title: Joe Thomas (actor)

text: Born in Chelmsford, Essex, as the first of four boys, Thomas attended King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford before reading History at Pembroke College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, Thomas was a member of the Footlights, alongside his future "Inbetweeners" co-star Simon Bird. Bird and Thomas served as the President and the Secretary of the Footlights, respectively, in 2005–2006. Of his education, he states, "I never really recovered from the fact that the lecturers weren't paid to be nice to me. Or that the carrot-and-stick thing that happened at school no longer occurred. If you do quite well, nobody's that bothered; and if you really fuck up, nobody's that bothered. It has to be from you and I was easily distracted". Nevertheless, Thomas graduated with a 2:1 degree in History in 2006.


title: Joe Thomas (actor)

text: After graduation, Thomas briefly shared a flat with Bird and fellow Pembroke graduate and Footlights alumnus Jonny Sweet.


title: Joe Thomas (actor)

text: After entering the performing arts via the Footlights, Thomas performed with fellow University of Cambridge students at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in a production of "All's Well That Ends Well" directed by author Duncan Barrett. After graduating from university, Thomas took to acting professionally, and his parents have accepted and are not ashamed of his choice of career.


title: Joe Thomas (actor)

text: Thomas is in a double act along with Sweet, and they have performed their show, "The Jonny and Joe Show", at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.


title: Joe Thomas (actor)

text: Thomas' big break in television was his role as Simon Cooper in "The Inbetweeners" which was so popular that it spawned two feature films, "The Inbetweeners Movie" and "The Inbetweeners 2". Together with Bird and writing partner Sweet, he wrote "Chickens", a satirical sketch about three conscientious objectors during World War I. It was broadcast as part of Channel 4's Comedy Showcase in 2011. In 2012, it was picked up by Sky One who commissioned a full, six episode series; filming began in late 2012 and debuted in August 2013.


title: Joe Thomas (actor)

text: Following this, Thomas starred in the student sitcom "Fresh Meat" as Kingsley Owen and played a Maths teacher in the first episode of the second series of "Threesome". In 2017, Thomas began starring in the sitcom "White Gold", along with his other "The Inbetweeners" co-star James Buckley.


title: Joe Thomas (actor)

text: In 2018 Thomas began work on "Proposal", a comedy radio series announced as part of BBC Radio 2's spring "funny fortnight", in which he plays Jamie, a man preparing to propose to his girlfriend Lucy (Pearl Mackie).


title: Ken Follett

text: Kenneth Martin Follett, (born 5 June 1949) is a British author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 160 million copies of his works.


title: Ken Follett

text: Many of his books have achieved high ranking on best seller lists. For example, in the US, many reached the number-one position on the "New York Times" Best Seller list, including "Edge of Eternity", "Fall of Giants", "A Dangerous Fortune", "The Key to Rebecca", "Lie Down with Lions", "Triple", "Winter of the World", and "World Without End".


title: Ken Follett

text: Follett was born on 5 June 1949 in Cardiff, Wales. He was the first child of Martin Follett, a tax inspector, and Lavinia (Veenie) Follett, who went on to have two more children, Hannah and James. Barred from watching films and television by his Plymouth Brethren parents, he developed an early interest in reading but remained an indifferent student until he entered his teens. His family moved to London when he was ten years old, and he began applying himself to his studies at Harrow Weald Grammar School and Poole Technical College.


title: Ken Follett

text: He won admission in 1967 to University College London, where he studied philosophy and became involved in centre-left politics. He married Mary, in 1968, and their son Emanuele was born in the same year. After graduation in the autumn of 1970, Follett took a three-month post-graduate course in journalism and went to work as a trainee reporter in Cardiff on the "South Wales Echo". In 1973 a daughter, Marie-Claire, was born.


title: Ken Follett

text: After three years in Cardiff, he returned to London as a general-assignment reporter for the "Evening News". Finding the work unchallenging, he eventually left journalism for publishing and became, by the late 1970s, deputy managing director of the small London publisher Everest Books. He began writing fiction during evenings and weekends as a hobby. Later, he said, he began writing books when he needed extra money to fix his car, and the publishers' advance a fellow journalist had been paid for a thriller was the sum required for the repairs.


title: Ken Follett

text: Success came gradually at first, but the 1978 publication of "Eye of the Needle", which became an international bestseller and sold over 10 million copies, made him both wealthy and internationally famous.


title: Ken Follett

text: Each of Follett's subsequent novels has become a best-seller, ranking high on the "New York Times" Best Seller list; a number have been adapted for the screen. As of January 2018, he had published 44 books. The first five best sellers were spy thrillers: "Eye of the Needle" (1978), "Triple" (1979), "The Key to Rebecca "(1980), "The Man from St. Petersburg" (1982) and "Lie Down with Lions" (1986). "On Wings of Eagles" (1983) was the true story of how two of Ross Perot's employees were rescued from Iran during the revolution of 1979.


title: Ken Follett

text: The next three novels, "Night Over Water" (1991), "A Dangerous Fortune" (1993) and "A Place Called Freedom" (1995) were more historical than thriller, but he returned to the thriller genre with "The Third Twin" (1996) which in the "Publishing Trends" annual survey of international fiction best-sellers for 1997 was ranked no. 2 worldwide, after John Grisham's "The Partner". His next work, "The Hammer of Eden" (1998), was another contemporary suspense story followed by a Cold War thriller, "Code to Zero" (2000).


title: Ken Follett

text: Follett returned to the Second World War era with his next two novels, "Jackdaws" (2001), a thriller about a group of women parachuted into France to destroy a vital telephone exchange – which won the Corine Literature Prize for 2003 – and "Hornet Flight" (2002), about a daring young Danish couple who escape to Britain from occupied Denmark in a rebuilt Hornet Moth biplane with vital information about German radar. "Whiteout" (2004) is a contemporary thriller about the theft of a deadly virus from a research lab.


title: Ken Follett

text: Follett surprised his readers with his first non-spy thriller, "The Pillars of the Earth" (1989), a novel about building a cathedral in a small English village during the Anarchy in the 12th century. The novel was highly successful, received positive reviews and was on "The New York Times" Best Seller list for eighteen weeks. It topped best-seller lists in Canada, Britain and Italy, and was on the German best-seller list for six years. It has sold 26 million copies so far. On 16 August 2017, it was published as a computer game adaptation by German developer and publisher Daedalic Entertainment.


title: Ken Follett

text: Its much-later sequel, "World Without End" (2007), returns to Kingsbridge 157 years later, and features the descendants of the characters in "Pillars". It focuses on the destinies of a handful of people as their lives are devastated by the Black Death, the plague that swept Europe from the middle of the 14th century.


title: Ken Follett

text: The next novel in the series, "A Column of Fire", was published in September 2017. Beginning in 1558, the story follows the romance between Ned Willard and Margery Fitzgerald over half a century. It commences at a time when Europe turns against Elizabethan England, and the queen finds herself beset by plots to dethrone her.


title: Ken Follett

text: A fourth novel, "The Evening and the Morning" (2020), is a prequel to "The Pillars of the Earth". Set in the decade around 1000 AD – in the so-called Dark Ages – the story "concerns the gradual creation of the town of Kingsbridge and of the many people – priests, nobles, peasants, the enslaved – who played significant roles". As such, the book provides "a solid underpinning to the later installments of the Kingsbridge series".


title: Ken Follett

text: The series has been described as being "as comprehensive an account of the building of a civilization – with its laws, structures, customs and beliefs – as you are likely to encounter anywhere in popular fiction".


title: Ken Follett

text: Follett's novels, "Fall of Giants", "Winter of the World" and "Edge of Eternity", make up the Century Trilogy. "Fall of Giants" (2010) followed the fates of five interrelated families – American, German, Russian, English and Welsh – as they moved through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the struggle for women's suffrage. "Fall of Giants", published simultaneously in 14 countries, was internationally popular and topped several best-seller lists.


title: Ken Follett

text: "Winter of the World" (2012) picks up where the first book left off, as its five interrelated families enter a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil, beginning with the rise of Nazi Germany, through the Spanish Civil War and the great dramas of World War II, to the explosions of the American and Soviet atom bombs and the beginning of the long Cold War.


title: Ken Follett

text: The final novel in the 'Century' trilogy, "Edge of Eternity", which follows those families through the events of the second half of the 20th century, was published on 16 September 2014. Like the previous two books, it chronicles the lives of five families through the Cold War and civil-rights movements.


title: Ken Follett

text: A major element of the first two volumes, "Fall of Giants" and "Winter of the World", is the increasing political assertiveness of the British working class and the rise of the British Labour Party – exemplified by the Williams Family, Welsh coal miners, of which several viewpoint characters end up as Members of the British Parliament and one of becomes a cabinet minister in Clement Attlee's post-WWII Labour government. However, the theme of British politics is nearly absent from the third part "Edge of Eternity", which concentrates on the Cold War on the one hand and the US Civil Rights Movement on the other; for example, though the novel continues until 1989, it makes no reference at all to the rise of Margaret Thatcher in 1979.


title: Ken Follett

text: Follett has had a number of novels made into films and television mini series: "Eye of the Needle" was made into an acclaimed film, starring Donald Sutherland, and six novels have been made into television mini-series: "The Key to Rebecca", "Lie Down with Lions", "On Wings of Eagles" (1986), "The Third Twin" – the rights for which were sold to CBS for $US1,400,000, a record price at the time – and "The Pillars of the Earth" (2010) and "World Without End" (2012).


title: Ken Follett

text: A video game adaptation titled "Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth", developed and published by German studio Daedalic Entertainment, was released in three parts from 2017 to 2018.


title: Ken Follett

text: Follett had cameo roles as the valet in "The Third Twin" and later as a merchant in "The Pillars of the Earth". In 2016, "A Dangerous Fortune" was also adapted.


title: Ken Follett

text: Follett is a member of various organisations that promote literacy and writing, and is actively involved in various organisations in his home town of Stevenage.


title: Ken Follett

text: He is active in numerous Stevenage charities and was a governor of Roebuck Primary School for ten years, serving as the Chair of Governors for four of those years.


title: Ken Follett

text: On 15 September 2010, Follett, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in "The Guardian" stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.


title: Ken Follett

text: He has also donated £25,000 to the Yvette Cooper campaign in the 2015 Labour Party (UK) leadership election, as well as another £25,000 from his wife Barbara Follett


title: Ken Follett

text: Follett's archival papers are housed at the Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, United States. They include outlines, first drafts, notes and correspondence, original manuscripts, and copies of early books now out of print.


title: Ken Follett

text: Follett became involved, during the late 1970s, in the activities of Britain's Labour Party. In the course of his political activities, he met Barbara Broer, a Labour Party official, who became his second wife in 1984. She was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1997, representing Stevenage. She was re-elected in both 2001 and 2005, but did not stand in the 2010 general election. Follett himself remains a prominent Labour supporter and fundraiser as well as a prominent Blairite.


title: Ken Follett

text: He is an amateur musician playing bass guitar for Damn Right I Got the Blues, and appears occasionally with the folk group Clog Iron playing a bass balalaika.


title: Sal Khan

text: Salman Amin Khan (born October 11, 1976), commonly known as Sal Khan, is an American educator and the founder of Khan Academy, a free online non-profit educational platform and an organization with which he has produced over 6,500 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects, originally focusing on mathematics and science. He is also the founder of Khan Lab School, a brick-and-mortar private school in Mountain View, California.


title: Sal Khan

text: , the Khan Academy channel on YouTube has 7.62 million subscribers, and its videos have been viewed more than 1.97 billion times. In 2012, "Time" named Khan in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In the same year, "Forbes" magazine featured Khan on its cover, with the story "$1 Trillion Opportunity."


title: Sal Khan

text: Salman Amin Khan was born on October 11, 1976 to Bengali Muslim parents Fakhrul Amin Khan (d. 1990) and Masuda Khan in Metairie, Louisiana. His father was a physician, and originally hailed from the village of Rahmatpur in Babuganj, Barisal District, Bangladesh. They are descended from Rahmat Khan, a Pathan chieftain who was killed in conflict with Raja Kandarpanarayan Rai of Chandradwip in the 16th century. Khan's grandfather, Abdul Wahab Khan was the 3rd Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan. His mother, Masuda Khan, is from Murshidabad in West Bengal, India.


title: Sal Khan

text: He attended Grace King High School, where, as he recalls, "a few classmates were fresh out of jail and others were bound for top universities." He was a cartoonist for the high school's newspaper. Khan took upper-level mathematics courses at the University of New Orleans while he was in high school and graduated as valedictorian in 1994.


title: Sal Khan

text: He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), graduating with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Course 6 (electrical engineering and computer science), and another bachelor's degree in Course 18 (mathematics), in 1998. In his final year, Khan was the president of the "Senior Gift Committee," a philanthropy program of the graduating class.


title: Sal Khan

text: In 2002, Khan was a summertime intern at PARC. From 2003 to late 2009, he worked as a hedge fund analyst at Connective Capital Management.<ref name="http://chronicle.com"></ref><ref name="http://www.linkedin.com"></ref>


title: Sal Khan

text: In 2004, Khan began tutoring his cousin, Nadia, in mathematics over the internet using Yahoo!'s Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends sought his tutoring, he moved his tutorials to YouTube, where he created an account on November 16, 2006.


title: Sal Khan

text: The popularity of his educational videos on the video-sharing website prompted Khan to quit his job as a financial analyst in late 2009. He moved his focus to developing his YouTube channel, Khan Academy, full-time with the aid of close friend Josh Gefner. Khan subsequently received sponsorship from Ann Doerr, the wife of John Doerr.


title: Sal Khan

text: His videos received worldwide interest from both students and non-students, with more than 458 million views in the first number of years.


title: Sal Khan

text: Khan outlined his mission as to "accelerate learning for students of all ages. With this in mind, we want to share our content with whoever may find it useful." Khan plans to extend the "free school" to cover topics such as English literature.


title: Sal Khan

text: Khan published a book about Khan Academy and education goals titled "The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined."


title: Sal Khan

text: Khan Academy, initially a tool for students, added the Coach feature in 2012, promoting the connection of teachers with students through videos and monitor tools. In 2012, Khan received the American Academy of Achievement’s Gold Medal. In 2014, Khan received the 19th Annual Heinz Award in the Human Condition category.


title: Sal Khan

text: In 2015, Khan announced that Khan Academy was partnering with the College Board to create free practice resources for the SAT test.


title: Sal Khan

text: Khan believes that supplementing traditional classroom education with the technology being developed by his Academy can improve the effectiveness of teachers by freeing them from traditional lectures and giving them more time for instruction specific to individual students' needs.


title: Sal Khan

text: Stanford AI researcher Andrew Ng has named Khan as a huge inspiration for the founding of Coursera, one of the first massive open online course (MOOC) platforms.


title: Sal Khan

text: In early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Khan launched Schoolhouse: a free non-profit initiative to provide small-group tutoring for students worldwide through Zoom meetings.


title: Sal Khan

text: Schoolhouse certifications, developed in partnership with the University of Chicago, test students’ mastery of subjects and certify their knowledge. MIT and Case Western Reserve University have since signed on.


title: Sal Khan

text: In 2016, Khan received the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, the Padma Shri, from the President of India.


title: Sal Khan

text: Khan is married to a Pakistani physician, Umaima Marvi. The couple live with their children in Mountain View, California.


title: Sal Khan

text: "If you believe in trying to make the best of the finite number of years we have on this planet (while not making it any worse for anyone else), think that pride and self-righteousness are the cause of most conflict and negativity, and are humbled by the vastness and mystery of the Universe, then I'm the same religion as you."


title: Animal husbandry

text: Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starting with the Neolithic Revolution when animals were first domesticated, from around 13,000 BC onwards, predating farming of the first crops. By the time of early civilisations such as ancient Egypt, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs were being raised on farms.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Major changes took place in the Columbian exchange, when Old World livestock were brought to the New World, and then in the British Agricultural Revolution of the 18th century, when livestock breeds like the Dishley Longhorn cattle and Lincoln Longwool sheep were rapidly improved by agriculturalists, such as Robert Bakewell, to yield more meat, milk, and wool. A wide range of other species, such as horse, water buffalo, llama, rabbit, and guinea pig, are used as livestock in some parts of the world. Insect farming, as well as aquaculture of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans, is widespread. Modern animal husbandry relies on production systems adapted to the type of land available. Subsistence farming is being superseded by intensive animal farming in the more developed parts of the world, where, for example, beef cattle are kept in high density feedlots, and thousands of chickens may be raised in broiler houses or batteries. On poorer soil, such as in uplands, animals are often kept more extensively and may be allowed to roam widely, foraging for themselves.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Most livestock are herbivores, except for pigs and chickens which are omnivores. Ruminants like cattle and sheep are adapted to feed on grass; they can forage outdoors or may be fed entirely or in part on rations richer in energy and protein, such as pelleted cereals. Pigs and poultry cannot digest the cellulose in forage and require other high-protein foods.


title: Animal husbandry

text: The verb "to husband", meaning "to manage carefully," derives from an older meaning of "husband", which in the 14th century referred to the ownership and care of a household or farm, but today means the "control or judicious use of resources," and in agriculture, the cultivation of plants or animals. Farmers and ranchers who raise livestock are considered to practice "animal husbandry".


title: Animal husbandry

text: The domestication of livestock was driven by the need to have food on hand when hunting was unproductive. The desirable characteristics of a domestic animal are that it should be useful to the domesticator, should be able to thrive in his or her company, should breed freely, and be easy to tend. Domestication was not a single event, but a process repeated at various periods in different places. Sheep and goats were the animals that accompanied the nomads in the Middle East, while cattle and pigs were associated with more settled communities. The first wild animal to be domesticated was the dog. Half-wild dogs, perhaps starting with young individuals, may have been tolerated as scavengers and killers of vermin, and being naturally pack hunters, were predisposed to become part of the human pack and join in the hunt. Prey animals, sheep, goats, pigs and cattle, were progressively domesticated early in the history of agriculture. Pigs were domesticated in the Near East between 8,500 and 8000 BC, sheep and goats in or near the Fertile Crescent about 8,500 BC, and cattle from wild aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey and Pakistan around 8,500 BC. A cow was a great advantage to a villager as she produced more milk than her calf needed, and her strength could be put to use as a working animal, pulling a plough to increase production of crops, and drawing a sledge, and later a cart, to bring the produce home from the field. Draught animals were first used about 4,000 BC in the Middle East, increasing agricultural production immeasurably.


title: Animal husbandry

text: In southern Asia, the elephant was domesticated by 6,000 BC. Fossilised chicken bones dated to 5040 BC have been found in northeastern China, far from where their wild ancestors lived in the jungles of tropical Asia, but archaeologists believe that the original purpose of domestication was for the sport of cockfighting. Meanwhile, in South America, the llama and the alpaca had been domesticated, probably before 3,000 BC, as beasts of burden and for their wool. Neither was strong enough to pull a plough which limited the development of agriculture in the New World. Horses occur naturally on the steppes of Central Asia and their domestication began around 3,000 BC in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea region. Although horses were originally seen as a source of meat, their use as pack animals and for riding followed. Around the same time, the wild ass was being tamed in Egypt. Camels were domesticated soon after this, with the Bactrian camel in Mongolia and the Arabian camel becoming beasts of burden. By 1000 BC, caravans of Arabian camels were linking India with Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean.


title: Animal husbandry

text: In ancient Egypt, cattle were the most important livestock, and sheep, goats, and pigs were also kept; poultry including ducks, geese, and pigeons were captured in nets and bred on farms, where they were force-fed with dough to fatten them. The Nile provided a plentiful source of fish. Honey bees were domesticated from at least the Old Kingdom, providing both honey and wax. In ancient Rome, all the livestock known in ancient Egypt were available. In addition, rabbits were domesticated for food by the first century BC. To help flush them out from their burrows, the polecat was domesticated as the ferret, its use described by Pliny the Elder.


title: Animal husbandry

text: In northern Europe, agriculture including animal husbandry went into decline when the Roman empire collapsed. Some aspects such as the herding of animals continued throughout the period. By the 11th century, the economy had recovered and the countryside was again productive. The "Domesday Book" recorded every parcel of land and every animal in England: "there was not one single hide, nor a yard of land, nay, moreover ... not even an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine was there left, that was not set down in [the king's] writ." For example, the royal manor of Earley in Berkshire, one of thousands of villages recorded in the book, had in 1086 "2 fisheries worth [paying tax of] 7s and 6d [each year] and 20 acres of meadow [for livestock]. Woodland for [feeding] 70 pigs." The improvements of animal husbandry in the medieval period in Europe went hand in hand with other developments. Improvements to the plough allowed the soil to be tilled to a greater depth. Horses took over from oxen as the main providers of traction, new ideas on crop rotation were developed and the growing of crops for winter fodder gained ground. Peas, beans and vetches became common; they increased soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, allowing more livestock to be kept.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Exploration and colonisation of North and South America resulted in the introduction into Europe of such crops as maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes and manioc, while the principal Old World livestock – cattle, horses, sheep and goats – were introduced into the New World for the first time along with wheat, barley, rice and turnips.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Selective breeding for desired traits was established as a scientific practice by Robert Bakewell during the British Agricultural Revolution in the 18th century. One of his most important breeding programs was with sheep. Using native stock, he was able to quickly select for large, yet fine-boned sheep, with long, lustrous wool. The Lincoln Longwool was improved by Bakewell and in turn the Lincoln was used to develop the subsequent breed, named the New (or Dishley) Leicester. It was hornless and had a square, meaty body with straight top lines. These sheep were exported widely and have contributed to numerous modern breeds. Under his influence, English farmers began to breed cattle for use primarily as beef. Long-horned heifers were crossed with the Westmoreland bull to create the Dishley Longhorn.


title: Animal husbandry

text: The semi-natural, unfertilised pastures formed by traditional agricultural methods in Europe were managed by grazing and mowing. As the ecological impact of this land management strategy is similar to the impact of such natural disturbances as a wildfire, this agricultural system shares many beneficial characteristics with a natural habitat, including the promotion of biodiversity. This strategy is declining in Europe today due to the intensification of agriculture. The mechanized and chemical methods used are causing biodiversity to decline.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Traditionally, animal husbandry was part of the subsistence farmer's way of life, producing not only the food needed by the family but also the fuel, fertiliser, clothing, transport and draught power. Killing the animal for food was a secondary consideration, and wherever possible its products such as wool, eggs, milk and blood (by the Maasai) were harvested while the animal was still alive. In the traditional system of transhumance, people and livestock moved seasonally between fixed summer and winter pastures; in montane regions the summer pasture was up in the mountains, the winter pasture in the valleys.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Animals can be kept extensively or intensively. Extensive systems involve animals roaming at will, or under the supervision of a herdsman, often for their protection from predators. Ranching in the Western United States involves large herds of cattle grazing widely over public and private lands. Similar cattle stations are found in South America, Australia and other places with large areas of land and low rainfall. Ranching systems have been used for sheep, deer, ostrich, emu, llama and alpaca.


title: Animal husbandry

text: In the uplands of the United Kingdom, sheep are turned out on the fells in spring and graze the abundant mountain grasses untended, being brought to lower altitudes late in the year, with supplementary feeding being provided in winter. In rural locations, pigs and poultry can obtain much of their nutrition from scavenging, and in African communities, hens may live for months without being fed, and still produce one or two eggs a week.


title: Animal husbandry

text: At the other extreme, in the more developed parts of the world, animals are often intensively managed; dairy cows may be kept in zero-grazing conditions with all their forage brought to them; beef cattle may be kept in high density feedlots; pigs may be housed in climate-controlled buildings and never go outdoors; poultry may be reared in barns and kept in cages as laying birds under lighting-controlled conditions. In between these two extremes are semi-intensive, often family-run farms where livestock graze outside for much of the year, silage or hay is made to cover the times of year when the grass stops growing, and fertiliser, feed, and other inputs are brought onto the farm from outside.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Animals used as livestock are predominantly herbivorous, the main exceptions being the pig and the chicken which are omnivorous. The herbivores can be divided into "concentrate selectors" which selectively feed on seeds, fruits and highly nutritious young foliage, "grazers" which mainly feed on grass, and "intermediate feeders" which choose their diet from the whole range of available plant material. Cattle, sheep, goats, deer and antelopes are ruminants; they digest food in two steps, chewing and swallowing in the normal way, and then regurgitating the semidigested cud to chew it again and thus extract the maximum possible food value.


title: Animal husbandry

text: The dietary needs of these animals is mostly met by eating grass. Grasses grow from the base of the leaf-blade, enabling it to thrive even when heavily grazed or cut.


title: Animal husbandry

text: In many climates grass growth is seasonal, for example in the temperate summer or tropical rainy season, so some areas of the crop are set aside to be cut and preserved, either as hay (dried grass), or as silage (fermented grass). Other forage crops are also grown and many of these, as well as crop residues, can be ensiled to fill the gap in the nutritional needs of livestock in the lean season.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Extensively reared animals may subsist entirely on forage, but more intensively kept livestock will require energy and protein-rich foods in addition. Energy is mainly derived from cereals and cereal by-products, fats and oils and sugar-rich foods, while protein may come from fish or meat meal, milk products, legumes and other plant foods, often the by-products of vegetable oil extraction.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Pigs and poultry are non-ruminants and unable to digest the cellulose in grass and other forages, so they are fed entirely on cereals and other high-energy foodstuffs. The ingredients for the animals' rations can be grown on the farm or can be bought, in the form of pelleted or cubed, compound foodstuffs specially formulated for the different classes of livestock, their growth stages and their specific nutritional requirements. Vitamins and minerals are added to balance the diet. Farmed fish are usually fed pelleted food.


title: Animal husbandry

text: The breeding of farm animals seldom occurs spontaneously but is managed by farmers with a view to encouraging traits seen as desirable. These include hardiness, fertility, docility, mothering abilities, fast growth rates, low feed consumption per unit of growth, better body proportions, higher yields, and better fibre qualities. Undesirable traits such as health defects and aggressiveness are selected against.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Selective breeding has been responsible for large increases in productivity. For example, in 2007, a typical broiler chicken at eight weeks old was 4.8 times as heavy as a bird of similar age in 1957, while in the thirty years to 2007, the average milk yield of a dairy cow in the United States nearly doubled.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Good husbandry, proper feeding, and hygiene are the main contributors to animal health on the farm, bringing economic benefits through maximised production. When, despite these precautions, animals still become sick, they are treated with veterinary medicines, by the farmer and the veterinarian. In the European Union, when farmers treat their own animals, they are required to follow the guidelines for treatment and to record the treatments given. Animals are susceptible to a number of diseases and conditions that may affect their health. Some, like classical swine fever and scrapie are specific to one type of stock, while others, like foot-and-mouth disease affect all cloven-hoofed animals. Animals living under intensive conditions are prone to internal and external parasites; increasing numbers of sea lice are affecting farmed salmon in Scotland. Reducing the parasite burdens of livestock results in increased productivity and profitability.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Where the condition is serious, governments impose regulations on import and export, on the movement of stock, quarantine restrictions and the reporting of suspected cases. Vaccines are available against certain diseases, and antibiotics are widely used where appropriate. At one time, antibiotics were routinely added to certain compound foodstuffs to promote growth, but this practice is now frowned on in many countries because of the risk that it may lead to antimicrobial resistance in livestock and in humans.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Governments are concerned with zoonoses, diseases that humans may acquire from animals. Wild animal populations may harbour diseases that can affect domestic animals which may acquire them as a result of insufficient biosecurity. An outbreak of Nipah virus in Malaysia in 1999 was traced back to pigs becoming ill after contact with fruit-eating flying foxes, their faeces and urine. The pigs in turn passed the infection to humans. Avian flu H5N1 is present in wild bird populations and can be carried large distances by migrating birds. This virus is easily transmissible to domestic poultry, and to humans living in close proximity with them. Other infectious diseases affecting wild animals, farm animals and humans include rabies, leptospirosis, brucellosis, tuberculosis and trichinosis.


title: Animal husbandry

text: There is no single universally agreed definition of which species are livestock. Widely agreed types of livestock include cattle for beef and dairy, sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry. Various other species are sometimes considered livestock, such as horses, while poultry birds are sometimes excluded. In some parts of the world, livestock includes species such as buffalo, and the South American camelids, the alpaca and llama. Some authorities use much broader definitions to include fish in aquaculture, micro-livestock such as rabbits and rodents like guinea pigs, as well as insects from honey bees to crickets raised for human consumption.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Animals are raised for a wide variety of products, principally meat, wool, milk, and eggs, but also including tallow, isinglass and rennet. Animals are also kept for more specialised purposes, such as to produce vaccines and antiserum (containing antibodies) for medical use. Where fodder or other crops are grown alongside animals, manure can serve as a fertiliser, returning minerals and organic matter to the soil in a semi-closed organic system.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Although all mammals produce milk to nourish their young, the cow is predominantly used throughout the world to produce milk and milk products for human consumption. Other animals used to a lesser extent for this purpose include sheep, goats, camels, buffaloes, yaks, reindeer, horses and donkeys.


title: Animal husbandry

text: All these animals have been domesticated over the centuries, being bred for such desirable characteristics as fecundity, productivity, docility and the ability to thrive under the prevailing conditions. Whereas in the past cattle had multiple functions, modern dairy cow breeding has resulted in specialised Holstein Friesian-type animals that produce large quantities of milk economically. Artificial insemination is widely available to allow farmers to select for the particular traits that suit their circumstances.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Whereas in the past cows were kept in small herds on family farms, grazing pastures and being fed hay in winter, nowadays there is a trend towards larger herds, more intensive systems, the feeding of silage and "zero grazing", a system where grass is cut and brought to the cow, which is housed year-round.


title: Animal husbandry

text: In many communities, milk production is only part of the purpose of keeping an animal which may also be used as a beast of burden or to draw a plough, or for the production of fibre, meat and leather, with the dung being used for fuel or for the improvement of soil fertility. Sheep and goats may be favoured for dairy production in climates and conditions that do not suit dairy cows.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Meat, mainly from farmed animals, is a major source of dietary protein and essential nutrients around the world, averaging about 8% of man's energy intake. The actual types eaten depend on local preferences, availability, cost and other factors, with cattle, sheep, pigs and goats being the main species involved. Cattle generally produce a single offspring annually which takes more than a year to mature; sheep and goats often have twins and these are ready for slaughter in less than a year; pigs are more prolific, producing more than one litter of up to about 11 piglets each year. Horses, donkeys, deer, buffalo, llamas, alpacas, guanacos and vicunas are farmed for meat in various regions. Some desirable traits of animals raised for meat include fecundity, hardiness, fast growth rate, ease of management and high food conversion efficiency. About half of the world's meat is produced from animals grazing on open ranges or on enclosed pastures, the other half being produced intensively in various factory-farming systems; these are mostly cows, pigs or poultry, and often reared indoors, typically at high densities.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Poultry, kept for their eggs and for their meat, include chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks. The great majority of laying birds used for egg production are chickens. Methods for keeping layers range from free-range systems, where the birds can roam as they will but are housed at night for their own protection, through semi-intensive systems where they are housed in barns and have perches, litter and some freedom of movement, to intensive systems where they are kept in cages. The battery cages are arranged in long rows in multiple tiers, with external feeders, drinkers, and egg collection facilities. This is the most labour saving and economical method of egg production but has been criticised on animal welfare grounds as the birds are unable to exhibit their normal behaviours.


title: Animal husbandry

text: In the developed world, the majority of the poultry reared for meat is raised indoors in big sheds, with automated equipment under environmentally controlled conditions. Chickens raised in this way are known as broilers, and genetic improvements have meant that they can be grown to slaughter weight within six or seven weeks of hatching. Newly hatched chicks are restricted to a small area and given supplementary heating. Litter on the floor absorbs the droppings and the area occupied is expanded as they grow. Feed and water is supplied automatically and the lighting is controlled. The birds may be harvested on several occasions or the whole shed may be cleared at one time.


title: Animal husbandry

text: A similar rearing system is usually used for turkeys, which are less hardy than chickens, but they take longer to grow and are often moved on to separate fattening units to finish. Ducks are particularly popular in Asia and Australia and can be killed at seven weeks under commercial conditions.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Aquaculture has been defined as "the farming of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants and implies some form of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc. Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated." In practice it can take place in the sea or in freshwater, and be extensive or intensive. Whole bays, lakes or ponds may be devoted to aquaculture, or the farmed animal may be retained in cages (fish), artificial reefs, racks or strings (shellfish). Fish and prawns can be cultivated in rice paddies, either arriving naturally or being introduced, and both crops can be harvested together.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Fish hatcheries provide larval and juvenile fish, crustaceans and shellfish, for use in aquaculture systems. When large enough these are transferred to growing-on tanks and sold to fish farms to reach harvest size. Some species that are commonly raised in hatcheries include shrimps, prawns, salmon, tilapia, oysters and scallops. Similar facilities can be used to raise species with conservation needs to be released into the wild, or game fish for restocking waterways. Important aspects of husbandry at these early stages include selection of breeding stock, control of water quality and nutrition. In the wild, there is a massive amount of mortality at the nursery stage; farmers seek to minimise this while at the same time maximising growth rates.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Bees have been kept in hives since at least the First Dynasty of Egypt, five thousand years ago, and man had been harvesting honey from the wild long before that. Fixed comb hives are used in many parts of the world and are made from any locally available material. In more advanced economies, where modern strains of domestic bee have been selected for docility and productiveness, various designs of hive are used which enable the combs to be removed for processing and extraction of honey. Quite apart from the honey and wax they produce, honey bees are important pollinators of crops and wild plants, and in many places hives are transported around the countryside to assist in pollination.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Sericulture, the rearing of silkworms, was first adopted by the Chinese during the Shang dynasty. The only species farmed commercially is the domesticated silkmoth. When it spins its cocoon, each larva produces an exceedingly long, slender thread of silk. The larvae feed on mulberry leaves and in Europe, only one generation is normally raised each year as this is a deciduous tree. In China, Korea and Japan however, two generations are normal, and in the tropics, multiple generations are expected. Most production of silk occurs in the Far East, with a synthetic diet being used to rear the silkworms in Japan.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Insects form part of the human diet in many cultures. In Thailand, crickets are farmed for this purpose in the north of the country, and palm weevil larvae in the south. The crickets are kept in pens, boxes or drawers and fed on commercial pelleted poultry food, while the palm weevil larvae live on cabbage palm and sago palm trees, which limits their production to areas where these trees grow. Another delicacy of this region is the bamboo caterpillar, and the best rearing and harvesting techniques in semi-natural habitats are being studied.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Animal husbandry has a significant impact on the world environment. Both production and consumption of animal products have increased rapidly. Over the past 50 years, meat production has trebled, whereas the production of dairy products doubled and that of eggs almost increased fourfold. Meanwhile, meat consumption has also nearly doubled worldwide. Within that increased overall consumption of meat, developing countries had a surge in meat consumption particularly in the portion of monogastric livestock. Being a part of the animal–industrial complex, animal agriculture is the primary driver of climate change, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, and of the crossing of almost every other planetary boundary, in addition to killing more than 60 billion non-human land animals annually. It is responsible for somewhere between 20 and 33% of the fresh water usage in the world, and livestock, and the production of feed for them, occupy about a third of the Earth's ice-free land. Livestock production is a contributing factor in species extinction, desertification, and habitat destruction. Animal agriculture contributes to species extinction in various ways and is the primary driver of the Holocene extinction. It is estimated that 70% of the agricultural land and 30% of the total land surface of the Earth is involved either directly or indirectly in animal agriculture. Habitat is destroyed by clearing forests and converting land to grow feed crops and for animal grazing, while predators and herbivores are frequently targeted and hunted because of a perceived threat to livestock profits; for example, animal husbandry is responsible for up to 91% of the deforestation in the Amazon region. In addition, livestock produce greenhouse gases. Cows produce some 570 million cubic metres of methane per day, that accounts for 35 to 40% of the overall methane emissions of the planet. Further, livestock production is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide.


title: Animal husbandry

text: As a result, ways of mitigating animal husbandry's environmental impact are being studied. Strategies include using biogas from manure, genetic selection, immunization, rumen defaunation, outcompetition of methanogenic archaea with acetogens, introduction of methanotrophic bacteria into the rumen, diet modification and grazing management, among others. It has been suggested that beef products finished in feedlot are less resource intensive than those pastured beef products. A diet change (with "Asparagopsis taxiformis") allowed for a reduction of up to 99% of methane production in an experimental study with three ruminants.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Since the 18th century, people have become increasingly concerned about the welfare of farm animals. Possible measures of welfare include longevity, behavior, physiology, reproduction, freedom from disease, and freedom from immunosuppression. Standards and laws for animal welfare have been created worldwide, broadly in line with the most widely held position in the western world, a form of utilitarianism: that it is morally acceptable for humans to use non-human animals, provided that no unnecessary suffering is caused, and that the benefits to humans outweigh the costs to the livestock. An opposing view is that animals have rights, should not be regarded as property, are not necessary to use, and should never be used by humans. Live export of animals has risen to meet increased global demand for livestock such as in the Middle East. Animal rights activists have objected to long-distance transport of animals; one result was the banning of live exports from New Zealand in 2003.


title: Animal husbandry

text: David Nibert, professor of sociology at Wittenberg University, posits that, based on contemporary scholarship by ethologists and biologists about the sentience and intelligence of other animals, "we can assume that, for the most part, the other animals' experience of capture, enslavement, use, and slaying was one of suffering and violence." Much of this involved direct physical violence, but also structural violence as their systemic oppression and enslavement "resulted in their inability to meet their basic needs, the loss of self-determination, and the loss of opportunity to live in a natural way." He says that the remains of domesticated animals from thousands of years ago found during archeological excavations revealed numerous bone pathologies, which provide evidence of extreme suffering:


title: Animal husbandry

text: Since the 18th century, the farmer John Bull has represented English national identity, first in John Arbuthnot's political satires, and soon afterwards in cartoons by James Gillray and others including John Tenniel. He likes food, beer, dogs, horses, and country sports; he is practical and down to earth, and anti-intellectual.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Farm animals are widespread in books and songs for children; the reality of animal husbandry is often distorted, softened, or idealized, giving children an almost entirely fictitious account of farm life. The books often depict happy animals free to roam in attractive countryside, a picture completely at odds with the realities of the impersonal, mechanized activities involved in modern intensive farming.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Pigs, for example, appear in several of Beatrix Potter's "little books", as Piglet in A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories, and somewhat more darkly (with a hint of animals going to slaughter) as Babe in Dick King-Smith's "The Sheep-Pig", and as Wilbur in E. B. White's "Charlotte's Web". Pigs tend to be "bearers of cheerfulness, good humour and innocence". Many of these books are completely anthropomorphic, dressing farm animals in clothes and having them walk on two legs, live in houses, and perform human activities. The children's song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" describes a farmer named MacDonald and the various animals he keeps, celebrating the noises they each make.


title: Animal husbandry

text: Many urban children experience animal husbandry for the first time at a petting farm; in Britain, some five million people a year visit a farm of some kind. This presents some risk of infection, especially if children handle animals and then fail to wash their hands; a strain of "E. coli" infected 93 people who had visited a British interactive farm in an outbreak in 2009. Historic farms such as those in the United States offer farmstays and "a carefully curated version of farming to those willing to pay for it", sometimes giving visitors a romanticised image of a pastoral idyll from an unspecified time in the pre-industrial past.


title: Harem (genre)

text: A harem structure is ambiguous. The most distinguishable trait is the group of polyamorous females or males who accompany the protagonist and, in some instances, live with the protagonist. Intimacy is customary but never necessary.


title: Harem (genre)

text: First, the main protagonist, typically a young man, has very little characterization other than being nice, reacting passively to his surroundings.  This can let the readers insert themselves in the character’s stead or develop sympathy for the character.


title: Harem (genre)

text: Secondly, all his love interests have low self-esteem, falling for the main character because of his nice personality and kindness.  The main character often spends time with them just to see their efforts to prove themselves to him.


title: Harem (genre)

text: A reverse harem is the gender opposite of a "straight"-harem, wherein a harem is directed towards male protagonists with women and/or gay men courting the protagonist. In a reverse harem, it focuses on female protagonists who are being courted by males and/or lesbians, usually seven or more.


title: Harem (genre)

text: Harem endings typically follow two different routes, the main character ends up with one or more of the women. Occasionally, a "harem ending" occurs where the main protagonist ends with all of the women, but this is more common in works intended for older audiences.


title: Harem (genre)

text: Although traditionally the harem is considered to be one of the most gender binary and heterosexual genres of anime and manga, this condition is not mandatory, and work in the genre can contain characters of very different LGBT gender identities and sexuality, or even concentrate fully on characters of the one gender. "Reverse harems" garner popularity, as they sometimes have the harem's genders mixed up without regard for the protagonist's sex or gender.


title: Harem (genre)

text: Thus, harem work in the genres of boys love or girls love is not something impossible, although they are much less common than the classic heterosexual examples.


title: Harem (genre)

text: First, it promotes a false expectation of relationships, claiming that being nice will kickstart a relationship with someone, and eventually, the love interest will demonstrate their affection for the protagonist. Often, real-life relationships require active participation from both parties, and waiting for the love interest to make the first move can lead to complaints about being "friendzoned".


title: Harem (genre)

text: Secondly, the way female characters are written draws criticism and controversy. Female characters, especially, are written with a singular goal to get with the main protagonist, often sexualized for the reader’s satisfaction, and any character development is put off to the side in order to advance the plot.  In real life, women have social lives and other friends, participating in social events with multiple people.


title: Harem (genre)

text: As such, it can lead impressionable male readers to react negatively to being rejected by women when they follow the harem anime route in order to build a romantic relationship.


title: Josh Holloway

text: Josh Lee Holloway (born July 20, 1969) is an American actor best known for his roles as James "Sawyer" Ford on the television show "Lost" and as Will Bowman on the science fiction drama "Colony". Most recently he had a recurring role in season 3 of the western series "Yellowstone".


title: Josh Holloway

text: Holloway was born in San Jose, California, the second of four boys of a nurse mother and a surveyor father. His family moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia when he was two. He was raised in Free Home, Georgia. Holloway is related to Baptist preacher Dr. Dale Holloway, and author and World War II prisoner of war Carl Holloway. He is also a descendant of Robert E. Lee. Holloway attended Cherokee High School in Canton, Georgia, graduating in 1987. He developed an interest in movies at a very young age. He studied at the University of Georgia but left after one quarter due to financial constraints.


title: Josh Holloway

text: Holloway moved to Los Angeles, where he began a successful career as a runway and print model, including for brands Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein and Donna Karan. In 1993, Holloway appeared in the Aerosmith video for the song "Cryin'" as a thief who tries to steal Alicia Silverstone's purse from a diner, only to be caught and beaten up by her.


title: Josh Holloway

text: Holloway eventually started acting. His first role was as "Good Looking Guy" in an episode of "Angel" in 1999, followed by a role in the comedy "Doctor Benny" and in the movies "Mi Amigo", "Moving August", and "Cold Heart". Following these roles, he gained recognition for his lead role in the Sci-Fi Channel movie "Sabretooth" with David Keith and John Rhys-Davies. He also made appearances in "Good Girls Don't" episode "Addicted To Love"; "NCIS" episode "My Other Left Foot"; "The Lyon's Den" episode "Separation Anxiety"; "Walker, Texas Ranger" episode "Medieval Crimes"; and "" episode "Assume Nothing".His big break came when he was cast as James "Sawyer" Ford in the hit television series "Lost". The show propelled Holloway to celebrity status, but left him with little time to leverage his fame with other roles. According to "USA Today", he took himself out of consideration for a role in a Brad Pitt Western due to the demands of his filming schedule. Nevertheless, he found time to star in the thriller "Whisper" and he also ventured into the world of video games in "". In the game, he plays the role of a Brotherhood of Nod intelligence officer named Ajay whose primary role is to assist players by supplying information that is crucial to upcoming battles. In May 2007, 20th Century Fox approached Holloway for the second time and offered him the role of Gambit in "X-Men 4". In 2005, "People" magazine named Holloway one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World". In January 2006, "In Touch Weekly" named Holloway the "hottest hunk" on television. In the same month, Holloway was voted the seventeenth-sexiest guy worldwide by British readers of "OK!" magazine. In the same year, he was voted the second-sexiest star in Hollywood by "Us Weekly".


title: Josh Holloway

text: In March 2007, Holloway was selected as the new face for Davidoff's Cool Water (perfume) fragrance worldwide. In Spring 2008, Holloway was selected as the first male spokesperson for Magnum ice cream of Turkey. Previous Magnum spokespersons include Eva Longoria and Elizabeth Hurley. In the same year he made the top ten list of "TV Guide"s Sexiest Stars.


title: Josh Holloway

text: Holloway appeared in the 2009 film "Stay Cool", a comedy written by the Polish brothers. Artist Salvador Larroca is believed by Comic Book Resources columnist Timothy Callahan to have used Holloway as the model for his rendition of Tony Stark during his run on "Iron Man", which began in 2008. In June 2010, Holloway won a Saturn Award for "Best Actor on Television" for his role on "Lost". In September 2010, Holloway was added to the cast of "", which was released in December 2011. In 2014, Holloway starred in the lead role in the CBS television show "Intelligence" as a cybercrime agent who can "access the entire electromagnetic spectrum" with his mind.


title: Josh Holloway

text: In 2016, Holloway began starring in "Colony" as Will Bowman, a former FBI agent who, in a bid to protect his family, is forced to collaborate with the occupational government to bring down the growing resistance movement inside the L.A. colony in the near future. "Colony" marked a "Lost" reunion for Holloway and executive producer Carlton Cuse.


title: Josh Holloway

text: At the end of shooting the "Lost" pilot in Oahu, Hawaii, Holloway proposed to his long-time girlfriend, Yessica Kumala. The couple married on October 1, 2004. They now have two children, Java and Hunter Holloway.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: Grayson "The Professor" Scott Boucher (born June 10, 1984) is an American streetball player, actor, and former semi-professional basketball player. He is most known for playing on the highly stylized, international AND1 Mixtape Tour; he has also appeared in several movies, Netflix’s Hustle and "Ball Don't Lie". Boucher is 5'10" and weighs 145 pounds (178 cm, 66 kg) and his jersey number is 12.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: Boucher attended McNary High School but transferred to nearby Salem Academy where he made all-state honors. He was given no college offers in high school. After high school, Boucher attended Chemeketa Community College, where he played on the basketball team.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: Boucher played for the Atlanta Krunk of the Continental Basketball Association during the 2007–08 season.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: When the AND1 Mixtape Tour stopped in Portland, Oregon, Boucher and his brother attended as fans. Boucher found out there was an "open run" tryout to join the tour, and earned a spot on the team. By summer 2009, Boucher was featured prominently in the tour's marketing, appearing on the main page of their website and in various advertisements.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: He has played in over 30 countries and has been featured in seven seasons of "Streetball" on ESPN, five AND1 mixtape DVDs, four AND1 commercials, and an AND1 video game.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: After leaving AND1 in January 2011, Boucher played streetball for Ball Up. He became acquainted with Ball Up's CEO, Demetrius Spencer, in late 2008. The Ball Up Tour features most of the players from the AND1 Mixtape Tour and focuses more on the on-the-court action, a departure from the AND1 tour, which featured more behind-the-scenes footage. The international tour stopped in over 10 countries, and had plans for a winter tour in the U.S.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: Boucher has used his status to appear in several films portraying basketball players. He appeared in the film "Semi-Pro", starring Will Ferrell, as a point guard on the opposing squad in the final game of the movie, and was featured in the special features section of the DVD version as well. Boucher played the lead role of Sticky in the film "Ball Don't Lie", based on the book of the same name. The film was completed and shown nationally at several film festivals but was never officially released.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: Boucher also took on the role of Spider-Man in a YouTube web-series he created. In the series, he disguised himself as the superhero and went to various basketball courts in the Los Angeles area to play against unsuspecting competitors. The first episode reached 14 million views on YouTube within a week of being uploaded. It was featured on the ESPN website, and gained further attention from Shaquille O'Neal, who tweeted the video to his followers. The third episode featured NBA star Jamal Crawford, and further plans were made to feature other known basketball players. The fourth episode of the series featured another street basketball player, Larry "Bone Collector" Williams, who disguised himself as the popular Marvel Comics superhero Captain America. The sixth installment featured a basketball player disguised as Deadpool. The seventh part of series had a disguised Boucher facing off against another basketball player, disguised as Carnage.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: Boucher also launched a ball-handling guide called Super-Human Dribbling, a web-based tutorial available for download online, that features Boucher's drills and workouts.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: Boucher now has his own YouTube channel where he posts mixtapes of him playing in local basketball leagues, fun and comical videos, tutorials, and other entertaining basketball videos.


title: Grayson Boucher

text: In April 2019, Boucher suffered a career-threatening non-contact total tear of his Achilles tendon. He also suffered from accidental overdose of hydrocodone and acetaminophen during the early stages of rehabilitation, but had made a full recovery as of June 2020. During his rehab period, he continued to publish YouTube content consisting of undated footage from before the injury, choosing not to make news of the injury public until August 2020, after his recovery was complete.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: Shanghai Tower () is a 128-story, megatall skyscraper in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai. It is the tallest building in China and the world's third-tallest building by height to architectural top. It is the tallest and largest LEED Platinum certified building in the world since 2015. It shares the record (along with the Ping An Finance Center) of having the world's highest observation deck within a building or structure at 562 m. It had the world's second-fastest elevators at a top speed of until 2017, when it was surpassed by the Guangzhou CTF Finance Center, with its top speed of .


title: Shanghai Tower

text: Designed by international design firm Gensler and owned by the Shanghai Municipal Government, it is the tallest of the world's first triple-adjacent supertall buildings in Pudong, the other two being the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. Its tiered construction, designed for high energy efficiency, provides nine separate zones divided between office, retail and leisure use.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: Construction work on the tower began in November 2008 and topped out on 3 August 2013. The exterior was completed in summer 2015, and work was considered complete in September 2014. Although the building was originally scheduled to open to the public in November 2014, the actual public-use date was shifted to February 2015. The observation deck was opened to visitors in July 2016; the period from July through September 2018 was termed a "test run" or "commissioning" period. Since April 26, 2017, the sightseeing deck on the 118th floor has been open to the public.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: Planning models for the Lujiazui financial district dating back to 1993 show plans for a close group of three supertall skyscrapers. The first of these, the Jin Mao Tower, was completed in 1999; the adjacent Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC) opened in 2008.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: The Shanghai Tower is owned by Yeti Construction and Development, a consortium of state-owned development companies which includes Shanghai Chengtou Corp., Shanghai Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone Development Co., and Shanghai Construction Group. Funding for the tower's construction was obtained from shareholders, bank loans, and Shanghai's municipal government. The tower had an estimated construction cost of US$2.4 billion.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: In 2008, the site – previously a driving range – was prepared for construction. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on 29 November 2008, after the tower had passed an environmental impact study. The main construction contractor for the project was Shanghai Construction Group, a member of the consortium that owns the tower.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: A repetitive slip-forming process was used to construct the tower's core floor by floor. By late April 2011, the tower's steel reinforcement had risen to the 18th floor, while its concrete core had reached the 15th floor, and floor framing had been completed up to the fourth floor. By late December 2011, the tower's foundations had been completed, and its steel construction had risen above the 30th floor. In the first months of 2012, cracks began appearing in the roads near the tower's construction site. These were blamed on ground subsidence, which was likely caused by excessive groundwater extraction in the Shanghai area, rather than by the weight of the Shanghai Tower.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: By May 2012, the tower's core stood high, while floors had been framed to a height of . By early September 2012, the core had reached a height of . By the end of 2012, the tower had reached the 90th floor, standing approximately tall. By 11 April 2013, the tower had reached 108 stories, standing over tall and thusly exceeding the heights of its two adjacent supertall skyscrapers, the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: Construction crews laid the final structural beam of the tower on 3 August 2013, thus topping out the tower as China's tallest, and the world's second-tallest, building. A topping-out ceremony was held at the site of the last beam. During the ceremony, Gensler co-founder Art Gensler stated:


title: Shanghai Tower

text: The principal architect of the project, Jun Xia, said: "With the topping out of Shanghai Tower, the Lujiazui trio will serve as a stunning representation of our past, our present, and China’s boundless future." Gu Jianping, general manager of the Shanghai Tower Construction Company, expressed the firm's wish "to provide higher quality office and shopping space, as well as contribute to the completeness of the city skyline's and the entire region's functionality".


title: Shanghai Tower

text: In January 2014, the tower's crown structure passed the mark when its construction entered its final phase. The tower's crown structure was completed in August 2014, and its façade was completed shortly after. The tower's interior construction and electrical fitting-out were completed in late 2014. The opening was gradually introduced during the summer of 2015.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: Until June 2017, the tower faced problems attracting tenants due to the absence of all the necessary permits from the local fire department, and consequent impossibility of obtaining the official occupancy permit.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: Following a report in June 2017, approximately 60% of its office space has been leased, but only 33% of those tenants have moved in, leaving entire floors of the tower empty; the luxury J hotel has also yet to open. The tower's floor plate has an "efficiency rate of only 50 per cent on some floors, compared with 70 per cent for a typical [skyscraper]", as the tower's "much-talked-about outer skin, which is ideal for allowing in natural light and cuts down on air-conditioning costs... means much of the floor space can’t be used". As of 2019, 55 floors stood empty. Current tenants of the tower include Alibaba, Intesa Sanpaolo and AllBright Law Offices.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: In 2020, major water leaks broke out from the 60th to the 9th floor of the tower, which damaged a large quantity of office equipment and electronics. The tower said the problem was fixed and a comprehensive inspection would be taken on the floor where the leak originated. Some Chinese social media users criticized the leakage as typical of the results of tofu-dreg projects. According to the local newspaper of Shanghai, misinformation videos circulating online showing that the tower's ceiling was collapsed were in fact from a shopping center in Nanning in 2016.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: The Shanghai Tower was designed by the American architectural firm Gensler, with Shanghainese architect Jun Xia leading the design team.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: The tower takes the form of nine cylindrical buildings stacked atop each other that total 128 floors, all enclosed by the inner layer of the glass facade. Between that and the outer layer, which twists as it rises, nine indoor zones provide public space for visitors. Each of these nine areas has its own atrium, featuring gardens, cafés, restaurants and retail space, and providing panoramic views of the city.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: Both layers of the façade are transparent, and retail and event spaces are provided at the tower's base. The transparent façade is a unique design feature, because most buildings have only a single façade using highly reflective glass to reduce heat absorption, but the Shanghai Tower's double layer of glass eliminates the need for either layer to be opaqued. The tower can accommodate as many as 16,000 people daily.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: The Shanghai Tower joins the Jin Mao Tower and SWFC to form the world's first adjacent grouping of three supertall buildings. Its 258-room hotel, the J Hotel Shanghai Tower, located between the 84th and 110th floors, is operated by Jin Jiang International Hotels, and is the highest hotel in the world. The tower will also incorporate a museum. The tower's sub-levels provide parking spaces for 1,800 vehicles.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: The vertical transportation system of Shanghai Tower was designed by an American consultant, Edgett Williams Consulting Group, with principal Steve Edgett as a primary consultant. Working closely with Gensler's design and technical teams to create a highly efficient core, Edgett created an elevator system in which office floors are served via 4 sky lobbies each served by double-deck shuttle elevators. Access to the hotel is through a 5th sky lobby at levels 101/102. Each 2-level sky lobby serves as a community center for that zone of the building, with such amenities as food and beverage and conference rooms. Local zones are served by single-deck elevators throughout the tower, and the observation deck at the top of the tower is served by three ultra-high-speed shuttle elevators that travel at , the highest speed yet employed for commercial building use. These three shuttle elevators are supplemented by three fireman's elevators which will significantly increase the visitor throughput to the observation deck at peak usage periods. In the event of a fire or other emergency, the building's shuttle elevators are designed to evacuate occupants from specially-designed refuge floors located at regular intervals throughout the height of the tower.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: In September 2011, Mitsubishi Electric announced that it had won a bid to construct the Shanghai Tower's elevator system. Mitsubishi supplied all of the tower's 149 elevators, including three high-speed models capable of traveling per minute ( per hour). When they were installed (2014), they were the world's fastest single-deck elevators () and double-deck elevators (), respectively. A 10 May 2016 Mitsubishi press release stated that one of the three installed shuttle elevators traveled at 1230 meters/minute – the equivalent of , the highest speed ever attained by a passenger elevator installed in a functioning building. The building also broke the record for the world's furthest-traveling single elevator, at , surpassing the record held by the Burj Khalifa. The Shanghai Tower's tuned mass damper, designed to limit swaying at the top of the structure, was the world's largest at the time of its installation.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: The Shanghai Tower comprises numerous green architecture components; its owners received certifications from the China Green Building Committee and the U.S. Green Building Council for the building's sustainable design. In 2013, a Gensler spokesman recounted the tower as "the greenest super high-rise building on earth at this point in time". The building is designed to catch rainwater for internal use, and to reuse a portion of its wastewater.


title: Shanghai Tower

text: The design of the tower's glass façade, which completes a 120° twist as it rises, is intended to reduce wind loads on the building by 24%. This reduced the amount of construction materials needed; the Shanghai Tower used 25% less structural steel than a conventional design of a similar height. As a result, the building's constructors saved an estimated US$58 million in material costs. Construction practices were also sustainable. Though the majority of the tower's energy will be provided by conventional power systems, 270 vertical-axis wind turbines located in the facade and near the top of the tower are capable of generating up to 350,000 kWh of supplementary electricity per year, and are expected to provide 10% of the building's electrical needs. The double-layered insulating glass façade was designed to reduce the need for indoor air conditioning, and is composed of an advanced reinforced glass with a high tolerance for temperature variations. In addition, the building's heating and cooling systems use geothermal energy sources. Furthermore, rain and waste water are recycled to flush toilets and irrigate the tower's green spaces.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: The 2016–17 Premier League was the 25th season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992, and the 118th season of top-flight English football overall. The season began on 13 August 2016 and concluded on 21 May 2017. Fixtures for the 2016–17 season were announced on 15 June 2016.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: Chelsea won their fifth Premier League title, and sixth English title, with two matches to spare following a 1–0 away win over West Bromwich Albion on 12 May.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: The defending champions were Leicester City, who finished 12th, thereby setting a new record for the worst Premier League title defence; the record had previously been held by Chelsea, who had finished 10th in 2015–16 after winning the title in 2014–15. When including the Football League era, it was the worst title defence since 1991–92 champions Leeds United finished 17th in 1992–93.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: Burnley, Middlesbrough and Hull City entered as the three promoted teams from the 2015–16 Football League Championship.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: On 9 February 2016, the Premier League announced a rebrand; beginning with the 2016–17 season, the competition was known simply as the Premier League, without any sponsor's name attached. As part of the rebranding, a new logo was introduced.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: Antonio Conte enjoyed a successful start as Chelsea manager, winning the title in his first season at the club and earning a record number of league victories for a season, with only poor early form preventing them from also setting a new points total. Tottenham Hotspur shrugged off a disappointing Champions League campaign to push Chelsea close for the title, though they ultimately missed out. However, they finished the season with statistically both the best attack and defence, with striker Harry Kane once again claiming the Golden Boot. Furthermore, the season marked the end of Tottenham's 118-year stay at the White Hart Lane stadium, temporarily using Wembley for the subsequent season, before a new stadium move. Manchester City finished one spot better than the previous season in Pep Guardiola's first season in charge, though ended the season trophy-less, despite recording the third-best attack and reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup. Liverpool made the Champions League for the first time in three years in Jürgen Klopp's first full season, though they were prevented from finishing any higher than fourth by an inconsistent start to 2017, a consequence of both losing their £35 million signing Sadio Mané to international duty in January and February as well as suffering from several dropped points against bottom-half teams.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: Despite winning seven of their final eight games, Arsenal finished fifth and failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 1997, as fan pressure on both manager Arsène Wenger and majority-shareholder Stan Kroenke grew. While they did win the FA Cup for the third time in four seasons, making Wenger the most successful manager in the competition's history, they endured yet another disappointing Champions League run, eliminated at the round of 16 for a seventh successive year. Manchester United finished sixth, one lower than the previous season, in José Mourinho's first season in charge, with their failure to turn any one of their 15 draws – with 12 earned amidst the season-record 25 matches unbeaten run – into victories proving problematic. They did at least win the EFL Cup and won the Europa League final. The latter was the first Europa League title in their history, not only securing a place in the Champions League but also made them only the fifth club to have won all three major European trophies. Everton, the final team to qualify for the UEFA competitions, made their first return to that level for 3 years. Under Ronald Koeman, who replaced Roberto Martínez following his sacking towards the end of the previous season after a period of mid-table stagnation, the club would spend virtually the entire season in the Europa League places; never mounting any serious push for the Champions League places, but always remaining well clear of the rest of the league. This also meant that for the fourth time in seven seasons, the top seven positions were occupied by the same teams.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: In only their second-ever top-flight season, AFC Bournemouth built on the success of the previous season as they secured a ninth-place finish and scored 55 goals, defying the critics who had tipped them to struggle from second-season syndrome. Much as Chelsea had the previous season, Leicester City made a poor defence of their title, despite having what turned out to be the best Champions League run of any English club this season. They were beaten by Hull City in the first match, the first time this has happened to a reigning Premier League champion. With the club struggling, manager Claudio Ranieri was sacked in February and replaced by coach Craig Shakespeare, who steered the club to 12th. It broke the record of the lowest finish for Premier League title holders, set by Chelsea the previous season by finishing 10th, but comfortably clear of relegation.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: Swansea City had looked dead and buried after early struggles under Francesco Guidolin and then a disastrous spell with Bob Bradley as manager, but were saved by a late improvement under Paul Clement's management. Burnley fared the best of the promoted clubs, with only atrocious away form preventing them finishing higher as they made their home-ground of Turf Moor one of the hardest places to get a point from – and secured a second successive top-flight season for the first time in 40 years. Watford, in their first successive top-flight campaign for 30 years, successfully ensured a third consecutive Premier League season – however, as a result of poor away form, a disastrous end to the season and several spells of indifferent form throughout the campaign, the Hornets were unable to really build on the previous season despite recording their first league victories over Manchester United and at Arsenal since the 1980s.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: After several successive escapes from relegation, Sunderland's resilience finally broke and they dropped into the Championship after a decade, having spent virtually the entire season rooted to the bottom of the table. Middlesbrough also struggled through their first top-flight season in eight years, with a poor end to the season, the weakest goal-scoring record in the division and an inability to turn one of their 13 draws into victories dooming them. Hull City were the final relegated side, never quite recovering from a disastrous pre-season which saw manager Steve Bruce quit and next to no new players signed. Despite encouraging early season form under Mike Phelan, a dismal run in the winter saw him sacked and replaced by Marco Silva, who steered the club to a much better second half of the season, but it ultimately proved to be a case of too little, too late.


title: 2016–17 Premier League

text: Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the Championship. The promoted teams were Burnley, Middlesbrough and Hull City. Burnley and Hull City returned to the top flight after a season's absence while Middlesbrough returned after a seven-year absence. They replaced Newcastle United, Norwich City and Aston Villa, ending their top flight spells of six, one and twenty-eight years respectively.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. Stoppard was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the previous three years (1943–1946) in a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Stoppard's most prominent plays include "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", "Jumpers", "Travesties", "Night and Day", "The Real Thing", "Arcadia", "The Invention of Love", "The Coast of Utopia", "Rock 'n' Roll" and "Leopoldstadt".


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Stoppard is also known for his screenplays including "Brazil" (1985), "Empire of the Sun" (1987), "The Russia House" (1990), "Billy Bathgate" (1991), "Shakespeare in Love" (1998), "Enigma" (2001), and "Anna Karenina" (2012). His work on television includes various plays for "ITV Play of the Week" and the HBO limited series "Parade's End" (2013).


title: Tom Stoppard

text: He has received numerous awards and honours including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and four Tony Awards. In 2008, "The Daily Telegraph" ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". It was announced in June 2019 that Stoppard had written a new play, "Leopoldstadt", set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna. The play premiered in January 2020 at Wyndham's Theatre. The play went on to win the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Stoppard was born Tomáš Sträussler, in Zlín, a city dominated by the shoe manufacturing industry, in the Moravia region of Czechoslovakia. He is the son of Martha Becková and Eugen Sträussler, a doctor employed by the Bata shoe company. His parents were non-observant Jews. Just before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the town's patron, Jan Antonín Baťa, transferred his Jewish employees, mostly physicians, to branches of his firm outside Europe. On 15 March 1939, the day the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, the Sträussler family fled to Singapore, where Bata had a factory.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Before the Japanese occupation of Singapore, Stoppard, his brother, and their mother fled to India. Stoppard's father remained in Singapore as a British army volunteer, knowing that as a doctor, he would be needed in its defense. When Stoppard was four years old, his father died. The writer long understood that Sträussler had perished in Japanese captivity, as a prisoner of war. The book "Tom Stoppard in Conversation" describes this, but the author later revealed the subsequent discovery that his father had been reported drowned on board a ship, bombed by Japanese forces, as he tried to flee Singapore in 1942.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: In 1941, when Tomáš was five, he, his brother, and their mother had been evacuated to Darjeeling, India. The boys attended Mount Hermon School, an American multi-racial school, where Tomáš became Tom and his brother Petr became Peter.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: In 1945, his mother, Martha, married British army major Kenneth Stoppard, who gave the boys his English surname and moved the family to England in 1946. Stoppard's stepfather believed strongly that "to be born an Englishman was to have drawn first prize in the lottery of life"—a quote from Cecil Rhodes—telling his 9-year-old stepson: "Don't you realize that I made you British?" setting up Stoppard's desire as a child to become "an honorary Englishman." He has said, "I fairly often find I'm with people who forget I don't quite belong in the world we're in. I find I put a foot wrong—it could be pronunciation, an arcane bit of English history—and suddenly I'm there naked, as someone with a pass, a press ticket." This is reflected in his characters, he observes, who are "constantly being addressed by the wrong name, with jokes and false trails to do with the confusion of having two names." Stoppard attended the Dolphin School in Nottinghamshire, and later completed his education at Pocklington School in East Riding, Yorkshire, which he hated.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Stoppard left school at 17 and began work as a journalist for the "Western Daily Press" in Bristol, without attending university. Years later, he came to regret the decision to forego a university education, but at the time, he loved his work as a journalist and was passionate about his career. He worked at the paper from 1954 until 1958, when the "Bristol Evening World" offered Stoppard the position of feature writer, humor columnist, and secondary drama critic, which took him into the world of theater. At the Bristol Old Vic, at the time a well-regarded regional repertory company, Stoppard formed friendships with director John Boorman and actor Peter O'Toole early in their careers. In Bristol, he became known more for his strained attempts at humor and unstylish clothes than for his writing.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Stoppard wrote short radio plays in 1953–54 and by 1960 he had completed his first stage play, "A Walk on the Water", which was later re-titled "Enter a Free Man" (1968).


title: Tom Stoppard

text: He has said the work owed much to Robert Bolt's "Flowering Cherry" and Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman". Within a week after sending "A Walk on the Water" to an agent, Stoppard received his version of the "Hollywood-style telegrams that change struggling young artists' lives." His first play was optioned, staged in Hamburg, then broadcast on British Independent Television in 1963. From September 1962 until April 1963, Stoppard worked in London as a drama critic for "Scene" magazine, writing reviews and interviews both under his name and the pseudonym William Boot (taken from Evelyn Waugh's "Scoop"). In 1964, a Ford Foundation grant enabled Stoppard to spend 5 months writing in a Berlin mansion, emerging with a one-act play titled "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet King Lear", which later evolved into his Tony-winning play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead".


title: Tom Stoppard

text: In the following years, Stoppard produced several works for radio, television and the theatre, including ""M" is for Moon Among Other Things" (1964), "A Separate Peace" (1966) and "If You're Glad I'll Be Frank" (1966). On 11 April 1967 – following acclaim at the 1966 Edinburgh Festival – the opening of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" in a National Theatre production at the Old Vic made Stoppard an overnight success. "Jumpers" (1972) places a professor of moral philosophy in a murder mystery thriller alongside a slew of radical gymnasts. "Travesties" (1974) explored the 'Wildean' possibilities arising from the fact that Vladimir Lenin, James Joyce, and Tristan Tzara had all been in Zürich during the First World War.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Stoppard has written one novel, "Lord Malquist and Mr Moon" (1966), set in contemporary London. Its cast includes the 18th-century figure of the dandified Malquist and his ineffectual Boswell, Moon, and also cowboys, a lion (banned from the Ritz) and a donkey-borne Irishman claiming to be the Risen Christ.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: In the 1980s, in addition to writing his own works, Stoppard translated many plays into English, including works by Sławomir Mrożek, Johann Nestroy, Arthur Schnitzler, and Václav Havel. It was at this time that Stoppard became influenced by the works of Polish and Czech absurdists. He has been co-opted into the Outrapo group, a far-from-serious French movement to improve actors' stage technique through science.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: In 1982 Stoppard premiered his play "The Real Thing". The story revolves around a male-female relationship and the struggle between the actress and the member of a group fighting to free a Scottish soldier imprisoned for burning a memorial wreath during a protest. The leading roles were originated by Roger Rees, and Felicity Kendal. The story examines various constructs of honesty including a play within a play, to explore the theme of reality versus appearance. It has been described as one of Stoppard's "most popular, enduring and autobiographical plays."


title: Tom Stoppard

text: The play made its Broadway transfer in 1984 which was directed by Mike Nichols starring Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close in the leading roles with a supporting role by Christine Baranski. The transfer was a critical success with "The New York Times" theatre critic Frank Rich declaring, "The Broadway version of "The Real Thing" - a substantial revision of the original London production - is not only Mr. Stoppard's most moving play, but also the most bracing play that anyone has written about love and marriage in years." The production went on to earn a seven Tony Award nominations winning five awards for Best Play as well for Nichols, Irons, Close, and Baranski. This would be Stoppard's third Tony Award for Best Play following, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" in 1968, and "Travesties" in 1976.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: In 1985, Stoppard co-wrote with Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown a feature film, the satirical science-fiction dark comedy "Brazil" (1985).


title: Tom Stoppard

text: The film received near universal acclaim. Pauline Kael critic for "The New Yorker" declared, "Visually, it’s an original, bravura piece of moviemaking...Gilliam’s vision is an organic thing on the screen—and that’s a considerable achievement".


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Stoppard along with Gilliam and McKeown were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay losing to "Witness". He went on to write the scripts for Steven Spielberg, "Empire of the Sun" (1987), and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989). Spielberg later stated that though Stoppard was uncredited for the later of the two, "he was responsible for almost every line of dialogue in the film".


title: Tom Stoppard

text: In 1993, Stoppard wrote "Arcadia", a play in which he explores the interaction between two modern academics and the residents of a Derbyshire country house in the early 19th century, including aristocrats, tutors and the fleeting presence, unseen on stage, of Lord Byron. The themes of the play include the philosophical implications of the second law of thermodynamics, Romantic literature, and the English picturesque style of garden design.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: The first production premiered at the Royal National Theatre directed by Trevor Nunn starring Rufus Sewell, Felicity Kendal, Bill Nighy, and Harriet Walter. It won the 1993 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. A year later the play made its transfer on Broadway starring Billy Crudup, Blair Brown, Victor Garber and Robert Sean Leonard. The production was well received with Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" writing, that while "There are real difficulties with this production...[there are] also great pleasures, not the least of which are Mark Thompson's sets and costumes. Mostly, though, there are Mr. Stoppard's grandly eclectic obsessions and his singular gifts as a playwright. Attend to them." The production received three Tony Award nominations including Best Play losing to Terrence McNally's "Love! Valour! Compassion!".


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Stoppard gained acclaim with the feature film "Shakespeare in Love" (1998) which he wrote. The film, a romantic comedy, focuses on the fictional life of William Shakespeare and his romance with a young woman who is an inspiration for the play, "Romeo and Juliet". The film starred an ensemble cast including Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, and Dame Judi Dench. The film was a critical and financial success and went on to earn seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. Stoppard received his second career Oscar nomination and first win for Best Original Screenplay. He also received the BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe Award for his screenplay.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: "The Coast of Utopia" (2002) was a trilogy of plays Stoppard wrote about the philosophical arguments among Russian revolutionary figures in the late 19th century. The trilogy comprises "Voyage", "Shipwreck", and "Salvage". Major figures in the play include Michael Bakunin, Ivan Turgenev, and Alexander Herzen. The title comes from a chapter in Avrahm Yarmolinsky's book "" (1959). The play premiered in 2002 at the National Theatre directed by Trevor Nunn in total spanning nine hours. The play received three Laurence Olivier Award nominations including Best New Play, ultimately losing in all its categories. In 2006 it made its Broadway premiere in a production starring Billy Crudup, Jennifer Ehle, and Ethan Hawke. The play received 10 nominations winning seven awards including for Best Play, Stoppard's fourth win in the category.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: "Rock 'n' Roll" (2006) was set in both Cambridge, England, and Prague. The play explored the culture of 1960s rock music, especially the persona of Syd Barrett and the political challenge of the Czech band The Plastic People of the Universe, mirroring the contrast between liberal society in England and the repressive Czech state after the Warsaw Pact intervention in the Prague Spring.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: Stoppard served on the advisory board of the magazine "Standpoint", and was instrumental in its foundation, giving the opening speech at its launch. He is also a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres. Stoppard was appointed president of the London Library in 2002 and vice-president in 2017 following the election of Sir Tim Rice as president.


title: Tom Stoppard

text: For Joe Wright, Stoppard adapted Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" into the 2012 film adaptation starring Keira Knightley. Film critic Lisa Schwarzbaum for "Entertainment Weekly" praised the film and Stoppard writing, "Stoppard — himself a master of puzzle-like construction in fine plays including Arcadia — supplies an excellently clean, delicately balanced script."


title: Tom Stoppard

text: In 2013, Stoppard wrote a five part limited series "Parade's End" which revolves around a love triangle between a conservative English aristocrat, his mean socialite wife and a young suffragette. The series stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall. The series has received widespread acclaim from critics with "The Independent"s Grace Dent proclaiming it "one of the finest things the BBC has ever made". "IndieWire" declared, ""Parade’s End" is wonderful accomplishment, smart, adult television". Stoppard received a British Academy Television Award and Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the series.