title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: "Like a Virgin" was released as the lead single from the album in late 1984. It received positive reviews from contemporary as well as old critics, who frequently called it as one of the defining songs for Madonna. It became her first number-one single on the "Billboard" Hot 100, while reaching the top of the charts in Australia, Canada and Japan and the top-ten of other countries. The song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 10, 1985, for shipping a million copies across United States – the requirement for a gold single prior to 1989. The music video portrayed Madonna sailing down the riverways of Venice in a gondola, as well as roaming around a palace wearing a white wedding dress. With the video, scholars noted Madonna's portrayal of a sexually independent woman, the symbolism of the appearance of a man with lion's mask to that of Saint Mark, and compared the eroticism of the video to the vitality of the city of Venice.


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: "Material Girl" was the second single from the album, released in November 1984. Critics have frequently noted "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin" as the songs that made Madonna an icon. The song was a commercial success, reaching the top-five in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Japan and United Kingdom. It reached position two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the United States. The music video was a mimicry of Marilyn Monroe's performance of the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from the 1953 film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". The mimicked scenes are interspersed with scenes of a Hollywood producer trying to win the heart of an actress, played by Madonna herself. Discovering that, contrary to her song, the young woman was not impressed by money and expensive gifts, he pretended to be penniless and succeeded in taking her out on a date.


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: "Angel" was the third released single from the album, in April 1985. Critics gave mixed review of the song, with one group denoting it as a classic while the others felt it was sub-par compared to the other Madonna singles. "Angel" became Madonna's fifth consecutive top-five single on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and reached the top of its dance chart. "Into the Groove" was released as a single in Europe, Asia and South America in July 1985. The song was appreciated by contemporary critics as well as authors, who have frequently called it "Madonna's first great single". "Into the Groove" reached the top of the charts in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, where it was Madonna's first number-one single. In the United States, the song was only available as the B-side of the 12-inch single of "Angel", therefore it was ineligible to chart on the "Billboard" Hot 100 at the time. It reached number one on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart where it was listed as a double-sided single with "Angel". In Australia and Canada, the song also was released as a double-sided single with, "Angel".


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: "Dress You Up" was the last single from the album. Critics reacted positively to the dance-pop nature of the track. "Dress You Up" became Madonna's sixth consecutive top-five single in the United States. It also reached the top-ten in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The music video for the single is taken from the live performance from The Virgin Tour, filmed in Detroit.


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: Two further singles were released internationally from the album. "Over and Over" was released in late 1985 exclusively in Italy, while "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" was released in early 1986 exclusively in Japan.


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: According to "Q" magazine, "Like a Virgin" was the album that "propelled [Madonna] into the stratosphere – and rightly so. The songs are smart, funny, sexy and irresistible." Taraborrelli said, "It was "Like a Virgin" which reflected Madonna as a more versatile and artistic performer and vocals on this album being reflectively sharper in contrast to her early works in the music industry." Michael Paoletta from "Billboard" commented that the songs on the album sustain a "fevered dance-rock momentum". In his review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented, "Overall, the album adds up to less than the sum of its parts—partially because the singles are so good, but also because on the first album, she stunned with style and a certain joy. Here, the calculation is apparent, and while that's part of Madonna's essence—even something that makes her fun—it throws the record's balance off a little too much for it to be consistent, even if it justifiably made her a star." Debby Miller from "Rolling Stone" preferred Madonna's debut album over "Like a Virgin". In "The Village Voice", Robert Christgau was also lukewarm towards the record, writing "[Madonna's] so sure of herself she's asking men and women both to get the hots for the calculating bitch who sells the fantasy even while she bids for the sincerity market where long-term superstars ply their trade. And to make the music less mechanical, she's hired Nile Rodgers, who I won't blame for making it less catchy."


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: Jim Farber from "Entertainment Weekly" said that "In addition to raising the Madonna/whore ante with songs like the title cut, "Virgin" cradled the kind of '80s hits ("Dress You Up") built to transcend the "Dynasty" era." Alfred Soto from "Stylus Magazine" remembered the first time that he heard the songs from the album and commented, "Lots of critics think something similar occurred when Madonna followed her eponymous debut with "Like a Virgin", helmed by Nile Rodgers with all the fixin's—too calculated next to the 'raw passion' of the debut. This is nonsense; it misses how Madonna conflated notions of spontaneity and calculation. Rodgers is the ideal collaborator." Stephen Holden from "The New York Times" said: "With a tough-cookie voice that's both coy and streetwise, Madonna's singing harks back to the rock-and-roll "girl-group" tradition that preceded the Beatles. But where girl groups, from the Shirelles to the Ronettes, worshipfully extolled their boyfriends' cars, haircuts and rebel poses, Madonna's point of view is decidedly more self-interested. In matters of love, she is a comparison shopper with a shrewd sense of her own market value. The words 'shiny and new' describe not only the way the love-smitten singer feels in the title song but the sound of the album."


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: Matt Damsker from the "Los Angeles Times" commented: "Madonna's beating vibrato sometimes makes her sound so robotic in the album." Lou Papineau, while writing for "The Providence Journal", said that "In "Like a Virgin", Madonna proves she's shallow, but spunky." Sal Cinquemani from "Slant Magazine" gave a positive review, saying "Though not as innovative as her debut, "Like a Virgin" stands as one of the most definitive pop artifacts from the indulgent Reagan Era. The mid-tempo ballad 'Shoo-Bee-Doo' and a soulful cover of Rose Royce's 'Love Don't Live Here Anymore' proved Madonna could churn out more than just novelty hits, while the sugary 'Angel' and the irresistible 'Dress You Up' contributed to the singer's record-breaking list of consecutive Top 5 hits (16 in all). The retro-infused 'Stay' and the percussive 'Over and Over' are the album's hidden gems." Ed Stevenson from "People" felt that "Madonna does have a sense of humor, though she is buried under so many layers of self-parody it's hard to tell sometimes ... She is backed on this by the reliable rhythmic touch of veteran Nile Rodgers, whose contributions have helped her create a tolerable bit of fluff. Hugo Mistry from the "Chicago Tribune" felt that ""Like a Virgin" was Madonna's breakthrough, playing off her self-conscious campiness with a series of hot dance tracks, attention-grabbing lyrics and steamy videos."


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: "Like a Virgin" was recorded and finished by September 1984, but the release of the album was held up, much to Madonna's frustration, by the continuing sales of her debut album, which was approaching two million sales in the United States. "Like a Virgin" debuted at number 70 on the "Billboard" 200 issued for December 1, 1984. The album reached the top ten of the "Billboard" 200 on December 8, 1984, and after one month reached the top of the chart on February 9, 1985, where it stayed for three weeks. It also reached a peak of ten on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. After 14 weeks, the album sold 3.5 million copies. By July 1985, "Like a Virgin" became the first album by a female artist to be certified for sales of five million units in the United States. It was eventually certified ten times platinum (diamond) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipment of ten million copies of the album. It placed at three on the year-end chart for 1985, with Madonna becoming the top pop artist for the year. After the advent of the Nielsen SoundScan era in 1991, the album sold a further 574,000 copies. It sold additional 882,000 units at the BMG Music Club, which are not counted by the Nielsen SoundScan. In Canada, the album debuted at number 78 on the "RPM" Albums Chart, on November 10, 1984. It reached a peak of number three, on February 16, 1985. The album was present for a total of 74 weeks on the chart, and was certified diamond by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), for shipment of one million copies of the album. "Like a Virgin" ranked sixth on the "RPM" Top 100 Albums for 1985. As of June 1986, the album sold more than 750,000 units in Latin America.


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: In the United Kingdom, "Like a Virgin" debuted at number 74 on the UK Albums Chart, on January 12, 1985. However, the album fluctuated on the chart for the next eight months and it was only in September that it finally reached the top of the chart. It spent two alternative weeks at the top (21st Sept and 12th Oct 1985), and a total of 152 weeks on the chart. The album was certified three times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and has sold over a million copies there. In France, the album debuted at number five on the French Albums Chart on October 6, 1985, staying there for eight weeks, then descending down the chart. It was certified two times platinum by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) for shipment of 600,000 copies. In Australia, the album debuted and peaked at two on the Kent Music Report albums chart, and was certified seven times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipment of 490,000 copies of the album. It reached the top of the New Zealand Albums Chart for three consecutive weeks and was certified five times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for shipment of 75,000 copies. Elsewhere, "Like a Virgin" reached number one in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, while peaking within the top five in many other countries, including Austria, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland. It also became Madonna's first number-one album on the European Top 100 Albums, reaching the summit on November 23, 1985, for two weeks, and sold over 2 million copies across Europe at the end of the 1985 year. "Like a Virgin" has sold more than 21 million copies worldwide and became one of the best-selling albums of all time.


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: After the release of "Like a Virgin", Stephen Holden commented in "The New York Times": "No phenomenon illustrates more pointedly how pop music history seems to run in cycles than the overnight success of the 24-year-old pop siren known as Madonna. The month before Christmas, Madonna's second album, "Like a Virgin" sold more than two million copies. Teen-agers were lining up in stores to purchase the album the way their parents had lined up to buy Beatles records in the late 60's." Madonna proved she was not a one-hit wonder with the release of the album which sold 12 million copies worldwide at the time of its release. In 2016, "Billboard" ranked at number nine in the list of Certified Diamond Albums From Worst to Best. "Like a Virgin" was placed at fifth at Album of the Decade by "Billboard"—the highest peak by a female performer.


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: Taraborrelli felt that ""Like a Virgin" is really a portrait of Madonna's uncanny pop instincts empowered by her impatient zeal for creative growth and her innate knack for crafting a good record." He added that the success of the album made it clear what was Madonna's real persona. "She was a street-smart dance queen with the sexy allure of Marilyn Monroe, the coy iciness of Marlene Dietrich and the cutting and protective glibness of a modern Mae West". Although the album received mixed reviews, Taraborrelli believed that the "mere fact that at the time of its release so many couldn't resist commenting on the record was a testament to the continuous, growing fascination with Madonna ... Every important artist has at least one album in his or her career whose critical and commercial success becomes the artist's magic moment; for Madonna, "Like a Virgin" was just such a defining moment."


title: Like a Virgin (album)

text: Chris Smith, author of "101 Albums That Changed Popular Music", believed that it was with "Like a Virgin" that Madonna was able to steal the spotlight towards herself. She asserted her sexuality as only male rock stars had done before, moving well beyond the limited confines of being a pop artist, to becoming a focal point for nationwide discussions of power relationships in the areas of sex, race, gender, religion, and other divisive social topics. Her songs became a lightning rod for both criticism by conservatives and imitation by the younger female population. "Consequence of Sound" ranked the album at number two on "The 10 Greatest Sophomore Albums of All Time," calling it the album that "carved out the throne...that would be Madonna's forever: the Queen of Pop."


title: Rape pornography

text: Rape pornography is a subgenre of pornography involving the description or depiction of rape. Such pornography either involves simulated rape, wherein sexually consenting adults feign rape, or it involves actual rape. Victims of actual rape may be coerced to feign consent such that the pornography produced deceptively appears as simulated rape or non-rape pornography. The depiction of rape in non-pornographic media is not considered rape pornography. Simulated scenes of rape and other forms of sexual violence have appeared in mainstream cinema, including rape and revenge films, almost since its advent.


title: Rape pornography

text: The legality of simulated rape pornography varies across legal jurisdictions. It is controversial because of the argument that it encourages people to commit rape. However, studies of the effects of pornography depicting sexual violence produce conflicting results. The creation of real rape pornography is a sex crime in countries where rape is illegal. Real rape pornography, including statutory rape in child pornography, is created for profit and other reasons. Rape pornography, as well as revenge porn and other similar subgenres depicting violence, has been associated with rape culture.


title: Rape pornography

text: In Scotland, the "Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010" criminalised possession of "extreme" pornography. This included depictions of rape, and "other non-consensual penetrative sexual activity, whether violent or otherwise", including those involving consenting adults and images that were faked. The maximum penalty is an unlimited fine and 3 years imprisonment. The law is not often used, and it resulted in only one prosecution during the first four years that it was in force.


title: Rape pornography

text: In England and Wales, it took another five years before pornography which depicts rape (including simulations involving consenting adults) was made illegal in England and Wales, bringing the law into line with that of Scotland. Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 had already criminalised possession of "extreme pornography" but it did not explicitly specify depictions of rape. At that time it was thought that the sale of rape pornography might already be illegal in England and Wales as a result of the Obscene Publications Act 1959, but the ruling in "R v Peacock" in January 2012 demonstrated that this was not the case. The introduction of a new law was first announced in 2013 by the UK Prime Minister David Cameron. In a speech to the NSPCC he stated that pornography that depicts simulated rape "normalise(s) sexual violence against women", although the Ministry of Justice criminal policy unit had previously stated that "we have no evidence to show that the creation of staged rape images involves any harm to the participants or causes harm to society at large".


title: Rape pornography

text: In February 2015, Section 16 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 amended the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 to criminalise the possession of pornographic imagery depicting acts of rape. The law only applies to consensual, simulated, fantasy material. The possession of an image capturing an actual rape, for example CCTV footage, is not illegal; but a "make believe" image created by and for consenting adults is open to prosecution. In January 2014 sexual freedom campaign groups criticised Section 16 as being poorly defined and liable to criminalise a wider range of material than originally suggested. However, in April 2014 the BBFC's presentation to Parliament suggested that the proposed legislation would not cover "clearly fictional depictions of rape and other sexual violence in which participants are clearly actors, acting to a script".


title: Rape pornography

text: There are few practical legal restrictions on rape pornography in the United States. Law enforcement agencies concentrate on examples where they believe a crime has been committed in the production. "Fantasy" rape pornography depicting rape simulations involving consenting adults are not a priority for the police.


title: Rape pornography

text: In response to the verdict of the "People v. Turner" sexual assault case, xHamster instituted a "Brock Turner rule", which banned videos involving rape, including those involving sex with an unconscious partner or hypnosis.


title: Rape pornography

text: American porn actress Linda Lovelace wrote in her autobiography, "Ordeal", that she was coerced and raped in pornographic films in the 1970s.


title: Rape pornography

text: Internet policing with respect to investigating actual crime has been made increasingly difficult by rape pornography websites operating anonymously, ignoring ICANN regulations and providing false information for the Whois database.


title: Rape pornography

text: From 2009 to 2020, the pornographic company GirlsDoPorn created hundreds of pornographic videos in which the women depicted were manipulated, coerced, lied to, given marijuana or other drugs or physically forced to have sex, according to the accounts of victims and material from a lawsuit against the company. Six people involved in the website were charged with sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion in November 2019. Official videos from the company were viewed over a billion times, including a paid subscription service on its website, and an estimated 680 million views on the tube site Pornhub, where the official channel was among the site's top 20 most viewed. Pirated copies of the videos were also viewed hundreds of millions of times. According to a lawsuit, the videos could still be found on mainstream pornography websites up to at least December 2020.


title: Rape pornography

text: Real rape videos of women and girls were filmed in the Doctor's Room and Nth room cases in South Korea in late 2010s and early 2020s.


title: Rape pornography

text: Videos showing real rape have been hosted on popular pornographic video sharing and pornography websites. These websites have been criticized by petitioners.


title: Rape pornography

text: Victims of cybersex trafficking have been forced into live streaming rape pornography, which can be recorded and later sold. They are raped by traffickers in front of a webcam or forced to perform sex acts on themselves or other victims. The traffickers film and broadcast the sex crimes in real time. Victims are frequently forced to watch the paying consumers on shared screens and follow their orders. It occurs in locations, commonly referred to as ‘cybersex dens,’ that can be in homes, hotels, offices, internet cafes, and other businesses.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confirmed cases, and is associated with deaths.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: The virus began circulating in the country in early 2020, arriving primarily from travel elsewhere in Europe. Various sectors responded, with more widespread public health measures incrementally introduced from March 2020. The first wave was at the time one of the world's largest outbreaks. By mid-April the peak had been passed and restrictions were gradually eased. A second wave, with a new variant that originated in the UK becoming dominant, began in the autumn and peaked in mid-January 2021, and was deadlier than the first. The UK started a COVID-19 vaccination programme in early December 2020. Generalised restrictions were gradually lifted and were mostly ended by August 2021. A third wave, fuelled by the new Delta variant, began in July 2021, but the rate of deaths and hospitalisations was lower than with the first two waves – this being attributed to the mass vaccination programme. By early December 2021, the Omicron variant had arrived, and caused record infection levels.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: The UK government and each of the three devolved governments (in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) introduced public health and economic measures, including new laws, to mitigate its impact. A national lockdown was introduced on 23 March 2020 and lifted in May, replaced with specific regional restrictions. Further nationwide restrictions were introduced later in 2020 in response to a surge in cases. Most restrictions were lifted during the Delta-variant-driven third wave in mid-2021. The "winter plan" reintroduced some rules in response to the Omicron variant in December 2021, and all restrictions were lifted in February and March 2022 as the Omicron wave continued.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: Economic support was given to struggling businesses, including a furlough scheme for employees. As well as the major strain on the UK's healthcare service, the pandemic has had a severe impact on the UK's economy, caused major disruptions to education and had far-reaching impacts on society and politics.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019. The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: Scientists used statistical analysis of data from genetic sequencing, combined with epidemiological and estimated travel data, to estimate the source locations of the virus in the UK up to the beginning of March 2020, and following the initial importations which were likely from China or elsewhere in Asia. From this analysis they estimated that about 33% were from Spain, 29% from France, 12% from Italy and 26% from elsewhere.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: Though later reporting indicated that there may have been some cases dating from late 2019, COVID-19 was confirmed to be spreading in the UK by the end of January 2020 with the first confirmed deaths in March. Subsequent epidemiological analysis showed that over 1000 lineages of SARS-CoV-2 entered the UK in early 2020 from international travellers, mostly from outbreaks elsewhere in Europe, leading to numerous clusters that overwhelmed contact tracing efforts. Limited testing and surveillance meant during the early weeks of the pandemic, case numbers were underestimated, obscuring the extent of the outbreak.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: A legally-enforced Stay at Home Order, or lockdown, was introduced on 23 March, banning all non-essential travel and contact with other people, and shut schools, businesses, venues and gathering places. People were told to keep apart in public. Those with symptoms, and their households, were told to self-isolate, while those considered at highest risk were told to shield. The health services worked to raise hospital capacity and established temporary critical care hospitals, but initially faced some shortages of personal protective equipment. By mid-April it was reported that restrictions had "flattened the curve" of the epidemic and the UK had passed its peak after 26,000 deaths. The UK's overall death toll and by population surpassed that of Italy on 3 May, making the UK the worst affected country in Europe at the time. Restrictions were steadily eased across the UK in late spring and early summer that year. The UK's epidemic in early 2020 was at the time one of the largest worldwide.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: By the autumn, COVID-19 cases were again rising. This led to the introduction of social distancing measures and some localised restrictions. Larger lockdowns took place in all of Wales, England and Northern Ireland later that season. In both England and Scotland, tiered restrictions were introduced in October, and England went into a month-long lockdown during November followed by new tiered restrictions in December. Multi-week 'circuit-breaker' lockdowns were imposed in Wales and Northern Ireland. A new variant of the virus is thought to have originated in Kent around September 2020. Once restrictions were lifted, the novel variant rapidly spread across the UK. Its increased transmissibility contributed to a continued increase in daily infections that surpassed previous records. The healthcare system had come under severe strain by late December. Following a partial easing of restrictions for Christmas, all of the UK went into a third lockdown. The second wave peaked in mid-January with over 1,000 daily deaths, before declining into the summer.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: The first COVID-19 vaccine was approved and began being deployed across the UK in early December; with a staggered rollout prioritising the most vulnerable and then moving to progressively younger age groups. The UK was the first country to do so, and in early 2021 its vaccination program was one of the fastest in the world. By August 2021, more than 75% of adults in the UK were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Quarantine rules for all incoming travellers were introduced for the first time in late January. Restrictions began to ease from late February onwards and almost all had ended in Great Britain by August.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: A third wave of daily infections began in July 2021 due to the arrival and rapid spread of the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. However, mass vaccination continued to keep deaths and hospitalisations at much lower levels than in previous waves. Infection rates remained high and hospitalisations and deaths rose into the autumn. In December, the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant was confirmed to have arrived and begun spreading widely in the community, particularly in London, driving a further increase in cases that surpassed previous records, although the true number of infections was thought to be higher. It became mandatory for people to show proof of full vaccination or proof that they are not infected to enter certain indoor hospitality and entertainment venues. On 9 January 2022, the UK became the seventh country worldwide to pass 150,000 reported COVID-19 deaths.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: All remaining legally enforced COVID-19 related restrictions concluded in Northern Ireland and England during February 2022, with that step being taken in Scotland (partially extended into April) and Wales by the end of March. Cases rose following the relaxation of restrictions but began, along with hospitalisations and deaths, to fall shortly after.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: The UK Health Security Agency publishes a weekly "national influenza and coronavirus (COVID-19) report", which summarises COVID-19 levels and other seasonal respiratory illnesses.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: There has been some disparity between the outbreak's severity in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – health-care in the UK is devolved, each constituent country having its own publicly-funded healthcare system run by devolved governments.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: The COVID-19 pandemic led to the largest fall in life expectancy in England since records began in 1981. On average, British COVID-19 victims lost around a decade of life; the last time deaths rose so sharply in the UK was during World War II. In 2020, the disease was the leading cause of death among men, and second leading cause among women.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: Research in 2021 suggests over 1 million people in the UK have had Long COVID, with the majority reporting substantial impacts on day-to-day life. Professor Danny Altmann of Imperial College London said in March 2022, "It's kind of an anathema to me that we've kind of thrown in the towel on control of Omicron wave infections and have said 'it's endemic, and we don't care any more, because it's very benign'," he said. "It just isn't. And there are new people joining the long Covid support groups all the time with their disabilities. It's really not OK, and it's heartbreaking." The Office for National Statistics estimated that the number of people in the UK with continuing COVID symptoms like fatigue, muscle pain and breathing problems has doubled in a year from 1 million in May 2021 to 2 million in May 2022. Treatment facilities for patients with long COVID are inadequate.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: The pandemic's major impact on the country's healthcare system, leading to long waiting lists for medical procedures and ambulances, also led to an indirect increase in deaths from other conditions. It also had a major mental health impact.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: In August 2021, a report from Age UK found that 27% of people over 60 could not walk as far and 25% were living in more physical pain earlier this year compared to the start of the pandemic. 54% of older people felt less confident attending a hospital appointment, and 37% of older people felt less confident going to a GP surgery.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: Research by The Sunday Times reported that in 2021, the proportion of private school pupils receiving A*, a mark for exceptional achievement, was 39.5 per cent, rising from 16.1 per cent in 2019. The highest record in terms of increase came from the North London Collegiate School, where senior fees could surpass £21,000 a year and the proportion of A* grades rose from 33.8 per cent in 2019 to 90.2 per cent in the summer of 2021. At 25 schools, the number of A* grades trebled or even quadrupled. These and other findings lead MPs to call for an inquiry into the "manipulation" of the exam system during the COVID-19 crisis.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: The pandemic was widely disruptive to the economy of the United Kingdom, with most sectors and workforces adversely affected. Some temporary shutdowns became permanent; some people who were furloughed were later made redundant. The economic disruption has had a significant impact on people's mental health—with particular damage to the mental health of foreign-born men whose work hours have been reduced/eliminated.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: The pandemic has had far-reaching consequences in the country that go beyond the spread of the disease itself and efforts to quarantine it, including political, cultural, and social implications.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, tested positive for COVID-19 upon her return from WE Day events in the UK; on 12 March 2020 the Trudeau family entered two weeks of self-isolation. The first patient in Mauritius was a 59-year-old man who returned from the United Kingdom on 7 March 2020. When he arrived in Mauritius, the Mauritian had no symptoms. Other cases of the novel coronavirus resulting from travel to the UK were subsequently reported in India and Nigeria.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: On 16 June 2020, it was widely reported in British media that New Zealand's first COVID-19 cases in 24 days were diagnosed in two British women, both of whom had travelled from the UK and were given special permission to visit a dying parent. The women had entered the country on 7 June, after first flying into Doha and Brisbane.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: A 2021 study suggested that the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant, which was first detected in Kent, spread internationally via flights originating in London in late 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: Reports from the Medical Research Council's Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College, London have been providing mathematically calculated estimates of cases and case fatality rates. In February 2020, the team at Imperial College, led by epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, estimated about two-thirds of cases in travellers from China were not detected and that some of these may have begun "chains of transmission within the countries they entered". They forecast that the new type of coronavirus could infect up to 60% of the UK's population, in the worst-case scenario.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: In a paper on 16 March 2020, the Imperial College team provided detailed forecasts of the potential impacts of the epidemic in the UK and US. It detailed the potential outcomes of an array of 'non-pharmaceutical interventions'. Two potential overall strategies outlined were: mitigation, in which the aim is to reduce the health impact of the epidemic but not to stop transmission completely; and suppression, where the aim is to reduce transmission rates to a point where case numbers fall. Until this point, government actions had been based on a strategy of mitigation, but the modelling predicted that while this would reduce deaths by approximately 2/3, it would still lead to approximately 250,000 deaths from the disease and the health systems becoming overwhelmed. On 16 March, the Prime Minister announced changes to government advice, extending self-isolation to whole households, advising social distancing particularly for vulnerable groups, and indicating that further measures were likely to be required in the future.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: A paper on 30 March 2020 by the Imperial College group estimated that the lockdown would reduce the number of dead from 510,000 to less than 20,000. This paper and others relied on data from European countries including the UK to estimate that the combined non-pharmaceutical interventions reduced the reproduction number of the virus by 67–87%, enough to stop infections from growing. However, followup work concluded that the effectiveness of interventions was lower in later waves of infections.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: In April 2020, biostatistician Professor Sheila Bird said the delay in the reporting of deaths from the virus meant there was a risk of underestimating the steepness of the rising epidemic trend.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: In December 2021 scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine predicted that Omicron could cause from 25,000 to 75,000 deaths in England over the five months to April 2022 unless there were more stringent restrictions, and would probably become the dominant variant by the end of 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: As of 20 December 2021, there had been 11.4 million confirmed cases – the most in Europe and fourth-highest worldwide. By that date there had been deaths among people who had recently tested positive – the world's seventh-highest death toll and 28th-highest death rate by population. This is Europe's second-highest death toll after Russia, and the 20th-highest death rate worldwide. Since early 2021 the UK has had one of the world's highest testing rates.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

text: In March 2022, "The Lancet" published a study showing that, compared to other western European countries, with 127 per 100,000 population, the UK had a lower excess deaths rate during the pandemic than the average, and lower than Italy (227), Portugal (202), Spain (187), Belgium (147), and the Netherlands (140), that the difference between the UK, France (124), and Germany (121) was not statistically significant, and that Ireland (13) and the Scandinavian countries had a lower rate. The UK rate is marginally more than the world average of 120. The study was of excess mortality in 191 countries over the years 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic, the method that the chief medical officer of England, Chris Whitty, said is the best way to compare outcomes between countries. The study found that, compared to other countries, the UK tended to attribute more deaths to COVID-19. A Cambridge University epidemiologist, Raghib Ali, said that the study would correct "widespread misconceptions" about the way the UK had handled the pandemic, and that there was "no clear relationship between levels of excess mortality and different levels of restrictions... across western Europe or indeed the whole of Europe". Ali also said "all the commentary to date as to how and why the UK, or Sweden, has done worse than its neighbours is clearly no longer valid".


title: Bloc Party

text: Bloc Party are an English rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Louise Bartle (drums, percussion). Former members Matt Tong and Gordon Moakes left the band in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Their brand of music, whilst rooted in rock, retains elements of other genres such as electronica and house music. The band was formed at the 1999 Reading Festival by Okereke and Lissack. They went through a variety of names before settling on Bloc Party in 2003. Moakes joined the band after answering an advert in "NME" magazine, while Tong was picked via an audition. Bloc Party got their break by giving BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq and Franz Ferdinand's lead singer, Alex Kapranos, a copy of their demo "She's Hearing Voices".


title: Bloc Party

text: In February 2005, the band released their debut album "Silent Alarm". It was critically acclaimed and was named Indie Album of the Year at the 2006 PLUG Awards and "NME" Album of the year which both honour indie music. That year, the record was also certified platinum in Britain. The band built on this success in 2007 with the release of their second studio album, "A Weekend in the City", which reached a peak of number two in the UK Albums Chart and number twelve in the "Billboard" 200. In August 2008, Bloc Party released their third studio record, "Intimacy" which entered the UK Albums Chart at number eight and number eighteen on the "Billboard" 200. The band went on a hiatus in October 2009 to focus on side projects. They reunited in September 2011, and shortly thereafter released their fourth album, "Four", which entered the UK Albums Chart at number three. In 2013, Bloc Party released their third EP titled "The Nextwave Sessions" in August; the band then began an indefinite hiatus to continue with their respective side projects. The band's fifth studio album, "Hymns", the first to involve Harris and Bartle, was released on 29 January 2016. Their sixth studio album "Alpha Games" was released on 29 April 2022. Bloc Party have sold over 3 million albums worldwide.


title: Bloc Party

text: Russell Lissack and Kele Okereke first met in 1998 in London. Lissack had attended Bancroft's School, while Okereke attended Ilford County High School, then Trinity Catholic High School, Woodford Green for sixth form. They bumped into each other again in 1999 at Reading Festival and decided to form a band. Bassist Gordon Moakes joined after answering an advert in "NME", and drummer Matt Tong joined after an audition. After going through a variety of names, such as Union, The Angel Range, and Diet, the band settled on Bloc Party in September 2003, a play on "block party". The band has said that the name was not intended to be an allusion to the Soviet Bloc or the Canadian political party Bloc Québécois. However, Moakes said on the group's official Internet forum that it was more a merging of the eastern "Blocs" and the western "parties", in the political sense. He also notes that the name was not explicitly driven by politics, but rather it "looked, sounded, seemed fine so we went with it."


title: Bloc Party

text: In November 2003, Bloc Party had their track "The Marshals Are Dead" featured on a compilation CD called "The New Cross" released by Angular Recording Corporation. They then released their debut single "She's Hearing Voices" on the then fledgling record label Trash Aesthetics. Also in 2003 Bloc Party personally mailed Steve Aoki a 7-inch of the track “She’s Hearing Voices” and signed to Dim Mak shortly thereafter. Dim Mak teamed up with VICE, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, and entered a major label deal for the first time. Dim Mak and Atlantic later released Bloc Party's critically acclaimed and commercially successful Silent Alarm in 2005. The band got their break after Okereke went to a Franz Ferdinand concert in 2003, and gave a copy of "She's Hearing Voices" to both lead singer Alex Kapranos and BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq. Lamacq subsequently played the song on his radio show, labelling the track "genius", and invited them to record a live session for the show. The buzz generated off the back of the single led to another release, "Banquet/Staying Fat", this time through Moshi Moshi Records, and to the eventual signing with independent label Wichita Recordings in April 2004.


title: Bloc Party

text: Bloc Party's debut album, "Silent Alarm", was released in February 2005 and was met with universal critical acclaim. It was voted 'Album of the Year' for 2005 by "NME", and reached number 3 on the UK Albums Chart before being certified platinum. The first single from the album, "So Here We Are/Positive Tension", made the top 5 on the UK Top 40 chart. Further singles "Banquet" (which reached number 13 in "NME'"s 'Top 50 Singles of 2005'), "Helicopter", and "Pioneers", whilst failing to repeat this success, still managed to reach the UK top 20. The animated video for "Pioneers," made by the Shoreditch-based Minivegas design agency, was top of the "NME" video charts for four weeks. "NME" tagged them as "art-rock" at that time but the band felt it was too limited.


title: Bloc Party

text: The band received positive reviews from critics in the United States and they toured there heavily in the 18 months that followed the release of "Silent Alarm". In early 2006, they finished their tour with sold-out shows in Los Angeles, Miami and Berkeley. The album went on to sell more than 350,000 copies in North America and over a million worldwide. After this success, the established electronic group, The Chemical Brothers, soon collaborated with Okereke for "Believe", a track on their "Push the Button" album. An album of remixes of tracks from "Silent Alarm" had also been released at the end of August 2005 in the UK. This remix album, entitled "Silent Alarm Remixed", retained the album's original track list and includes remixes from the likes of Ladytron, M83, Death from Above 1979, Four Tet, and Mogwai.


title: Bloc Party

text: During July 2005, Bloc Party recorded two new tracks with "Silent Alarm" producer Paul Epworth. The songs were released as a single with a B-side, titled "Two More Years", to coincide with the band's October 2005 UK tour. The tour was also accompanied by a re-issue of "Silent Alarm", which included "Two More Years" and former single "Little Thoughts" as bonus tracks. A remix of "Banquet" by The Streets, as well as a music video for the song, were included in the "Two More Years" single. Bloc Party also contributed the track "The Present" to the "" compilation, the profits of which benefited the War Child charity.


title: Bloc Party

text: Bloc Party's second album, "A Weekend in the City", was produced by Garret "Jacknife" Lee. It was released in February 2007, although it was leaked in November 2006. It became available for download on the UK iTunes Store before the physical release, and reached the number 2 spot on the UK Albums Chart. The album also reached number 2 on the Australian and Belgian charts, and debuted at number 12 in the "Billboard" 200, with 48,000 copies sold. The first single, "The Prayer", was released on 29 January, and became the band's highest charting single in the British Top 40, reaching number 4. In the buildup to the release of the album, BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe aired a live set by the band from Maida Vale studios on 30 January 2007, featuring a mix of old and new songs. On 1 February 2007, "A Weekend in the City" was made available to listen to for free through Bloc Party's official MySpace page.


title: Bloc Party

text: The next single, "I Still Remember", was Bloc Party's highest charting American single, peaking at number 24 on the Modern Rock Chart. The band released their third single, "Hunting for Witches", with an accompanying video clip in August 2007. The single became their only ARIA Chart entry, peaking at number 20. In October 2007, it was announced that Bloc Party would release a new single, "Flux", on 13 November—ahead of their end of year gigs. The electronic song, also produced by Jacknife Lee, was very different from previous singles released by the band.


title: Bloc Party

text: The band's first gig following the release of "A Weekend in the City" was on 5 February 2007, in Reading, and was broadcast live on BBC 6 Music. On 20 May 2007, Bloc Party headlined on the "In New Music We Trust" stage at the BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend in Preston. They also performed at the UK leg of Live Earth on 7 July 2007 at Wembley Stadium. Furthermore, the band played sets at T in the Park and Oxegen 07 that same weekend, as well as Glastonbury and the Reading and Leeds Festivals later in 2007. Bloc Party announced a tour of Australia and New Zealand in August 2007, which would include a special appearance at the Splendour in the Grass Festival on 5 August. On 17 September 2007, they recorded a set for the PBS show Austin City Limits a day after playing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. On 27 October, the band performed a set at London's The Roundhouse with the Exmoor Singers, a London-based choir, as part of the BBC Electric Proms. The set included songs from both "Silent Alarm" and "A Weekend in the City" along with the first British live performance of "Flux".


title: Bloc Party

text: "Mercury" was released as the first single from Bloc Party's third album in August 2008. Again produced by Jacknife Lee and Paul Epworth, "Intimacy" was rush-released later that month, with the album available to download 3 days after an announcement in August 2008. Later in the month the band played second on the bill at the Reading and Leeds Festivals before headlining the Hydro Connect Music Festival in Argyll, Scotland.


title: Bloc Party

text: During the autumn of 2008, the band went on a short tour of North America, which included an appearance at the Virgin Festival in Toronto, as well as the band's first ever American college show at Syracuse University and an appearance at the 2008 edition of MTV Video Music Brazil, their first concert in South America, which was negatively received due to the band choosing to mime their performance. They made their live return to the UK on 30 September 2008 with a special gig in London as part of Q Awards: The Gigs. They also played the Glasgow date of MTV2's and Topman's "Gonzo on Tour" on 19 October 2008. A follow-up single, "Talons" was released in October 2008. The song was not part of the pre-order album, but did feature on the full album CD release and was made freely available to people who already purchased the download-only album. An album of remixes of all tracks on "Intimacy", "Intimacy Remixed", was released in May 2009.


title: Bloc Party

text: In July 2009, Okereke stated that the band did not have a current recording contract and had no obligation or pressure to release a new album in the foreseeable future; he went on to suggest that the release of a fourth album was on an indefinite timescale. A new single, "One More Chance", was released in August 2009. The song did not appear on "Intimacy" and was produced by Jacknife Lee. After this, the group went on a hiatus, with the members unsure as to whether they would carry on.


title: Bloc Party

text: During this period of hiatus Lissack revived his project Pin Me Down and joined the live line-up of Irish rock-band Ash as guitarist and synthesiser player on their touring for the "A–Z Series". Moakes formed the group Young Legionnaire with Paul Mullen, vocalist & guitarist of The Automatic, and William Bowerman, drummer for La Roux, releasing a single, "Colossus" in August 2010. Okereke released a solo album, "The Boxer", in June 2010. Produced by Hudson Mohawke and XXXChange, its release was preceded by the single "Tenderoni". Rumours throughout 2011 suggested Okereke had left the group to focus on solo work, though these were denied by other band members.


title: Bloc Party

text: Bloc Party started writing material for a fourth album in 2011, but decided not to play live. In the meantime Okereke finished an EP titled "The Hunter". The group stated they intended to release a new album in 2012. In May 2012, Bloc Party announced "Four", which was released on 20 August 2012, after being made available to stream in its entirety for over a week preceding release. The album was recorded with Alex Newport, who had previously worked with At The Drive In and The Mars Volta, in New York City. Bloc Party released "Octopus" that July and later released another single entitled "Day Four". The band released "Kettling" on 12 November 2012, followed by "Truth" on 25 February 2013. "Four" peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart and at number 36 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Bloc Party

text: The band debuted new material during their 2013 North American tour, including "Children of the Future" at Rams Head Live!, "Ratchet" at The Pageant, "Montreal" at the Ogden Theatre and "X-cutioner's Song" at Mr. Smalls Theater in Pittsburgh. Lissack later confirmed the band's plans to release a new EP in "northern hemisphere summer". He told Marc Zanotti of Australian website MusicFeeds that the new material was "not like a continuation of the record we've just made, it's a completely separate thing [...] the next step; the next progression". "French Exit" was given its debut live performance at Crystal Ballroom on 24 May. Some of the new material would feature on "The Nextwave Sessions", an EP announced on 25 June and for release on 12 August via Frenchkiss Records.


title: Bloc Party

text: During the summer tour of 2013, drummer Matt Tong left the band. Lissack told a Canadian newspaper, the "National Post" that the band were planning to take an indefinite hiatus following their appearance at the Latitude Festival on 19 July. In October 2013, Kele assembled a DJ Mix for !K7's "Tapes" mix series, released under the Bloc Party name. In September 2014, Okereke stated that Bloc Party were working on a fifth album. In March 2015, bassist Gordon Moakes tweeted he had parted ways with Bloc Party. Following the departure of their former members, Okereke and Lissack started to work on new songs on their own in late 2014.


title: Bloc Party

text: Bloc Party unveiled their new line-up at two intimate gigs in the Los Angeles area (19 August 2015 at The Glass House in Pomona and 20 August 2015 at The Roxy in Los Angeles). Following these performances, Bloc Party also subheadlined FYF Fest in Los Angeles on 22 August 2015. At these shows, the band confirmed that they've finished recording their next album. The shows marked the live debut for new bassist Justin Harris of the Portland, Oregon, indie rock outfit Menomena, who had previously opened several Bloc Party U.S. tour dates in April 2009; and Louise Bartle, who was accidentally announced a month earlier as Bloc Party's drummer by instrument manufacturer Natal Drums in a since-deleted tweet, leading to fan speculation regarding her membership that was ultimately proved correct. These shows also included the first performances of two new songs called "Eden" and "Exes" according to the setlist.


title: Bloc Party

text: In a performance at Maida Vale, Bloc Party gave "The Good News" its live debut; hours later, "The Love Within" was featured as "Hottest Record in the World" by Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1. Okereke revealed the band's upcoming fifth album is set to be titled "Hymns". The album's release was later confirmed on social media as 29 January 2016.


title: Bloc Party

text: Later in 2016, the band released the standalone single 'Stunt Queen' to mark their performance at the Hollywood Bowl, which Okereke claimed was a "significant milestone" for the band. It marks some of the first new material that featured Justin and Louise as co-writers.


title: Bloc Party

text: March 2018 saw the band announce a series of shows touring their 'Silent Alarm' album which would be played in full. Due to the success of this short tour, Bloc Party announced further dates in 2019 again playing tracks from the whole of their debut.


title: Bloc Party

text: On 22 January 2020, Okereke announced on his personal social media accounts that Bloc Party had begun writing a new album.


title: Bloc Party

text: On 22 September 2021, Bloc Party posted to their official Twitter account a sneak peek of the tracklist/recording progress of their soon to be released sixth studio album.


title: Bloc Party

text: On 23 November 2021, Bloc Party released the first single "Traps" off their sixth studio album "Alpha Games". The album was released on 22 April 2022. A second single "The Girls Are Fighting" was released on 26 January 2022 and the responding music video was released on 28 January 2022. On 25 February 2022, the third single "Sex Magik" was released. A fourth single "If We Get Caught" was released on 24 March 2022.


title: Bloc Party

text: Bloc Party's musical style has been described as indie rock, post-punk revival, post-Britpop, alternative rock, art punk, art rock, dance-rock, and alternative dance. Bloc Party's brand of guitar rock draws on influences such as The Chemical Brothers, Pixies, Joy Division, Sonic Youth and The Smiths. Okereke has also stated that Mogwai's album "Mogwai Young Team" changed his life by being his musical "year zero". Okereke also cites Suede as a major influence; he says "Dog Man Star" was the first record he fell in love with. Particular parallels were made between Bloc Party and Gang of Four upon their arrival on the music scene, yet the band were "mildly infuriated" at such references, claiming they had never "particularly liked" Gang of Four. To achieve their unique style, numerous delay and other effects pedals are implemented. During the recording of second album "A Weekend in the City", the band suggested it would contain "some truly R&B styled beats, a song where [Tong] and [Moakes] play drums simultaneously [with] both eggshell-thin fragility and trouser-flapping hugeness", as opposed to their typical sound. The style has been compared to and inspired by such bands as Radiohead, U2, Depeche Mode, and Björk. Some of the most noticeable changes between debut "Silent Alarm" and "A Weekend in the City" are that the songs became more layered and less raw due to inclusion of string arrangements.


title: Bloc Party

text: With the release of "Flux", Bloc Party's style became even more diverse with the inclusion of electronic music. "Mercury" saw Bloc Party distance themselves even further from the traditional guitar band set-up by experimenting with dark electronic sounds and a brass section inspired by Siouxsie and the Banshees. The band's third album "Intimacy" also features synths, processed drum beats and loops, vocal manipulation, and choral arrangements. Even though the album was influenced by electronic music, the band still had not lost their feel for guitar music. For example, in an interview, Okereke said that the band was starting to miss their more traditional sound, and confirmed that may have been the way fourth album was headed. However, Tong contradicted this, stating: "There's every chance we might go back to more orthodox arrangements or things that resemble a traditional band but I don't think we'll ever write songs like we did on "Silent Alarm" again." A 2009 Vice Records mix lists the following songs Bloc Party are influenced by: Eagle Boston's "Wild Wild Ost", Pylon's "Working Is No Problem", Delta 5's "Mind Your Own Business", John Foxx's "Underpass", Prince's "I Would Die 4 U" (also covered live), Sonic Youth's "Youth Against Fascism", Dinosaur Jr.'s "Freak Scene", La Roux's "Quicksand (Nightrunners Edit)", and Bruce Springsteen's "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)".


title: Bloc Party

text: Bloc Party have had several nominations from a number of different awarding bodies during their recording career. The band themselves were nominated for 'Best New Artist' at the 2005 "NME" Awards, and were also up for the 'Best Alternative Act' category at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards. In 2006, Bloc Party were nominated for another "NME" Award, this time in the 'Best British Band' category. They were also shortlisted for three PLUG Awards: 'New Artist of the Year' in 2005, and 'Artist of the Year' and 'Live Act of the Year' in 2006. At the 19th GLAAD Media Awards in 2008, they were nominated in the 'Music Artist' category for their work on second album "A Weekend in the City".


title: Bloc Party

text: Their debut album "Silent Alarm" was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize and won the NME award for 'Best Album'. It was also nominated as 'Album of the Year' at three different ceremonies: the New Pantheon Music Award (Shortlist Music Prize), the 2006 "NME" Awards, and the 2006 PLUG Awards, where "Helicopter" was also up for 'Best Music Video'. The record won the award for 'Best Indie Rock Album' at the 2006 PLUG Awards. At the 2008 "NME" Awards, "Flux" was nominated in three different categories: 'Best Track', 'Best Video' and 'Best Dancefloor Filler'.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: The Farewell () is a 2019 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Lulu Wang. It stars Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, and Zhao Shuzhen. The film follows a Chinese-American family who, upon learning their grandmother has only a short while left to live, decide not to tell her and schedule a family gathering before she dies.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: The film is based in part on director Wang's life experiences, which she first publicly discussed as part of her radio story "What You Don't Know", which appeared as part of an episode of "This American Life". The film was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released in the United States on July 12, 2019, by A24. It received widespread acclaim from critics, with particular praise for Wang's screenplay and the performances of Awkwafina and Zhao Shuzhen. At the 77th Golden Globe Awards the film was nominated for two awards including Best Foreign Language Film, with Awkwafina winning for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. "The Farewell" is a bilingual film in English and Mandarin Chinese.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: Aspiring Chinese-American writer Billi maintains a close relationship with Nai Nai (paternal grandmother) who lives in Changchun, China. After receiving a rejection letter for a Guggenheim Fellowship, Billi discovers from her parents, Haiyan and Jian, that Nai Nai has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and is predicted to have only a few months left to live.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: Through deception and manipulation of medical test results, the diagnosis is kept a secret from Nai Nai herself. Nai Nai is, instead, falsely told that her recent doctor visits have only revealed benign findings. A wedding for Billi's cousin from Japan, Hao Hao, has been planned in China as an excuse to unite the family to spend what is expected to be one last time with Nai Nai. Fearing Billi will end up exposing the lie to her grandmother, Haiyan and Jian tell her to remain in New York City.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: Billi disobeys her parents' orders and flies to Changchun shortly after the rest of the family arrive there. Billi assures her parents that she will not reveal the cancer diagnosis to Nai Nai. Throughout the trip, however, she clashes with the rest of the family over their deliberate dishonesty towards her grandmother. Guilt-ridden, Billi expresses conflicted thoughts with her parents over the Chinese cultural beliefs that result in a family refusing to disclose a life-threatening disease. One night, her uncle, Haibin, contends that the lie allows the family to bear the emotional burden of the diagnosis, rather than Nai Nai herself—a practice of collectivism that Haibin acknowledges differs from the individualistic values common in Western culture. Billi later learns that Nai Nai also told a similar lie to her husband up until his death when he was terminally ill.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: On the day of the wedding, both Haibin and Hao Hao break down in tears on separate occasions but manage to proceed through the banquet without raising Nai Nai's suspicions. Billi intercepts Nai Nai's medical test results from the hospital and has it altered to reflect a clean bill of health, helping to maintain the lie. That night, Nai Nai gives Billi a hóngbāo, encouraging her to spend the money as she chooses. Billi admits that she wants to stay in Changchun to spend more time with Nai Nai, but Nai Nai declines, telling her that she needs to live her own life. When Billi reveals the Guggenheim Fellowship rejection to her, Nai Nai encourages Billi to keep an open mind and not get hung up on this failure, "don't be the bull endlessly ramming its horns into the corner of the room." She says that "life is not about what things one does, but more so about how one goes about doing them".


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: Billi keeps her promise to maintain the lie. She shares a tearful goodbye with Nai Nai as the visiting family members return to their homes in Japan and America. A title card reveals that six years after her diagnosis, the woman Nai Nai's character was based on is still alive and still unaware of her sickness.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: The film was based on a story called "What You Don't Know" that was initially shared by Wang on "This American Life" in April 2016. Wang said that the film was based on her grandmother's illness, stating that "I always felt the divide in my relationship to my family versus my relationship to my classmates and to my colleagues and to the world that I inhabit. That's just the nature of being an immigrant and straddling two cultures."


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: The film was primarily shot in Changchun, China, over the course of 24 days in June 2018. Filming also took place in New York. In an interview with "Filmmaker", cinematographer Anna Franquesa Solano stated that the references for the film included "Force Majeure" and "Still Walking". However, she added that her main source of inspiration came from "spending time with Lulu's family at their home in Changchun, during pre-production."


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: Director Lulu Wang says that she kept the secret from her grandmother during and after film production. It was awkward to keep the secret when the grandmother visited the filming, a block from her home. Wang claims her grandmother eventually found out from discussing the movie with her little sister, who plays herself in the movie.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: The film had its premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2019. In January 2019, A24 acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film for $7 million, over Netflix, Amazon Studios, and Fox Searchlight. It was released in the United States on July 12, 2019. A fully Mandarin-subtitled version of the film played in select theaters on September 8, 2019.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: "The Farewell" grossed $17.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $5.4 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $23.1 million, against a production budget of $3 million. In its opening weekend the film made $355,662 from four theaters for an average of $88,916 per venue; at the time, it was the best average of 2019, besting ""s $76,601. It expanded to 35 theaters in its second weekend and earned $1.14 million, then made $1.5 million from 135 theaters in its third. It continued to expand in the following weeks, making $2.4 million from 426 theaters and then $2.2 million from 705 theaters. The film expanded further to over 800 theaters in the next few weeks, $1.4 million from 861 theaters, $882,623 from 816 theaters and $841,414 from 891 theaters.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: "The Farewell" was a box office "flop" in China, grossing only $580,000 by January 2020 in what was then the world's second-largest film market.


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of , with an average rating of , based on reviews. The website's critics' consensus reads: ""The Farewell" deftly captures complicated family dynamics with a poignant, well-acted drama that marries cultural specificity with universally relatable themes." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100 based on 47 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: Eric Kohn of "IndieWire" gave the film an A− grade and praised Awkwafina's performance, writing, "As a Chinese-American grappling with the traditionalism of her past and its impact on the future, she's an absorbing engine for the movie's introspective look at a most unusual family reunion." Christy Lemire writing for "RogerEbert.com" gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, saying Zhao Shuzhen is "the most frequent source of laughs", but went on to say that "as delightful as [Zhao] is in this crucial, central role, she will also quietly rip your heart out by the film's end". Richard Lawson of "Vanity Fair" wrote, "Wang movingly tells not just a story about the negotiations of familial love, but also of the immigrant experience, of revisiting one's homeland to, in some senses, say goodbye to it." David Rooney of "The Hollywood Reporter" commented, "its moments of sweet sentimentality are fully earned and heartfelt." Brian Lowry of "CNN.com" described it as a "small, melancholy movie that explores cultural differences and dealing with death in an utterly charming, understated manner." Hong Kong playwright Jingan Young commented on the film's depiction of the differences between western and Chinese family values, claiming that "the family’s decision to tell a 'good lie' is a metaphor for the collective delusion of living under the Chinese Communist party."


title: The Farewell (2019 film)

text: Former United States President Barack Obama named The "Farewell" amongst his favorite films and television series of 2019 in an annual list released on December 29, 2019.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely false. By contrast, in Boolean logic, the truth values of variables may only be the integer values 0 or 1.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: The term "fuzzy logic" was introduced with the 1965 proposal of fuzzy set theory by Iranian Azerbaijani mathematician Lotfi Zadeh. Fuzzy logic had, however, been studied since the 1920s, as infinite-valued logic—notably by Łukasiewicz and Tarski.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Fuzzy logic is based on the observation that people make decisions based on imprecise and non-numerical information. Fuzzy models or sets are mathematical means of representing vagueness and imprecise information (hence the term fuzzy). These models have the capability of recognising, representing, manipulating, interpreting, and using data and information that are vague and lack certainty.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Classical logic only permits conclusions that are either true or false. However, there are also propositions with variable answers, such as one might find when asking a group of people to identify a color. In such instances, the truth appears as the result of reasoning from inexact or partial knowledge in which the sampled answers are mapped on a spectrum.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Both degrees of truth and probabilities range between 0 and 1 and hence may seem similar at first, but fuzzy logic uses degrees of truth as a mathematical model of "vagueness", while probability is a mathematical model of "ignorance".


title: Fuzzy logic

text: A basic application might characterize various sub-ranges of a continuous variable. For instance, a temperature measurement for anti-lock brakes might have several separate membership functions defining particular temperature ranges needed to control the brakes properly. Each function maps the same temperature value to a truth value in the 0 to 1 range. These truth values can then be used to determine how the brakes should be controlled. Fuzzy set theory provides a means for representing uncertainty.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: In fuzzy logic applications, non-numeric values are often used to facilitate the expression of rules and facts.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: A linguistic variable such as "age" may accept values such as "young" and its antonym "old". Because natural languages do not always contain enough value terms to express a fuzzy value scale, it is common practice to modify linguistic values with adjectives or adverbs. For example, we can use the hedges "rather" and "somewhat" to construct the additional values "rather old" or "somewhat young".


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Fuzzification is the process of assigning the numerical input of a system to fuzzy sets with some degree of membership. This degree of membership may be anywhere within the interval [0,1]. If it is 0 then the value does not belong to the given fuzzy set, and if it is 1 then the value completely belongs within the fuzzy set. Any value between 0 and 1 represents the degree of uncertainty that the value belongs in the set. These fuzzy sets are typically described by words, and so by assigning the system input to fuzzy sets, we can reason with it in a linguistically natural manner.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: For example, in the image below the meanings of the expressions "cold", "warm", and "hot" are represented by functions mapping a temperature scale. A point on that scale has three "truth values"—one for each of the three functions. The vertical line in the image represents a particular temperature that the three arrows (truth values) gauge. Since the red arrow points to zero, this temperature may be interpreted as "not hot"; i.e. this temperature has zero membership in the fuzzy set "hot". The orange arrow (pointing at 0.2) may describe it as "slightly warm" and the blue arrow (pointing at 0.8) "fairly cold". Therefore, this temperature has 0.2 membership in the fuzzy set "warm" and 0.8 membership in the fuzzy set "cold". The degree of membership assigned for each fuzzy set is the result of fuzzification.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Fuzzy sets are often defined as triangle or trapezoid-shaped curves, as each value will have a slope where the value is increasing, a peak where the value is equal to 1 (which can have a length of 0 or greater) and a slope where the value is decreasing. They can also be defined using a sigmoid function. One common case is the standard logistic function defined as


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Fuzzy logic works with membership values in a way that mimics Boolean logic. To this end, replacements for basic operators AND, OR, NOT must be available. There are several ways to this. A common replacement is called the "s":


title: Fuzzy logic

text: There are also other operators, more linguistic in nature, called "hedges" that can be applied. These are generally adverbs such as "very", or "somewhat", which modify the meaning of a set using a mathematical formula.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: However, an arbitrary choice table does not always define a fuzzy logic function. In the paper (Zaitsev, et al), a criterion has been formulated to recognize whether a given choice table defines a fuzzy logic function and a simple algorithm of fuzzy logic function synthesis has been proposed based on introduced concepts of constituents of minimum and maximum. A fuzzy logic function represents a disjunction of constituents of minimum, where a constituent of minimum is a conjunction of variables of the current area greater than or equal to the function value in this area (to the right of the function value in the inequality, including the function value).


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Given any two of AND/OR/NOT, it is possible to derive the third. The generalization of AND is known as a t-norm.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Given a certain temperature, the fuzzy variable "hot" has a certain truth value, which is copied to the "high" variable.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Should an output variable occur in several THEN parts, then the values from the respective IF parts are combined using the OR operator.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: This would be easy if the output truth values were exactly those obtained from fuzzification of a given number.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Since, however, all output truth values are computed independently, in most cases they do not represent such a set of numbers.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: For example, for several truth values of fan_speed, an actual speed must be found that best fits the computed truth values of the variables 'slow', 'moderate' and so on.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: The TSK system is similar to Mamdani, but the defuzzification process is included in the execution of the fuzzy rules. These are also adapted, so that instead the consequent of the rule is represented through a polynomial function (usually constant or linear). An example of a rule with a constant output would be:


title: Fuzzy logic

text: In this case, the output will be equal to the constant of the consequent (e.g. 2). In most scenarios we would have an entire rule base, with 2 or more rules. If this is the case, the output of the entire rule base will be the average of the consequent of each rule i (Y), weighted according to the membership value of its antecedent (h):


title: Fuzzy logic

text: In this case, the output of the rule will be the result of function in the consequent. The variables within the function represent the membership values after fuzzification, not the crisp values. Same as before, in case we have an entire rule base with 2 or more rules, the total output will be the weighted average between the output of each rule.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: The main advantage of using TSK over Mamdani is that it is computationally efficient and works well within other algorithms, such as PID control and with optimization algorithms. It can also guarantee the continuity of the output surface. However, Mamdani is more intuitive and easier to work with by people. Hence, TSK is usually used within other complex methods, such as in adaptive neuro fuzzy inference systems.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Since the fuzzy system output is a consensus of all of the inputs and all of the rules, fuzzy logic systems can be well behaved when input values are not available or are not trustworthy. Weightings can be optionally added to each rule in the rulebase and weightings can be used to regulate the degree to which a rule affects the output values. These rule weightings can be based upon the priority, reliability or consistency of each rule. These rule weightings may be static or can be changed dynamically, even based upon the output from other rules.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Fuzzy logic is used in control systems to allow experts to contribute vague rules such as "if you are close to the destination station and moving fast, increase the train's brake pressure"; these vague rules can then be numerically refined within the system.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Many of the early successful applications of fuzzy logic were implemented in Japan. A first notable application was on the Sendai Subway 1000 series, in which fuzzy logic was able to improve the economy, comfort, and precision of the ride. It has also been used for handwriting recognition in Sony pocket computers, helicopter flight aids, subway system controls, improving automobile fuel efficiency, single-button washing machine controls, automatic power controls in vacuum cleaners, and early recognition of earthquakes through the Institute of Seismology Bureau of Meteorology, Japan.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: AI and fuzzy logic, when analyzed, are the same thing — the underlying logic of neural networks is fuzzy. A neural network will take a variety of valued inputs, give them different weights in relation to each other, and arrive at a decision which normally also has a value. Nowhere in that process is there anything like the sequences of either-or decisions which characterize non-fuzzy mathematics, almost all of computer programming, and digital electronics. In the 1980s, researchers were divided about the most effective approach to machine learning: "common sense" models or neural networks. The former approach requires large decision trees and uses binary logic, matching the hardware on which it runs. The physical devices might be limited to binary logic, but AI can use software for its calculations. Neural networks take this approach, which results in more accurate models of complex situations. Neural networks soon found their way onto a multitude of electronic devices.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Fuzzy logic is an important concept in medical decision making. Since medical and healthcare data can be subjective or fuzzy, applications in this domain have a great potential to benefit a lot by using fuzzy logic based approaches.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Fuzzy logic can be used in many different aspects within the medical decision making framework. Such aspects include in medical image analysis, biomedical signal analysis, segmentation of images or signals, and feature extraction / selection of images or signals.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: The biggest question in this application area is how much useful information can be derived when using fuzzy logic. A major challenge is how to derive the required fuzzy data. This is even more challenging when one has to elicit such data from humans (usually, patients). As has been said How to elicit fuzzy data, and how to validate the accuracy of the data is still an ongoing effort strongly related to the application of fuzzy logic. The problem of assessing the quality of fuzzy data is a difficult one. This is why fuzzy logic is a highly promising possibility within the medical decision making application area but still requires more research to achieve its full potential. Although the concept of using fuzzy logic in medical decision making is exciting, there are still several challenges that fuzzy approaches face within the medical decision making framework.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: One of the common application areas that use fuzzy logic is image-based computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) in medicine. CAD is a computerized set of inter-related tools that can be used to aid physicians in their diagnostic decision-making. For example, when a physician finds a lesion that is abnormal but still at a very early stage of development he/she may use a CAD approach to characterize the lesion and diagnose its nature. Fuzzy logic can be highly appropriate to describe key characteristics of this lesion.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Once fuzzy relations are defined, it is possible to develop fuzzy relational databases. The first fuzzy relational database, FRDB, appeared in Maria Zemankova's dissertation (1983). Later, some other models arose like the Buckles-Petry model, the Prade-Testemale Model, the Umano-Fukami model or the GEFRED model by J. M. Medina, M. A. Vila et al.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Fuzzy querying languages have been defined, such as the SQLf by P. Bosc et al. and the FSQL by J. Galindo et al. These languages define some structures in order to include fuzzy aspects in the SQL statements, like fuzzy conditions, fuzzy comparators, fuzzy constants, fuzzy constraints, fuzzy thresholds, linguistic labels etc.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: In mathematical logic, there are several formal systems of "fuzzy logic", most of which are in the family of t-norm fuzzy logics.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Similar to the way predicate logic is created from propositional logic, predicate fuzzy logics extend fuzzy systems by universal and existential quantifiers. The semantics of the universal quantifier in t-norm fuzzy logics is the infimum of the truth degrees of the instances of the quantified subformula while the semantics of the existential quantifier is the supremum of the same.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: The notions of a "decidable subset" and "recursively enumerable subset" are basic ones for classical mathematics and classical logic. Thus the question of a suitable extension of them to fuzzy set theory is a crucial one. The first proposal in such a direction was made by E. S. Santos by the notions of "fuzzy Turing machine", "Markov normal fuzzy algorithm" and "fuzzy program" (see Santos 1970). Successively, L. Biacino and G. Gerla argued that the proposed definitions are rather questionable. For example, in one shows that the fuzzy Turing machines are not adequate for fuzzy language theory since there are natural fuzzy languages intuitively computable that cannot be recognized by a fuzzy Turing Machine. Then they proposed the following definitions. Denote by "Ü" the set of rational numbers in [0,1]. Then a fuzzy subset "s" : "S" formula_5[0,1] of a set "S" is recursively enumerable if a recursive map "h" : "S"×N formula_5"Ü" exists such that, for every "x" in "S", the function "h"("x","n") is increasing with respect to "n" and "s"("x") = lim "h"("x","n").


title: Fuzzy logic

text: We say that "s" is "decidable" if both "s" and its complement –"s" are recursively enumerable. An extension of such a theory to the general case of the L-subsets is possible (see Gerla 2006).


title: Fuzzy logic

text: The proposed definitions are well related to fuzzy logic. Indeed, the following theorem holds true (provided that the deduction apparatus of the considered fuzzy logic satisfies some obvious effectiveness property).


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Any "axiomatizable" fuzzy theory is recursively enumerable. In particular, the fuzzy set of logically true formulas is recursively enumerable in spite of the fact that the crisp set of valid formulas is not recursively enumerable, in general. Moreover, any axiomatizable and complete theory is decidable.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: It is an open question to give support for a "Church thesis" for fuzzy mathematics, the proposed notion of recursive enumerability for fuzzy subsets is the adequate one. In order to solve this, an extension of the notions of fuzzy grammar and fuzzy Turing machine are necessary. Another open question is to start from this notion to find an extension of Gödel's theorems to fuzzy logic.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Fuzzy logic and probability address different forms of uncertainty. While both fuzzy logic and probability theory can represent degrees of certain kinds of subjective belief, fuzzy set theory uses the concept of fuzzy set membership, i.e., how much an observation is within a vaguely defined set, and probability theory uses the concept of subjective probability, i.e., frequency of occurrence or likelihood of some event or condition . The concept of fuzzy sets was developed in the mid-twentieth century at Berkeley as a response to the lack of a probability theory for jointly modelling uncertainty and vagueness.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Bart Kosko claims in Fuzziness vs. Probability that probability theory is a subtheory of fuzzy logic, as questions of degrees of belief in mutually-exclusive set membership in probability theory can be represented as certain cases of non-mutually-exclusive graded membership in fuzzy theory. In that context, he also derives Bayes' theorem from the concept of fuzzy subsethood. Lotfi A. Zadeh argues that fuzzy logic is different in character from probability, and is not a replacement for it. He fuzzified probability to fuzzy probability and also generalized it to possibility theory.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: More generally, fuzzy logic is one of many different extensions to classical logic intended to deal with issues of uncertainty outside of the scope of classical logic, the inapplicability of probability theory in many domains, and the paradoxes of Dempster–Shafer theory.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Computational theorist Leslie Valiant uses the term "ecorithms" to describe how many less exact systems and techniques like fuzzy logic (and "less robust" logic) can be applied to learning algorithms. Valiant essentially redefines machine learning as evolutionary. In general use, ecorithms are algorithms that learn from their more complex environments (hence "eco-") to generalize, approximate and simplify solution logic. Like fuzzy logic, they are methods used to overcome continuous variables or systems too complex to completely enumerate or understand discretely or exactly. Ecorithms and fuzzy logic also have the common property of dealing with possibilities more than probabilities, although feedback and feed forward, basically stochastic weights, are a feature of both when dealing with, for example, dynamical systems.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Another logical system where truth values are real numbers between 0 and 1 and where AND & OR operators are replaced with MIN and MAX is Gödel's G logic. This logic has many similarities with fuzzy logic but defines negation differently and has an internal implication. Negation formula_7 and implication formula_8 are defined as follows:


title: Fuzzy logic

text: which turns the resulting logical system into a model for intuitionistic logic, making it particularly well-behaved among all possible choices of logical systems with real numbers between 0 and 1 as truth values. In this case, implication may be interpreted as "x is less true than y" and negation as "x is less true than 0" or "x is strictly false", and for any formula_10 and formula_11, we have that formula_12. In particular, in Gödel logic negation is no longer an involution and double negation maps any nonzero value to 1.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Compensatory fuzzy logic (CFL) is a branch of fuzzy logic with modified rules for conjunction and disjunction. When the truth value of one component of a conjunction or disjunction is increased or decreased, the other component is decreased or increased to compensate. This increase or decrease in truth value may be offset by the increase or decrease in another component. An offset may be blocked when certain thresholds are met. Proponents claim that CFL allows for better computational semantic behaviors and mimic natural language.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: According to Jesús Cejas Montero (2011) The Compensatory fuzzy logic consists of four continuous operators: conjunction (c); disjunction (d); fuzzy strict order (or); and negation (n). The conjunction is the geometric mean and its dual as conjunctive and disjunctive operators.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: The IEEE 1855, the IEEE STANDARD 1855–2016, is about a specification language named Fuzzy Markup Language (FML) developed by the IEEE Standards Association. FML allows modelling a fuzzy logic system in a human-readable and hardware independent way. FML is based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML). The designers of fuzzy systems with FML have a unified and high-level methodology for describing interoperable fuzzy systems. IEEE STANDARD 1855–2016 uses the W3C XML Schema definition language to define the syntax and semantics of the FML programs.


title: Fuzzy logic

text: Prior to the introduction of FML, fuzzy logic practitioners could exchange information about their fuzzy algorithms by adding to their software functions the ability to read, correctly parse, and store the result of their work in a form compatible with the Fuzzy Control Language (FCL) described and specified by Part 7 of IEC 61131.


title: Nigella sativa

text: Nigella sativa (black caraway, also known as black cumin, nigella, kalonji or siyahdaneh) is an annual flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, native to eastern Europe (Bulgaria and Romania) and Western Asia (Cyprus, Turkey, Iran and Iraq), but naturalized over a much wider area, including parts of Europe, northern Africa and east to Myanmar.


title: Nigella sativa

text: The genus name "Nigella" is a diminutive of the Latin 'black', referring to the seed color. The specific epithet "sativa" means 'cultivated'.


title: Nigella sativa

text: In English, "N. sativa" and its seed are variously called black caraway, black seed, black cumin, fennel flower, nigella, nutmeg flower, Roman coriander, and "kalonji".


title: Nigella sativa

text: "N. sativa" grows to tall, with finely divided, linear (but not thread-like) leaves. The flowers are delicate, and usually coloured pale blue and white, with five to ten petals. The fruit is a large and inflated capsule composed of three to seven united follicles, each containing numerous seeds which are used as spice, sometimes as a replacement for black cumin ("Bunium bulbocastanum").


title: Nigella sativa

text: In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration classifies "Nigella sativa" L. (black cumin, black caraway) as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) for use as a spice, natural seasoning, or flavouring. The seeds of "N. sativa" are used as a spice in many cuisines. In Palestine, the seeds are ground to make bitter qizha paste.


title: Nigella sativa

text: The dry-roasted seeds flavour curries, vegetables, and pulses. They can be used as a seasoning in recipes with pod fruit, vegetables, salads, and poultry. In some cultures, the black seeds are used to flavour bread products, and are used as part of the spice mixture "panch phoron" (meaning a mixture of five spices) and alone in many recipes in Bengali cuisine and most recognizably in "naan". "Nigella" is also used in tresse cheese, a braided string cheese called "majdouleh" or "majdouli" in the Middle East.


title: Nigella sativa

text: Archaeological evidence about the earliest cultivation of "N. sativa" dates back three millennia, with "N. sativa" seeds found in several sites from ancient Egypt, including Tutankhamun's tomb. Seeds were found in a Hittite flask in Turkey from the second millennium BC.


title: Nigella sativa

text: "N. sativa" may have been used as a condiment of the Old World to flavour food. The Muslim Persian physician Avicenna in his "Canon of Medicine" described "N. sativa" as a treatment for dyspnea. "N. sativa" was used in the Middle East as a traditional medicine.


title: Nigella sativa

text: Oils are 32% to 40% of the total composition of "N. sativa" seeds. "N. sativa" oil contains linoleic acid, oleic acid, palmitic acid, and "trans"-anethole, and other minor constituents, such as nigellicine, nigellidine, nigellimine, and nigellimine N-oxide. Aromatics include thymoquinone, dihydrothymoquinone, "p"-cymene, carvacrol, α-thujene, thymol, α-pinene, β-pinene and "trans"-anethole. Protein and various alkaloids are present in the seeds.


title: Nigella sativa

text: One meta-analysis of clinical trials found weak evidence that "N. sativa" has a short-term benefit on lowering systolic and diastolic blood pressure, with limited evidence that various extracts of black seed can reduce triglycerides and LDL and total cholesterol, while raising HDL cholesterol. Despite considerable use of "N. sativa" in traditional medicine practices in Africa and Asia, there is insufficient high-quality clinical evidence to indicate that consuming the seeds or oil provides any benefit to human health.


title: Wonderwall (song)

text: "Wonderwall" is a song by English rock band Oasis. It was written by Noel Gallagher. The song was produced by Gallagher and Owen Morris for the band's second studio album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?", released in 1995. According to Gallagher, "Wonderwall" describes "an imaginary friend who's gonna come and save you from yourself".


title: Wonderwall (song)

text: The song was released as the fourth single from the album on 30 October 1995. "Wonderwall" topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand and reached the top 10 in 13 other counties, including Canada and the United States at 5 and No. 8, respectively, as well as No. 2 on both the UK Singles Chart and the Irish Singles Chart. The single was certified sextuple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry and gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.


title: Wonderwall (song)

text: It remains one of the band's most popular songs, and was voted No. 1 on the Australian alternative music radio station Triple J's "20 Years of the Hottest 100" in 2013. Many artists have also covered the song, such as Ryan Adams, Cat Power, and Brad Mehldau. In October 2020, it became the first song from the 1990s to reach one billion streams on Spotify.


title: Wonderwall (song)

text: The song was originally titled "Wishing Stone". Gallagher told "NME" in 1996 that "Wonderwall" was written for Meg Mathews, his then-girlfriend and later wife. However, after Gallagher and Mathews divorced in 2001, he said the song was not about her: "The meaning of that song was taken away from me by the media who jumped on it, and how do you tell your Mrs it's not about her once she's read it is? It's a song about an imaginary friend who's gonna come and save you from yourself." The song's final title was inspired by George Harrison's solo album "Wonderwall Music".


title: Wonderwall (song)

text: The song was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, during a two-week recording of the "Morning Glory" album in May 1995. Morris produced the song in a half-day along with Gallagher, using a technique known as "brickwalling" to intensify the sound of the song. Liam Gallagher served as lead singer on the song after Noel had given him a choice between "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger", another single from the album, with Noel singing lead vocals on the latter. All of the band's members except bassist Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan contributed to the recording, with Noel playing bass instead of McGuigan. This decision displeased Liam, who told Morris, "That's not Oasis."


title: Wonderwall (song)

text: "Wonderwall" is written in the key of F minor and is set in common time with a moderate dance groove. Gallagher's voice ranges from an E to an F in the song.


title: Wonderwall (song)

text: Noel Gallagher debuted the song on UK television backstage at Glastonbury, and it was broadcast on Channel 4 on 24 June 1995. The song was not performed by the band during their headline performance the night before. The song went on to be regularly played on the (What's the Story) Morning Glory? Tour where it was typically played and sung solo by Noel acoustically. On occasions however (including the Maine Road and Knebworth gigs) it was played full band acoustically with Liam on vocals. The song was also regularly played on both the Be Here Now Tour and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants Tour, performances on these tours featured the full band on electric guitars with Liam on vocals.


title: Wonderwall (song)

text: For the Heathen Chemistry Tour, Noel changed the arrangement of his live performances of the song to a style he admitted was heavily influenced by Ryan Adams' cover. For the Don't Believe the Truth Tour, the original arrangement was used for live performances by the full band with electric guitars and Liam on vocals. During the 2008 tour, the band returned to performing the song in a semi-acoustic form, in an arrangement closely resembling the album version. This song was also performed during the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony by Liam Gallagher and his post Oasis band Beady Eye.


title: Wonderwall (song)

text: Since Oasis split up, both Noel and Liam have continued to play the song as part of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and Liam's solo career, respectively. Both have often varied the presentation of the song, sometimes being performed in stripped down acoustic versions, whilst other times more full band arrangements have been performed.