title: Ball culture

text: In September 2006, Beyoncé told a reporter from "The Independent" "how inspired she's been by the whole drag-house circuit in the States, an unsung part of black American culture where working-class gay men channel ultra-glamour in mocked-up catwalk shows. 'I still have that in me', she says of the 'confidence and the fire you see on stage...'"


title: Ball culture

text: Most of the New York-based houses of the time appeared in the 1990 documentary film "Paris Is Burning". In 1997, Emanuel Xavier published a seminal poetry manifesto titled "Pier Queen" and, in 1999, his novel "Christ Like" featured the first fictional main character involved with the Houses. The 2016 film "Kiki" provided an updated portrait of the ball culture scene. In 2017, as part of a documentary series on New Zealand cultural identity, Vice Media produced an episode about New Zealand's ball culture, entitled "FAFSWAG: Auckland's Underground Vogue Scene".


title: Ball culture

text: In 2009, Logo TV aired the reality television series "RuPaul's Drag Race", a competition show where drag queens face off in a series of challenges heavily inspired by competitions commonly seen in ballroom culture. Created by prominent drag queen RuPaul Charles, competitors sew, act, sing, and lip sync for a chance to win $100,000, a one-year supply of Anastasia Beverly Hills cosmetics, and the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar". The show has won a plethora of awards and spawned several spin-off series. The competition format, slang, and type of drag exhibited on the show is heavily influenced by ball culture.


title: Ball culture

text: In 2018, Viceland aired a docuseries, "My House", following six people in the New York City ball culture. In the spring of 2018, the television series "Pose" premiered, set in New York and following participants in ball culture, as well as others in 1980s Manhattan. The show was created by Steven Canals, Brad Falchuk, and Ryan Murphy.


title: Ball culture

text: On April 18, 2019, it was announced that the premiere of the feature film "Port Authority", a New York love story between a black trans woman from the ballroom scene and a cisgender man from the Midwest would compete in the "Un Certain Regard" competition at the prestigious 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It was backed and produced by Martin Scorsese and RT Features. Leyna Bloom's debut in "Port Authority" was the first time in the festival's history that a trans woman of color was featured in a leading role. The film is credited with authentic casting and representation. "Port Authority" features scenes at balls, as well as during rehearsals and of queer youths' chosen family. Almost every actor that plays a role of significance in the ballroom scenes in the film, including competitors, judges, and house members, are active members of the ballroom scene today. Prior to being cast, Leyna Bloom became known internationally as a model and dancer, and she is active in the mainstream ballroom scene as New York City mother of the House of Miyake-Mugler. She is known in ball culture as the "Polynesian Princess," having made an international name for herself walking the category of face.


title: Ball culture

text: In 2020, the voguing reality competition web series "Legendary" premiered on the HBO Max streaming service. The series follows members of eight prominent houses as they navigate their way through nine balls (dancing, voguing, etc.), with a $100,000 prize awarded to the winner.


title: Ball culture

text: In 2022, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation premiered the web series "", which challenged teams consisting of one ballroom performer and one emerging filmmaker to create short films highlighting performances in each of five ballroom categories.


title: Intrusion (film)

text: Intrusion is a 2021 American psychological thriller film directed by Adam Salky and written by Christopher Sparling, starring Freida Pinto and Logan Marshall-Green. It was released on September 22, 2021, by Netflix. It is about a couple who move from Boston to a small town in New Mexico to live a quieter life, only to find themselves the victims of a burglary and a deadly home invasion.


title: Intrusion (film)

text: Tired of the rat race in Boston, therapist Meera and her husband, architect Henry Parsons, have recently moved into an isolated, ultra-modern house in Corrales, New Mexico, which Henry designed and built. One evening, they find their house broken into, although the only items stolen are a laptop and their cell phones. A few days later, Meera is woken up by a rattling noise and finds the power out. Henry goes outside to check the generator and finds it destroyed. Spotting flashlight beams inside, he realizes the intruders have returned. He discovers Meera tied up inside the house and releases her. They try to escape, but are pursued by several masked men. Henry retrieves a handgun hidden in the house and the couple flee upstairs. Henry lowers Meera down to the ground and she gets to her car, but then she hears gunshots from inside the house. A wounded man staggers outside, followed by Henry, who shoots him.


title: Intrusion (film)

text: At the police station, Meera argues with Henry about the gun, which he had kept secret from her. They are shown mugshots of the three intruders, all of whom were members of the Cobb family; two are dead, but one, Dylan Cobb, is in ICU at the local hospital. The couple is told that another family member, college student Christine Cobb, has recently gone missing, and that the trio is suspected to have been involved in her disappearance, which might go unsolved unless Cobb recovers. Meera, who has previously had breast cancer, is re-traumatized by the attack, but Henry tries to encourage her to put it behind them.


title: Intrusion (film)

text: One night, Henry goes to the store, but forgets his wallet. When he doesn't answer his phone, Meera decides to catch up to him in her car, but he turns off towards the hospital instead of the store. Meera gets in a car accident before she can follow him. Back at the house, Henry claims it was just a wrong turn.


title: Intrusion (film)

text: Meera borrows Henry's car to get to work and learns that the surviving intruder died the same night she saw Henry go towards the hospital. Suspicious, Meera finds the Cobb family's address in the GPS on Henry's car. Inside their trailer, she finds an envelope from Henry's construction company. She opens the family's mailbox and takes a video camera from inside. At home, Meera finds the camcorder is broken and won't play the tape, so she orders a new one. In Henry's office, she finds a USB drive with photos from the construction of their house, which show that Dylan Cobb worked on the house and that Christine Cobb visited the site.


title: Intrusion (film)

text: Meera confronts Henry, who reveals that he was short of money for the house, and committed fraud in order to cover the balance. He says he fired Dylan after witnessing him mistreat Christine; Dylan was enraged and threatened to expose Henry. After he stopped paying Dylan to keep quiet, Dylan and the other Cobb men broke into the house for revenge. Meera is reassured by Henry's explanation and forgets about the videotape.


title: Intrusion (film)

text: Soon after, they hold a housewarming party. She catches sight of a news report about Christine still being missing and decides to watch the tape after all. On it, Dylan says he believes Henry was involved in Christine's disappearance. He describes going to Henry's house with his dog, which barked near Henry's office as if recognizing a scent.


title: Intrusion (film)

text: In Henry's office, Meera discovers a hidden door to a secret basement. She finds Christine chained to a chair and realizes that the rattling sound in the house was her chains banging on the pipes. Henry arrives before Meera can free her, revealing that he has always felt homicidal urges. Meera realizes that Henry built their home to kidnap women and commit murder in it. She tries to phone for help, but Henry overpowers her and ties her up before going back upstairs to send the guests home. Meera manages to break free and release Christine. Henry returns to the basement as they are trying to escape, and a chase ensues. Henry knocks out Meera and drags Christine back downstairs. Just as he is about to kill her, Meera hits Henry in the head, killing him. She is later seen moving out of the now-empty house.


title: Intrusion (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 23% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 39 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: Fiberglass

text: Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth. The plastic matrix may be a thermoset polymer matrix—most often based on thermosetting polymers such as epoxy, polyester resin, or vinyl ester resin—or a thermoplastic.


title: Fiberglass

text: Cheaper and more flexible than carbon fiber, it is stronger than many metals by weight, non-magnetic, non-conductive, transparent to electromagnetic radiation, can be molded into complex shapes, and is chemically inert under many circumstances. Applications include aircraft, boats, automobiles, bath tubs and enclosures, swimming pools, hot tubs, septic tanks, water tanks, roofing, pipes, cladding, orthopedic casts, surfboards, and external door skins.


title: Fiberglass

text: Other common names for fiberglass are glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), glass-fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) or GFK (from ). Because glass fiber itself is sometimes referred to as "fiberglass", the composite is also called fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP). This article will adopt the convention that "fiberglass" refers to the complete fiber-reinforced composite material, rather than only to the glass fiber within it.


title: Fiberglass

text: Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers are a similar composite material in which the reinforcement are carbon fibers.


title: Fiberglass

text: Glass fibers have been produced for centuries, but the earliest patent was awarded to the Prussian inventor Hermann Hammesfahr (1845–1914) in the U.S. in 1880.


title: Fiberglass

text: Mass production of glass strands was accidentally discovered in 1932 when Games Slayter, a researcher at Owens-Illinois, directed a jet of compressed air at a stream of molten glass and produced fibers. A patent for this method of producing glass wool was first applied for in 1933. Owens joined with the Corning company in 1935 and the method was adapted by Owens Corning to produce its patented "Fiberglas" (spelled with one "s") in 1936. Originally, Fiberglas was a glass wool with fibers entrapping a great deal of gas, making it useful as an insulator, especially at high temperatures.


title: Fiberglass

text: A suitable resin for combining the fiberglass with a plastic to produce a composite material was developed in 1936 by DuPont. The first ancestor of modern polyester resins is Cyanamid's resin of 1942. Peroxide curing systems were used by then. With the combination of fiberglass and resin the gas content of the material was replaced by plastic. This reduced the insulation properties to values typical of the plastic, but now for the first time, the composite showed great strength and promise as a structural and building material. Many glass fiber composites continued to be called "fiberglass" (as a generic name) and the name was also used for the low-density glass wool product containing gas instead of plastic.


title: Fiberglass

text: Ray Greene of Owens Corning is credited with producing the first composite boat in 1937 but did not proceed further at the time due to the brittle nature of the plastic used. In 1939 Russia was reported to have constructed a passenger boat of plastic materials, and the United States a fuselage and wings of an aircraft. The first car to have a fiber-glass body was a 1946 prototype of the Stout Scarab, but the model did not enter production.


title: Fiberglass

text: Unlike glass fibers used for insulation, for the final structure to be strong, the fiber's surfaces must be almost entirely free of defects, as this permits the fibers to reach gigapascal tensile strengths. If a bulk piece of glass were defect-free, it would be equally as strong as glass fibers; however, it is generally impractical to produce and maintain bulk material in a defect-free state outside of laboratory conditions.


title: Fiberglass

text: The process of manufacturing fiberglass is called pultrusion. The manufacturing process for glass fibers suitable for reinforcement uses large furnaces to gradually melt the silica sand, limestone, kaolin clay, fluorspar, colemanite, dolomite and other minerals until a liquid forms. It is then extruded through bushings (spinneret), which are bundles of very small orifices (typically 5–25 micrometres in diameter for E-Glass, 9 micrometres for S-Glass).


title: Fiberglass

text: These filaments are then "sized" (coated) with a chemical solution. The individual filaments are now bundled in large numbers to provide a roving. The diameter of the filaments, and the number of filaments in the roving, determine its "weight", typically expressed in one of two measurement systems:


title: Fiberglass

text: These rovings are then either used directly in a composite application such as pultrusion, filament winding (pipe), gun roving (where an automated gun chops the glass into short lengths and drops it into a jet of resin, projected onto the surface of a mold), or in an intermediary step, to manufacture fabrics such as "chopped strand mat" (CSM) (made of randomly oriented small cut lengths of fiber all bonded together), woven fabrics, knit fabrics or unidirectional fabrics.


title: Fiberglass

text: Chopped strand mat or CSM is a form of reinforcement used in fiberglass. It consists of glass fibers laid randomly across each other and held together by a binder.


title: Fiberglass

text: It is typically processed using the hand lay-up technique, where sheets of material are placed on a mold and brushed with resin. Because the binder dissolves in resin, the material easily conforms to different shapes when wetted out. After the resin cures, the hardened product can be taken from the mold and finished.


title: Fiberglass

text: An individual structural glass fiber is both stiff and strong in tension and compression—that is, "along" its axis. Although it might be assumed that the fiber is weak in compression, it is actually only the long aspect ratio of the fiber which makes it seem so; i.e., because a typical fiber is long and narrow, it buckles easily. On the other hand, the glass fiber is weak in shear—that is, "across" its axis. Therefore, if a collection of fibers can be arranged permanently in a preferred direction within a material, and if they can be prevented from buckling in compression, the material will be preferentially strong in that direction.


title: Fiberglass

text: Furthermore, by laying multiple layers of fiber on top of one another, with each layer oriented in various preferred directions, the material's overall stiffness and strength can be efficiently controlled. In fiberglass, it is the plastic matrix which permanently constrains the structural glass fibers to directions chosen by the designer. With chopped strand mat, this directionality is essentially an entire two-dimensional plane; with woven fabrics or unidirectional layers, directionality of stiffness and strength can be more precisely controlled within the plane.


title: Fiberglass

text: A fiberglass component is typically of a thin "shell" construction, sometimes filled on the inside with structural foam, as in the case of surfboards. The component may be of nearly arbitrary shape, limited only by the complexity and tolerances of the mold used for manufacturing the shell.


title: Fiberglass

text: The mechanical functionality of materials is heavily reliant on the combined performances of both the resin (AKA matrix) and fibers. For example, in severe temperature conditions (over 180 °C), the resin component of the composite may lose its functionality, partially due to bond deterioration of resin and fiber. However, GFRPs can still show significant residual strength after experiencing high temperatures (200 °C).


title: Fiberglass

text: The most common types of glass fiber used in fiberglass is E-glass, which is alumino-borosilicate glass with less than 1% w/w alkali oxides, mainly used for glass-reinforced plastics. Other types of glass used are A-glass (Alkali-lime glass with little or no boron oxide), E-CR-glass (Electrical/Chemical Resistance; alumino-lime silicate with less than 1% w/w alkali oxides, with high acid resistance), C-glass (alkali-lime glass with high boron oxide content, used for glass staple fibers and insulation), D-glass (borosilicate glass, named for its low Dielectric constant), R-glass (alumino silicate glass without MgO and CaO with high mechanical requirements as Reinforcement), and S-glass (alumino silicate glass without CaO but with high MgO content with high tensile strength).


title: Fiberglass

text: Pure silica (silicon dioxide), when cooled as fused quartz into a glass with no true melting point, can be used as a glass fiber for fiberglass but has the drawback that it must be worked at very high temperatures. In order to lower the necessary work temperature, other materials are introduced as "fluxing agents" (i.e., components to lower the melting point). Ordinary A-glass ("A" for "alkali-lime") or soda lime glass, crushed and ready to be remelted, as so-called cullet glass, was the first type of glass used for fiberglass. E-glass ("E" because of initial Electrical application), is alkali-free and was the first glass formulation used for continuous filament formation. It now makes up most of the fiberglass production in the world, and also is the single largest consumer of boron minerals globally. It is susceptible to chloride ion attack and is a poor choice for marine applications. S-glass ("S" for "stiff") is used when tensile strength (high modulus) is important and is thus an important building and aircraft epoxy composite (it is called R-glass, "R" for "reinforcement" in Europe). C-glass ("C" for "chemical resistance") and T-glass ("T" is for "thermal insulator"—a North American variant of C-glass) are resistant to chemical attack; both are often found in insulation-grades of blown fiberglass.


title: Fiberglass

text: Fiberglass is an immensely versatile material due to its lightweight, inherent strength, weather-resistant finish and variety of surface textures.


title: Fiberglass

text: The development of fiber-reinforced plastic for commercial use was extensively researched in the 1930s. It was of particular interest to the aviation industry. A means of mass production of glass strands was accidentally discovered in 1932 when a researcher at Owens-Illinois directed a jet of compressed air at a stream of molten glass and produced fibers. After Owens merged with the Corning company in 1935, Owens Corning adapted the method to produce its patented "Fiberglas" (one "s"). A suitable resin for combining the "Fiberglas" with a plastic was developed in 1936 by DuPont. The first ancestor of modern polyester resins is Cyanamid's of 1942. Peroxide curing systems were used by then.


title: Fiberglass

text: During World War II, fiberglass was developed as a replacement for the molded plywood used in aircraft radomes (fiberglass being transparent to microwaves). Its first main civilian application was for the building of boats and sports car bodies, where it gained acceptance in the 1950s. Its use has broadened to the automotive and sport equipment sectors. In the production of some products, such as aircraft, carbon fiber is now used instead of fiberglass, which is stronger by volume and weight.


title: Fiberglass

text: Advanced manufacturing techniques such as pre-pregs and fiber rovings extend fiberglass's applications and the tensile strength possible with fiber-reinforced plastics.


title: Fiberglass

text: Fiberglass is also used in the telecommunications industry for shrouding antennas, due to its RF permeability and low signal attenuation properties. It may also be used to conceal other equipment where no signal permeability is required, such as equipment cabinets and steel support structures, due to the ease with which it can be molded and painted to blend with existing structures and surfaces. Other uses include sheet-form electrical insulators and structural components commonly found in power-industry products. Because of fiberglass's lightweight and durability, it is often used in protective equipment such as helmets. Many sports use fiberglass protective gear, such as goaltenders' and catchers' masks.


title: Fiberglass

text: Storage tanks can be made of fiberglass with capacities up to about 300 tonnes. Smaller tanks can be made with chopped strand mat cast over a thermoplastic inner tank which acts as a preform during construction. Much more reliable tanks are made using woven mat or filament wound fiber, with the fiber orientation at right angles to the hoop stress imposed in the sidewall by the contents. Such tanks tend to be used for chemical storage because the plastic liner (often polypropylene) is resistant to a wide range of corrosive chemicals. Fiberglass is also used for septic tanks.


title: Fiberglass

text: Glass-reinforced plastics are also used to produce house building components such as roofing laminate, door surrounds, over-door canopies, window canopies and dormers, chimneys, coping systems, and heads with keystones and sills. The material's reduced weight and easier handling, compared to wood or metal, allows faster installation. Mass-produced fiberglass brick-effect panels can be used in the construction of composite housing, and can include insulation to reduce heat loss.


title: Fiberglass

text: In rod pumping applications, fiberglass rods are often used for their high tensile strength to weight ratio. Fiberglass rods provide an advantage over steel rods because they stretch more elastically (lower Young's modulus) than steel for a given weight, meaning more oil can be lifted from the hydrocarbon reservoir to the surface with each stroke, all while reducing the load on the pumping unit.


title: Fiberglass

text: Fiberglass rods must be kept in tension, however, as they frequently part if placed in even a small amount of compression. The buoyancy of the rods within a fluid amplifies this tendency.


title: Fiberglass

text: Filament winding is a fabrication technique mainly used for manufacturing open (cylinders) or closed-end structures (pressure vessels or tanks). The process involves winding filaments under tension over a male mandrel. The mandrel rotates while a wind eye on a carriage moves horizontally, laying down fibers in the desired pattern. The most common filaments are carbon or glass fiber and are coated with synthetic resin as they are wound. Once the mandrel is completely covered to the desired thickness, the resin is cured; often the mandrel is placed in an oven to achieve this, though sometimes radiant heaters are used with the mandrel still turning in the machine. Once the resin has cured, the mandrel is removed, leaving the hollow final product. For some products such as gas bottles, the 'mandrel' is a permanent part of the finished product forming a liner to prevent gas leakage or as a barrier to protect the composite from the fluid to be stored.


title: Fiberglass

text: Filament winding is well suited to automation, and there are many applications, such as pipe and small pressure vessels that are wound and cured without any human intervention. The controlled variables for winding are fiber type, resin content, wind angle, tow or bandwidth and thickness of the fiber bundle. The angle at which the fiber has an effect on the properties of the final product. A high angle "hoop" will provide circumferential or "burst" strength, while lower angle patterns (polar or helical) will provide greater longitudinal tensile strength.


title: Fiberglass

text: Products currently being produced using this technique range from pipes, golf clubs, Reverse Osmosis Membrane Housings, oars, bicycle forks, bicycle rims, power and transmission poles, pressure vessels to missile casings, aircraft fuselages and lamp posts and yacht masts.


title: Fiberglass

text: A release agent, usually in either wax or liquid form, is applied to the chosen mold to allow the finished product to be cleanly removed from the mold. Resin—typically a 2-part thermoset polyester, vinyl, or epoxy—is mixed with its hardener and applied to the surface. Sheets of fiberglass matting are laid into the mold, then more resin mixture is added using a brush or roller. The material must conform to the mold, and air must not be trapped between the fiberglass and the mold. Additional resin is applied and possibly additional sheets of fiberglass. Hand pressure, vacuum or rollers are used to be sure the resin saturates and fully wets all layers, and that any air pockets are removed. The work must be done quickly before the resin starts to cure unless high-temperature resins are used which will not cure until the part is warmed in an oven. In some cases, the work is covered with plastic sheets and vacuum is drawn on the work to remove air bubbles and press the fiberglass to the shape of the mold.


title: Fiberglass

text: The fiberglass spray lay-up process is similar to the hand lay-up process but differs in the application of the fiber and resin to the mold. Spray-up is an open-molding composites fabrication process where resin and reinforcements are sprayed onto a mold. The resin and glass may be applied separately or simultaneously "chopped" in a combined stream from a chopper gun. Workers roll out the spray-up to compact the laminate. Wood, foam or other core material may then be added, and a secondary spray-up layer imbeds the core between the laminates. The part is then cured, cooled, and removed from the reusable mold.


title: Fiberglass

text: Pultrusion is a manufacturing method used to make strong, lightweight composite materials. In pultrusion, material is pulled through forming machinery using either a hand-over-hand method or a continuous-roller method (as opposed to extrusion, where the material is pushed through dies).


title: Fiberglass

text: In fiberglass pultrusion, fibers (the glass material) are pulled from spools through a device that coats them with a resin. They are then typically heat-treated and cut to length. Fiberglass produced this way can be made in a variety of shapes and cross-sections, such as W or S cross-sections.


title: Fiberglass

text: One notable feature of fiberglass is that the resins used are subject to contraction during the curing process. For polyester this contraction is often 5–6%; for epoxy, about 2%. Because the fibers do not contract, this differential can create changes in the shape of the part during curing. Distortions can appear hours, days, or weeks after the resin has set.


title: Fiberglass

text: While this distortion can be minimised by symmetric use of the fibers in the design, a certain amount of internal stress is created; and if it becomes too great, cracks form.


title: Fiberglass

text: In June 2011, the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) removed from its Report on Carcinogens all biosoluble glass wool used in home and building insulation and for non-insulation products. However, NTP considers fibrous glass dust to be "reasonably anticipated [as] a human carcinogen (Certain Glass Wool Fibers (Inhalable))". Similarly, California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment ("OEHHA") published a November, 2011 modification to its Proposition 65 listing to include only "Glass wool fibers (inhalable and biopersistent)." The actions of U.S. NTP and California's OEHHA mean that a cancer warning label for biosoluble fiber glass home and building insulation is no longer required under federal or California law. All fiberglass wools commonly used for thermal and acoustical insulation were reclassified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in October 2001 as Not Classifiable as to carcinogenicity to humans (Group 3).


title: Fiberglass

text: People can be exposed to fiberglass in the workplace by breathing it in, skin contact, or eye contact. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set the legal limit (permissible exposure limit) for fiberglass exposure in the workplace as 15 mg/m total and 5 mg/m in respiratory exposure over an 8-hour workday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a recommended exposure limit (REL) of 3 fibers/cm (less than 3.5 micrometers in diameter and greater than 10 micrometers in length) as a time-weighted average over an 8-hour workday, and a 5 mg/m total limit.


title: Fiberglass

text: The European Union and Germany classify synthetic vitreous fibers as possibly or probably carcinogenic, but fibers can be exempt from this classification if they pass specific tests. Evidence for these classifications is primarily from studies on experimental animals and mechanisms of carcinogenesis. The glass wool epidemiology studies have been reviewed by a panel of international experts convened by the IARC. These experts concluded: "Epidemiologic studies published during the 15 years since the previous IARC monographs review of these fibers in 1988 provide no evidence of increased risks of lung cancer or mesothelioma (cancer of the lining of the body cavities) from occupational exposures during the manufacture of these materials, and inadequate evidence overall of any cancer risk." A 2012 health hazard review for the European Commission stated that inhalation of fiberglass at concentrations of 3, 16 and 30 mg/m3 "did not induce fibrosis nor tumours except transient lung inflammation that disappeared after a post-exposure recovery period." Similar reviews of the epidemiology studies have been conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ("ATSDR"), the National Toxicology Program, the National Academy of Sciences and Harvard's Medical and Public Health Schools which reached the same conclusion as IARC that there is no evidence of increased risk from occupational exposure to glass wool fibers.


title: Fiberglass

text: Fiberglass will irritate the eyes, skin, and the respiratory system. Potential symptoms include irritation of eyes, skin, nose, throat, dyspnea (breathing difficulty); sore throat, hoarseness and cough. Scientific evidence demonstrates that fiberglass is safe to manufacture, install and use when recommended work practices are followed to reduce temporary mechanical irritation. Unfortunately these work practices are not always followed, and fiberglass is often left exposed in basements that later become occupied. Fiberglass insulation should never be left exposed in an occupied area, according to the American Lung Association.


title: Fiberglass

text: While the resins are cured, styrene vapors are released. These are irritating to mucous membranes and respiratory tract. Therefore, the Hazardous Substances Ordinance in Germany dictates a maximum occupational exposure limit of 86 mg/m. In certain concentrations, a potentially explosive mixture may occur. Further manufacture of GRP components (grinding, cutting, sawing) creates fine dust and chips containing glass filaments, as well as tacky dust, in quantities high enough to affect health and the functionality of machines and equipment. The installation of effective extraction and filtration equipment is required to ensure safety and efficiency.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: As of 2022, the Kuwaiti dinar is the currency with the highest value per base unit, with KD 1 equalling US$3.32, ahead of the Bahraini dinar with BD 1 equalling US$2.65.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: The dinar was introduced in 1961 to replace the Gulf rupee, equal to the Indian rupee. It was initially equivalent to £1 stg. As the rupee was fixed at 1/6"d", that resulted in a conversion rate of Rs. to KD 1.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the Iraqi dinar replaced the Kuwaiti dinar as the currency and large quantities of banknotes were stolen by the invading forces. After liberation, the Kuwaiti dinar was restored as the country's currency and a new banknote series was introduced, allowing the previous notes, including those stolen, to be demonetized.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: The coins in the following table were introduced in 1961. The design of all coins is similar and has not changed since they were first minted. On the obverse is a boom ship, with year of minting in both Islamic and Common Era in Arabic. The reverse contains the value in Arabic within a central circle with الكُوَيت (Arabic for "The Kuwait") above and KUWAIT in English below.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: Unlike many other Middle Eastern currencies, Kuwait has a coin worth 0.02 of its main currency unit rather than 0.025 or 0.25 - though this latter does exist as a banknote (see below).


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: The first series was issued following the pronouncement of the Kuwaiti Currency Law in 1960, which established the Kuwaiti Currency Board. This series was in circulation from 1 April 1961 to 1 February 1982 and consisted of denominations of KD , KD , KD 1, KD 5 and KD 10.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: After the creation of the Central Bank of Kuwait in 1969 as a replacement to the Kuwaiti Currency Board, new KD , KD  and KD 10 notes were issued from 17 November 1970, followed by the new KD 1 and KD 5 notes of the second series on 20 April 1971. This second series was withdrawn on 1 February 1982.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: The third series was issued on 20 February 1980, after the accession to the throne of late Emir Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, in denominations of KD , KD , 1, 5 and KD 10. A KD 20 banknote was introduced later on 9 February 1986. As a result of the state of emergency after the Invasion of Kuwait, this series was ruled invalid with effect from 30 September 1991. Significant quantities of these notes were stolen by Iraqi forces and some had appeared on the international numismatic market. The "Standard Catalog of World Paper Money" (A. Pick, Krause Publications) lists notes with the following serial number prefix denominators as being among those stolen:


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: After the liberation, a fourth series was issued on 24 March 1991 with the aims of replacing the previous withdrawn series as quickly as possible and guaranteeing the country's swift economic recovery. This fourth series was legal tender until 16 February 1995. Denominations were KD , KD , KD 1, KD 5, KD 10 and KD 20.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: The fifth series of Kuwaiti banknotes was in use from 3 April 1994 and included high-tech security measures which have now become standard for banknotes. It was withdrawn on 1 October 2015. Denominations were as in the fourth series.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: Central Bank of Kuwait brought the sixth series of Kuwaiti banknotes into circulation on 29 June 2014. Some of the notes are coarse so that the blind can identify them by touch.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: In both 1993 and 2001, the Central Bank of Kuwait issued commemorative KD 1 polymer banknotes to celebrate its Liberation from Iraq. The first commemorative note, dated 26 February 1993, was issued to celebrate the second anniversary of its Liberation. The front features the map of the State of Kuwait, the emblem of Kuwait and on the left and right side of the note is the list of nations that assisted in its Liberation, in both English and Arabic. The second commemorative note, dated 26 February 2001, was issued to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its Liberation. One feature from the note is an optically variable device (OVD) patch that shows a fingerprint, a reference to the victims of the invasion and occupation of Kuwait. Even though they were denominated as KD 1, both of the commemorative notes state that they were not legal tender.


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: From 18 March 1975 to 4 January 2003, the dinar was pegged to a weighted currency basket. From 5 January 2003 until 20 May 2007, the pegging was switched to US$1 = KD 0.29963 with margins of ±3.5%. The central rate translates to approximately KD 1 = US$3.53


title: Kuwaiti dinar

text: From 16 June 2007, the Kuwaiti dinar was re-pegged to a basket of currencies, and was worth about $3.28 as of December 2016. It is the world's highest-valued currency unit.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: ARA "General Belgrano" (C-4) was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Originally commissioned by the U.S. as , she saw action in the Pacific theatre of World War II before being sold by the United States to Argentina. The vessel was the second to have been named after the Argentine founding father Manuel Belgrano (1770–1820). The first vessel was a 7,069-ton armoured cruiser completed in 1896.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: She was sunk on 2 May 1982 during the Falklands War by the Royal Navy submarine with the loss of 323 lives. Losses from "General Belgrano" totalled just under half of Argentine military deaths in the war.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: She is the only ship to have been sunk during military operations by a nuclear-powered submarine and the second sunk in action by any type of submarine since World War II (the first being the Indian frigate , which was sunk by the Pakistani submarine during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War).


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: The warship was built as , the sixth ship of the design, in Camden, New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation starting in 1935, and launched in March 1938. She survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 undamaged, and went on to earn nine battle stars for World War II service. At the end of the war, she was placed in reserve at Philadelphia on 28 February 1946, decommissioned on 3 July that year and remained laid up at Philadelphia.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: "Phoenix" was sold to Argentina in October 1951 and renamed "17 de Octubre" after the "People's Loyalty day", an important symbol for the political party of the then-president Juan Perón. Sold with her was another of her class, the , renamed ARA "Nueve de Julio", which was withdrawn in 1977.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: "17 de Octubre" was one of the main naval units that joined the 1955 coup in which Perón was overthrown, and was renamed "General Belgrano" after Manuel Belgrano, a lawyer who had founded the "Escuela de Náutica" (School of Navigation) in 1799 and with the rank of general fought for Argentine independence from 1811 to 1819. "General Belgrano" accidentally rammed her sister ship "Nueve de Julio" on exercises in 1956, which resulted in damage to both. "General Belgrano" was outfitted with the Sea Cat anti-aircraft missile system between 1967 and 1968.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: On 12 April 1982, following the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands, Britain declared a Maritime Exclusion Zone (MEZ) around the Falkland Islands within which any Argentine warship or naval auxiliary entering the MEZ might be attacked by British nuclear-powered submarines (SSN). On 23 April, the British Government clarified in a message that was passed via the Swiss Embassy in Buenos Aires to the Argentine government that any Argentine ship or aircraft that was considered to pose a threat to British forces would be attacked.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: On 30 April this was upgraded to the total exclusion zone, within which any sea vessel or aircraft from any country entering the zone might be fired upon without further warning. The zone was stated to be "...without prejudice to the right of the United Kingdom to take whatever additional measures may be needed in exercise of its right of self-defence, under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter." The concept of a total exclusion zone was a novelty in maritime law; the Law of the Sea Convention had no provision for such an instrument. Its purpose seems to have been to increase the amount of time available to ascertain whether any vessel in the zone was hostile or not. Regardless of the uncertainty of the zone's legal status, it was widely respected by the shipping of neutral nations.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: The Argentine military junta began to reinforce the islands in late April when it was realised that the British Task Force was heading south. As part of these movements, Argentine naval units were ordered to take positions around the islands. Two Task Groups designated 79.1, which included the aircraft carrier ARA "Veinticinco de Mayo" plus two Type 42 destroyers, and 79.2, which included three Exocet missile armed Drummond-class corvettes, both sailed to the north. "General Belgrano" had left Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego on 26 April. Two destroyers, ARA "Piedra Buena" and ARA "Hipólito Bouchard" (also ex-USN vessels) were detached from Task Group 79.2 and together with the tanker YPF "Puerto Rosales", joined "General Belgrano" to form Task Group 79.3.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: By 29 April, the ships were patrolling the Burdwood Bank, south of the islands. On 30 April, "General Belgrano" was detected by the British nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarine . The submarine approached over the following day. On 1 May 1982, Admiral Juan Lombardo ordered all Argentine naval units to seek out the British task force around the Falklands and launch a "massive attack" the following day. "General Belgrano", which was outside and to the south-west of the exclusion zone, was ordered south-east.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: Lombardo's signal was intercepted by British Intelligence. As a result, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her War Cabinet, meeting at Chequers the following day, agreed to a request from Admiral Terence Lewin, the Chief of the Defence Staff, to alter the rules of engagement and allow an attack on "General Belgrano" outside the exclusion zone. Although the group was outside the British-declared total exclusion zone of 370 km (200 nautical miles) radius from the islands, the British decided that it was a threat. After consultation at Cabinet level, Thatcher agreed that Commander Chris Wreford-Brown should attack "General Belgrano".


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: At 14:57 (Falkland Islands Time) on 2 May, "Conqueror" fired three 21-inch Mk 8 mod 4 torpedoes (conventional, non-guided, torpedoes), each with an 805-pound (363 kg) Torpex warhead. While "Conqueror" was also equipped with the newer Mark 24 Tigerfish homing torpedo, there were doubts about its reliability. Initial reports from Argentina claimed that "Conqueror" fired two Tigerfish torpedoes on "General Belgrano". Two of the three torpedoes hit "General Belgrano". According to the Argentine government, "General Belgrano" position was .


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: One of the torpedoes struck aft of the bow, outside the area protected by either the ship's side armour or the internal anti-torpedo bulge. This blew off the ship's bow, but the internal torpedo bulkheads held and the forward powder magazine for the 40 mm gun did not detonate. It is believed that none of the ship's company were in that part of the ship at the time of the explosion.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: The second torpedo struck about three-quarters of the way along the ship, just outside the rear limit of the side armour plating. The torpedo punched through the side of the ship before exploding in the aft machine room. The explosion tore upward through two messes and a relaxation area called "the Soda Fountain" before finally ripping a hole in the main deck. Later reports put the number of deaths in the area around the explosion at 275 men. After the explosion, the ship rapidly filled with smoke. The explosion also damaged "General Belgrano" electrical power system, preventing her from putting out a radio distress call. Though the forward bulkheads held, water was rushing in through the hole created by the second torpedo and could not be pumped out because of the electrical power failure. In addition, although the ship should have been "at action stations", she was sailing with the water-tight doors open.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: The ship began to list to port and to sink towards the bow. Twenty minutes after the attack, at 16:24, Captain Bonzo ordered the crew to abandon ship. Inflatable life rafts were deployed, and the evacuation began without panic.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: The two escort ships were unaware of what was happening to "General Belgrano", as they were out of touch with her in the gloom and had not seen the distress rockets or lamp signals. Adding to the confusion, the crew of "Bouchard" felt an impact that was possibly the third torpedo striking at the end of its run (an examination of the ship later showed an impact mark consistent with a torpedo). The two ships continued on their course westward. By the time the ships realised that something had happened to "General Belgrano", it was already dark and the weather had worsened, scattering the life rafts.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: Argentine and Chilean ships rescued 772 men from 3 to 5 May. In total, 323 were killed in the attack: 321 members of the crew and two civilians who were on board at the time.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: Following the loss of "General Belgrano", the Argentine fleet returned to its bases and played no major role in the rest of the conflict. British nuclear submarines continued to operate in the sea areas between Argentina and the Falkland Islands, gathering intelligence, providing early warning of air raids and effectively imposing sea denial. A further effect was that the Argentinian Navy's carrier-borne aircraft had to operate from land bases at the limit of their range, rather than from an aircraft carrier at sea. The minimal role of the Navy in the rest of the campaign led to a considerable loss of credibility and influence within the Junta.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: The legality of the sinking of "General Belgrano" has been disputed due to disagreement on the exact nature of the Maritime Exclusion Zone (MEZ) and whether "General Belgrano" had been returning to port at the time of the sinking. Through a message passed via the Swiss Embassy in Buenos Aires to the Argentine government nine days before the sinking, the UK made clear that it no longer considered the 200 mile exclusion zone as the limit of its military action. On 1 May 1982, Admiral Juan Lombardo ordered all Argentine naval units to seek out the British task force around the Falklands and launch a "massive attack" the following day.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: In 2003, the ship's captain Hector Bonzo confirmed that General Belgrano had actually been manoeuvering, not "sailing away" from the exclusion zone. Captain Bonzo stated that any suggestion that HMS "Conqueror" actions were a "betrayal" was utterly wrong; rather, the submarine carried out its duties according to the accepted rules of war. In an interview two years before his death in 2009, he further stated that: "It was absolutely not a war crime. It was an act of war, lamentably legal."


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: The sinking also became a "cause célèbre" for anti-war campaigners such as Labour MP Tam Dalyell. Early reports suggested that more than 1,000 Argentine sailors might have been killed in the sinking; it was in fact around a third of that number.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: The sinking occurred 14 hours after President of Peru Fernando Belaúnde proposed a comprehensive peace plan and called for regional unity, although Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and diplomats in London did not see this document until after the sinking of "General Belgrano". Diplomatic efforts to that point had failed completely. After the sinking, Argentina rejected the plan but the UK indicated its acceptance on 5 May. The news was subsequently dominated by military action and the British continued to offer ceasefire terms until 1 June that were rejected by the Junta.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: On 3 May 1982, Argentina's Chancellery released a statement in the name of the Argentinian government that read:


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: Neither the United Kingdom nor Argentina declared war during the conflict. Combat was confined to the area around and on the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. "General Belgrano" was sunk outside the total exclusion zone around the Falklands, delimited by the UK. Through a message passed via the Swiss Embassy in Buenos Aires to the Argentine government on 23 April, the UK made clear that it no longer considered the 200-mile (370 km) exclusion zone as the limit of its military action. The message read:


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: Interviews conducted by Martin Middlebrook for his book "Argentine Fight for the Falklands" indicated that Argentine naval officers understood that the intent of the message was to indicate that any ships operating near the exclusion zone could be attacked. Argentine Rear Admiral Allara, who was in charge of the task force of which "General Belgrano" was part, said: "After that message of 23 April, the entire South Atlantic was an operational theatre for both sides. We, as professionals, said it was just too bad that we lost the "Belgrano"". Captain Bonzo also told Middlebrook that he was not angry about the attack on his ship and that "The limit [exclusion zone] did not exclude danger or risks; it was all the same in or out. I would like to be quite precise that, as far as I was concerned, the 200-mile limit was valid until 1 May, that is while diplomatic negotiations were taking place and/or until a real act of war took place, and that had happened on 1 May".


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: Admiral Sandy Woodward, who commanded the British task force during the war, wrote in his 1997 book "One Hundred Days" that HMS "Conqueror" received a signal changing the rules of engagement and that "The change said quite clearly he may now attack the Belgrano, outside the TEZ".


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: Some details of the action were leaked to a British Member of Parliament, Tam Dalyell, in 1985 by the senior civil servant Clive Ponting, resulting in the unsuccessful prosecution of the latter under the Official Secrets Act 1911. The documents revealed that " General Belgrano" was sailing away from the exclusion zone when she was attacked and sunk.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: In May 1983, Thatcher appeared on "Nationwide", a live television show on BBC1, where a teacher, Diana Gould, questioned her about the sinking, saying that the ship was already west of the Falklands and heading towards the Argentine mainland to the west. Gould also said that the Peruvian peace proposal must have reached London in the 14 hours between its publication and the sinking of "General Belgrano", and the escalation of the war could have thus been prevented. In the emotional exchange that followed, Thatcher answered that the vessel was a threat to British ships and lives and denied that the peace proposal had reached her. She added that "One day, all of the facts, in about 30 years time, will be published", apparently a reference to a classified report prepared by intelligence officer Major David Thorp for Thatcher after the incident. Diana Gould died in December 2011, just a few weeks before the existence of the report was made public.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: After the show, Thatcher's husband Denis lashed out at the producer of the show in the entertainment suite, saying that his wife had been "stitched up by bloody BBC poofs and Trots". Thatcher herself commented during the interview: "I think it could only be in Britain that a prime minister was accused of sinking an enemy ship that was a danger to our navy, when my main motive was to protect the boys in our navy."


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: According to the British historian Sir Lawrence Freedman, neither Thatcher nor the Cabinet was aware of "General Belgrano" change of course before the cruiser was attacked. In his book "One Hundred Days", Admiral Woodward claims that "General Belgrano" was part of the southern part of a pincer movement aimed at the task force, and had to be sunk quickly. He wrote:


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: On 4 May, the British tabloid newspaper "The Sun" ran the controversial headline "Gotcha" in reference to the sinking of "General Belgrano". Kelvin MacKenzie, the newspaper's editor, was reported to have used an impromptu exclamation by "The Sun" features editor, Wendy Henry, as the inspiration for the headline. The accompanying text reported that "General Belgrano" had only been hit and damaged and not sunk, while a "gunboat" (actually the armed tug ARA "Alférez Sobral") had sunk, when in fact the reverse was the case. After early editions went to press, further reports suggested a major loss of life, and Mackenzie toned down the headline to read "Did 1,200 Argies drown?" in later editions.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: Despite its notoriety, few readers in the UK saw the headline at first hand as it was only used on copies of the first northern editions; southern editions and later editions in the North carried the toned-down headline.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: In August 1994, an official Argentine Defence Ministry report written by armed forces auditor Eugenio Miari was released which described the sinking of "General Belgrano" as "a legal act of war", explaining that "acts of war can be carried out in all of the enemy's territory" and "they can also take place in those areas over which no state can claim sovereignty, in international waters". Argentinian veterans were said to be dismayed at the conclusion about "General Belgrano" and the President of the Federation of Argentine War Veterans Luis Ibáñez hoped to produce more witnesses to show that the sinking was a war crime.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: In 1999 Sir Michael Boyce, First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, visited the Puerto Belgrano naval base and paid tribute to those who died. In 2003 a search team aboard "Seacor Lenga", crewed by Argentine and British veterans, was sponsored by National Geographic to find the sunken cruiser but failed to locate the ship. The area where "General Belgrano" sank, that was not found, is classified as a "War Grave" under Argentine Congress Law 25.546.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: In 2000, lawyers representing the families of the sailors killed onboard "General Belgrano" attempted to sue the British Government in the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that the attack took place outside the exclusion zone. It was an attempt to pressure the Argentine government to lodge an action against the UK in the International Court of Justice, but was ruled inadmissible by the Court of Human Rights on the grounds that it had been submitted too late.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: "La Nación" published a reader's letter from Admiral (head of the Argentine Navy in the 1990s) in 2005 in which Molina Pico wrote that "General Belgrano" was part of an operation that posed a real threat to the British task force, but was holding off for tactical reasons. Molina Pico added that "To leave the exclusion zone was not to leave the combat zone to enter a protected area". Molina Pico explicitly stated that the sinking was not a war crime, but a combat action.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: "General Belgrano"s captain, Héctor Bonzo, died on 22 April 2009, aged 76. He had spent his last years working for an association called "Amigos del Crucero General Belgrano" (Friends of the Cruiser General Belgrano) whose purpose was to help those affected by the sinking. Captain Bonzo also wrote his memories about the sinking in the book "1093 Tripulantes del Crucero ARA General Belgrano", published in 1992. In this book he wrote that it is "improper to accept that (...) the attack by HMS "Conqueror" was a betrayal". During an interview in 2003 he had stated that "General Belgrano" was only temporarily sailing to the west at the time of the attack, and his orders were to attack any British ships which came within range of the cruiser's armament.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: In late 2011, Major David Thorp, a former British military intelligence officer who led the signals intercept team aboard , released the book "The Silent Listener" detailing the role of intelligence in the Falklands War. In the book he stated that despite the fact that "General Belgrano" was observed by "Conqueror" sailing away from the Falklands at the time of the attack, she had actually been ordered to proceed to a rendezvous point within the Exclusion Zone. A report prepared by Thorp for Thatcher several months after the incident stated the destination of the vessel was not to her home port as the Argentine Junta stated; the report was not released because the Prime Minister did not want to compromise British signals intelligence capabilities.


title: ARA General Belgrano

text: In 2012 the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, referred to the sinking of "General Belgrano" as a "war crime". However, the Argentine Navy has held the view that the sinking was a legitimate act of war, a position that was asserted by the Argentine Navy before various courts in 1995, and by the vessel's Captain Hector Bonzo in 2003.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Opened in August 2017 as a replacement for the Georgia Dome, it serves as the home stadium of the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) and Atlanta United FC of Major League Soccer (MLS). The stadium is owned by the state government of Georgia through the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, and operated by AMB Group, the parent organization of the Falcons and Atlanta United. In June 2016, the total cost of its construction was estimated at US$1.6 billion.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The stadium officially opened on August 26, 2017, with a Falcons preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals, despite the retractable roof system being incomplete at the time. Several events formerly held at the Georgia Dome moved to Mercedes-Benz Stadium following its completion, including the SEC football championship game and the Peach Bowl. In 2018, it hosted the College Football Playoff National Championship and the MLS Cup (as Atlanta United held home field advantage), and it hosted Super Bowl LIII in 2019.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The stadium's signature feature is its retractable roof, which features a "pinwheel" consisting of eight translucent, triangular panels. Each of the eight panels operates on two straight, parallel rails; one rail is responsible for moving the panel while the other rail stabilizes the panel. Closing the roof takes slightly less time than opening the roof, since the roof has to disengage the seals at the start of the opening procedure and slow down towards the end to prevent the panels from getting derailed. When opened, the panels are designed to create the illusion of a bird's wings extended.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Architect Bill Johnson explained that the circular opening in the roof was inspired by the Roman Pantheon ("Pantheon" was also the working name for the building design). The roof was designed to be made of a clear, lightweight polymer material that can adjust its opacity to control light, and much of the exterior is clear polymer or glass to allow views to the outside. The middle concourse and upper bowl were eliminated in the east end zone to allow for an unobstructed view of the Atlanta skyline.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Below the roof is the "Halo", an , ring-shaped video board around its rim. Covering a total area of , it was described by manufacturer Daktronics as being "three times as large as the current largest single display board in the NFL" installed at EverBank Field in Jacksonville (also built by Daktronics). Daktronics also installed more than of other LED boards, including field-level advertising boards for soccer games.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The stadium's roof can be kept open under light precipitation, as the electrical systems for all video boards in the stadium are outdoor-rated, and the field has a drainage system. AMB Group senior executive Mike Egan went as far as describing Mercedes-Benz Stadium as "an outdoor stadium with a roof over it" due to these characteristics, but that other factors such as humidity and outside temperatures would be taken into consideration on whether or not the roof would be opened.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The stadium also includes features specific for college football use. It opened with two oversized locker rooms, each capable of housing 100 players, reflecting the much larger size of college football rosters compared to those of the NFL. However, the stadium did not initially include another feature important in that context—staircases connecting the seats to the field, making it difficult for bands to enter the field for halftime shows (most NFL teams, including the Falcons, do not have bands). It also has a soccer-specific configuration, with retractable lower bowl seats to widen the field, and mechanized curtains that limit the capacity to about 42,500.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The stadium incorporates contemporary art into its interior and exterior design, with over 180 commissioned works, including pieces by Nari Ward, Hank Willis Thomas, and Steven and William Ladd. The centerpiece of the art collection is Gábor Miklós Szőke's stainless steel sculpture "The Atlanta Falcon", which the artist said is the largest freestanding bird sculpture in the world. The falcon, perched atop a tall bronze football, is high with a wingspan of . The sculpture stands in front of the stadium, weighs over , and is as tall as a four-story building.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The upper concourse includes an area known as the "100 Yard Club", a concession and gathering area that stretches the length of the football field. Other noted areas include the "AT&T Perch"—a gathering area with televisions and video walls airing other games (designed as being of interest to fantasy football players), and the "Budweiser Biergarten". Several "neighborhood bars" also operate within the stadium. The former Georgia Dome site between the stadium and the Georgia World Congress Center was redeveloped as "The Home Depot Backyard"—an green space used as a tailgating area. It also features a 3-tier, dual-level, shaded deck pavilion.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: For its concessions, Mercedes-Benz Stadium focused primarily on the quality and speed of service, variety, and pricing; the stadium includes at least 670 points-of-sale, and has a policy of "fan first pricing" for all concessions—with lower menu prices in comparison to other sports facilities during all events regardless of stature, such as a US$2 beverage cup with free refills, and a $5 beer. To increase the speed of service, all items were priced at whole dollars only, with the 9.3% sales tax already included in the posted menu prices (rather than added at the time of purchase ). The practice helped to increase the venue's revenue, as the lower prices have been offset by increased spending on concessions by attendees.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: In March 2019, following a trial in 2018, the stadium became one of the first major professional sports venues in the United States to only accept "cashless" payment methods for transactions at concessions inside the stadium, such as credit or debit cards, and mobile payments. This only applies to concessions; cash is still accepted for ticket sales and any third-party merchandising that may operate during events, and kiosks are provided for loading cash onto prepaid debit cards (with no transaction fees charged). At the same time, the stadium raised all menu prices, by adding tax at the time of purchase but maintaining the same posted price values as before (besides five items, such as hot dogs, whose list prices were discounted by 50 cents).


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: To reflect local culture, the stadium also partnered with Atlanta-based restaurants, chains, and chefs to have presences as concessions under the "Best of Atlanta" banner, including Chick-fil-A, The Varsity, Kevin Gillespie, and others. In keeping with the fan first pricing policy, these partners agreed to not mark up their prices in comparison to their standalone locations. As with all other locations under a long-standing corporate policy, the Chick-fil-A does not operate on Sundays, with no exception, even though the stadium's main tenant primarily plays on Sundays. During Sunday events, the Chick-fil-A stand is replaced by an unbranded "Fries Up" stand operated by Levy Restaurants.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: In May 2010, it was reported by multiple news outlets that the Atlanta Falcons were interested in replacing the Georgia Dome with a newly constructed open-air stadium, although at the time it was planned to retain the Georgia Dome to continue hosting non-NFL events. The team was pursuing a new stadium because of the team's desire to play outdoors, as well as Falcons team owner Arthur Blank's interest in hosting another Super Bowl. The stadium was also pursued as a possible bid for a venue of an upcoming FIFA World Cup. Kansas City-based architectural firm Populous released comprehensive plans for the proposed stadium in February 2011. Populous' early cost estimate for the project was US$700 million. According to the master plan, the stadium would have a regular capacity of 71,000, but can expand to 75,000 for special events such as the Super Bowl. It will also feature multiple club levels, suites and exhibition area.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: In April 2012, Populous released a new price estimate of US$947.7 million, which was significantly higher than the previous proposal of US$700 million. In April 2012, "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" reported that if a deal was reached, the new stadium's construction would be expected to begin in 2014, with the Falcons to begin regular-season play in 2017. The proposed location of the new stadium is a large parking lot in Atlanta's Vine City neighborhood, which is less than a mile north of the Georgia Dome's current location. Once construction was complete, the Georgia Dome would subsequently be demolished.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On August 24, "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" reported that an official deal could be reached on the construction of a new stadium by the end of 2012. They also reported on September 10 that Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed said site improvements could likely bump the total cost to US$1.2 billion; however, that does not increase the actual building cost, which still remains at an estimated US$948 million.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On December 10, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, in a unanimous decision, approved the blueprint and most of the agreement terms for the new stadium plans. According to "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" article, the term sheet is non-binding and changes could be made at any time as regards stadium construction. Stadium location, however, is yet to be worked out; proposed locations being reported are within walking distance of the Georgia Dome, with one site located one-half mile north, and the other one block directly south, at the one of the stadium's existing parking lots. The project made national headlines for the first time in 2012 on December 15, with team owner Arthur Blank stating in "The New York Times" that he would rather have a new stadium be constructed than a "remodeling job" of the Georgia Dome. During a January 10, 2013 press conference, mayor Reed expressed his optimism and confidence in the construction of the new stadium; he also mentioned the possibility of the new stadium helping the city compete for its first Major League Soccer team.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On March 7, 2013, the Falcons and the city of Atlanta agreed to build the new downtown stadium. The maximum public contribution for the project was US$200 million, coming from the hotel-motel tax in Atlanta and unincorporated Fulton County. The Atlanta City Council officially approved the stadium on March 19, 2013. The council voted, 11–4, in favor of the use of city hotel-motel taxes to pay US$200 million toward construction costs and potentially several times that toward costs of financing, maintaining and operating the stadium through 2050. On May 21, 2013, the NFL approved a US$200 million loan to the Falcons organization for the purpose of building the stadium.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The Falcons unveiled a conceptual design for the new stadium on June 18, 2013, with a proposed capacity of 70,000 spectators, 7,500 club seats, and 180 luxury suites.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Arthur Blank indicated the groundbreaking of the stadium would be conducted the last week of March 2014. Just after Martin Luther King Jr. Drive was closed permanently, the Mount Vernon Baptist Church held its last Sunday service on March 9 before the historic church was demolished. Friendship Baptist, the birthplace of both Spelman College and Morehouse College, was also demolished and relocated to make room for the stadium. Due to legal issues surrounding the issuing of bonds, the stadium did not break ground until May 19, 2014.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The stadium's projected opening date was delayed three times due to the complexity of the eight-panel retractable roof. The stadium was originally intended to open on March 1, 2017; however, the opening date was later delayed to June 1, 2017, then to July 30, 2017, and then to August 26, 2017. Steve Cannon, CEO of the Atlanta Falcons' parent company AMB Group, stated that the Falcons' preseason schedule and the Chick-fil-a Kickoff Games would not be affected by the new opening date; however, three of Atlanta United's matches would be affected. The July 30 game against Orlando City SC was moved to Atlanta United's interim home of Bobby Dodd Stadium for July 29 while two home matches scheduled in August were moved to later dates. Additionally, the Georgia Dome's demolition was put on hold until the new stadium's certificate of occupancy could be issued. On June 9, 2017, stadium officials announced that they were confident that Mercedes-Benz Stadium would open as scheduled, and demolition of the Georgia Dome had resumed, and the Dome was imploded on the morning of November 20, 2017.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On July 25, 2017, stadium officials reported that the roof would be in the closed position during the Falcons' preseason games and the Chick-fil-A Kickoff games while contractors continue to fine tune the roof to allow all eight panels to work in sync. Falcons' President Rich McKay also stated that the roof would remain closed whenever outside temperatures exceed . On August 16, 2017, WXIA reported that construction of the retractable roof system was intentionally delayed by stadium and construction officials to ensure the roof's long term operability and to ensure that other parts of the stadium would be completed on time.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On September 10, 2017, the Falcons announced that, contrary to earlier plans, the stadium roof would in fact be open during the Falcons home opener on September 17 against the Green Bay Packers if weather permitted. On October 6, 2017, stadium officials announced that the roof would be opened, weather permitting, for Atlanta United's regular season finale against Toronto FC on October 22; stadium officials also stated that the roof would remain closed for the remainder of the Falcons' regular season as well as for any home matches hosted by Atlanta United during the 2017 MLS Cup Playoffs as contractors continue to worked on fully mechanizing the roof.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Hoping to address concerns of overcrowding at the ingress and egress areas of the stadium, stadium officials announced that they plan to add several more doors to the stadium. Overcrowding and congestion was a frequent concern and complaint from fans attending major events during the stadium's first year of operation. Fans attending the College Football National Championship game reported significant delays in both entering and exiting the stadium, with some reporting wait times that exceeded 45 minutes to get out of the stadium at the completion of the game.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: A pedestrian bridge was planned but not originally opened when the stadium first opened. The bridge was completed in January 2019 at a cost of ~$33 million. It features a serpentine like structure on both ends, and a cover over the main span with customizable LEDs. The bridge connects gameday parking lots and the Vine City MARTA Station to the northwest side of the stadium and The Home Depot Backyard, allowing pedestrians to avoid crossing the busy, 6 lane Northside Drive.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The bridge is criticized for its immense cost, originally only planned to cost $13 million, but swelling to $33 million in part to expedite construction so it would be completed for Super Bowl LIII. However, the bridge was not open for the Super Bowl as it was deemed a security risk. The bridge is also criticized for its inequity and siphoning funds from the 2016 Renew Atlanta TSPLOST; the bridge was not originally on the project lists, so other projects originally on the list had to be removed. Critics argue the original projects would have accomplished more and served more people. It has been also criticized for not being ADA friendly as the ramp is too steep, and there is no elevator.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On February 7, 2019, stadium officials stated that the artificial turf would be replaced prior to the Falcons' 2019 season as part of nearly $2 million in capital improvements to the stadium; stadium officials also noted that the turf would be replaced approximately every two years given the number of events, both private and public, held annually at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Several reports of the roof leaking during the stadium's inaugural season caused some issues for the stadium's design team. During the College Football National Championship Game in January 2018, several media outlets reported a significant leak that appeared to be occurring just over the field of play near the 25-yard line. Bill Hancock, College Football Playoff Executive Director, said that he and his team had been made aware of the issue concerning water leaking from the roof and that he believed that the issue did not affect the field of play during the game. Neither team competing in the game reported any issues with the playing surface.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Stadium officials clarified after the initial leaks that were reported back in October 2017 that the issue was not a "leak" but rather a "few drops of water" that were falling from the roof around isolated parts of the stadium. Officials stated that the issue was due to the fact that the roof was still not fully mechanized yet, and that the issues would be fixed before the Falcons' 2018 season. They also stated that the issues were common for newly constructed stadiums with retractable roofs.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Since the retractable roof was one of the major features and design points of the stadium, some of the problems with the roof were magnified in the stadium's first year of operation. The roof, which is supposed to open in as little as 12 minutes with the push of a button, was not fully operational by the time the stadium's primary tenants, the Atlanta Falcons and the Atlanta United FC, seasons began. The roof was required to be mechanically opened, which was a very time-consuming process. As such, the roof was only opened twice in its first year of use, once for an Atlanta Falcons game – a "Sunday Night Football" game against the Green Bay Packers on September 17, 2017, and a nationally televised MLS soccer game, when the Atlanta United FC hosted Toronto FC in a sold-out game of more than 70,000 fans on October 22, 2017.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Falcons president Rich McKay told the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" that he expected all issues with the roof to be completely resolved before the 2018 season. On May 29, 2018, the roof was opened for the first time since October 2017 for construction purposes. Stadium officials stated that the roof would be open for 10 days, regardless of weather, to complete work on automating the roof. After the 10-day construction period, an unspecified time frame would be required for final commissioning work, after of which, operation of the roof would be turned over to stadium officials. Work on the roof was completed on July 14, 2018. On July 25, 2018, in a demonstration to members of the media, the roof was opened and closed for the first time as intended, with both procedures taking approximately eight minutes each.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: In December 2014, the Georgia World Congress Center's board of governors approved a resolution to raise the cost of the stadium to US$1.2 billion. The stadium was initially slated to cost US$1 billion, then rose to US$1.2 billion in October 2013.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The city has agreed to contribute US$200 million in stadium bonds, but with additional tax revenues and with the state of Georgia contributing US$40 million for parking expansion, public spending is expected to eclipse US$700 million.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: In January 2015, the Falcons announced the sale of personal seat licenses (PSL) costing up to US$45,000 per seat, depending on the section of the stadium. The most expensive tickets are priced at US$385 per game, in addition to one-time PSL fees, for the first three years. The total revenue generated from PSL sales was $273 million.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On August 21, 2015, the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" reported that Mercedes-Benz would acquire the naming rights for the stadium, and this was later confirmed by a press conference at the stadium site on August 24. Under the stadium deal with the city of Atlanta and the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, the Falcons organization controls the stadium's naming rights and receives all related revenue. Then-Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Steve Cannon, who would subsequently join the Falcons' organization in 2016 as CEO of AMB Group, stated that the sponsorship would last 27 years, calling it the largest marketing deal in Mercedes-Benz' history, but Cannon would not disclose the full value of the deal; however, "Sports Business Daily" reported in February 2016 that the naming rights contract was valued at US$324 million. Mercedes-Benz also held a 10-year naming rights contract for the Louisiana Superdome signed in 2011.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: While the stadium is owned by the state, it is operated by AMB Group, the parent organization of the Falcons and Atlanta United. All operating profits of Mercedes-Benz Stadium go to AMB Group and not to the state. In addition, AMB Group does not currently pay any property tax on the stadium.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On May 19, 2015, Mercedes-Benz Stadium was awarded Super Bowl LIII in 2019, marking Atlanta's first time hosting the game since Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The stadium was scheduled to host the 2020 NCAA Final Four. On March 12, 2020, the tournament was completely cancelled outright due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though it would have likely shifted to a smaller Atlanta venue (either the State Farm Arena or the McCamish Pavilion, home of the Final Four's host school, Georgia Tech) in any case, as the tourney was closed to spectators the day before.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The Peach Bowl, Celebration Bowl, SEC Championship Game, and Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game moved from the Georgia Dome to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the 2017 season. The SEC Championship has a long-term deal with Mercedes-Benz Stadium through 2027. On February 26, 2019, it was announced that the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets had agreed to play one home game annually at Mercedes-Benz Stadium from 2021 through 2026.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship was hosted by Atlanta and Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In their first national championship game since 1982, the Georgia Bulldogs were defeated in overtime by the Alabama Crimson Tide.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On December 8, 2017, the stadium hosted the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) football championship games for Class 1A Private School and Class 3A. The remaining two championship games scheduled for that day, Class 5A and Class 6A, as well as the four games originally scheduled for the next day were postponed and relocated to campus sites due light snow to hit Atlanta that weekend. The 2018 GHSA football championships were held on December 11 and 12 due to Atlanta United hosting MLS Cup 2018 on December 8 as well as the 2018 Celebration Bowl scheduled for December 15. In May 2019, the GHSA announced that the football finals would be moved from Mercedes-Benz Stadium to Georgia State Stadium (a redevelopment of Turner Field) starting in 2019, citing the higher costs of renting Mercedes-Benz Stadium compared to the former Georgia Dome.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, making it one of the eleven American venues as well as one of five MLS venues to host matches.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On October 12, 2017, the inaugural concert at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, featuring Garth Brooks, received widespread scorn, including demands for refunds, due to the reported abysmal acoustics that many attendees deemed unfit for concert sound. The stadium authority stated that plans are underway to help improve the acoustical quality of the stadium.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Since the first concert, efforts were made to improve the acoustics in the stadium. New speakers were added to suites, the angle of the bowl speakers was adjusted and delays introduced in order to reduce echo. During a concert in May 2018 featuring Kenny Chesney, reports were that the sound quality had improved since the first concert. Chesney's concert attracted 51,312 people and grossed $5.068 million.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Following concerts by Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney, the venue hosted Taylor Swift for two nights in August 2018 as part of Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour. Over the two sold-out nights, Taylor performed to an audience of 116,746 people and grossed $18.089 million. She was the first music act to headline the stadium for two consecutive nights.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Also in August 2018, Beyoncé and Jay-Z performed for two nights as part of the On the Run II Tour. The two shows grossed $14.074 million and were attended by 105,170 people.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Ed Sheeran performed at the venue as part of his ÷ Tour in November 2018. The show was attended by 50,906 people and grossed $5.021 million. This show marked the end of the 2018 leg of the tour, which was billed as the Top Tour of 2018.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: In March 2019, George Strait performed a one-off concert at the venue, joined by musical guests Chris Stapleton, Chris Janson, and Ashley McBryde. The concert was attended by 55,255 people, and grossed $11.9 million. This became the highest grossing single night concert in the venue's history, and became George Strait's third show to earn over $10 million.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On July 22, 2021, Kanye West held a listening event for his upcoming album "Donda". The event was also live streamed exclusively on Apple Music. After the listening event concluded, West decided to temporarily reside at the stadium to continue working on the album until completion, converting locker-room facilities into temporary recording studio spaces and living areas. Another listening party event for the album happened on August 5, 2021 at the stadium.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Metallica performed at the stadium on November 6, 2021 as a part of ATLive Concert Series on their 2021–2022 Tour.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: After being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenny Chesney returned to the venue on May 21, 2022, as part of his Here and Now Tour.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Coldplay performed at the venue as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour on June 11, 2022, with special guest H.E.R.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: The Weeknd performed at the venue as part of his After Hours til Dawn Stadium Tour on August 11, 2022.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: Elton John performed at the venue as part of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, on September 22, 2022.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On November 11, 2022, it was announced that Taylor Swift would be the first artist to headline three consecutive nights at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for The Eras Tour, in support of her last four albums released.


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: On January 4, 2018, the stadium was the subject of the premiere episode of "Building Giants" on Science Channel. Using footage of the construction along with CGI, the building process is explored in detail. It was noted during the episode that the heaviest truss sections were erected by the largest conventional crawler crane ever built in North America, a Manitowoc Model 31000 which is rated at a capacity of 2,535 US tons (2,300 metric tons).


title: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

text: A train horn blares after every Falcons and United score and win – a nod to Atlanta's railroad history.


title: Aida Turturro

text: Aida Turturro ( ; born September 25, 1962) is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Janice Soprano on the HBO drama series "The Sopranos".


title: Aida Turturro

text: Aida Turturro was born in Buffalo, New York, daughter of a Sicilian mother, Dorothy, a nurse, and an Italian-American father, Domenick Turturro, an artist.


title: Aida Turturro

text: After graduating from high school, Turturro earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre from the State University of New York at New Paltz.


title: Aida Turturro

text: Turturro appeared in her first film, "True Love", in 1989. She has acted in films such as "What About Bob?", "Jersey Girl", and "Illuminata". Turturro also had small parts in "Sleepers" and "Deep Blue Sea".


title: Aida Turturro

text: She appears also in the 2005 movie "Romance & Cigarettes", directed by her cousin John. She also appeared in "Money Train".


title: Aida Turturro

text: From 2000 to 2007, Turturro appeared as Janice Soprano in 49 episodes of "The Sopranos", earning two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2001 and 2007.


title: Aida Turturro

text: In 2009, Turturro appeared in "Bite Me," a sixth-season episode of the CBS series "Medium", playing the evil Bobbi Catalano. Turturro appeared in the eighth-season episode "Car Periscope" of "Curb Your Enthusiasm".


title: Aida Turturro

text: In 2012, Turturro appeared in "Day of the Iguana," an episode of "Nurse Jackie", which reunited her with her "Sopranos" co-star Edie Falco. She played Laura Vargas, the titular character's lawyer.


title: Aida Turturro

text: In 2016, Turturro appeared as Maura Figgis, sister of gangster Jimmy "The Butcher" Figgis on the Fox police procedural sitcom, "Brooklyn Nine-Nine". In 2017, Turturro appeared in "Il Mostro" in the second season of "".


title: Aida Turturro

text: In 2001, Turturro was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Turturro has worked to raise public awareness of rheumatoid arthritis.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: Savages is a 2012 American crime thriller film directed by Oliver Stone. It is based on Don Winslow's novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Shane Salerno, Stone, and Winslow. The film was released on July 6, 2012 to mixed reviews and grossed $83 million worldwide. It stars Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Benicio del Toro, Demián Bichir, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and John Travolta.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: Best friends Chon and Ben are marijuana growers in Laguna Beach. Chon, a former Navy SEAL, smuggled the seeds for the plants out of Afghanistan. Ben, a University of California, Berkeley graduate in business and botany, cultivates marijuana. The seeds yield a particularly potent strain, which develops a wide customer base. Chon and Ben become wealthy, and Ben devotes time and money to charity work in Africa and Asia. They are both openly in a relationship with Ophelia Sage.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: The trio receives a video from Mexican drug-cartel enforcer Miguel "Lado" Arroyo of severed heads and a chainsaw, and Arroyo demands a meeting at which the cartel offers a partnership. Although Chon and Ben offer to hand over their network and get out of the business, the cartel wants their expertise and insists on a partnership. Chon and Ben make plans with Ophelia to go to Indonesia for a year, not telling her that they are fleeing the cartel. They speak to corrupt DEA agent Dennis Cain, who is on the take from them and who urges them to join the cartel. Ophelia is kidnapped by Lado's gang; Chon and Ben are notified of the kidnapping by a video call from cartel leader Elena Sánchez, who threatens to harm Ophelia if they decline the partnership.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: They discuss the situation with Dennis, who tells them that Elena is facing the loss of her political connections in Mexico (foiling her efforts to move into the U.S.). Since she has already lost most of her family, Dennis says that he has nothing on her that can help them. Chon stabs Dennis in the hand and demands DEA intelligence so they can attack Elena. With help from Chon's Navy SEAL friends, he and Ben attack a cartel money convoy and kill seven of Elena's men.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: Ophelia, held in horrible conditions, demands to speak to whoever is in charge. Lado drugs and rapes her in retaliation for going over his head. Elena, traveling to the U.S. to visit her daughter and deal with the escalating situation, has Ophelia brought with her. Chon and Ben frame high-ranking cartel member Alex as an agent of Elena's rival, El Azul. With Dennis' help, they falsify evidence and give it to Lado. Lado tortures Alex to force a confession. After Alex confesses, Lado covers him with petrol and forces Ben to ignite the petrol; Ophelia is forced to watch. Lado double-crosses Elena and begins working with El Azul.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: Ben and Chon pay Dennis $3 million for information about Elena's daughter, Magda, and the name of his informant in Elena's cartel. They kidnap Magda and video-call Elena to establish that they are now in control. With Elena at their mercy, they arrange a desert meeting to exchange Ophelia and Magda at which snipers from both sides are in position. Elena asks who revealed her daughter's location, and Chon tells her it was Lado. She tries to kill Lado, but he shoots her first. A firefight erupts, and Chon is shot several times. Lado is shot in the back by Ben, but shoots him in the neck before Ophelia kills him. Ben is mortally wounded, and Chon injects him, Ophelia, and himself with a fatal overdose so they can die together.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: Ophelia wakes from a nightmare. At the meeting, Lado steals Elena's car and escapes as Dennis leads DEA agents to the scene. Everyone but Lado and Magda is arrested. Because Ben has incriminating information about Dennis, Dennis identifies Ben and Chon as his informants in the cartel and they are released. Elena is sentenced to thirty years in prison, and El Azul and Lado create a new cartel called the Azulados. Ben, Chon, and Ophelia leave the country and live in a beachside hut, possibly in Indonesia. Ophelia tells us that they are living like savages.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: By August 2011, the film was shooting in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. The "Los Angeles Times" reported: "The estate's indoor pool was converted into a massive hydroponic marijuana farm for the film's production, with about 300 high-octane pot plants jamming the covert nursery." Production designer Tomas Voth said: "I wanted to use real plants and had them all ready to go, but it was some legal thing. Universal told us to use fakes." The sex scenes were filmed during the first three days. The film entered post-production in October 2011. Stone personally categorized it as a romantic action thriller.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: Jennifer Lawrence was originally cast as Ophelia but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Other actresses considered to replace Lawrence included Amber Heard, Olivia Wilde, Lindsay Lohan, Teresa Palmer, and Abbie Cornish. In April 2011, it was reported that Blake Lively had been cast as Ophelia. Before casting Taylor Kitsch in the film, Oliver Stone asked director Peter Berg to show him 30 minutes of Kitsch's work in "Battleship" to see how he was as a leading man, and after seeing that footage, he cast him. Trevor Donovan originally auditioned for a role that was cut but after seeing Donovan's tape, Stone specifically wrote him a part that was not in the book. Uma Thurman played Ophelia's mother, Paqu, but her scenes were cut due to time constraints.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: The film was released on July 6, 2012. On its opening weekend, the film ranked fourth at the box-office, earning $16.2 million. As of April 3, 2013, it has grossed $47,382,068 in North America and $35,584,084 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $82,966,152.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: "Savages" received mixed reviews from critics. Based on 195 reviews collected by aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored a 50% approval rating, with an average rating of 5.80/10. The site's critical consensus is, "It's undeniably messy, but "Savages" finds Oliver Stone returning to dark, fearlessly lurid form." Metacritic, another review aggregator which assigns a weighted mean rating in the 0–100 range based on reviews from top mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 59, based on 41 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "C+" on scale of A+ to F.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: The film was somewhat better received in Europe. UK film and music journalist Dylan B Jones praised it, claiming director Oliver Stone had found "a magic strain of sultry sex, frantically emotional turmoil and glossily savvy action sequences".


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three and a half stars (out of four) and praised Oliver Stone's direction, saying, "Much of the fascination of 'Savages' comes through Stone's treatment of the negotiations, which involve percentages, sliding scales over three years, an ultimate payout, and other financial details that drugs have in common with big business. It's spellbinding to watch the two sides trying to outthink each other."


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: HitFix's film critic Drew McWeeny gave the film an A- and called it "one of the most complete pleasures for me this summer". He was in general positive of the actors' performances; he described Lively's work as "smart and sad precisely because she plays O as such a broken, needy little soul" and praised the bond between Kitsch and Taylor-Johnson which "seems not only credible but lived in and authentic throughout the film." In comparison, MovieFix's film critic Connor Jason gave the film 2/5, noting that ""Savages" is a hot mess – beautiful actors and locations mixed with a plot that starts strong but ultimately turns into a snooze-fest. With a lead villain seemingly ripped from the cover of "Cosmo" magazine, Stone's latest flick savagely disappoints."


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: The film was nominated at the 2012 ALMA Awards in four categories including "Favorite Movie Actor", "Favorite Movie Actress—Drama/Adventure", "Favorite Movie Actor—Supporting Role", and "Favorite Movie Actress—Supporting Role" for Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Demián Bichir and Mia Maestro, respectively.


title: Savages (2012 film)

text: According to InSight Crime, the assertions used to promote the movie "are not only false, but promote a dangerously misleading view of the country's criminal groups." According to the article, in a televised interview Oliver Stone made a series of unfounded and false assertions to justify his opposition to the War on Drugs, fueling a "dystopian narrative of Mexico" and feeding on the belief that the Mexican criminals are "invincible supermen."


title: The Last Letter from Your Lover

text: The Last Letter from Your Lover is a 2021 British romantic drama film directed by Augustine Frizzell and written by Nick Payne and Esta Spalding, based on Jojo Moyes' 2012 novel of the same name. It stars Felicity Jones, Callum Turner, Joe Alwyn, Nabhaan Rizwan and Shailene Woodley.


title: The Last Letter from Your Lover

text: Set in two distinct time periods the novel follows two women, 1960s housewife Jennifer Stirling and modern-day journalist Ellie Haworth and how both of them become intrigued by a letter they accidentally discover.


title: The Last Letter from Your Lover

text: "The Last Letter from Your Lover" was released on Netflix in select territories on 23 July 2021, and in the United Kingdom on 6 August 2021, by StudioCanal.


title: The Last Letter from Your Lover

text: In the mid-1960s, wealthy socialite Jennifer Stirling suffers from memory loss after a car crash. Unable to remember much of her life before or connect with her husband Laurence, Jennifer is intrigued by a letter she finds between "J" and "Boot". She decides to try and remember what happened to her by following clues from the letter.