title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: Harewood was the elder son of the 6th Earl of Harewood and Princess Mary, Princess Royal, the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. At his birth, he was 6th in the line of succession; at his death, he was 46th. Lord Harewood was the eldest grandchild of King George V and Queen Mary, nephew of both King Edward VIII and King George VI and first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. He succeeded to his father's earldom on 24 May 1947.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: George Lascelles was born at his parents' London home of Chesterfield House on 7 February 1923, the first child of Henry, Viscount Lascelles, and Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles, and first grandchild of King George V and Queen Mary, who stood as sponsors at his christening. The christening took place on 25 March 1923 at St Mary's Church in the village of Goldsborough, near Knaresborough adjoining the family home Goldsborough Hall. After his paternal grandfather's death in 1929, he was styled as Viscount Lascelles as his father succeeded to the earldom. He served as a Page of Honour at the coronation of his uncle King George VI in May 1937.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: He was raised at Harewood House in Yorkshire. He was educated at Ludgrove School, Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. His time at university was interrupted by the Second World War.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: Lascelles joined the British Army where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Grenadier Guards (his father's regiment) in 1942, attaining the rank of captain. He fought with the 3rd Battalion of the regiment, part of the 1st Guards Brigade of the 78th Infantry Division (the brigade was later transferred to the 6th Armoured Division), serving in North Africa and Italy, but was wounded and captured at Monte Corno on 18 June 1944, the anniversary of both his father's injury in the First World War and the Battle of Waterloo, in which his great-great-grandfather was injured.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: He was held as a prisoner of war in Oflag IV-C (Colditz) until May 1945. As the nephew of King George VI, Lascelles was one of the "Prominente" at Colditz, considered a potential bargaining chip by the Nazis.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: In March 1945, Hitler signed his death warrant; the SS general in command of prisoner-of-war camps, Gottlob Berger, realizing the war was lost, refused to carry out the sentence and released the Viscount to the Swiss.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: In 1945–46, he served as "aide-de-camp" to his great uncle, Lord Athlone, who was then Governor General of Canada. Lord Harewood served as a Counsellor of State in 1947, 1953–54, and 1956.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: Lascelles succeeded his father in 1947. On 7 February 1956, he took his seat in the House of Lords. He lost his seat in the Lords following the House of Lords Act of 1999, which excluded hereditary peers from membership.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: A music enthusiast, Lord Harewood devoted most of his career to opera with his Yorkshire heritage fostering his interest; in March 1949, as a young single man, he had been among the audience at the Leeds Town Hall for a performance of operatic works by the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra. By 1950, he had become patron of the orchestra's concerts. He served as editor of "Opera" magazine from 1950 to 1953. In February 1950, it was reported that he had launched the magazine at a large party at the London house of Richard Buckle with many music-loving guests in attendance. He was director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1951 to 1953 and again from 1969 to 1972. He served as chairman of the board of the English National Opera (ENO) from 1986 to 1995; Managing Director of the ENO from 1972 to 1985 and was Artistic Director of both the Edinburgh and Adelaide Festivals. From 1958 to 1974, he was General/Artistic Director of the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival. He was Managing Director of the ENO offshoot English National Opera North from 1978 to 1981. Lord Harewood served as a governor of the BBC from 1985 to 1987 and as the president of the British Board of Film Classification from 1985 to 1996.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: He was the author or editor of three books, "Kobbé's Complete Opera Book" (ed. 1954, now "The New Kobbé's Opera Book", edited with Antony Peattie, latest ed. 1997; and "The New Pocket Kobbé's Opera Book", edited with his step-son Michael Shmith, 2000), "The Tongs and the Bones" (an autobiography, 1981), and "Kobbé's Illustrated Opera Book" (ed. 1989). He was chairman of Historic Masters, an unusual vinyl record label dedicated to high quality issues of rare historic 78 rpm recordings of opera singers. He was a noted friend and colleague of the late opera diva Maria Callas and is featured in the 1968 EMI documentary "The Callas Conversations Vol. I", during which he interviewed Callas at length concerning her career and ideas about opera.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: His other interests included football: he served as president of Leeds United Football Club from 1961 until his death and was president of the Football Association from 1963 to 1972. He died on 11 July 2011, aged 88.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: Lascelles was the only person to serve as Counsellor of State without being a Prince of the United Kingdom, serving from 1945 to 1951, then 1952 to 1956. He served as chancellor of the University of York from 1962 to 1967. He was ranked number 1355 in the Sunday Times Rich List 2008 with an estimated wealth of £55 million—his magnificent art treasures, held in trust and valued at more than £50 million, and a estate outside Leeds. The estate and house, Harewood House, are held by a charity with £9 million of assets, and were not counted as part of his wealth.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: Queen Elizabeth II created him a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List on 13 June 1986. On 1 July 2010 he was appointed an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia (AM), "for service to the arts in Australia and to supporting Australia's artists in the United Kingdom".


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: In 1959, Harewood received the Grand Decoration in Silver with Sash for Services to the Republic of Austria.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: On 29 September 1949 at St. Mark's Church, London, Lord Harewood married Marion Stein, a concert pianist and the daughter of the Viennese music publisher Erwin Stein. Because of Harewood's position in the line of succession, the marriage was subject to approval from the sovereign, under the Royal Marriages Act 1772. Queen Mary, mother of George VI, objected to the marriage but permission was eventually granted. Benjamin Britten, a friend of the Stein family, composed an anthem, "Amo Ergo Sum", for the wedding ceremony.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: The earl's marriage to Marion Stein ended in divorce in 1967, after the earl's mistress, Patricia "Bambi" Tuckwell - an Australian violinist and sister of the musician Barry Tuckwell - gave birth to his son. This was considered an enormous scandal at the time, and caused the couple to be ostracised for some years, even after their relationship was made legal. Stein went on to marry politician Jeremy Thorpe.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: Lord Harewood married Tuckwell (24 November 1926 – 4 May 2018) on 31 July 1967. The wedding took place at Waveny Park in New Canaan, Connecticut. They were obliged to be married abroad as, in England, registry office marriages were barred at the time for persons covered by the Royal Marriages Act, and divorcees could not marry in the Church of England. They had one son, Mark Hubert Lascelles, born 4 July 1964. He married, first, Andrea Kershaw (born 16 June 1964) on 8 August 1992 and divorced in 2005. They have three daughters. He married Judith Ann Kilburn on 16 July 2011.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: Lord Harewood died peacefully at home, 11 July 2011, aged 88 years. A private, but well-attended stately home funeral was held on 15 July.


title: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood

text: "The Tongs and the Bones: The Memoirs of Lord Harewood", published by George Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1981), is George Lascelles' autobiography


title: Curcumin

text: Curcumin is a bright yellow chemical produced by plants of the "Curcuma longa" species. It is the principal curcuminoid of turmeric ("Curcuma longa"), a member of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is sold as a herbal supplement, cosmetics ingredient, food flavoring, and food coloring.


title: Curcumin

text: Chemically, curcumin is a diarylheptanoid, belonging to the group of curcuminoids, which are phenolic pigments responsible for the yellow color of turmeric.


title: Curcumin

text: Laboratory and clinical research have not confirmed any medical use for curcumin. It is difficult to study because it is both unstable and poorly bioavailable. It is unlikely to produce useful leads for drug development.


title: Curcumin

text: Curcumin was named in 1815 when Henri Auguste Vogel and Pierre Joseph Pelletier reported the first isolation of a "yellow coloring-matter" from the rhizomes of turmeric. Later, it was found to be a mixture of resin and turmeric oil. In 1910, Milobedzka and Lampe reported the chemical structure of curcumin to be as diferuloylmethane. Later in 1913, the same group accomplished the synthesis of the compound.


title: Curcumin

text: Although curcumin has been used historically in Ayurvedic medicine, its potential for medicinal properties remains unproven as a therapy when used orally.


title: Curcumin

text: The most common applications are as an ingredient in dietary supplement, in cosmetics, as flavoring for foods, such as turmeric-flavored beverages in South and Southeast Asia, and as coloring for foods, such as curry powders, mustards, butters, cheeses. As a food additive for orange-yellow coloring in prepared foods, its E number is E 100 in the European Union. It is also approved by the U.S. FDA to be used as a food coloring in US.


title: Curcumin

text: Curcumin incorporates a seven carbon linker and three major functional groups: an α,β-unsaturated β-diketone moiety and an aromatic O-methoxy-phenolic group. The aromatic ring systems, which are phenols, are connected by two α,β-unsaturated carbonyl groups. It is a diketone tautomer, existing in enolic form in organic solvents and in keto form in water. The diketones form stable enols and are readily deprotonated to form enolates; the α,β-unsaturated carbonyl group is a good Michael acceptor and undergoes nucleophilic addition. Because of its hydrophobic nature, curcumin is poorly soluble in water. However, it is easily soluble in organic solvents.


title: Curcumin

text: Curcumin is used as a complexometric indicator for boron. It reacts with boric acid to form a red-colored compound, rosocyanine.


title: Curcumin

text: The biosynthetic route of curcumin is uncertain. In 1973, Peter J. Roughley and Donald A. Whiting proposed two mechanisms for curcumin biosynthesis. The first mechanism involves a chain extension reaction by cinnamic acid and 5 malonyl-CoA molecules that eventually arylize into a curcuminoid. The second mechanism involves two cinnamate units coupled together by malonyl-CoA. Both use cinnamic acid as their starting point, which is derived from the amino acid phenylalanine.


title: Curcumin

text: Plant biosynthesis starting with cinnamic acid is rare compared to the more common "p"-coumaric acid. Only a few identified compounds, such as anigorufone and pinosylvin, build from cinnamic acid.


title: Curcumin

text: Curcumin, which shows positive results in most drug discovery assays, is regarded as a false lead that medicinal chemists include among "pan-assay interference compounds". This attracts undue experimental attention while failing to advance as viable therapeutic or drug leads, although some derivatives of curcumin such as EF-24 have seen a significant amount of research.


title: Curcumin

text: Factors that limit the bioactivity of curcumin or its analogs include chemical instability, water insolubility, absence of potent and selective target activity, low bioavailability, limited tissue distribution, and extensive metabolism. Very little curcumin escapes the GI tract and most is excreted in feces unchanged. If curcumin enters plasma in reasonable amounts, there is a high risk of toxicity since it is promiscuous, and interacts with several proteins known to increase the risk of adverse effects, including hERG, cytochrome P450s, and glutathione S-transferase.


title: Curcumin

text: As a component of turmeric, curcumin may interact with prescription drugs and dietary supplements. In high amounts, it may be unsafe for women during pregnancy. It may cause side effects, such as nausea, diarrhea, hives, or dizziness.


title: Curcumin

text: Two preliminary clinical studies in cancer patients consuming high doses of curcumin (up to 8 grams per day for 3–4 months) showed no toxicity, though some subjects reported mild nausea or diarrhea.


title: Curcumin

text: The intended use of curcumin as a food additive is generally recognized as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.


title: Curcumin

text: Although curcumin has been assessed in numerous laboratory and clinical studies, it has no medical uses established by well-designed clinical research. According to a 2017 review of more than 120 studies, curcumin has not been successful in any clinical trial, leading the authors to conclude that "curcumin is an unstable, reactive, non-bioavailable compound and, therefore, a highly improbable lead". Curcumin exhibits numerous interference properties which may lead to misinterpretation of results.


title: Curcumin

text: The US government has supported US$150 million in research into curcumin through the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, and no support has been found for curcumin as a medical treatment. Curcumin has been identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a "fake cancer 'cure'".


title: Curcumin

text: Bharat Aggarwal was a cancer researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who had 29 papers retracted for research fraud. Aggarwal's research had focused on potential anti-cancer properties of herbs and spices, particularly curcumin, and according to a March 2016 article in the "Houston Chronicle", "attracted national media interest and laid the groundwork for ongoing clinical trials". Aggarwal co-founded a company in 2004 called Curry Pharmaceuticals, based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, which was seeking to develop drugs based on synthetic analogs of curcumin. SignPath Pharma, a company seeking to develop liposomal formulations of curcumin, licensed three patents invented by Aggarwal related to that approach from MD Anderson in 2013.


title: Curcumin

text: Though there is no evidence for the safety or efficacy of using curcumin as a therapy, some alternative medicine practitioners give it intravenously, supposedly as a treatment for numerous diseases. In 2017, two serious cases of adverse events were reported from curcumin or turmeric products—one severe allergic reaction and one death—that were caused by administration of a curcumin-polyethylene glycol (PEG40) emulsion product by a naturopath. One treatment caused anaphylaxis leading to death.


title: Curcumin

text: Decontamination of food by ionizing radiation, or food irradiation, is considered a safe and efficient process for elimination of pathogenic bacteria. Ionizing radiation treatment can be applied to either raw materials or ready to eat foods, with some countries, like the United States, imposing limitations on its use. In 2016, laboratory research established and compared the radiosensitivity of three organic food colorants including curcumin, carmine, and annatto to create data to be used for application whenever food products containing these food colors were to undergo the radiation process. The researchers used spectrophotometry and capillary electrophoresis to establish radiosensitivity of the three organic food colorants. Carmine samples were quite stable against radiation treatment, annatto showed limited stability, and curcumin was found to be stable at high temperatures and in acids, but unstable in alkaline conditions and in the presence of light.


title: Ryanverse

text: The Ryanverse is a term for the political drama media franchise created by acclaimed author Tom Clancy centering on the character of Jack Ryan and the fictional universe featuring Jack and other characters, such as John Clark and Domingo Chavez.


title: Ryanverse

text: Various books contain references to both the Reagan Presidency and the George H. W. Bush Presidency as if they had happened


title: Ryanverse

text: Beginning with "The Teeth of the Tiger", Ryanverse novels feature off-the-books intelligence organization The Campus while featuring Jack Ryan Sr. as more of a background character. They follow his son Jack Ryan Jr. and fellow colleagues on several counter-terrorism missions. Hendley Associates, a private trading and arbitrage company, serves as a legitimate cover for the organization, or the "white side". They fund The Campus's intelligence operations by stock market trades influenced by captured intelligence data, thus removing federal oversight and allowing free rein in the Campus's operations.


title: Ryanverse

text: It was announced by "Deadline" that Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland would be working with Michael Bay and his production company Platinum Dunes and Paramount Television on a "Jack Ryan" TV series for Amazon. On April 29, 2016, Deadline announced that John Krasinski will star as Jack Ryan in the series. On August 16, 2016, Amazon Studios announced they had given a series order for a 10-episode first season of "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan". On November 4, 2016, Abbie Cornish was cast as Cathy Muller in the series. On January 6, 2017, it was reported that Morten Tyldum would direct the pilot. In February 2017, it was announced that "The Americans" director Daniel Sackheim would direct multiple episodes and produce the series. The series, said to be inspired by the Harrison Ford Jack Ryan films, premiered on August 31, 2018. Four months earlier, on April 24, 2018, Amazon had renewed the series for season two, which is set in South America, and it was renewed for a third season on February 13, 2019. In May 2022, before the release of the third season, it was confirmed the series would be renewed for a fourth and final season.


title: Ryanverse

text: Many video games based on the Ryanverse have been made, some based on the novels, some on the films, some on the spin-offs.


title: Ryanverse

text: In addition Tom Clancy created a multi-media franchise about a fictional international counter-terrorist unit called "Rainbow". The franchise began with Clancy's novel "Rainbow Six", which was adapted into a series of tactical first-person shooter video games.


title: Edge computing

text: Edge computing is a distributed computing paradigm that brings computation and data storage closer to the sources of data. This is expected to improve response times and save bandwidth. Edge computing is an architecture rather than a specific technology, and a topology- and location-sensitive form of distributed computing.


title: Edge computing

text: The origins of edge computing lie in content distributed networks that were created in the late 1990s to serve web and video content from edge servers that were deployed close to users. In the early 2000s, these networks evolved to host applications and application components on edge servers, resulting in the first commercial edge computing services that hosted applications such as dealer locators, shopping carts, real-time data aggregators, and ad insertion engines.


title: Edge computing

text: Internet of things (IoT) is an example of edge computing. A common misconception is that edge and IoT are synonymous.


title: Edge computing

text: One definition of edge computing is the use of any type of computer program that delivers low latency nearer to the requests. Karim Arabi, in an IEEE DAC 2014 Keynote and subsequently in an invited talk at MIT's MTL Seminar in 2015, defined edge computing broadly as all computing outside the cloud happening at the edge of the network, and more specifically in applications where real-time processing of data is required. In his definition, cloud computing operates on big data while edge computing operates on "instant data" that is real-time data generated by sensors or users.


title: Edge computing

text: The term is often used synonymously with fog computing. This especially is quite relevant for small deployments. However, when the deployment size is large, e.g., for Smart Cities, fog computing can be a distinct layer between the Edge and the Cloud. Hence in such deployments, Edge layer is a distinct layer too which has specific responsibilities.


title: Edge computing

text: According to "The State of the Edge" report, edge computing concentrates on servers "in proximity to the last mile network." Alex Reznik, Chair of the ETSI MEC ISG standards committee loosely defines the term: "anything that's not a traditional data center could be the 'edge' to somebody."


title: Edge computing

text: Edge nodes used for game streaming are known as "gamelets", which are usually one or two hops away from the client. Per Anand and Edwin say "the edge node is mostly one or two hops away from the mobile client to meet the response time constraints for real-time games' in the cloud gaming context."


title: Edge computing

text: Edge computing may employ virtualization technology to make it easier to deploy and run a wide range of applications on edge servers.


title: Edge computing

text: The world's data is expected to grow 61% to 175 zettabytes by 2025. According to research firm Gartner, around 10% of enterprise-generated data is created and processed outside a traditional centralized data center or cloud. By 2025, the firm predicts that this figure will reach 75%. The increase of IoT devices at the edge of the network is producing a massive amount of data - storing and using all that data in cloud data centers pushes network bandwidth requirements to the limit. Despite the improvements of network technology, data centers cannot guarantee acceptable transfer rates and response times, which, however, often is a critical requirement for many applications. Furthermore, devices at the edge constantly consume data coming from the cloud, forcing companies to decentralize data storage and service provisioning, leveraging physical proximity to the end user.


title: Edge computing

text: In a similar way, the aim of edge computing is to move the computation away from data centers towards the edge of the network, exploiting smart objects, mobile phones, or network gateways to perform tasks and provide services on behalf of the cloud. By moving services to the edge, it is possible to provide content caching, service delivery, persistent data storage, and IoT management resulting in better response times and transfer rates. At the same time, distributing the logic to different network nodes introduces new issues and challenges.


title: Edge computing

text: The distributed nature of this paradigm introduces a shift in security schemes used in cloud computing. In edge computing, data may travel between different distributed nodes connected through the Internet and thus requires special encryption mechanisms independent of the cloud. Edge nodes may also be resource-constrained devices, limiting the choice in terms of security methods. Moreover, a shift from centralized top-down infrastructure to a decentralized trust model is required.


title: Edge computing

text: On the other hand, by keeping and processing data at the edge, it is possible to increase privacy by minimizing the transmission of sensitive information to the cloud. Furthermore, the ownership of collected data shifts from service providers to end-users.


title: Edge computing

text: Scalability in a distributed network must face different issues. First, it must take into account the heterogeneity of the devices, having different performance and energy constraints, the highly dynamic condition, and the reliability of the connections compared to more robust infrastructure of cloud data centers. Moreover, security requirements may introduce further latency in the communication between nodes, which may slow down the scaling process.


title: Edge computing

text: The state-of-the-art scheduling technique can increase the efficiency of utilize edge resources and scales the edge server by minimum edge resources to each offloaded tasks.


title: Edge computing

text: Management of failovers is crucial in order to keep a service alive. If a single node goes down and is unreachable, users should still be able to access a service without interruptions. Moreover, edge computing systems must provide actions to recover from a failure and alerting the user about the incident. To this aim, each device must maintain the network topology of the entire distributed system, so that detection of errors and recovery become easily applicable. Other factors that may influence this aspect are the connection technologies in use, which may provide different levels of reliability, and the accuracy of the data produced at the edge that could be unreliable due to particular environment conditions. As an example an edge computing device, such as a voice assistant may continue to provide service to local users even during cloud service or internet outages.


title: Edge computing

text: Edge computing brings analytical computational resources close to the end users and therefore can increase the responsiveness and throughput of applications. A well-designed edge platform would significantly outperform a traditional cloud-based system. Some applications rely on short response times, making edge computing a significantly more feasible option than cloud computing. Examples range from IoT to autonomous driving, anything health or human / public safety relevant, or involving human perception such as facial recognition, which typically takes a human between 370-620 ms to perform. Edge computing is more likely to be able to mimic the same perception speed as humans, which is useful in applications such as augmented reality where the headset should preferably recognize who a person is at the same time as the wearer does.


title: Edge computing

text: Due to the nearness of the analytical resources to the end users, sophisticated analytical tools and Artificial Intelligence tools can run on the edge of the system. This placement at the edge helps to increase operational efficiency and is responsible for many advantages to the system.


title: Edge computing

text: Additionally, the usage of edge computing as an intermediate stage between client devices and the wider internet results in efficiency savings that can be demonstrated in the following example: A client device requires computationally intensive processing on video files to be performed on external servers. By using servers located on a local edge network to perform those computations, the video files only need to be transmitted in the local network. Avoiding transmission over the internet results in significant bandwidth savings and therefore increases efficiency. Another example is voice recognition. If the recognition is performed locally, it is possible to send the recognized text to the cloud rather than audio recordings, significantly reducing the amount of required bandwidth.


title: Edge computing

text: Edge application services reduce the volumes of data that must be moved, the consequent traffic, and the distance that data must travel. That provides lower latency and reduces transmission costs. Computation offloading for real-time applications, such as facial recognition algorithms, showed considerable improvements in response times, as demonstrated in early research. Further research showed that using resource-rich machines called cloudlets or micro data centers near mobile users, which offer services typically found in the cloud, provided improvements in execution time when some of the tasks are offloaded to the edge node. On the other hand, offloading every task may result in a slowdown due to transfer times between device and nodes, so depending on the workload, an optimal configuration can be defined.


title: Edge computing

text: IoT-based power grid system enables communication of electricity and data to monitor and control the power grid, which makes energy management more efficient.


title: Edge computing

text: Another use of the architecture is cloud gaming, where some aspects of a game could run in the cloud, while the rendered video is transferred to lightweight clients running on devices such as mobile phones, VR glasses, etc. This type of streaming is also known as "pixel streaming".


title: Edge computing

text: Other notable applications include connected cars, autonomous cars, smart cities, Industry 4.0 (smart industry), and home automation systems.


title: Social group

text: In the social sciences, a social group can be defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. For example, a society can be viewed as a large social group. The system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group or between social groups is known as group dynamics.


title: Social group

text: A social group exhibits some degree of social cohesion and is more than a simple collection or aggregate of individuals, such as people waiting at a bus stop, or people waiting in a line. Characteristics shared by members of a group may include interests, values, representations, ethnic or social background, and kinship ties. Kinship ties being a social bond based on common ancestry, marriage or adoption. In a similar vein, some researchers consider the defining characteristic of a group as social interaction. According to Dunbar's number, on average, people cannot maintain stable social relationships with more than 150 individuals.


title: Social group

text: Social psychologist Muzafer Sherif proposed to define a social unit as a number of individuals interacting with each other with respect to:


title: Social group

text: This definition is long and complex, but it is also precise. It succeeds in providing the researcher with the tools required to answer three important questions:


title: Social group

text: The attention of those who use, participate in, or study groups has focused on functioning groups, on larger organizations, or on the decisions made in these organizations. Much less attention has been paid to the more ubiquitous and universal social behaviors that do not clearly demonstrate one or more of the five necessary elements described by Sherif.


title: Social group

text: Some of the earliest efforts to understand these social units have been the extensive descriptions of urban street gangs in the 1920s and 1930s, continuing through the 1950s, which understood them to be largely reactions to the established authority. The primary goal of gang members was to defend gang territory, and to define and maintain the dominance structure within the gang. There remains in the popular media and urban law enforcement agencies an avid interest in gangs, reflected in daily headlines which emphasize the criminal aspects of gang behavior. However, these studies and the continued interest have not improved the capacity to influence gang behavior or to reduce gang related violence.


title: Social group

text: The relevant literature on animal social behaviors, such as work on territory and dominance, has been available since the 1950s. Also, they have been largely neglected by policy makers, sociologists and anthropologists. Indeed, vast literature on organization, property, law enforcement, ownership, religion, warfare, values, conflict resolution, authority, rights, and families have grown and evolved without any reference to any analogous social behaviors in animals. This disconnect may be the result of the belief that social behavior in humankind is radically different from the social behavior in animals because of the human capacity for language use and rationality. Of course, while this is true, it is equally likely that the study of the social (group) behaviors of other animals might shed light on the evolutionary roots of social behavior in people.


title: Social group

text: Territorial and dominance behaviors in humans are so universal and commonplace that they are simply taken for granted (though sometimes admired, as in home ownership, or deplored, as in violence). But these social behaviors and interactions between human individuals play a special role in the study of groups: "they are necessarily prior to the formation of groups". The psychological internalization of territorial and dominance experiences in conscious and unconscious memory are established through the formation of social identity, personal identity, body concept, or self concept. An adequately functioning individual identity is necessary before an individual can function in a division of labor (role), and hence, within a cohesive group. Coming to understand territorial and dominance behaviors may thus help to clarify the development, functioning, and productivity of groups.


title: Social group

text: Explicitly contrasted against a social cohesion based definition for social groups is the social identity perspective, which draws on insights made in social identity theory. Here, rather than defining a social group based on expressions of cohesive social relationships between individuals, the social identity model assumes that "psychological group membership has primarily a perceptual or cognitive basis." It posits that the necessary and sufficient condition for individuals to act as group members is "awareness of a common category membership" and that a social group can be "usefully conceptualized as a number of individuals who have internalized the same social category membership as a component of their self concept." Stated otherwise, while the social cohesion approach expects group members to ask "who am I attracted to?", the social identity perspective expects group members to simply ask "who am I?"


title: Social group

text: Empirical support for the social identity perspective on groups was initially drawn from work using the minimal group paradigm. For example, it has been shown that the mere act of allocating individuals to explicitly random categories is sufficient to lead individuals to act in an ingroup favouring fashion (even where no individual self-interest is possible). Also problematic for the social cohesion account is recent research showing that seemingly meaningless categorization can be an antecedent of perceptions of interdependence with fellow category members.


title: Social group

text: While the roots of this approach to social groups had its foundations in social identity theory, more concerted exploration of these ideas occurred later in the form of self-categorization theory. Whereas social identity theory was directed initially at the explanation of intergroup conflict in the absence of any conflict of interests, self-categorization theory was developed to explain how individuals come to perceive themselves as members of a group in the first place, and how this self-grouping process underlies and determines all problems subsequent aspects of group behaviour.


title: Social group

text: In his text, "Group Dynamics," Forsyth (2010) discuses several common characteristics of groups that can help to define them.


title: Social group

text: This group component varies greatly, including verbal or non-verbal communication, social loafing, networking, forming bonds, etc. Research by Bales (cite, 1950, 1999) determine that there are two main types of interactions; relationship interactions and task interactions.


title: Social group

text: Most groups have a reason for their existence, be it increasing the education and knowledge, receiving emotional support, or experiencing spirituality or religion. Groups can facilitate the achievement of these goals. The circumplex model of group tasks by Joseph McGrath organizes group related tasks and goals. Groups may focus on several of these goals, or one area at a time. The model divides group goals into four main types, which are further sub-categorized


title: Social group

text: “The state of being dependent, to some degree, on other people, as when one’s outcomes, actions, thoughts, feelings, and experiences are determined in whole or part by others." Some groups are more interdependent than others. For example, a sports team would have a relatively high level of interdependence as compared to a group of people watching a movie at the movie theater. Also, interdependence may be mutual (flowing back and forth between members) or more linear/unilateral. For example, some group members may be more dependent on their boss than the boss is on each of the individuals.


title: Social group

text: Group structure involves the emergence or regularities, norms, roles and relations that form within a group over time. Roles involve the expected performance and conduct of people within the group depending on their status or position within the group. Norms are the ideas adopted by the group pertaining to acceptable and unacceptable conduct by members. Group structure is a very important part of a group. If people fail to meet their expectations within to groups, and fulfil their roles, they may not accept the group, or be accepted by other group members.


title: Social group

text: When viewed holistically, a group is greater than the sum of its individual parts. When people speak of groups, they speak of the group as a whole, or an entity, rather than speaking of it in terms of individuals. For example, it would be said that “The "band" played beautifully.” Several factors play a part in this image of unity, including group cohesiveness, and entitativity (appearance of cohesion by outsiders).


title: Social group

text: There are four main types of groups: 1) primary groups, 2) social groups, 3) collectives, and 4) categories.


title: Social group

text: Primary groups are small, long-term groups characterized by high amounts of cohesiveness, member identification, face-to-face interaction, and solidarity. Such groups may act as the principal source of socialization for individuals as primary groups may shape an individual's attitudes, values, and social orientation.


title: Social group

text: Social groups are also small groups but are of moderate duration. These groups are often formed due to a common goal. In this type of group, it is possible for outgroup members (i.e., social categories of which one is not a member) to become ingroup members (i.e., social categories of which one is a member) with reasonable ease. Social groups, such as study groups or coworkers, interact moderately over a prolonged period of time.


title: Social group

text: In contrast, spontaneous collectives, such as bystanders or audiences of various sizes, exist only for a very brief period of time and it is very easy to become an ingroup member from an outgroup member and vice versa. Collectives may display similar actions and outlooks.


title: Social group

text: Categories consist of individuals that are similar to one another in a certain way, and members of this group can be permanent ingroup members or temporary ingroup members. Examples of categories are individuals with the same ethnicity, gender, religion, or nationality. This group is generally the largest type of group.


title: Social group

text: The social groups people are involved with in the workplace directly affect their health. No matter where you work or what the occupation is, feeling a sense of belonging in a peer group is a key to overall success. Part of this is the responsibility of the leader (manager, supervisor, etc.). If the leader helps everyone feel a sense of belonging within the group, it can help boost morale and productivity. According to Dr. Niklas Steffens "Social identification contributes to both psychological and physiological health, but the health benefits are stronger for psychological health". The social relationships people have can be linked to different health conditions. Lower quantity or quality social relationships have been connected to issues such as: development of cardiovascular disease, recurrent myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis, autonomic dysregulation, high blood pressure, cancer and delayed cancer recovery, and slower wound healing as well as inflammatory biomarkers and impaired immune function, factors associated with adverse health outcomes and mortality. The social relationship of marriage is the most studied of all, the marital history over the course of one's life can form differing health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease, chronic conditions, mobility limitations, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms. Social connectedness also plays a large part in overcoming certain conditions such as drug, alcohol, or substance abuse. With these types of issues, a person's peer group play a big role in helping them stay sober. Conditions do not need to be life-threatening, one's social group can help deal with work anxiety as well. When people are more socially connected have access to more support. Some of the health issues people have may also stem from their uncertainty about just where they stand among their colleagues. It has been shown that being well socially connected has a significant impact on a person as they age, according to a 10-year study by the MacArthur Foundation, which was published in the book 'Successful Aging' the support, love, and care we feel through our social connections can help to counteract some of the health-related negatives of aging. Older people who were more active in social circles tended to be better off health-wise.


title: Social group

text: Social groups tend to form based on certain principles of attraction, that draw individuals to affiliate with each other, eventually forming a group.


title: Social group

text: Other factors also influence the formation of a group. Extroverts may seek out groups more, as they find larger and more frequent interpersonal interactions stimulating and enjoyable (more than introverts). Similarly, groups may seek out extroverts more than introverts, perhaps because they find they connect with extroverts more readily. Those higher in relationality (attentiveness to their relations with other people) are also likelier to seek out and prize group membership. Relationality has also been associated with extroversion and agreeableness. Similarly, those with a high need for affiliation are more drawn to join groups, spend more time with groups and accept other group members more readily.


title: Social group

text: Previous experiences with groups (good and bad) inform people's decisions to join prospective groups. Individuals will compare the rewards of the group (e.g. belonging, emotional support, informational support, instrumental support, spiritual support; see Uchino, 2004 for an overview) against potential costs (e.g. time, emotional energy). Those with negative or 'mixed' experiences with previous groups will likely be more deliberate in their assessment of potential groups to join, and with which groups they choose to join. (For more, see Minimax Principal, as part of Social Exchange Theory)


title: Social group

text: Once a group has begun to form, it can increase membership through a few ways. If the group is an open group, where membership boundaries are relatively permeable, group members can enter and leave the group as they see fit (often via at least one of the aforementioned Principles of Attraction). A closed group on the other hand, where membership boundaries are more rigid and closed, often engages in deliberate and/or explicit recruitment and socialization of new members.


title: Social group

text: If a group is highly cohesive, it will likely engage in processes that contribute to cohesion levels, especially when recruiting new members, who can add to a group's cohesion, or destabilize it. Classic examples of groups with high cohesion are fraternities, sororities, gangs, and cults, which are all noted for their recruitment process, especially their initiation or hazing. In all groups, formal and informal initiations add to a group's cohesion and strengthens the bond between the individual and group by demonstrating the exclusiveness of group membership as well as the recruit's dedication to the group. Initiations tend to be more formal in more cohesive groups. Initiation is also important for recruitment because it can mitigate any cognitive dissonance in potential group members.


title: Social group

text: In some instances, such as cults, recruitment can also be referred to as conversion. Kelman's Theory of Conversion identifies 3 stages of conversion: compliance (individual will comply or accept group's views, but not necessarily agree with them), identification (member begins to mimic group's actions, values, characteristics, etc.) and internalization (group beliefs and demands become congruent with member's personal beliefs, goals and values). This outlines the process of how new members can become deeply connected to the group.


title: Social group

text: If one brings a small collection of strangers together in a restricted space and environment, provides a common goal and maybe a few ground rules, then a highly probable course of events will follow. Interaction between individuals is the basic requirement. At first, individuals will differentially interact in sets of twos or threes while seeking to interact with those with whom they share something in common: i.e., interests, skills, and cultural background. Relationships will develop some stability in these small sets, in that individuals may temporarily change from one set to another, but will return to the same pairs or trios rather consistently and resist change. Particular twosomes and threesomes will stake out their special spots within the overall space.


title: Social group

text: Again depending on the common goal, eventually twosomes and threesomes will integrate into larger sets of six or eight, with corresponding revisions of territory, dominance-ranking, and further differentiation of roles. All of this seldom takes place without some conflict or disagreement: for example, fighting over the distribution of resources, the choices of means and different subgoals, the development of what are appropriate norms, rewards and punishments. Some of these conflicts will be territorial in nature: i.e., jealousy over roles, or locations, or favored relationships. But most will be involved with struggles for status, ranging from mild protests to serious verbal conflicts and even dangerous violence.


title: Social group

text: By analogy to animal behavior, sociologists may term these behaviors "territorial behaviors" and "dominance behaviors". Depending on the pressure of the common goal and on the various skills of individuals, differentiations of leadership, dominance, or authority will develop. Once these relationships solidify, with their defined roles, norms, and sanctions, a productive group will have been established.


title: Social group

text: Aggression is the mark of unsettled dominance order. Productive group cooperation requires that both dominance order and territorial arrangements (identity, self-concept) be settled with respect to the common goal and within the particular group. Some individuals may withdraw from interaction or be excluded from the developing group. Depending on the number of individuals in the original collection of strangers, and the number of "hangers-on" that are tolerated, one or more competing groups of ten or less may form, and the competition for territory and dominance will then also be manifested in the inter group transactions.


title: Social group

text: Two or more people in interacting situations will over time develop stable territorial relationships. As described above, these may or may not develop into groups. But stable groups can also break up in to several sets of territorial relationships. There are numerous reasons for stable groups to "malfunction" or to disperse, but essentially this is because of loss of compliance with one or more elements of the definition of group provided by Sherif. The two most common causes of a malfunctioning group are the addition of too many individuals, and the failure of the leader to enforce a common purpose, though malfunctions may occur due to a failure of any of the other elements (i.e., confusions status or of norms).


title: Social group

text: In a society, there is a need for more people to participate in cooperative endeavors than can be accommodated by a few separate groups. The military has been the best example as to how this is done in its hierarchical array of squads, platoons, companies, battalions, regiments, and divisions. Private companies, corporations, government agencies, clubs, and so on have all developed comparable (if less formal and standardized) systems when the number of members or employees exceeds the number that can be accommodated in an effective group. Not all larger social structures require the cohesion that may be found in the small group. Consider the neighborhood, the country club, or the megachurch, which are basically territorial organizations who support large social purposes. Any such large organizations may need only islands of cohesive leadership.


title: Social group

text: For a functioning group to attempt to add new members in a casual way is a certain prescription for failure, loss of efficiency, or disorganization. The number of functioning members in a group can be reasonably flexible between five and ten, and a long-standing cohesive group may be able to tolerate a few hangers on. The key concept is that the value and success of a group is obtained by each member maintaining a distinct, functioning identity in the minds of each of the members. The cognitive limit to this span of attention in individuals is often set at seven. Rapid shifting of attention can push the limit to about ten. After ten, subgroups will inevitably start to form with the attendant loss of purpose, dominance-order, and individuality, with confusion of roles and rules. The standard classroom with twenty to forty pupils and one teacher offers a rueful example of one supposed leader juggling a number of subgroups.


title: Social group

text: Weakening of the common purpose once a group is well established can be attributed to: adding new members; unsettled conflicts of identities (i.e., territorial problems in individuals); weakening of a settled dominance-order; and weakening or failure of the leader to tend to the group. The actual loss of a leader is frequently fatal to a group, unless there was lengthy preparation for the transition. The loss of the leader tends to dissolve all dominance relationships, as well as weakening dedication to common purpose, differentiation of roles, and maintenance of norms. The most common symptoms of a troubled group are loss of efficiency, diminished participation, or weakening of purpose, as well as an increase in verbal aggression. Often, if a strong common purpose is still present, a simple reorganization with a new leader and a few new members will be sufficient to re-establish the group, which is somewhat easier than forming an entirely new group. This is the most common factor.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American supplier of scientific instrumentation, reagents and consumables, and software services. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Thermo Fisher was formed through the merger of Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific in 2006. Thermo Fisher Scientific has acquired other reagent, consumable, instrumentation, and service providers, including: Life Technologies Corporation (2013), Alfa Aesar (2015), Affymetrix (2016), FEI Company (2016), BD Advanced Bioprocessing (2018), and PPD (2021).


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: As of 2017, the company had a market capitalization of $21 billion and was a Fortune 500 company. Annual revenue in 2021 was US$39.21 billion.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In March 2020, Thermo Fisher Scientific received emergency use authorization from the FDA for a test for SARS-CoV-2 to help mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: Thermo Electron was co-founded in 1956 by George N. Hatsopoulos and Peter M Nomikos. Hatsopoulos received a PhD from MIT in mechanical engineering and Nomikos was a Harvard Business School graduate. The company focused on providing analytical and laboratory products, and had revenues of over $2 billion in 2004.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: Fisher Scientific was founded in 1902 by Chester G. Fisher from Pittsburgh. It focused on providing laboratory equipment, chemicals, supplies and services used in healthcare, scientific research, safety, and education.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: On May 14, 2006, Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific announced that they would merge in a tax-free, stock-for-stock exchange; the merged company was named Thermo Fisher Scientific, and had about 30,000 employees, and reported US$9 billion in combined revenue. On November 9, 2006, the companies announced that the merger had been completed. However, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that this acquisition was anti-competitive regarding centrifugal evaporators, requiring Fisher to divest Genevac. In April 2007, Genevac was sold to Riverlake Partners LLC and the merger closed with FTC approval.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: Today, the company's products are sold under the brand names of Thermo Scientific, Fisher Scientific, and several other recognized brand names (e.g. Chromacol, Nalgene, Cellomics, Pierce Protein Research and Fermentas). According to company figures, 46% of its sales are in life sciences, 20% in healthcare, and 34% in industrial/environmental and safety.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: Thermo Fisher Scientific has offices and operations worldwide, notably in the U.S. and in Europe, and China having 5,000 employees and contributing over 10% of the company's revenue.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In May 2011, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. bought Phadia to expand into the testing of allergies and autoimmune diseases for €2.47 billion ($3.5 billion) in cash.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In April 2013, after a competitive bidding with Hoffmann-La Roche, Thermo Fisher acquired Life Technologies Corporation for US$13.6 billion in a deal, adding further service lines related to advanced DNA sequencing and genetic testing.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In February 2015, the company announced it would acquire Advanced Scientifics for $300 million in a cash-deal. ASI designs, manufactures and delivers technologies used in bioprocessing. In June 2015, the company announced its intention to acquire Alfa Aesar, a global manufacturer of research chemicals for $405 million from Johnson Matthey, and the acquisition was completed at the end of September


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In January 2016, the company announced it would acquire Affymetrix for $1.3 billion. On May 27, 2016, the company announced it would acquire FEI Company for $4.2 billion, a manufacturer of electron microscopes. This acquisition is anticipated to close in early 2017 and will contribute to the growth of Thermo's Analytical Instruments business group. In November the company announced it would acquire MTI-GlobalStem, a previously privately held company that develops reagents for cell transfection, neurobiology and stem cell research.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In February 2017, the company acquired Finesse Solutions, Inc., developer of scalable control automation systems and software for bioproduction after receiving early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. The transaction was completed a day later. In March, the company announced it would acquire Core Informatics, provider of cloud-based platforms supporting scientific data management. In August, the company acquired Patheon, a contract development and manufacturing organization serving the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, for approximately $7.2 billion. As of 2017, the company had revenues of $20.9 billion, and was a Fortune 500 company.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In September 2018, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced it had signed a definitive agreement with Becton, Dickinson and Company (BDX) to acquire their Advanced Bioprocessing business. This BD business had annualized revenue of approximately $100 million; as of October 16, 2018, it had been integrated into Thermo Fisher's Life Sciences Solutions Segment.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In March 2019, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced its entry into the gene therapy manufacturing market with a $1.7 billion cash acquisition for Brammer Bio. In May 2019, Thermo Fisher Scientific partnered with MMJ International Holdings to manufacture drug products developed by MMJ for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and Huntington's disease. In June, the business announced it would acquire mass spectrometry software provider, HighChem.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In March 2020, Thermo Fisher Scientific agreed to purchase Qiagen, a molecular diagnostics company, for $10.1 billion. In July, the offer for Qiagen was raised from €39 to €43 per share (€11.3 billion in total). On August 13, the company announced that its offer to acquire all of the ordinary share had lapsed, and it terminated the acquisition agreement.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In August 2020, Thermo Fisher Scientific opened its new Lenexa facility aimed at boosting the production and manufacturing of COVID-19 testing supplies. In December the business announced it would acquire Phitonex, Inc.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In January 2021, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced it had acquired Belgium-based viral vector manufacturer, Henogen SA, from Groupe Novasep SAS for €725 million in cash and Mesa Biotech, Inc. for up to $550 million.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In April 2021, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced the acquisition of PPD, Inc., a contract research organization, for a total cash purchase price of $17.4 billion-plus the assumption of approximately $3.5 billion of net debt. PPD generated $4.7 billion in revenue during FY 2020, and this transaction, which values their company at approximately $20.9 billion. In November, the business announced it would acquire PharmaFluidics and its μPAC range of micro-chip-based chromatography products.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In October 2022, the company agreed to buy British diagnostics firm, The Binding Site Group, in an all-cash deal for US$2.6billion from Nordic Capital.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In September 2017, Thermo Fisher Scientific signed an agreement with the Institute of Pathology Heidelberg (IPH) to establish its Center of Molecular Pathology at Heidelberg University Hospital as the newest member of the Next Generation Sequencing Companion Dx Center of Excellence Program (COEP). The initiative focuses on establishing strategic collaborations with leading, European-based organizations that can lead studies using Thermo Fisher's Oncomine portfolio of research panels destined for development as companion diagnostics to help drive precision oncology in the region.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In February 2019, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that it would stop selling its equipment in Xinjiang. In June 2020, Thermo Fisher Scientific was reported to sell its equipment to security services in China for use in what was alleged as part of a genetic surveillance program. A report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that Thermo Fisher Scientific collaborated with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security to develop a Huaxia PCR amplification kit specifically to identify the genotypes of Uyghur, Tibetan and Hui ethnic minorities. In June 2021, "The New York Times" reported that, despite bans, Thermo Fisher Scientific equipment continued to be sold to police in Xinjiang.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In October 2021 the estate of Henrietta Lacks sued to get past and future payment for the alleged and widely known unauthorized sale by Thermo Fisher Scientific of her HeLa cells which are essential in many types of research. Over 50 million tons of her cells have been produced and used in over 60,000 scientific studies touching virtually every realm of medicine, including the development of polio vaccines, gene mapping, in-vitro fertilization, and multitudes more.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In May of 2022, it was announced Thermo Fisher Scientific went to court to seek a dismissal of the lawsuit.


title: Thermo Fisher Scientific

text: In 2013, Opengate Capital Group LLC filed suit against Thermo Fisher Scientific for selling it a manufacturing plant controlled by a drug cartel. According to Opengate Capital, the company withheld important documents and pressured employees into concealing the presence of the gang.


title: Johnny Lever

text: Johnny Lever (born John Prakash Rao Janumala; 14 August 1957) is an Indian actor and popular comedian who is known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is one of the first stand-up comedians in India. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including thirteen Filmfare Awards nominations in Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role, and has won the award twice, for his work in "Deewana Mastana" (1997) and "Dulhe Raja" (1998). He began his career in 1984, and has acted in more than three hundred Hindi films.


title: Johnny Lever

text: Lever was born on 14 August 1957 in a Telugu Christian family in Prakasam, Andhra Pradesh. His father worked as an operator in Hindustan Unilever plant where he also worked as a labourer for six years. Lever was brought up in King's Circle area of Dharavi in Mumbai. His mother tongue is Telugu and is fluent in Hindi, Marathi, English and Tulu. He is the eldest in the family consisting of three sisters and two brothers (including his younger brother Jimmy Moses).


title: Johnny Lever

text: Lever studied in Andhra education society English high school until the seventh grade as he could not study further because of financial problems in his family. As a result, he decided to leave school and started working odd jobs, such as selling pens on the streets of Mumbai by mimicking some famous Bollywood stars of that time and dancing to the songs of Bollywood stars. He also spent his early years in Yakutpura, an old city of Hyderabad, where he learnt the unique style of comedy acting.


title: Johnny Lever

text: During a Hindustan Unilever company function, he mimicked a few senior officers, and from that day on, the workers said he is Johnny Lever. When he later joined the film industry, he decided to use Johnny Lever as his screen name.


title: Johnny Lever

text: He started to perform stand-up comedy in musical shows (orchestras), Tabassum Hit Parade and after earning fame, joined the group of Kalyanji-Anandji, a music direction duo. Lever is one of the first stand-up comedian in India and widely regarded as pioneer of stand-up comedy profession in India. Even before joining Hindustan Unilever (HUL), he was giving stage performances. Because of his growing absenteeism and since he was earning well from stage shows, he quit HUL in the year 1981. He did a lot of shows and world tours with them, one of his first big tours being with Amitabh Bachchan in 1982. At one of his shows, actor Sunil Dutt noticed his talent and potential and offered him his first movie "Dard Ka Rishta".


title: Johnny Lever

text: He recorded a comedy cassette called "Hasi Ke Hangame" which gave him recognition at homes via the audio mode. During this period, he also did a few commercials for Kachua chhap incense, directed by Shekhar Kapur. In 1986, he performed in a charity show "Hope 86" in front of members of the Hindi film industry as a filler. His talent was recognized, which resulted in producer Gul Anand offering him the film "Jalwa", alongside Naseeruddin Shah.


title: Johnny Lever

text: Lever got his first break in "Tum Par Hum Qurban", in which the famous TV and stage compère and yesteryears actress Baby Tabassum launched her son Hoshang Govil as the leading man, and then with the film "Dard Ka Rishta", thanks to Tabassum and the late Sunil Dutt. Since then, he has acted in more than 350 films including films such as "Tezaab", "Kasam", "Khatarnak" and "Kishen Kanhaiya" . After "Dard Ka Rishta", he was seen in "Jalwa", Hero Hiralal with Naseeruddin Shah.


title: Johnny Lever

text: His first major success came with "Baazigar", and after that he was seen in movies as a supporting actor/comedian. Despite being busy with his movie roles, he continued to do live shows. One of his most memorable live performances was an impersonation of Michael Jackson at the 1999 Filmfare Awards. His most acclaimed performance was the character of "Babulal" in the film, "Baazigar", directed by Abbas-Mustan. He is also remembered for some of his other famous characters, like "Chotta Chattri", "Aslam Bhai", etc.


title: Johnny Lever

text: He also acted in a Tulu movie, "Rang". His first Tamil feature film was "Anbirkku Alavillai" released in 2011. He also starred in a Kannada film, "Gara".


title: Johnny Lever

text: Lever's first appeared in an episode of sitcom "Zabaan Sambhalke" as Johnny Utolandand in 1993. Lever also appeared on Zee TV in his own show, "Johny Aala Re". In 2007, he appeared as a judge on the stand-up reality show "Comedy Circus". In 2017 Lever joined the cast of "Partners" as Commissioner Googol Chatterjee.


title: Johnny Lever

text: He is the president of MAAM (Mimicry Artist Association Mumbai), and has done thousands of live shows all over the world.


title: Johnny Lever

text: He married Sujatha Lever in 1984 and has two children Jamie and Jessy. His younger brother, Jimmy Moses, is also a comedian and mimicry artist.


title: Johnny Lever

text: It was God's will. I had always been a religious person, but one incident changed my life. My son was diagnosed with throat tumor. I was helpless and turned to God for help. I stopped working in films and spent all my time praying for him. Ten days later, when he was taken for a test, the doctors were surprised because the cancer had vanished. It was the beginning of a new life for me.


title: New Jack

text: Jerome Young (January 3, 1963 – May 14, 2021) was an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name New Jack. He was best known for his time with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), where he became notorious for his willingness to take dangerous bumps and his stiff hardcore wrestling style, often taking high risks and known for shooting on opponents, including the 1996 Mass Transit incident and an altercation with Gypsy Joe in 2003. He is also known for being the only wrestler to have had his entrance music ("Natural Born Killaz" by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre) play throughout his matches in ECW. After the promotion closed in 2001, Young spent the rest of his career on the independent circuit until his death in May 2021.


title: New Jack

text: Jerome Young was born on January 3, 1963, in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 1968, when he was five years old, he and his siblings witnessed his father stab his mother multiple times after he found out she had been cheating on him with other men. Five months later, he shot her in the leg when she tried to leave and take Young with her. His father died of a heart attack later in the year. He and his mother moved frequently across Georgia, usually trying to stay a step or two ahead of landlords seeking to evict them.


title: New Jack

text: He attended various schools, before finally graduating from Atlanta's D.M. Therrell High School in 1981. There, Young had a measure of success in football, which lead to him attending Clark Atlanta University. Around the age of fifteen, Young and his friends began robbing local stores, such as gas stations, sporting goods stores, and jewellery stores. They were eventually caught, and Young spent two years in prison for aggravated robbery. After his release, he worked briefly as a truck driver before spending the next decade as a bounty hunter.


title: New Jack

text: Young trained under Ray Candy and debuted in 1992 in the Memphis, Tennessee-based United States Wrestling Association (USWA), where he adopted the ring name New Jack, inspired by the 1991 film "New Jack City". In June 1993, he won his first championship, the USWA World Tag Team Championship with his partner Homeboy, defeating Simply Devine and holding the title for two weeks before losing it to C. W. Bergstrom and Melvin Penrod, Jr. He remained with the company until the end of the summer.


title: New Jack

text: After leaving Memphis, New Jack moved to Atlanta and wrestled for North Georgia Wrestling Alliance, and won their Heavyweight Championship. In early 1994 he paired up with former WCW enhancement talent Mustafa Saed and formed The Gangstas, winning the NGWA Tag Team Championship in July 1994, but quickly vacated them, as they left the territory.


title: New Jack

text: New Jack earned his name working for Jim Cornette in Smoky Mountain Wrestling. He formed a wrestling crew called the Gangstas. He toured the south and was normally squared off against Southern babyface tag team the Rock 'n' Roll Express. New Jack's partner was Mustafa Saed.


title: New Jack

text: In June 1995, The Gangstas joined the Philadelphia-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion, debuting for the promotion as a villainous team by attacking The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) at Barbed Wire, Hoodies and Chokeslams on June 17, 1995. Gangstas made their ECW in-ring debut at Hardcore Heaven by competing against Public Enemy in a losing effort. The two teams engaged in a lengthy rivalry and traded wins against each other throughout the year, with the feud ending in a street fight at House Party, which Public Enemy won. Public Enemy departed ECW after the event, thus ending the rivalry. At CyberSlam Gangstas were scheduled to compete in a match against The Headhunters but Jack was imprisoned in Atlanta and Mustafa was attacked by The Headhunters. Jack returned to ECW on March 8 at Big Ass Extreme Bash to rescue Mustafa from an assault by The Headhunters, resulting in The Gangstas turning into fan favorites.


title: New Jack

text: Gangstas began pursuing the ECW World Tag Team Championship and entered into a rivalry with the tag team champions The Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) and received several title shots against Eliminators but came up short. At Fight the Power, Samoan Gangstas Party (L.A. Smooth and Sammy the Silk) made their ECW debut by attacking Gangstas. Samoan Gangsta Party cost Gangstas, another title shot against Eliminators at Hardcore Heaven. Gangstas then faced Samoan Gangstas Party in a match at Heat Wave which ended in a brawl between both teams. Gangstas' feud with Eliminators, Samoan Gangsta Party and The Bruise Brothers led to a four-way dance between the four teams at The Doctor Is In, which Gangstas won to capture their first World Tag Team Championship. Gangstas successfully defended the title against teams such as Samoan Gangsta Party, The Eliminators and Rob Van Dam and Sabu throughout the year.


title: New Jack

text: New Jack was involved in the Mass Transit Incident on November 23, 1996, in Revere, Massachusetts. The Gangstas were scheduled to face D-Von Dudley and Axl Rotten. Rotten missed the show and was replaced with "Mass Transit" Eric Kulas, an untrained seventeen-year-old who convinced booker Paul Heyman that he was twenty-one and had been trained by the veteran Killer Kowalski. Kulas requested that New Jack "blade" him during the match, but the incision was made incorrectly, causing excessive bleeding. Kulas was hospitalized as a result, eventually receiving fifty stitches. New Jack was charged with aggravated assault stemming from the incident, but was acquitted. Kulas subsequently sued New Jack and ECW for damages in July 1998, but lost the case. Kulas died on May 12, 2002, at the age of 22 due to complications from gastric bypass surgery.


title: New Jack

text: Gangstas lost the World Tag Team Championship back to Eliminators on the January 4, 1997, episode of "Hardcore TV", ending their reign at 139 days. Gangstas feuded with Eliminators and The Dudley Boyz over the title for the next several months. At Heat Wave, Gangstas defeated Dudley Boyz in a steel cage match to capture their second World Tag Team Championship. Mustafa Saed left ECW after the title win, leading to the dissolution of Gangstas. The following month, at Hardcore Heaven, Dudley Boyz were returned the championship, forfeited by Saed's departure.


title: New Jack

text: The departure of Mustafa Saed and Perry Saturn from ECW led New Jack to form a new tag team with former Eliminator John Kronus called The Gangstanators on August 21, 1997, by defeating The Dudley Boyz. The team debuted on television on the September 20 episode of "Hardcore TV" when Kronus earned a title shot at the ECW World Tag Team Championship by defeating the Dudleys and then Jack showed up as his tag team partner. They received their title shot at As Good as It Gets, where Gangstanators defeated Dudley Boyz to win the World Tag Team Championship, marking Jack's third tag title reign. They lost the belts to The Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido and Tracy Smothers) on the November 1 episode of "Hardcore TV". They defeated Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks (Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney) and Dudley Boyz in a three-way dance at "Fright Fight" and received a rematch for the title against FBI, the Freaks and Dudleys in a four-way dance at November to Remember, but lost.


title: New Jack

text: Gangstanators resumed their feud with Dudley Boyz as the two teams competed in a match at the 1998 House Party, which Dudleys won. Gangstanators formed an alliance with Spike Dudley, the estranged brother of the Dudleys. At the Living Dangerously pay-per-view, New Jack and Spike Dudley defeated Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks and Dudley Boyz in a three-way dance. Jack then lost to Bam Bam Bigelow at Wrestlepalooza. Jack began emerging as a singles competitor while feuding with Dudley Boyz. This led to Jack and Kronus quietly dissolving Gangstanators and going their separate ways as Jack more frequently teamed with Spike Dudley to feud with Dudley Boyz. New Jack began dragging in a garbage can full of weapons and throwing it into the ring as a sort of ultra-violent trash bag.


title: New Jack

text: New Jack's feud with The Dudley Boyz continued in 1999 as he teamed with Spike Dudley to lose to them at Guilty as Charged. At Crossing the Line '99, Jack brought out his former Gangstas tag team partner Mustafa Saed to compete against Dudley Boyz but Mustafa turned on Jack by smashing a guitar on his head and revealed himself to be the mysterious benefactor of Dudleys, who wanted to run The Public Enemy and New Jack out of ECW. As a result, Jack began a rivalry with Mustafa, which culminated in a match between the two at Living Dangerously, which Jack won. At CyberSlam, Jack teamed with Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks (Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney), losing an Ultimate Jeopardy match to Mustafa and the Dudleys. Afterward, Jack drove Mustafa through a table with a diving splash from the top of the cage. Jack was out of action for the next few months until he returned to ECW at Heat Wave, where he attacked Dudley Boyz with weapons from a shopping cart.


title: New Jack

text: On the October 22 episode of "ECW on TNN", Jack received his first opportunity for the World Heavyweight Championship against Mike Awesome but failed to win the title. On the November 5 episode of "ECW on TNN", Jack rescued Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks from an attack by Da Baldies (The Spanish Angel, Vito LoGrasso, Tony DeVito and Vic Grimes) but Angel stapled Jack in the eyes. This led to a lengthy rivalry between Jack and Angel over the unofficial title of "King of the Streets". The two battled back and forth over the matter in bloody street fights. One of ECW television's most gruesome moments was when in the course of a match, Angel used New Jack's staple gun (which he often wore around his neck with a chain) against him, stapling him in the eye. Referees called off the match, and New Jack disappeared from the air for many months. New Jack returned by the end of 1999 with his eye seemingly recovered, now sporting a scythe around his neck, claiming that he had "upgraded" the staple gun.


title: New Jack

text: Their first encounter was at November to Remember, where Jack and the Freaks lost to Da Baldies in a handicap match. At the 2000 Guilty as Charged pay-per-view, Jack lost a singles match to Angel due to interference by Da Baldies. At the Living Dangerously live pay-per-view in Danbury, Connecticut on March 12, New Jack suffered serious injuries during a match against Vic Grimes involving a bump that required them to jump and fall 15 feet off a scaffold. Mere seconds before the jump, Grimes became reluctant to take this very risky bump, and New Jack, annoyed with Grimes's reluctance (because of the live broadcast they had no time to improvise) dragged Grimes down with him after a count of three, and Grimes awkwardly fell half a second after Jack instead of falling together in the safest fashion. They fell off the scaffold, missed the tables that were supposed to absorb the force of their fall and landed on the concrete floor, with Grimes landing on New Jack's head. New Jack suffered brain damage, a broken leg, a skull fracture (resulting in permanent insomnia) and was permanently blinded in his right eye, and spent six months recovering, but even while injured Jack defeated Da Baldies leader Angel in a match two months later at Hardcore Heaven.


title: New Jack

text: He appeared at Heat Wave where he appeared on crutches and Angel stapled him with his staple gun in the forehead until Nova and Chris Chetti made the save and defeated Da Baldies in a tag team match. Jack was out of action for the next few months. He returned to ECW on the September 22 episode of "ECW on TNN", where he rescued Spike Dudley from an assault by Justin Credible and Rhino but was double teamed by the two. Jack was named the number one contender for Rhino's World Television Championship at November to Remember, where he failed to win the title. In his last ECW match, Jack defeated longtime rival Angel on the December 17 episode of "Hardcore TV". Jack remained with the promotion which was closed due to bankruptcy a month later in January 2001.


title: New Jack

text: After ECW declared bankruptcy in April 2001, New Jack began wrestling on the independent circuit. In 2001 and 2002, he wrestled for XPW, and in 2003, he made multiple appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and also Combat Zone Wrestling, competing in Cage of Death V. In 2004, Jack appeared in IWA and WWE in dark matches. He worked the ECW reunion show, "Hardcore Homecoming", on June 10, 2005, as well as competing on the "Extreme Reunion" tour from September 15 to 16.


title: New Jack

text: In February 2002, Jack met Vic Grimes in a scaffold match at XPW's "Freefall" event. As the final maneuver of the match, Jack shocked Grimes with a taser before throwing him from the scaffold and sending him crashing to the ring 40 feet below; there were over twelve tables stacked on top of each other in the ring to break the fall, of which Grimes missed all but two and came within a foot of missing the ring completely, which could have killed him. He broke his fall on the top rope, dislocating his ankle among other injuries. In the 2005 documentary "Forever Hardcore" and the 2020 episode of "Dark Side of the Ring" centred around him, Jack claimed that this was a break from the script, and his intentions were to throw Grimes so hard that he would fall head-first onto the steel turnbuckle and be killed. This was done, according to Jack, over a grudge based on Grimes not contacting him when he was recovering from his injuries after their fall in Danbury. However, Art O'Donnell, a writer for WrestleCrap, disputes this, citing Jack's apparent concern for Grimes' safety in a previous match for XPW and how intentional the spot seemed.


title: New Jack

text: In April 2003, New Jack was in a hardcore match with longtime wrestler Gypsy Joe. Before the match, Jack met Joe and asked the booker of the show what he was supposed to do with him. Jack was told "Gypsy Joe is as tough as leather", and Jack replied that he was not going to lose dollar value from this match and would not have a comedy or gimmick match- but that he would kill Joe in this match. For unknown reasons, Joe was continuously no-selling New Jack, and Joe headbutted him in the nose. Jack then got angry with Joe and decided to get genuine sells by legitimately attacking the 69-year-old man with a chain, a framed picture of his aunt, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, and several other weapons. The crowd, horrified by Jack's savage beating of this man either left the show in disgust or started calling Jack the N-word, a term he had been called almost every week during his days in Smoky Mountain Wrestling. In an interview for "Vice" in 2019, Jack stated "the more they called me a nigger, the angrier I got and the more I beat the guy up."


title: New Jack

text: In October 2004, New Jack, wrestling for Thunder Wrestling Federation, was scheduled to fight fellow wrestler William Jason Lane at an event near Jacksonville, Florida. During the match, Lane, to New Jack's surprise began punching him in the face legitimately and landed a few blows. New Jack then pulled out a metal blade from his camouflage wrestling attire, and stabbed Lane multiple times in the head. New Jack stated in the "Vice" documentary series "Dark Side of the Ring" that the news stated he stabbed Lane 16 times but New Jack stated it was 9 because he counted. This action caused New Jack to receive various felony charges, including for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault to commit murder. New Jack claimed that the two met prior to the match and agreed to use a "piece of metal" to inflict injury. Despite this, a police officer who was recording the incident stated that it looked like it went "past a routine wrestling match." The promoter of the event, Mr. Maurice Williams, claims the event was never intended to be hardcore. New Jack has claimed that he only stabbed Lane nine times. New Jack announced his retirement on XPW's A Cold Day To Hell in 2008 though he continued working independent shows. In 2012, New Jack competed for Extreme Rising and CZW.


title: New Jack

text: During 2003 New Jack wrestled occasional events for TNA wrestling. On the April 2, 2003, NWA-TNA, New Jack, Perry Saturn and The Sandman defeated Christopher Daniels and The Harris Brothers. On the April 9 NWA-TNA, New Jack and Sandman lost a three-way match to The Harris Brothers. On the April 16 NWA-TNA, New Jack and The Sandman lost to Brian Lee and Slash.


title: New Jack

text: on the April 23 NWA-TNA, New Jack, Perry Saturn and The Sandman defeated Brian Lee, Slash and Mike Awesome in an Ultimate Sin match. on the May 7 NWA-TNA, New Jack competed in a 3-way hardcore rules match which was won by Sabu. on the May 21 NWA-TNA, New Jack and Shark Boy lost to Ron Killings and Don Harris in an Anarchy Alliance tag match. Then he competed in the Hard 10 tournament defeating Slash in the Quarter-finals then defeated Mike Sanders in the Semi-finals before losing in the finals to The Sandman. On the July 16 NWA-TNA, New Jack (also wearing a shark mask) and Shark Boy lost to The Harris Brothers in what was New Jack's final TNA match.


title: New Jack

text: On August 8, 2010, New Jack appeared at TNA's ECW reunion show, Hardcore Justice, where he and Mustafa assaulted Team 3D and Joel Gertner after a match.


title: New Jack

text: On April 16, 2016, New Jack appeared in and wrestled for Money Mark Productions, facing Brad Cash in Lewisburg, Tennessee. On June 11, 2016, New Jack was set to face former UFC star Phil Baroni in an unsanctioned match at a Pro Wrestling Syndicate event at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey. In October, New Jack made an appearance at the Crushed 2 wrestling event in Minneapolis, where he interfered in a match between Eugene and Tommy Lee Curtis. Running out with a garbage can full of weaponry, New Jack helped save Eugene from a beat down and did a diving splash through a table to pin Tommy Lee Curtis, although he was only interfering throughout the match and not being an actual competitor; this was billed as his last appearance in the Midwest.


title: New Jack

text: Around that same year, when Young was walking home from a wrestling event, he collapsed, and doctors found blood clots throughout his legs, back, and lungs, saying "With the heart trouble I already had, I could feel myself getting close to the final bell". In January, Jack was eliminated in a battle royal by White Mike, with Jack subsequently going on to defeat Mike in a singles match. In March, he teamed with fellow ECW alumni The Sandman and Justin Credible in a winning effort at an ECW show, and made an appearance in VIP Wrestling where he defeated Masada. In his final matches leading up to his death, Jack faced fellow ECW alumni C. W. Anderson and Shane Douglas before taking time off due to surgery.


title: New Jack

text: In the video game "ECW Anarchy Rulz", New Jack's theme song was rerecorded by Bootsy Collins with unique lyrics, unlike every other character's theme, which consisted of cover versions of their real themes. The real theme ("Natural Born Killaz") could not be featured; copyright issues from their record labels wouldn't allow it. New Jack was featured in the 1999 wrestling documentary "Beyond the Mat". In addition, he appeared in the television series "Early Edition" on May 6, 2000, as a biker in the episode "Mel Schwartz, Bounty Hunter". He was also featured in the video game "". New Jack is also the subject of an episode of the documentary series "Dark Side of the Ring". The hour-long episode debuted on Vice on March 31, 2020.


title: New Jack

text: New Jack is referenced in the 1996 Weezer single "El Scorcho", with the line "watchin' Grunge legdrop New Jack through a press table". He is also referenced by Harlem rapper Smoke DZA on his album Rugby Thompson.


title: New Jack

text: Along with indie wrestler Jay Lover, New Jack made a guest appearance on the May 9, 2013 episode of "The Daily Show", in a segment entitled "Stay Out Of School."


title: New Jack

text: In 2008, Young took part in a shoot interview with The Iron Sheik and The Honky Tonk Man where the Chris Benoit double-murder and suicide was discussed. Young commented that nothing could excuse what Benoit had done, and anybody in WWE or elsewhere defending Benoit or the wrestling business from public scrutiny were hypocrites. He also thought it was ironic how ECW was seen as a violent and dangerous promotion where drug use was encouraged, yet there was only one person who died during Young's five-year tenure with the company, whereas WWE was "averaging three (deaths) a year." In the same interview, Young accused WWE chairman Vince McMahon of murder and helping falsify wrestlers' drug tests.


title: New Jack

text: Young was critical of Paul Heyman as a promoter, primarily due to Heyman's penchant for lying to his roster, as well as for cheating them out of paychecks. In 2012, Young criticized Abdullah The Butcher for using dirty blades on wrestlers and stating that Young was HIV positive.


title: New Jack

text: From 2009 to 2011 Young was in a relationship with Terri Runnels; after the relationship ended Runnels filed a lawsuit against Young for libel and to block distribution of sexually explicit photos he had of Runnels.


title: New Jack

text: Young was married to Jennifer Young. One of his sons, a drag queen named Washington Heights, revealed in 2020 that Young had disowned him a few years earlier due to being a drag queen. Young responded to the claims stating, "My son was mentioned in my book that just came out last year, so the statement about me disowning him three years ago is simply not true." Young later commented on a Facebook live video: "I would just like to say to you little faggot motherfucker: you know who you are and you're not my son, you little bitch." Heights stated after Young's death that "he was proud of me.. He wanted to fix things but didn't know how".


title: New Jack

text: After retiring, Young regularly used prescribed painkillers to help with the pain from various injuries he sustained during his career. In 2016, he collapsed while walking home from an event. He was diagnosed with blood clots in his legs and back, in addition to heart problems. Tommy Dreamer revealed that when he tried to book Young for his House of Hardcore promotion, Young said he was in poor health and often bedridden due to his heart problems and failing vision.


title: New Jack

text: On May 14, 2021, Young died of a heart attack in the afternoon at his Greensboro, North Carolina home at the age of 58.


title: Saint Stephen

text: Stephen ( "Stéphanos", meaning "wreath, crown" and by extension "reward, honor, renown, fame", often given as a title rather than as a name; c. 5 – c. 34 AD) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity. According to the Acts of the Apostles, he was a deacon in the early Church at Jerusalem who angered members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy at his trial, he made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him and was then stoned to death. Saul of Tarsus, later known as Paul, a Pharisee and Roman citizen who would later become a Christian apostle, participated in Stephen's martyrdom.


title: Saint Stephen

text: The only source for information about Stephen is the New Testament book of the Acts of the Apostles. Stephen is mentioned in Acts 6 as one of the Greek-speaking Hellenistic Jews selected to participate in a fairer distribution of welfare to the Greek-speaking widows.


title: Saint Stephen

text: The Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox Churches, Lutheran and the Church of the East view Stephen as a saint. Artistic representations often show Stephen with a crown symbolising martyrdom, three stones, martyr's palm frond, censer, and often holding a miniature church building. Stephen is often shown as a young, beardless man with a tonsure, wearing a deacon's vestments.


title: Saint Stephen

text: Stephen is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as one of seven deacons appointed by the Apostles to distribute food and charitable aid to poorer members of the community in the early church. According to Orthodox belief, he was the eldest and is therefore called "archdeacon". As another deacon, Nicholas of Antioch, is specifically stated to have been a convert to Judaism, it may be assumed that Stephen was born Jewish, but nothing more is known about his previous life. The reason for the appointment of the deacons is stated to have been dissatisfaction among Hellenistic (that is, Greek-influenced and Greek-speaking) Jews that their widows were being slighted in preference to Hebraic ones in the daily distribution of food. Since the name "Stephanos" is Greek, it has been assumed that he was one of these Hellenistic Jews. Stephen is stated to have been full of faith and the Holy Spirit and to have performed miracles among the people.


title: Saint Stephen

text: It seems to have been among synagogues of Hellenistic Jews that he performed his teachings and "signs and wonders" since it is said that he aroused the opposition of the "Synagogue of the Freedmen", and "of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of them that were of Cilicia and Asia". Members of these synagogues had challenged Stephen's teachings, but Stephen had bested them in debate. Furious at this humiliation, they suborned false testimony that Stephen had preached blasphemy against Moses and God. They dragged him to appear before the Sanhedrin, the supreme legal court of Jewish elders, accusing him of preaching against the Temple and the Mosaic Law. Stephen is said to have been unperturbed, his face looking like "that of an angel".


title: Saint Stephen

text: In a long speech to the Sanhedrin comprising almost the whole of Acts chapter 7, Stephen presents his view of the history of Israel. The God of glory, he says, appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, thus establishing at the beginning of the speech one of its major themes, that God does not dwell only in one particular building (meaning the Temple). Stephen recounts the stories of the patriarchs in some depth, and goes into even more detail in the case of Moses. God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and inspired Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. Nevertheless, the Israelites turned to other gods. This establishes the second main theme of Stephen's speech, Israel's disobedience to God. Stephen faced two accusations: that he had declared that Jesus would destroy the Temple in Jerusalem and that he had changed the customs of Moses. Pope Benedict XVI stated in 2012 that St. Stephen appealed to the Jewish scriptures to prove how the laws of Moses were not subverted by Jesus but, instead, were being fulfilled. Stephen denounces his listeners as "stiff-necked" people who, just as their ancestors had done, resist the Holy Spirit. "Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him."


title: Saint Stephen

text: Thus castigated, the account is that the crowd could contain their anger no longer. However, Stephen looked up and cried, "Look! I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God!" He said that the recently resurrected Jesus was standing by the side of God. The people from the crowd, who threw the first stones, laid their coats down so as to be able to do this, at the feet of a "young man named Saul" (later identified as Paul the Apostle). Stephen prayed that the Lord would receive his spirit and his killers be forgiven, sank to his knees, and "fell asleep". Saul "approved of their killing him." In the aftermath of Stephen's death, the remaining disciples except for the apostles fled to distant lands, many to Antioch.


title: Saint Stephen

text: The exact site of Stephen's stoning is not mentioned in Acts; instead there are two different traditions. One, claimed by noted French archaeologists Louis-Hugues Vincent (1872–1960) and Félix-Marie Abel (1878–1953) to be ancient, places the event at Jerusalem's northern gate, while another one, dated by Vincent and Abel to the Middle Ages and no earlier than the 12th century, locates it at the eastern gate.


title: Saint Stephen

text: Of the numerous speeches in Acts of the Apostles, Stephen's speech to the Sanhedrin is the longest. To the objection that it seems unlikely that such a long speech could be reproduced in the text of Acts exactly as it was delivered, some Biblical scholars have replied that Stephen's speech shows a distinctive personality behind it.


title: Saint Stephen

text: There are at least five places where Stephen's re-telling of the stories of Israelite history diverges from the scriptures where these stories originated; for instance, Stephen says that Jacob's tomb was in Shechem, but Genesis 50:13 says Jacob's body was carried and buried in a cave in Machpelah at Hebron. Some theologians argue that these may not be discrepancies, but rather a condensing of historical events for people who were already familiar with them. That Jacob's body was carried to a final resting place in Shechem is not recorded in Genesis, though it does not exclude the possibility that his bones were transferred to Shechem for a final burial place, as was done with the bones of Jacob's son Joseph, as described in Joshua 24:32 Other scholars consider them as errors. Still others interpret them as deliberate choices making theological points. Another possibility is that the discrepancies come from an ancient Jewish tradition which was not included in the scriptures or may have been popular among people of Jerusalem who were not scribes.


title: Saint Stephen

text: Numerous parallels between the accounts of Stephen in Acts and the Jesus of the Gospels – they both perform miracles, they are both tried by the Sanhedrin, they both pray for forgiveness for their killers, for instance – have led to suspicions that the author of Acts has emphasised – in order to show the recipient that people become holy when they follow the example of Christ – or invented some (or all) of these.


title: Saint Stephen

text: The criticism of traditional Jewish belief and practice in Stephen's speech is very strong – when he says God does not live in a dwelling "made by human hands", referring to the Temple, he is using an expression often employed by Biblical texts to describe idols.


title: Saint Stephen

text: Some people have laid the charge of anti-Judaism against the speech, for instance the priest and scholar of comparative religion S. G. F. Brandon, who states: "The anti-Jewish polemic of this speech reflects the attitude of the author of Acts."


title: Saint Stephen

text: Friedrich Justus Knecht lists the similarities of the martyrdom of Stephen to Jesus' death on the cross: