title: Burn After Reading

text: Reviews for the film were mostly positive. It earned a 78% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 250 reviews, and an average rating of 6.90/10. The website's critical consensus states, "With "Burn After Reading", the Coen Brothers have crafted another clever comedy/thriller with an outlandish plot and memorable characters." It also holds a 63/100 weighted average rating on Metacritic, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Burn After Reading

text: "The Times", which gave the film four out of five stars, compared it to the Coen films "Raising Arizona" and "Fargo" in its "savagely comic taste for creative violence and a slightly mocking eye for detail." The review said that the attention to detail was so impeccable that "the Coens can even raise a laugh with something as simple as a well-placed photograph of Vladimir Putin", and complimented Carter Burwell's musical score, which it described as "the most paranoid piece of film music since Quincy Jones's neurotic soundtrack for "The Anderson Tapes"."


title: Burn After Reading

text: Andrew Pulver, film reviewer for "The Guardian", awarded the film four out of five stars, calling it "a tightly wound, slickly plotted spy comedy that couldn't be in bigger contrast to the Coens' last film, the bloodsoaked, brooding "No Country for Old Men"." Pulver said that the film "may also go down as arguably the Coens' happiest engagement with the demands of the Hollywood A-list."


title: Burn After Reading

text: "The Hollywood Reporter" reviewer Kirk Honeycutt complimented the actors for making fun of their screen personae, and said that the Coen brothers "... have taken some of cinema's top and most expensive actors and chucked them into "Looney Tunes" roles in a thriller." Honeycutt also said "it takes awhile to adjust to the rhythms and subversive humor of "Burn" because this is really an anti-spy thriller in which nothing is at stake, no one acts with intelligence and everything ends badly."


title: Burn After Reading

text: Todd McCarthy of "Variety" wrote a strongly negative review, saying that the film "tries to mate sex farce with a satire of a paranoid political thriller, with arch and ungainly results." McCarthy said the talented cast was forced to act like cartoon characters, described Carter Burwell's score as "uncustomarily overbearing" and said the dialogue is "dialed up to an almost grotesquely exaggerated extent, making for a film that feels misjudged from the opening scene and thereafter only occasionally hits the right note."


title: Burn After Reading

text: "Time" film critic Richard Corliss wrote that he did not understand what the Coen brothers were attempting with the film: "I have the sinking feeling I've made "Burn After Reading" sound funnier than it is. The movie's glacial affectlessness, its remove from all these subpar schemers, left me cold and perplexed."


title: Burn After Reading

text: David Denby of "The New Yorker" said that the film had several funny scenes, but that they "are stifled by a farce plot so bleak and unfunny that it freezes your responses after about forty-five minutes." Denby criticized the film's pattern of violence in which innocent people die quickly and the guilty go unpunished. "These people don't mean much to [the Coen brothers]; it's hardly a surprise that they don't mean much to us, either. ... Even black comedy requires that the filmmakers love someone, and the mock cruelties in "Burn After Reading" come off as a case of terminal misanthropy."


title: Burn After Reading

text: Leah Rozen of "People" said that the characters' "unrelenting dumbness and dim-witted behavior is at first amusing and enjoyable but eventually grows wearing." But Rozen said that the performances are a redeeming factor, especially that of Pitt, whom she described as a standout who "manages simultaneously to be delightfully broad and smartly nuanced."


title: Burn After Reading

text: "Le Monde" noticed the film's "particularly bitter image of the U.S. The alliance of political incompetence (the CIA), the cult of appearance (the gym club) and vulgar stupidity (everyone) is the target of a settling of scores" where the comedy "sprouts from a well of bitterness."


title: Burn After Reading

text: Almost a decade later, "The New Republic" senior editor Jeet Heer argued that the film was "singularly prophetic of the [Donald] Trump era" anticipating "the Trump campaign's collusion with Russian operatives" and "the wider culture of deceit that made Donald Trump's rise possible. More than just a satire on espionage, the movie is scathing critique of modern America as a superficial, post-political society where cheating of all sorts comes all too easily...The most disturbing thing about "Burn After Reading", though, is how it resembles every day in Trump's Washington, where the line between blundering idiocy and malevolent conspiracy is increasingly blurred."


title: Burn After Reading

text: The National Board of Review named "Burn After Reading" in its list of the Top 10 Movies of 2008. Noel Murray of "The A.V. Club" named it the second-best film of 2008, "Empire" magazine named it the third-best film of 2008, and Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" named it the seventh-best film of 2008.


title: Burn After Reading

text: "Burn After Reading" was released on Region 1 DVD and Blu-ray disc on December 21, 2008. The Region 2 version was released on February 9, 2009. The Blu-ray contains three bonus features, including behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with cast and crew.


title: Toho

text: Toho's most famous creation is Godzilla, who is featured in 32 of the company's films. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla are described as Toho's Big Five because of the monsters' numerous appearances throughout the franchise, as well as spin-offs. Toho has also been involved in the production of numerous anime titles. Its subdivisions are Toho-Towa Company, Limited (Japanese exclusive theatrical distributor of Universal Pictures via NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan), Towa Pictures Company Limited (Japanese exclusive theatrical distributor of Paramount Pictures), Toho Pictures Incorporated, Toho International Company Limited, Toho E. B. Company Limited, and Toho Music Corporation & Toho Costume Company Limited. The company is the largest shareholder (7.96%) of Fuji Media Holdings Inc.


title: Toho

text: Toho was created by the founder of the Hankyu Railway, Ichizō Kobayashi, in 1932 as the . It managed much of the kabuki in Tokyo and, among other properties, the eponymous Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre and the Imperial Garden Theater in Tokyo; Toho and Shochiku enjoyed a duopoly over theaters in Tokyo for many years.


title: Toho

text: In 1953, Toho had established Toho International, a Los Angeles-based subsidiary intended to target North American and Latin American markets. "Seven Samurai" was amongst the first films offered for foreign sales.


title: Toho

text: Toho and Shochiku competed with the influx of Hollywood films and boosted the film industry by focusing on new directors of the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Kon Ichikawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Ishirō Honda, and Kaneto Shindo.


title: Toho

text: After several successful film exports to the United States during the 1950s through Henry G. Saperstein, Toho took over the La Brea Theatre in Los Angeles to show its own films without the need to sell them to a distributor. It was known as the Toho Theatre from the late 1960s until the 1970s. Toho also had a theater in San Francisco and opened a theater in New York City in 1963. The Shintoho Company, which existed until 1961, was named New Toho because it broke off from the original company. Toho has contributed to the production of some American films, including Sam Raimi's 1998 film, "A Simple Plan" and Paul W. S. Anderson's 2020 military science fiction/kaiju film, "Monster Hunter".


title: Toho

text: In 2019, Toho invested ¥15.4 billion ($14 million) into their Los Angeles-based subsidiary Toho International Inc. as part of their "Toho Vision 2021 Medium-term Management Strategy", a strategy to increase content, platform, real-estate, beat JPY50 billion profits, and increase character businesses on Toho intellectual properties such as Godzilla. Hiroyasu Matsuoka was named the representative director of the US subsidiary.


title: Toho

text: In 2020, Toho acquired a 34.8% stake in the animation studio TIA, with ILCA and Anima each retaining a 32.6% stake. In 2022, Toho acquired Anima's 32.6% stake to take a controlling 67.4% stake in TIA, making the studio a subsidiary, and ultimately renaming the studio into Toho Animation Studios.


title: Toho

text: Toho Animation is a Japanese anime production founded in 2012, and owned by Toho Co., Ltd., which is one of the top three film distributors in Japan.


title: Toho

text: In more recent years and for a period, they have produced video games. One of their first video games was the 1990 NES game titled "Circus Caper". Later, they followed with a series of games based on Godzilla and a 1992 game called "Serizawa Nobuo no Birdy Try". It also published games such as "Super Aleste" ("Space Megaforce" in North America). They even worked with Bandai on "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", released in Japan in 1988 and in the United States in 1989.


title: Toho

text: The Toho Cinderella Audition is an audition to discover new young actresses, first held in 1984 and irregularly held since then. It is considered one of Japan's "Big Three Actress Auditions", along with Oscar Promotion's National Bishōjo Contest and Horipro's Talent Scout Caravan.


title: Toho

text: Toho's headquarters, the , are in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company moved into its current headquarters in April 2005.


title: Braille

text: Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and smartphone devices. Braille can be written using a slate and stylus, a braille writer, an electronic braille notetaker or with the use of a computer connected to a braille embosser.


title: Braille

text: Braille is named after its creator, Louis Braille, a Frenchman who lost his sight as a result of a childhood accident. In 1824, at the age of fifteen, he developed the braille code based on the French alphabet as an improvement on night writing. He published his system, which subsequently included musical notation, in 1829. The second revision, published in 1837, was the first binary form of writing developed in the modern era.


title: Braille

text: Braille characters are formed using a combination of six raised dots arranged in a 3 × 2 matrix, called the braille cell. The number and arrangement of these dots distinguishes one character from another. Since the various braille alphabets originated as transcription codes for printed writing, the mappings (sets of character designations) vary from language to language, and even within one; in English Braille there are 3 levels of braille: uncontracted braille a letter-by-letter transcription used for basic literacy; contracted braille an addition of abbreviations and contractions used as a space-saving mechanism; and grade 3 various non-standardized personal stenography that is less commonly used.


title: Braille

text: In addition to braille text (letters, punctuation, contractions), it is also possible to create embossed illustrations and graphs, with the lines either solid or made of series of dots, arrows, and bullets that are larger than braille dots. A full braille cell includes six raised dots arranged in two columns, each column having three dots. The dot positions are identified by numbers from one to six. There are 64 possible combinations, including no dots at all for a word space. Dot configurations can be used to represent a letter, digit, punctuation mark, or even a word.


title: Braille

text: Early braille education is crucial to literacy, education and employment among the blind. Despite the evolution of new technologies, including screen reader software that reads information aloud, braille provides blind people with access to spelling, punctuation and other aspects of written language less accessible through audio alone. While some have suggested that audio-based technologies will decrease the need for braille, technological advancements such as braille displays have continued to make braille more accessible and available. Braille users highlight that braille remains as essential as print is to the sighted.


title: Braille

text: Braille was based on a tactile code, now known as night writing, developed by Charles Barbier. (The name "night writing" was later given to it when it was considered as a means for soldiers to communicate silently at night and without a light source, but Barbier's writings do not use this term and suggest that it was originally designed as a simpler form of writing and for the visually impaired.) In Barbier's system, sets of 12 embossed dots were used to encode 36 different sounds. Braille identified three major defects of the code: first, the symbols represented phonetic sounds and not letters of the alphabet thus the code was unable to render the orthography of the words. Second, the 12-dot symbols could not easily fit beneath the pad of the reading finger. This required the reading finger to move in order to perceive the whole symbol, which slowed the reading process. (This was because Barbier's system was based only on the number of dots in each of two 6-dot columns but not the pattern of the dots.) Third, the code did not include symbols for numerals or punctuation. Braille's solution was to use 6-dot cells and to assign a specific pattern to each letter of the alphabet. Braille also developed symbols for representing numerals and punctuation.


title: Braille

text: At first, Braille was a one-to-one transliteration of the French alphabet, but soon various abbreviations (contractions) and even logograms were developed, creating a system much more like shorthand.


title: Braille

text: In English, some variations in the braille codes have traditionally existed among English-speaking countries. In 1991, work to standardize the braille codes used in the English-speaking world began. Unified English Braille (UEB) has been adopted in all 7 member countries of the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) as well as Nigeria.


title: Braille

text: For blind readers, Braille is an independent writing system, rather than a code of printed orthography.


title: Braille

text: Braille is derived from the Latin alphabet, albeit indirectly. In Braille's original system, the dot patterns were assigned to letters according to their position within the alphabetic order of the French alphabet of the time, with accented letters and "w" sorted at the end.


title: Braille

text: Unlike print, which consists of mostly arbitrary symbols, the braille alphabet follows a logical sequence. The first ten letters of the alphabet, "a"–"j", use the upper four dot positions: (black dots in the table below). These stand for the ten digits "1"–"9" and "0" in an alphabetic numeral system similar to Greek numerals (as well all derivations of it, including Hebrew numerals, Cyrillic numerals, Abjad numerals, also Hebrew gematria and Greek isopsephy).


title: Braille

text: Though the dots are assigned in no obvious order, the cells with the fewest dots are assigned to the first three letters (and lowest digits), "abc" = "123" (), and to the three vowels in this part of the alphabet, "aei" (), whereas the even digits, "4", "6", "8", "0" (), are corners/right angles.


title: Braille

text: The next ten letters, "k"–"t", are identical to "a"–"j" respectively, apart from the addition of a dot at position 3 (red dots in the bottom left corner of the cell in the table below): :


title: Braille

text: The next ten letters (the next "decade") are the same again, but with dots also at both position 3 and position 6 (green dots in the bottom row of the cell in the table above). Here "w" was initially left out as not being a part of the official French alphabet at the time of Braille's life; the French braille order is "u v x y z ç é à è ù" ().


title: Braille

text: The next ten letters, ending in "w", are the same again, except that for this series position 6 (purple dot in the bottom right corner of the cell in the table above) is used without a dot at position 3. In French braille these are the letters "â ê î ô û ë ï ü œ w" (). "W" had been tacked onto the end of 39 letters of the French alphabet to accommodate English.


title: Braille

text: The "a"–"j" series shifted down by one dot space () is used for punctuation. Letters "a" and "c" , which only use dots in the top row, were shifted two places for the apostrophe and hyphen: . (These are also the decade diacritics, at left in the table below, of the second and third decade.)


title: Braille

text: In addition, there are ten patterns that are based on the first two letters () with their dots shifted to the right; these were assigned to non-French letters ("ì ä ò" ), or serve non-letter functions: (superscript; in English the accent mark), (currency prefix), (capital, in English the decimal point), (number sign), (emphasis mark), (symbol prefix).


title: Braille

text: The first four decades are similar in respect that in those decades the decade dots are applied to the numeric sequence as a logical "inclusive OR" operation whereas the fifth decade applies a "shift down" operation to the numeric sequence.


title: Braille

text: Originally there had been nine decades. The fifth through ninth used dashes as well as dots, but proved to be impractical and were soon abandoned. These could be replaced with what we now know as the number sign (), though that only caught on for the digits (old 5th decade → modern 1st decade). The dash occupying the top row of the original sixth decade was simply dropped, producing the modern fifth decade. (See 1829 braille.)


title: Braille

text: Historically, there have been three principles in assigning the values of a linear script (print) to Braille: Using Louis Braille's original French letter values; reassigning the braille letters according to the sort order of the print alphabet being transcribed; and reassigning the letters to improve the efficiency of writing in braille.


title: Braille

text: Under international consensus, most braille alphabets follow the French sorting order for the 26 letters of the basic Latin alphabet, and there have been attempts at unifying the letters beyond these 26 (see international braille), though differences remain, for example, in German Braille. This unification avoids the chaos of each nation reordering the braille code to match the sorting order of its print alphabet, as happened in Algerian Braille, where braille codes were numerically reassigned to match the order of the Arabic alphabet and bear little relation to the values used in other countries (compare modern Arabic Braille, which uses the French sorting order), and as happened in an early American version of English Braille, where the letters "w", "x", "y", "z" were reassigned to match English alphabetical order. A convention sometimes seen for letters beyond the basic 26 is to exploit the physical symmetry of braille patterns iconically, for example, by assigning a reversed "n" to "ñ" or an inverted "s" to "sh". (See Hungarian Braille and Bharati Braille, which do this to some extent.)


title: Braille

text: A third principle was to assign braille codes according to frequency, with the simplest patterns (quickest ones to write with a stylus) assigned to the most frequent letters of the alphabet. Such frequency-based alphabets were used in Germany and the United States in the 19th century (see American Braille), but with the invention of the braille typewriter their advantage disappeared, and none are attested in modern use they had the disadvantage that the resulting small number of dots in a text interfered with following the alignment of the letters, and consequently made texts more difficult to read than Braille's more arbitrary letter assignment. Finally, there are braille scripts that don't order the codes numerically at all, such as Japanese Braille and Korean Braille, which are based on more abstract principles of syllable composition.


title: Braille

text: Texts are sometimes written in a script of eight dots per cell rather than six, enabling them to encode a greater number of symbols. (See Gardner–Salinas braille codes.) Luxembourgish Braille has adopted eight-dot cells for general use; for example, it adds a dot below each letter to derive its capital variant.


title: Braille

text: Braille was the first writing system with binary encoding. The system as devised by Braille consists of two parts:


title: Braille

text: Within an individual cell, the dot positions are arranged in two columns of three positions. A raised dot can appear in any of the six positions, producing 64 (2) possible patterns, including one in which there are no raised dots. For reference purposes, a pattern is commonly described by listing the positions where dots are raised, the positions being universally numbered, from top to bottom, as 1 to 3 on the left and 4 to 6 on the right. For example, dot pattern 1-3-4 describes a cell with three dots raised, at the top and bottom in the left column and at the top of the right column: that is, the letter "m". The lines of horizontal braille text are separated by a space, much like visible printed text, so that the dots of one line can be differentiated from the braille text above and below. Different assignments of braille codes (or code pages) are used to map the character sets of different printed scripts to the six-bit cells. Braille assignments have also been created for mathematical and musical notation. However, because the six-dot braille cell allows only 64 (2) patterns, including space, the characters of a braille script commonly have multiple values, depending on their context. That is, character mapping between print and braille is not one-to-one. For example, the character corresponds in print to both the letter "d" and the digit "4".


title: Braille

text: In addition to simple encoding, many braille alphabets use contractions to reduce the size of braille texts and to increase reading speed. (See Contracted braille.)


title: Braille

text: Braille may be produced by hand using a slate and stylus in which each dot is created from the back of the page, writing in mirror image, or it may be produced on a braille typewriter or Perkins Brailler, or an electronic Brailler or braille notetaker. Braille users with access to smartphones may also activate the on-screen braille input keyboard, to type braille symbols on to their device by placing their fingers on to the screen according to the dot configuration of the symbols they wish to form. These symbols are automatically translated into print on the screen. The different tools that exist for writing braille allow the braille user to select the method that is best for a given task. For example, the slate and stylus is a portable writing tool, much like the pen and paper for the sighted. Errors can be erased using a braille eraser or can be overwritten with all six dots (). "Interpoint" refers to braille printing that is offset, so that the paper can be embossed on both sides, with the dots on one side appearing between the divots that form the dots on the other.


title: Braille

text: Using a computer or other electronic device, Braille may be produced with a braille embosser (printer) or a refreshable braille display (screen).


title: Braille

text: Braille has been extended to an 8-dot code, particularly for use with braille embossers and refreshable braille displays. In 8-dot braille the additional dots are added at the bottom of the cell, giving a matrix 4 dots high by 2 dots wide. The additional dots are given the numbers 7 (for the lower-left dot) and 8 (for the lower-right dot). Eight-dot braille has the advantages that the case of an individual letter is directly coded in the cell containing the letter and that all the printable ASCII characters can be represented in a single cell. All 256 (2) possible combinations of 8 dots are encoded by the Unicode standard. Braille with six dots is frequently stored as Braille ASCII.


title: Braille

text: The first 25 braille letters, up through the first half of the 3rd decade, transcribe "a–z" (skipping "w"). In English Braille, the rest of that decade is rounded out with the ligatures "and, for, of, the," and "with". Omitting dot 3 from these forms the 4th decade, the ligatures "ch, gh, sh, th, wh, ed, er, ou, ow" and the letter "w".


title: Braille

text: Various formatting marks affect the values of the letters that follow them. They have no direct equivalent in print. The most important in English Braille are:


title: Braille

text: Punctuation varies from language to language. For example, French Braille uses for its question mark and swaps the quotation marks and parentheses (to and ); it uses the period () for the decimal point, as in print, and the decimal point () to mark capitalization.


title: Braille

text: Braille contractions are words and affixes that are shortened so that they take up fewer cells. In English Braille, for example, the word "afternoon" is written with just three letters, , much like stenoscript. There are also several abbreviation marks that create what are effectively logograms. The most common of these is dot 5, which combines with the first letter of words. With the letter "m", the resulting word is "mother". There are also ligatures ("contracted" letters), which are single letters in braille but correspond to more than one letter in print. The letter "and", for example, is used to write words with the sequence "a-n-d" in them, such as "hand".


title: Braille

text: A manually operated Perkins braille typewriter supports a maximum of 42 cells per line (its margins are adjustable), and typical paper allows 25 lines per page.


title: Braille

text: An A4-sized Marburg braille frame, which allows interpoint braille (dots on both sides of the page, offset so they do not interfere with each other), has 30 cells per line and 27 lines per page.


title: Braille

text: A Braille writing machine is a typewriter with six keys that allows the user to write braille on a regular hard copy page.


title: Braille

text: The first Braille typewriter to gain general acceptance was invented by Frank Haven Hall (Superintendent of the Illinois School for the Blind), and was presented to the public in 1892.


title: Braille

text: The Stainsby Brailler, developed by Henry Stainsby in 1903, is a mechanical writer with a sliding carriage that moves over an aluminium plate as it embosses Braille characters. An improved version was introduced around 1933.


title: Braille

text: In 1951 David Abraham, a woodworking teacher at the Perkins School for the Blind produced a more advanced Braille typewriter, the Perkins Brailler.


title: Braille

text: In 1960 Robert Mann, a teacher in MIT, wrote DOTSYS, a software that allowed automatic braille translation, and another group created an embossing device called "M.I.T. Braillemboss". The Mitre Corporation team of Robert Gildea, Jonathan Millen, Reid Gerhart and Joseph Sullivan (now president of Duxbury Systems) developed DOTSYS III, the first braille translator written in a portable programming language. DOTSYS III was developed for the Atlanta Public Schools as a public domain program.


title: Braille

text: In 1991 Ernest Bate developed the Mountbatten Brailler, an electronic machine used to type braille on braille paper, giving it a number of additional features such as word processing, audio feedback and embossing. This version was improved in 2008 with a quiet writer that had an erase key.


title: Braille

text: In 2011 David S. Morgan produced the first SMART Brailler machine, with added text to speech function and allowed digital capture of data entered.


title: Braille

text: Braille is traditionally read in hardcopy form, such as with paper books written in braille, documents produced in paper braille (such as restaurant menus), and braille labels or public signage. It can also be read on a refreshable braille display either as a stand-alone electronic device or connected to a computer or smartphone. Refreshable braille displays convert what is visually shown on a computer or smartphone screen into braille through a series of pins that rise and fall to form braille symbols. Currently more than 1% of all printed books have been translated into hardcopy braille.


title: Braille

text: The fastest braille readers apply a light touch and read braille with two hands, although reading braille with one hand is also possible. Although the finger can read only one braille character at a time, the brain chunks braille at a higher level, processing words a digraph, root or suffix at a time. The processing largely takes place in the visual cortex.


title: Braille

text: Children who are blind miss out on fundamental parts of early and advanced education if not provided with the necessary tools, such as access to educational materials in braille. Children who are blind or visually impaired can begin learning foundational braille skills from a very young age to become fluent braille readers as they get older. Sighted children are naturally exposed to written language on signs, on TV and in the books they see. Blind children require the same early exposure to literacy, through access to braille rich environments and opportunities to explore the world around them. Print-braille books, for example, present text in both print and braille and can be read by sighted parents to blind children (and vice versa), allowing blind children to develop an early love for reading even before formal reading instruction begins.


title: Braille

text: Adults who experience sight loss later in life or who didn't have the opportunity to learn it when they were younger can also learn braille. In most cases, adults who learn braille were already literate in print before vision loss and so instruction focuses more on developing the tactile and motor skills needed to read braille.


title: Braille

text: While different countries publish statistics on how many readers in a given organization request braille, these numbers only provide a partial picture of braille literacy statistics. For example, this data does not survey the entire population of braille readers or always include readers who are no longer in the school system (adults) or readers who request electronic braille materials. Therefore, there are currently no reliable statistics on braille literacy rates, as described in a publication in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness. Regardless of the precise percentage of braille readers, there is consensus that braille should be provided to all those who benefit from it.


title: Braille

text: There are numerous factors that influence access to braille literacy, including school budget constraints, technology advancements such as screen-reader software, access to qualified instruction, and different philosophical views over how blind children should be educated.


title: Braille

text: A key turning point for braille literacy was the passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, an act of Congress that moved thousands of children from specialized schools for the blind into mainstream public schools. Because only a small percentage of public schools could afford to train and hire braille-qualified teachers, braille literacy has declined since the law took effect. Braille literacy rates have improved slightly since the bill was passed, in part because of pressure from consumers and advocacy groups that has led 27 states to pass legislation mandating that children who are legally blind be given the opportunity to learn braille.


title: Braille

text: In 1998 there were 57,425 legally blind students registered in the United States, but only 10% (5,461) of them used braille as their primary reading medium.


title: Braille

text: Early Braille education is crucial to literacy for a blind or low-vision child. A study conducted in the state of Washington found that people who learned braille at an early age did just as well, if not better than their sighted peers in several areas, including vocabulary and comprehension. In the preliminary adult study, while evaluating the correlation between adult literacy skills and employment, it was found that 44% of the participants who had learned to read in braille were unemployed, compared to the 77% unemployment rate of those who had learned to read using print. Currently, among the estimated 85,000 blind adults in the United States, 90% of those who are braille-literate are employed. Among adults who do not know braille, only 33% are employed. Statistically, history has proven that braille reading proficiency provides an essential skill set that allows blind or low-vision children to compete with their sighted peers in a school environment and later in life as they enter the workforce.


title: Braille

text: Regardless of the specific percentage of braille readers, proponents point out the importance of increasing access to braille for all those who can benefit from it.


title: Braille

text: Although it is possible to transcribe print by simply substituting the equivalent braille character for its printed equivalent, in English such a character-by-character transcription (known as "uncontracted braille") is typically used by beginners or those who only engage in short reading tasks (such as reading household labels).


title: Braille

text: Braille characters are much larger than their printed equivalents, and the standard 11" by 11.5" (28 cm × 30 cm) page has room for only 25 lines of 43 characters. To reduce space and increase reading speed, most braille alphabets and orthographies use ligatures, abbreviations, and contractions. Virtually all English braille books in hardcopy (paper) format are transcribed in contracted braille: The Library of Congress's "Instruction Manual for Braille Transcribing" runs to over 300 pages, and braille transcribers must pass certification tests.


title: Braille

text: Uncontracted braille was previously known as grade 1 braille, and contracted braille was previously known as grade 2 braille. Uncontracted braille is a direct transliteration of print words (one-to-one correspondence); hence, the word "about" would contain all the same letters in uncontracted braille as it does in inkprint. Contracted braille includes short forms to save space; hence, for example, the letters "ab" when standing alone represent the word "about" in English contracted braille. In English, some braille users only learn uncontracted braille, particularly if braille is being used for shorter reading tasks such as reading household labels. However, those who plan to use braille for educational and employment purposes and longer reading texts often go on to contracted braille.


title: Braille

text: The system of contractions in English Braille begins with a set of 23 words contracted to single characters. Thus the word "but" is contracted to the single letter "b", "can" to "c", "do" to "d", and so on. Even this simple rule creates issues requiring special cases; for example, "d" is, specifically, an abbreviation of the verb "do"; the noun "do" representing the note of the musical scale is a different word and must be spelled out.


title: Braille

text: Portions of words may be contracted, and many rules govern this process. For example, the character with dots 2-3-5 (the letter "f" lowered in the Braille cell) stands for "ff" when used in the middle of a word. At the beginning of a word, this same character stands for the word "to"; the character is written in braille with no space following it. (This contraction was removed in the Unified English Braille Code.) At the end of a word, the same character represents an exclamation point.


title: Braille

text: Some contractions are more similar than their print equivalents. For example, the contraction , meaning "letter", differs from , meaning "little", only by one dot in the second letter: "little", "letter". This causes greater confusion between the braille spellings of these words and can hinder the learning process of contracted braille.


title: Braille

text: The contraction rules take into account the linguistic structure of the word; thus, contractions are generally not to be used when their use would alter the usual braille form of a base word to which a prefix or suffix has been added. Some portions of the transcription rules are not fully codified and rely on the judgment of the transcriber. Thus, when the contraction rules permit the same word in more than one way, preference is given to "the contraction that more nearly approximates correct pronunciation".


title: Braille

text: "Grade 3 braille" is a variety of non-standardized systems that include many additional shorthand-like contractions. They are not used for publication, but by individuals for their personal convenience.


title: Braille

text: When people produce braille, this is called braille transcription. When computer software produces braille, this is called braille


title: Braille

text: translation. Braille translation software exists to handle most of the common languages of the world, and many technical areas,


title: Braille

text: such as mathematics (mathematical notation), for example WIMATS, music (musical notation), and tactile graphics.


title: Braille

text: Since Braille is one of the few writing systems where tactile perception is used, as opposed to visual perception, a braille reader must develop new skills. One skill important for Braille readers is the ability to create smooth and even pressures when running one's fingers along the words. There are many different styles and techniques used for the understanding and development of braille, even though a study by B. F. Holland suggests that there is no specific technique that is superior to any other.


title: Braille

text: Another study by Lowenfield & Abel shows that braille can be read "the fastest and best... by students who read using the index fingers of both hands". Another important reading skill emphasized in this study is to finish reading the end of a line with the right hand and to find the beginning of the next line with the left hand simultaneously.


title: Braille

text: When Braille was first adapted to languages other than French, many schemes were adopted, including mapping the native alphabet to the alphabetical order of French – e.g. in English W, which was not in the French alphabet at the time, is mapped to braille X, X to Y, Y to Z, and Z to the first French-accented letter – or completely rearranging the alphabet such that common letters are represented by the simplest braille patterns. Consequently, mutual intelligibility was greatly hindered by this state of affairs. In 1878, the International Congress on Work for the Blind, held in Paris, proposed an international braille standard, where braille codes for different languages and scripts would be based, not on the order of a particular alphabet, but on phonetic correspondence and transliteration to Latin.


title: Braille

text: This unified braille has been applied to the languages of India and Africa, Arabic, Vietnamese, Hebrew, Russian, and Armenian, as well as nearly all Latin-script languages. In Greek, for example, γ (g) is written as Latin "g", despite the fact that it has the alphabetic position of "c"; Hebrew ב (b), the second letter of the alphabet and cognate with the Latin letter "b", is sometimes pronounced /b/ and sometimes /v/, and is written "b" or "v" accordingly; Russian ц (ts) is written as "c", which is the usual letter for /ts/ in those Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet; and Arabic ف (f) is written as "f", despite being historically "p" and occurring in that part of the Arabic alphabet (between historic "o" and "q").


title: Braille

text: Other systems for assigning values to braille patterns are also followed beside the simple mapping of the alphabetical order onto the original French order. Some braille alphabets start with unified braille, and then diverge significantly based on the phonology of the target languages, while others diverge even further.


title: Braille

text: In the various Chinese systems, traditional braille values are used for initial consonants and the simple vowels. In both Mandarin and Cantonese Braille, however, characters have different readings depending on whether they are placed in syllable-initial (onset) or syllable-final (rime) position. For instance, the cell for Latin "k", , represents Cantonese "k" ("g" in Yale and other modern romanizations) when initial, but "aak" when final, while Latin "j", , represents Cantonese initial "j" but final "oei".


title: Braille

text: Novel systems of braille mapping include Korean, which adopts separate syllable-initial and syllable-final forms for its consonants, explicitly grouping braille cells into syllabic groups in the same way as hangul. Japanese, meanwhile, combines independent vowel dot patterns and modifier consonant dot patterns into a single braille cell – an abugida representation of each Japanese mora.


title: Braille

text: Braille is read by people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision, and by both those born with a visual impairment and those who experience sight loss later in life. Even individuals with low vision will find that they benefit from braille, depending on level of vision or context (for example, when lighting or colour contrast is poor). Braille is used for both short and long reading tasks. Examples of short reading tasks include braille labels for identifying household items (or cards in a wallet), reading elevator buttons, accessing phone numbers, recipes, grocery lists and other personal notes. Examples of longer reading tasks include using braille to access educational materials, novels and magazines. People with access to a refreshable braille display can also use braille for reading email and ebooks, browsing the internet and accessing other electronic documents. It is also possible to adapt or purchase playing cards and board games in braille.


title: Braille

text: In India there are instances where the parliament acts have been published in braille, such as "The Right to Information Act". Sylheti Braille is used in Northeast India.


title: Braille

text: In Canada, passenger safety information in braille and tactile seat row markers are required aboard planes, trains, large ferries, and interprovincial busses pursuant to the Canadian Transportation Agency's regulations.


title: Braille

text: In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires various building signage to be in braille.


title: Braille

text: In the United Kingdom, it is required that medicines have the name of the medicine in Braille on the labeling.


title: Braille

text: The current series of Canadian banknotes has a tactile feature consisting of raised dots that indicate the denomination, allowing bills to be easily identified by blind or low vision people. It does not use standard braille numbers to identify the value. Instead, the number of full braille cells, which can be simply counted by both braille readers and non-braille readers alike, is an indicator of the value of the bill.


title: Braille

text: Mexican bank notes, Australian bank notes, Indian rupee notes, Israeli new shekel notes and Russian ruble notes also have special raised symbols to make them identifiable by persons who are blind or low vision.


title: Braille

text: Euro coins were designed in cooperation with organisations representing blind people, and as a result they incorporate many features allowing them to be distinguished by touch alone. In addition, their visual appearance is designed to make them easy to tell apart for persons who cannot read the inscriptions on the coins. "A good design for the blind and partially sighted is a good design for everybody" was the principle behind the cooperation of the European Central Bank and the European Blind Union during the design phase of the first series Euro banknotes in the 1990s. As a result, the design of the first euro banknotes included several characteristics which aid both the blind and partially sighted to confidently use the notes.


title: Braille

text: In the United Kingdom, the front of the £10 polymer note (the side with raised print), has two clusters of raised dots in the top left hand corner, and the £20 note has three. This tactile feature helps blind and partially sighted people identify the value of the note.


title: Braille

text: Most braille embossers and refreshable braille displays do not use the Unicode code points, but instead reuse the 8-bit code points that are assigned to standard ASCII for braille ASCII. (Thus, for simple material, the same bitstream may be interpreted equally as visual letter forms for sighted readers or their exact semantic equivalent in tactile patterns for blind readers. However some codes have quite different tactile versus visual interpretations and most are not even defined in Braille ASCII.)


title: Braille

text: Some embossers have proprietary control codes for 8-dot braille or for full graphics mode, where dots may be placed anywhere on the page without leaving any space between braille cells so that continuous lines can be drawn in diagrams, but these are rarely used and are not standard.


title: Braille

text: The Unicode standard encodes 6-dot and 8-dot braille glyphs according to their binary appearance, rather than following their assigned numeric order. Dot 1 corresponds to the least significant bit of the low byte of the Unicode scalar value, and dot 8 to the high bit of that byte.


title: Braille

text: The Unicode block for braille is U+2800 ... U+28FF. The mapping of patterns to characters etc. is language dependent: even for English for example, see American Braille and English Braille.


title: Braille

text: Every year on 4 January, World Braille Day is observed internationally to commemorate the birth of Louis Braille and to recognize his efforts. Although the event is not considered a public holiday, it has been recognized by the United Nations as an official day of celebration since 2019.


title: Braille

text: There is a variety of contemporary electronic devices that serve the needs of blind people that operate in Braille, such as refreshable braille displays and Braille e-book that use different technologies for transmitting graphic information of different types (pictures, maps, graphs, texts, etc.).


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: Gianluca Scamacca (born 1 January 1999) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club West Ham United and the Italy national team.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: Scamacca previously played for Jong PSV and Sassuolo, with loans at Cremonese, PEC Zwolle, Ascoli and Genoa. He made his senior international debut for Italy in 2021.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: A product of Roma youth academy, Scamacca joined PSV Eindhoven in January 2015. He made his professional debut in Eerste Divisie as a Jong PSV player on 22 January 2016, aged 17, in a 2–1 away win against VVV-Venlo, replacing Steven Bergwijn after 61 minutes.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: In January 2017, he was signed by Italian club Sassuolo on a four-and-a-half-year deal. On 29 October, at age 18, he made his Serie A debut in a 3–1 loss against Napoli at the Stadio San Paolo, coming on as a substitute for Diego Falcinelli in the 85th minute.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: In January 2018, Scamacca joined Serie B club Cremonese on loan. He scored his first professional goal on 14 April 2018, in the league match against Palermo.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: On 31 August 2018, Scamacca joined Eredivisie club PEC Zwolle on loan. He made his debut on 2 September 2018 in the away league match won 1–0 against Groningen.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: In summer 2021, Scamacca returned to Sassuolo, coached by Alessio Dionisi. On 17 October, he scored his first goals with the "neroverdi", scoring a brace in an away game against his former team, Genoa, helping his side draw 2–2. During the 2021–22 season, he played as a starter alongside Domenico Berardi and Giacomo Raspadori in attack, and ended the season with 16 league goals. He made his last appearance to the club on 22 May 2022 in a 3-0 loss to AC Milan.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: On 26 July 2022, Scamacca signed for Premier League club West Ham United on a five-year contract with an option for a further year. The transfer fee paid to Sassuolo was reportedly of £30.5 million, with an additional £5 million in add-ons. A 10% sell-on clause for the Italian team was also reportedly included in the deal.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: Scamacca made his West Ham and Premier League debut coming on as a second-half substitute for Michail Antonio in a 2–0 home defeat to Manchester City on 7 August 2022. His first goal for West Ham came in his third game, on 18 August, in the play-off round of the UEFA Conference League against Viborg; he scored the first goal of an eventual 3–1 win. He scored his first league goal for the club in a 2-0 home win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on 1 October 2022.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: As a member of the Italy U17 side, Scamacca took part at the 2015 and 2016 editions of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: With Italy U19, Scamacca took part in the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, and scored two goals in the tournament, including one in the 4–3 final loss against Portugal after extra time. The following year he took part in the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup with the Italy U20 squad, reaching the fourth place.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: On 25 May 2018, Scamacca made his debut with the Italy U21 team in a friendly match lost 3–2 against Portugal. He scored his first goal with the Italy U21 team on 6 September 2019, in a friendly match won 4–0 against Moldova. He took part in the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, where he scored two goals.


title: Gianluca Scamacca

text: He received his first call up to the senior Italy squad for the team's 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in September 2021. He made his senior debut on 8 September, in a 5–0 home win over Lithuania, coming on as a second–half substitute for Federico Bernardeschi.


title: Julia Haart

text: Julia Haart previously Talia Leibov (born April 11, 1971) is an American fashion designer, entrepreneur, and author. She is the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Elite Model Management. Although she has claimed to be a “co-owner” of Elite World Group, a Delaware court ruled that she does not own 50 percent of Elite World Group. She previously owned a namesake shoe collection, and was creative director at Italian luxury house La Perla. Haart is also the subject and executive producer of the Netflix miniseries "My Unorthodox Life", which described her decision, in 2013, to leave her Haredi community.


title: Julia Haart

text: Haart was born in Moscow in 1971. She and her parents left Russia when she was 3, and moved to Austin, Texas. In Austin, she attended private school, and was the school's only Jewish student. When Haart was in fourth grade, they moved to Monsey, New York, which has a large Haredi community that appealed to her parents, as they grew more religious.


title: Julia Haart

text: Haart attended Bais Yaakov Academy in Brooklyn, New York. At 16, she taught herself how to sew, and read fashion magazines in her house. When she was 18, she changed her first name, "to the more Hebrew-sounding Talia, in order to attract a match". At 19, she married her first husband, a yeshiva student, five years her senior.


title: Julia Haart

text: While living as a Haredi Jew throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Haart became increasingly uncomfortable with her community. The treatment of her younger daughter, Miriam, bothered her in particular. In a 2021 interview with "The New York Times", she said that her daughter "just wouldn't conform. They were doing to her what they had done to me — trying to push her down and mold her into that flat person that they could disappear. I couldn't let that happen."


title: Julia Haart

text: Haart also dealt with mental health issues, telling the "Los Angeles Times" in an interview that before leaving the community, she had contemplated suicide, but worried about how the stigma within the Haredi community would affect her children's shidduch prospects. After leaving the community, she took on the name Julia Haart. The last name Haart is derived from her maiden name, Leibov, which is similar to Lev, Hebrew for "heart".


title: Julia Haart

text: Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Haart worked as a Judaic Studies teacher at Yeshiva Atlanta; "staff who knew her at the time – when she went by the name Talia Hendler – recalled that she was beloved by students and known for her sharp style". For years, Haart secretly sold life insurance.


title: Julia Haart

text: After leaving the Haredi community in 2013, Haart founded a shoe company, Julia Haart, with the goal to make shoes that were both fashionable and comfortable. She partnered with a ski boot engineer and a German company that creates a gel used by NASA to create a comfortable high-heeled shoe.


title: Julia Haart

text: In 2016, Haart collaborated with La Perla for their Spring and Fall 2016 accessory collections. The same year, she was named as the creative director for the brand by Silvio Scaglia, at that time owner and president of the brand. Following her appointment as Creative Director of La Perla, Haart launched a new approach to ready-to-wear for the company. At La Perla, Haart created the first stretch Leavers lace, and launched a collection of ready-to-wear lingerie with built-in support. For her Fall/Winter 2017 fashion show, Haart constructed a "La Perla Manor" runway show, in which Naomi Campbell, Lindsey Wixson, Sasha Pivovarova and Kendall Jenner walked. Haart is known for her 2017 Met Gala dress designed for Kendall Jenner. The gown consisted of 85,000 crystals affixed to a single string.


title: Julia Haart

text: In March 2019, she became chief executive officer and chief creative officer of the talent media conglomerate Elite World Group (EWG), also in this case nominated by her ex-husband Silvio Scaglia, owner of the brand. Under Haart's leadership EWG has re-focused the brand and added new divisions. Elite World Group prioritizes assisting models to monetise their brands and business projects. Additionally, Haart is the creative director of e1972, a luxury fashion brand launched by Elite World. The collection received a lot of positive media attention, and was celebrated for its "innovation, inclusivity, and inspiring message of empowerment".


title: Julia Haart

text: In February 2022, she was fired from her role as group chief executive officer as the result of accusations relating to company embezzlement by her now ex-husband, and appointing the previous one before her as CEO Paolo Barbieri.


title: Julia Haart

text: Following her dismissal from EWG, Haart sued Scaglia in Delaware's Chancery Court, where Freedom Holding Inc, which owns EWG's shares, resides. Haart claimed she is a 50–50 owner of EWG and due to this holds equal shares in the company, and therefore could not be dismissed.


title: Julia Haart

text: On August 4, 2022, Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn of the Delaware Chancery Court issued a definitive, final ruling that confirmed Silvio Scaglia is the controlling shareholder of Elite World Group (EWG)’s parent company, Freedom Holding Inc., and that Julia Haart was properly terminated as CEO of EWG in February 2022.


title: Julia Haart

text: Ultimately, the court found that, "Haart did not and does not own fifty percent of Freedom’s preferred stock" and that she was "powerless" to stop Freedom from firing her. As a consequence of the court ruling, Haart has been determined to own only 50 Freedom shares out of a total of more than 123,000.


title: Julia Haart

text: In the 52-page opinion responding to Haart's contention that Scaglia has "unclean hands," Zurn explained the exact opposite was demonstrated at trial: "the exercise of looking at the litigants’ hands reveals dirt on Haart’s."


title: Julia Haart

text: On August 11, 2022, the New York Supreme Court issued a decision following a six-day trial in April regarding Julia Haart's claims of spousal abuse by Silvio Scaglia. In the decision, Justice Douglas Hoffman, dismissed Ms. Haart's causes of action and denied her request for an order of protection. The Court heard extensive cross-examinations of both parties and Ms. Haart's daughter, reviewed hundreds of pages of WhatsApp messages exchanged between the parties over a three-year period, and listened to hours of recordings and voice messages. In its 29-page decision, the Court determined that Ms. Haart's abuse allegations were false, that her original family offense petition was "misleading" and found hers and her daughter's testimony to be "not credible". Instead, the Court concluded that Haart filed her petition and publicized her false allegations in retaliation for having been fired as CEO of Mr. Scaglia's company, Elite World Group ("EWG"), and in a bid to gain exclusive occupancy of his $65 million penthouse apartment at 70 Vestry Street.


title: Julia Haart

text: Haart has four children with her first husband, Yosef Hendler: Batsheva, Shlomo, Miriam, and Aron. Batsheva, who goes by the last name Haart, is a social media influencer and was married to Binyamin "Ben" Weinstein from 2012 until their divorce in November 2021. Miriam has also adopted her mother's last name Haart. Aron, who is in high school, splits his time between his parents in Manhattan and Monsey, New York.


title: Julia Haart

text: In February 2022, Haart filed for divorce, and was terminated from her chief executive officer position on the same day.


title: Julia Haart

text: Haart is the eldest of eight children, one of whom died in a car accident at age 5. Only one of her siblings, a sister named Hannah, has a relationship with her; her parents and other siblings stopped talking to her after she left her Orthodox community.


title: Julia Haart

text: Haart is the subject of the Netflix series "My Unorthodox Life", which premiered in July 2021. The docu-series follows the professional and personal life of Haart in her role as chief executive officer of Elite World Group, author, mother and wife. The show has been received critically by many Jewish community members.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The Eleusinian Mysteries () were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Elefsina in ancient Greece. They are the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece". Their basis was an old agrarian cult, and there is some evidence that they were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenean period. The Mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the "descent" (loss), the "search", and the "ascent", with the main theme being the "ascent" () of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. It was a major festival during the Hellenic era, and later spread to Rome. Similar religious rites appear in the agricultural societies of the Near East and in Minoan Crete.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The rites, ceremonies, and beliefs were kept secret and consistently preserved from antiquity. For the initiated, the rebirth of Persephone symbolized the eternity of life which flows from generation to generation, and they believed that they would have a reward in the afterlife. There are many paintings and pieces of pottery that depict various aspects of the Mysteries. Since the Mysteries involved visions and conjuring of an afterlife, some scholars believe that the power and longevity of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a consistent set of rites, ceremonies and experiences that spanned two millennia, came from psychedelic drugs. The name of the town, Elefsina, seems to be pre-Greek, and is likely a counterpart with Elysium and the goddess Eileithyia.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The name of the city Eleusis is Pre-Greek, and may be related with the name of the goddess Eileithyia. Her name "" ( " Elysia") in Laconia and Messene, probably relates her with the month "Eleusinios" and Eleusis, but this is debated.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The ancient Greek word whence English "mystery" derives, i.e. mystḗrion, means "mystery or secret rite" and is related with the verb "myéō" (), which means "(I) teach, initiate into the mysteries", and the noun "mýstēs" (), which means "one initiated". The word "mystikós" (), whence English "mystic", means "connected with the mysteries", or "private, secret" (as in Modern Greek).


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The Mysteries are related to a myth concerning Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility as recounted in one of the Homeric Hymns (c. 650 BC). According to the hymn, Demeter's daughter Persephone (also referred to as "Kore", "maiden") was assigned the task of painting all the flowers of the earth. Before completion, she was seized by Hades, the god of the underworld, who took her to his underworld kingdom. Distraught, Demeter searched high and low for her daughter. Because of her distress, and in an effort to coerce Zeus to allow the return of her daughter, she caused a terrible drought in which the people suffered and starved, depriving the gods of sacrifice and worship. As a result, Zeus relented and allowed Persephone to return to her mother.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: According to the myth, during her search Demeter traveled long distances and had many minor adventures along the way. In one she taught the secrets of agriculture to Triptolemus. Finally, by consulting Zeus, Demeter reunited with her daughter and the earth returned to its former verdure and prosperity: the first spring.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds (either six or four according to the telling), which forced her to return to the underworld for some months each year. She was obliged to remain with Hades for six or four months (one month per seed) and lived above ground with her mother for the rest of the year. This left a long period of time when Demeter was unhappy due to Persephone's absence, neglecting to cultivate the earth. When Persephone returned to the surface, Demeter became joyful and cared for the earth again.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: In the central foundation document of the mystery, the Homeric "Hymn to Demeter" line 415, Persephone is said to stay in Hades during winter and return to her mother in the spring of the year: "This was the day [of Persephone's return], at the very beginning of bountiful springtime."


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Persephone's rebirth is symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life and the symbol of eternity of life that flows from the generations that spring from each other.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: However, a scholar has proposed a different version, according to which the four months during which Persephone is with Hades correspond to the dry Greek summer, a period during which plants are threatened with drought.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The Eleusinian Mysteries are believed to be of considerable antiquity. Some findings in the temple "Eleusinion" in Attica suggest that their basis was an old agrarian cult. Some practices of the mysteries seem to have been influenced by the religious practices of the Mycenaean period, thus predating the Greek Dark Ages. Excavations showed that a private building existed under the Telesterion in the Mycenean period, and it seems that originally the cult of Demeter was private. In the Homeric Hymn is mentioned the palace of the king Keleos.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: One line of thought by modern scholars has been that the Mysteries were intended "to elevate man above the human sphere into the divine and to assure his redemption by making him a god and so conferring immortality upon him".


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Some scholars argued that the Eleusinian cult was a continuation of a Minoan cult, and that Demeter was a poppy goddess who brought the poppy from Crete to Eleusis. Some useful information from the Mycenean period can be taken from the study of the cult of Despoina (the precursor goddess of Persephone) and the cult of Eileithyia, who was the goddess of childbirth. The megaron of Despoina at Lycosura is quite similar to the Telesterion of Eleusis, and Demeter is united with the god Poseidon, bearing a daughter, the unnamable "Despoina" (the mistress). In the cave of Amnisos at Crete, the goddess Eileithyia is related with the annual birth of the divine child, and she is connected with "Enesidaon " (The Earth Shaker), who is the chthonic aspect of Poseidon.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: At Eleusis inscriptions refer to "the Goddesses" accompanied by the agricultural god Triptolemus (probably son of Ge and Oceanus), and "the God and the Goddess" (Persephone and Plouton) accompanied by Eubuleus who probably led the way back from the underworld. The myth was represented in a cycle with three phases: the "descent", the "search", and the "ascent" (Greek "anodos") with contrasted emotions from sorrow to joy which roused the "mystae" to exultation. The main theme was the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother Demeter. At the beginning of the feast, the priests filled two special vessels and poured them out, one towards the west and the other towards the east. The people looking both to the sky and the earth shouted in a magical rhyme "rain and conceive". In a ritual, a child was initiated from the hearth (the divine fire). The name "pais" (child) appears in the Mycenean inscriptions, it was the ritual of the "divine child" who originally was Ploutos. In the Homeric hymn the ritual is connected with the myth of the agricultural god Triptolemus. The goddess of nature survived in the mysteries where the following words were uttered: "Mighty Potnia bore a great son". Potnia (Linear B "po-ti-ni-ja" : lady or mistress), is a Mycenaean title applied to goddesses, and probably the translation of a similar title of pre-Greek origin. The high point of the celebration was "an ear of grain cut in silence", which represented the force of the new life. The idea of immortality did not exist in the mysteries at the beginning, but the initiated believed that they would have a better fate in the underworld. Death remained a reality, but at the same time a new beginning like the plant which grows from the buried seed. A depiction from the old palace of Phaistos is very close to the image of the "anodos" of Persephone. An armless and legless deity grows out of the ground, and her head turns to a large flower.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: According to Mylonas, the lesser mysteries were held "as a rule once a year in the early spring in the month of flowers, the Anthesterion," while "the Greater Mysteries were held once a year and every fourth year they were celebrated with special splendor in what was known as the "penteteris". Kerenyi concurs with this assessment: "The Lesser Mysteries were held at Agrai in the month of Anthesterion, our February... The initiates were not even admitted to the "epopteia" [Greater Mysteries] in the same year, but only in September of the following year." This cycle continued for about two millennia. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, King Celeus is said to have been one of the first people to learn the secret rites and mysteries of her cult. He was also one of her original priests, along with Diocles, Eumolpos, Polyxeinus, and Triptolemus, Celeus' son, who had supposedly learned agriculture from Demeter.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Under Peisistratos of Athens, the Eleusinian Mysteries became pan-Hellenic, and pilgrims flocked from Greece and beyond to participate. Around 300 BC, the state took over control of the mysteries; they were controlled by two families, the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes. This led to a vast increase in the number of initiates. The only requirements for membership were freedom from "blood guilt", meaning never having committed murder, and not being a "barbarian" (being unable to speak Greek). Men, women, and even slaves were allowed initiation.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The priesthood officiating at the Eleusinian Mysteries and in the sanctuary was divided into several offices with different tasks.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The offices of Hierophant, High Priestess, and Dadouchousa priestess were all inherited within the Phileidae or Eumolpidae families, and the Hierophant and the High Priestess were of equal rank. It was the task of the High Priestess to impersonate the roles of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone in the enactement during the mysteries, and at Eleusis events were dated by the name of the reigning High Priestess.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The outline below is only a capsule summary; much of the concrete information about the Eleusinian Mysteries was never written down. For example, only initiates knew what the "kiste", a sacred chest, and the "calathus", a lidded basket, contained.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Hippolytus of Rome, one of the Church Fathers writing in the early 3rd century AD, discloses in "Refutation of All Heresies" that "the Athenians, while initiating people into the Eleusinian rites, likewise display to those who are being admitted to the highest grade at these mysteries, the mighty, and marvellous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the highest mystic truths: "an ear of grain in silence reaped"."


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: There were two Eleusinian Mysteries, the Greater and the Lesser. According to Thomas Taylor, "the dramatic shows of the Lesser Mysteries occultly signified the miseries of the soul while in subjection to the body, so those of the Greater obscurely intimated, by mystic and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a material nature and constantly elevated to the realities of intellectual [spiritual] vision." According to Plato, "the ultimate design of the Mysteries ... was to lead us back to the principles from which we descended, ... a perfect enjoyment of intellectual [spiritual] good."


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The Lesser Mysteries took place in the month of Anthesteria – the eighth month of the Attic calendar, falling in mid winter around February or March – under the direction of Athens' "archon basileus". In order to qualify for initiation, participants would sacrifice a piglet to Demeter and Persephone, and then ritually purify themselves in the river Illisos. Upon completion of the Lesser Mysteries, participants were deemed "mystai" (initiates) worthy of witnessing the Greater Mysteries.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The Greater Mysteries took place in Boedromion – the third month of the Attic calendar, falling in late summer around September or October – and lasted ten days.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The first act (on the 14th of Boedromion) was the bringing of the sacred objects from Eleusis to the Eleusinion, a temple at the base of the Acropolis of Athens.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: On the 15th of Boedromion, a day called the Gathering ("Agyrmos"), the priests ("hierophantes", those who show the sacred ones) declared the start of the rites ("prorrhesis"), and carried out the sacrifice ("hiereía deúro," hither the victims).


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The seawards initiates ("halade mystai") started out in Athens on 16th Boedromion with the celebrants washing themselves in the sea at Phaleron.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: On the 17th, the participants began the "Epidauria", a festival for Asklepios named after his main sanctuary at Epidauros. This "festival within a festival" celebrated the healer's arrival at Athens with his daughter Hygieia, and consisted of a procession leading to the Eleusinion, during which the mystai apparently stayed at home, a great sacrifice, and an all-night feast ("pannykhís").


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The procession to Eleusis began at Kerameikos (the Athenian cemetery) on the 18th, and from there the people walked to Eleusis, along the Sacred Way (Ἱερὰ Ὁδός, "Hierá Hodós"), swinging branches called "bacchoi". At a certain spot along the way, they shouted obscenities in commemoration of Iambe (or Baubo), an old woman who, by cracking dirty jokes, had made Demeter smile as she mourned the loss of her daughter. The procession also shouted "Íakch', O Íakche!", possibly an epithet for Dionysus, or a separate deity Iacchus, son of Persephone or Demeter.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Upon reaching Eleusis, there was an all-night vigil ("pannychis") according to Mylonas and Kerenyi. perhaps commemorating Demeter's search for Persephone. At some point, initiates had a special drink ("kykeon"), of barley and pennyroyal, which has led to speculation about its chemicals perhaps having psychotropic effects from ergot (a fungus that grows on barley, containing psychedelic alkaloids similar to LSD). Discovery of fragments of ergot in a temple dedicated to the two Eleusinian goddesses excavated at the Mas Castellar site (Girona, Spain) provided legitimacy for this theory. Ergot fragments were found inside a vase and within the dental calculus of a 25-year-old man, providing evidence of ergot being consumed (Juan-Stresserras, 2002). This finding seems to support the hypothesis of ergot as an ingredient of the Eleusinian kykeon.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: On the 19th of Boedromion, initiates entered a great hall called Telesterion; in the center stood the Palace ("Anaktoron"), built of ruins dating back to the Mycenaean Age, which only the hierophants could enter, where sacred objects were stored. Before mystai could enter the Telesterion, they would recite, "I have fasted, I have drunk the "kykeon", I have taken from the "kiste" (box) and after working it have put it back in the "calathus" (open basket).


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Combined, these three elements were known as the "aporrheta" (unrepeatables); the penalty for divulging them was death.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Athenagoras of Athens, Cicero, and other ancient writers cite that it was for this crime (among others) that Diagoras was condemned to death in Athens; the tragic playwright Aeschylus was allegedly tried for revealing secrets of the mysteries in some of his plays, but was acquitted. The ban on divulging the core ritual of the mysteries was thus absolute, which is probably why almost nothing is known about what transpired there.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Some hold that the priests were the ones to reveal the visions of the holy night, consisting of a fire that represented the possibility of life after death, and various sacred objects. Others hold this explanation to be insufficient to account for the power and longevity of the mysteries, and that the experiences must have been internal and mediated by a powerful psychoactive ingredient contained in the "kykeon" drink (see Entheogenic theories below).


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Following this section of the Mysteries was an all-night feast ("Pannychis") accompanied by dancing and merriment. This portion of the festivities was open to the public. The dances took place in the Rharian Field, rumored to be the first spot where grain grew. A bull sacrifice also took place late that night or early the next morning. That day (22nd Boedromion), the initiates honoured the dead by pouring libations from special vessels.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: In 170 AD, the Temple of Demeter was sacked by the Sarmatians but was rebuilt by Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius was then allowed to become the only lay person ever to enter the anaktoron. As Christianity gained in popularity in the 4th and 5th centuries, Eleusis's prestige began to fade. The last pagan emperor of Rome, Julian, reigned from 361 to 363 after about fifty years of Christian rule. Julian attempted to restore the Eleusinian Mysteries and was the last emperor to be initiated into them. The closing of the Eleusinian Mysteries in 392 AD by the emperor Theodosius I is reported by Eunapius, a historian and biographer of the Greek philosophers. Eunapius had been initiated by the last legitimate Hierophant, who had been commissioned by the emperor Julian to restore the Mysteries, which had by then fallen into decay. According to Eunapius, the last Hierophant was a usurper, "the man from Thespiae who held the rank of Father in the mysteries of Mithras". In 396, during his raiding campaign in Attica, the king of the Goths Alaric I – accompanied by Christian monks "in their dark robes" – looted the remains of the shrines.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: According to historian Hans Kloft, despite the destruction of the Eleusinian Mysteries, elements of the cult survived in the Greek countryside. There, Demeter's rites and religious duties were partially transferred by peasants and shepherds onto Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki, who gradually became the local patron of agriculture and "heir" to the pagan mother goddess.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: There are many paintings and pieces of pottery that depict various aspects of the Mysteries. The Eleusinian Relief, from the late 5th century BC, displayed in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens is a representative example. Triptolemus is depicted receiving seeds from Demeter and teaching mankind how to work the fields to grow crops, with Persephone holding her hand over his head to protect him. Vases and other works of relief sculpture, from the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries BC, depict Triptolemus holding an ear of corn, sitting on a winged throne or chariot, surrounded by Persephone and Demeter with pine torches. The monumental Protoattic amphora from the middle of the 7th century BC, with the depiction of Medusa's beheading by Perseus and the blinding of Polyphemos by Odysseus and his companions on its neck, is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Eleusis which is located inside the archaeological site of Eleusis.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: The Ninnion Tablet, found in the same museum, depicts Demeter, followed by Persephone and Iacchus, and then the procession of initiates. Then, Demeter is sitting on the kiste inside the Telesterion, with Persephone holding a torch and introducing the initiates. The initiates each hold a bacchoi. The second row of initiates were led by Iakchos, a priest who held torches for the ceremonies. He is standing near the omphalos while an unknown female (probably a priestess of Demeter) sat nearby on the kiste, holding a scepter and a vessel filled with kykeon. Pannychis is also represented.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: "The Myth of Er", part of Plato's "Republic", is thought to be a representation of the teaching of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Er, after being killed in battle and brought to the underworld, is reincarnated without drinking from the River Lethe. He retains his memories and tells the living about his experience in the underworld. He no longer has a fear of death.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: In Shakespeare's "The Tempest", the masque that Prospero conjures to celebrate the troth-pledging of Miranda and Ferdinand echoes the Eleusinian Mysteries, although it uses the Roman names for the deities involved – Ceres, Iris, Dis and others – instead of the Greek. It is interesting that a play which is so steeped in esoteric imagery from alchemy and hermeticism should draw on the Mysteries for its central masque sequence.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) borrowed terms and interpretations from the late 19th and early-20th century classical scholarship in German and French as a source of metaphors for his reframing of psychoanalytic treatment into a spiritualistic ritual of initiation and rebirth. The Eleusinian mysteries, particularly the qualities of the Kore, figured prominently in his writings.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Dimitris Lyacos in the second book of the "Poena Damni" trilogy "With the People from the Bridge", a contemporary, avant-garde play focusing on the return of the dead and the myth of the revenant combines elements from the Eleusinian mysteries as well as early Christian tradition in order to convey a view of collective salvation. The text uses the pomegranate symbol in order to hint at the residence of the dead in the underworld and their periodical return to the world of the living.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Octavio Vazquez's symphonic poem "Eleusis" draws on the Eleusinian Mysteries and on other Western esoteric traditions. Commissioned by the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, it was premiered in 2015 by the RTVE Orchestra and conductor Adrian Leaper at the Teatro Monumental in Madrid.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Numerous scholars have proposed that the power of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from the kykeon's functioning as an entheogen, or psychedelic agent. The use of potions or philtres for magical or religious purposes was relatively common in Greece and the ancient world. The initiates, sensitized by their fast and prepared by preceding ceremonies (see set and setting), may have been propelled by the effects of a powerful psychoactive potion into revelatory mind states with profound spiritual and intellectual ramifications. In opposition to this idea, other pointedly skeptical scholars note the lack of any solid evidence and stress the collective rather than individual character of initiation into the Mysteries. Indirect evidence in support of the entheogenic theory is that in 415 BC Athenian aristocrat Alcibiades was condemned partly because he took part in an "Eleusinian mystery" in a private house.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Many psychoactive agents have been proposed as the significant element of kykeon, though without consensus or conclusive evidence. These include the ergot, a fungal parasite of the barley or rye grain, which contains the alkaloids ergotamine, a precursor to LSD, and ergonovine. However, modern attempts to prepare a kykeon using ergot-parasitized barley have yielded inconclusive results, though Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin describe both ergonovine and LSA to be known to produce LSD-like effects.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Discovery of fragments of ergot (fungi containing LSD-like psychedelic alkaloids) in a temple dedicated to the two Eleusinian Goddesses excavated at the Mas Castellar site (Girona, Spain) provided legitimacy for this theory. Ergot fragments were found inside a vase and within the dental calculus of a 25-year-old man, providing evidence of ergot being consumed. This finding seems to support the hypothesis of ergot as an ingredient of the Eleusinian kykeon.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Psychoactive mushrooms are another candidate. Scholars such as Robert Graves and Terence McKenna, speculated that the mysteries were focused around a variety of "Psilocybe". Other entheogenic fungi, such as "Amanita muscaria", have also been suggested. A recent hypothesis suggests that the ancient Egyptians cultivated "Psilocybe cubensis" on barley and associated it with the deity Osiris.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Another candidate for the psychoactive drug is an opioid derived from the poppy. The cult of the goddess Demeter may have brought the poppy from Crete to Eleusis; it is certain that opium was produced in Crete.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Another theory is that the psychoactive agent in kykeon is DMT, which occurs in many wild plants of the Mediterranean, including "Phalaris" and/or "Acacia". To be active orally (like in ayahuasca) it must be combined with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor such as Syrian rue ("Peganum harmala"), which grows throughout the Mediterranean.


title: Eleusinian Mysteries

text: Alternatively, J. Nigro Sansonese (1994), using the mythography supplied by Mylonas, hypothesizes that the Mysteries of Eleusis were a series of practical initiations into trance involving proprioception of the human nervous system induced by breath control (similar to samyama in yoga). Sansonese speculates that the "kisté", a box holding sacred objects opened by the hierophant, is actually an esoteric reference to the initiate's skull, within which is seen a sacred light and are heard sacred sounds, but only "after" instruction in trance practice. Similarly, the seed-filled chambers of a pomegranate, a fruit associated with the founding of the cult, esoterically describe proprioception of the initiate's heart during trance.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Joran Andreas Petrus van der Sloot (; born 6 August 1987) is a Dutch convicted murderer who killed Stephany Flores Ramírez in Lima, Peru, in 2010. He is also the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: After Flores' murder on 30 May 2010 — five years to the day after Holloway's disappearance — Van der Sloot fled to Chile, where he was arrested and extradited back to Peru for questioning regarding the murder. On 7 June 2010, he confessed to bludgeoning Flores. He later tried to formally retract his confession, claiming that he had been intimidated by the Peruvian police and framed by the FBI. A Peruvian judge ruled on 25 June 2010 that the confession was valid, and on 13 January 2012, Van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment for Flores' murder.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: While living in Aruba five years earlier, Van der Sloot was (and still is) the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old American who disappeared on the island on 30 May 2005. Van der Sloot was indicted by a federal grand jury in the U.S. for wire fraud and extortion related to Holloway's whereabouts. Holloway's disappearance remains unsolved.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: The Holloway and Flores cases both attracted widespread media attention; "Time" magazine declared Van der Sloot's arrest the top crime story of 2010. Van der Sloot was the subject of international news coverage from prison, leading to controversies that resulted in the investigation and suspension of several Peruvian officials.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Joran van der Sloot was born in Arnhem in the Netherlands as one of three sons to Paulus van der Sloot (1952–2010), a lawyer, and Anita van der Sloot-Hugen, an art teacher. In 1990, his family moved from Arnhem to Aruba, where he was an honor student at the International School of Aruba. Van der Sloot was a star soccer and tennis athlete at the school, competing in doubles tennis with his father at the Moët et Chandon Anniversary Cup in 2005 and hoped to play for Saint Leo University. Van der Sloot's mother said he had a problem with lying and had a tendency to sneak out of the house at night to go to casinos.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 29 May 2005, Van der Sloot meets Natalee Holloway at Carlos' 'n Charlie's bar in downtown Oranjestad, Aruba, where they drink and dance together. When the bar closes at 1:00am, Holloway is last seen leaving in a car with Van der Sloot and brothers, 21-year-old Deepak Kalpoe and 18-year-old Satish Kalpoe.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 9 June 2005, Van der Sloot and both Kalpoe brothers are arrested in regards to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. The Kalpoe brothers were released from custody on 4 July, while Van der Sloot remained in custody. The brothers were re-arrested on 26 August on suspicion of rape and murder. All three suspects were released on 3 September due to lack of evidence.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: After his release, Van der Sloot was required to stay within Dutch territory pending the results of the investigation. On 5 September 2005, he returned to the Netherlands to study international business management at the HAN University of Applied Sciences. On 14 September, a higher court removed the travel restrictions. Gerold G. Dompig, former deputy commissioner of the Aruba Police Force, stated that the initial arrests were made prematurely under pressure from Holloway's family. Dompig charged that the family sidetracked the investigation by making it difficult for the police to collect evidence to solve the case.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 26 September 2005, Van der Sloot told the American television show "A Current Affair" that neither he nor the Kalpoe brothers had sex with Holloway, but he admitted that they initially agreed to lie to the authorities. He said that they first told police that Holloway was dropped off alone at her hotel, while he later said that he was dropped off with her at the beach. Van der Sloot stated that he left Holloway alone at the beach at her request and that he regretted it.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 6 February 2006, on ABC's "Good Morning America", Van der Sloot's parents stated that their son was unfairly singled out and that the investigation left them devastated. Later that month, while Van der Sloot and his father were in New York City for an interview with ABC's "Primetime", they were served with a lawsuit filed by Natalee's parents, Beth and Dave Holloway, alleging personal injury; the case was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds that August.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: In April 2007 Van der Sloot and a reporter published a book describing the case. Van der Sloot began writing the book while attending business classes in Arnhem. He stated in the introduction, "I see this book as my opportunity to be open and honest about everything that happened, for anyone who wants to read it."


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 27 April 2007, a new search involving some 20 investigators was launched at Van der Sloot's parents' home in Aruba. Dutch authorities searched the yard and surrounding area, using shovels and thin metal rods to penetrate the dirt. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office, Vivian van der Biezen, stated: "The investigation has never stopped and the Dutch authorities are completely reviewing the case for new indications." A statement released directly from the prosecutor's office stated: "The team has indications that justify a more thorough search." Investigators did not comment on what prompted the new search, except that it was not related to Van der Sloot's book.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 21 November 2007, Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers were re-arrested in Arnhem and Aruba for "suspicion of involvement in voluntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm that resulted in the death of Natalee Holloway" because of what the Aruba prosecutor's office stated was "new incriminating evidence" related to Holloway's disappearance. Van der Sloot was returned to Aruba on 23 November, and a court hearing on 26 November ruled to continue his detention for eight days. The Kalpoe brothers were released on 1 December. Van der Sloot was ordered released on 7 December, and he was released without charge the same day.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 11 January 2008, after being challenged on the Dutch late-night talk show "Pauw & Witteman" by crime reporter Peter de Vries, Van der Sloot threw a glass of red wine into de Vries' face. On 3 February, an undercover video made by de Vries aired on Dutch television, purporting to show Van der Sloot smoking marijuana and admitting to being present during Holloway's death. The show was watched by 7 million viewers in the Netherlands and was the most popular non-sports program in Dutch television history.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Patrick van der Eem, working undercover for De Vries, had befriended Van der Sloot, who was unaware that he was being taped when he said that Holloway had suffered some kind of seizure while having sex on the beach. After failing to revive her, Van der Sloot said that he summoned a friend named Daury. The two men neither phoned for medical help nor checked Holloway to determine if she might still be alive. Then, according to Van der Sloot, Daury volunteered to load her on a boat, and he dumped Holloway's body into the sea. The prosecutor in Aruba determined the video was admissible, but the evidence was deemed "insufficient" to warrant Van der Sloot's, or anyone's, arrest. Although the taped confession appeared damning, Van der Sloot argued that he was lying to impress Van der Eem, who he believed was a drug dealer.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 22 September 2008, in New York City, de Vries accepted an International Emmy Award in Current Affairs for his coverage while accompanied by Beth Holloway. Under pressure of the attention from the program, Van der Sloot voluntarily checked into a psychiatric clinic before departing for Thailand. He moved to Muang Ake, a suburb of Bangkok, to study business at Rangsit University, but dropped out and bought Sawadee Cup, a restaurant next to the campus that served sandwiches and pizza.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: In November 2008, De Vries aired undercover footage of Van der Sloot making preparations for the apparent sex trafficking of Thai women in Bangkok. De Vries claimed that Van der Sloot was making $13,000 for every woman sold into prostitution in the Netherlands. Van der Sloot used the alias "Murphy Jenkins" to avoid Thai authorities. Peruvian Minister of Justice Aurelio Pastor later said that Thailand was pursuing criminal charges against Van der Sloot. According to "The National Enquirer", he is being investigated for his involvement in the disappearance of young women he may have recruited for a Thai sex slave gang while posing as a production consultant for a modeling agency that putatively would send them to Europe.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Van der Sloot was portrayed by actor Jacques Strydom in the Lifetime television film "Natalee Holloway" (2009), which was based on Beth Holloway's book. The movie brought in the highest television ratings in Lifetime's eleven-year history at the time. Van der Sloot himself watched the film one evening in 2010, according to his friend John Ludwick, and said that some parts were true while others were not. The film was followed by a sequel, "Justice for Natalee Holloway" (2011), in which Van der Sloot was played by actor Stephen Amell.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: In August 2009, Van der Sloot was spotted in Macau at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour. He won over US$12,000 that year in an online poker tournament. Van der Sloot described himself on his YouTube page as "a professional poker player" and cited Greenstein's 2005 poker strategy guide as his favorite book. In early 2010, he sold his restaurant business and returned to Aruba after the death of his father Paulus.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Paulus van der Sloot was arrested on 22 June 2005, for questioning in Holloway's disappearance. He was ordered released on 26 June after three days of questioning. According to Aruba's chief prosecutor, one of the Kalpoe brothers told investigators that Paulus, who at the time was training to be a judge, advised his son that without a body, the police would have no case. Beth Holloway pursued Van der Sloot's parents in the media circus on Aruba which ensued after Natalee's disappearance. She stated that Paulus acknowledged that they could not control their son and had sent him to a psychiatrist.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 10 November 2005, Paulus won an unjust detention action against the Aruban government, clearing him as a suspect and allowing him to retain his government contract. Paulus van der Sloot then brought a second action, seeking monetary damages for himself and his family because of his false arrest. The action was initially successful, but the award of 40,000 Aruban florins (US$22,300) was reversed on appeal. The family's finances were depleted by the legal expenses. In January 2007, Paulus found work as a managing partner at the law firm that represented him.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 24 November 2008, Fox News' "On the Record" aired an interview with Joran van der Sloot in which he said that he sold Holloway into sexual slavery, receiving money both when Holloway was taken and later on to keep quiet. He also alleged that he paid the Kalpoe brothers for their assistance, and that his father Paulus paid off two police officers who had learned that Holloway was taken to Venezuela. Van der Sloot later retracted the statements made in the interview. The show also aired part of an audio recording provided by Van der Sloot, which he alleged is a phone conversation between him and Paulus, in which Paulus displays knowledge of his son's purported involvement in human trafficking. According to Mos, the voice heard on the recording was not that of Paulus. The Dutch newspaper "De Telegraaf" reported that the "father's" voice is almost certainly that of Joran himself, trying to speak in a lower tone.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 8 January 2010, Paulus cancelled his partnership at the law firm where he had been working. On 10 February 2010, he died of a heart attack at age 57 while playing tennis in Aruba. Joran van der Sloot returned to Aruba soon afterward and turned to gambling. His mother, Anita, said that Van der Sloot had severe mental problems, and blamed himself for his father's death. He left before she could have him involuntarily committed, leaving a note: "I'm gone, do not worry."


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Around 29 March 2010, Van der Sloot allegedly contacted John Q. Kelly, Beth Holloway's legal representative, with an offer to reveal the location of Natalee's body and the circumstances surrounding her death for an advance of $25,000 against a total of $250,000. Kelly said that he secretly went to Aruba in April to meet with Van der Sloot, who was desperate for money, and gave him $100. Kelly notified the FBI, which set up a sting operation with the Aruban authorities.