title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: Senators Jesse Helms and John Porter East (both North Carolina Republicans) led the opposition to the holiday and questioned whether King was important enough to receive such an honor. Helms criticized King's opposition to the Vietnam War and accused him of espousing "action-oriented Marxism". Helms led a filibuster against the bill and on October 3, 1983, submitted a 300-page document to the Senate alleging that King had associations with communists. Democratic New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan declared the document a "packet of filth", threw it on the Senate floor and stomped on it.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: President Ronald Reagan originally opposed the holiday, citing cost concerns. When asked to comment on Helms' accusations that King was a communist, the president said "We'll know in thirty-five years, won't we?", referring to the eventual release of FBI surveillance tapes that had previously been sealed. But on November 2, 1983, Reagan signed a bill into law, proposed by Representative Katie Hall of Indiana, to create a federal holiday honoring King. The final vote in the House of Representatives on August 2, 1983, was 338–90 (242–4 in the House Democratic Caucus and 89–77 in the House Republican Conference) with 5 members voting present or abstaining, while the final vote in the Senate on October 19, 1983, was 78–22 (41–4 in the Senate Democratic Caucus and 37–18 in the Senate Republican Conference), both veto-proof margins. The holiday was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986. It is observed on the third Monday of January.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: The bill also established the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission to oversee observance of the holiday, and Coretta Scott King, King's wife, was made a member of this commission for life by President George H. W. Bush in May 1989.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: Although the federal holiday honoring King was signed into law in 1983 and took effect three years later, not every U.S. state chose to observe the January holiday at the state level until 1991, when the New Hampshire legislature created "Civil Rights Day" and abolished its April "Fast Day". In 1999, New Hampshire became the last state to name a holiday after King, which they first celebrated in January 2000the first nationwide celebration of the day with this name.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: In 1986, Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt, a Democrat, created a paid state MLK holiday in Arizona by executive order just before he left office, but in 1987, his Republican successor Evan Mecham, citing an attorney general's opinion that Babbitt's order was illegal, reversed Babbitt's decision days after taking office. Later that year, Mecham proclaimed the third Sunday in January to be "Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights Day" in Arizona, albeit as an unpaid holiday. This proposal was rejected by the state Senate the following year. In 1990, Arizona voters were given the opportunity to vote on giving state employees a paid MLK holiday. That same year, the National Football League threatened to move Super Bowl XXVII, which was planned for Arizona in 1993, if the MLK holiday was voted down. In the November election, the voters were offered two King Day options: Proposition 301, which replaced Columbus Day on the list of paid state holidays, and Proposition 302, which merged Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays into one paid holiday to make room for MLK Day. Both measures failed to pass, with only 49% of voters approving Prop 302, the more popular of the two options; although some who voted "no" on 302 voted "yes" on Prop 301. Consequently, the state lost the chance to host Super Bowl XXVII, which was subsequently held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. In a 1992 referendum, the voters, this time given only one option for a paid King Day, approved state-level recognition of the holiday.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: On May 2, 2000, South Carolina governor Jim Hodges signed a bill to make King's birthday an official state holiday. South Carolina was the last state to recognize the day as a paid holiday for all state employees. Before the bill, employees could choose between celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day or one of three Confederate holidays.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: While all states now observe the holiday, some did not name the day after King. For example, in New Hampshire, the holiday was known as "Civil Rights Day" until 1999, when the State Legislature voted to change the name of the holiday to Martin Luther King Day.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: Several additional states have chosen to combine commemorations of King's birthday with other observances:


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: Overall, in 2007, 33% of employers gave employees the day off, a 2% increase over the previous year. There was little difference in observance by large and small employers: 33% for firms with over 1,000 employees; and 32% for firms with under 1,000 employees. The observance is most popular among nonprofit organizations and least popular among factories and manufacturers. The reasons for this have varied, ranging from the recent addition of the holiday to its occurrence just two weeks after the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, when many businesses are closed for part or all of it. Additionally, many schools and places of higher education are closed for classes; others remain open but may hold seminars or celebrations of King's message. The observance of MLK Day has led to some colleges and universities extending their Christmas break to include the day as part of the break. Some employers use MLK Day as a floating or movable holiday.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: The national Martin Luther King Day of Service was started by former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Harris Wofford and Atlanta Congressman John Lewis, who co-authored the King Holiday and Service Act. The federal legislation challenges Americans to transform the King Holiday into a day of citizen action volunteer service in honor of King. The federal legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 23, 1994. Since 1996, Wofford's former state office director, Todd Bernstein, has been directing the annual Greater Philadelphia King Day of Service, the largest event in the nation honoring King.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: Since 1994, the day of service has been coordinated nationally by AmeriCorps, a federal agency, which provides grants to organizations that coordinate service activities on MLK Day.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: The only other official national day of service in the U.S., as designated by the government, is September 11 National Day of Service (9/11 Day).


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: The City of Toronto government in Ontario officially recognizes Martin Luther King Jr. Day, although not as a paid holiday: all government services and businesses remain open. The Ottawa municipal government in Ontario officially began observing this national holiday on January 26, 2005.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: In 1984, during a visit by the U.S. Sixth Fleet, Navy chaplain Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff conducted the first Israeli presidential ceremony in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, held in the President's Residence, Jerusalem. Aura Herzog, wife of Israel's then-President Chaim Herzog, noted that she was especially proud to host this special event, because Israel had a national forest in honor of King, and that Israel and King shared the idea of "dreams". Resnicoff continued this theme in his remarks during the ceremony, quoting the verse from Genesis, spoken by the brothers of Joseph when they saw their brother approach, "Behold the dreamer comes; let us slay him and throw him into the pit, and see what becomes of his dreams." Resnicoff noted that, from time immemorial, there have been those who thought they could kill the dream by slaying the dreamer, but – as the example of King's life shows – such people are always wrong.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: Martin Luther King Jr. Day is observed in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba held a special banquet at the mayor's office as an act of unifying his city's call for peace with King's message of human rights.


title: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

text: Every year since 1987, the Dr. Martin Luther King Tribute and Dinner has been held in Wassenaar, The Netherlands. The Tribute includes young people and veterans of the Civil Rights Movement as well as music. It always ends with everyone holding hands in a circle and singing "We Shall Overcome". The Tribute is held on the last Sunday in January.


title: Internet forum

text: An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporarily archived. Also, depending on the access level of a user or the forum set-up, a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes publicly visible.


title: Internet forum

text: Forums have a specific set of jargon associated with them; example: a single conversation is called a "thread", or "topic".


title: Internet forum

text: A discussion forum is hierarchical or tree-like in structure: a forum can contain a number of subforums, each of which may have several topics. Within a forum's topic, each new discussion started is called a thread and can be replied to by as many people as so wish.


title: Internet forum

text: Depending on the forum's settings, users can be anonymous or have to register with the forum and then subsequently log in to post messages. On most forums, users do not have to log in to read existing messages.


title: Internet forum

text: The modern forum originated from bulletin boards, and so-called computer conferencing systems, and are a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system. From a technological standpoint, "forums" or "boards" are web applications managing user-generated content.


title: Internet forum

text: Early Internet forums could be described as a web version of an electronic mailing list or newsgroup (such as exist on Usenet); allowing people to post messages and comment on other messages. Later developments emulated the different newsgroups or individual lists, providing more than one forum, dedicated to a particular topic.


title: Internet forum

text: Internet forums are prevalent in several developed countries. Japan posts the most with over two million per day on their largest forum, 2channel. China also has many millions of posts on forums such as Tianya Club.


title: Internet forum

text: Some of the first forum systems were the Planet-Forum system, developed at the beginning of the 1970s, the EIES system, first operational in 1976, and the , first operational in 1977.


title: Internet forum

text: One of the first forum sites (which is still active today) is Delphi Forums, once called Delphi. The service, with four million members, dates to 1983.


title: Internet forum

text: Forums perform a function similar to that of dial-up bulletin board systems and Usenet networks that were first created starting in the late 1970s. Early web-based forums date back as far as 1994, with the WIT project from W3 Consortium and starting from this time, many alternatives were created. A sense of virtual community often develops around forums that have regular users. Technology, video games, sports, music, fashion, religion, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for a huge number of topics. Internet slang and image macros popular across the Internet are abundant and widely used in Internet forums.


title: Internet forum

text: Forum software packages are widely available on the Internet and are written in a variety of programming languages, such as PHP, Perl, Java and ASP. The configuration and records of posts can be stored in text files or in a database. Each package offers different features, from the most basic, providing text-only postings, to more advanced packages, offering multimedia support and formatting code (usually known as BBCode). Many packages can be integrated easily into an existing website to allow visitors to post comments on articles.


title: Internet forum

text: Several other web applications, such as blog software, also incorporate forum features. WordPress comments at the bottom of a blog post allow for a single-threaded discussion of any given blog post. Slashcode, on the other hand, is far more complicated, allowing fully threaded discussions and incorporating a robust moderation and meta-moderation system as well as many of the profile features available to forum users.


title: Internet forum

text: Some stand alone threads on forums have reached fame and notability such as the "I am lonely will anyone speak to me" thread on MovieCodec.com's forums, which was described as the "web's top hangout for lonely folk" by "Wired" magazine.


title: Internet forum

text: A forum consists of a tree-like directory structure. The top end is "Categories". A forum can be divided into categories for the relevant discussions. Under the categories are sub-forums and these sub-forums can further have more sub-forums. The "topics" (commonly called "threads") come under the lowest level of sub-forums and these are the places under which members can start their discussions or "posts". Logically forums are organized into a finite set of generic topics (usually with one main topic) driven and updated by a group known as "members", and governed by a group known as "moderators". It can also have a graph structure.


title: Internet forum

text: Internally, Western-style forums organize visitors and logged in members into user groups. Privileges and rights are given based on these groups. A user of the forum can automatically be promoted to a more privileged user group based on criteria set by the administrator. A person viewing a closed thread as a "member" will see a box saying he does not have the right to submit messages there, but a "moderator" will likely see the same box granting him access to more than just posting messages.


title: Internet forum

text: An unregistered user of the site is commonly known as a "guest" or "visitor". Guests are typically granted access to all functions that do not require database alterations or breach privacy. A guest can usually view the contents of the forum or use such features as "read marking", but occasionally an administrator will disallow visitors to read their forum as an incentive to become a registered member. A person who is a very frequent visitor of the forum, a section or even a thread is referred to as a lurker and the habit is referred to as "lurking". Registered members often will refer to themselves as "lurking" in a particular location, which is to say they have no intention of participating in that section but enjoy reading the contributions to it.


title: Internet forum

text: The "moderators" (short singular form: "mod") are users (or employees) of the forum who are granted access to the posts and threads of all members for the purpose of "moderating discussion" (similar to arbitration) and also keeping the forum clean (neutralizing spam and spambots etc.). Moderators also answer users' concerns about the forum, general questions, as well as respond to specific complaints. Common privileges of moderators include: deleting, merging, moving, and splitting of posts and threads, locking, renaming, stickying of threads, banning, unbanning, suspending, unsuspending, warning the members, or adding, editing, and removing the polls of threads. "Junior modding", "backseat modding", or "forum copping" can refer negatively to the behavior of ordinary users who take a moderator-like tone in criticizing other members.


title: Internet forum

text: Essentially, it is the duty of the moderator to manage the day-to-day affairs of a forum or board as it applies to the stream of user contributions and interactions. The relative effectiveness of this user management directly impacts the quality of a forum in general, its appeal, and its usefulness as a community of interrelated users.


title: Internet forum

text: Moderators act as unpaid volunteers on many websites, which has sparked controversies and community tensions. On Reddit, some moderators have prominently expressed dissatisfaction with their unpaid labor being underappreciated, while other site users have accused moderators of abusing special access privileges to act as a "cabal" of "petty tyrants". On 4chan, moderators are subject to notable levels of mockery and contempt. There, they are often referred to as janitors (or, more pejoratively, "jannies") given their job of what is tantamount to cleaning up the imageboards' infamous shitposting.


title: Internet forum

text: The "administrators" (short form: "admin") manage the technical details required for running the site. As such, they have the authority to appoint and revoke members as moderators, manage the rules, create sections and sub-sections, as well as perform any database operations (database backup, etc.). Administrators often also act as moderators. Administrators may also make forum-wide announcements, or change the appearance (known as the skin) of a forum. There are also many forums where administrators share their knowledge.


title: Internet forum

text: A "post" is a user-submitted message enclosed into a block containing the user's details and the date and time it was submitted. Members are usually allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Posts are contained in threads, where they appear as blocks one after another. The first post starts the thread; this may be called the TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). Posts that follow in the thread are meant to continue discussion about that post, or respond to other replies; it is not uncommon for discussions to be derailed.


title: Internet forum

text: On Western forums, the classic way to show a member's own details (such as name and avatar) has been on the left side of the post, in a narrow column of fixed width, with the post controls located on the right, at the bottom of the main body, above the signature block. In more recent forum software implementations, the Asian style of displaying the members' details above the post has been copied.


title: Internet forum

text: Posts have an internal limit usually measured in characters. Often one is required to have a message with a minimum length of 10 characters. There is always an upper limit but it is rarely reached – most boards have it at either 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, or 50,000 characters.


title: Internet forum

text: Most forums keep track of a user's postcount. The postcount is a measurement of how many posts a certain user has made. Users with higher postcounts are often considered more reputable than users with lower postcounts, but not always. For instance, some forums have disabled postcounts with the hopes that doing so will emphasize the quality of information over quantity.


title: Internet forum

text: A "thread" (sometimes called a "topic") is a collection of posts, usually displayed from oldest to latest, although this is typically configurable: Options for newest to oldest and for a threaded view (a tree-like view applying logical reply structure before chronological order) can be available. A thread is defined by a title, an additional description that may summarize the intended discussion, and an opening or original post (common abbreviation OP, which can also be used to refer to the original poster), which opens whatever dialogue or makes whatever announcement the poster wished. A thread can contain any number of posts, including multiple posts from the same members, even if they are one after the other.


title: Internet forum

text: A thread is contained in a forum and may have an associated date that is taken as the date of the last post (options to order threads by other criteria are generally available). When a member posts in a thread it will jump to the top since it is the latest updated thread. Similarly, other threads will jump in front of it when they receive posts. When a member posts in a thread for no reason but to have it go to the top, it is referred to as a "bump" or "bumping". It has been suggested that "bump" is an acronym of "bring up my post"; however, this is almost certainly a backronym and the usage is entirely consistent with the verb "bump" which means "to knock to a new position".


title: Internet forum

text: On some messageboards, users can choose to "sage" (correctly pronounced though often confused as ) a post if they wish to make a post, but not "bump" it. The word "sage" derives from the 2channel terminology 下げる "sageru", meaning "to lower".


title: Internet forum

text: Threads that are important but rarely receive posts are "sticky"ed (or, in some software, "pinned"). A "sticky thread" will always appear in front of normal threads, often in its own section. A "threaded discussion group" is simply any group of individuals who use a forum for threaded, or asynchronous, discussion purposes. The group may or may not be the only users of the forum.


title: Internet forum

text: A thread's popularity is measured on forums in reply (total posts minus one, the opening post, in most default forum settings) counts. Some forums also track page views. Threads meeting a set number of posts or a set number of views may receive a designation such as "hot thread" and be displayed with a different icon compared to other threads. This icon may stand out more to emphasize the thread. If the forum's users have lost interest in a particular thread, it becomes a "dead thread".


title: Internet forum

text: Forums prefer a premise of open and free discussion and often adopt de facto standards. Most common topics on forums include questions, comparisons, polls of opinion, as well as debates. It is not uncommon for nonsense or unsocial behavior to sprout as people lose temper, especially if the topic is controversial. Poor understanding of differences in values of the participants is a common problem on forums. Because replies to a topic are often worded aimed at someone's point of view, discussion will usually go slightly off into several directions as people question each other's validity, sources and so on. Circular discussion and ambiguity in replies can extend for several tens of posts of a thread eventually ending when everyone gives up or attention spans waver and a more interesting subject takes over. It is not uncommon for debate to end in ad hominem attacks.


title: Internet forum

text: Several lawsuits have been brought against the forums and moderators claiming libel and damage. A recent case is the Scubaboard lawsuit where a business in the Maldives filed a suit against Scubaboard for libel and defamation in January 2010.


title: Internet forum

text: For the most part, though, forum owners and moderators in the United States are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which states that "[n]o provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."


title: Internet forum

text: In 2019, Facebook was faced with a class action lawsuit set forth by moderators diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. It was settled for $52 million the following year.


title: Internet forum

text: By default to be an Internet forum, the web application needs an ability to submit threads and replies. Typically, threads are in newer to older view, and replies in older to newer view.


title: Internet forum

text: Most imageboards and 2channel-style discussion boards allow (and encourage) anonymous posting and use a system of tripcodes instead of registration. A tripcode is the hashed result of a password that allows one's identity to be recognized without storing any data about users.


title: Internet forum

text: In a tripcode system, a secret password is added to the user's name following a separator character (often a number sign). This password, or tripcode, is hashed into a special key, or trip, distinguishable from the name by HTML styles. Tripcodes cannot be faked but on some types of forum software they are insecure and can be guessed. On other types, they can be brute forced with software designed to search for tripcodes such as Tripcode Explorer.


title: Internet forum

text: Moderators and administrators will frequently assign themselves capcodes, or tripcodes where the guessable trip is replaced with a special notice (such as "# Administrator"), or cap.


title: Internet forum

text: A "private message", or PM for short, is a message sent in private from a member to one or more other members. The ability to send so-called blind carbon copies is sometimes available. When sending a "blind carbon copy" (bcc), the users to whom the message is sent directly will not be aware of the recipients of the blind carbon copy or even if one was sent in the first place.


title: Internet forum

text: Private messages are generally used for personal conversations. They can also be used with tripcodes—a message is addressed to a public trip and can be picked up by typing in the tripcode.


title: Internet forum

text: An attachment can be almost any file. When someone attaches a file to a person's post they are uploading that particular file to the forum's server. Forums usually have very strict limit on what can be attached and what cannot be (among which the size of the files in question). Attachments can be part of a thread, social group, etc.,


title: Internet forum

text: HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is sometimes allowed but usually its use is discouraged or when allowed, it is extensively filtered. Modern bulletin board systems often will have it disabled altogether or allow only administrators use it, as allowing it on any normal user level is considered a security risk due to a high rate of XSS vulnerabilities. When HTML is disabled Bulletin Board Code (BBCode) is the most common preferred alternative. BBCode usually consists of a tag, similar to HTML only instead of codice_1 and codice_2 the tagname is enclosed within square brackets (meaning: codice_3 and codice_4). Commonly codice_5 is used for italic type, codice_6 is used for bold, codice_7 for underline, codice_8 for color and codice_9 for lists, as well as codice_10 for images and codice_11 for links.


title: Internet forum

text: The following example BBCode: codice_12 when the post is viewed the code is rendered to HTML and will appear as: This is "clever" text.


title: Internet forum

text: Many forum packages offer a way to create Custom BBCodes, or BBcodes that are not built into the package, where the administrator of the board can create complex BBCodes to allow the use of JavaScript or iframe functions in posts, for example embedding a YouTube or Google Video complete with viewer directly into a post.


title: Internet forum

text: An emoticon or "smiley" is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form. Forums implement a system through which some of the text representations of an emoticons (e.g. codice_13, codice_14) are rendered as a small image. Depending on what part of the world the forum's topic originates (since most forums are international) smilies can be replaced by other forms of similar graphics, an example would be kaoani (e.g. codice_15, codice_16), or even text between special symbols (e.g. :blink:, :idea:).


title: Internet forum

text: Most forums implement an opinion poll system for threads. Most implementations allow for single-choice or multi-choice (sometimes limited to a certain number) when selecting options as well as private or public display of voters. Polls can be set to expire after a certain date or in some cases after a number of days from its creation. Members vote in a poll and a statistic is displayed graphically.


title: Internet forum

text: RSS and ATOM feeds allow a minimalistic means of subscribing to the forum. Common implementations allow RSS feeds to list only the last few threads updated for the forum index and the last posts in a thread.


title: Internet forum

text: An "ignore list" allows members to hide posts of other members that they do not want to see or have a problem with. In most implementations, they are referred to as "foe list" or "ignore list". The posts are usually not hidden, but minimized with only a small bar indicating a post from the user on the "ignore list" is there. Almost all Internet forums include a "member list", which allows display of all forum members, with an integrated search feature. Some forums will not list members with 0 posts, even if they have activated their accounts.


title: Internet forum

text: Many forums allow users to give themselves an "avatar". An avatar is an image that appears beside all of a user's posts, in order to make the user more recognizable. The user may upload the image to the forum database or may provide a link to an image on a separate website. Each forum has limits on the height, width, and data size of avatars that may be used; if the user tries to use an avatar that is too big, it may be scaled down or rejected.


title: Internet forum

text: Similarly, most forums allow users to define a "signature" (sometimes called a "sig"), which is a block of text, possibly with BBCode, which appears at the bottom of all of the user's posts. There is a character limit on signatures, though it may be so high that it is rarely hit. Often the forum's moderators impose manual rules on signatures to prevent them from being obnoxious (for example, being extremely long or having flashing images), and issue warnings or bans to users who break these rules. Like avatars, signatures may improve the recognizability of a poster. They may also allow the user to attach information to all of their posts, such as proclaiming support for a cause, noting facts about themselves, or quoting humorous things that have previously been said on the forum.


title: Internet forum

text: Common on forums, a "subscription" is a form of automated notification integrated into the software of most forums. It usually notifies either by email or on the site when the member returns. The option to subscribe is available for every thread while logged in. Subscriptions work with "read marking", namely the property of "unread", which is given to the content never served to the user by the software.


title: Internet forum

text: Recent development in some popular implementations of forum software has brought "social network features and functionality". Such features include personal galleries, pages as well as a social network like chat systems.


title: Internet forum

text: Most forum software is now fully customizable with "hacks" or "modifications" readily available to customize a person's forum to theirs and their members' needs.


title: Internet forum

text: Often forums use "cookies", or information about the user's behavior on the site sent to a user's browser and used upon re-entry into the site. This is done to facilitate automatic login and to show a user whether a thread or forum has received new posts since his or her last visit. These may be disabled or cleared at any time.


title: Internet forum

text: Forums are governed by a set of individuals, collectively referred to as "staff", made up of "administrators" and "moderators", which are responsible for the forums' conception, technical maintenance, and policies (creation and enforcing). Most forums have a list of rules detailing the wishes, aim, and guidelines of the forums' creators. There is usually also a FAQ section containing basic information for new members and people not yet familiar with the use and principles of a forum (generally tailored for specific forum software).


title: Internet forum

text: Rules on forums usually apply to the entire user body and often have preset exceptions, most commonly designating a section as an exception. For example, in an IT forum any discussion regarding anything but computer programming languages may be against the rules, with the exception of a "general chat" section.


title: Internet forum

text: Forum rules are maintained and enforced by the moderation team, but users are allowed to help out via what is known as a report system. Most Western forum platforms automatically provide such a system. It consists of a small function applicable to each post (including one's own). Using it will notify all currently available moderators of its location, and subsequent action or judgment can be carried out immediately, which is particularly desirable in large or very developed boards. Generally, moderators encourage members to also use the "private message" system if they wish to report behavior. Moderators will generally frown upon attempts of moderation by non-moderators, especially when the would-be moderators do not even issue a report. Messages from non-moderators acting as moderators generally declare a post as against the rules or predict punishment. While not harmful, statements that attempt to enforce the rules are discouraged.


title: Internet forum

text: When rules are broken several steps are commonly taken. First, a warning is usually given; this is commonly in the form of a "private message" but recent development has made it possible for it to be integrated into the software. Subsequent to this, if the act is ignored and warnings do not work, the member is – usually – first exiled from the forum for a number of days. Denying someone access to the site is called a "ban". Bans can mean the person can no longer log in or even view the site anymore. If the offender, after the warning sentence, repeats the offense, another ban is given, usually this time a longer one. Continuous harassment of the site eventually leads to a permanent ban. In most cases, this means simply that the account is locked. In extreme cases where the offender – after being permanently banned – creates another account and continues to harass the site, administrators will apply an IP address ban or block (this can also be applied at the server level): If the IP address is static, the machine of the offender is prevented from accessing the site. In some extreme circumstances, IP address range bans or country bans can be applied; this is usually for political, licensing, or other reasons. See also: Block (Internet), IP address blocking, and Internet censorship.


title: Internet forum

text: Offending content is usually deleted. Sometimes if the topic is considered the source of the problem, it is "locked"; often a poster may request a topic expected to draw problems to be locked as well, although the moderators decide whether to grant it. In a "locked thread", members cannot post anymore. In cases where the topic is considered a breach of rules it – with all of its posts – may be deleted.


title: Internet forum

text: Forum "trolls" are users that repeatedly and deliberately breach the netiquette of an established online community, posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages to bait or excite users into responding or to test the forum rules and policies, and with that the patience of the forum staff. Their provocative behavior may potentially start flame wars (see below) or other disturbances. Responding to a troll's provocations is commonly known as 'feeding the troll' and is generally discouraged, as it can encourage their disruptive behavior.


title: Internet forum

text: The term sock puppet refers to multiple pseudonyms in use by the same person on a particular message board or forum. The analogy of a sock puppet is of a puppeteer holding up both hands and supplying dialogue to both puppets simultaneously. A typical use of a sockpuppet account is to agree with or debate another sockpuppet account belonging to the same person, for the purposes of reinforcing the puppeteer's position in an argument. Sock puppets are usually found when an IP address check is done on the accounts in forums.


title: Internet forum

text: Forum spamming is a breach of netiquette where users repeat the same word or phrase over and over, but differs from multiple posting in that spamming is usually a willful act that sometimes has malicious intent. This is a common trolling technique. It can also be traditional spam, unpaid advertisements that are in breach of the forum's rules. Spammers utilize a number of illicit techniques to post their spam, including the use of botnets.


title: Internet forum

text: Some forums consider concise, comment-oriented posts spam, for example "Thank you", "Cool" or "I love it".


title: Internet forum

text: One common faux pas on Internet forums is to post the same message twice. Users sometimes post versions of a message that are only slightly different, especially in forums where they are not allowed to edit their earlier posts. Multiple posting instead of editing prior posts can artificially inflate a user's post count. Multiple posting can be unintentional; a user's browser might display an error message even though the post has been transmitted or a user of a slow forum might become impatient and repeatedly hit the submit button. An offline editor may post the same message twice. Multiple posting can also be used as a method of trolling or spreading forum spam. A user may also send the same post to several forums, which is termed crossposting. The term derives from Usenet, where crossposting was an accepted practice but causes problems in web forums, which lack the ability to link such posts so replies in one forum are not visible to people reading the post in other forums.


title: Internet forum

text: A necropost is a message that revives (as in necromancy) an arbitrarily old thread, causing it to appear above newer and more active threads. This practice is generally seen as a breach of netiquette on most forums. Because old threads are not usually locked from further posting, necroposting is common for newer users and in cases where the date of previous posts is not apparent.


title: Internet forum

text: A word censoring system is commonly included in the forum software package. The system will pick up words in the body of the post or some other user-editable forum element (like user titles), and if they partially match a certain keyword (commonly no case sensitivity) they will be censored. The most common censoring is letter replacement with an asterisk character. For example, in the user title, it is deemed inappropriate for users to use words such as "admin", "moderator", "leader" and so on. If the censoring system is implemented, a title such as "forum leader" may be filtered to "forum ******". Rude or vulgar words are common targets for the censoring system. But such auto-censors can make mistakes, for example censoring "wristwatch" to "wris****ch" and "Scunthorpe" to "S****horpe."


title: Internet forum

text: When a thread—or in some cases, an entire forum—becomes unstable, the result is usually uncontrolled spam in the form of one-line complaints, image macros, or abuse of the report system. When the discussion becomes heated and sides do nothing more than complain and not accept each other's differences in point of view, the discussion degenerates into what is called a "flame war". To "flame" someone means to go off-topic and attack the person rather than their opinion. Likely candidates for flame wars are usually religion and socio-political topics, or topics that discuss pre-existing rivalries outside the forum (e.g., rivalry between games, console systems, car manufacturers, nationalities, etc.).


title: Internet forum

text: When a topic that has degenerated into a flame war is considered akin to that of the forum (be it a section or the entire board), spam and flames have a chance of spreading outside the topic and causing trouble, usually in the form of vandalism. Some forums (commonly game forums) have suffered from forum-wide flame wars almost immediately after their conception, because of a pre-existing "flame war element" in the online community. Many forums have created devoted areas strictly for discussion of potential flame war topics that are moderated like normal.


title: Internet forum

text: Many Internet forums require registration to post. Registered users of the site are referred to as "members" and are allowed to submit or send electronic messages through the web application. The process of registration involves verification of one's age (typically age 13 and over is required so as to meet COPPA requirements of American forum software) followed by a declaration of the terms of service (other documents may also be present) and a request for agreement to said terms. Subsequently, if all goes well, the candidate is presented with a web form to fill requesting at the very least a username (an alias), password, email and validation of a CAPTCHA code.


title: Internet forum

text: While simply completing the registration web form is in general enough to generate an account, the status label "Inactive" is commonly provided by default until the registered user confirms the email address given while registering indeed belongs to the user. Until that time, the registered user can log in to the new account but may not post, reply, or send private messages in the forum.


title: Internet forum

text: Sometimes a "referrer system" is implemented. A "referrer" is someone who introduced or otherwise "helped someone" with the decision to join the site (likewise, how a HTTP referrer is the site who linked one to another site). Usually, referrers are other forum members and members are usually rewarded for referrals. The referrer system is also sometimes implemented so that, if a visitor visits the forum through a link such as codice_17, the user with the id number (in this example, 300) would receive referral credit if the visitor registers. The purpose is commonly just to give credit (sometimes rewards are implied) to those who help the community grow.


title: Internet forum

text: In areas such as Japan, registration is frequently optional and anonymity is sometimes even encouraged. On these forums, a tripcode system may be used to allow verification of an identity without the need for formal registration. People who regularly read the forum discussions but do not register or do not post are often referred to as "lurkers".


title: Internet forum

text: Electronic mailing lists: The main difference between forums and electronic mailing lists is that mailing lists automatically deliver new messages to the subscriber, while forums require the reader to visit the website and check for new posts. Because members may miss replies in threads they are interested in, many modern forums offer an "e-mail notification" feature, whereby members can choose to be notified of new posts in a thread, and web feeds that allow members to see a summary of the new posts using aggregator software. There are also software products that combine forum and mailing list features, i.e. posting and reading via email as well as the browser depending on the member's choice.


title: Internet forum

text: Newsreader: The main difference between newsgroups and forums is that additional software, a News client, is required to participate in newsgroups whereas using a forum requires no additional software beyond the web browser.


title: Internet forum

text: Shoutboxes: Unlike Internet forums, most shoutboxes do not require registration, only requiring an email address from the user. Additionally, shoutboxes are not heavily moderated, unlike most message boards.


title: Internet forum

text: Wiki: Unlike conventional forums, the original wikis allowed all users to edit all content (including each other's messages). This level of content manipulation is reserved for moderators or administrators on most forums. Wikis also allow the creation of other content outside the talk pages. On the other hand, weblogs and generic content management systems tend to be locked down to the point where only a few select users can post blog entries, although many allow other users to comment upon them. The Wiki hosting site known as Wikia has two features in operation, known as the Forum and Message Wall. The forum is used solely for discussion and works through editing, while the message wall works through posted messages more similar to a traditional forum.


title: Internet forum

text: Chat rooms and instant messaging: Forums differ from chats and instant messaging in that forum participants do not have to be online simultaneously to receive or send messages. Messages posted to a forum are publicly available for some time even if the forum or thread is closed, which is uncommon in chat rooms that maintain frequent activity.


title: Internet forum

text: One rarity among forums is the ability to create a picture album. Forum participants may upload personal pictures onto the site and add descriptions to the pictures. Pictures may be in the same format as posting threads, and contain the same options such as "Report Post" and "Reply to Post".


title: Diana Churchill

text: Diana Spencer-Churchill (11 July 1909 – 20 October 1963) was the eldest daughter of British statesman Sir Winston Churchill and Clementine Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill.


title: Diana Churchill

text: Diana Churchill was born at 33 Eccleston Square, London, on 11 July 1909, the first of five children of Winston Churchill – then a member of Parliament and government minister – and Clementine Hozier. She attended Notting Hill High School and then the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she spent five terms, although her focus was not on acting.


title: Diana Churchill

text: On 12 December 1932, she married John Milner Bailey (15 June 1900 East Grinstead – 13 February 1946 Cape Town, South Africa), who became the Bailey baronet Sir John Milner Bailey, 2nd Bt, but the marriage was unsuccessful and they divorced in 1935. On 16 September 1935, she married the Conservative politician Duncan Sandys (later life peer Lord Duncan-Sandys). They had three children together and divorced in 1960.


title: Diana Churchill

text: Churchill had several nervous breakdowns. In 1962, she began working with the Samaritans, an organisation created for the prevention of suicide. On 20 October 1963, she died at 58 Chester Row, Westminster, S.W.1, leaving an estate valued at £59,259. The cause of death was an overdose of barbiturates, and a coroner later concluded that it was a case of suicide. She is buried with her parents (who both outlived her) and her siblings (Marigold originally was interred in Kensal Green Cemetery in London, but her remains were re-located in 2019 to join the rest of her family) at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.


title: Lauv

text: Ari Staprans Leff (born August 8, 1994), known professionally as Lauv (), is an American singer and musician, best known for his breakout hit "I Like Me Better"; included on his compilation album "I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist)", which was released in 2018. His debut album, "How I'm Feeling", was released on March 6, 2020, and debuted at number 16 on the US "Billboard" 200. Lauv has also written songs for other artists such as "Boys" by Charli XCX and "No Promises" by Cheat Codes and Demi Lovato.


title: Lauv

text: Ari Staprans Leff was born in San Francisco, California. His father, Stuart Leff, is Jewish, and his mother, Silvija Staprāns, is Latvian. He spent his early childhood in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, before his family relocated to a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He went to Radnor High School. As a child, he was interested in music and took piano and viola lessons before learning how to play the guitar at the age of 11. Leff studied guitar, recording, sound design, production, voice, and songwriting with Jason Brook Zimmerman, co-owner and founder of the music lesson organization, Traveling Musician. He started writing songs in middle school, at around 14 years old. Many of his songs during this period focused on heartbreak and breakups, despite at the time, never having had a girlfriend. During his time in high school, he played in several bands and studied jazz before moving on to electronic music. He was so "fully obsessed" in making music and playing shows that he had no interest to "drink, or do drugs, or anything". He has said that his sister, Aiva would drive him and his friends on tour, where they often played "to zero people". His early musical influences were Owl City and Never Shout Never. He would listen to Owl City's "Maybe I'm Dreaming" and study the production style and the abstract lyrical themes that use "dreamy" and "whimsical" images to describe love. He also adopted the artist name, "Somersault Sunday", and published some songs and extended plays on his Myspace account.


title: Lauv

text: After graduating high school, Leff decided to pursue a behind-the-scenes role in music seeing that his career was not taking off. He chose to study music technology at New York University's Steinhardt School. While at university, he studied abroad in Prague and was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity. He spent two of his four years at NYU as a studio intern for Jungle City Studios, where artists such as Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, and Alicia Keys recorded. During his junior year, he signed a publishing deal after the success of his song "The Other" but he decided to finish university and "enjoy it" having only a year left and because he was also feeling "fortunate enough to be able to go there".


title: Lauv

text: Leff began writing music at an early age. When he was 12, he started his first rock duo with his friend Mike Wagenheim, and by age 13, the two teens started a metal band. After starting to try and write music, Leff began experimenting with an acoustic guitar and some synth sounds. A few months later, he wrote his own solo acoustic song called "Parting Ways". Leff then formed his first solo music project, "Somersault Sunday", when he was 14 years old on April 28, 2008. He started it first "as a side project, just for fun," but continued it after receiving enthusiastic online response.


title: Lauv

text: "Somersault Sunday" is an electro-infused pop rock solo-project. Under the "Somersault Sunday" project, he was able to release three extended plays namely, "Parting Ways EP" (2009), "Intermission – EP" (2010), and "Phone Calls & Weekends" (2010). Trevor Dahl of Cheat Codes (who was then making music under the moniker "Plug In Stereo") featured on his track "Wishful Thinking" from the "Intermission" EP. The "Phone Calls & Weekends" EP, was produced by Kevin Gates, who also mixed and produced some of the songs of Never Shout Never, The Ready Set, and Cady Groves. He posted his songs on MySpace along with some song covers, and kept close contact with his fans through the platform. He had a band playing with him during live shows and concerts. Leff was known for his basement concerts in his early middle and high school years.


title: Lauv

text: Leff focused on writing and producing for other artists during college, straying from his personal songwriting style. During his sophomore year, he stumbled upon an interview with Paul Simon, in which Simon described his songwriting approach as a process of uncovering his innermost buried feelings. The interview helped Leff to get in touch with the way he used to write. Afterwards, Leff adopted the stage name Lauv, Latvian for "lion" (lauva), as a nod to his mother's heritage. His first name, Ari, means "lion" in Hebrew, and his zodiac sign is Leo.


title: Lauv

text: While getting over a break-up in fall of 2014, he co-wrote "The Other" with Michael Matosic. Although he was focused on writing potential songs for other artists, he felt "The Other" worked better as his own song. It would be the first song he released under the name Lauv. With "The Other", he also discovered his stripped-down electronic pop sound. The song is a fusion of rhythm and blues and indie-pop with influence from jazz guitar. The song gained blog attention and, after he uploaded it to SoundCloud in 2015, went viral, peaking at number three on blog aggregator Hype Machine, and hitting the Global Top 100 on Spotify.


title: Lauv

text: On September 25, 2015, Lauv released his debut EP, "Lost in the Light", which featured "The Other". Then, apart from releasing the single "Question" featuring Travis Mills in 2016, Lauv worked on writing and producing songs for other artists.


title: Lauv

text: Most notably, he co-wrote and co-produced "No Promises" for Cheat Codes and Demi Lovato, which reached number 7 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart. In an interview with iHeartRadio, Lauv stated that he's been friends with Trevor Dahl from Cheat Codes since "back in the Myspace days."


title: Lauv

text: On May 19, 2017, Leff released the single "I Like Me Better", an up-tempo track inspired by his relationship that began shortly after he moved to New York City. It peaked at number 27 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, earned platinum certification in seven countries (including the US), and gold certification in three. As of March 9, 2021, the song has amassed over 1.1 billion streams on Spotify.


title: Lauv

text: In 2017, he headlined his own "Late Nights, Deep Talks" tour, in which he performed in eight cities across the United States. The tour began on May 23 in Los Angeles and concluded on June 7 in New York City. On July 9, he also performed at Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.


title: Lauv

text: It was announced on September 4, 2017, that Leff would be joining Ed Sheeran as the supporting act on his Divide Tour in Asia. Several of Ed Sheeran's Asia tour dates were cancelled or rescheduled as a result of injuries he sustained from a bicycle accident, but Leff proceeded with promotional tours in cities such as Manila, Philippines, officially kicking off the Divide Tour with Ed Sheeran in Singapore on November 11, 2017.


title: Lauv

text: Leff embarked on his first world tour, "I Met You When I Was 18", in the first half of 2018. The tour began on January 18 in Seattle, Washington and concluded on April 29 in Oslo, Norway. Artists Jeremy Zucker and Ashe joined him as supporting acts in most of the North American tour dates. During the tour, he had a box named "My Blue Thoughts", in which he told fans to write down anything they wanted to and put it inside. He commemorated the notes on his blog mybluethoughts.world. On August 30, 2018, Leff released the single "Superhero", a song inspired by a note from the box. He performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 3, 2018.


title: Lauv

text: In May 2018, Leff released "I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist)", a 17-track collection of new and previously released tracks, including the singles "I Like Me Better" and "The Other", that he had been working on over the course of a few years. It has also been described as a "playlist" that Lauv updated gradually until completing it in May 2018. It chronicles his move to New York City and the first time he fell in love. By August 2018, it had been streamed over 1 billion times on Spotify.


title: Lauv

text: In June 2018, Leff ranked number one on "Billboard"s Emerging Artists chart, dated June 9. As of September 29, he had been at the top spot of the chart for a total of 13 weeks.


title: Lauv

text: In November 2018, Lauv announced his first headlining tour starting the next year in Asia, including India, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Japan. It began on May 13, 2019, in Mumbai, India and concluded on May 30 in Tokyo.


title: Lauv

text: Lauv released the single "I'm So Tired..." with Troye Sivan on January 24, 2019. They first met at a rehearsal space, and after writing another song that didn't work out, Lauv played Sivan the chorus of "I'm So Tired..." which he had written a few days prior. Sivan liked it and they wrote and recorded the rest of the track together. They performed the song on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on February 7, 2019.


title: Lauv

text: On April 25, 2019, Lauv released the single and music video for "Drugs & the Internet", which he says he wrote when he was struggling with feelings of emptiness and depression. It is the second single from his debut studio album "How I'm Feeling". He also announced that month that he would unveil his debut album "How I'm Feeling" track by track as it is being recorded, simultaneously with the tour. A little under a month later, on May 20, 2019, Lauv held his first ever arena show at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Lauv also debuted "Sad Forever" during the show, which gave way to becoming the music video for the single. During the concert, Lauv stated that "This is officially the biggest headline show that I ever played," and he wanted to have the video shot in Manila. Eleven days later, on May 31, 2019, Lauv released the single and music video for "Sad Forever". He also announced that all proceeds from the song will 100% be donated to mental health organizations that work to remove stigma around mental illness. He has raised over $150,000 to date.


title: Lauv

text: On August 1, 2019, he released "Fuck, I'm Lonely", a collaboration with British singer Anne-Marie for the soundtrack of the third season of "13 Reasons Why". The track was also included on his debut album. As of March 9, 2021, the song has amassed over 350 million streams on Spotify. The album is being promoted with the "How I'm Feeling" Tour, which began in Washington, D.C. on October 5, 2019, and will conclude in Perth, Australia on November 26, 2020. It will travel throughout the United States, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. Special guests for the tour include bülow, Chelsea Cutler, and Carlie Hanson. He will be supported in the Asian leg of the tour by American singer-songwriter and social media personality mxmtoon. On September 19, 2019, Lauv released "Feelings", Two weeks later, on October 3, Lauv released the single "Sims". A "short film" for the single was released on October 28. On October 18, 2019, Lauv made his debut in K-pop through his collaboration with BTS for the song "Make It Right", which is an ode to ARMY (BTS fans). On November 14, 2019, Lauv teamed up with LANY for Mean It, with the music video following up on December 17. On December 22, 2019, Lauv made his debut in Bollywood through a collaboration with composer Rochak Kohli for the song "Dil Na Jaaneya", which features on the soundtrack of Bollywood film "Good Newwz"


title: Lauv

text: On January 2, 2020, Lauv released the eighth single and music video for his debut album "How I'm Feeling", titled "Changes". The song is about how Lauv attempts to make resolutions to change his life. Two weeks later, on January 16, 2020, Lauv released the ninth single and music video for "How I'm Feeling", titled "Tattoos Together". Lauv sings about getting tattoos with his significant other as a way to remember each other should they ever fall out. On February 20, 2020, Lauv released the tenth single and visualizer for "How I'm Feeling", titled "Modern Loneliness". The song meant to speak to the "modern" concept of loneliness as defined by Lauv.


title: Lauv

text: On March 6, 2020, Lauv released "How I'm Feeling", unveiling three collaborations. "Who" with K-pop sensations BTS, "Canada" with Alessia Cara, and "El Tejano" with Sofia Reyes, with the latter receiving a music video released on May 19. Additionally, singles released the previous year, such as "Mean It" with LANY, "Fuck, I'm Lonely" with Anne-Marie and "I'm So Tired..." with Troye Sivan were added onto the album. Exactly two months later, on May 6, 2020, Lauv followed up with an additional song which he stated was "going to be on the album", titled "Love Like That", which is a song about how Lauv struggles with reciprocating love.


title: Lauv

text: On May 1, 2020, Lauv marked the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Month by teaming up with Alessia Cara, Anne-Marie and Sofia Reyes for a conversation regarding mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, titled "Breaking Modern Loneliness". On May 22, Lauv once again teamed up with artists mxmtoon and Jeremy Zucker, alongside Vivek Murthy for a three part one-on-one conversation regarding mental health.


title: Lauv

text: On June 24, 2020, Lauv released the Without You (EP), with tracks such as "Mine", "Dishes", "Love Somebody" and "Miss Me", a demo released by Lauv on SoundCloud a month prior. The music video for the song "Dishes" was also released. Also worth noting is that all songs on the EP were written and produced during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six days later, on June 30, 2020, Lauv collaborated with Ellie Goulding for "Slow Grenade". Over the remainder of the summer, Lauv collaborated with many artists for a variety of songs, such as "if i were u" with blackbear and "Sweet and Sour" with artists Tyga and Jawsh 685. Most notably, Lauv, alongside Saweetie collaborated with Ava Max for the remixed "second" version of "Kings & Queens", which was released on August 6, 2020, titled "Kings & Queens, Pt. 2".


title: Lauv

text: On October 10, 2020, in honor of World Mental Health Day, Lauv once again teamed up with artists, creators and experts from around the world as part of an effort to erase stigma surrounding mental health with a series of livestreamed conversations which can be found on Lauv's YouTube Channel. On October 13, 2020, Lauv released the single "Fake" with Conan Gray, a song where both Gray and Leff take swipes at fake people who pretend to be their friends although they betray and lie about them behind their backs. On November 13, 2020, he was featured on "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" as part of the BBC Radio 2's Allstars' BBC Children in Need 2020 charity single in the United Kingdom. The single debuted at number seven on the UK Singles Chart on November 20, 2020 – for the week ending date November 26, 2020 – and number one on both the UK Singles Sales Chart and the UK Singles Download Chart. On December 31, 2020, Lauv dropped the surprise single "2021" as a New Years Eve special. "2021" is a song that looks to the incoming year to be brighter and more hopeful than the current year the world had to deal with. Overall, the song welcomes the new year.


title: Lauv

text: On July 27, 2021, American DJ DallasK announced a new single "Try Again", featuring Lauv. The song was released July 30.


title: Lauv

text: On January 18, 2022, Lauv announced his second studio album is "done", with the lead single titled "26" released on January 28. Lauv's sophomore album is scheduled for release later this year. Around this time, it was revealed in a Billboard article that Lauv finalized a distribution deal with Virgin Music Label & Artist Services.


title: Lauv

text: On April 8, 2022, Lauv released the second single from his second album, titled "All 4 Nothing (I'm So in Love)" along with a music video. A day prior, his Spotify About description was edited with information regarding the title of his second album, "All 4 Nothing", released on August 5, 2022.


title: Lauv

text: Lauv resides in Los Angeles, California. Leff dated pop musician Julia Michaels for 10 months in 2018, and they broke up in the end of that year. Since 2020, he has been in a relationship with fellow singer-songwriter Sophie Cates.


title: Lauv

text: Leff has opened up about his mental health several times throughout his career. As a result, Leff is known for donating proceeds from songs to mental health organizations in an effort to erase stigma surrounding mental health. Microsoft and Leff teamed up to release "My Blue Thoughts", a place for people struggling to share what they were going through and to let go of something weighing them down.


title: Lauv

text: His mother and his maternal grandparents are Latvian and Leff has frequently visited Latvia to visit relatives and spend summers in his grandfather's cottage in the seaside city of Jūrmala.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The Porsche 911 GT2 is a high-performance, track-focused sports car built by the German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1993 to 2009, and then since 2010 as the GT2 RS. It is based on the 911 Turbo, and uses a similar twin-turbocharged engine, but features numerous upgrades, including engine enhancements, larger brakes, and stiffer suspension calibration. The GT2 is significantly lighter than the Turbo due to its use of rear-wheel-drive instead of all-wheel-drive system and the reduction or removal of interior components. As a result, the GT2 (now GT2 RS) is the most expensive and fastest model among the 911 lineup.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The 993 GT2 was initially built in order to meet homologation requirements for GT2 class racing. Because the cars were built to meet the GT2 class regulations, the road cars were named accordingly (but badged as the 911 GT). The 993 GT2 featured widened plastic fenders and a larger rear wing with air scoops in the struts for improved engine cooling. The 993 GT2's original engine generated a maximum power output of ; in 1998 it was upgraded to . 57 road cars were built (thirteen of which were right-hand drive).


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: In 1999, the 993 was replaced with the new 996 model. The new GT2 took two years to develop and during that time, Porsche decided to abandon the GT2 for motorsports use, instead concentrating on competing in GT3 class racing with the new naturally aspirated 911 GT3.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: Developed primarily as a road car in contrast to its predecessor, the new GT2 featured a twin-turbocharged version of the GT3's flat-six engine. It generated a maximum output of , which was later increased to . Like the 993 GT2, the body of the 996 GT2 differed significantly from those of other 996 variants; major differences included wider fenders, a more aggressively shaped nose, and a large rear wing.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: According to road testing performed by "Car and Driver" magazine, the GT2 suffers from hardly any turbo lag. Despite a 10-millimeter reduction in ride height from the 911 Turbo, the drag coefficient is slightly higher — vs. the Turbo's 0.33 — due to the fixed rear wing.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The 996 GT2 was superseded by the 997 GT2 in 2007 after a brief hiatus, with cars arriving at dealerships in November 2007 after an official launch at the 62nd Frankfurt Motor Show.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The GT2's engine was based on the flat-6 engine as seen on the Turbo, but featured two variable geometry turbochargers. The engine generated a maximum power output of at 6,500 rpm and of torque at 2,200 rpm. The GT2 accelerated from 0 to in 3.6 seconds and on to in 10.6 seconds, and had a maximum top speed of . This made it the third Porsche production road car to exceed the barrier, with the exception of the 1998 911 GT1 (of which only 20 units were produced for street use, solely to satisfy ACO homologation requirements for racing).


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The American automotive magazine "Motor Trend" tested a 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 and achieved a acceleration time of 3.3 seconds, and a quarter mile time of 11.3 seconds at . The GT2 also recorded a braking distance from 60 to 0 mph of , and 1.10g of lateral grip.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The appearance of the 997 GT2 once again differed from its sister car, the 997 Turbo. It had a revised front lip, a newly designed rear wing with two small air inlets on either side, and a revised rear bumper featuring titanium exhaust pipes and shark fin outlets.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: German Porsche test driver Walter Röhrl lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife on a public day in 7 minutes, 32 seconds in the 997 GT2.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: On May 4, 2010, an RS variant was announced to German dealers in Leipzig. The engine in the GT2 RS generated a maximum power output of and of torque. The GT2 RS weighs less than the GT2, allowing for a top speed of and a acceleration time of 3.5 seconds.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: According to the then Porsche Motorsports manager Andreas Preuninger, the RS was conceived around 2007 as a skunk-works effort. The 727 code number selected for the project corresponds to one of the Nissan GT-R's lap times around the Nürburgring's Nordschleife. When the dust settled, Porsche claimed that test driver Timo Kluck had supposedly eclipsed that target by an impressive nine seconds.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: On 13 February 2022, a 2019 Porsche 911 GT2 RS driven by Jeff Morton won the 3 day Targa High Country tarmac rally by 2 minutes, 24 seconds.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The 991 GT2 RS was initially unveiled at the Xbox 2017 E3 briefing along with the announcement of the "Forza Motorsport 7" video game where it was revealed as the cover car as well as being included as a playable vehicle.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The car was officially launched by Porsche at the 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed along with the introduction of the 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series. The 991 GT2 RS is powered by a 3.8 L twin-turbocharged flat-6 engine that has a maximum power output of at 7,000 rpm and of torque, making it the most powerful production 911 variant ever built. Unlike the previous GT2 versions, this car is fitted with a 7-speed PDK transmission to handle the excessive torque produced from the engine. Porsche claims that the car will accelerate from in 2.7 seconds, and has a top speed of .


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The car has a roof made of magnesium, front lid, front and rear wings and boot lid made of carbon-fibre, front and rear apron made of lightweight polyurethane, rear and side windows made of polycarbonate and an exhaust system made of titanium. Porsche claims that the car has a wet weight of .


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: A Weissach package option is available, which reduces weight by , courtesy of the additional use of carbon-fibre and titanium parts. This includes the roof, the anti-roll bars, and the coupling rods on both axles being made out of carbon-fibre, while the roll cage is made from titanium. The package also includes a set of magnesium wheels. The car was available in the United States from early 2018.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The production run of the GT2 RS was to end by February 2019 but four units were lost in transit to Brazil due to the sinking of the ship "Grande America" on which the cars were on board in March 2019. Porsche decided to restart production to reproduce the lost cars.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: In late September 2017, the 911 GT2 RS driven by Porsche test driver Lars Kern set a 6:47.3 minute lap time around the Nürburgring Nordschleife, averaging a speed of . This made it the fastest production car lap time recorded on the track at the time.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: In 2018, Warren Luff at the wheel of the GT2 RS (without the Weissach package) set the fastest production lap record at The Bend Motorsport Park with a lap time of 3:24.079 minutes around the 7.77 km GT layout.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: On 25 October 2018, a 6:40.33 minute lap time around the Nürburgring Nordschleife was set by Porsche test driver Lars Kern in a 911 GT2 RS MR prepared by Porsche-owned Manthey Racing, surpassing the previous record holder, an unmodified Lamborghini Aventador SVJ that dethroned the GT2 RS of its record during July 2018.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: In 2019 Porsche set further production lap records with the car at various North American circuits - 1:24.88 minutes at Road Atlanta, 2:15.17 minutes at Road America and 1:22.36 minutes at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: Introduced at the 2018 LA Auto Show, the GT2 RS Clubsport is the track-only variant of the GT2 RS. New aerodynamic elements increase downforce of the car while removal of non essential components decrease weight further. Notable exterior changes include a larger motor sport oriented rear wing made from carbon fibre shared with the GT3 R, larger front air intakes with integrated LED day time running lights, carbon fibre roof with an integrated escape hatch in case of a crash, carbon fibre engine cover and bonnet along with a racing fuel cell and a new race exhaust system.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The interior is race oriented and notable changes include an FIA-approved roll cage, a single racing bucket seat and a race steering wheel made from carbon fibre with an integrated colour display shared with the GT3 R. The car weighs a total of less than the GT2 RS road car.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The engine and transmission remain the same as the GT2 RS while new safety features include a PSM stability management system and an ABS system, both of which are manually controlled by rotary dials present on the centre console. The GT2 RS Clubsport comes with 18-inch centre lock forged alloy wheels wrapped in Michelin racing slicks and are shared with the GT3 R race car. Production of the Clubsport is limited to 200 units.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The SRO Motorsports Group announced that a one make series featuring the GT2 RS Clubsport will be held in July 2019 at the 24 Hours of Spa Weekend. Previously, the Clubsport made its track debut at the Bathurst 12 Hour event held in January.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The Porsche GT2 comes from a long line of 911 Porsche Turbo racing cars in international motorsports. Starting with the 1974 911 Carrera turbo for Group 5 racing, followed by the 934 (a racing version of the 930) for Group 4 racing, then the famous Porsche 935 which dominated Group 5 and IMSA racing through 1984. In 1986 a Porsche 961 (racing version of the 959) would be created with little racing success but a leap forward in technology and development such as AWD, 4 valves per cylinder and water-cooled heads (which first appeared in the 1978 Porsche 935 Moby-Dick, used in the Porsche 956/962 GroupC prototypes and then in the 959/961). In 1993, Porsche had experimented with the extensively modified turbo 964, named the Turbo S LM-GT. Seeing the car's potential to be fast and reliable, as well as customer demand for a car to replace the 964 Carrera RSRs, Porsche chose to develop the turbocharged 993 for customer use.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The 993 GT2 race car featured a stripped interior, integrated rollcage for safety, minor adjustments to the bodywork and wings in order to decrease weight as well as increase downforce, and wider fenders to handle racing slicks. The suspension was modified to improve racing performance, while the engine was slightly tweaked for endurance. Twin KKK turbochargers, fitted with required air restrictors, allowed for .


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: At the same time, Porsche also developed a GT2 Evo, able to race in the GT1 category. The Evo saw an increase in power to through the use of larger turbochargers. Other modifications included a new, higher-mounted rear wing, larger fenders to house the wider tires allowed in the GT1 class, and a decrease in weight to . The GT2 Evo was short-lived, however, as Porsche decided to replace it with the purpose-built 911 GT1 in 1996.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: The GT2 and GT2 Evo were initially campaigned in the BPR Global GT Series as well as several other smaller national series, and earned seven wins in their class out of eleven rounds during their first full BPR season in 1996, as well as a class victory in the 1996 and 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the new FIA GT Championship that year, although Porsche faced factory-backed competition from Chrysler, the 911 GT2s managed to win three races. By 1998, however, the capabilities of the GT2 were unable to combat the increased number of Chrysler Viper GTS-Rs in the series, earning only a single victory.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: By 1999, the GT2s had been largely overpowered by the Vipers, as well as newcomers Lister. Despite this, a GT2 prepared by Roock Racing managed to win the GT2 class at the 24 Hours of Daytona. An increase in engine displacement to 3.8 liters in 2000 was unable to help Porsche, and support for the project ended. Porsche chose instead to concentrate on the new N-GT category with the GT3-R that same year. GT2s continued to be used by private teams until 2004.


title: Porsche 911 GT2

text: With the launch of the 996 generation GT2, several privateers attempted to continue on the motorsports history by building their own racing versions. Belgian PSI Motorsports' "911 Bi-Turbo" and German A-Level Engineering's "911 GT2-R" were used with mixed success in national series such as Belcar, but were not competitive in international series.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: This list is a chronological progression of record times for the marathon. World records in the marathon are now ratified by World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport of athletics.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge set a world record for men of 2:01:09 on September 25, 2022, at the 2022 Berlin Marathon. This run improved on his own previous world record by 30 seconds. In 2018, he broke the then world record by 1 minute and 18 seconds, the greatest improvement over a previous record since 1967.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: The IAAF recognizes two world records for women, a time of 2:14:04 set by Brigid Kosgei on October 13, 2019, during the Chicago Marathon, which was contested by men and women together, and a "Women Only" record of 2:17:01, set by Mary Keitany, on April 23, 2017, at the London Marathon for women only.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: For a performance to be ratified as a world record by the IAAF, the marathon course on which the performance occurred must be long, measured in a defined manner using the calibrated bicycle method (the distance in kilometers being the official distance, the distance in miles is an approximation) and meet other criteria that rule out artificially fast times produced on courses aided by downhill slope or tailwind. The criteria include:


title: Marathon world record progression

text: In recognizing Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai's mark of 2:03:02 at the 2011 Boston Marathon as (at the time) "the fastest Marathon ever run", the IAAF said: "Due to the elevation drop and point-to-point measurements of the Boston course, performances [on that course] are not eligible for World record consideration."


title: Marathon world record progression

text: Road racing events like the marathon were specifically excepted from IAAF rule 260 18(d) that rejected from consideration those track and field performances set in mixed competition.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: The Association of Road Racing Statisticians, an independent organization that compiles data from road running events, also maintains an alternate marathon world best progression but with standards they consider to be more stringent.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: The IAAF Congress at 2011 World Championships in Athletics passed a motion changing the record eligibility criteria effective October 6th 2007, so that women's world records must be set in all-women competitions. The result of the change was that Radcliffe's 2:17:42 performance at the 2005 London Marathon would supplant her own existing women's mark as the "world record"; the earlier performance was to be referred to as a "world best". The decision was met with strong protest in Britain, and in November 2011 an IAAF council member reported that Radcliffe's original mark would be allowed to stand, with the eventual decision that both marks would be recognized as "world records," the faster one as a "Mixed Gender" mark, the other as a "Women Only" mark. Per the 2021 IAAF Competition Rules, ""a World Record for performance achieved in mixed gender (“Mixed”) races and a World Record for performance achieved in single gender (“Women only”) races"" is tracked separately.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: In December 2016, Nike, Inc., announced that three top distance runners — Eliud Kipchoge, Zersenay Tadese and Lelisa Desisa — had agreed to forgo the spring marathon season to work with the company in an effort to run a sub-two-hour marathon, though a detailed plan to complete the marathon in 1:59:59 or faster was not released.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: The Breaking2 event took place in the early morning of May 6, 2017; Kipchoge crossed the finish line with a time of 2:00:25. This time was more than two minutes faster than the world record. Among other factors, specialized pacers were used, entering the race midway to help Kipchoge keep up the pace.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: Kipchoge took part in a similar attempt to break the two-hour barrier in Vienna on October 12, 2019, as part of the . He successfully ran the first sub two-hour marathon distance, with a time of 1:59:40.2. The effort did not count as a new world record under IAAF rules due to the setup of the challenge. Specifically, it was not an open event, Kipchoge was handed fluids by his support team throughout, the run featured a pace car, and included rotating teams of other runners pacing Kipchoge in a formation designed to reduce wind resistance and maximize efficiency. The achievement was recognized by Guinness World Records with the titles ‘Fastest marathon distance (male)’ and ‘First marathon distance run under two hours’.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: Marathon races were first held in 1896, but the distance was not standardized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) until 1921. The actual distance for pre-1921 races frequently varied slightly from the present figure of 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards). In qualifying races for the 1896 Summer Olympics, Greek runners Charilaos Vasilakos (3:18:00) and Ioannis Lavrentis (3:11:27) won the first two modern marathons. On April 10, 1896, Spiridon Louis of Greece won the first Olympic marathon in Athens, Greece, in a time of 2:58:50; however, the distance for the event was reported to be only 40,000 meters. Three months later, British runner Len Hurst won the inaugural Paris to Conflans Marathon (also around 40 km) in a time of 2:31:30. In 1900, Hurst would better his time on the same course with a 2:26:28 performance. Later, Shizo Kanakuri of Japan was reported to have set a world record of 2:32:45 in a November 1911 domestic qualification race for the 1912 Summer Olympics, but this performance was also run over a distance of approximately 40 km. The first marathon over the now official distance was won by American Johnny Hayes at the 1908 Summer Olympics, with a time of 2:55:18.4.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: It is possible that Stamata Revithi, who ran the 1896 Olympic course a day after Louis, is the first woman to run the modern marathon; she is said to have finished in 5½ hours. The IAAF credits Violet Piercy's 1926 performance as the first woman to race what is now the standard marathon distance; however, other sources report that the 1918 performance of Marie-Louise Ledru in the Tour de Paris set the initial mark for women. Other "unofficial" performances have also been reported to be world bests or world records over time. Although her performance is not recognized by the IAAF, Adrienne Beames from Australia is frequently credited as the first woman to break the 3-hour barrier in the marathon.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: In the 1953 Boston Marathon, the top three male finishers were thought to have broken the standing world record, but Keizo Yamada's mark of 2:18:51 is now considered to have been set on a short course. The Boston Athletic Association does not report Yamada's performance as a world best. On October 25, 1981, American Alberto Salazar and New Zealander Allison Roe set apparent world bests at the New York City Marathon (2:08:13 and 2:25:29); however, these marks were invalidated when the course was later found to have been nearly 150 meters short. Although the IAAF's progression notes three performances set on the same course in 1978, 1979, and 1980 by Norwegian Grete Waitz, the Association of Road Racing Statisticians considers the New York City course suspect for those performances, too.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: On April 18, 2011, the Boston Marathon produced what were at that time the two fastest marathon performances of all time. Winner Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya recorded a time of 2:03:02, followed by countryman Moses Mosop in 2:03:06. However, since the Boston course does not meet the criteria for record attempts, these times were not ratified by the IAAF.


title: Marathon world record progression

text: Eight IAAF world records have been set at the Polytechnic Marathon (1909, 1913, 1952–54, 1963–65). IAAF world records have been broken at all of the original five World Marathon Majors on numerous occasions (updated 09/2022); twelve times at the Berlin Marathon, three times at the Boston Marathon, five times at the Chicago Marathon, six times at the London Marathon, and five times at the New York City Marathon. However, the records established in the Boston event have been disputed on grounds of a downhill point-to-point course, while four of the five New York records have been disputed on grounds of a short course.


title: Justin Pierce

text: Justin Charles Pierce (March 21, 1975 – July 10, 2000) was an American-British actor and skateboarder who grew up in the U.S. He is best known for his roles as Casper in the 1995 film "Kids" and Roach in the 2000 film "Next Friday". On July 10, 2000, Pierce committed suicide in Paradise, Nevada.


title: Justin Pierce

text: Pierce was born in London, England, to a Welsh mother and an Australian father and was brought up in the Marble Hill and Kingsbridge sections of New York City. Pierce's mother met his father while abroad and never told him who his real father was.


title: Justin Pierce

text: He began stealing cigarettes and food, and frequently missed school in favor of skateboarding. Pierce soon quit school and moved out, staying in a "warren of rooms" in a basement of a building on 176th Street, that was "teeming" with fellow skaters. Pierce was later arrested for possession of marijuana and heroin.


title: Justin Pierce

text: Pierce was a member of the original Zoo York skateboard team, and is featured in the Zoo York 'Mixtape' video (1998), magazines and adverts for the company. He was also a member of the original Supreme Crew with fellow Zoo York team riders and close friends Harold Hunter and Peter Bici.


title: Justin Pierce

text: He appeared in the 1997 film "A Brother's Kiss" as the young Lex, played as an adult by Nick Chinlund. Pierce also appeared in television movies, including 1997's "First Time Felon". He also starred alongside Ice Cube and Mike Epps in the film "Next Friday" as Roach. Pierce's last on-screen appearance was in the 2002 film "Looking for Leonard," released after his death. The film was dedicated to his memory.


title: Justin Pierce

text: In his memory, Supreme have released featured images of his skateboarding (taken by photographer Ari Marcopoulos) in its clothing lines and publications. Promotional footage of Pierce and the Supreme Crew skateboarding has surfaced on the Supreme New York website While skateboarding in Washington Square Park, Pierce was discovered by film director Larry Clark, who cast him in his controversial 1995 film "Kids". After the success of "Kids," Pierce won an Independent Spirit Award for his portrayal of Casper, the profane and drug-addicted skateboarder friend of Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), and relocated to Los Angeles.


title: Justin Pierce

text: On July 10, 2000, Pierce was found hanging in his room at the Bellagio Hotel in Paradise, Nevada by hotel security. His death was determined to be a suicide. Two suicide notes were reported to be found, which have not been released to the public. On July 15th, a Catholic memorial service for Pierce was held at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in Manhattan. He is buried in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE (1 June 1930 – 16 November 2009) was an English actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career on stage. Throughout his career, he appeared in productions in both the West End of London and on Broadway in New York City. He came to wider attention from 1967 in the title role of the British television spy drama "Callan", earning him the 1970 British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward starred as Police Sergeant Neil Howie in the 1973 cult British horror film "The Wicker Man", and in the title role of the 1980 Australian biopic "Breaker Morant". From 1985 to 1989, Woodward starred as ex-secret agent and private investigator Robert McCall in the American television series "The Equalizer", earning him the 1986 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Drama Actor.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward was born on 1 June 1930 in Croydon, Surrey, the only child of parents Edward Oliver Woodward, a metalworker, and Violet Edith Woodward (née Smith). As a boy, he was bombed out of his home three times during the Blitz. He attended Eccleston Road, Sydenham Road, and E Wallington, as well as Kingston Day Commercial School and Elmwood High School, Hackbridge, all in Surrey. He then attended Kingston College.


title: Edward Woodward

text: After leaving school at the age of fifteen, Woodward wanted to train as a journalist, but took work in a sanitary engineer's office and then at the age of sixteen entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After the Second World War, he became an associate member of RADA. He was torn between becoming an actor and a professional footballer, and was on the books of Leyton Orient FC and Brentford FC, making three appearances in the Football League for the latter; however, a serious knee injury kept him out of the game for over a year.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward's professional acting debut was in the Castle Theatre, Farnham, in 1946. After graduation from RADA, he worked extensively in repertory companies as a Shakespearean actor throughout England and Scotland, making his London stage debut in R. F. Delderfield's "Where There's A Will" in 1955 and also appeared in the film adaptation that same year, his first film, and then "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet" (1955). Having established himself, he also worked in Broadway theatre in New York City and in Australia. Woodward first appeared on Broadway in "Rattle of a Simple Man" (1963) and the musical comedy "High Spirits" (1964–1965), which won three Tony Awards, followed by the 1966 comedy "The Best Laid Plans". In 1970, after Woodward played Sidney Carton in the West End musical "Two Cities", based on Dickens's novel, Laurence Olivier invited him to choose his own role in the Royal National Theatre, and he chose "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1971).


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward played Dr. Watson opposite Keith Baxter as Sherlock Holmes in the play "Murder Dear Watson" in 1983.


title: Edward Woodward

text: In 2004, Woodward, alongside Australian actor Daniel MacPherson, appeared as God in a revival of "The Mystery Plays" at Canterbury Cathedral. From a cast of hundreds of local actors, Joseph McManners and Thomas James Longley also featured with smaller speaking roles.


title: Edward Woodward

text: He made occasional appearances until taking the role of Police Sergeant Neil Howie in the thriller "The Wicker Man" in 1973. Woodward was offered a cameo role in the 2005 remake but declined. He also appeared in the 1982 film "Who Dares Wins," also known as "The Final Option" on the film's release history. as Commander Powell.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward played the title role in the 1980 Australian biographical film drama "Breaker Morant", which was highly acclaimed, and his presence brought the film worldwide attention. Woodward also had a supporting role in the 2007 action comedy "Hot Fuzz". His last lead film role was that of the Reverend Frederick Densham in "A Congregation of Ghosts"; the story of an eccentric vicar who is said to have alienated his congregation and preached to cardboard cut-outs.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Robin Hardy, who directed "The Wicker Man", said, "He was one of the greatest actors of his generation, without a doubt, with a broad career on American television as well as on British film." Noël Coward once said of him, "He was one of the nicest and most co-operative actors I've ever met or worked with."


title: Edward Woodward

text: In 1990 Woodward was the narrator for the official FIFA film of the 1990 World Cup entitled 'Soccer Shoot-Out'.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward appeared in many television productions. In the early 1960s he was a jobbing actor who made a number of minor TV appearances in supporting roles. His casting as Guy Crouchback in the 1967 adaption of Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, dramatised by Giles Cooper and directed by Donald McWhinnie, established him as an actor of quality and standing. Crouchback was the central character in Waugh's three novels set against the background of Britain's involvement in World War II. This black and white TV dramatisation is now much less well known than a more lavish 2001 colour version with Daniel Craig playing the part of Crouchback. However, the 1967 dramatisation enjoyed a high-profile at the time and it featured several leading actors of that era including Ronald Fraser, Freddie Jones, Vivian Pickles, Nicholas Courtney and James Villiers. Moreover, Evelyn Waugh had met and approved Giles Cooper as the scriptwriter, having their schooling at Lancing College in common, albeit more than a decade apart.


title: Edward Woodward

text: In 1967 Woodward played the eventual victim in an episode of "The Saint" TV series ("The Persistent Patriots"). The same year he was cast as David Callan in the ITV "Armchair Theatre" play "A Magnum for Schneider", which later became the spy series "Callan", one of his early television roles and one in which he demonstrated his ability to express controlled rage. His performance assured the series success from 1967 to 1972, with a film appearing in 1974. He also appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in a 1978 adaptation of "Saturday, Sunday, Monday" in the "Laurence Olivier Presents" anthology series.


title: Edward Woodward

text: The success of "Callan" typecast him somewhat, but the enduring success of the genre allowed him to gain leading roles in similar productions, though none would prove as iconic as "Callan". In 1977 he starred in two series of the BBC2 dystopian drama "1990", about a future Britain lurching into totalitarianism.


title: Edward Woodward

text: The late 1970s were spent on both stage and film, but it was not until he took the lead role in the American television series "The Equalizer" (1985–89) as a former intelligence operative that he found recognition and popularity exceeding that of Callan. After filming a few episodes of the third season, Woodward suffered a massive coronary. For several episodes, additional actors were brought in to reduce the workload on Woodward as he recovered from the condition. The first episode filmed following Woodward's heart attack involved his character being severely injured by a KGB bullet, providing Woodward with a chance to rest over several episodes. Later in the season, Woodward resumed his full duties and carried the show through an additional, fourth season during the 1988-1989 season. During this period he also starred in the Cold War espionage thriller, "" (1988), as an MI6 double agent.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Subsequently, he starred in the short-lived CBS series "Over My Dead Body", which ran in 1990, playing a mystery writer who gets involved in solving real crimes. In 1994 and 1997 Woodward starred in the BBC drama "Common As Muck" in which he played a binman called Nev.


title: Edward Woodward

text: In 1993, Woodward appeared in the Welsh language drama, "Tan ar y Comin". Versions were made in both English and Welsh, and Woodward appeared in both, being specially coached in the latter since he did not speak a word of the language.


title: Edward Woodward

text: In 1999 Woodward appeared alongside his son Peter in "The Long Road", an episode of the "Babylon 5" spin off, "Crusade", on which Peter was a regular cast member. While both actors were playing the part of unrelated Technomages, the on-screen chemistry between them was clear.


title: Edward Woodward

text: His career continued with TV guest star roles including an appearance in "The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and Mr. Jones (aka Philip, codename 'Flavius') in the series "La Femme Nikita". He also guest starred with his son Tim and grandson Sam as a London gangster family in a special storyline for "The Bill" in 2008. In March 2009, he joined "EastEnders" for six episodes, playing Tommy Clifford.


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward was a wargamer and hosted a series of programmes for Tyne Tees Television in 1978 about the hobby with fellow enthusiast Peter Gilder, who built and owned the beautiful Gettysburg diorama used for one of the gaming scenes from the 1974 film "Callan".


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward was the subject of "This Is Your Life" on two occasions: in February 1971 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the bar of London's White House Hotel, and in February 1995, when Michael Aspel surprised him during a photoshoot at Syon House in West London.


title: Edward Woodward

text: His capability as tenor enabled him to record twelve albums of romantic songs, as well as three albums of poetry and fourteen books to tape. His vocal ability and acting skill enabled him to make a number of appearances when time allowed on the BBC's Edwardian era music hall programme, "The Good Old Days".


title: Edward Woodward

text: Woodward had two top 100 albums in the UK Album Chart; "This Man Alone" (#53 in 1970) and "The Edward Woodward Album" (#20 in 1972), while the single "The Way You Look Tonight" peaked at #42 on the UK Singles Chart in 1971. He also had two top 100 albums in Australia; "Edwardian Woodward" (#97 in 1975) and "A Romantic Hour" (#92 in 1980)