title: Dishonored

text: Bethesda indicated that sales of "Dishonored" were exceeding their expectations and that as a result, they intended to develop "Dishonored" into a franchise. "Dishonored 2" was released on 11 November 2016. The sequel's story is set 15 years after the events of "Dishonored". Emily is deposed as Empress during a coup by the witch Delilah and the Duke of Serkonos, a foreign land. Playing as either Corvo or Emily, the player must neutralize members of the coup and retake Dunwall. A standalone adventure, "", was released on 15 September 2017. Taking place after "Dishonored 2", it follows Daud's former second-in-command, Billie Lurk, on her quest to defeat the Outsider. The 2021 first-person shooter, "Deathloop", is set in the far future of "Dishonored"s narrative universe.


title: Dishonored

text: A "Dishonored" tabletop role-playing game was released on September 29, 2020. Developed by Modiphius Entertainment and adapted by Nathan Dowdell, the game features input from Harvey Smith and writers from the "Dishonored" video games. Known as "Dishonored Roleplaying Game", it includes a 300-page corebook and allows players to take on the roles of criminals, assassins, explorers, and loyalists in various story campaigns.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Madalyn Murray O'Hair (née Mays; April 13, 1919 – September 29, 1995) was an American activist supporting atheism and separation of church and state. In 1963 she founded American Atheists and served as its president until 1986, after which her son Jon Garth Murray succeeded her. She created the first issues of "American Atheist Magazine" and identified as a "militant feminist".


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: O'Hair is best known for the "Murray v. Curlett" lawsuit, which challenged the policy of mandatory prayers and Bible reading in Baltimore public schools, in which she named her first son William J. Murray as plaintiff. Consolidated with "Abington School District v. Schempp" (1963), it was heard by the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that officially sanctioned mandatory Bible-reading in American public schools was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court had prohibited officially sponsored prayer in schools in " Engel v. Vitale" (1962) on similar grounds. After she founded the American Atheists and won "Murray v. Curlett", she achieved attention to the extent that in 1964 "Life" magazine referred to her as "the most hated woman in America". Through American Atheists, O'Hair filed numerous other suits on issues of separation of church and state.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In 1995, O'Hair, her second son Jon Garth Murray (known as "Garth"), and her granddaughter and adopted daughter Robin Murray O'Hair (daughter of O'Hair's first son, William J. Murray, and Murray's high school girlfriend, Susan), disappeared from Austin, Texas. Garth Murray had withdrawn hundreds of thousands of dollars from American Atheists' funds, and there was speculation that the trio had absconded. David Roland Waters, a convicted felon and former employee of American Atheists, eventually admitted to murdering the O'Hairs. The bodies were not found until Waters led authorities to their burial place following a plea agreement whereby he would serve a prior sentence in Federal prison.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Madalyn Mays was born in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 13, 1919, the daughter of Lena Christina (née Scholle) and John Irwin Mays. She had an older brother, John Irwin Jr. (known as "Irv"). Their father was of Scots-Irish ethnicity and their mother was of German ancestry. At the age of four, Madalyn was baptized into her father's Presbyterian church; her mother was a Lutheran. The family moved to Ohio, and in 1936, Mays graduated from Rossford High School in Rossford.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In 1941, Mays married John Henry Roths, a steelworker. They separated when they both enlisted for World War II service, he in the United States Marine Corps, and she in the Women's Army Corps. In April 1945, while posted to a cryptography position in Italy, she began a relationship with officer William J. Murray, Jr., a married Roman Catholic. He refused to divorce his wife. Mays divorced Roths and adopted the name Madalyn Murray. She gave birth to her son with officer Murray after returning to Ohio, and named the boy William J. Murray III (nicknamed "Bill").


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In 1949, Murray completed a bachelor's degree from Ashland University. She earned a law degree from the South Texas College of Law, but did not pass the bar exam.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: She moved with Bill to Baltimore, Maryland. On November 16, 1954, she gave birth to her second son, Jon Garth Murray, fathered by her boyfriend Michael Fiorillo.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: According to her son, William, Madalyn was a socialist who showed sympathies towards the Soviet Union. William claimed that when he was still a child, Madalyn began hosting Socialist Labor Party meetings and asked him to attend so he could, as quoted from Madalyn, "learn the 'truth' about capitalism." William also claimed that Madalyn twice sought to defect to the Soviet Union, applying first in 1959 through the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C., and again at the Soviet Embassy in Paris, traveling there for the express purpose in 1960; on both occasions, the Soviets denied her entry. On their return from Paris, Murray and sons went to live with her mother, father, and brother, Irv, at their house in the Loch Raven, Baltimore neighborhood. Soon after, Madalyn accompanied William to their neighborhood school, Woodbourne Junior High, to re-enroll William for freshman classes. Madalyn was unhappy to see students, after the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, engaging in prayer. She instructed William to keep a log of all religious exercises and references to religion for the next two weeks, saying, "Well, if they'll keep us from going to Russia where there is some freedom, we'll just have to change America." After the two weeks, and after her request that William be allowed to leave class during prayer times was denied by school authorities, she pulled him out of school and proceeded to file a lawsuit against the Baltimore Public School System, naming William as plaintiff. She said that its practices of mandatory prayer and required reading of the Bible were unconstitutional. The US Supreme Court upheld her position by a ruling in 1963.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Because of hostility in Baltimore against her family related to this case, Murray left Maryland with her sons in 1963 and moved to Honolulu, Hawaii. She had allegedly assaulted five Baltimore City Police Department officers who tried to retrieve her son Bill's girlfriend Susan from her house; she was a minor and had run away from home. Susan gave birth to Bill's daughter, whom she named Robin. Murray later adopted Robin.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In 1965, Murray married U.S. Marine Richard O'Hair, and changed her surname. He had belonged to a Communist group in Detroit during the 1940s. During investigations of the 1950s, he gave more than 100 names of other members to the FBI. Later he was investigated for falsely claiming to be an FBI agent. Their relationship has been described as "textbook codependents". Although the couple separated, they were legally married until his death in 1978.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In 1980, she publicly rejected her estranged son Bill, when he announced that he had converted to Christianity.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In 1960, Murray filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore City Public School System ("Murray v. Curlett"), naming her son William as plaintiff. She challenged the city school system's practice of requiring students to participate in Bible readings at the city's public schools. She said her son's refusal to participate had resulted in bullying by classmates and that administrators condoned this behavior. After consolidation with "Abington School District v. Schempp," the lawsuit was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1963. The Court voted 8–1 in Schempp's favor, saying that mandatory public Bible readings by students were unconstitutional. Prayer in schools other than Bible-readings had been ruled as unconstitutional the year before by the Court in "Engel v. Vitale" (1962).


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: O'Hair filed a number of other lawsuits: one was against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) because of the Apollo 8 Genesis reading. The case was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court for lack of jurisdiction. The challenge had limited effect.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: O'Hair endorsed Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election because of Carter's opposition to mandatory school prayer, his support for sex education in public schools, and his stance on ecological matters.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: During an interview with "Playboy" in 1965, O'Hair described herself as a "militant feminist" and expressed her dissatisfaction with women's inequality in America, stating during the interview:


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In the article "The Shoah: hope springs eternal" in the August 1989 issue of the "American Atheist" magazine, O'Hair claimed:


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In the same article, she claimed that "investigative and scholarly studies undertaken during the last fifty years", such as a book by the Holocaust denier Paul Rassinier, established that the total number of Jewish victims was between 1 and 1.5 million, adding, "[t]his is a far cry from an alleged 6,000,000", then elaborating on this point:


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: After settling in Austin, Texas, O'Hair founded American Atheists in 1963. It identifies as "a nationwide movement which defends the civil rights of non-believers, works for the separation of church and state and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy". She served as the group's first chief executive officer and president until 1986. She was the public voice and face of atheism in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. Although her son Garth Murray succeeded her officially as president, she retained most of the power and decision making.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In a 1965 interview with "Playboy Magazine", she described religion as "a crutch" and an "irrational reliance on superstitions and supernatural nonsense". In the same "Playboy" interview, O'Hair described numerous alleged incidents of harassment, intimidation, and death threats against her and her family. She read several letters she claimed to have received, including one that read (referring to the conversion of Paul the Apostle on the road to Damascus), "May Jesus, who you so vigorously deny, change you into a Paul." O'Hair told the interviewer, "Isn't that lovely? Christine Jorgensen had to go to Sweden for an operation, but "me" they'll fix with faith — painlessly and for nothing." She said that she left Baltimore because of persecution from residents. She had received mail containing photos smeared with feces, her son Jon's pet kitten was killed, and her home was stoned. She said she thought such events were a catalyst for her father's fatal heart attack.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: She filed several lawsuits challenging governmental practices, based on upholding and defining the constitutional separation of church and state. Among these was one against the city of Baltimore's policy of classifying the Catholic Church as a tax-exempt organization in terms of property.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: O'Hair founded an atheist radio program, in which she criticized religion and theism. She hosted a television show, "American Atheist Forum", which was carried on more than 140 cable television systems.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Arrested for disorderly conduct in Austin in 1977, O'Hair continued to be a polarizing figure into the 1980s. She served as "chief speechwriter" for Larry Flynt's 1984 presidential campaign. She was regularly invited to appear on TV talk shows as a guest. Her second son Garth Murray officially succeeded her as president of the American Atheists, but she was said to retain most of the power. Some chapters seceded from the main group at the time. But , American Atheists continued as an active organization with a growing membership.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Her son William J. Murray became a Christian in 1980 and later a Baptist minister, publishing a memoir in 1982 about his spiritual journey. Murray O'Hair commented, "One could call this a postnatal abortion on the part of a mother, I guess; I repudiate him entirely and completely for now and all times ... he is beyond human forgiveness."


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In 1988, O'Hair produced several issues of "Truth Seeker" under her masthead as part of an attempt to take over the publication, but the courts ruled against her ownership.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In the 1990s, American Atheists staff consisted of O'Hair, her son Jon Garth Murray, Robin Murray O'Hair, and a handful of support personnel. William J. Murray was estranged from his mother, brother, and daughter. They had not met nor spoken for many years. The trio lived in O'Hair's large home, worked in the same office, and took shared vacations.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: O'Hair filed numerous lawsuits in which she argued the separation of church and state had been breached.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: On August 27, 1995, O'Hair, her son Jon Garth Murray, and her granddaughter Robin Murray O'Hair disappeared from their home and office. A typewritten note was attached to the locked office door, saying "The Murray O'Hair family has been called out of town on an emergency basis. We do not know how long we will be gone at the time of the writing of this memo." When police entered O'Hair's home, it looked as if they had left suddenly. The trio said in phone calls that they were on "business" in San Antonio, Texas. Garth Murray ordered US$600,000 worth of gold coins from a San Antonio jeweler, but took delivery of only $400,000 worth of coins.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Until September 27, American Atheists employees received several phone calls from Robin and Jon, but neither explained why they had left or when they would return; employees reported that their voices sounded strained and disturbed. After September 28, no further communication came from any of the three. American Atheists was facing serious financial problems because of the withdrawal of funds, and membership dwindled in the face of an apparent scandal. There was speculation that the trio had disappeared in order to conceal its assets or avoid being contacted by creditors.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Ultimately, the investigation focused on David Roland Waters, a felon with a violent history, who had worked for American Atheists. Earlier that year, he pled guilty to stealing $54,000 from the organization. Shortly after the theft of the money was discovered, O'Hair published an article in the American Atheists newsletter in which she exposed the theft of the money along with his previous crimes. O'Hair claimed that, at the age of 17, Waters had killed another teenager. Waters had been sentenced to eight years in prison.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Federal agents for the FBI and the IRS, along with the police, concluded that Waters and his accomplices had kidnapped all three Murray/O'Hair family members, forced them to withdraw the missing funds, went on several shopping sprees with their money and credit cards, and killed and dismembered all three people. Waters' accomplices were Gary Paul Karr and Danny Fry. A few days after O'Hair and her son and granddaughter were all killed, Waters and Karr killed Fry. His body was found on a riverbed in rural Dallas County, but his head and hands were missing; as a result, it was not identified for three and a half years.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: A search warrant was executed so the apartment of Waters and his girlfriend could be searched. The search revealed ammunition of various calibers. Waters, a convicted felon, was arrested, and the contents of his apartment were seized. At the same time, Gary Karr was contacted in Walled Lake, Michigan, and interviewed. Having served the last 30 years in prison for kidnapping a judge's daughter, Karr would not talk. He had his rights read to him and he asked for permission to listen to the information which was being discussed. Karr decided to talk and implicated Waters in the deaths of Murray and the other two O'Hairs. Karr signed an affidavit and drew a map so that the police could find the bodies. Karr was arrested and taken to jail for possession of two firearms. He was held in Detroit, awaiting trial. The weapon charge was dismissed, and Karr was transferred to the custody of the United States Marshals in Austin because he needed to be tried for the deaths of the O'Hairs.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: After a three-week trial, Karr was found guilty of conspiracy to commit extortion, traveling interstate in order to commit violent acts, money laundering, and interstate transportation of stolen property; all of the charges were related to the O'Hair case. He was acquitted of conspiring to kidnap the O'Hairs, because the authorities had not yet located their bodies. In August 2000, Karr was sentenced to two life terms in prison by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Waters was arrested and prosecuted; in a plea agreement on the charge of conspiracy, he agreed to lead authorities to the site where the dismembered bodies of the O'Hairs had been burned and buried. He was sentenced to serve 20 years in federal prison, which he had requested, because he did not want to serve time for his earlier theft conviction in Texas state prison. He did not go on trial for the kidnapping and murder of the three members of the O'Hair family. He was also ordered to pay back a total of $543,665 to American Atheists and the estates of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Jon Garth Murray, and Robin Murray O'Hair. It is unlikely that these debts were ever paid, because Waters was not able to earn any money while he was in prison. Waters died of lung cancer on January 27, 2003 at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In January 2001, after he pled guilty to conspiracy, Waters told the federal agents that the O'Hairs were buried on a Texas ranch, and he subsequently led them to their bodies. When law enforcement officers excavated the site where the O'Hairs were buried, they discovered that the legs of all three of the victims had all been cut off with a saw. The remains had suffered such extensive mutilation and decomposition that officials had to identify them through dental records, DNA testing and, in Madalyn O'Hair's case, by matching the serial number on a prosthetic hip to records from Brackenridge Hospital in Austin. The head and hands of Danny Fry were also found at the site.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Waters and his girlfriend had put the gold coins which he and his accomplices had extorted from the O'Hairs in an unsecured storage locker which had been rented by his girlfriend. It only had a cheap Master padlock. Waters had taken some of the coins and for a few days, he partied with Gary Karr and his former wife. When he returned to the locker, he discovered that the remaining gold coins (American Gold Eagles, Maple Leaf coins, and Krugerrands) had all been stolen. A group of thieves from San Antonio who were operating in that area had gained keys to the type of lock which had been used by Waters' girlfriend. In the course of their activities, the thieves had come across the locker, used a key to open it, and found a suitcase which was full of gold coins. They returned to San Antonio, and with the help of friends, they exchanged the gold coins for cash. The friends were taken to Las Vegas for a weekend. All but one coin, which had been given as a pendant gift to an aunt, were spent by these thieves. That last coin was recovered by the FBI after a Memorial Day 1999 public appeal.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: During the case, Austin reporter Robert Bryce criticized the relative lack of action by the Austin Police Department, even when contacted by estranged son William. He noted that the investigation was being led by agents of the Internal Revenue Service (with whom American Atheists had a long-running dispute over taxes owed), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (due to the possibility of the O'Hairs having absconded with organizational funds), and the Dallas County Sheriff's Office (where Fry's headless, limbless corpse was found).


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Murray's 1960 lawsuit against the Baltimore City School System was later consolidated with a similar one from Pennsylvania, when these reached the US Supreme Court on appeal. The Court ruled in 1963 (in "Abington School District v. Schempp)" that school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools in the United States was unconstitutional. This decision gradually resulted in the end of religious activities sponsored by public schools. Non-religious students had been expected to participate in such activities, and state-level policies varied.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In 2012, a memorial brick for Murray, her son Jon, and her granddaughter Robin was placed at Lou Neff Point in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: In 2013, the first atheist monument to be erected on American government property was unveiled at the Bradford County Courthouse in Florida, where other residents had installed a monument to religious ideals (in this case, a replica of the Ten Commandments). It is a 1,500-pound granite bench and plinth inscribed with quotes by O'Hair, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. The American Atheists said at the time that they planned to build 50 more monuments.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: O'Hair was incorporated into a popular urban legend stemming from an erroneous characterization of RM-2493, a proposal made to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1974. The purpose of the proposal was to prevent organizations from making religious broadcasts on stations licensed for educational use. False rumors spread that O'Hair was a proponent of RM-2493, and that its intent was to ban the broadcast of religious services, and the reading of the Bible over the airwaves. The FCC's denial of RM-2493 in 1975, and O'Hair's later disappearance and murder, did little to stem the spread of the legend, which still claimed years later that O'Hair was pushing an active FCC proposal. Subsequent iterations of the rumor included allegations that O'Hair was campaigning to remove Christmas programs and songs from public schools and "office buildings". Other variations mentioned specific religious leaders who were supposedly being targeted for removal from the airwaves, or stated that the television series "Touched by an Angel" was threatened with cancellation because of the proposal. Evangelical Christian leader James Dobson became falsely associated with the legend as well, purportedly leading opposition to the FCC petition. As of 2015, the FCC was still receiving dozens of correspondences relating to O'Hair every month.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: Episode 10 in season 7 of "Forensic Files", titled "Without A Prayer", dealt with the disappearance of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, her son Jon Garth Murray and granddaughter Robin Murray-O'Hair. The episode originally aired on 14 December 2002.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: A 2017 Netflix original movie, "The Most Hated Woman in America", is a loose dramatization of O'Hair's life. It focuses on the abductions and killings of O'Hair and two family members in 1995.


title: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

text: An episode of "" entitled is loosely based on O'Hair's murder. The episode originally aired on October 24, 2004.


title: Billion

text: American English adopted the short scale definition from the French (it enjoyed usage in France at the time, alongside the long-scale definition). The United Kingdom used the long scale billion until 1974, when the government officially switched to the short scale, but since the 1950s the short scale had already been increasingly used in technical writing and journalism.


title: Billion

text: Other countries use the word "billion" (or words cognate to it) to denote either the long scale or short scale billion.


title: Billion

text: "Milliard", another term for one thousand million, is extremely rare in English, but words similar to it are very common in other European languages. For example, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Hebrew (Asia), Hungarian, Italian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish (although the expression "mil millones" — a thousand million — is far more common), Swedish, Tajik, Turkish, Ukrainian and Uzbek — use "milliard", or a related word, for the short scale billion, and "billion" (or a related word) for the long scale billion. Thus for these languages "billion" is a thousand times larger than the modern English billion.


title: Billion

text: According to the "Oxford English Dictionary", the word "billion" was formed in the 16th century (from "million" and the prefix "bi-", "two"), meaning the second power of a million (1,000,000 = ). This long scale definition was similarly applied to "trillion", "quadrillion" and so on. The words were originally Latin, and entered English around the end of the 17th century. Later, French arithmeticians changed the words' meanings, adopting the short scale definition whereby three zeros rather than six were added at each step, so a billion came to denote a thousand million (), a trillion became a million million (), and so on. This new convention was adopted in the United States in the 19th century, but Britain retained the original long scale use. France, in turn, reverted to the long scale in 1948.


title: Billion

text: In Britain, however, under the influence of American usage, the short scale came to be increasingly used. In 1974, Prime Minister Harold Wilson confirmed that the government would use the word "billion" only in its short scale meaning (one thousand million). In a written answer to Robin Maxwell-Hyslop MP, who asked whether official usage would conform to the traditional British meaning of a million million, Wilson stated: "No. The word 'billion' is now used internationally to mean 1,000 million and it would be confusing if British Ministers were to use it in any other sense. I accept that it could still be interpreted in this country as 1 million million and I shall ask my colleagues to ensure that, if they do use it, there should be no ambiguity as to its meaning."


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov (19 February 1940 – 21 December 2006), also known as Turkmenbashi, was a Turkmen politician who ruled Turkmenistan from 1990 until his death in 2006 as a dictator. He was First Secretary of the Turkmen Communist Party from 1985 until 1991 and supported the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt. He continued to rule Turkmenistan for 15 years after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Turkmen media referred to him using the title, "His "Excellency Saparmurat Turkmenbashy, President of Turkmenistan and Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers"". His self-given title "Turkmenbashy", meaning "Head of the Turkmen", referred to his position as the founder and president of the Association of Turkmens of the World. In 1999, the Assembly of Turkmenistan declared Niyazov President for Life of Turkmenistan.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In his time, he was one of the world's most totalitarian, despotic and repressive dictators. He promoted a cult of personality around himself and imposed his personal eccentricities upon the country, such as renaming Turkmen months and days of the week to references of his autobiography the "Ruhnama". He made it mandatory to read the "Ruhnama" in schools, universities and governmental organizations, new governmental employees were tested on the book at job interviews and an exam on its teachings was a part of the driving test in Turkmenistan. In 2005, he closed down all rural libraries and hospitals outside of the capital city Ashgabat, in a country where at that time more than half the population lived in rural areas, once stating that, "If people are ill, they can come to Ashgabat."


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Under his rule, Turkmenistan had the lowest life expectancy in Central Asia. Global Witness, a London-based human rights organisation, reported that money under Niyazov's control and held overseas may be in excess of US$3 billion, of which between $1.8–$2.6 billion was allegedly situated in the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund at Deutsche Bank in Germany.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov was born on 19 February 1940 in Gypjak (or Kipchak), just outside Ashgabat in the Turkmen SSR. He was a member of the influential Teke tribe of the Turkmens. According to the official version of his biography, his father, Atamyrat Niyazov, died in World War II fighting against Nazi Germany, while other sources contend that he dodged fighting and was therefore sentenced by a military court. His mother and two brothers were killed in the devastating 1948 Ashgabat earthquake. His mother, Gurbansoltan Eje, was part of the cult of personality later. He grew up in a Soviet orphanage before the state put him in the custody of a distant relative.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: After finishing school in 1959, he worked as an instructor in the Turkmen trade-union exploratory committee. He then studied at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, where in 1967 he received a diploma as an electrical engineer. After graduating, he went to study in Russia, but was expelled a few years later for academic failure.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In 1962 Niyazov started his political career, becoming a member of the Communist Party. He quickly rose through the ranks, becoming First Secretary of the Ashgabat City Committee, and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR in 1985. He gained this post after Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had removed his predecessor, Muhammetnazar Gapurov, following a cotton-related scandal. Under Niyazov, the Turkmen Communist Party had a reputation as one of the most hardline and unreformed party organizations in the Soviet Union. On 13 January 1990, Niyazov became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen SSR, the supreme legislative body in the republic. The post was equivalent to that of president.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov supported the Soviet coup attempt of 1991. However, after the coup collapsed, he set about separating Turkmenistan from the dying Soviet Union. The Turkmen Supreme Soviet declared Turkmenistan independent and appointed Niyazov as the country's first president on 27 October 1991. On 21 June 1992 the Turkmenistani presidential election of 1992 featured Niyazov as the sole candidate, and chosen as the country's first popularly elected president. A year later he declared himself "Türkmenbaşy", meaning "Leader of all Turkmen".


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In 1994 a plebiscite extended Niyazov's term to 2002 so he could oversee a 10-year development plan. The official results showed that 99.9% of voters approved this proposal. On 28 December 1999, Parliament declared Niyazov President for Life; parliamentary elections had been held a few weeks earlier for which the president had hand-picked all candidates.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov and his wife, Muza Niyazova (née Melnikova), who was of Russian and Jewish descent, had a son (Murat) and a daughter (Irina).


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov became president at the transition of Turkmenistan from a Soviet republic to an independent state. His presidency was characterised by an initial crumbling of the centralised Soviet model that in many respects was unsuited for a transition to smaller, separate, states. There was outside concern about press freedom and to a lesser extent religious rights of minority religious groups. Niyazov made a personal attempt to create a cultural background for the new state of Turkmenistan by writing and promoting the Ruhnama, an autobiography meant to guide the people of Turkmenistan with his ideas and promote native culture (and by extension prohibiting foreign culture). He also took part in creating new holidays with a specific Turkmen nature and introduced a new Latin-based Turkmen alphabet to replace Russian Cyrillic. The Latin Turkmen alphabet consists of: Aa, Bb, Çç, Dd, Ee, Ää, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Žž, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ňň, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Ww, Yy, Ýý, Zz.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Despite emphasizing a need to move from central planning to a market economy and to a full democracy during his reign, neither plan progressed. Yearly plans set forth by the government and a centralised economy gave little indication of moving away from state-dominated economics, and the dictatorial nature of many of his decrees and his declaring himself "President for Life" gave little hope as to much progress in these two areas.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Turkmenistan has the second-largest oil reserves in the former Soviet Union, generating high revenue for the state. The government has used central planning, such as state control of production and procurement, direct bank credits with low interest rates, exchange rate restrictions, and price controls, since it existed as a Republic within the USSR.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In the years following independence, Turkmenistan invested heavily in plants and machinery in an attempt to convert it from being primarily a supplier of petroleum to a more advanced economy; such investments included oil refineries and a polyethylene plant. In an interview with "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" newspaper, Niyazov claimed that Turkmenistan was able to process 85% of its domestic output. Additionally, numerous petroleum transportation projects were completed such as a pipeline from the Korpedje field to Kort-Koi in Iran.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In 1991 and 2001, Niyazov issued decrees making water, gas, electricity, and refined salt free to use for ten year periods.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In 2005, Niyazov appointed Gurbanmyrat Ataýew as Minister of Oil and Gas, succeeding Atamurad Berdyev.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Turkmenistan's other primary resources are cotton and grain. Niyazov continued the old practice of demanding yearly quotas in agricultural output, and then blaming and/or sacking deputy ministers when quotas were not met. Nevertheless, Turkmenistan had an emergent period during which there was heavy investment in plant and machinery so the country could change from a producer of raw cotton to a cotton processor. During Niyazov's presidency, a textile industry was founded in Turkmenistan.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov introduced the practice of "Melon Day", a harvest festival celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of August; unlike some of his other creations, the celebration of "Melon Day" has continued after his death.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov put the revival of Turkmen culture as one of the top priorities in Turkmenistan's development. He introduced a new Turkmen alphabet based on the Latin alphabet to replace Cyrillic. The "National Revival Movement", an organisation to promote Turkmen culture (Turkmen: "Galkynish"), was also founded.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In many respects, Niyazov's cultural ideas and changes were most visible to external viewers. His renaming of months, as well as days of the week, to Turkmen heroes, poets, historical events, family members and himself raised many eyebrows all over the world. For example, September was renamed "Ruhnama" in honour of the book written by Niyazov (which he finished writing on 19 September 2001). Not all the changes promoted Niyazov; October was renamed "Garaşsyzlyk" (Independence) to mark the state's founding on 27 October 1991, and November "Sanjar" in honour of Sultan Sanjar who led the Seljuqs to their last full flowering. The new names came into effect with the introduction of a new labor law which stated that "the dates of professional holidays are specified by decrees of the President of Turkmenistan". These names were later abolished by his successor Berdymukhamedov in April 2008.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: His father Atamyrat Niyazov's Red Army service was used to shape how the country celebrates Victory Day (9 May). Unlike other Central Asian countries, Turkmenistan under Niyazov put emphasis on the country's sacrifice during the Second World War. In 2005, Nizayov flew to Moscow to celebrate the diamond jubilee of the war's end, and just days prior, he awarded Turkmen veterans of the war as well as Russian veterans on behalf of Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian veterans on behalf of Viktor Yushchenko. Individually, Niyazov's father was awarded the honorary title of Hero of Turkmenistan in 1994 and in 2004, a division of the Turkmen Ground Forces was renamed after Atamyrat Niyazov. Today the 22nd Motor Rifle Division "Atamyrat Niyazov" deployed in Serdar carries his name.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: One of the earliest acts of the president was to abolish the death penalty. He also granted official human rights to the people, though they were not respected in practice with his government being criticised as one of the worst human rights violators in the world. Press freedom under Niyazov's leadership was much criticised as it was with other former Soviet central Asian states. Turkmenistan's media constantly doted on the president and helped build his cult of personality.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In 1998 Niyazov closed the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan. It was reopened in 2009 after his death, by his successor Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In May 2000, the government revoked all Internet licenses except for the state-owned Turkmen Telecom and in June 2001 shut down all Internet cafés. By 2005, there were 36,000 Internet users in Turkmenistan, representing 0.7% of the population.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In March 2004, 15,000 public health workers were dismissed including nurses, midwives, school health visitors and orderlies. In February 2005 all hospitals outside Ashgabat were ordered closed, with the reasoning that the sick should come to the capital for treatment. All libraries outside of the capital were also closed, as Niyazov believed that the only books that most Turkmen needed to read were the Qur'an and his Ruhnama.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In January 2006, one-third of the country's elderly had their pensions discontinued, while another 200,000 had theirs reduced. Pensions received during the prior two years were ordered paid back to the state. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan strongly denied allegations that the cut in pensions resulted in the deaths of many elderly Turkmens, accusing foreign media outlets of spreading "deliberately perverted" information on the issue. On 19 March 2007 Turkmenistan's new president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow reversed Niyazov's decision by restoring pensions to more than 100,000 elderly citizens.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In keeping with the predominantly Islamic nature of Turkmen society, President Niyazov granted pardons each year on the "Laylat al-Qadr" ("Night of Destiny") in the month of Ramadan.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: For example, in 2005, 8,145 convicts were pardoned including 229 foreign nationals. In 2006 Turkmenistan set free 10,056 prisoners, including 253 foreign nationals from 11 countries. Niyazov said:"Let this humane act on the part of the state serve strengthening truly moral values of the Turkmen society. Let the entire world know that there has never been a place for evil and violence on the blessed Turkmen soil."


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov promoted a policy of strict neutrality in foreign affairs, refraining from seeking membership in NATO or GUAM and almost ignoring the CSTO. Turkmenistan has not participated in any United Nations peacekeeping missions. It has however become a member of Interpol.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: The full independence of Turkmenistan was recognised by a UN General Assembly resolution "The permanent neutrality of Turkmenistan" of 12 December 1995. As a result, in 2005 Turkmenistan would downgrade its links with the Commonwealth of Independent States becoming only an associate member under article 8 of the CIS charter, as such it would not participate in any of the military structures of the CIS.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In 2006 the European Commission and the international trade committee of the European Parliament voted to grant Turkmenistan "most favoured nation" trading status with the European Union, widely seen as motivated by interest in natural gas, after Niyazov announced he would enter a "human rights dialogue" with the EU.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: In January 1996, Niyazov met with Sayid Abdulloh Nuri in Tehran to inform him that the attendees of a CIS summit in Moscow had agreed to renew the mandate of CIS peacekeepers in Tajikistan, which was going through a civil war at the time.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: On 25 November 2002, Niyazov's motorcade was fired upon at about 7 a.m. in downtown Ashgabat as he was traveling to his office from his official residence in Arshabil. Niyazov claimed that it was an attempt at a coup, and as a result, the Turkmen government arrested thousands of suspected conspirators and members of their families. Among the figures who were arrested/purged were former Foreign Ministers Boris Şyhmyradow and Batyr Berdiýew, as well as Major Begench Beknazarov of the Turkmen Ground Forces and Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Serdar Charyyarov. Critics claim the government staged the attempt in order to crack down on mounting domestic and foreign political opposition. Ethnic Russians in Turkmenistan were disproportionately targeted in the aftermath.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: The summer of 2004 saw a leaflet campaign in the capital, Aşgabat, calling for the overthrow and trial of Niyazov. The authorities were unable to stop the campaign and the President responded by firing his Interior Minister and director of the police academy on national television. He accused the minister of incompetence and declared: "I cannot say that you had any great merits or did much to combat crime."


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov later announced that surveillance cameras were to be placed at all major streets and sites in Turkmenistan, an apparent precaution against future attempts.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov became a substitute for the vacuum left by the downfall of the communist system, with his image replacing those of Marx and Lenin. During his rule Niyazov created a strong cult of personality around himself, which resembled the one around the Kim dynasty in North Korea. He renamed a town near Krasnovodsk after his title, and renamed schools, airports and even a meteorite after himself and members of his family. The doting actions of the official Turkmen media supported his cult of personality. The national anthem of Turkmenistan had a reference to him. According to the paper "Neitralniy Turkmenistan" physicians were ordered to swear an oath to the President, replacing the Hippocratic Oath.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Statues and portraits of him were put everywhere throughout the country. In Ashgabat, he erected a rotating, $12 million, golden statue of himself that always faces the sun. Niyazov gave every citizen a watch with his portrait in its dial.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov simultaneously cut funding to and partially disassembled the education system in the name of "reform", while injecting ideological indoctrination into it by requiring all schools to use his own book, the Ruhnama, as their primary text. He also made it mandatory to read the Ruhnama in schools, universities and governmental organizations, new governmental employees were tested on the book at job interviews and an exam on its teachings was a part of the driving test in Turkmenistan. Turkmen State University even had a "Department of the Holy Ruhnama of Turkmenbashy, the Great", and Ruhnama Studies were pursued as a major research agenda in the country, often at the cost of academic disciplines. Niyazov claimed those who read it thrice were destined for heaven. Like Kim Il-sung, there is even a creation myth surrounding him.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: During Niyazov's presidency there was no freedom of the press nor was there freedom of speech. This further meant that opposition to Niyazov was strictly forbidden and major opposition figures have been imprisoned, institutionalized, deported, or they have fled the country, and their family members are routinely harassed by the authorities. A silhouette of Niyazov was used as a logo on television broadcasts. The eccentric nature of some of his decrees, and the vast number of images of the president led to the perception, especially in western countries, of a despotic leader, rich on oil wealth glorifying himself whilst the population gained no benefit. For these, and other reasons, the US government said that by the time he died, "Niyazov's personality cult … had reached the dimensions of a state-imposed religion."


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: On the afternoon of 21 December 2006, Turkmen state television announced that President Saparmurat Niyazov had died of a sudden heart attack in the early morning hours at around 01:10 local time at his residence, the Turkmenbashi's Palace, age 66. One month prior to his death, Niyazov had publicly announced that he had been taking heart medication for the past few years for an unidentified cardiac condition. The Turkmen Embassy in Moscow later confirmed this report.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Because Niyazov named no successor prior to his death, according to the law of the Constitution of Turkmenistan, Öwezgeldi Ataýew, the Chairman of the Assembly, would assume the presidency. Deputy Prime Minister Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was named as head of the commission organizing the state funeral. However, Ataýew was arrested on 21 December 2006 and Berdimuhamedow was subsequently named acting president. Berdimuhamedow and the Halk Maslahaty announced on 26 December 2006 that the next presidential elections would be held on 11 February 2007 to elect Niyazov's successor.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: The circumstances of Niyazov's death have been surrounded by some media speculation. Some Turkmen opposition sources also claim that Niyazov died several days before the officially announced date of 21 December.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Foreign news reports also claimed that Niyazov also suffered from ischemic heart disease and kidney failure due to being overweight and overindulgence of alcohol.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Niyazov was buried in his ready prepared tomb in Kipchak Mosque on 24 December at his home village of Gypjak, approximately west of Ashgabat. Prior to being moved to the village, Niyazov's body lay in state in an open coffin in the presidential palace from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Many mourners, including foreign delegations, passed by the coffin in a three-hour period. Many of the ordinary citizens wept dramatically as they walked, some even clinging to the coffin and fainting. The Turkmen Air Force patrolled the funeral cortege as part of the farewell of the Armed Forces of Turkmenistan. A prayer took place before the burial, with the chief mufti reading Jyn Aza. As he was buried, the national anthem was played accompanied by a 21-gun salute, symbolizing the number of years during which he was in power.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: After the death, newly elected president Berdimuhamedow started to remove some eccentric natures of Niyazov's personality cult. In 2008, less than two years after his death, old names of the Turkmen calendar that was changed by Niyazov were restored again and part of the National Anthem of Turkmenistan that reference to Niyazov in the chorus was replaced with "the people". By that year, the old Constitution of Turkmenistan, adopted during Niyazov's presidency and characterized Niyazov paramountcy, was replaced and government launched a democratization program, distinct from his thought.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: Berdimuhamedow also trimmed the official references to the Niyazov's biographical book, "Ruhnama", in Spring of 2007, and around 2009-10, television broadcasts stopped. By 2011, Berdimuhamedow government rescinded the requirement to pass a secondary-school examination on the book and in 2014, it was finally declared that Turkmenistani universities would no longer test applicants on their knowledge of the book. Displaying and keeping the book alongside the Quran in mosques was also stopped, except in Türkmenbaşy Ruhy Mosque.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: His statues and portraits placed around the country was also removed. Arch of Neutrality, the rotating golden statue of Niyazov, was moved to suburb in 26 August, 2010. Issued new Turkmenistani manats also didn't featured him.


title: Saparmurat Niyazov

text: However, Saparmurat Niyazov remained a celebrated figure in Turkmenistan. His birthday is designated as a national day (not an official holiday), named "Turkmenbashy Remembrance Day". Unlike other perspectives, some of his creations remained unchanged, such as the celebration of Melon Day. Several places still bears his name, including a city. A park in Turkey is named after him. His golden statue was placed again and opened to the public later.


title: Fashion design

text: Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and place. "A fashion designer creates clothing, including dresses, suits, pants, and skirts, and accessories like shoes and handbags, for consumers. He or she can specialize in clothing, accessory, or jewelry design, or may work in more than one of these areas."


title: Fashion design

text: Fashion designers work in a variety of different ways when designing their pieces and accessories such as rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings. Due to the time required to put a garment out in market, designers must anticipate changes to consumer desires. Fashion designers are responsible for creating looks for individual garments, involving shape, color, fabric, trimming, and more.


title: Fashion design

text: Designers conduct research on fashion trends and interpret them for their audience. Their specific designs are used by manufacturers. This is the essence of a designer's role; however, there is variation within this that is determined by the buying and merchandising approach. When thinking of product quality control budget retailers use inexpensive fabrics to have a quick turn around on production, but high-end retailers will ensure that the best available fabrics are used and lots of time is utilized.


title: Fashion design

text: Fashion designers attempt to design clothes which are functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. They consider who is likely to wear a garment and the situations in which it will be worn, and they work within a wide range of materials, colors, patterns and styles. Though most clothing worn for everyday wear falls within a narrow range of conventional styles, unusual garments are usually sought for special occasions such as evening wear or party dresses.


title: Fashion design

text: Some clothes are made specifically for an individual, as in the case of haute couture or bespoke tailoring. Today, most clothing is designed for the mass market, especially casual and every-day wear are called ready to wear or known as fast fashion.


title: Fashion design

text: Fashion designers may work full-time for one fashion house, as 'in-house designers', which owns the designs, or they work alone or as part of a team. Freelance designers work for themselves, selling their designs to fashion houses, directly to shops, or to clothing manufacturers. Most fashion designers set up their own labels, under which their designs are marketed. While others are self-employed and design for individual clients. Other high-end fashion designers cater to specialty stores or high-end fashion department stores. These designers create original garments, as well as those that follow established fashion trends. Most fashion designers, however, work for apparel manufacturers, creating designs of men's, women's, and children's fashions for the mass market. Large designer brands which have a 'name' as their brand such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Justice, or Juicy are likely to be designed by a team of individual designers under the direction of a design director.


title: Fashion design

text: Fashion designers work in different ways. Some sketch their ideas on paper, while others drape fabric on a dress form, another term for mannequin. Some designers work along with certain apps that can help connect all ideas together and expand their thoughts on a design. When a designer is completely satisfied with the fit of the "toile" (or muslin), they will consult a professional pattern maker who then makes the finished, working version of the pattern out of card or via a computer program. Finally, a sample garment is made up and tested on a model to make sure it is an operational outfit. Fashion design is expressive, the designers create art that may be functional or non-functional.


title: Fashion design

text: Fashion design is generally considered to have started in the 19th century with Charles Frederick Worth who was the first designer to have his label sewn into the garments that he created. Before the former draper set up his "maison couture" (fashion house) in Paris, clothing design and creation was handled by largely anonymous seamstresses, and high fashion descended from that worn at royal courts. Worth's success was such that he was able to dictate to his customers what they should wear, instead of following their lead as earlier dressmakers had done. The term "couturier" was in fact first created in order to describe him. While all articles of clothing from any time period are studied by academics as costume design, only clothing created after 1858 is considered as fashion design.


title: Fashion design

text: It was during this period that many design houses began to hire artists to sketch or paint designs for garments. The images were shown to clients, which was much cheaper than producing an actual sample garment in the workroom. If the client liked their design, they ordered it and the resulting garment made money for the house. Thus, the tradition of designers sketching out garment designs instead of presenting completed garments on models to customers began as an economy.


title: Fashion design

text: Garments produced by clothing manufacturers fall into three main categories, although these may be split up into additional, different types.


title: Fashion design

text: Until the 1950s, fashion clothing was predominately designed and manufactured on a made-to-measure or haute couture basis (French for high-sewing), with each garment being created for a specific client. A couture garment is made to order for an individual customer, and is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric, sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Look and fit take priority over the cost of materials and the time it takes to make. Due to the high cost of each garment, haute couture makes little direct profit for the fashion houses, but is important for prestige and publicity.


title: Fashion design

text: Ready-to-wear, or prêt-à-porter, clothes are a cross between haute couture and mass market. They are not made for individual customers, but great care is taken in the choice and cut of the fabric. Clothes are made in small quantities to guarantee exclusivity, so they are rather expensive. Ready-to-wear collections are usually presented by fashion houses each season during a period known as Fashion Week. This takes place on a citywide basis and occurs twice a year. The main seasons of Fashion Week include: spring/summer, fall/winter, resort, swim, and bridal.


title: Fashion design

text: Half-way garments are an alternative to ready-to-wear, "off-the-peg", or prêt-à-porter fashion. Half-way garments are intentionally unfinished pieces of clothing that encourages co-design between the "primary designer" of the garment, and what would usually be considered, the passive "consumer". This differs from ready-to-wear fashion, as the consumer is able to participate in the process of making and co-designing their clothing. During the Make{able} workshop, Hirscher and Niinimaki found that personal involvement in the garment-making process created a meaningful “narrative” for the user, which established a person-product attachment and increased the sentimental value of the final product.


title: Fashion design

text: Otto von Busch also explores half-way garments and fashion co-design in his thesis, "Fashion-able, Hacktivism and engaged Fashion Design".


title: Fashion design

text: Currently, the fashion industry relies more on mass-market sales. The mass market caters for a wide range of customers, producing ready-to-wear garments using trends set by the famous names in fashion. They often wait around a season to make sure a style is going to catch on before producing their versions of the original look. To save money and time, they use cheaper fabrics and simpler production techniques which can easily be done by machines. The end product can, therefore, be sold much more cheaply.


title: Fashion design

text: There is a type of design called "kutch" originated from the German word "kitschig", meaning "trashy" or "not aesthetically pleasing". "Kitsch" can also refer to "wearing or displaying something that is therefore no longer in fashion".


title: Fashion design

text: Median annual wages for salaried fashion designers were $61,160 in May 2008. The middle 50 percent earned between $42,150 and $87,120. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $32,150, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $124,780. Median annual earnings were $52,860 (£40,730.47) in apparel, piece goods, and notions - the industry employing the largest numbers of fashion designers.


title: Fashion design

text: ,a fashion designer's median annual salary was $65,170. High end designers can earn around $92,550. In 2016, 23,800 people were counted as fashion designers in the United States.


title: Fashion design

text: Fashion today is a global industry, and most major countries have a fashion industry. Seven countries have established an international reputation in fashion: the United States, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and Belgium. The "big four" fashion capitals of the fashion industry are New York City, Paris, Milan, and London.


title: Fashion design

text: The United States is home to the largest, wealthiest, and most multi-faceted fashion industry. Most fashion houses in the United States are based in New York City, with a high concentration centered in the Garment District neighborhood. On the US west coast, there is also to a lesser extent a significant number of fashion houses in Los Angeles, where a substantial percentage of high fashion clothing manufactured in the United States is actually made. Miami has also emerged as a new fashion hub, especially in regards to swimwear and other beach-oriented fashion. A semi-annual event held every February and September, New York Fashion Week is the oldest of the four major fashion weeks held throughout the world. Parsons The New School for Design, located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, is considered one of the top fashion schools in the world. There are numerous fashion magazines published in the United States and distributed to a global readership. Examples include Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan.


title: Fashion design

text: American fashion design is highly diverse, reflecting the enormous ethnic diversity of the population, but is largely dominated by a clean-cut, urban, hip aesthetic, and often favors a more casual style, reflecting the athletic, health-conscious lifestyles of the suburban and urban middle classes. The annual Met Gala ceremony in Manhattan is widely regarded as the world's most prestigious haute couture fashion event and is a venue where fashion designers and their creations are celebrated. Social media is also a place where fashion is presented most often. Some influencers are paid huge amounts of money to promote a product or clothing item, where the business hopes many viewers will buy the product off the back of the advertisement. Instagram is the most popular platform for advertising, but Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and other platforms are also used. In New York, the LGBT fashion design community contributes very significantly to promulgating fashion trends, and drag celebrities have developed a profound influence upon New York Fashion Week.


title: Fashion design

text: Prominent American brands and designers include Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Coach, Nike, Vans, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, Tom Ford, Caswell-Massey, Michael Kors, Levi Strauss and Co., Estée Lauder, Revlon, Kate Spade, Alexander Wang, Vera Wang, Victoria’s Secret, Tiffany and Co., Converse, Oscar de la Renta, John Varvatos, Anna Sui, Prabal Gurung, Bill Blass, Halston, Carhartt, Brooks Brothers, Stuart Weitzman, Diane von Furstenberg, J. Crew, American Eagle Outfitters, Steve Madden, Abercrombie and Fitch, Juicy Couture, Thom Browne, Guess, Supreme, and The Timberland Company.


title: Fashion design

text: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Belgian fashion designers brought a new fashion image that mixed East and West, and brought a highly individualised, personal vision on fashion. Well known Belgian designers are the Antwerp Six: Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Van Beirendonck and Marina Yee, as well as Maison Martin Margiela, Raf Simons, Kris Van Assche, Bruno Pieters, Anthony Vaccarello.


title: Fashion design

text: London has long been the capital of the United Kingdom fashion industry and has a wide range of foreign designs which have integrated with modern British styles. Typical British design is smart but innovative yet recently has become more and more unconventional, fusing traditional styles with modern techniques. Vintage styles play an important role in the British fashion and styling industry. Stylists regularly 'mix and match' the old with the new, which gives British style a unique, bohemian aesthetic. Irish fashion (both design and styling) is also heavily influenced by fashion trends from Britain. Well-known British designers include Thomas Burberry, Alfred Dunhill, Paul Smith, Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, John Galliano, John Richmond, Alexander McQueen, Matthew Williamson, Gareth Pugh, and Hussein Chalayan.


title: Fashion design

text: Most French fashion houses are in Paris, which is the capital of French fashion. Traditionally, French fashion is chic and stylish, defined by its sophistication, cut, and smart accessories. French fashion is internationally acclaimed.


title: Fashion design

text: Madrid and Barcelona are the main fashion centers in Spain. Spanish fashion is often more conservative and traditional but also more 'timeless' than other fashion cultures. Spaniards are known not to take great risks when dressing. Nonetheless, many are the fashion brands and designers coming from Spain.


title: Fashion design

text: The most notable luxury houses are Loewe and Balenciaga. Famous designers include Manolo Blahnik, Elio Berhanyer, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Paco Rabanne, Adolfo Domínguez, Manuel Pertegaz, Jesús del Pozo, Felipe Varela and Agatha Ruiz de la Prada.


title: Fashion design

text: Spain is also home to large fashion brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull&Bear, Mango, Desigual, Pepe Jeans and Camper.


title: Fashion design

text: Berlin is the centre of fashion in Germany (prominently displayed at Berlin Fashion Week), while Düsseldorf holds Europe's largest fashion trade fairs with "Igedo". Other important centres of the scene are Munich, Hamburg, and Cologne. German fashion is known for its elegant lines as well as unconventional young designs and the great variety of styles.


title: Fashion design

text: Milan is Italy's fashion capital. Most of the older Italian couturiers are in Rome. However, Milan and Florence are the Italian fashion capitals, and it is the exhibition venue for their collections. Italian fashion features casual and glamorous elegance. In Italy Milan Fashion week takes places twices a week in February and September. Milan Fashion week puts fashion in the spotlight and celebrates it in the heart of Milan with fashion lovers, buyers and media.


title: Fashion design

text: Most Japanese fashion houses are in Tokyo. The Japanese look is loose and unstructured (often resulting from complicated cutting), colours tend to the sombre and subtle, and richly textured fabrics. Famous Japanese designers include Kenzo Takada, Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo.


title: Fashion design

text: Hong Kong clothing brand Shanghai Tang's design concept is inspired by Chinese clothing and set out to rejuvenate Chinese fashion of the 1920s and 30s, with a modern twist of the 21st century and its usage of bright colours.


title: Fashion design

text: Fashion in the Soviet Union largely followed general trends of the Western world. However, the state's socialist ideology consistently moderated and influenced these trends. In addition, shortages of consumer goods meant that the general public did not have ready access to pre-made fashion.


title: Fashion design

text: Most of the Swiss fashion houses are in Zürich. The Swiss look is casual elegant and luxurious with a slight touch of quirkiness. Additionally, it has been greatly influenced by the dance club scene.


title: Fashion design

text: In the development of Mexican indigenous dress, the fabrication was determined by the materials and resources that are available in specific regions, impacting the "fabric, shape and construction of a people's clothing". Textiles were created from plant fibers including cotton and agave. Class status differentiated what fabric was worn. Mexican dress was influenced by geometric shapes to create the silhouettes. Huipil a blouse characterized by a "loose, sleeveless tunic made of two or three joined webs of cloth sewn lengthwise" is an important historical garment, often seen today. After the Spanish Conquest, traditional Mexican clothing shifted to take a Spanish resemblance.


title: Fashion design

text: Mexican indigenous groups rely on specific embroidery and colors to differentiate themselves from each other.


title: Fashion design

text: Mexican Pink is a significant color to the identity of Mexican art and design and general spirit. The term "Rosa Mexicano" as described by Ramón Valdiosera was established by prominent figures such as Dolores del Río and designer Ramón Val in New York.


title: Fashion design

text: When newspapers and magazines such as El Imparcial and El Mundo Ilustrado circulated in Mexico, became a significant movement, as it informed the large cities, such as Mexico City, of European fashions. This encouraged the founding of department stores, changing the existent pace of fashion. With access to European fashion and dress, those with high social status relied on adopting those elements to distinguish themselves from the rest. Juana Catarina Romero was a successful entrepreneur and pioneer in this movement.


title: FN Minimi

text: The FN Minimi (short for ; "mini machine gun") is a Belgian 5.56mm light machine gun/squad automatic weapon developed by Ernest Vervier for FN Herstal. First introduced in the late 1970s, it is now in service in more than 75 countries. The weapon is currently manufactured at the FN facility in Herstal and their U.S. subsidiary FN Manufacturing LLC.


title: FN Minimi

text: The Minimi fires from an open bolt. It is an air-cooled, gas operated long-stroke piston weapon that is capable of fully automatic fire only. It can be belt fed or fired from a magazine. The Minimi is configured in several variants: the Standard model as a platoon or squad support weapon, the Para version for paratroopers and the Vehicle model as secondary armament for fighting vehicles.


title: FN Minimi

text: The Minimi uses a gas-actuated long-stroke piston system. The barrel is locked with a rotary bolt, equipped with two massive locking lugs, forced into battery by a helical camming guide in the bolt carrier. Upon firing, the piston is forced to the rear by expanding propellant gases bled through a port in the barrel near the muzzle end. The piston rod acts against the bolt carrier, which begins its rearward motion guided on two rails welded to the receiver walls, while the bolt itself remains locked. This sequence provides a slight delay that ensures chamber pressure has dropped to a safe level by the time a cam in the bolt carrier rotates and unlocks the bolt, increasing extraction reliability as the empty cartridge casing has had the time to cool down and contract, exerting less friction against the chamber walls.


title: FN Minimi

text: The Minimi fires from an open bolt, which reduces the danger of a round cooking off after extended periods of continuous fire, since a cartridge is only momentarily introduced into the chamber prior to ignition, and the movement of the bolt and bolt carrier forces air through the chamber and barrel after each shot, ventilating the barrel and removing heat. Gas escaping the gas cylinder is directed upward, avoiding kicking up dust and debris that would reveal the shooter's position.


title: FN Minimi

text: The Minimi has a manually adjustable gas valve with two positions, normal and adverse. The adverse setting increases the cyclic rate of fire from 700–850 rounds per minute to 950–1,150 rounds per minute and is used only in extreme environmental conditions or when heavy fouling is present in the weapon's gas tube. The spring extractor is located inside the bolt, while the tilting lever ejector is contained inside the receiver housing. Spent casings are removed through a port located at the bottom of the right side of the receiver, protected from debris with a spring-loaded dust cover. The Minimi is striker-fired and the bolt carrier functions as the striker mechanism.


title: FN Minimi

text: The Minimi has a push-button type manual safety installed in the trigger housing, above the pistol grip. In the "weapon safe" position, it disables the sear mechanism; pushing the button to the right side exposes a red-colored rim on the left side of the firearm and indicates the weapon is ready to fire. The black polymer pistol grip from the FAL and FNC rifles was initially used, but the Minimi is currently fitted with a modified grip with lateral grooves, installed at a smaller angle to the receiver.


title: FN Minimi

text: The Minimi features a welded receiver made from stamped steel. Both the standard and Para variants are equipped with a fixed, folding bipod mounted to the gas tube and stowed under the handguard. The bipod can be adjusted in height and each leg has three height settings. The bipod also offers a 15° range of rotation to either side. With the bipod fully extended, the bore axis is elevated to a height of . The Minimi can also be fired from the Belgian FN360° tripod or the American M122 mount using an M60 pintle. The vehicle-mounted Minimi is fitted with an electrically powered trigger that enables it to be fired remotely from within an armored fighting vehicle.


title: FN Minimi

text: The standard light machine gun version has a barrel and a skeletonized aluminum stock with a folding wire shoulder strap. The shortened Para model has a barrel and a collapsible metal stock, while the vehicle-mounted model has a barrel but does not have a stock or iron sights. All models can alternatively be fitted with a fixed synthetic stock, the same used on the M249, which contains a hydraulic buffer that contributes to stabilizing the rate of fire and reducing recoil forces.


title: FN Minimi

text: The weapon is fed from the left-hand side by disintegrating-link M27 ammunition belts (a miniaturized version of the 7.62mm M13 belt), from either an unsupported loose belt, enclosed in a polymer ammunition box with a 200-round capacity attached to the base of the receiver, or from detachable STANAG magazines, used in other NATO 5.56 mm assault rifles such as the M16 and FNC. Magazine feeding is used only as an auxiliary measure, when belted ammunition has been exhausted. The ammunition belt is introduced into the feed tray, magazines are seated inside the magazine port at a 45° angle, located beneath the feed tray port. When a belt is placed in the feed tray it covers the magazine port. Likewise, a magazine inserted into the magazine well will prevent the simultaneous insertion of a belt. The magazine port, when not in use, is closed with an L-shaped hinged flap equipped with a tooth, which engages a corresponding opening in the magazine and serves as a magazine release. This feature was developed by FN's Maurice V. Bourlet and allows the Minimi to be instantly changed from belt feed to magazine feed without any modification.


title: FN Minimi

text: The pawl-type feeding mechanism is modeled on the system used in the MAG general-purpose machine gun, which was originally used in the World War II-era MG 42. The belt is moved in two stages during both the forward and rearward movement of the reciprocating bolt carrier, which provides for a smooth and continuous feeding cycle. The feeding mechanism top cover features a device that indicates the presence of a cartridge in the feed path.


title: FN Minimi

text: The barrels used in the Minimi have an increased heat capacity for sustained fire, feature a chrome-lined rifled bore (six right-hand grooves) and are manufactured in two versions: with a 178 mm (1:7 in) twist rate used to stabilize the heavier Belgian 5.56×45mm SS109 projectile, or a 305 mm (1:12 in) twist for use with American M193 ammunition. The barrels have a quick-change capability; a lever is provided on the left side of the weapon that unlocks the barrel allowing the shooter to push it forward removing it from its trunnion. A carrying handle is also fixed to the barrel and assists in the barrel change process. A trained soldier can perform a barrel change and ready the weapon for aimed fire in 6–7 seconds. Early models of the Minimi had a flash suppressor with side ports as seen on the FAL, CAL and FNC rifles; new production guns have a shorter, cone-shaped slotted flash suppressor.


title: FN Minimi

text: Both the standard and Para models come with a rear sight, adjustable for windage and elevation, that provides a peep aperture for ranges from 300 to 1000 m in 100 m increments. The sight line radius is . The hooded front sight is installed in a post on the gas block and is also adjustable for elevation and windage. Early models of the Minimi had the rear sight mounted forward of the feed cover and the front post secured to the barrel, closer to the muzzle end. An adapter can also be used that allows the use of standard NATO night and day sights.


title: FN Minimi

text: Standard equipment supplied with the Minimi consists of three ammunition boxes, a cleaning kit stored inside the forearm, lubricant bottle, sling and blank-firing barrel.


title: FN Minimi

text: The M249 version of the Minimi was adopted by the US military in 1982; since 1984, production for the US military has been carried out entirely in the US by a local subsidiary, FN Manufacturing LLC in South Carolina.


title: FN Minimi

text: As part of the US military's M249 Product Improvement Program (PIP), the M249 was updated with: a new synthetic stock and modified buffer assembly, a single-position gas regulator, a so-called birdcage type flash hider/compensator from the M16A2, a polymer barrel heat guard, and a folding carry handle. As a result, the weapon’s weight increased to . Many of the PIP upgrades were later incorporated by FN for the Minimi.


title: FN Minimi

text: A lightweight variant of the Para with a Picatinny top cover rail adapter is known as the Minimi Special Purpose Weapon (SPW). It had the magazine feed port removed to further reduce weight, and a railed MIL-STD-1913 handguard was used that enables the use of standard tactical accessories.


title: FN Minimi

text: Another variant of the SPW requested by the US Special Operations Forces is the Mk 46 Mod 0 that incorporates a lightweight fluted barrel but lacks the magazine feed system, vehicle mounting lugs and carry handle. A railed forearm ensures modularity and mission-adaptability permitting the use of flashlights, vertical grips, and infrared laser designators. An improved variant known as the Mk 46 Mod 1 with an improved forward rail and lightweight titanium bipod has been adopted by the United States Navy.


title: FN Minimi

text: The Minimi prototype was originally designed in 7.62×51mm NATO, and later redesigned for the 5.56 mm cartridge. When the USSOCOM issued the requirements for the Mk 48 Mod 0, the original plans for the Minimi were retrieved and used to develop this new model. As a result of favorable reviews of the Mk 48 Mod 0 and increasing demand for a more powerful variant of the Minimi, FN Herstal introduced the Minimi 7.62, available in several different configurations. Apart from the different caliber, the Minimi 7.62 incorporates a non-adjustable, self-regulating gas system and a hydraulic recoil buffer in the buttstock assembly. The Minimi 7.62 also has a different sight setup calibrated for the larger cartridge. The rear sight is adjustable from by 100 m increments. The sight can also be corrected for windage. The Minimi 7.62 TR is a variant equipped with a Picatinny rail handguard from the factory. In Australian service, the Minimi 7.62 is known as the "Maximi", a name that has caught on outside of Australia as well.


title: FN Minimi

text: In November 2013, FN Herstal unveiled the improved Mk3 version of the Minimi light machine gun. The upgrades were based on operational experience and user feedback over the past 10–15 years. It can be converted to fire either 5.56×45mm or 7.62×51mm rounds. The stock is 5-position adjustable that is also adjustable for cheek rest height with a folding shoulder rest and hydraulic buffer. The feed tray has retaining pawls to hold ammunition from the belt in place while loading. The handguard has three forward picatinny rails. A new bipod is 3-position height adjustable and seamlessly integrates into the shape of the handguard when folded back regardless of accessories that may be attached. Others features include a more ergonomic cocking handle and an optional heat shield, enabled by an added on long pin, to protect from barrel heat. Users that already have Minimi machine guns can partially or completely upgrade their existing weapons with the Mk3 features.


title: FN Minimi

text: The Minimi is being licence-built in Canada, Australia, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Sweden, Greece and Switzerland by Colt Canada, Lithgow Arms, Beretta, Pindad, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Bofors Carl Gustaf, and Astra Arms S.A. respectively.


title: FN Minimi

text: Copies of the Minimi have been produced for export by Norinco and made by Changfeng Machinery Co., Ltd in China without license, designated as in 2011, and chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO. Another clone, known as the XY 5.56, is made by Yunnan Xiyi Industry Company Limited. This was supposed to be mistaken for the CS/LM8 when news of the weapon was made in 2008.


title: FN Minimi

text: Taiwan also produced the Minimi without license, as the "T75". In addition, Egypt also produces the Minimi under license.


title: I (2015 film)

text: I is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language romantic action thriller film written and directed by S. Shankar. Produced and distributed by V. Ravichandran under his production company, Aascar Films, the film features Vikram, Amy Jackson and Suresh Gopi in lead roles while Santhanam, Upen Patel, Ojas Rajani (in her film debut) and Ramkumar Ganesan portray pivotal roles. The film tells the story of a rich and handsome bodybuilder and supermodel named Lingesan (played by Vikram), who became a Hunchback by the hands of his enemies by using a Virus. After being deformed, exacts revenge upon those who were responsible for his predicament. Parts of the film were loosely based on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Beauty and the Beast". The soundtrack and film score were composed by A. R. Rahman.


title: I (2015 film)

text: Production design was handled by T. Muthuraj. P. C. Sreeram was the film's cinematographer and editing was done by Anthony. The visual effects were designed by V. Srinivas Mohan through Rising Sun Pictures. Weta Workshop had worked on the digital and prosthetic make-up and background arts for the film. Principal photography commenced on 15 July 2012. The filming lasted for two years and eight months, during which shooting was done extensively in China. Further schedules were filmed in locations in Chennai, Bangkok, Jodhpur, Kodaikanal, Pollachi, Bangalore and Mysore. The climax train fight scene was shot in the railway stations of Chengalpattu, Rayagada, Berhampur and Visakhapatnam. The film was dubbed and released in Telugu and Hindi along with the original Tamil version.


title: I (2015 film)

text: "I" was released on 14 January 2015; The critics praised Shankar's direction, the performances (especially Vikram, Suresh Gopi and Amy Jackson), the technical aspects of the film (especially the visual effects, cinematography, costume design and makeup), and A.R. Rahman's soundtrack and background score ,though, the length, pace and editing received some criticism. The film was a commercial success, grossing worldwide, becoming one of the highest grossing Tamil films of all time and Vikram's highest-grossing film. Vikram won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil for the film.


title: I (2015 film)

text: Lingesan is a bodybuilder from Chennai, whose main ambition is to become Mr. India. He wins the title of Mr. Tamil Nadu, which gives him direct entry to the Mr. India pageant. He is infatuated with Diya, a leading supermodel. Diya is soon blacklisted, with all her advertisement film contracts cancelled by John, her co-star in all her advertisements, after she constantly rejected his sexual advances. To save her career, Diya decides to replace John with Lingesan, whom she had earlier met at one of her shoots, as her co-star for her next advertisement. The shooting is to take place in China at the same time when the Mr. India pageant is to take place, but Lingesan agrees, sacrificing his Mr. India ambitions in the process.


title: I (2015 film)

text: Lingesan is given a makeover by Diya's stylist, a transgender woman Osma. The shoot initially does not go well as Lingesan is shy and awkward around Diya. On her director's advice, Diya pretends to fall in love with Lingesan so that he would loosen up and perform better during the shoot. The plan proves successful but Diya soon tells Lingesan the truth. Hurt, he focuses on modelling instead of her. They both gradually excel in the modelling industry as the lead pair. As time passes, Diya reciprocates Lingesan's love for her and they soon get engaged.


title: I (2015 film)

text: In his journey from a bodybuilder to a top model, Lingesan became rich and influential model. But Lingesan got many enemies, including John, whose modelling career was ruined due to Lingesan's rising popularity, forcing him to appear in local advertisements to stay afloat; Osma, who was infatuated with Lingesan and revealed her feelings to him, only to be rejected; advertisement company owner Indrakumar, whose company suffered losses when Lingesan refused to endorse their soft drink as it was reported to contain pesticides; and another bodybuilder Ravi, who also competed for the Mr. Tamil Nadu title but lost to Lingesan despite pressurizing the latter to withdraw. These four people conspire to take revenge on Lingesan and destroy his fame and modelling career.


title: I (2015 film)

text: Two days before his wedding, Lingesan slowly starts to experience hair and teeth loss and a skin disorder. He consults his friend Vasudevan, a doctor who is also the guardian of Diya's family. Vasudevan claims that he is suffering from a rare and incurable genetic disease which results in premature ageing. Lingesan's condition worsens, with his face and body deforming, and eventually he becomes a hunchback. In his current condition, Lingesan decides to disappear from public eye and also from Diya's life by faking his death in a car accident. Only his friend Babu and Vasudevan know that he is alive. Nobody is ready to marry Diya due to her past with Lingesan. Lingesan asks Vasudevan to marry Diya as he is the only person who will be able to understand Diya's past and present situation. Vasudevan agrees and the wedding is fixed.


title: I (2015 film)

text: On the eve of Diya's wedding, another doctor named Thiruvengadam reveals to Lingesan that, contrary to Vasudevan's claims, he is actually suffering from H4N2 influenza, caused by the "I" virus, which can only be transmitted by injection. Lingesan discovers that John, Osma, Indrakumar, Ravi and, to his horror, even Vasudevan, are responsible for injecting the virus into his body. Vasudevan had been infatuated with Diya since she was 10 years old and was enraged when she chose Lingesan over him. So, he sided with Lingesan's enemies and planned the entire operation to have Lingesan injected with the virus. Lingesan is then beaten up by them and tied up, but manages to escape later. Enraged and betrayed, Lingesan abducts Diya on the wedding day and keeps her safely in an old house without revealing his identity to her.


title: I (2015 film)

text: Aided by Babu, Lingesan decides to take revenge on those who had deformed him by disfiguring them without killing. He first immolates Ravi, who suffers severe burns. He then prepares a paste which he mixes with Osma's daily cosmetic products and unbeknownst to her she applies it on her body, causing her body to sprout huge growths of hair. Next, he douses Indrakumar with sugar syrup which causes a swarm of bees to sting him all over his body. He lures John to fight over a moving train and gets him electrocuted. Finally, he gets Vasudevan to unwittingly inject "I" virus into himself three-four times, causing his whole body to swell up. After achieving his revenge, Lingesan reveals his condition to Diya, who, though initially taken aback, still loves him despite his deformity. They decide to live a secluded life together. Lingesan undergoes ayurvedic treatment, yoga and physiotherapy for his condition and soon returns to normal.


title: I (2015 film)

text: In an interview with the Tamil channel Sun TV, held shortly after the release of "Enthiran" in October 2010, the film's lead actor Rajinikanth revealed that Shankar had approached and pitched three storylines for him to consider for his next venture, 15 years ago, post the release of his directorial, the Kamal Haasan-starrer "Indian" (1996). Rajinikanth was impressed with two of the scripts and agreed to star in the films, which became "Sivaji" (2007) and "Enthiran" (2010). The third script narrated by Shankar was centered on an aspiring bodybuilder who would later turn into a deformed hunchback following a freak accident. Rajinikanth was sceptical of it and refused it. Following the release of "Nanban" (2012), Shankar revived the project with Vikram in the lead, his second collaboration with the actor after "Anniyan" (2005).


title: I (2015 film)

text: Shankar collaborated with writer-duo Suresh and Balakrishnan, to work on the script of his next film. His norm collaborator A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose the soundtrack album and background score for the film, working with Shankar for the tenth time. P. C. Sreeram was confirmed to do the film's cinematography in his maiden association with the actor. Action choreographer Peter Hein was initially roped in the project, but he had to back out, due to commitments with S. S. Rajamouli's film "" (2015). As a result, Martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping was selected for handling the stunt sequences. Additional stunt direction and supervision was done by Anl Arasu. VFX company Rising Sun Pictures under visual effects designer V. Srinivas Mohan was selected to provide the special effects in motion filming, while Indian film production designer T. Muthuraj was confirmed as the film's art director. In May 2012, Shankar visited New Zealand and met filmmaker Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor's special effects and prop company Weta Workshop. Sean Foot and Davina Lamont provided the prosthetic makeup for Vikram's beast get-up in the film and additional prosthetic makeup was done by Christien Tinsley and Dominie Till. Gavin Miguel and Mary E. Vogt were in charge of the costume designing of the film's cast.


title: I (2015 film)

text: The film was earlier reported to be titled as either "Thendral" or "Therdal", while "Azhagan" and "Aanazhagan" were also used as alternate titles that Shankar had kept in mind. Since they were already used in the Tamil films released during 1991 and 1995, Shankar decided that a single alphabet would be the film's title. In mid-2012, the team confirmed that the project would be titled "I". According to "The Times of India", Shankar opted for the title "I" as he thought it "explains all the characteristics of the protagonist"; the word has a variety of meanings, which include "king, beauty, astonishment, guru, vulnerability, owner and arrow". The film's title got the name, as in the film, Lingesan (Vikram's character) was deformed due to H4N2 Influenza caused by the "I" virus that had transmitted due to an injection.


title: I (2015 film)

text: In September 2014, producer and distributor Venu Ravichandran, stated the project would cost about , however by October 2014, he and director Shankar was widely quoted as stating the budget would be less than .


title: I (2015 film)

text: In April 2012, Vikram was selected to feature in the lead role. Priyanka Chopra was initially reported to be in talks for the female lead. Later, Asin's name was suggested along with Chopra. It was reported that Deepika Padukone was also approached, but she denied her involvement in the film. Model-turned-actress Evelyn Sharma eventually selected for the female lead, by an audition, but had opted out due to language reasons. She claimed this in an interview, more than a week after the film's release. Samantha Ruth Prabhu was then signed on, but she had opted out of the project citing scheduling conflicts. The role finally went to Amy Jackson, who was paid for acting in the film. Raveena Ravi dubbed the voice for her role. Santhanam, Upen Patel, Srinivasan and Suresh Gopi were selected to play the principal supporting characters in the film. Ramkumar Ganesan, a leading film producer and the elder son of the late-Tamil thespian Sivaji Ganesan, was also added to the cast to play a pivotal role in the film. Jiiva was considered for portraying the antagonist, but was unable to accept the offer due to his prior commitments. Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was reported to play an award presenter for a brief scene. Ravichandran, however, denied the news, but said that he would appear in the audio launch of the film. To prepare for his role in "I", Vikram took some weight loss and gain tips from Arnold as well. Make-up artiste Ojas M. Rajani, who previously worked with Shankar in "Anniyan", was reported to play the role of a transgender make-up artiste in the film in addition to being the make-up artiste for Amy Jackson. Mr. Asia contest participant Syed Siddiq appeared in the action sequences featuring Vikram.


title: I (2015 film)

text: In the film, Vikram plays the character called 'Lingesan', who considers Arnold Schwarzenegger as a role model and aspires to win the Mr. Tamil Nadu title. Shankar had crafted the hair style of Vikram by taking the front curl look of the younger Arnold Schwarzenegger as a reference. As per director Shankar, among all get-ups in the film, the hunchbacked man character was the most difficult one to sketch. Vikram was confirmed to sport his hunchbacked get-up in most parts of the film. The bubbles observed on the character's face were reported to be designed by Weta. Amy Jackson plays a model in the film. On casting and re-defining her looks Shankar was quoted saying, "I wanted someone who could authentically look like a model and then fixed Amy Jackson". Vikram also went bald for the film to change his looks in the film easier. Santhanam was also asked to lose some weight for his character. Peter Ming used actual cyclists in China for a cycle fight scene that was shot there.


title: I (2015 film)

text: Principal photography officially commenced on 15 July 2012 accompanying a poster photo shoot that featured Vikram and Jackson. The first schedule of filming was completed in Chennai by early September 2012. The main cast and crew were off to China for a 50-day schedule to shoot certain stunt scenes while some song sequences were also filmed at locales in the northern part of the Hunan province. The schedule in China was wrapped up by late November 2012. In an interview with "The Times of India", one of the film's line producer, Bill Chang was quoted saying, "We worked closely with S. Shankar for nearly 50 days in 2012, during which his film was shot in nine different locations. The range of locations available in China is simply mind-boggling. No other country in the world has such variety of locales ranging from colored mountains to futuristic city landscapes." Scenes in the song "Pookkalae Sattru Oyivedungal" were shot in Red Seabeach in Panjin and on Li river in Guilin. The canned footage of the track was put on hold by the Chinese film processing studio for a year, due to settlement disputes with the producer.


title: I (2015 film)

text: In January 2013, a fight scene was filmed at an abandoned, 20-year-old factory in Chennai. Sixty percent of the shooting was completed by the end of the same month. By March 2013, four songs and three major action sequences were shot around China, Bangkok, Jodhpur, Kodaikanal, Pollachi and Chennai. In June 2013, a three-week filming schedule was completed in Bangalore, Mysore and Chennai, and 75% of the shooting was completed by July 2013. Filming was almost wrapped up by March 2014, with just one song sequence and patch-work for the film remaining. Shankar confirmed that the song would be shot after the film's audio launch. As per reports, a song of 5 minutes duration (later deciphered as "Ennodu Nee Irundhaal") was shot for 40 days. For filming the track, Vikram had gained a lot of weight of about 110 kg as he had to wear bulky costumes for the number. The song sequence was filmed at Prasad labs in Vadapalani, Chennai where a set was erected by Muthuraj. The climax train fight scene between Vikram and Upen Patel was shot in the railway stations of Chengalpattu, Visakhapatnam, Rayagada and Berhampur. On 24 September 2014, Jackson confirmed that the shooting of the film was completed.


title: I (2015 film)

text: By October 2013, Shankar had almost spent more than for the shooting and post-production, that include extensive visual effects work. Due to the budget constraints, Venu Ravichandran had tightened the cost of the film, which led to several complications regarding its production. In February 2014, Vikram started dubbing for the first half of the film, and had completed within March 2014. On 3 April 2014, film critic and journalist Sreedhar Pillai stated that the film's trailer was in stages of editing. Patchwork and dubbing for the film was completed on 11 September 2014. The visual effects work began during mid-January 2014 and processed for more than 9 months, according to VFX supervisor Srinivas Mohan.


title: I (2015 film)

text: A. R. Rahman composed the soundtrack album and background score for the film. The music of the Tamil version was launched at the Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on 12 September 2014. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the inspiration of the character Lingesan, was invited as chief guest. The dubbed Hindi and Telugu versions of the soundtrack album were released on 31 December 2014.


title: I (2015 film)

text: A report from International Business Times published during December 2013, stated about the release of I, which will hit theatres on the occasion of Tamil New Year (14 April 2014), thereby clashing with Rajinikanth-starrer Kochadaiyaan. However, the film was pushed due to production delays. In February 2014, trade circuits reported that the film will be scheduled for release on the summer of 2014 (May—June). During late-July 2014, it was further reported that the film will be releasing on the occasion of Diwali (22 October 2014), which was officially confirmed by the producers during August, in clash with Vijay's "Kaththi" and Vishal's "Poojai". The date was later pushed due to extensive post-production and dubbing works. In November 2014, the producers officially announced that the film will release on the occasion of Pongal (15 January 2015). The release date was later finalised as 14 January 2015.


title: I (2015 film)

text: Prior to the release of the film, the Madras High Court passed an interim stay on the release till 30 January 2015, following a petition filed by Chennai-based Picturehouse Media Limited which alleged violation of financial and commercial agreements between the company and producers. However, Sreedhar Pillai, film critic and journalist had tweeted that the legal tussles between the two parties were solved amicably and announced that the film would release as planned.