title: Holden Caulfield

text: Another short story of note with relationship to Caulfield is "The Boy in the People Shooting Hat", which was submitted to "The New Yorker" sometime between 1948 and 1949 but was never published. It focuses on a fight between two characters named Bobby and Stradlater over Bobby's feelings about Jane Gallagher. This story appears to form the basis for several key scenes in the first several chapters of "The Catcher in the Rye".


title: Holden Caulfield

text: In "" a Curtis Caulfield is mentioned in passing as "an exceptionally intelligent and likable boy" who appeared on the same radio show as Seymour and the other Glass children. He is reportedly "killed during one of the landings in the Pacific". It is possible that Vincent is renamed Curtis, as “Seymour” was published in 1959, and both Curtis and Vincent are killed in the Pacific during World War II. None of Salinger’s works to date have clarified exactly how many Caulfied children there were or who (aside from the Kenneth/Allie


title: Holden Caulfield

text: In "The Stranger", published in "Collier's" December 1, 1945, Babe Gladwaller and his sister Mattie (a proto-type for Phoebe) visit Vincent Caulfield's former girlfriend, now married, to tell her about his death and deliver a poem he wrote about her.


title: Holden Caulfield

text: Holden Caulfield is one of the most enduring characters in 20th-century American fiction. It has been suggested that Salinger himself related so closely to Holden that he was protective of the character. This was the reason he was unwilling to allow filming of the book or use of the character by other writers.


title: Holden Caulfield

text: Green Day wrote a song titled "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?" for their second studio album, "Kerplunk" (1991) after lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong read "The Catcher in the Rye". Initially, he gave up on reading it after dropping out from Pinole Valley High School when he was 18 years old.


title: Josh Kelley

text: Joshua Bishop Kelley Sr. (born January 30, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter. Kelley has recorded for Hollywood Records, Threshold Records and DNK Records as a pop rock artist. His songs "Amazing" and "Only You" reached the top ten on the "Billboard" Adult Top 40 chart.


title: Josh Kelley

text: In 2010, Kelley signed to MCA Nashville and began a country music career. His debut country single, "Georgia Clay", reached the top 20 on the Hot Country Songs charts.


title: Josh Kelley

text: Kelley was born in Augusta, Georgia to Dr. John W. Kelley, a cardiologist, and Gayle Kelley. Kelley began his musical career at the age of 11. His younger brother, Charles Kelley, is a musician and singer in the country trio Lady A. When he was a teenager, Kelley and his brother Charles formed a band called Inside Blue. By the time he was 14, the band released a CD with five songs on it, which led to a meeting with James Brown. Kelley played the guitar in the high school jazz band alongside Charles (drums) and Dave Haywood (guitar) from Lady A.


title: Josh Kelley

text: Kelley attended the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, and is a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity.


title: Josh Kelley

text: Kelley released his independent album, "Changing Faces", in 2001 and signed with Hollywood Records in 2002. Working with John Alagia as his record producer, Kelley released the album, "For the Ride Home", on June 3, 2003.


title: Josh Kelley

text: Even though Kelley has stated that the lyrics from his song "Angeles" were fabricated, he moved to Los Angeles from Georgia and recorded the majority of his second album, "Almost Honest", in the studio of his home. "Almost Honest" was released on August 23, 2005, and featured the hit single, "Only You."


title: Josh Kelley

text: After asking to be released from his contract with Hollywood Records, Kelley released his third album, "Just Say The Word" under his own label, Threshold. The digital version of the album was released through iTunes on June 6, 2006, while the physical album was released in stores in the United States on July 25, 2006. "The Pop Game" was the first single from his self-produced album and was accompanied by a cartoon video.


title: Josh Kelley

text: Kelley's next album, "Special Company", was released in the United States on January 14, 2008. His label, Threshold, was renamed DNK Records so as to avoid confusion with another record label by the same name. Kelley also released a digital album that summer titled "Backwoods" on July 7. On September 23 of that year, Kelley released the album "To Remember" exclusively through Target stores. The title track was also included on the AT&T Team USA Soundtrack.


title: Josh Kelley

text: Kelley is a supporter of file sharing applications for independent artists who have a difficult time receiving an audience. In fact, Kelley was "found" after targeting Eric Clinger at Hollywood Records with private spam, "If you like James Taylor, Try Josh Kelley," messages using the Napster program.


title: Josh Kelley

text: In November 2009, Kelley signed with MCA Nashville and began recording his first country album in 2010. The album's first single, "Georgia Clay", was released to country radio in August 2010. The single became a Top 20 hit on the Hot Country Songs chart. The album, also entitled "Georgia Clay", was released in March 2011.


title: Josh Kelley

text: Kelley met actress Katherine Heigl in spring 2005 when she appeared in his music video "Only You". One year later, in June 2006, they became engaged. He wrote the song "Hey Katie" for Heigl. The Heigl-Kelley wedding took place on December 23, 2007 at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah. Heigl's "Grey's Anatomy" co-stars T.R. Knight, Sandra Oh, Ellen Pompeo and Justin Chambers attended the ceremony, as well as "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff series "Private Practice" star Kate Walsh. The ceremony was officiated by Unitarian minister Tom Goldsmith. Heigl walked down the aisle to an acoustic song written by Kelley and performed by a cello and guitar players. The couple wrote their own vows.


title: Josh Kelley

text: During a taping of "Live With Regis and Kelly", Heigl stated that she and Kelley chose not to live together before they were married, saying, "I think I just wanted to save something for the actual marriage... I wanted there to be something to make the actual marriage different than the dating or the courtship."


title: Josh Kelley

text: In 2009, the couple adopted a South Korean baby girl, naming her Nancy Leigh, after Heigl's mother and her adopted, Korean-born older sister, respectively. Nancy Leigh's nickname is Naleigh. Nancy Leigh was born with a congenital heart defect that was repaired with open heart surgery before she left South Korea. Kelley and Heigl adopted a second daughter, Adalaide Marie Hope, in April 2012.


title: Josh Kelley

text: In addition to their two daughters, Josh Kelley and Katherine Heigl have a son, Joshua Bishop Kelley Jr., born December 20, 2016.


title: Statue of Equality (Ramanuja)

text: The Statue of Equality, also referred to as the Ramanuja statue, is a statue of the 11th-century vaishnavaite Ramanuja, located on the premises of the Chinna Jeeyar Trust at Muchintal, Ranga Reddy district in the outskirts of Hyderabad. It is the second tallest sitting statue in the world. The project of building the statue was conceptualised by the trust to commemorate 1,000 years since Ramanuja's birth costing an estimated , the project was paid for through the donations of devotees in a major part.


title: Statue of Equality (Ramanuja)

text: In 2014, ascetic Chinna Jeeyar came up with the idea to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of Ramanuja's teachings by building a statue. Later DNV Prasad Sthapathi appointed as Chief Architect for the project and completed all initial drawings under the Chinna Jeeyer Guidance. The ground floor will be 6,000 square metres and will depict Ramanuja's life and philosophy. The temple, meant for daily worship, will be located on the 27,870 square metre second floor. The 1,365 square metre third floor will include a Vedic digital library and research centre. An Omnimax theatre in the shape of a planetarium featuring life stories of Ramanuja was planned. 14 models were designed according to Agama Shashtra and Shilpa Shastras. 3 models were shortlisted, and improvements were made using 3D scanning technology.


title: Statue of Equality (Ramanuja)

text: The statue was built at an estimated cost of , which is majorly collected from donations by the devotees.


title: Statue of Equality (Ramanuja)

text: The foundation stone for the statue was laid by Chinna Jeeyar. The statue was expected to be ready by November 2017 and later revised to February 2019. Aerosun Corporation, a Nanjing-based company, was contracted in August 2015 for the construction of the statue. The final design model was 3D scanned and sent to Aerosun Corporation to be built. 700 tonnes of "panchaloha", a five-metal alloy of gold, silver, copper, brass and zinc was used to build the statue. It was built in China and later shipped in 1600 individual pieces to India via Chennai Port in 54 shipments. Around 60 Chinese specialists including workers, engineers and welders assembled the segments on site. The assembly progressed during 2017 and 2018 and took 15 months to complete. and was assembled on site Muchintal, Hyderabad. Aerosun Corporation provided a guarantee of 20 years for the golden hue of the statue.


title: Statue of Equality (Ramanuja)

text: The base building under the statue named Bhadravedi is tall and three-stories high. Atop the building lies a lotus of in diameter, and is carried by 36 elephants, over which the statue sits. The 27-feet dimension of the lotus represent 24 "tattvas", and the remaining 3 representing soul, god and the guru. The statue has a concrete core which is surrounded by a "panchaloha" sheet with a thickness varying between 10mm and 20mm. The base building has a meditation hall where a statue of Ramunuja made of 120 kg of gold, representing the years he lived, is installed. 108 "divyadesams" (model temples), built in stone, surround the statue.


title: Statue of Equality (Ramanuja)

text: The statue was inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 5 February 2022. The smaller golden statue inside the base building was inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind on 13 February 2022.


title: Statue of Equality (Ramanuja)

text: The Statue of Equality is the second tallest sitting statue in the world. The base building hosts a vedic digital library, research centre, ancient Indian texts, theatre and a gallery. Ramanuja's works are presented in the gallery.


title: St James's Palace

text: St James's Palace is the most senior royal palace in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. The palace gives its name to the Court of St James's, which is the monarch's royal court, and is located in the City of Westminster in London. Although no longer the principal residence of the monarch, it is the ceremonial meeting place of the Accession Council, the office of the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, as well as the London residence of several members of the royal family.


title: St James's Palace

text: Built by order of Henry VIII in the 1530s on the site of a leper hospital dedicated to Saint James the Less, the palace was secondary in importance to the Palace of Whitehall for most Tudor and Stuart monarchs. Initially surrounded by gardens, it was generally used as a retreat from the formal court and occasionally a royal guest house. After the destruction by fire of Whitehall, the palace increased in importance during the reigns of the early Hanoverian monarchs, but was displaced by Buckingham Palace in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. After decades of being used increasingly for only formal occasions, the move was formalised by Queen Victoria in 1837.


title: St James's Palace

text: Today the palace houses a number of official offices, societies and collections, and all ambassadors and high commissioners to the United Kingdom are still accredited to the Court of St James's. The palace's Chapel Royal is still used for functions of the British royal family.


title: St James's Palace

text: Mainly built between 1531 and 1536 in red-brick, the palace's architecture is primarily Tudor in style. A fire in 1809 destroyed parts of the structure, including the monarch's private apartments, which were never replaced. Some 17th-century interiors survive, but most were remodelled in the 19th century.


title: St James's Palace

text: The palace was commissioned by Henry VIII on the site of a former leper hospital dedicated to Saint James the Less. The new palace, secondary in the king's interest to Henry's Whitehall Palace, was constructed between 1531 and 1536 as a smaller residence to escape formal court life. Much smaller than the nearby Whitehall, St James's was arranged around a number of courtyards, including the Colour Court, the Ambassador's Court and the Friary Court. The most recognisable feature is the north gatehouse; constructed with four storeys, the gatehouse has two crenellated flanking octagonal towers at its corners, and a central clock dominating the uppermost floor and gable; the clock is a later addition and dates from 1731. It is decorated with the initials "H.A." for Henry and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Henry had the palace constructed in red brick, with detail picked out in darker brick.


title: St James's Palace

text: The palace was remodelled in 1544, with ceilings painted by Hans Holbein and was described as a "pleasant royal house". Two of Henry VIII's children died at Saint James's, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, and Mary I. Elizabeth I often resided at the palace, and is said to have spent the night there while waiting for the Spanish Armada to sail up the Channel.


title: St James's Palace

text: Prince Henry, the son of King James and Anne of Denmark, lived at St James's Palace until his death in 1612. The gardens were improved for him by Alphonsus Fowle. A riding school, one of the first in England, was built for Henry at St James's Palace between 1607 and 1609, and then a library with sculptural decoration by Maximilian Colt. Henry also installed a menagerie with pet birds including a pair of ostriches.


title: St James's Palace

text: Charles II was born at the palace on 29 May 1630; his parents were Charles I, who ruled the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Henrietta Maria, the sister of the French king Louis XIII. James II, the second surviving son of King Charles I and Henrietta Maria, was born at the palace on 14 October 1633.


title: St James's Palace

text: In 1638, Charles I gave the palace to Marie de Medici, the mother of Henrietta Maria. Marie remained in the palace for three years, but the residence of a Catholic former queen of France proved unpopular with parliament and she was soon asked to leave for Cologne. Charles spent his final night at St James's before his execution. Oliver Cromwell then took it over, and turned it into barracks during the English Commonwealth period.


title: St James's Palace

text: The palace was restored by Charles II following the demise of the Commonwealth, laying out St James's Park at the same time. Mary II and Anne, Queen of Great Britain, were both born at the palace. It became the principal residence of the monarch in London in 1698, during the reign of William III, after Whitehall Palace was destroyed by fire, and became the administrative centre of the monarchy, a role it retains.


title: St James's Palace

text: The first two monarchs of the House of Hanover used St James's Palace as their principal London residence. George I and George II both housed their mistresses, the Duchess of Kendal and the Countess of Suffolk respectively, at the palace. In 1757, George II donated the Palace library to the British Museum; this gift was the first part of what later became the Royal Collection.


title: St James's Palace

text: George III found St James's unsuitable. The Tudor palace was regarded as uncomfortable and also as not affording its residents enough privacy, or the space to withdraw from the court into family life. In 1762, shortly after his wedding, George purchased Buckingham Housethe predecessor to Buckingham Palacefor his queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. In 1809, a fire destroyed part of St James's Palace, including the monarch's private apartments at the south-east corner. These apartments were not replaced, leaving the Queen's Chapel isolated from the rest of the palace by an open area, where Marlborough Road now runs between the two buildings. The royal family began spending the majority of their time at Buckingham House, with St James's used for only formal occasions; thrice-weekly levées and public audiences were still held there. In the late 18th century, George III refurbished the state apartments but neglected the living quarters. Queen Victoria formalised the move in 1837, ending the status of St James's as the primary residence of the monarch; it became used during her reign as a venue for courts, levees and other ceremonies. It was nevertheless where Victoria married her husband, Prince Albert, in 1840, and where, eighteen years later, their eldest child, Princess Victoria married her husband, Prince Frederick of Prussia.


title: St James's Palace

text: In 1912–1913 it was the venue for the international conference that arranged the treaty between the Balkan states and Turkey following the two Balkan Wars. Edward VIII when Prince of Wales used the palace as his 'town' residence until he moved into Marlborough House, and George VI as Duke of York resided there prior to his marriage in 1923. The Second Round Table Conference (September–December 1931), pertaining to Indian independence, was held at the palace. On 12 June 1941, Representatives of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and of the exiled governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Yugoslavia, as well as General de Gaulle of France, met and signed the Declaration of St James's Palace, which was the first of six treaties signed that established the United Nations and composed the Charter of the United Nations.


title: St James's Palace

text: The Proclamation Gallery is a part of St James's Palace, and it is used after the death of a reigning monarch. The Accession Council meets to declare the new monarch. Once the monarch has made a sacred oath to the council, the Garter King of Arms steps onto the Proclamation Gallery, which overlooks Friary Court to proclaim the new monarch. Such an event last occurred on 10 September 2022 at the proclamation of King Charles III. To allow the Garter King of Arms and the trumpeters access to the balcony, workers removed the centre window the prior day and installed a temporary door.


title: St James's Palace

text: St James's Palace is still a working palace, and the Royal Court is still formally based there, despite the monarch residing elsewhere. It is also the London residence of Princess Anne, Princess Beatrice, and Princess Alexandra. The palace is used to host official receptions, such as those of visiting heads of state, and charities of which members of the royal family are patrons. It forms part of a sprawling complex of buildings housing Court offices and officials' apartments. The immediate palace complex includes York House, the former home of Charles III and his sons, Princes William and Harry. Lancaster House, located next door, is used by HM Government for official receptions, and the nearby Clarence House, the former home of the Queen Mother, was the residence of Charles, Prince of Wales; he continues to live there as King Charles III. The palace also served as the official residence of Princess Eugenie until April 2018.


title: St James's Palace

text: The nearby Queen's Chapel, built by Inigo Jones, adjoins St James's Palace. While the Queen's Chapel is open to the public at selected times, the Chapel Royal in the palace is not accessible to the public. They both remain active places of worship.


title: St James's Palace

text: The offices of the Royal Collection Department, the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, the Chapel Royal, the Gentlemen at Arms, the Yeomen of the Guard and the King's Watermen are all housed at St James's Palace. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the Royal Philatelic Collection has been housed at St James's Palace, after spending the entire 20th century at Buckingham Palace.


title: St James's Palace

text: On 1 June 2007 the palace, Clarence House and other buildings within its curtilage (other than public pavement on Marlborough Road) were designated as a protected site for the purposes of Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, making it a specific criminal offence for a person to trespass into the site.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Begin Again is a 2013 American musical comedy-drama film written and directed by John Carney and starring Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo. Knightley plays a singer-songwriter who is discovered by a struggling record label executive (Ruffalo) and collaborates with him to produce an album recorded in public locations all over New York City.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: After the success of his 2007 musical film "Once," Carney wrote the script for "Begin Again" in 2010 and employed Gregg Alexander to compose most of the film's music. With a US$8 million budget, production began in July 2012 with filming taking place in various locations around New York City. The film premiered in September 2013 at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released theatrically on June 27, 2014, in conjunction with the release of the film's soundtrack. It has grossed over $63 million worldwide and received mostly positive reviews from critics. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Lost Stars".


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Formerly successful record label executive Dan Mulligan lives in New York City, estranged from his wife Miriam and struggling to keep up with the changing music industry. After being fired, he goes on a drinking binge, leading him to a bar on the Lower East Side where he encounters Gretta James.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Gretta is a young, fiercely independent songwriter from England, just broken up with her longtime boyfriend and songwriting partner Dave Kohl. A newly successful musician, he's had an affair with a production assistant. Captivated by Gretta's music, Dan offers to sign her to his former record label, and although initially refusing, she reconsiders and agrees.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Dan and Gretta meet with Saul, Dan's business partner and co-founder of the record label, but he does not see the same potential in her, turning her away. Undeterred, Dan proposes they produce their own album together, to be recorded live during the summer at various public locations around the city. Recruiting a team of talented musicians, including Steve (a busker and an old best friend of Gretta's), Dan sets out to make an album worthy of being published. During this time, Dan and Gretta bond both personally and professionally, and she takes his teenage daughter Violet, a fledgling guitarist, under her wing and encourages her to play on the album.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: When Gretta sees Dave accepting an award on television, she criticizes him for selling out to the music industry and, with the help of Steve, she expresses her grievances with him in a song which she records on his voice mail. A remorseful Dave, back in New York promoting his new album, returns her call and asks to see her. After some consideration, she decides to meet with him and they critique each other's albums.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Gretta feels betrayed by Dave's heavily commercialized rendition of "Lost Stars" (a love ballad she had written and composed for him as a Christmas present), and believes the true meaning of the song has been lost. He tells her the audiences love the way he plays it, and that their energy fills the room. He believes that music is about sharing it with people, but Gretta insists it is not what she intended for that song. Nevertheless, Dave invites her to come and hear him play the song at the Gramercy Theatre that weekend so that she can see how his fans react to it.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: When the album is finished, Dan and Gretta meet again with Saul, who is very impressed with their collaboration. She demands Saul give Dan his job back and her a bigger share in the deal. They leave without reaching an agreement, but Dan feels confident that Saul will eventually sign on Gretta. Later, after receiving a text message from Dave reminding her of his concert and much consideration, Gretta arrives at the venue just in time to watch Dave play her original arrangement of the song.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Watching him play, Greta is initially happy to hear their song as she envisioned, but when the audience starts to cheer as it climaxes, she realizes that too much has changed. She leaves the concert and cycles through the city with a feeling of newfound hope and closure as a dejected Dave continues to perform.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Afterwards, Gretta visits Dan at his apartment as he prepares to move back home, having made amends with his wife. She tells him that she does not want him to release her album, instead preferring to distribute it online for $1. Although Dan returns to work with Saul, he agrees to let Gretta release the album online and helps her to promote the release. The next day, Saul jokingly fires Dan for promoting Gretta's album and informs him that it sold 10,000 copies on its first day of release.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Director John Carney conceived the premise for "Begin Again" several years before he began to write the screenplay in 2010. The story was partly inspired by his own experiences as a musician in a band, and from his impression of the artists and repertoire (A&R) executives of record labels during the 1990s, which formed the basis of Dan's character. Carney wrote the script, which was initially titled "Can a Song Save Your Life?", before he, Glen Hansard, and Gregg Alexander began writing the songs; he wanted "to work the music around the story, instead of the other way around." The script's style of featuring songs as a natural element of the story was inspired by the 1954 Judy Garland musical film "A Star Is Born," and is also employed in Carney's earlier film "Once" (2007). Carney first pitched the film in 2010 to filmmaker Judd Apatow, who produced the film alongside Tobin Armbrust and Anthony Bregman whose production company Exclusive Media financed the film's US$8 million budget.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Before casting Keira Knightley as Gretta, Carney considered casting a pop singer such as Adele in the main role, as well as a number of other actresses including Scarlett Johansson, who was at one point attached to the project. Knightley, who had never sung professionally before, prepared for the role by training with a vocal coach and learning how to play a guitar. Mark Ruffalo was Carney's first choice for the role of Dan, and agreed to star in the film after Carney sent him the first draft of the screenplay. Singer Adam Levine was also the only person Carney considered casting as Dave, and won the role after talking with Carney over Skype and recording some dialogue as an audition; he declined to be paid for appearing in the film. Although he had had minor acting parts on television before, "Begin Again" marked his first role in a film. Carney approached James Corden to appear in the film after admiring Corden's performance in the lead role in a Broadway production of "One Man, Two Guvnors".


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Principal photography of the film began in New York City on July 2, 2012, and lasted for 23 days. Carney chose to film in Manhattan's lesser known neighborhoods that would be more recognizable to locals than tourists. Specific locations included Greenwich Village, the East Village, Times Square, and Washington Square Park. Rather than performing live during filming, the actors sang to pre-recorded tracks. In order to save money on hiring a full crew and extras, some scenes—including one in Times Square—were shot late at night with a handheld camera. The rooftop location near the Empire State Building is located at 28 W 36th St.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: During a series of interviews to promote his film "Sing Street" in 2016, Carney repeatedly criticized Knightley's performance and comportment while making "Begin Again". When asked about the critical reaction to "Sing Street" by "The Independent", Carney responded unprompted that "it's a small personal movie with no Keira Knightleys in it. It's really rewarding." In the same interview, Carney also referred to her repeatedly as a model, despite the fact that Knightley had been working professionally as an actress since childhood, saying "I'll never make a film with supermodels again." He also criticized her in an interview with Heyuguys.com, saying, "I just think with Keira it was like asking her to do something that she could not do." Though he did not specifically name Knightley, he did, in an interview with "Den of Geek", say that his desire to make "Sing Street" came from his "experience of working, let's face it, with a model on my last film". Filmmakers Massy Tadjedin, Mark Romanek, Lorene Scafaria and Lynn Shelton, who had worked with Knightley on other films, tweeted their support for her after Carney's comments.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: Carney later tweeted a public apology saying he felt like "a complete idiot" and saying that Knightley was "nothing but professional and dedicated" during the filming of the movie.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: In 2019, when asked about Carney's comments, Knightley accepted his apology and revealed that she was not shocked by his earlier comments as they had not gotten along during filming.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: The soundtrack was released on July 1, 2014 in the U.S. by Gregg Alexander's record label ALXNDR, Levine's label 222 Records, Polydor Records, and Interscope Records. Most of the film's music was composed by Alexander with Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley, Rick Nowels, and Nick Southwood. Some songs were written and composed by Glen Hansard and Carney, and most were performed by Knightley and Levine. The track "Drowning Pool" by The Walls, which played over the opening credit sequence, is not included on the soundtrack album. The song "Lost Stars" was nominated for numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Song.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: "Begin Again" premiered on September 7, 2013, at the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Weinstein Company acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the film for $7 million. It was later screened on April 26, 2014, on the closing night of the Tribeca Film Festival. The film's title was changed from "Can a Song Save Your Life?" to "Begin Again" between its festival premiere and its theatrical release because viewers found it difficult to remember and it was often misquoted. However, for the release in Germany, the original title was kept, while for the French release it was changed to "New York Melody".


title: Begin Again (film)

text: The film was given a limited release in the United States on June 27, 2014, grossing $134,064 on its opening weekend, and opened in wide release on July 11. It was re-released by The Weinstein Company on August 29, closer to the awards season. Overall, the film earned $16,170,632 at the U.S. box office and $47,294,229 internationally for a total gross of $63,464,861.


title: Begin Again (film)

text: "Begin Again" received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 83%, based on 170 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Writer-director John Carney's return to musical drama isn't quite as potent as it was with "Once," but thanks to charming work from its well-matched leads, "Begin Again" is difficult to resist." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 62 out of 100, based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Begin Again (film)

text: "Rolling Stone" critic Peter Travers gave "Begin Again" three out of four stars, praising the "subtle magic" of the lead actors' performances and Carney's creation of "surreal, enchanting loveliness" without being overly sentimental. Ian Freer of "Empire" awarded the film four out of five stars, describing it as "lovely stuff, winningly played, open-hearted and guaranteed to slap on a smile on a balmy summer night." In a review for "Variety", Peter Debruge wrote that "Gregg Alexander's music is undeniably the best thing" about the film, which "lays emotions on the line and then drives them home with music." "The Hollywood Reporter"s David Rooney praised the "disarming emotional candor and intimacy" of Carney's script and the chemistry between Knightley and Ruffalo, while David Edelstein of "New York" enjoyed Ruffalo's "very funny" performance and Knightley's "surprisingly sweet singing voice".


title: Begin Again (film)

text: The "Los Angeles Times" Kenneth Turan, on the other hand, opined that the story and performances felt contrived, and that the film as a whole failed to impress as much as Carney's previous musical film "Once." Similarly, A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" wrote that "Begin Again" was a "disappointing, overly produced follow-up" to "Once" and found it "not very good, but ... kind of enjoyable." In a review for "The Guardian", Paul MacInnes awarded the film 2 out of 5 stars and described it as "a movie obsessed with authenticity but as phoney as a Miley Cyrus dance routine." The "Chicago Sun-Times" critic Bruce Ingram also found the film hypocritical, noting "the slightly bogus vibe" of the song performances that had been recorded in a studio but were meant to be played live.


title: Leandro Paredes

text: Leandro Daniel Paredes (; born 29 June 1994) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for club Juventus, on loan from Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, and the Argentina national team, with whom he won the 2022 FIFA World Cup.


title: Leandro Paredes

text: Paredes made his league debut for Boca Juniors in a 2–0 away defeat to Argentinos Juniors on 6 November 2010. On 29 January 2014, he joined Italian Serie A outfit Chievo Verona for the rest of the 2013–14 season.


title: Leandro Paredes

text: It was revealed that Roma agreed to sign Paredes from Boca Juniors on loan with a reported €4.5 million pre-set price, however Roma ran out of non-EU registration quota for international transfer. He was signed by Chievo instead.


title: Leandro Paredes

text: On 19 July 2014, Paredes joined Roma in a temporary deal, with an option to buy outright from Boca Juniors. On 27 September 2014, Paredes made his Roma debut, as a second-half substitute in the 2–0 win against Hellas Verona. On 8 February 2015, Paredes scored his first Roma goal in the club's 2–1 victory against Cagliari. In June 2015, Roma signed Paredes for €6.067 million.


title: Leandro Paredes

text: On 1 July 2017, Zenit announced the signing of Paredes on a four-year contract. The fee was €23 million with a possible €4 million in add-ons.


title: Leandro Paredes

text: On 29 January 2019, Paris Saint-Germain announced the signing of Paredes on a four and-a-half year contract, for an initial €40 million, potentially rising to €47 million. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 victory against Pau in the Coupe de France on 29 January 2020, exactly a year after signing for PSG, while wearing the captain's armband.


title: Leandro Paredes

text: On 19 May 2017, Paredes received his first senior call-up by newly appointed coach Jorge Sampaoli for Argentina's friendlies against Brazil and Singapore in June. He made his senior international debut in the match against Singapore on 13 June, helping Argentina to a 6–0 away win, and also marked his debut by scoring his first international goal.


title: Leandro Paredes

text: In May 2018, he was named in Argentina’s preliminary 35-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia but did not make the final 23. On 21 May 2019, Paredes was included in Lionel Scaloni's final 23-man Argentina squad for the 2019 Copa América. Following Argentina's third-place achievement, Paredes was listed among the "Best XI" team of the tournament.


title: Leandro Paredes

text: In June 2021, he was included in Lionel Scaloni's final Argentina 28-man squad for the 2021 Copa América. In the semi-finals of the competition, Argentina played against Colombia and the match eventually went into a penalty-shootout during which Paredes successfully converted his spot-kick to help Argentina progress to the final.


title: Leandro Paredes

text: On 11 November 2022, Paredes was named to Argentina's final 26-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. During Argentina's quarterfinal match against the Netherlands, Paredes fouled Nathan Aké and deliberately smashed the ball into the Dutch bench, prompting a brawl. Paredes scored in the penalty-shootout against the Netherlands winning 4–3 for Argentina after the game was tied 2–2 (a.e.t). Paredes scored again in the penalty-shootout against France in the World Cup final. Winning the penalty-shootout 4–2, after the game was tied 3–3 (a.e.t).


title: Leandro Paredes

text: Paredes is of Guaraní descent through his mother. On 2 September 2020, it was reported that Paredes, along with PSG teammates Neymar and Ángel Di María, tested positive for COVID-19. The French sports newspaper "L'Équipe" said that the three players reportedly went on vacation in Ibiza. As a result, they quarantined for one week, and the rest of the players and working staff took coronavirus tests within the same week.


title: Lighthouse

text: A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.


title: Lighthouse

text: Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, rocks, and safe entries to harbors; they also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and has become uneconomical since the advent of much cheaper, more sophisticated and effective electronic navigational systems.


title: Lighthouse

text: Before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since elevating the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as an entrance marker to ports than as a warning signal for reefs and promontories, unlike many modern lighthouses. The most famous lighthouse structure from antiquity was the Pharos of Alexandria, Egypt, which collapsed following a series of earthquakes between 956 CE and 1323 CE.


title: Lighthouse

text: The intact Tower of Hercules at A Coruña, Spain gives insight into ancient lighthouse construction; other evidence about lighthouses exists in depictions on coins and mosaics, of which many represent the lighthouse at Ostia. Coins from Alexandria, Ostia, and Laodicea in Syria also exist.


title: Lighthouse

text: The modern era of lighthouses began at the turn of the 18th century, as the number of lighthouses being constructed increased significantly due to much higher levels of transatlantic commerce. Advances in structural engineering and new and efficient lighting equipment allowed for the creation of larger and more powerful lighthouses, including ones exposed to the sea. The function of lighthouses was gradually changed from indicating ports to the providing of a visible warning against shipping hazards, such as rocks or reefs.


title: Lighthouse

text: The Eddystone Rocks were a major shipwreck hazard for mariners sailing through the English Channel. The first lighthouse built there was an octagonal wooden structure, anchored by 12 iron stanchions secured in the rock, and was built by Henry Winstanley from 1696 to 1698. His lighthouse was the first tower in the world to have been fully exposed to the open sea.


title: Lighthouse

text: The civil engineer John Smeaton rebuilt the lighthouse from 1756 to 1759; his tower marked a major step forward in the design of lighthouses and remained in use until 1877. He modeled the shape of his lighthouse on that of an oak tree, using granite blocks. He rediscovered and used "hydraulic lime", a form of concrete that will set under water used by the Romans, and developed a technique of securing the granite blocks together using dovetail joints and marble dowels. The dovetailing feature served to improve the structural stability, although Smeaton also had to taper the thickness of the tower towards the top, for which he curved the tower inwards on a gentle gradient. This profile had the added advantage of allowing some of the energy of the waves to dissipate on impact with the walls. His lighthouse was the prototype for the modern lighthouse and influenced all subsequent engineers.


title: Lighthouse

text: One such influence was Robert Stevenson, himself a seminal figure in the development of lighthouse design and construction. His greatest achievement was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse in 1810, one of the most impressive feats of engineering of the age. This structure was based upon Smeaton's design, but with several improved features, such as the incorporation of rotating lights, alternating between red and white. Stevenson worked for the Northern Lighthouse Board for nearly fifty years during which time he designed and oversaw the construction and later improvement of numerous lighthouses. He innovated in the choice of light sources, mountings, reflector design, the use of Fresnel lenses, and in rotation and shuttering systems providing lighthouses with individual signatures allowing them to be identified by seafarers. He also invented the movable jib and the balance-crane as a necessary part for lighthouse construction.


title: Lighthouse

text: Alexander Mitchell designed the first screw-pile lighthouse – his lighthouse was built on piles that were screwed into the sandy or muddy seabed. Construction of his design began in 1838 at the mouth of the Thames and was known as the Maplin Sands lighthouse, and first lit in 1841. Although its construction began later, the Wyre Light in Fleetwood, Lancashire, was the first to be lit (in 1840).


title: Lighthouse

text: Until 1782 the source of illumination had generally been wood pyres or burning coal. The Argand lamp, invented in 1782 by the Swiss scientist Aimé Argand revolutionized lighthouse illumination with its steady smokeless flame. Early models used ground glass which was sometimes tinted around the wick. Later models used a mantle of thorium dioxide suspended over the flame, creating a bright, steady light. The Argand lamp used whale oil, colza, olive oil or other vegetable oil as fuel, supplied by a gravity feed from a reservoir mounted above the burner. The lamp was first produced by Matthew Boulton, in partnership with Argand, in 1784, and became the standard for lighthouses for over a century.


title: Lighthouse

text: South Foreland Lighthouse was the first tower to successfully use an electric light in 1875. The lighthouse's carbon arc lamps were powered by a steam-driven magneto. John Richardson Wigham was the first to develop a system for gas illumination of lighthouses. His improved gas 'crocus' burner at the Baily Lighthouse near Dublin was 13 times more powerful than the most brilliant light then known.


title: Lighthouse

text: The vaporized oil burner was invented in 1901 by Arthur Kitson, and improved by David Hood at Trinity House. The fuel was vaporized at high pressure and burned to heat the mantle, giving an output of over six times the luminosity of traditional oil lights. The use of gas as illuminant became widely available with the invention of the Dalén light by Swedish engineer Gustaf Dalén. He used Agamassan (Aga), a substrate, to absorb the gas, allowing the gas to be stored, and hence used, safely. Dalén also invented the 'sun valve', which automatically regulated the light and turned it off during the daytime. The technology was the predominant light source in lighthouses from the 1900s to the 1960s, when electric lighting had become dominant.


title: Lighthouse

text: With the development of the steady illumination of the Argand lamp, the application of optical lenses to increase and focus the light intensity became a practical possibility. William Hutchinson developed the first practical optical system in 1763, known as a catoptric system. This rudimentary system effectively collimated the emitted light into a concentrated beam, thereby greatly increasing the light's visibility. The ability to focus the light led to the first revolving lighthouse beams, where the light would appear to the mariners as a series of intermittent flashes. It also became possible to transmit complex signals using the light flashes.


title: Lighthouse

text: French physicist and engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel developed the multi-part Fresnel lens for use in lighthouses. His design allowed for the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length, without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design. A Fresnel lens can be made much thinner than a comparable conventional lens, in some cases taking the form of a flat sheet. A Fresnel lens can also capture more oblique light from a light source, thus allowing the light from a lighthouse equipped with one to be visible over greater distances.


title: Lighthouse

text: The first Fresnel lens was used in 1823 in the Cordouan lighthouse at the mouth of the Gironde estuary; its light could be seen from more than out. Fresnel's invention increased the luminosity of the lighthouse lamp by a factor of four and his system is still in common use.


title: Lighthouse

text: The introduction of electrification and automatic lamp changers began to make lighthouse keepers obsolete. For many years, lighthouses still had keepers, partly because lighthouse keepers could serve as a rescue service if necessary. Improvements in maritime navigation and safety such as satellite navigation systems such as GPS led to the phasing out of non-automated lighthouses across the world. In Canada, this trend has been stopped and there are still 50 staffed light stations, with 27 on the west coast alone.


title: Lighthouse

text: Remaining modern lighthouses are usually illuminated by a single stationary flashing light powered by solar-charged batteries mounted on a steel skeleton tower. Where the power requirement is too great for solar power, "cycle charging" by diesel generator is used: to save fuel and to increase periods between maintenance the light is battery powered, with the generator only coming into use when the battery has to be charged.


title: Lighthouse

text: John Smeaton is noteworthy for having designed the third and most famous Eddystone Lighthouse, but some builders are well known for their work in building multiple lighthouses. The Stevenson family (Robert, Alan, David, Thomas, David Alan, and Charles) made lighthouse building a three-generation profession in Scotland.


title: Lighthouse

text: Richard Henry Brunton designed and built 26 in Meiji Era Japan, which became known as Brunton's "children". Blind Irishman Alexander Mitchell invented and built a number of screw-pile lighthouses. Englishman James Douglass was knighted for his work on the fourth Eddystone Lighthouse.


title: Lighthouse

text: United States Army Corps of Engineers Lieutenant George Meade built numerous lighthouses along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts before gaining wider fame as the winning general at the Battle of Gettysburg. Colonel Orlando M. Poe, engineer to General William Tecumseh Sherman in the siege of Atlanta, designed and built some of the most exotic lighthouses in the most difficult locations on the U.S. Great Lakes.


title: Lighthouse

text: French merchant navy officer Marius Michel Pasha built almost a hundred lighthouses along the coasts of the Ottoman Empire in a period of twenty years after the Crimean War (1853–1856).


title: Lighthouse

text: In a lighthouse, the source of light is called the "lamp" (whether electric or fuelled by oil) and the light is concentrated, if needed, by the "lens" or "optic". Power sources for lighthouses in the 20th–21st centuries vary.


title: Lighthouse

text: Originally lit by open fires and later candles, the Argand hollow wick lamp and parabolic reflector were introduced in the late 18th century.


title: Lighthouse

text: Whale oil was also used with wicks as the source of light. Kerosene became popular in the 1870s and electricity and carbide (acetylene gas) began replacing kerosene around the turn of the 20th century. Carbide was promoted by the Dalén light which automatically lit the lamp at nightfall and extinguished it at dawn.


title: Lighthouse

text: During the Cold War, many remote Soviet lighthouses were powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). These had the advantage of providing power day or night and did not need refuelling or maintenance. However, after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, there are no official records of the locations or condition of all of these lighthouses. As time passes, their condition is degrading; many have fallen victim to vandalism and scrap metal thieves, who may not be aware of the dangerous radioactive contents.


title: Lighthouse

text: Energy-efficient LED lights can be powered by solar panels, with batteries instead of a diesel generator for backup.


title: Lighthouse

text: Many Fresnel lens installations have been replaced by rotating aerobeacons which require less maintenance.


title: Lighthouse

text: In modern automated lighthouses, the system of rotating lenses is often replaced by a high intensity light that emits brief omnidirectional flashes, concentrating the light in time rather than direction. These lights are similar to obstruction lights used to warn aircraft of tall structures. Later innovations were "Vega Lights", and experiments with light-emitting diode (LED) panels.


title: Lighthouse

text: LED lights, which use less energy and are easier to maintain, had come into widespread use by 2020. In the United Kingdom and Ireland about a third of lighthouses had been converted from filament light sources to use LEDs, and conversion continued with about three per year. The light sources are designed to replicate the colour and character of the traditional light as closely as possible. The change is often not noticed by people in the region, but sometimes a proposed change leads to calls to preserve the traditional light, including in some cases a rotating beam. A typical LED system designed to fit into the traditional 19th century Fresnel lens enclosure was developed by Trinity House and two other lighthouse authorities and costs about €20,000, depending on configuration, according to a supplier; it has large fins to dissipate heat. Lifetime of the LED light source is 50,000 to 100,000 hours, compared to about 1,000 hours for a filament source.


title: Lighthouse

text: Experimental installations of laser lights, either at high power to provide a "line of light" in the sky or, utilising low power, aimed towards mariners have identified problems of increased complexity in installation and maintenance, and high power requirements. The first practical installation, in 1971 at Point Danger lighthouse, Queensland, was replaced by a conventional light after four years because the beam was too narrow to be seen easily.


title: Lighthouse

text: In any of these designs an observer, rather than seeing a continuous weak light, sees a brighter light during short time intervals. These instants of bright light are arranged to create a light characteristic or pattern specific to a lighthouse. For example, the Scheveningen Lighthouse flashes are alternately 2.5 and 7.5 seconds. Some lights have sectors of a particular color (usually formed by colored panes in the lantern) to distinguish safe water areas from dangerous shoals. Modern lighthouses often have unique reflectors or Racon transponders so the radar signature of the light is also unique.


title: Lighthouse

text: Before modern strobe lights, lenses were used to concentrate the light from a continuous source. Vertical light rays of the lamp are redirected into a horizontal plane, and horizontally the light is focused into one or a few directions at a time, with the light beam swept around. As a result, in addition to seeing the side of the light beam, the light is directly visible from greater distances, and with an identifying light characteristic.


title: Lighthouse

text: This concentration of light is accomplished with a rotating lens assembly. In early lighthouses, the light source was a kerosene lamp or, earlier, an animal or vegetable oil Argand lamp, and the lenses rotated by a weight driven clockwork assembly wound by lighthouse keepers, sometimes as often as every two hours. The lens assembly sometimes floated in liquid mercury to reduce friction. In more modern lighthouses, electric lights and motor drives were used, generally powered by diesel electric generators. These also supplied electricity for the lighthouse keepers.


title: Lighthouse

text: Efficiently concentrating the light from a large omnidirectional light source requires a very large diameter lens. This would require a very thick and heavy lens if a conventional lens were used. The Fresnel lens (pronounced ) focused 85% of a lamp's light versus the 20% focused with the parabolic reflectors of the time. Its design enabled construction of lenses of large size and short focal length without the weight and volume of material in conventional lens designs.


title: Lighthouse

text: Fresnel lighthouse lenses are ranked by "order", a measure of refracting power, with a first order lens being the largest, most powerful and expensive; and a sixth order lens being the smallest. The order is based on the focal length of the lens. A first order lens has the longest focal length, with the sixth being the shortest. Coastal lighthouses generally use first, second, or third order lenses, while harbor lights and beacons use fourth, fifth, or sixth order lenses.


title: Lighthouse

text: Some lighthouses, such as those at Cape Race, Newfoundland, and Makapuu Point, Hawaii, used a more powerful hyperradiant Fresnel lens manufactured by the firm of Chance Brothers.


title: Lighthouse

text: While lighthouse buildings differ depending on the location and purpose, they tend to have common components.


title: Lighthouse

text: A light station comprises the lighthouse tower and all outbuildings, such as the keeper's living quarters, fuel house, boathouse, and fog-signaling building. The Lighthouse itself consists of a tower structure supporting the lantern room where the light operates.


title: Lighthouse

text: The lantern room is the glassed-in housing at the top of a lighthouse tower containing the lamp and lens. Its glass storm panes are supported by metal muntins (glazing bars) running vertically or diagonally. At the top of the lantern room is a stormproof ventilator designed to remove the smoke of the lamps and the heat that builds in the glass enclosure. A lightning rod and grounding system connected to the metal cupola roof provides a safe conduit for any lightning strikes.


title: Lighthouse

text: Immediately beneath the lantern room is usually a Watch Room or Service Room where fuel and other supplies were kept and where the keeper prepared the lanterns for the night and often stood watch. The clockworks (for rotating the lenses) were also located there. On a lighthouse tower, an open platform called the gallery is often located outside the watch room (called the Main Gallery) or Lantern Room (Lantern Gallery). This was mainly used for cleaning the outside of the windows of the Lantern Room.


title: Lighthouse

text: Lighthouses near to each other that are similar in shape are often painted in a unique pattern so they can easily be recognized during daylight, a marking known as a daymark. The black and white barber pole spiral pattern of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is one example. Race Rocks Light in western Canada is painted in horizontal black and white bands to stand out against the horizon.


title: Lighthouse

text: For effectiveness, the lamp must be high enough to be seen before the danger is reached by a mariner. The minimum height is calculated by trigonometric formula formula_1 where "H" is the height above water in feet, and "d" is the distance to the horizon in nautical miles.


title: Lighthouse

text: Where dangerous shoals are located far off a flat sandy beach, the prototypical tall masonry coastal lighthouse is constructed to assist the navigator making a landfall after an ocean crossing. Often these are cylindrical to reduce the effect of wind on a tall structure, such as Cape May Light. Smaller versions of this design are often used as harbor lights to mark the entrance into a harbor, such as New London Harbor Light.


title: Lighthouse

text: Where a tall cliff exists, a smaller structure may be placed on top such as at Horton Point Light. Sometimes, such a location can be too high, for example along the west coast of the United States, where frequent low clouds can obscure the light. In these cases, lighthouses are placed below the clifftop to ensure that they can still be seen at the surface during periods of fog or low clouds, as at Point Reyes Lighthouse. Another example is in San Diego, California: the Old Point Loma lighthouse was too high up and often obscured by fog, so it was replaced in 1891 with a lower lighthouse, New Point Loma lighthouse.


title: Lighthouse

text: As technology advanced, prefabricated skeletal iron or steel structures tended to be used for lighthouses constructed in the 20th century. These often have a narrow cylindrical core surrounded by an open lattice work bracing, such as Finns Point Range Light.


title: Lighthouse

text: Sometimes a lighthouse needs to be constructed in the water itself. Wave-washed lighthouses are masonry structures constructed to withstand water impact, such as Eddystone Lighthouse in Britain and the St. George Reef Light of California. In shallower bays, Screw-pile lighthouse ironwork structures are screwed into the seabed and a low wooden structure is placed above the open framework, such as Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse. As screw piles can be disrupted by ice, steel caisson lighthouses such as Orient Point Light are used in cold climates. Orient Long Beach Bar Light (Bug Light) is a blend of a screw pile light that was converted to a caisson light because of the threat of ice damage. Skeletal iron towers with screw-pile foundations were built on the Florida Reef along the Florida Keys, beginning with the Carysfort Reef Light in 1852.


title: Lighthouse

text: In waters too deep for a conventional structure, a lightship might be used instead of a lighthouse, such as the former lightship "Columbia". Most of these have now been replaced by fixed light platforms (such as Ambrose Light) similar to those used for offshore oil exploration.


title: Lighthouse

text: Aligning two fixed points on land provides a navigator with a line of position called a range in North America and a transit in Britain. Ranges can be used to precisely align a vessel within a narrow channel such as a river. With landmarks of a range illuminated with a set of fixed lighthouses, nighttime navigation is possible.


title: Lighthouse

text: Such paired lighthouses are called range lights in North America and leading lights in the United Kingdom. The closer light is referred to as the beacon or front range; the further light is called the rear range. The rear range light is almost always taller than the front.


title: Lighthouse

text: When a vessel is on the correct course, the two lights align vertically, but when the observer is out of position, the difference in alignment indicates the direction of travel to correct the course.


title: Lighthouse

text: "Offshore Lighthouses" are lighthouses that are not close to land. There can be a number of reasons for these lighthouses to be built. There can be a shoal, reef or submerged island several miles from land.


title: Lighthouse

text: The current Cordouan Lighthouse was completed in 1611, from the shore on a small islet, but was built on a previous lighthouse that can be traced back to the 880's and is the oldest surviving lighthouse in France. It is connected to the mainland by a causeway. The oldest surviving oceanic offshore lighthouse is Bell Rock Lighthouse in the North Sea, off the coast of Scotland.


title: Lighthouse

text: In India, lighthouses are maintained by the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships, an office of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.


title: Lighthouse

text: The Soviet Union built a number of automated lighthouses powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators in remote locations. They operated for long periods without external support with great reliability. However numerous installations deteriorated, were stolen, or vandalized. Some cannot be found due to poor record-keeping.


title: Lighthouse

text: Both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland together have three bodies: lighthouses around the coasts of England and Wales are looked after by Trinity House, those around Scotland and the Isle of Man by the Northern Lighthouse Board and those around Ireland by the Commissioners of Irish Lights.


title: Lighthouse

text: As lighthouses became less essential to navigation, many of their historic structures faced demolition or neglect. In the United States, the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 provides for the transfer of lighthouse structures to local governments and private non-profit groups, while the USCG continues to maintain the lamps and lenses. In Canada, the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society won heritage status for Sambro Island Lighthouse, and sponsored the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act to change Canadian federal laws to protect lighthouses.


title: Lighthouse

text: Many groups formed to restore and save lighthouses around the world, including the World Lighthouse Society and the United States Lighthouse Society, as well as the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society, which sends amateur radio operators to publicize the preservation of remote lighthouses throughout the world.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: Blast from the Past is a 1999 American romantic comedy fantasy film directed by Hugh Wilson and starring Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, and Dave Foley.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: The film focuses on a naive 35-year-old man, Adam Webber, who has spent his entire life (1962-1997) living in a Cold War-era fallout shelter built by his survivalist, anti-Communist father, who believes the United States has suffered a Soviet nuclear attack (in reality, a plane crashed into their house). When the doors unlock after 35 years (the amount of time his father believes the nuclear fallout will take to clear), Adam emerges into the modern world, where his innocence and old-fashioned views put him at comedic odds with others.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: In 1962, eccentric American scientist Dr. Calvin Webber believes nuclear war with the Soviet Union is imminent, and builds a secret fallout shelter beneath his backyard. Alarmed by the Cuban Missile Crisis, Calvin takes his pregnant wife Helen into the shelter; when an unexpected mechanical failure aboard an F-86 Sabre causes the aircraft to crash into the house above, Calvin assumes the worst and activates the shelter’s time-locks for 35 years. With the house completely destroyed by the crash, the Webbers' neighbors and authorities assume they were killed, and their property is left abandoned.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: Helen gives birth to Adam, who is educated to a high standard by his father (including becoming fluent in several languages), and grows up on 1950s-era pop culture like "I Love Lucy" and "The Honeymooners", and pop standards by Perry Como and Dean Martin. Aboveground, a diner opens in 1965, where Melker works for Mom as a soda jerk. The diner becomes a pizzeria, then a punk club named Purgatory, as the suburban neighborhood deteriorates over the decades into an inner city ghetto. By 1995, Melker is an alcoholic living in the diner's condemned remains.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: When the shelter unlocks in 1997, Calvin mistakes the now-blighted neighborhood for a post-apocalyptic wasteland of irradiated mutants, and decides the family must stay underground, over the objects of Helen, who, unlike Calvin (who enjoys the seclusion) and Adam (who knows nothing else), has never taken to living in the shelter. With supplies running out and Calvin falling ill, Adam leaves the shelter for the first time. He meets Melker, who had encountered Calvin the previous night, bursting through the floor in his radiation suit. Melker immediately begins to worship Adam as a god. Marveling at the outside world, Adam purchases supplies, but then cannot remember his way back to the elevator.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: Trying to sell his father's classic baseball cards at a hobby shop, Adam meets Eve Rustikov, who stops the store owner from cheating Adam and is fired. Eve drives Adam to a Holiday Inn in exchange for a rare card, but returns the next morning out of guilt. Adam asks her to help purchase supplies. Unaware of the value of money, Adam agrees to her request for $1,000 a week, while also asking Eve to help him find a wife who is "not a mutant" and is from Pasadena, California, per his mother's advice. Adam meets Eve's gay housemate and best friend Troy, who provides him with advice and a fashion makeover.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: Eve and Troy take Adam to a 1940s swing-style nightclub to find him a wife. Adam attracts the attention of several women, including Eve's nemesis Sophie. Jealous, Eve reconnects with her ex-boyfriend Cliff, who goads Adam into an altercation, relenting when Adam demonstrates his boxing skills, having trained every day with his father. Eve leaves. Troy returns home and explains Adam went home with Sophie. Adam returns, explaining that he politely rejected Sophie's advances, as he could only think about Eve. He and Eve kiss, but when Adam admits the truth about his past and his desire to take her to be his wife "underground", she asks him to leave.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: Finding the pub, where Melker preaches to a full congregation, Adam returns to Eve's house, where she is waiting with Dr. Nina Aron and her assistant to have him committed. Initially cooperating, Adam escapes asking Eve and Troy to collect his things and pay his hotel bill. In his hotel room, Troy and Eve find toiletries and clothing from the 1960s and absurdly valuable stock certificates in companies like IBM (which Calvin had written off as "worthless"), and deduce that Adam is not crazy and was telling the truth the whole time.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: As Melker and his cult load supplies into the shelter, Calvin prepares to seal his family inside again. Eve spots Adam outside the pub; they embrace, and Adam takes her to meet his parents. Impressed with Eve, Calvin and Helen agree to set the shelter's locks for two months while Adam and Eve make arrangements.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: During this time, Adam and Eve sell the stocks to build his parents a new home in the country, identical to their house that was destroyed, and purchase and restore a red 1960 Cadillac convertible. They help Melker rebuild the pub into a '50s-themed nightclub after convincing him that Adam is not God.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: Adam reveals there was never an atomic war, the "bomb" was not a bomb and instead was a plane that had crashed into their house, and that the Soviet Union collapsed peacefully, ending the Cold War. Unconvinced, Calvin plans to build a new fallout shelter as Eve watches while playing with her engagement ring.


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: The film received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall score of 58% of the comments positive based on 81 reviews, with the consensus: "Cute idea, but not consistently funny". On Metacritic has a score of 48%. Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars saying "the movie is funny and entertaining in all the usual ways, yes, but I was grateful that it tried for more: that it was actually about something, that it had an original premise, that it used satire and irony and had sly undercurrents."


title: Blast from the Past (film)

text: "Blast from the Past" opened in North American theaters on February 12, 1999 and took in $7,771,066 earning it 5th place at the box office for the weekend. It ultimately made a profit, grossing $40.3 million worldwide against its $35 million budget despite only grossing $26.5 million within the United States.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Chang Bunker and Eng Bunker (May 11, 1811 – January 17, 1874) were Siamese-American conjoined twin brothers whose fame propelled the expression "Siamese twins" to become synonymous for conjoined twins in general. They were widely exhibited as curiosities and were "two of the nineteenth century's most studied human beings".


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: The brothers were born with Chinese ancestry in Siam (now known as Thailand) and were brought to the United States in 1829. Physicians inspected them as they became known to American and European audiences in "freak shows". Newspapers and the public were initially sympathetic to them, and within three years they left the control of their managers, who they thought were cheating them, and toured on their own. In early exhibitions, they appeared exotic and displayed their athleticism; they later held conversations in English in a more dignified parlor setting.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: In 1839, after a decade of financial success, the twins quit touring and settled near Mount Airy, North Carolina. They became American citizens, bought slaves, married local sisters, and fathered 21 children, several of whom accompanied them when they resumed touring. Chang's and Eng's respective families lived in separate houses, where the twins took alternating three-day stays. After the Civil War, they lost part of their wealth and their slaves. Eng died hours after Chang at the age of 62. An autopsy revealed that their livers were fused in the ligament connecting their sternums.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: The novelist Darin Strauss writes, "their conjoined history was a confusion of legend, sideshow hyperbole, and editorial invention even while they lived." Many works have fictionalized the Bunkers' lives, often to symbolize cooperation or discord, notably in representing the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Chang and Eng were born in 1811 in Siam (modern-day Thailand). Their mother reportedly said their birth was no more difficult than that of their other several siblings. Their exact date of birth and details of their early lives are unclear. The earliest report on the twins assigns the birth month of May 1811. Their birth village is called Meklong (today's Samut Songkhram); a statue in the town commemorates the twins' birthplace.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Their father, Ti-eye, was a fisherman of Chinese descent. He died when the twins were young, possibly in a smallpox epidemic that ran through the area in 1819. Their mother, Nok, raised ducks with her children's help. Their mother's ethnic origin is unclear. Varying accounts suggest that she was Siamese, Chinese, part-Chinese and part-Siamese, or part-Chinese and part-Malay. Chang and Eng were raised with Theravada Buddhism. Despite being joined at the sternum, they were lively youths, running and playing with other children. Their mother raised them like her other children, in a "matter-of-fact" way without special attention on them being conjoined.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: The "discovery" of the brothers is credited to the Scottish merchant Robert Hunter. Hunter was a trusted trade associate of the Siamese government who traveled with considerable freedom. In 1824, Hunter reportedly first met the twins while he was on a fishing boat in the Menam River and the twins were swimming at dusk. He mistook them for a "strange animal", but after meeting them he saw economic opportunity in bringing them to the West.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: He would later tell a story that the king of Siam had ordered the brothers' deaths and had originally forbidden him to transport them out of the country. Regardless of the story's veracity, it took five years for Hunter to bring them away. Hunter and American sea captain Abel Coffin departed to the United States with the twins in summer 1829. A contract Hunter and Coffin signed with the brothers stipulated that their tour would last for five years, though a rumor later circulated that Chang and Eng's mother had sold them into slavery, a charge that greatly upset the twins.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Christian missionaries contacted their mother in 1845, four years before she died. She had believed that her conjoined sons were dead, having not seen them for 15 years, but was informed that they were alive and recently married.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Chang and Eng were 17 years old when they traveled to the United States with Hunter, Coffin, a crew of 18 men, and a Siamese translator. They arrived in Boston on August 16, 1829, and the next day the "Boston Patriot" confirmed Coffin and Hunter's ambitions: the twins "will probably be exhibited to the public". They were soon inspected by physicians, many of whom employed physiognomy and phrenology and judged them to be Chinese. Their arrival was excitedly reported in newspapers with varying degrees of racial stereotypes and falsehoods.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: After leaving the United States they toured major cities in the British Isles, and by the time they returned to New York in March 1831, the twins had gained some skill in English reading, writing, and speaking. Newspapers reported that they had earned great profits, and their promotional materials began to describe their customers as dignified—though their act of exhibition could seem crude—to help bring more moneyed visitors.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: When touring in cities, the twins stayed at a hotel for several days (sometimes more than a week) and charged audiences to attend their "freak show". In small towns, their manager would send flyers ahead of their arrival, and they would remain at a lodge or inn for just one or two nights. Their first manager, James W. Hale, introduced them as the "Siamese Youths", a name they preferred to "boys". The usual admission price was 25 cents, , and pamphlets and drawings featuring the brothers were usually also for sale. In early performances, the twins performed physical feats, running and doing somersaults. An emphasis was placed on their exoticness: they wore pigtails and dressed in "Oriental" clothing. Their performances occasionally featured swimming, playing checkers, and doing parlor tricks.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: In summer 1831, Hale took the twins on a retreat in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. While hunting game, they thought they were being taunted and harassed by over a dozen local men who had approached them, going on to strike a man named Elbridge Gerry with the butt of their gun. Gerry retaliated, throwing a heavy stone at one twin's head, drawing blood. The twins then fired at Gerry, though the gun was blank. The men ran off. The following day, one of the men pressed charges, alleging that the twins were at fault. A special court was convened, and the brothers were arrested for disturbing the peace and paid bond for good behavior.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: The "Salem Mercury" portrayed the twins as the victims of the Lynnfield incident; other papers followed suit. Two weeks after the event, Gerry published a letter titled "To the Public", saying that the twins had provoked the violence. Hale was angered that the twins had gotten into a situation in which their public image could be slandered. He resigned as their manager in September 1831 and was replaced by a friend, Charles Harris. Hale counseled Harris; for example, he could avoid paying a Virginia exhibition tax through careful marketing: he was to call the twins' tour a "business", not a "show". In the public eye, Abel Coffin, the man who first brought them to the United States, continued to serve as a father figure to the twins.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: The twins were soon involved in another conflict, during a performance in Alabama. A surgeon in attendance asked to conduct a close examination of the ligature connecting the twins. They refused, having not permitted close inspections for more than two years. Rising in anger, the doctor said, "You are all a set of impostors and pickpockets", and disorder erupted as guests threw objects across the room. The twins fled and later, because they probably were the first ones to disturb the peace, paid a good-behavior bond as ordered by a magistrate.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Relations between the twins and the Coffins strained beginning in January 1831 when Abel's wife, Susan Coffin, upset the twins by refusing their requests. Chang and Eng then started asking Harris to send letters pleading their cases. In one instance, Mrs. Coffin refused the twins an additional $3 per week to feed their horse, a refusal the twins compared to clipping a bird's wings and saying, "Now you may fly if you wish". Harris first maintained a distinction between his and the twins' point of view but eventually wrote using their voice and had them sign their names, "Chang Eng".


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Abel Coffin left for Asia in late 1831 and planned to return to America by January 1832. After January passed, the twins' relations with Mrs. Coffin broke down completely, the twins regularly asking when Abel Coffin would return. They hoped to be free from commitment to the Coffins on their 21st birthday (in May 1832), as Abel had once promised. They also worried that, should he never return, they would remain in permanent limbo between contract and freedom. They began also to think that Mrs. Coffin was "deceitful and greedy" as they learned of the Coffins' management practices. For instance, Mrs. Coffin had encouraged them to perform when they were sick. During one trip, the Coffins had paid full fare for themselves but booked the twins into steerage, listing them as servants, and lied then to them when they were questioned. And the twins learned that Mrs. Coffin was willing to pay a higher wage only for a certain attendant, not the one whom the twins preferred. They jointly came to believe that Mrs. Coffin "had misled me".


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Abel Coffin, upon returning to Massachusetts in July 1832, discovered that Chang and Eng were missing. Coffin accused Hale of "exciting "his subjects" to rebellion" (Hale had done no such thing), and after a chase he finally tracked down the brothers in Bath, New York. Hale later said Coffin told him he had met the twins "whoring, gaming, and drinking" and "gave Chang Eng 'the damndest thrashing they ever had in their lives'". On the twins' desertion, Coffin simply wrote to his wife as follows: "We have had much talk; they seem to feel themselves quite free from me."


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: The twins themselves did not immediately announce that they were in business on their own, nor did they much alter their public persona. Nonetheless, they were now exclusively referred to by their stage name—the "Siamese twins"—and they did change some parts of their performance, such as by wearing more American clothes, speaking English with the audience, and presenting themselves no longer as "boys" but men. They also answered audience questions sitting in a formal, parlor setting and hunted game in their free time. What had once essentially been their indentured servitude had changed to freedom; they were in command of their act and hired their own staff.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Chang and Eng did not perform on their sightseeing trip across Western Europe in 1835–36 visiting Paris, Antwerp, The Hague, Amsterdam, and other cities. In 1836, Hale published a pamphlet about them titled "A Few Particulars concerning Chang-Eng, the United Siamese Brothers, Published under Their Own Direction". Positioning the twins as upper-class, saying that in Siam, Chinese were elites; it reported, among other particulars, that a representative of President Jackson had visited the twins' mother.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: The final setting for the Chang and Eng's on-and-off 1829–1839 tour was held in Jefferson, North Carolina, on July 3 and 4, 1839. According to a family friend, their move to Wilkes County, in the northwest of the state, allowed them to "engage in chasing stag and catching trout ... to enjoy the recreation which they had desired to find far away from the hurrying crowds." In October 1839, they purchased for $300, , near the rural community of Traphill, in mountainous northeast Wilkes County. The tract runs along Little Sandy Creek, near the Roaring River.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: They soon became well acquainted with members of elite Wilkes society, including James Calloway and Robert C. Martin, both physicians; Abner Carmichael, the county sheriff; and James W. Gwyn Jr., the county's superior court clerk. Charles Harris, their former manager, relocated with them, and he became the Traphill postmaster. The month they bought the land, the twins (as well as Irish-born Harris) became naturalized citizens. Gwyn administered their oath of allegiance; despite a federal law from 1790 restricting naturalization to "free white persons", citizenship was a matter generally governed by local attitudes.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: A home on Chang and Eng's Traphill land was constructed in 1840. The brothers would buy foodstuffs from Wilkes slaveholders and trade dry goods with their neighbors. They also bought slaves and hired several women as housekeepers; the twins' first slave was named "Aunt" Grace Gates. Prosperous from touring, they displayed their wealth through elegant house decorations; by the early 1840s, their property was the third-most valuable in the county at $1,000, . Settled, they planned to stop exhibiting for good, content to live in Traphill. The Whig Party newspaper "Carolina Watchman" of Salisbury called them "genuine Whigs", and the "Boston Transcript" reported that they were "happy as lords".


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: In 1840, a profile of the twins in the "Tennessee Mirror" made clear the twins' intentions to marry. Many newspapers regularly joked about this, discouraging their marriage not just with objections over the twins' deformity but also because of their race. Nevertheless, on April 13, 1843, Baptist preacher Colby Sparks officiated the weddings between Eng and Sarah Yates, and between Chang and Adelaide Yates. Though national (mainly Northern) newspapers generally condemned the marriages, there was probably little local reaction except purported vandalism of Sarah and Adelaide's parents' house the night before the wedding. The Bunkers would prominently feature their marriages when they went back on tour later in life.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: By the late 1840s, the twins spoke English fluently, had voted, and had filed criminal charges against several white people. They had also adopted the English-language surname "Bunker", in honor of a woman whom they met in New York and admired. Continued newspaper coverage, as visitors flocked to their Traphill home, established their place as national celebrities; and they felt themselves to be Americans. The Bunkers carved a unique place in Americans' perception of race—they were considered nonwhite but were afforded many of the privileges of White people, being fairly wealthy Southern slaveholders with property rights.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: On March 1, 1845, the Bunkers bought a plot of in Surry County. They had a home built—at first just for part-time use—about south of Mount Airy, along Stewart's Creek. The twins amassed wealth during the late 1840s and 1850s and lived in luxury as plantation owners. In 1850, it was estimated that they had invested $10,000 in property in North Carolina, . Meanwhile, they had a merchant in New York who managed another $60,000 for importing, , and they lived off the interest.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: For about a decade they split their time between Mount Airy and Traphill because their families had grown large; by 1847 Adelaide had delivered four children; Sarah, three. They would maintain the Traphill residence through 1853; later their time was divided solely between two homes located around Mount Airy. Then for the next decades, the twins would alternate which house they used, three days at a time; the twin who owned the current house could elect to do whatever he wanted while his brother complied and kept silent.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: In 1850, ten of their 18 slaves were under the age of seven, some being owned only to be sold later for profit, and others growing up to work the fields. The Bunker plantations produced wheat, rye, corn, oats, and potatoes, and they raised cows, sheep, and pigs. Unlike families that owned many North Carolina farms, the Bunkers did not grow tobacco, which may suggest that their plantation was run primarily to feed the Bunker family and its slaves, not for commercial purposes. The press characterized the Bunkers' treatment of slaves as particularly harsh, though the twins decried accusations of cruelty and said that their wives supervised the slaves and raised money for their education.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Though the Bunkers were generally part of the region's aristocracy, some of their practices set them apart. They were occasionally seen performing manual labor; their method of chopping wood was particularly effective: they would wield an axe with all four hands, for more force, or would rapidly alternate turns swinging. They continued recreational hunting, and they took up fishing, drinking, and several sports.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Partial retirement ended up not suiting the Bunkers, and they sought to resume touring for what they called financial reasons: they said they needed to earn more money to support their then-seven children. They traveled to New York City in 1849 with daughters Katherine and Josephine, both aged five, but the brief tour petered out owing to poor management, and they returned to North Carolina. Advertisements had described them as "The Living Siamese Twins Chang-Eng and Their Children".


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: They conducted a successful year-long tour in 1853, again bringing two children (Christopher and Katherine). They again justified the tour by saying their motivation was to raise money to support their (by this point, 11) children's education. On this tour, viewings were like levees and were not elaborate, as the twins and their children usually sat, spoke, and mingled with the audience. Chang and Eng wore American suits and spoke in English about their marriages and families, and they also showed off their wit and political knowledge. They appeared educated and polite, according to biographer Joseph Andrew Orser, and "might have appeared as a distinguished southern family on display except for the fact that no family of distinction would exhibit itself to the public."


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: In early October 1860 they signed with famed showman P. T. Barnum for a month and exhibited in Barnum's American Museum, in New York City. Alongside Zip the Pinhead, they performed for several distinguished guests, including the Prince of Wales; in 1868, they would briefly tour with Zip in the British Isles. Contrary to popular belief, Barnum did not create the Bunkers' careers; in fact, they were competitors in the entertainment business and the twins had already become world-famous from their own tours.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: They departed New York City on November 12, 1860, and took steamships and crossed Panama by train to arrive in San Francisco on December 6. Californians at the time were in the midst of figuring out how to deal with a recent influx of Chinese immigrants, and the arrival of the Bunkers (as well as two of Eng's sons, Patrick and Montgomery) was put in the spotlight. As usual, Chang and Eng were favorably received by audiences with whom they spoke, though reports of their performances in California took various perspectives on their race and nationality. Newspapers called them "yellow" but also the "greatest of living curiosities" who had "made much noise in the world, and are certainly worth seeing". They left California on February 11, 1861, by which time seven states had seceded from the United States, sparking the American Civil War. The Bunkers likely returned to their Mount Airy homes by April—after gunfire had begun in South Carolina, but before North Carolina seceded on May 20.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Throughout the Civil War, the twins' conjoined state served in several metaphors. In July 1860, the "Louisville Journal" chided divisions in the Democratic Party by making the twins out to represent rival factions within the party, split on the extent to which slavery should be federally protected. The Bunker brothers were long-time supporters of the Whig Party, however, and a neighbor wrote to "The Fayetteville Observer" that they "are not now and never have been Democrats [and] they say they never expect to be Democrats". This neighbor also said that in the 1860 presidential election both twins supported the Tennessean John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party, a candidate popular in northwestern North Carolina whose platform included both support of slavery and of preservation of the union.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: More prominently, many newspapers fictitiously wrote that Chang and Eng were at odds with each other on the issue of secession, personifying fears of sectional violence. The "New-York Tribune" ran a colorful allegory that claimed to be an account of a dispute between the twins while they were at Barnum's American Museum. It says that Chang, the quarrelsome one, wants the ligament connecting them to be painted black (signifying the key issue of slavery) but that Eng does not. Chang says that his "union" with Eng is to be "dissolved", while a "Dr. Lincoln" reasons that a separation surgery would be "dangerous for both parties"".


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: According to Orser, "The united brothers had become symbols the American union and the promise it offered to its citizens." Orser adds that reports of conflict between the Bunkers did have some grain of truth: the brothers had legally divided their property, land and slaves, and they had created separate wills, formalizing the divided way they had lived since marriage.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: By the time the Civil War ended in 1865, the twins' finances had taken a hit (they had lent money that was repaid in worthless Confederate currency) and their slaves were emancipated, so they decided to resume touring. Northern audiences at this point were not so receptive to the twins—for they had been Confederate slaveholders—so during tours they sympathetically presented themselves as old men, with many children, who only reluctantly supported their state over country and who each had a son hurt in the war, one injured and one captured (serving in the Confederate States Army). Newspapers disparagingly wrote that the twins had lost "a considerable number of slaves of about the same color of themselves" and claimed that the twins were taking advantage of their audience.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Chang and Eng made a trip to Britain in 1868–69, seeing physicians and chatting in exhibition; their last visit there had been over 30 years before. Chang's daughter Nannie, who had never before been far from home, and Eng's daughter Kate, both in their 20s, came on the trip, from North Carolina to Baltimore and New York, then across the Atlantic to Liverpool and into rural Scotland, later going to Manchester.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: In 1870, Chang, Eng, and two sons went to Germany and Russia; they wanted to further explore Europe, but returned home to avoid the developing Franco-Prussian War. On the ship back home, Chang's right side (toward Eng) became paralyzed after he suffered a stroke, and they effectively retired, as Eng cared for Chang. The Bunker estate in 1870 was worth $30,000 in total, —two-thirds belonging to Chang.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Sarah Yates Bunker was born on December 18, 1822, the fourth child and second daughter of David and Nancy Yates. Sometimes called "Mrs. Eng", she was seen as the simpler sister and, uneducated, lived frugally and was a capable chef. She was also described as the "more portly, fair one".


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Adelaide Yates Bunker, or "Mrs. Chang", was born on October 11, 1823. Taller and thinner than her older sister, she was said to have "excelled in personal beauty" and to have possessed a more refined taste. It was said that both Chang and Eng favored Sarah; according to a contemporary newspaper, however, "To any but an oriental taste, [Adelaide] was much the prettiest, being, in fact, a handsome and showy brunette."


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Both sisters outlived their husbands; Sarah died at age 69 on April 29, 1892. Adelaide died at age 93 on May 21, 1917.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Chang's and Eng's first children were born within six days of each other: Sarah gave birth to Katherine Marcellus on February 10, 1844; Adelaide, to Josephine Virginia on February 16. One set of cousins was born eight days apart: Chang's son Christopher and Eng's daughter Julia. Altogether, Chang and Adelaide had ten children and Eng and Sarah had eleven; in total, there were twelve daughters and nine sons; two children were deaf, two died from burns before the age of three and none were born as twins.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: The twins occasionally attended church with their wives. Their children were for some time formally educated, and generally they were seen favorably; a profile of Chang and Eng said the children represented "a credit to their parents and the community in which they live".


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: , descendants of Chang and Eng's 21 children number about 1,500. Much of the extended family still lives in western North Carolina, and the family has hosted annual get-togethers since the 1980s, usually on the last Saturday of June. Chang's descendants include grandson Caleb V. Haynes, an Air Force major general, and his son Vance Haynes, an archaeologist; great-granddaughter Alex Sink, former Chief Financial Officer of Florida and the Democratic nominee for Governor of Florida in 2010; and great-great-granddaughter Caroline Shaw, a composer and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music recipient. Eng's descendants include grandson George F. Ashby, president of the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1940s. The Bunker pedigree contains 11 sets of twins, none conjoined; the first set of twins, Eng's great-grandsons, were also named Chang and Eng.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: At birth, Chang and Eng were healthy xiphopagus twins connected at the sternum by a flexible circular band of flesh and cartilage, about long with a maximum circumference of . Their livers were connected through the band, and only at the middle of the ligament did they share sensation.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Most physicians who met the twins recommended against surgery for separation, as with medical technology at the time it would have been a fatal procedure. Contemporary medical literature strongly suggests that the twins could have been easily separated today. Their autopsy was performed by surgeon William Pancoast of Philadelphia's Jefferson Medical College.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: While Eng enjoyed good health toward the end of his life, most of Chang's right side became paralyzed in 1870 after his stroke, and eventually his right leg needed to be kept in a sling. From then on, Chang—becoming a heavy drinker—remained in poor health. Chang contracted bronchitis in January 1874, and the family physician recommended that he stay indoors and warm. On January 15, the Bunkers traveled through cold weather to Eng's house. Chang seemed to have recovered somewhat by the next day but at night was unable to breathe comfortably. On Chang's urging the brothers slept sitting upright on a chair, in front of a fireplace. Eng was healthy physically yet weary from spending the past week with a seriously ill Chang, so he asked to move to their bed after hours of drifting in and out of sleep.


title: Chang and Eng Bunker

text: Early in the morning of January 17, one of Eng's sons checked on the sleeping twins. "Uncle Chang is dead," the boy reportedly said to Eng, who responded, "Then I am going!" The family doctor was quickly sent for but Eng soon died, reportedly just over two hours after his brother's death. The Bunkers had the longest known lifespan (62 years) of any conjoined twins in history until 2012, when their record was surpassed by Ronnie and Donnie Galyon (1951–2020). Eng was remembered as a caring supporter of his brother, especially during their final years, when Chang developed severe illnesses. After their deaths, their good friend Jesse Franklin Graves recalled, "[Eng's] kindness was received with the warmest appreciation by Chang, whose disposition was very different from the morose, ill nature so falsely ascribed to him [by the press]."