The film marked Kumar's second directorial after "Raja Rani" (2013), whose success impressed Vijay to work with the director. Atlee came up with the script, which was an "emotional action thriller film" and a formal announcement was made during September 2014. After post-production works and a formal launch ceremony in June 2015, the film began production in Chennai during early July. The film was halted twice due to the Film Employees Federation of South India's strike and the heavy flooding in Chennai. In addition, poor climatic conditions in China meant that the team had to abandon their idea of filming sequences there and instead opted to shoot in Bangkok. Despite the difficulties, the film was completed within January 2016.


title: Theri (film)

text: "Theri" was released on 14 April 2016 and received positive reviews from critics and audience. The film grossed against a budget of and emerged as the second highest grossing Tamil and South Indian film of 2016. It further won three SIIMA Awards, three IIFA Utsavam awards, two Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards and nine nominations at the 64th Filmfare Awards South. The film was adapted into Assamese as "Ratnakar" (2019). It is currently considered as one among the most-popular films in Vijay's career, due to the commercial elements in the film and its multiple re-runs in television channels had attributed to more popularity.


title: Theri (film)

text: Joseph Kuruvilla is a non-violent person, who runs a bakery and lives with his five-year old daughter Niveditha "Nivi" and they lead a peaceful life. Joseph soon befriends Nivi's teacher Annie, who starts developing a crush on him. However, Annie learns that Joseph is actually DCP Vijay Kumar, an honest cop in Chennai. When confronted with the truth, Joseph reveals his past. One night, Vijay meets an old man who comes up with a complaint to find his missing daughter Raji, an IT worker, where he investigates the case and within ten hours, only to find that she was sexually assaulted to death.


title: Theri (film)

text: Vijay's further investigation led him to Ashwin, who is the son of Labour minister Vanamaamalai. After three days of Raji's death, Vijay heads to Vanamaamalai's house to arrest Ashwin, but Vanamaamalai and commissioner Sibi Chakravarthy inform him that Ashwin was missing since three days and Vijay was tasked of finding Ashwin. However, Vanamaamalai learns that Ashwin was murdered by Vijay himself, where he swears to seek vengeance on him for killing his son. One day, Vijay meets Mithra, a medical student where love blossoms grew between them and they decided to get married. However, Mithra was worried about Vijay's safety after an attack from Vanamaamalai's henchmen, but Vijay convinced her and both of them got married, and also given birth to Nivi and led a happy life.


title: Theri (film)

text: However, Vanamaamalai and his brother Ratnam, along with their henchmen barged into Vijay's house one night, where they killed Mithra and Vijay's mother, and also attempted to drown Nivi. However, an injured Mithra saved the child and made Vijay to take a vow that he will raise their daughter Nivi as a non-violent person and would quit the police force. Vijay accepted Mithra's vow and faked his death in order to protect Nivi, before the explosion. After revealing his past, Vijay tells Annie to keep it as a secret from Nivi. During Nivi's excursion, Vanamaamalai knows he is alive, then Joseph sees the school bus swerve, because the brakes of her school bus is damaged and the bus falls from the bridge into a river. With the help of Annie and the local people, Vijay manages to rescue Nivi and other children, where he learns that Vanamaamalai (who has now learnt that Vijay is alive) is behind the accident and returns to his old self to seek vengeance against Vanamaamalai.


title: Theri (film)

text: Vijay returns to Chennai and kills Inspector Karikalan, who is Vanamaamalai's henchmen and was also present at the night when Mithra was killed. At this point of time, Vanamaamalai and Ratnam have a fallout, where Vijay also kills him at night, by pushing him from the thirtieth floor. Finally, Vijay allows himself to be captured by Vanamaamalai's henchmen, where he kills everyone. The killings continue to be a mystery from the public, but Sibi Chakravarthy is aware that Vijay is alive and secretly re-employs him into the police force. Few years later, Vijay, an older Nivi and Annie are in Ladakh. Vijay, who has changed his identity to Dharmeshwar, continues to work for the CBI and also fulfilling Mithra's wishes.


title: Theri (film)

text: In January 2014, Vijay expressed his interest to work with a project directed by Atlee, after being impressed by his debut directorial film "Raja Rani" (2013); the latter also expected to work in the film, since he had been a fan of the actor, and also admired his recent projects. Kalaipuli S. Thanu was reported to finance the project and was officially announced in September 2014. The producers further announced that the team may start filming, only after the completion of Vijay's other film "Puli" (2015), while Atlee continued to script the film through late-2014. In November 2014, G. V. Prakash Kumar was announced as the music composer collaborating with Vijay and Atlee, after "Thalaivaa" and "Raja Rani". Several of the technical crew involved in Atlee's previous film, "Raja Rani", were also added to the team including cinematographer George C. Williams, editor Ruben and art director T. Muthuraj. The film is touted to be an emotional-action thriller where Vijay would essay the role of a police officer and a father in the film, and was reported to be inspired from "Chatriyan" (1990). Several titles for the film including "Moondru Mugam", "Vetri", "Thuppaki 2", "Khakee" and "Thaarumaaru" were considered, before the makers finalised "Theri" in late November 2015. The first look of the film was also released on that date.


title: Theri (film)

text: Soon after the announcement, many reports been surfaced that Nayanthara will play the female lead. However, in January 2015, the actress refuted her claims of being part in the film. Later, Samantha Ruth Prabhu was announced as the female lead. Amy Jackson also joined the film as the second female lead; she was reportedly essayed the role of a Malayalam-speaking school teacher in the film. Initially, the team approached few Hindi actresses for Jackson's role, whom had turned down the offer. In March 2015, veteran actress and film producer Raadhika Sarathkumar was essayed the role of Vijay's mother in the film, collaborating with Vijay for the second time after 27 years. Bharathiraja was approached by the team, for playing the antagonist role in the film, but his refusal on being a part of the film, led Atlee choose veteran director Mahendran as the antagonist. Similarly, Sathyaraj too approached for another pivotal role, which he denied due to his priorities in "", led Prabhu to play the role. During the start of the project, actress Meena's daughter Nainika officially confirmed to be a part of the film, thereby making her acting debut. She would play Vijay's reel-life daughter in the film. Sunainaa was also roped in to play an extended cameo in the film. Actress Amritha Aiyer, appeared in an uncredited role playing Samantha's cousin.


title: Theri (film)

text: An official launch event was held at the Kerala Club House on the East Coast Road in Chennai, with several members of the cast and crew in attendance on 26 June 2015. The film began production in Chennai during early-July 2015 and an introductory song for Vijay was shot in the city, followed by scenes featuring Vijay and Samantha on the East Coast Road. Further scenes in Chennai were shot at Adityaram Studios and at Binny Mills, where art director T. Muthuraj had erected a huge set. Raadhika was also a part of the shoot, while actress Sunaina shot for one day in the schedule which ended in mid-July. The second schedule was reported to begin during the end of the month, was briefly delayed owing to a strike held by the Tamil Film Producers Council against Film Employees Federation of South India.


title: Theri (film)

text: The second schedule for the film restarted in Chennai on 3 August 2015, with Vijay and Samantha joining the shoot and went for 25 days. Few sequences were also shot at MGM Dizzee World on the East Coast Road. A further schedule began again for a month long shoot in September 2015 in Chennai. In mid-September, the team shot few sequences at veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan's ancestral house Annai Illam and the shoot went for 2–3 days. In November 2015, it was revealed that the film was "seventy percent complete" and portions involving Samantha Prabhu had finished being shot. Thereafter, Amy Jackson subsequently joined the team in Chennai to shoot for her part during a new schedule. Action scenes, choreographed by Dhilip Subbarayan were filmed throughout the month, with the shoot disrupted by the heavy flooding in Chennai.


title: Theri (film)

text: Hollywood stunt choreographer Kaloyan Vodenicharov worked with the team in early December 2015 to help shoot the climax portions for the film. Poor climatic conditions in China meant that the team had to abandon their idea of filming sequences there and instead opted to shoot in Bangkok. Sets were erected in a factory in Chennai to shoot the climax scenes, with Kaloyan recruited to help train artistes and film the sequences during December 2015. In mid-January 2016, an under water stunt sequence was filmed under the guidance of Subbrarayan. The team started filming a song featuring Vijay and Jackson, and with the completion of the song, the principal photography was wrapped.


title: Theri (film)

text: The film's soundtrack and score is composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar. In addition to being his second collaboration with Vijay and Atlee, the film also marked Prakash's 50th project as a composer. Soon after his inclusion in the project, Prakash started composing the songs during November 2014 and completed work within January 2016. In his micro-blogging page, the composer said that all the tracks in the film are "trend-setting", and featured songs recorded by veteran composer Deva, actor-director T. Rajendar, Uthara Unnikrishnan and the actor Vijay himself. The album featured seven tracks, with lyrics written by Pulamaipithan, Na. Muthukumar, Pa. Vijay, Kabilan, Rokesh, R. Thiyagarajan and Arunraja Kamaraj. It was released on 20 March 2016 by Think Music. The release coincided with a promotional event held at Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai, with the presence of the cast and crew. Irrespective of the full songs, a bonus track titled "Hey Aasmaan" was released on 10 April 2016.


title: Theri (film)

text: Promotional stills from the film released on 15 January 2016, coinciding with Pongal. The official teaser was unveiled on 5 February 2016. The teaser which was initially uploaded on the midnight of 5 February, was removed after copyright claims from an anonymous channel, but was later restored by the technical team. The teaser received praise from fans and celebrities, and garnered 1.5 million views within 24 hours of its release.


title: Theri (film)

text: The promotions of the film began during 14 March 2016, with the team releasing special posters ahead of the audio launch on 20 March. A month before its release, SPI Cinemas, which acquired the distribution rights of the film, started pre-bookings of the film in theatres, months before its release. The pre-booking facilities were affiliated to theatres owned by SPI Cinemas – which include Sathyam, Escape and S2 Theatres. It has reported that, the active campaigning by the fans of Vijay through social media, with the extensive promotions had attributed to the hype, with Abirami Ramanathan, managing director of Abirami Multiplex, said that more than 6,000 tickets have been sold for the first five days of its release.


title: Theri (film)

text: "Theri" was earlier scheduled to be released on 14th April 2016, receiving U/A certificate. However after many cuts from the Central Board of Film Certification to reduce the scenes of severe violence and gore, the film received a 'U' certificate. Earlier in July 2015, the team had fixed two release dates tentatively – one being scheduled on the occasion of Pongal (15 January 2016) and the other being fixed for the Republic Day weekend (22 January 2016). The team had planned the release date depending on the film's early completion. However, the production delays had forced the team to push the release date to Tamil New Year (14 April 2016). Intentionally, Rajinikanth-starrer "Kabali", Thanu's another film he had produced, also scheduled for the release on the same day, and as no two Tamil films, produced by the same company or producer will clash on the same date, the team planned to postpone the release further to 1 May 2016. Eventually, in December 2015, Thanu announced for an interchange of release dates between the two films, with "Theri" being scheduled to release on 14 April.


title: Theri (film)

text: The film opened in more than 1000 screens worldwide, with 350 screens in Tamil Nadu, 200 screens in Kerala, 150 screens in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and 70 screens in Karnataka. In addition, the film was screened in 400 theatres across overseas centers, with 144 screens across United States. CineGalaxy Inc, which had distributed the film in United States, stated that it is the "biggest release for a Vijay-film in recent years".


title: Theri (film)

text: The Tamil Nadu theatrical rights of the film were sold to ₹49.40 crore, with SPI Cinemas acquiring the Chennai city distribution rights to ₹4.5 crore, and also selling the theatrical rights in the Chengalpet region, with Impossible Films buying them for ₹9.5 crore. Coimbatore rights have been sold to ₹8.5 crore. The distribution rights for Madurai have been sold to Impala Theatres for ₹6.9 crore, followed by the Trichy-Thanjavur region, where Green Screen Narayanaswamy acquired the theatrical rights to a sum of ₹5.6 crore. 7G Films has bagged the rights of the Salem region for ₹4.6 crore. Dr Albert has acquired the South Arcot rights for ₹3.40 crore, and Devraj of Alankar Theatres purchased the North Arcot rights for ₹3.15 crore. Mannan Films has acquired the Tirunelveli & Kanyakumari rights for ₹3.25 crore.


title: Theri (film)

text: Karnataka theatrical rights were purchased by Goldie Films, with Kerala rights were purchased by Friday Film House and Carnival Motion Pictures at ₹5.6 crore, highest for a non-Malayalam film. Dil Raju's Sri Venkateswara Creations procured the theatrical rights in the Andhra and Telangana regions. CineGalaxy Inc, a Texas-based distribution company acquired the theatrical rights in the United States for ₹3 crore. The respective overseas distributors are: Ayngaran International (Europe and Sri Lanka), AP International (Singapore and UAE), Malik Stream Corporation (Malaysia), Celluloid Studios (Japan) and MKS Retails (Australia and New Zealand).


title: Theri (film)

text: The film was not screened in many theatres across Chengalpet, owing to the issues between the producers and distributors over profit-sharing. Eventually, the distributors were reluctant to buy the film under Minimum-guarantee (MG) basis, due to the losses of big-budget Tamil films in the recent years, with "Lingaa" (2014) in particular, where the film had incurred huge losses to the film's distributors. Panneer Selvam, the sectretary of Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association (TNTOA) blamed Thanu saying that "he had asked unreasonable MG rates for the film, especially in a risky situation, where if that film fails, it may incur huge losses to the producers and distributors".


title: Theri (film)

text: Another sources claimed that there held a raid in Chengalpet theatres, following complaints of overpricing of ticket rates. It has been stated that the film's release had coincided with the period of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, where the moral code of conduct was in force and huge complaints from audiences, a huge crackdown was imitated by the authorities against the theatre owners selling tickets above the government-stipulated rates. Many of them feared selling tickets at higher rates as it may lead to suspension of the theatre licence. As a result, the theatre owners were reluctant to pay high MG rates as it cannot be recovered on normal ticket rates.


title: Theri (film)

text: The issue became serious as Thanu had announced that Rajinikanth's "Kabali", which he had produced, will not be screened in the said theatres across Chengalpet, which refused to screen the film. Producer K. E. Gnanavel Raja also supported Thanu's decision, and said that the films he had distributed – Suriya's "24" and "Singam 3" – will face boycott in the Chengalpet region, if the issue had not cleared. Thanu also blamed the "theatre mafia" saying that "the middlemen and brokers is trying to take over the business with this issue". On 29 April 2016, the film was screened in Chengalpet, two weeks after the original release, as the talks with the producers and stakeholders became fruitful, leading to resolve the issue.


title: Theri (film)

text: On 15 April 2016, a group of actor Vijay's fans caught a videographer for recording the film at a theatre in Coimbatore for piracy purposes. It was revealed that he along with two of other members, were working at a Tamil-language television channel, Polimer TV and the pirated footage of one-and-a-half hour was handed by the videographer to the television staff. Reacting to the issue, the Tamil Film Producers Council and the sister associations of Tamil film fraternity sued the channel for the illegitimate piracy. However, the channel refuted and claimed that they had never indulged in video piracy. A bus driver, named Shankar was booked by the police, for buying pirated versions of the film (along with Suriya's "24") stored in DVDs and screened at a private luxury bus. Apparently Shankar stated that the bus owner had nothing to do with the pirated DVDs.


title: Theri (film)

text: The satellite rights of this film, along with Thanu's other production "Kabali", were remained unsold. In March 2016, it has been reported that Star Vijay and Jaya TV were considered for acquiring the television rights of the film, which did not happen. In November 2016, following its launch in India, Amazon Prime Video had acquired the digital rights of the two films and streamed them exclusively through the platform. After multiple deliberations, Sun TV acquired the television rights in September 2017, and premiered the film exclusively on 18 October 2017, coinciding with Diwali.


title: Theri (film)

text: In the opening day of its release, the film had collected ₹18.1 crore at the domestic box office and ₹39.96 crore worldwide. According to Behindwoods, the film took a "gargantuan opening" ₹3.07 crore within the first four days at the Chennai city box office. At the second day, the film had collected ₹7.12 crore in Tamil Nadu, with a 50% drop compared to the first day collections. The film grossed worldwide in first weekend; By the end of its first 6 days in theaters, the film had grossed worldwide, becoming Vijay's third film to do so, following "Thuppakki" (2012), "Kaththi" (2014) and "Puli" (2015).


title: Theri (film)

text: At-the end of June 2016, the film crossed at the box-office, becoming Vijay's first film in his career to enter the 150-crore club. As of July 2016, the film had collected more than at the box-office, becoming the second highest-grossing Tamil film of the year. At the Chennai city, Theri was the highest grossing Tamil film with a revenue of ₹11.5 crore, which was later broken by "Master" (2021), another Vijay-starrer film that had earned ₹11.56 crore.


title: Theri (film)

text: In the first four days of its release, the film collected in USA and combining the gross in Canada, the film collected over as of 17 April. In the United Kingdom, the film broke "Enthiran"'s box office collection for the first weekend, by collecting , while "Enthiran" had collected . As of May 2016, the film had collected ₹44.37 crore from overseas centres; the film collected $728,317 in United States, $399,079 in Canada, MYR 5,644,489 in Malaysia, where it contributed the major collections.


title: Theri (film)

text: M. Suganth of "The Times of India" rated 3 stars (out of 5) and said that "With the right material, Vijay can elevate even an ordinary scene with his amazing screen presence and he can effortlessly play to the gallery. This is a formulaic film and can be best described only with another cliche — Old wine in a fancy extra-large bottle". Gautaman Bhaskaran of "Hindustan Times" rated the film 2.5 stars (out of 5) saying, "Theri has all the essentials one expects in a Vijay starrer, but central to the film is the father-daughter relationship and that’s where the film scores big". Bardwaj Rangan of "The Hindu" stated that Atlee's screenplay checks all boxes and we're checking these boxes 10 minutes ahead of him. But we let all of this pass because what we look for are the mass moments, the moments that creep past the logic centres in the brain and affect us almost atavistically." Kirubhakar Purushothaman of "India Today" rated 3 (out of 5) saying ""Theri" is a film you go to with battalions of friends or family on a weekend, and come back without giving it a second thought".


title: Theri (film)

text: "Sify" also rated the film 3 out of 5 stars saying that "Vijay's scorching screen presence and his infectious energy is the highlight." "Behindwoods" also rated the film 2.75 stars out of 5, stating that "Theri is a little predictable emotional ride with some great performances, superlative technical work with a mix of commercial elements." Anupama Subramanian of "Deccan Chronicle" rated two-and-a-half out of five stars saying "The film highly relies on Vijay's strength and charisma to carry it through, thus living up to the expectations and the huge pre hype created to some extent." Latha Srinivasan of "Daily News and Analysis" gave 2.5 (out of 5) saying "Vijay fans will find the movie delightful, others may not". Writing for "The Indian Express", Goutham VS gave two stars out of five and said that "The movie, possibly the millionth remake of Rajnikanth’s revenge film "Baashha", where the hero is a daredevil with a larger-than-life persona, is yawn-inducing". "Ananda Vikatan" rated the film 43 out of 100. "Indiaglitz" rated the film 3 out of 5 and called it as "an entertaining revenge drama from Atlee and Vijay".


title: Theri (film)

text: "Theri" has been considered as one of the popular films of Vijay in the recent times. It also led to the repeated collaborations between Atlee and Vijay, where they went to work on "Mersal" (2017) and "Bigil" (2019). However, Atlee still stated it as "one of his favourite films in his career". On 14 April 2021, during the film's fifth anniversary, Atlee tweeted a thread of stills from the films, praising the actor, actress, crew and producer for the film, while also referring it as "close to his heart". The film emerged popularity over multiple re-runs on television channels and had garnered record impressions; apart from the original, the Hindi-dubbed version of the film also gained popularity in televisions. It was re-released in Tamil Nadu theatres on 21 June 2019, ahead of the actor's 45th birthday. Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, stated "Theri" as his favourite film at an interview to his fans. During the COVID-19 lockdown in India, a group of Tamil Nadu Police members performed a parody version of the song "Jithu Jilladi" to create awareness to control the pandemic.


title: Theri (film)

text: In June 2016, a Hindi remake of the film was planned by Rohit Shetty, with Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar as the frontrunners to play the leads. However, Shetty denied the plans of remaking the film. Later, in April 2020, Varun Dhawan was rumoured to play the lead in the adaptation.The film was partially remade into Assamese as "Ratnakar" (2019) by Jatin Bora.


title: Craig David

text: Craig Ashley David (born 5 May 1981) is a British singer and songwriter who rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single "Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, "Born to Do It", was released in 2000, after which he has released a further five studio albums and worked with a variety of artists such as Sting, Tinchy Stryder, Big Narstie, Kano and Jay Sean. David has 20 UK Top 40 singles, and seven UK Top 40 albums, selling over 15,000,000 records worldwide as a solo artist.


title: Craig David

text: David has been nominated for fourteen Brit Awards: five times for Best British Male, and twice receiving a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.


title: Craig David

text: David was born in Southampton, Hampshire, the son of Tina (née Loftus), a retail assistant at Superdrug, and George David, a carpenter, and grew up in the Holyrood estate. David's father is Afro-Grenadian and David's mother is Anglo-Jewish and related to the founders of the Accurist watch-making company; David's maternal grandfather was an Orthodox Jew and his maternal grandmother a convert to Judaism. David's parents separated when he was eight and he was brought up by his mother. He attended Bellemoor School and Southampton City College.


title: Craig David

text: David was bullied by other students at school. He wrote and released the song "Johnny" in 2005 about his memories of being bullied.


title: Craig David

text: David's father played bass in a reggae band called Ebony Rockers. As a teen, David began accompanying his father to local dance clubs, where DJs let him take the microphone.


title: Craig David

text: David's earliest exposure came when he worked on a B-side to British group Damage's cover of "Wonderful Tonight", on the track "I'm Ready". He then started doing vocals for the English garage duo Artful Dodger, on tracks such as "Something" and "What Ya Gonna Do".


title: Craig David

text: Wildstar Records first became aware of David when the artist's then manager Paul Widger met the label's co-owner Colin Lester and played some of his music. Lester later told HitQuarters that he was particularly impressed by the first song he heard, "Walking Away", saying "That was an absolute stand out ... It struck me that any seventeen year-old that could write a song like this had huge potential." The Wildstar boss was further won over when, on later visiting the artist's home in Southampton, he found David's tiny bedroom stacked from floor to ceiling with 12" vinyl records, commenting: "That convinced me he was the real deal and not just some kid acting out the part." At that point Lester offered him a development deal with his label. When Lester later heard the song "7 Days", he said he immediately heard a number-one record and promoted the contract to an album deal the same day.


title: Craig David

text: The song "Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)", from the Artful Dodger album "It's All About the Stragglers", hit number two on the UK charts in 1999; thus, paving the way for a solo career. David's first single, "Fill Me In", released on Colin Lester's and Ian McAndrew's Wildstar Records, topped the UK chart and was the first of a string of four top 10 singles from his debut album "Born to Do It", which eventually sold more than 8 million copies worldwide, earning multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries. The song "Key to My Heart", taken from the US version of the album, was also featured on the award-winning Warner Bros. animated film "Osmosis Jones".


title: Craig David

text: The success of David's debut, which was written almost entirely by David and Mark Hill of Artful Dodger, led to the United States release of "Fill Me In" in May 2001. It reached number 15 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. "Born to Do It" was released in the United States on 17 July 2001, peaking at number 11 on the "Billboard" 200 chart and sold over 1 million copies. The single "7 Days" hit the top 10 in the U.S.; although "Walking Away", which had reached number 3 in the UK and number 5 in Australia, missed the top 40 in the U.S. and was the last of his singles to chart there.


title: Craig David

text: In April 2009, MTV viewers voted "Born to Do It" as number 2 on their "Greatest Album of All-Time" poll, behind Michael Jackson's "Thriller".


title: Craig David

text: The follow-up album, "Slicker Than Your Average", was released in 2002. The album's first four singles continued David's streak of top 10 hits in the UK, bringing a total of nine consecutive top 10 hits until "World Filled with Love" peaked at number 15 in 2003. None of the six singles released from the album charted in the U.S.. Although "What's Your Flava?" and "Rise & Fall" (duet with Sting) received airplay on the urban contemporary and soft adult contemporary formats, they did not make the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart or the Adult Contemporary chart. However, "What's Your Flava?" made the Rhythmic Top 40 chart (number 32), Mainstream Top 40 chart (number 24) and the Top 40 Tracks chart (number 37). According to the RIAA, "Slicker Than Your Average" was certified Gold in the U.S..


title: Craig David

text: David also commented that the album title could be looked at in two different ways: "On the one hand, it's coming across like I'm arrogant. On the other hand, it's saying I have a lot more composure on the album.""


title: Craig David

text: The album was leaked onto the internet prior to its official release but David was not too bothered as he feels it "spreads the word".


title: Craig David

text: David later signed on with Warner Music and put together his third album, "The Story Goes...", which was released worldwide in August 2005 (excluding the U.S. where it was never released). The first single, "All the Way", returned him to the top 3. The second single, "Don't Love You No More (I'm Sorry)", tied with "7 Days" as his longest-running single in the charts since "Re-Rewind", spending 15 weeks inside the UK top 75. The album's third single, "Unbelievable", debuted at number 18 in March 2006.


title: Craig David

text: In 2007, David collaborated with British rapper Kano on his album "London Town", for the single "This Is the Girl". The track was released on 27 August 2007 and debuted at number 18 on the UK charts.


title: Craig David

text: The first single from his album "Trust Me", "Hot Stuff (Let's Dance)", was released on 5 November 2007. David successfully sought permission from David Bowie to sample his 1983 number-one single "Let's Dance". The single was a top ten hit, whilst the album charted at number 18 on the UK Albums Chart. "6 of 1 Thing", the second single to be taken from "Trust Me", charted at number 39 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming his third-lowest-charting single to date.


title: Craig David

text: "Officially Yours" was released on 23 June 2008 and peaked at number 158 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming his lowest-charting single to date and was the final single from "Trust Me". In July, a new track titled "Are You Up for This" started receiving airplay on various radio stations as part of a promo with Ice Cream Records, which also featured a remix with Wittyboy called "Nutter Butter". On 17 August 2008, David performed at a birthday tribute concert for songwriter Don Black at the London Palladium. He performed the song "Ben", originally a hit for Michael Jackson.


title: Craig David

text: David took part in "Soccer Aid" 2008 at Wembley Stadium on 7 September 2008. He picked up the "Man of The Match" award on the night and played in the same England side as ex-internationals such as Alan Shearer, Teddy Sheringham and David Seaman, and played against the likes of Romário, Paolo Di Canio, Jaap Stam, and Luís Figo. David received two 2008 UK Urban Music Award nominations for Best Album with "Trust Me" and Best R&B Act. On 7 November 2008, David was recognised for his contribution to the music industry by receiving an honorary degree of Doctor of Music, from Southampton Solent University at a graduation ceremony held at Southampton Guildhall.


title: Craig David

text: David released his first "Greatest Hits" album on 24 November 2008. In support of the release, David released two singles to promote the album. "Where's Your Love" featuring Tinchy Stryder and Rita Ora, a homage to his UK garage days, was digitally released on 10 November 2008. The second single, "Insomnia", produced by Jim Beanz from Timbaland productions, a dance track with hard bassline beats, was released the following week on 17 November 2008. Toby Gad and Eimear Crombie provided back-up vocals and instrumental stylings. David also started working with guitarist and recording engineer Kwame Yeboah, both live and in the studio.


title: Craig David

text: On 29 December 2008, a new mix of "Insomnia", titled "Up All Night Mix", was made available for digital download. As part of the "Greatest Hits" compilation, David re-recorded "Walking Away" with four different artists across Europe, Monrose from Germany, Nek from Italy, Lynnsha from France and Álex Ubago from Spain. The album debuted at number 48 on the UK Albums Chart. From February to April 2009, David toured Russia, the Far East and performed one show in Los Angeles as part of a "Greatest Hits" tour. He met fans at a meet and greet session at Singapore Changi Airport before his show.


title: Craig David

text: In April 2009, "Born to Do It" came second in a poll by MTV UK for the Greatest Album Ever, which received over 40,000 votes, beaten by Michael Jackson's album "Thriller". On 14 May 2009, David participated in the Hillsborough Memorial football match at Anfield. On 26 July 2009, David participated in the Sir Bobby Robson Trophy match at St James' Park, playing alongside boyhood hero Alan Shearer.


title: Craig David

text: On 18 September 2009, fans got the first taste of the new album with an exclusive demo posted on his official website, a thirty-second snippet covering Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours". On 2 October 2009, David revealed to his fans via Twitter and his website that he had signed a new record deal with Universal Motown. The UK edition of Jay Sean's new album "All or Nothing" which was released on 30 November 2009, features David on a track entitled "Stuck in the Middle". David performed a bold new cover of "I Wan'na Be like You" from Walt Disney's 1967 film "The Jungle Book" on the ITV programme "Ultimate Movie Toons", broadcast 28 March 2010.


title: Craig David

text: The first single from David's fifth studio album "Signed Sealed Delivered" was "One More Lie (Standing in the Shadows)" and it was released in the UK on 22 March 2010 where it made number 76 with the album following one week later on 29 March 2010, which entered the UK chart at number 13.


title: Craig David

text: On 17 March 2010, David released a UK garage compilation album titled "Rewind Old Skool Classics" mixed with DJ Spoony featuring some of their favourite UK garage hits from the last ten years.


title: Craig David

text: Two weeks later on 31 May 2010, the second single to be taken from "Signed Sealed Delivered", titled "All Alone Tonight (Stop, Look, Listen)" was released. The chorus of the single samples The Stylistics' hit "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)" but features completely new verses. In the weeks leading up to the release BBC Radio Two backed the single by naming it their 'Record of the Week' and adding it to their 'A-List'. On 20 May 2010, David appeared as a co-host on "The Morning Show" in Australia alongside Kylie Gillies, whilst regular male presenter Larry Emdur was on holiday. On 27 August 2010, Swiss DJ Remady released an album titled "No Superstar" on which David features on the track "Do It on My Own". David was nominated for 'Best Video' at the 2010 Urban Music Awards for the song "One More Lie (Standing in the Shadows)". The 2010 "Sunday Times" Rich List indicated that Craig David is worth £8 million.


title: Craig David

text: David revealed on Twitter that he has worked with record producer Jim Beanz on material for his new album. He also tweeted about working with August Rigo and more recently Fraser T Smith. Whilst doing a show in Russia, David confirmed he had left Universal Music Group and hopes to release his new album in America as well as the UK. In February 2011, David agreed to do a desert trek for Comic Relief as part of Red Nose Day 2011. A host of celebrities including Dermot O'Leary, Olly Murs and Lorraine Kelly trekked 100 kilometres across a Kenyan desert to raise money for preventable blindness across Africa.


title: Craig David

text: In May 2011, David made a guest appearance on NRJ12's French reality TV show "Les Anges 2" where he offered advice to contestants trying to make a life in Miami. Released on 1 August 2011, David features on Erick Morillo's new mix CD "Subliminal Invasion" on a track titled "Fly Away". David performed at the Michael Jackson tribute concert, held in Cardiff at the Millennium Stadium on 8 October 2011.


title: Craig David

text: Further to their earlier collaboration, David and Erick Morillo also canvassed a promotional track to DJs and radio stations titled "Get Drunk Up" and also featured it on YouTube. Morillo revealed David would appear on a project with Harry Romero and José Nunez, featuring a remix of the track. In December, he featured on the Blackout Mode dance track "Freak on the Dancefloor" that appeared on the compilation album "R&B Collection 2012".


title: Craig David

text: In 2012, David featured on a number of tracks whilst recording his own album, including releases with Stereo Palma titled "Our Love" and a collaboration with Mohombi and DJ Asaad titled "Addicted".