title: Kennedy Center Honors

text: Pianist Vladimir Horowitz was to be an honoree, but the selection committee withdrew the offer when Horowitz conditioned his acceptance on being honored alone and at 4 in the afternoon.


title: Kennedy Center Honors

text: Doris Day repeatedly turned down the honor because her fear of flying prevented her from attending the ceremony.


title: Kennedy Center Honors

text: When considering Irving Berlin for the 1987 awards because of criticism for overlooking him, the center was informed that Berlin wanted to be honored only if he surpassed his 100th birthday (which would not be until May 1988). Also, he was in failing health, used a wheelchair following a series of strokes and could not attend a public event. The Center chose instead to pay special tribute to him at the 1987 Gala. He died in 1989.


title: Kennedy Center Honors

text: Paul McCartney was selected as an honoree in 2002, but was unable to attend due to an "inescapable personal obligation", his cousin's previously planned wedding. After initially saying that McCartney's award would be postponed until the following year, the Kennedy Center did not award McCartney in 2003. McCartney later became a 2010 honoree.


title: Kennedy Center Honors

text: Mel Brooks has stated that he refused the honor when George W. Bush was in office, due to his distaste for Bush's Iraq policy. He was honored in 2009, the first year Barack Obama was president.


title: Kennedy Center Honors

text: In November 2015, one month before the actual ceremony, the Eagles postponed their honors until the following year because Glenn Frey had intestinal problems that required major surgery and a long recovery period. Despite their absence, they were still honored in 2015 via a performance of "Desperado" by country singer Miranda Lambert. Frey died on January 18, 2016, although the center made him and the three surviving members 2016 honorees.


title: Kennedy Center Honors

text: In 2017, Norman Lear accepted the honor, but boycotted the White House ceremony because of his opposition to President Donald Trump, citing Trump's proposal to end the National Endowments for the Humanities and for the Arts. Lear did attend the 2017 events and ceremony, but Donald and Melania Trump were not present, becoming the first U.S. presidential couple to skip the event, in order "to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction".


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: The Moonlite BunnyRanch is a legal, licensed brothel in Mound House, Nevada, United States, east of Carson City. First opened in 1955, it came to national attention under Dennis Hof, who owned the brothel from 1992 until his death in 2018.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: The brothel, now known as the Moonlite BunnyRanch, first opened in 1955 as the Moonlight Ranch. There is a historical marker on the premises, found just inside of the property's original main gate, as the ranch is located near a stop on the original Pony Express. It operated discreetly until 1971, when Nevada began regulation of houses of prostitution. Dennis Hof, a frequent customer, purchased the business in 1992 for $700,000 and invested another $500,000 in upgrading the facilities and decor.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: Dennis Hof subsequently purchased another nearby brothel, then known as Madame Kitty's Fantasy Ranch, located about one mile (1.6 km) away. To better capitalize on the BunnyRanch brand name, he rechristened it BunnyRanch Two in 2004. In June 2008, Hof renamed it again: The Love Ranch.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: Jesse Ventura, former professional wrestler and Governor of Minnesota, wrote in his 1999 autobiography "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed" that he visited the BunnyRanch in the 1970s, had sex there, and received $10 in return for a belt he had made of empty rifle shell casings.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: In July 2003, Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil was charged with battery after a sex worker at the ranch alleged that he grabbed her around the throat and threw her against a wall.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: In February 2009, a new main entrance to the Moonlite BunnyRanch with direct access to U.S. 50 opened to traffic. Constructed by the Nevada Department of Transportation as a business access road, the new street was officially named BunnyRanch Boulevard by Lyon County.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: In early 2009, due to the recession, State Senator Bob Coffin (D) proposed legalizing prostitution statewide for tax purposes. Hof was prominently featured in a number of media reports saying he would expand into Las Vegas given the opportunity. However, the Nevada lawmakers refused to consider the proposal of statewide legal prostitution during that legislative session.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: In May 2017, a man backed a stolen semi-trailer truck through the front door of the brothel, causing extensive damages, but no injuries.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: Hof died on October 16, 2018. As of February 2020, company madam and financial officer Suzette Cole runs the brothel as trustee of Hof's estate.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: The State of Nevada shut down all brothels in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sex workers at the BunnyRanch sued Governor Steve Sisolak in October, asking that the brothel be re-opened or that remote work be allowed.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: The Moonlite BunnyRanch was featured on HBO's "America Undercover" show specials, "Cathouse" (2002) and "Cathouse 2: Back in the Saddle" (2003). This led to the series "", airing in two seasons in 2005 and 2007. "Air Force Amy" was featured in HBO's documentaries "Cathouse" (2002), "Cathouse 2" (2003) and "" (2005), about Nevada's Moonlite Bunny Ranch. She was called "the all-time top earner" and "the master of the game". The "She's Got Game" episode (2005) included a personal profile of her. She also appeared in the 2004 BBC television program "The Brothel", on the same subject, and the 2005 documentary "Pornstar Pets". The ranch was also featured as a supposedly "haunted house" in an episode of "Proof Positive" and is frequently mentioned on the "Howard Stern Show", usually to announce that another porn star has started to work there.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: In 2008, Moonlite BunnyRanch sex worker Brooke Taylor was featured in the web series "Who's Sleeping with Your Husband", speaking candidly about the reasons she believes men visit brothels and revealing the most popular menu items.


title: Moonlite BunnyRanch

text: In September 2008, a 22-year-old woman calling herself Natalie Dylan announced on "The Howard Stern Show" that she would auction off her virginity on the BunnyRanch website, and that the act would be consummated at the ranch. While Dylan's sister had worked at the BunnyRanch two years prior, Dylan insisted her sibling had nothing to do with her decision, saying "My sister definitely didn't pressure me into doing this". A recent women's studies graduate from Sacramento State, Dylan planned to use the money to finance graduate school and said, "I feel empowered because I am being pro-choice with my body." She retained the right to reject the winner of the auction and pick another bidder, claiming that several bids had exceeded $1 million. Dennis Hof was to receive half of the winning bid. A news report in May 2010 suggested that the episode may have been a hoax, although Hof insisted it was not. Hof later indicated the transaction was never consummated, stating, "It didn't work out, but she still made $250,000 out of the deal."


title: Absolute value

text: In mathematics, the absolute value or modulus of a real number formula_1, is the non-negative value without regard to its sign. Namely, formula_2 if is a positive number, and formula_3 if formula_1 is negative (in which case negating formula_1 makes formula_6 positive), and For example, the absolute value of 3 and the absolute value of −3 is The absolute value of a number may be thought of as its distance from zero.


title: Absolute value

text: Generalisations of the absolute value for real numbers occur in a wide variety of mathematical settings. For example, an absolute value is also defined for the complex numbers, the quaternions, ordered rings, fields and vector spaces. The absolute value is closely related to the notions of magnitude, distance, and norm in various mathematical and physical contexts.


title: Absolute value

text: In 1806, Jean-Robert Argand introduced the term "module", meaning "unit of measure" in French, specifically for the "complex" absolute value, and it was borrowed into English in 1866 as the Latin equivalent "modulus". The term "absolute value" has been used in this sense from at least 1806 in French and 1857 in English. The notation , with a vertical bar on each side, was introduced by Karl Weierstrass in 1841. Other names for "absolute value" include "numerical value" and "magnitude". In programming languages and computational software packages, the absolute value of "x" is generally represented by codice_1, or a similar expression.


title: Absolute value

text: The vertical bar notation also appears in a number of other mathematical contexts: for example, when applied to a set, it denotes its cardinality; when applied to a matrix, it denotes its determinant. Vertical bars denote the absolute value only for algebraic objects for which the notion of an absolute value is defined, notably an element of a normed division algebra, for example a real number, a complex number, or a quaternion. A closely related but distinct notation is the use of vertical bars for either the Euclidean norm or sup norm of a vector although double vertical bars with subscripts respectively) are a more common and less ambiguous notation.


title: Absolute value

text: For any the absolute value or modulus is denoted , with a vertical bar on each side of the quantity, and is defined as


title: Absolute value

text: The absolute value is thus always either a positive number or zero, but never negative. When formula_1 itself is negative then its absolute value is necessarily positive


title: Absolute value

text: From an analytic geometry point of view, the absolute value of a real number is that number's distance from zero along the real number line, and more generally the absolute value of the difference of two real numbers (their absolute difference) is the distance between them. The notion of an abstract distance function in mathematics can be seen to be a generalisation of the absolute value of the difference (see "Distance" below).


title: Absolute value

text: Since the square root symbol represents the unique "positive" square root, when applied to a positive number, it follows that


title: Absolute value

text: This is equivalent to the definition above, and may be used as an alternative definition of the absolute value of real numbers.


title: Absolute value

text: The absolute value has the following four fundamental properties ("a", "b" are real numbers), that are used for generalization of this notion to other domains:


title: Absolute value

text: Non-negativity, positive definiteness, and multiplicativity are readily apparent from the definition. To see that subadditivity holds, first note that formula_10 with its sign chosen to make the result positive. Now, since formula_11 it follows that, whichever of formula_12 is the value one has formula_13 for all Consequently, formula_14, as desired.


title: Absolute value

text: Some additional useful properties are given below. These are either immediate consequences of the definition or implied by the four fundamental properties above.


title: Absolute value

text: The absolute value, as "distance from zero", is used to define the absolute difference between arbitrary real numbers, the standard metric on the real numbers.


title: Absolute value

text: Since the complex numbers are not ordered, the definition given at the top for the real absolute value cannot be directly applied to complex numbers. However, the geometric interpretation of the absolute value of a real number as its distance from 0 can be generalised. The absolute value of a complex number is defined by the Euclidean distance of its corresponding point in the complex plane from the origin. This can be computed using the Pythagorean theorem: for any complex number


title: Absolute value

text: the Pythagorean addition of formula_1 and formula_17, where formula_21 and formula_22 denote the real and imaginary parts respectively. When the is zero, this coincides with the definition of the absolute value of the


title: Absolute value

text: Since the product of any complex number formula_23 and its with the same absolute value, is always the non-negative real number the absolute value of a complex number formula_23 is the square root which is therefore called the absolute square or "squared modulus"


title: Absolute value

text: The complex absolute value shares the four fundamental properties given above for the real absolute value. The identity formula_27 is a special case of multiplicativity that is often useful by itself.


title: Absolute value

text: The real absolute value function is continuous everywhere. It is differentiable everywhere except for . It is monotonically decreasing on the interval and monotonically increasing on the interval . Since a real number and its opposite have the same absolute value, it is an even function, and is hence not invertible. The real absolute value function is a piecewise linear, convex function.


title: Absolute value

text: For both real and complex numbers the absolute value function is idempotent (meaning that the absolute value of any absolute value is itself).


title: Absolute value

text: The absolute value function of a real number returns its value irrespective of its sign, whereas the sign (or signum) function returns a number's sign irrespective of its value. The following equations show the relationship between these two functions:


title: Absolute value

text: The real absolute value function has a derivative for every , but is not differentiable at . Its derivative for is given by the step function:


title: Absolute value

text: The real absolute value function is an example of a continuous function that achieves a global minimum where the derivative does not exist.


title: Absolute value

text: The complex absolute value function is continuous everywhere but complex differentiable "nowhere" because it violates the Cauchy–Riemann equations.


title: Absolute value

text: The second derivative of  with respect to  is zero everywhere except zero, where it does not exist. As a generalised function, the second derivative may be taken as two times the Dirac delta function.


title: Absolute value

text: where is an arbitrary constant of integration. This is not a complex antiderivative because complex antiderivatives can only exist for complex-differentiable (holomorphic) functions, which the complex absolute value function is not.


title: Absolute value

text: The absolute value is closely related to the idea of distance. As noted above, the absolute value of a real or complex number is the distance from that number to the origin, along the real number line, for real numbers, or in the complex plane, for complex numbers, and more generally, the absolute value of the difference of two real or complex numbers is the distance between them.


title: Absolute value

text: This can be seen as a generalisation, since for formula_36 and formula_37 real, i.e. in a 1-space, according to the alternative definition of the absolute value,


title: Absolute value

text: The above shows that the "absolute value"-distance, for real and complex numbers, agrees with the standard Euclidean distance, which they inherit as a result of considering them as one and two-dimensional Euclidean spaces, respectively.


title: Absolute value

text: The properties of the absolute value of the difference of two real or complex numbers: non-negativity, identity of indiscernibles, symmetry and the triangle inequality given above, can be seen to motivate the more general notion of a distance function as follows:


title: Absolute value

text: A real valued function on a set is called a metric (or a "distance function") on , if it satisfies the following four axioms:


title: Absolute value

text: The definition of absolute value given for real numbers above can be extended to any ordered ring. That is, if  is an element of an ordered ring "R", then the absolute value of , denoted by , is defined to be:


title: Absolute value

text: where is the additive inverse of , 0 is the additive identity, and < and ≥ have the usual meaning with respect to the ordering in the ring.


title: Absolute value

text: The four fundamental properties of the absolute value for real numbers can be used to generalise the notion of absolute value to an arbitrary field, as follows.


title: Absolute value

text: A real-valued function  on a field  is called an "absolute value" (also a "modulus", "magnitude", "value", or "valuation") if it satisfies the following four axioms:


title: Absolute value

text: Where 0 denotes the additive identity of . It follows from positive-definiteness and multiplicativity that , where 1 denotes the multiplicative identity of . The real and complex absolute values defined above are examples of absolute values for an arbitrary field.


title: Absolute value

text: If is an absolute value on , then the function  on , defined by , is a metric and the following are equivalent:


title: Absolute value

text: An absolute value which satisfies any (hence all) of the above conditions is said to be non-Archimedean, otherwise it is said to be Archimedean.


title: Absolute value

text: Again the fundamental properties of the absolute value for real numbers can be used, with a slight modification, to generalise the notion to an arbitrary vector space.


title: Absolute value

text: A real-valued function on a vector space  over a field , represented as , is called an absolute value, but more usually a norm, if it satisfies the following axioms:


title: Absolute value

text: is a norm called the Euclidean norm. When the real numbers formula_52 are considered as the one-dimensional vector space formula_53, the absolute value is a norm, and is the -norm (see L space) for any . In fact the absolute value is the "only" norm on formula_53, in the sense that, for every norm on formula_53, .


title: Absolute value

text: The complex absolute value is a special case of the norm in an inner product space, which is identical to the Euclidean norm when the complex plane is identified as the Euclidean plane formula_56.


title: Absolute value

text: Every composition algebra "A" has an involution "x" → "x"* called its conjugation. The product in "A" of an element "x" and its conjugate "x"* is written "N"("x") = "x x"* and called the norm of x.


title: Absolute value

text: The real numbers formula_52, complex numbers formula_58, and quaternions formula_59 are all composition algebras with norms given by definite quadratic forms. The absolute value in these division algebras is given by the square root of the composition algebra norm.


title: Absolute value

text: In general the norm of a composition algebra may be a quadratic form that is not definite and has null vectors. However, as in the case of division algebras, when an element "x" has a non-zero norm, then "x" has a multiplicative inverse given by "x"*/"N"("x").


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: Susan Tedeschi (; born November 9, 1970) is an American singer and guitarist. A multiple Grammy Award nominee, she is a member of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, a conglomeration of her band, her husband Derek Trucks’ and other musicians.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: Tedeschi was born on November 9, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts, to a family of Italian ancestry and was raised in Norwell, Massachusetts. She is the daughter of Dick Tedeschi, granddaughter of Nick Tedeschi and great-granddaughter of Angelo Tedeschi, founder of Tedeschi Food Shops, a New England-based supermarket and convenience store chain. Tedeschi made her public debut as a six-year-old understudy in a Broadway musical. As a youth she sang for family members and listened to her father's record collection of old vinyl recordings of musicians such as Mississippi John Hurt and Lightnin' Hopkins. Raised as a Catholic, she found little inspiration in the church choir and attended predominantly African-American Baptist churches, feeling that the music was "less repressed and more like a celebration of God." In bands since the age of 13, she formed her first all-original group at 18, the Smokin' Section, in the nearby town of Scituate.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: After graduating Norwell High School, Tedeschi attended the Berklee College of Music, where she sang in a Gospel choir. She performed show tunes on the "Spirit of Boston" and received her Bachelor of Music degree in musical composition and performance at age 20. During that time, she began sitting in on blues jams at local venues and immersed herself in the Boston music scene.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: Tedeschi formed the Susan Tedeschi Band in 1993, with Tom Hambridge and Adrienne Hayes. She learned how to play blues guitar in Boston from musician Tim Gearan in 1995. In December 1993, the band released "Better Days" to regional audiences. Record contracts were difficult to keep together; however, recording sessions from 1997 were acquired by Richard Rosenblatt and the band was signed to indie label Tone-Cool Records. "Just Won't Burn", featuring young guitarist Sean Costello, was released in February 1998 to very positive reviews, particularly from blues critics and publications.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: Tedeschi was the first artist to play Michele Clark's first Sunset Sessions in March 1998 at the Marriott Hotels & Resorts in the US Virgin Islands.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: In 1999, Tedeschi played several dates in the all-woman traveling festival Lilith Fair organized by Sarah McLachlan. Throughout 1998 and 1999, she extensively toured the United States and drew larger crowds.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: Eventually, Tedeschi was opening for John Mellencamp, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, The Allman Brothers Band, Taj Mahal and Bob Dylan. In 2000, "Just Won't Burn" (1998) reached Gold record status for sales of 500,000 in the United States, rare for a blues production. She recorded two tracks with Double Trouble band members Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon for their album.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: She opened for The Rolling Stones in 2003 and played in huge venues, gaining national exposure. Somewhat surprisingly, the gig wasn't financially lucrative. According to Tedeschi, "They pay, but it's not great. I don't make any money 'cause I've got to pay all my sidemen. I'll be lucky if I break even."


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: In 2004, Tedeschi was featured on the PBS television program "Austin City Limits" with William Green on Hammond organ, Jason Crosby on keyboards, violin, and vocals, Ron Perry on bass, and Jeff Sipe on drums.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: While in New Orleans opening for the Allman Brothers Band on their 1999 summer tour, Tedeschi met Derek Trucks, the band's slide guitarist and bandleader and lead guitarist of The Derek Trucks Band. In addition to a personal relationship, Tedeschi and Trucks then toured together frequently under the name Soul Stew Revival. This included members of The Derek Trucks Band, members of Tedeschi's band, and other musicians who travelled with them, including Trucks' younger brother, drummer Duane Trucks. In 2008, they added a three-piece horn section.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: In 2010, Tedeschi and Trucks announced a hiatus for their solo bands, and formed a new group called Tedeschi Trucks Band. The group performed at a number of festivals including Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, Fuji Rock Festival and others. Unlike their previous collaborative project – Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi's Soul Stew Revival – the Tedeschi Trucks Band focuses on writing and performing original material, and is the focus of both Trucks and Tedeschi for the foreseeable future.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: "Layla Revisited (Live at LOCKN')" was announced on May 7, 2021. The album is a one-time live recording of the Derek and The Dominos album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" performed in full with Trey Anastasio. Recorded on August 24, 2019 at the LOCKN' Festival in Arrington, VA, the album was released on July 16, 2021.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: On December 5, 2001, Tedeschi married Derek Trucks. They have two children: Charles Kahlil Trucks, born in March 2002, is named for saxophonist Charlie Parker, guitarist Charlie Christian, and author Kahlil Gibran. Sophia Naima Trucks, born in 2004, takes her middle name from the ballad composed by John Coltrane, in honor of his first wife. They reside in Jacksonville, Florida.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: Tedeschi arranged the Berklee scholarship that was awarded to Adrianne Lenker, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the Grammy-nominated rock band Big Thief.


title: Susan Tedeschi

text: Tedeschi's voice has been described as a blend of Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin, both of whom she claims as influences. Her guitar playing is influenced by Buddy Guy, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Freddie King and Doyle Bramhall II. On the album "Just Won't Burn" (1998), she lists a multitude of inspirations from various genres. This list includes Irma Thomas, Etta James, Bob Marley, Toots Hibbert, Aretha Franklin, Otis Rush, Ronnie Earl, Otis Clay, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Dennis Montgomery III, Orville Wright, Walter Beasley, Kenya Hathaway, and Mahalia Jackson.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Aaron Brooking Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as a founding member of the rock band the National, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums; a co-founder of the indie rock duo Big Red Machine, teaming with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon; and a collaborator on Taylor Swift's studio albums "Folklore" and "Evermore", both of which contended for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2021 and 2022, respectively, with the former winning the accolade.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Dessner has co-written, produced or co-produced songs by Taylor Swift, Michael Stipe, Gracie Abrams, Frightened Rabbit, Ben Howard, Sharon Van Etten, Local Natives, This Is the Kit, Adia Victoria, Lisa Hannigan, and Lone Bellow, amongst others. Working alongside his twin brother Bryce, the pair curated and produced the charity compilations, "Dark Was the Night" (2009) and "Day of the Dead" (2016), for the Red Hot Organization. Dessner co-founded and curates three music festivals: Eaux Claires in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, alongside his Big Red Machine partner Vernon; HAVEN in Copenhagen with his brother Bryce, and Boston Calling Music Festival.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: On May 19, 2022, alongside Questlove, Dessner was awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts honoris causa from The University of the Arts, for “his eagerness to seek out opportunities, to really be a thoughtful collaborator, and someone who would encourage every single student at UArts to explore with their peers across disciplines, new opportunities, and new ideas.”


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Dessner was raised as Jewish and has Polish Jewish and Russian Jewish ancestry. Dessner has said that his Jewish background influences his music: "My brother and I have always been fascinated by liturgical religious melodies in Judaism ... I don’t like major chords. I like the meditative patterns in certain prayers, and I like music that repeats itself." Dessner attended high school at Cincinnati Country Day School and graduated in 1994. Dessner went on to study Modern European History at Columbia University.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Aaron Dessner and his twin brother Bryce were childhood friends with Bryan Devendorf. In 1998, after Dessner's earlier band, Project Nim, broke up, Devendorf invited the brothers to join his band the National. With Devendorf and the Dessner brothers were Scott Devendorf, Bryan's older brother, and Matt Berninger. The band's self-titled first album was released in 2001 on Brassland Records, a label Dessner co-founded along with his brother Bryce and Alec Hanley Bemis. The band's second album, "Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers", was released in 2003, also on Brassland. After some critical success with "Sad Songs", the band signed with Beggars Banquet Records. With the new label, they released their third studio album, "Alligator", in 2005. The album received a positive response from critics, which exposed the band to a larger audience. In 2007, the band released their fourth album, "Boxer", also through Beggars Banquet. Upon release, the album received widespread critical acclaim, and was named to "album of the year" lists. Several songs from the album appeared in TV shows and movies. In 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama used an instrumental version of the song "Fake Empire" in a presidential campaign video.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Following the success of "Boxer", the band began collaborating with other artists on various songs and compilation albums. In 2009, the band participated in "Dark Was the Night", a charity album to benefit the Red Hot Organization. That same year, they recorded a song for the album "", to help support Polaris frontman Mark Mulcahy who had recently lost his wife. In 2010, the band released "High Violet", their fifth full-length album. The album saw both critical and commercial success, debuting at No. 3 on US charts, and going on to sell over 850,000 copies worldwide. The band followed up "High Violet" by releasing their sixth album, "Trouble Will Find Me", on May 21, 2013 via 4AD. Like their previous two efforts, "Trouble" was named to several year-end best-of lists. The album was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 56th Grammy Awards. Later that year, Dessner and the rest of the band were featured in the documentary "Mistaken for Strangers", which followed the band's tour for "High Violet" and early recording of "Trouble". In 2017, the band released "Sleep Well Beast", their seventh full-length album. The lead single from the album, "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness", became the band's first song to reach No. 1 on a "Billboards" chart after topping the Adult Alternative Songs list in August that same year.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Dessner has production credits on all of the band's albums since "Alligator". The majority of both "High Violet" and "Trouble Will Find Me" were recorded in his garage studio behind his house in Brooklyn, and "Alligator" and "Boxer" were partially recorded in his attic and in his sister's attic, which is on the same street in Brooklyn. Most recently, he produced "Sleep Well Beast" and "I Am Easy To Find" in his upstate New York studio, Long Pond.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: In 2008, Dessner sent Justin Vernon an instrumental sketch of a song called "Big Red Machine" for the compilation album "Dark Was the Night". Vernon wrote a song to it, interpreting the Big Red Machine title as a heart. After 10 years, the pair formed a band called Big Red Machine, and on August 31, 2018, released a self-titled album. The record was produced by Vernon and Dessner with longtime collaborator Brad Cook and engineered by Jonathan Low primarily at Dessner's studio Long Pond in Upper Hudson Valley, New York.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: The duo released a second studio album "How Long Do You Think Its Gonna Last?" on August 27, 2021. The album was produced by Dessner and featured many guests and many of his previous collaborators, including Ben Howard, Sharon Van Etten, and Taylor Swift.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Dessner worked with singer Sharon Van Etten on her album, "Tramp" (2012). Van Etten and Dessner spent over fourteen months working in his studio, finally releasing the album to widespread critical success. Dessner produced Local Natives' second full-length album "Hummingbird", in 2013. Dessner was first introduced to the band while on tour with the National. "Hummingbird" received positive reviews, and "Pitchfork" praised Dessner's production work especially, saying that he "knows how to make things sound "good", and there's plenty of richness and depth to these songs." Dessner produced the Lone Bellow's "Then Came the Morning," which was recorded in Dessner's garage as well as in a 19th-century church in upstate New York. The album was released in January 2015 on Descendent Records. That same year, he worked with This Is the Kit for their album "Bashed Out", which was released through Dessner's Brassland Records.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: In 2016, Dessner produced Lisa Hannigan's album "At Swim". The album reached No. 1 in Ireland, No. 7 on the US Top Heatseekers Albums chart and No. 24 in the UK, and received widespread critical acclaim. "The Guardian", which awarded it four out of five stars, commented on the album's "stunningly pretty songs with quietly powerful undertones" and the "Evening Standard", which also awarded it four out of five stars, praised the "new-found accessibility" of the album. Frightened Rabbit's fifth album "Painting of a Panic Attack", released in 2016 via Atlantic Records, was also produced by Dessner. Dessner produced the Lone Bellow's 2020 album "Half Moon Light" and co-wrote several tracks on it. He also co-wrote and produced the acclaimed debut of UK songwriter Eve Owen, "Don't Let the Ink Dry", released in 2020.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dessner was approached by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift to collaborate on music. Dessner subsequently produced and co-wrote her eighth studio album, "Folklore". It was a surprise release that debuted to critical acclaim on July 24, 2020 and won Album of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021. Dessner continued his collaboration with Swift on her ninth studio and second surprise album, "Evermore", released later that year on December 11. Dessner's production involvement with Swift continued through her process of re-recording her back catalogue, beginning with "Fearless (Taylor's Version)", the 2021 re-recording of Swift's 2008 album, "Fearless" and continuing with "Red (Taylor's Version)", the 2021 re-recording of her 2012 album, "Red". After the release of "Folklore, " and "Evermore", artists such as Maya Hawke, Gracie Abrams, Ed Sheeran, King Princess, and Girl in Red desired to collaborate with Dessner and record songs at his Long Pond Studio. Dessner stated, "After Taylor, it was a bit crazy how many people reached out. And getting to meet and write songs with people you wouldn’t have had access to… I’m so grateful for it."


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Dessner also co-produced British singer-songwriter Ben Howard's fourth studio album, "Collections from the Whiteout", alongside Howard himself, which was released on March 26, 2021. Additionally, Dessner produced "Day of the Dead", which was released in 2016, and "Dark Was the Night", both of which are AIDS charity compilations for the Red Hot Organization; and Doveman's 2009 release "The Conformist".


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Dessner and his brother Bryce co-composed the score for "Transpecos", which won the Audience Award at the 2016 South by Southwest. They also worked together on the score for 2013 film "Big Sur", an adaptation of the 1962 novel of the same name by Jack Kerouac. The film debuted on January 23, 2013, at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received positive reviews. In 2021, together with his brother, Dessner scored two films - Mike Mills' C'mon C'mon and Cyrano.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: On March 17, 2016, Aaron and Bryce Dessner announced "Day of the Dead", a charity tribute album to the Grateful Dead released by 4AD on May 20, 2016. "Day of the Dead" was created, curated and produced by both Dessner brothers. The compilation is a wide-ranging tribute to the songwriting and experimentalism of the Dead which took four years to record, features over 60 artists from varied musical backgrounds, 59 tracks and is almost 6 hours long. All profits will help fight for AIDS/ HIV and related health issues around the world through the Red Hot Organization. "Day of the Dead" is the follow up to 2009's "Dark Was the Night" (4AD), a 32-track, multi-artist compilation also produced by the Dessner brothers for Red Hot.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: "Day of the Dead" features collaborations and recordings from a diverse group of artists including Wilco, Flaming Lips, Bruce Hornsby, Justin Vernon, the National, the War on Drugs, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, Jenny Lewis, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Perfume Genius, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Senegalese collective Orchestra Baobob, composer Terry Riley and his son Gyan Riley, electronic artist Tim Hecker, jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and Bela Fleck.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Of the 59 tracks on the compilation, many feature a house band made up of Aaron, Bryce, fellow the National bandmates and brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf, Josh Kaufman (who co-produced the project), and Conrad Doucette along with Sam Cohen and Walter Martin. The National have a couple of tracks on the album, including "Peggy-O," "Morning Dew" and "I Know You Rider".


title: Aaron Dessner

text: A Day of the Dead live performance took place in August 2016 at the second annual Eaux Claires Festival (August 12–13) featuring Jenny Lewis, Matthew Houck, Lucius, Will Oldham, Sam Amidon, Richard Reed Parry, Justin Vernon, Bruce Hornsby, Ruban Nielson and the National.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Forever Love is a collaboration between Aaron and Bryce Dessner, renowned Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson and Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, formerly of the Icelandic band múm. The project is a blending of visual and performance art with live music, all centered around a song cycle written and performed by Aaron and Bryce alongside Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir. It was commissioned by Eaux Claires Festival and made its world premiere in 2015 where it served as the official starting point of the festival on both Friday and Saturday.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Forever Love marked a live performance reunion for the Dessner twins and Kjartansson, as both artists had previously collaborated on a six-hour video work, A Lot of Sorrow, which documents the National performing their three-song "Sorrow" for six hours in front of a live audience at MoMA PS1.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: The Long Count was a large commission for the BAM Next Wave Festival in 2009. Dessner and his brother, Bryce, worked alongside visual artist Matthew Ritchie, creating a work loosely based on the Mayan creation story Popol Vuh. The work included a 12-piece orchestra and a number of guest singers, including Kim and Kelley Deal (the Breeders, the Pixies), Matt Berninger (the National), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), and Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio). The work had its world premiere at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in September 2009 as part of the Ellnora Festival. It has since been performed at BAM, the Holland Festival and the Barbican.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: In 2009, Aaron and Bryce Dessner produced an extensive AIDS charity compilation, "Dark Was the Night", for the Red Hot Organization. The record features exclusive recordings and collaborations from a long list of artists including David Byrne, the Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Feist, Sharon Jones, Cat Power, Grizzly Bear, My Morning Jacket, the Decemberists, Bon Iver, Conor Oberst, and Spoon. Dark Was the Night has raised over 2 million dollars for AIDS charities as of January 2012. In 2009, Dessner contributed a track to the Dark Was the Night compilation. This track, "Big Red Machine", was co-written with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and was also featured in the 2010 film, "Last Minutes with ODEN," a short documentary that later went on to win the overall Best Video Award at the first annual Vimeo Awards ceremony.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: On May 3, 2009, 4AD and Red Hot produced "Dark Was the Night" – Live, a concert celebrating the newest Red Hot album. The show took place at Radio City Music Hall and featured several of the artists that contributed to the compilation.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Dessner is a frequent collaborator with a wide range of musicians, including his brother and bandmate Bryce Dessner. In August 2008, Aaron and Bryce performed a collaborative concert with David Cossin, and Luca Tarantino as a part of Soundres, an international residency program for contemporary music and art in Salento, Italy and at the Guitare Au Palais Festival Perpignan France. They also performed at Matthew Ritchie's Ghost Operator opening at the White Cube Gallery in London. Aaron and Bryce have also collaborated with many world-renowned orchestras. Most recently the brothers played with the Copenhagen Philharmonic in a concert billed as "Sixty Minutes of the Dessners." The program included "St. Carolyn by the Sea," "Lachrimae" and "Raphael," all of which were composed by Bryce Dessner. Bryce and Aaron have also performed "St. Carolyn by the Sea" and "Raphael" with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta during the Holland Festival. These performances took place at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam and Muziekgebouw Frits Philips in Eindhoven. In October 2011, Dessner joined his brother to perform "St. Carolyn by the Sea" with the American Composers Orchestra at The World Financial Center in New York City.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Marshall Curry's award-winning documentary Racing Dreams includes music contributed by both Dessner and the National. "Win Win" directed by Thomas McCarthy closes with "Think You Can Wait," a track written by Dessner and Matt Berninger, recorded by the National with additional vocals from Sharon Van Etten. Dessner also played an important role in the National's contribution to the HBO show Game of Thrones. In May 2012 the National's performance of "Rains of Castamere" played during the closing credits of season two episode nine. Though the song is not an original, Dessner helped to interpret the instruments and music so that it evoked the land of Westeros.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: In March 2012, Dessner, Scott Devendorf and Bryan Devendorf teamed up with Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir for a live webcast, which featured two musical sets and a political discussion. The event was produced by Head Count, a non-partisan organization that uses live music events to promote voter registration and awareness.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: In December 2012, Dessner curated a day of Other Voices, an Irish music festival that aired live on RTÉ Two in Ireland. The performances took place in the Church of St James in Dingle, County Kerry. Dessner brought three bands to Other Voices: Luluc, This Is the Kit and Local Natives.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Aaron and Bryce also teamed up to write the musical soundtrack for Cyrano which was released in early 2022.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Eaux Claires is a music festival founded and curated by Dessner and Justin Vernon. The inaugural festival took place in July 2015 in Vernon's hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Speaking about the festival, Dessner and Vernon said they were driven by the idea that this festival would "encourage music-genre-walls to melt away."


title: Aaron Dessner

text: PEOPLE Festival is a not-for-profit gathering of artists in Berlin for a weekend-long festival of music curated and produced by Dessner along with his brother Bryce Dessner, Bon Iver, Berlin's Michelberger Hotel and others. The first festival took place October 1–2, 2016, under the name "Michelberger Music" in the Funkhaus, the historical radio recording studios of the former GDR. Prior to the festival, all the artists spent a week together in Berlin, rehearsing and working in the spaces where the shows took place. The festival featured 80 artists, including Bon Iver, Nils Frahm, Mouse on Mars' Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner, Erlend Øye, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Nova, Lisa Hannigan, Damien Rice, and many more.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Boston Calling is a music festival co-curated by Dessner. Debuting in May 2013, Boston Calling previously took place twice a year, May and September, at City Hall Plaza. Boston Calling moved to the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston in May 2017 and transitioned to one festival per year. The festival included a film component curated by Natalie Portman. Performers of past Boston Callings have included Sia, the National, Beck, My Morning Jacket, Of Monsters and Men, Fun., Kendrick Lamar, Passion Pit, Vampire Weekend, Modest Mouse, Airborne Toxic Event, and Disclosure.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry is a music festival curated by Aaron and Bryce Dessner. The festival showcases bands, composers, singer-songwriters and filmmakers from all corners of the New York music scene. The inaugural festival took place May 3–5, 2012 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and included performances by the Walkmen, St. Vincent, Beirut, the Antlers, yMusic and Jherek Bischoff, as well as newly commissioned films by Jonas Mekas, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tunde Adebimpe, among others. 2013's event took place April 25–27 at BAM and included performances by the Roots, Solange, TV on the Radio, Phosphorescent and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The event also featured a curated program of film shorts and a visual art installation by Andrew Ondrejcak.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Dessner co-founded the record label 37d03d (read: PEOPLE upside down) with Justin Vernon and Bryce Dessner. They have released albums by Big Red Machine, Bonny Light Horseman, Eve Owen, Mina Tindle, and more.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Alongside Alec Hanley Bemis and Bryce Dessner, Dessner founded Brassland Records, a label that has released albums from the National, This Is the Kit, Clogs, Doveman and Nico Muhly.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Dessner often plays a 1965 Gibson Firebird purchased on eBay and refurbished. During the "Sleep Well Beast" recording sessions, he used the Firebird as well as a 1972 Fender Telecaster. During live shows, Dessner usually plays the Firebird and a 1963 Fender Jazzmaster.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: For the "Sleep Well Beast" sessions, amplifiers used include a 1959 Fender Champ, a 1960s Fender Princeton, a 1970s Music Man, an Ampeg Gemini, and a Fender Bassman.


title: Aaron Dessner

text: Dessner grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio with his twin brother, Bryce Dessner. He graduated from Cincinnati Country Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1994 and from Columbia College at Columbia University in 1998. He and his wife have three children. Dessner is a keen soccer fan and an avid supporter of Liverpool F.C.


title: Emerson Royal

text: Emerson Aparecido Leite de Souza Junior (born 14 January 1999), known as Emerson Royal or simply Emerson, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the Brazil national team.


title: Emerson Royal

text: Emerson was born in São Paulo and was raised in Americana, São Paulo. He got his nickname "Royal" as his uncle said he resembled the mascot of the Royal-branded gelatin dessert sold in Brazil.


title: Emerson Royal

text: Emerson joined Ponte Preta's youth setup in 2014, after notably representing Palmeiras, São Paulo and Grêmio. After appearing as an unused substitute in some matches of the 2016 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, he made his senior debut on 22 February 2017, replacing injured Artur in a 2–2 Campeonato Paulista away draw against Linense. Despite being booked and conceding a penalty, he was given his first start three days later, in a 1–0 home defeat of São Bernardo.


title: Emerson Royal

text: Emerson made his Série A debut on 5 November 2017, replacing injured John Kleber in a 2–0 loss at Bahia. He contributed with three league appearances during the campaign, as his side suffered relegation.


title: Emerson Royal

text: Promoted to the first team ahead of the 2018 season, Emerson became a regular starter for "Macaca", making 14 appearances in the 2018 Campeonato Paulista. On 2 April 2018, he scored his first professional goal, the winning one in the Campeonato Paulista do Interior final against Mirassol.


title: Emerson Royal

text: On 27 April 2018, Emerson signed a five-year deal with Atlético Mineiro, for a rumoured fee of R$5 million. As a part of the deal, Danilo Barcelos moved in the opposite direction on loan.


title: Emerson Royal

text: Emerson made his debut for the club on 19 May 2018, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 win over rivals Cruzeiro. Initially a backup to Patric, he ended the year with 23 league appearances. He scored his first goal in the top tier on 30 September, netting his team's third in a 5–2 home routing of Sport.


title: Emerson Royal

text: On 31 January 2019, Atlético announced the transfer of Emerson to Barcelona, effective as of July 2019, for €12.7 million. The deal consisted of a joint financial operation between Barcelona and fellow La Liga side Real Betis, in which each club paid half of the transfer fee and retained a percentage of Emerson's economic rights. He was to become a Betis player in July 2019, with Barcelona holding the option of reacquiring him for €6 million in 2021. Emerson initially joined Betis on loan from Atlético for the remainder of the 2018–19 season, during which period he made seven appearances for the club. He then became a regular starter for the Andalusians, and scored his first goal abroad on 27 September 2019, but in a 1–5 loss to Villarreal.


title: Emerson Royal

text: On 2 June 2021, Barcelona exercised their option to bring back Emerson for three seasons by paying Betis €9 million.


title: Emerson Royal

text: On the final day of the 2021 summer transfer window, Tottenham signed Emerson on a five-year deal for a reported £25.8 million transfer fee. His debut was in the Premier League away to Crystal Palace which Tottenham lost 3–0 on 11 September. On 3 April 2022, he scored his first goal for Tottenham in a 5–1 home win against Newcastle United. On October 1, 2022, during the second half of Tottenham's Premier League away game against Arsenal, Royal received a straight red card for his tackle on Gabriel Martinelli. The team went on to lose 3–1 in the North London derby.


title: Emerson Royal

text: Emerson was called up to the Brazil under-20 team for the 2017 Toulon Tournament. He was the first-choice right-back at the 2019 South American U-20 Championship and the 2019 Toulon Tournament, having won the latter with Brazil's under-23 side.


title: Emerson Royal

text: Emerson made his senior international debut for Brazil on 19 November 2019, coming off the bench in a 3–0 victory over South Korea.


title: Emerson Royal

text: On 11 June 2021, Emerson was called up by manager Tite for the 2021 Copa América. He made his tournament debut on 17 June, playing the last six minutes in a 4–0 thrashing of Peru in Brazil's second group match. Ten days later, he was given his first start as he played the full match in a 1–1 draw in their final group stage match against Ecuador. On 10 July, he played in the final, after coming on in the 76th minute in their 0–1 defeat against Argentina.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: Lefty Ruggiero (born Benjamin Ruggiero; April 19, 1926 – November 24, 1994) was an American mobster in the Bonanno crime family. He is well known for his friendship and mentorship of FBI undercover agent Joseph D. Pistone. When Pistone's operation was ended on July 26, 1981, the FBI intercepted and arrested Ruggiero on August 29, 1981. In November 1982, Ruggiero was sentenced to 15 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy; he was released in April 1993 before his death from cancer.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero was born on April 19, 1926, in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, and grew up in the Knickerbocker Village private housing development in Little Italy, Manhattan. His father, Fiori Ruggiero worked as a truck driver and his mother, Frances, was a housewife. Ruggiero had two younger siblings named Dominick and Angelina. Ruggiero joined the Bonanno family organization as a young man, serving as a street soldier under caporegime Michael Sabella. Ruggiero soon became successful in bookmaking, extortion and loansharking rackets.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: He lived in an apartment on Monroe Street in Manhattan in the same building as his friend and Bonanno soldier Anthony Mirra. Ruggiero reportedly owned a cigarette boat that he kept docked on the East River in New York. Ruggiero became good friends with future family boss Philip "Rusty" Rastelli and Mirra. Ruggiero became the part-owner of a fishery in the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan. As a part-owner, Ruggiero was able to put himself on the company payroll with a $5,000-a-month "no-show" job. During the 1970s, he purchased a social club in Little Italy.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: Around the time Ruggiero became a made member in the Bonanno family, Anthony Mirra introduced him to Joseph Pistone. Pistone was an undercover FBI agent posing as an expert jewel thief named Donnie Brasco. Pistone's original mission had been to infiltrate truck hijacking and fencing rings. However, the friendships Pistone developed with Mirra and Ruggiero gave the FBI the chance to infiltrate the Mafia. Brasco started working for Ruggiero, placing bets and helping him make collections for the bookmaking operation in Ruggiero's social club.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero mentored Brasco and eventually promised to sponsor him for membership in the family. Ruggiero developed a close friendship with Brasco, which caused friction with his old friend Mirra, who had originally introduced Brasco to Ruggiero. Brasco served as best man at Ruggiero's 1977 wedding and frequently advised Ruggiero on handling his son Tommy's heroin addiction.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero once nearly discovered Brasco's true identity. Ruggiero and Brasco were in a Miami Beach, Florida restaurant as Ruggiero read a "Time" magazine containing an article about the infamous Abscam scandal and detailing how FBI agents posed as rich Arab businessmen to catch U.S. Congressmen taking bribes. What caught Ruggiero's eye was a picture of a white yacht that the FBI used to entertain the congressmen. Ruggiero recognized the boat, the "Left Hand", as the same boat Brasco provided several months before for a party. Brasco was able to convince Ruggiero that he did not know the boat's owner was related to the FBI.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: During an earlier criminal enterprise, Ruggiero met Frank Balistrieri, the Mafia boss of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ruggiero admitted to Pistone that he felt threatened while in the presence of Balistrieri. In 1979, Ruggiero converted his social club into a candy store and gave it to one of his daughters to manage. At the same time, Ruggiero and Brasco started a bookmaking operation out of the store. However, Ruggiero was soon dropped from the partnership because he was unable to provide the initial required investment of $25,000.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: In 1979, Bonanno boss Carmine Galante was murdered, creating a power vacuum in the family. After Galante's murder, Philip Rastelli took over, running the organization from prison. However, one faction, led by Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato, rebelled at Rastelli's leadership. At this time, Ruggiero joined the crew of Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, a strong Rastelli supporter. On May 5, 1981, Indelicato and two other rebel capos, Philip Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera, were lured to a meeting and murdered.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: After the deaths of the three capos, the rebellion against Rastelli was quashed. According to Pistone, the murderers were Napolitano, John Cersani, Joe Massino, Sal Vitale, Joseph DeSimone, Gerlando Sciascia, Nicholas Santora, Vito Rizzuto, Louis Giongetti, and Santo Giordano. Ruggiero and Cersani were lookouts and were sent in after to clean up the massacre and dispose of the bodies, along with Napolitano, James Episcopia and Robert Caposio.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero relished life as a mobster. In front of Pistone, he once explained: "As a wiseguy you can lie, you can cheat, you can steal, you can finagle, you can cause a ruckus...you can do anything and nobody can say a word about it. Who wouldn't want to be a wiseguy?" Ruggiero was the epitome of a wiseguy and had the respect of other mobsters. He had a reputation as a killer but on a daily basis was not prone to violence. Ruggiero had never served time in prison; he had been arrested many times, but never jailed. Ruggiero earned his nickname "Lefty" from tossing dice left-handed while playing craps. He got the nickname "Two Guns" because when he went out on a hit, he liked to use two guns.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: By the 1970s, Ruggiero had acquired a gambling dependency. He was betting and losing heavily on horse races. Soon he was borrowing money from Nicholas Marangello to cover losing bets. By 1977, Ruggiero owed Marangello $160,000. The Bonanno family told Ruggiero that he would have to repay Marangello before he could become a made man. By 1977, Ruggiero had paid most of his debt to Marangello and the family accepted his membership. However, by 1978, Ruggiero was back in debt again to Marangello. To settle the debt this time, the family arranged to transfer the revenues from part of Ruggiero's criminal operations directly to Marangello. Due to his gambling problem, Ruggiero was always trying to hide his few assets from his creditors Marangello and Sabella.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: On July 26, 1981, the Donnie Brasco operation came to an end. FBI agents visited Napolitano's apartment on top of the Motion Lounge and informed him of Brasco's true identity. After the Bonanno leadership learned the truth, they immediately went after the men who brought Brasco into their midst. Mirra and Napolitano were murdered shortly afterwards. On August 29, 1981, the FBI intercepted and arrested Ruggiero.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: In November 1982, Ruggiero, along with Santora, Antonio Tomasulo, and Anthony "Fat Tony" Rabito, was convicted in a six-week jury trial for racketeering conspiracy, and received a 15-year prison sentence. Ruggiero refused to believe that Donnie Brasco was a special agent in the FBI and not his associate. Ruggiero told his lawyer "He'll never go against us." However, after Pistone testified against him, he later said, "I'll get that motherfucker Donnie if it's the last thing I do."


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: In April 1993, suffering from lung and testicular cancer, Ruggiero was released from prison after serving almost 11 years. He died on November 24, 1994.


title: Lefty Ruggiero

text: In the 1997 film "Donnie Brasco", Benjamin Ruggiero was portrayed by Al Pacino. Ruggiero's granddaughter Ramona Rizzo appeared on the TV show "Mob Wives" on VH-1.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Grauman's Chinese Theatre (branded as TCL Chinese Theatre for naming rights reasons) is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: The original Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, which opened in 1922. Both are in Exotic Revival style architecture. Built by a partnership headed by Sid Grauman over 18 months beginning in January 1926, the theater opened May 18, 1927, with the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's "The King of Kings". It has since been home to many premieres, including the 1977 launch of George Lucas' "Star Wars", as well as birthday parties, corporate junkets, and three Academy Awards ceremonies. Among the theatre's features are the concrete blocks set in the forecourt, which bear the signatures, footprints, and handprints of popular motion picture personalities from the 1920s to the present day.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Originally named Grauman's Chinese Theatre, it was renamed Mann's Chinese Theatre in 1973; the name lasted until 2001, after which it reverted to its original name. On January 11, 2013, Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL Corporation purchased the facility's naming rights.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: In 2013, the Chinese Theatre partnered with IMAX Corporation to convert the house into a custom-designed IMAX theater. The newly renovated theater seats 932 people and features one of the largest movie screens in North America.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: After his success with the Egyptian Theatre, Sid Grauman turned to Charles E. Toberman to secure a long-term lease from Francis X. Bushman on property at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard, the site of Bushman's mansion. In appreciation, a plaque was installed on the front of the theater dedicating it to Bushman.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Toberman contracted Meyer & Holler, designer of the Egyptian, to design a "palace-type theatre" of Chinese design. Grauman financed the theater's $2.1 million cost and owned a one-third interest in the Chinese Theatre. Grauman's partners, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Howard Schenck, owned the remainder. The principal architect was Raymond M. Kennedy of Meyer & Holler.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: During construction, Grauman hired Jean Klossner to formulate an extremely hard concrete for the forecourt of the theater. Klossner later became known as "Mr. Footprint", performing the footprint ceremonies from 1927 through 1957.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Many stories exist to explain the origins of the footprints. The theater's official account credits Norma Talmadge as having inspired the tradition when she accidentally stepped into the wet concrete. However, in a short interview during the September 13, 1937, "Lux Radio Theatre" broadcast of a radio adaptation of "A Star Is Born", Grauman related another version of how he got the idea to put hand and foot prints in the concrete. He said it was "pure accident. I walked right into it. While we were building the theatre, I accidentally happened to step in some soft concrete. And there it was. So, I went to Mary Pickford immediately. Mary put her foot into it."


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: In 1947's "Fun and Fancy Free" "Mickey and the Beanstalk", the cartoon ends with Willie the Giant stomping through Hollywood looking for Mickey Mouse. After he looked for Mickey in one of the buildings and found he was not in there, his right foot stepped over the theater called the "Grauman's Chinese", before he searched the restaurant "Brown Derby" with HOLLYWOOD lights blinking in the background.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Another account, says that the original "accidental" slabs were made and stayed, at the curb, on the sidewalk, until 1958, when they were removed for the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: When they stepped up off the curb, they accidentally walked on wet cement and left a trail of footprints from the street to the front doors of the theater ... The stars, seeing what they had done, grabbed a nail on the ground and signed their names next to their footprints, Pickford even dated it." — Marc Wanamaker, Hollywood Heritage Museum.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Still another account by Klossner recounts that Klossner autographed his work next to the right-hand poster kiosk and that Grauman and he developed the idea then and there. His autograph and handprint, dated 1927, remain today. (Note: In 1949, Klossner's story changed to say that Grauman had accidentally stepped into the wet concrete.) The theater's third founding partner, Douglas Fairbanks, was the second celebrity after Talmadge to be immortalized in the concrete.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: In 1929, Grauman decided to retire and sell his share to William Fox's Fox Theatres chain. However, just a few months later, Howard Hughes convinced Grauman to return to the theater, because he wanted Grauman to produce the world premiere of his aviation epic "Hell's Angels", which would also feature one of Grauman's theatrical prologues before the film. Grauman remained as the theater's managing director for the entire run of "Hell's Angels", retiring once again after its run finished. Unsatisfied with retirement, though, Grauman returned to the theater as managing director on Christmas Day 1931 and kept that position until his death in 1950.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: One of the highlights of the Chinese Theatre has always been its grandeur and décor. In 1952, John Tartaglia, the artist of nearby Saint Sophia Cathedral, became the head interior decorator of the Chinese Theatre, as well as the theater chain then owned by Fox West Coast Theatres. He later continued the work of Klossner, by recommendation of J. Walter Bantau, for the Hollywood footprint ceremonies.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Tartaglia performed his first ceremony as what the City of Los Angeles termed "Hollywood's Master Mason" for Jean Simmons in 1953, for the premiere of "The Robe", the first premiere in Cinemascope. Although replacing Klossner was initially thought to be a temporary job for Tartaglia, his dedication resulted in a 35-year career in which he last performed as the master mason/concrete artist in honor of Eddie Murphy in May 1987. Tartaglia was formally recognized by the City of Los Angeles in October 2011.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: The Chinese Theatre was declared a historic and cultural landmark in 1968, and has undergone restoration projects in the years since then. Ted Mann, owner of the Mann Theatres chain and husband of actress Rhonda Fleming, purchased it in 1973. From then until 2001, it was known as Mann's Chinese Theatre. Mann Theatres grew to become the largest independent chain in the country before Mann sold the business, including the Chinese Theatre, to Gulf+Western in 1986.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: In 1988, Time Warner predecessor Warner Communications Inc. bought a 50% stake from Gulf+Western for $150 million. The theater chain was eventually sold to WestStar Holdings in 1997. In 2000, a partnership of Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures acquired the theater, along with the other Mann Theatres properties.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: In 2000, Behr Browers Architects, a firm previously engaged by Mann Theatres, prepared a restoration and modernization program for the structure. The program included a seismic upgrade, new state-of-the-art sound and projection, new vending kiosks, and exterior signage, and the addition of a larger concession area under the balcony. The program began in 2002 and restored the original name — "Grauman's Chinese Theatre" — to the cinema palace. As part of the upgrade, Behr Browers also designed a new Chinese-themed six-plex in the attached Hollywood and Highland shopping center that continued to operate under the name Mann's Chinese 6 Theatre.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: In 2007, the CIM Group purchased the land on which the theater sits for an undisclosed price from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation of New York and Barlow Respiratory Hospital of Los Angeles. CIM Group also owns the Hollywood and Highland shopping center, as well as numerous other residential and commercial properties in Hollywood. On May 27, 2011, Chinese Theatres LLC, a partnership owned by producer Elie Samaha and Donald Kushner, purchased both Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the adjacent Mann Chinese 6.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: The exterior of the theater is meant to resemble a giant red Chinese pagoda. The design features a Chinese dragon across the façade, with two authentic Ming Dynasty guardian lions guarding the main entrance and the silhouettes of tiny dragons along the sides of the copper roof. The idea was to give viewers a sense of China, about which most Americans knew very little. The freestanding ticket booth installed in the 1930s and the left and right neon marquees have been removed, restoring the theater to its original appearance. The auditorium has been completely restored, along with much of the exterior; however, wear and tear on the physical structure over the years has caused some of the external décor to be removed.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: The Chinese Theatre hosted the 1944, 1945, and 1946 Academy Awards ceremonies; they are now held at the adjacent Dolby Theatre, formerly known as the Kodak Theatre.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: The Chinese Theatre was the first commercial movie theater to have air conditioning. The vents are concealed behind the imported decorative pillars on the side walls of the auditorium.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: A concession stand was not in the theater's original plans, because Grauman thought it would detract from the "theatrical experience". The theater began to sell concessions in the 1930s.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Celebrities contributed to the theater's decor. Xavier Cugat painted the trees and foliage between the pillars on the side walls. Keye Luke painted the Chinese murals in the lobby.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: A 3-manual 17-rank Wurlitzer organ was installed. Its pipes were above the proscenium with tone chutes directing the sound through holes in the ceiling.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Nearly 200 Hollywood celebrity handprints, footprints, and autographs are in the concrete of the theater's forecourt. Fairbanks and Pickford were the first, done on April 30, 1927.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Variations of this honored tradition are imprints of Harold Lloyd's eyeglasses, Groucho Marx's cigar, Whoopi Goldberg's dreadlock, the wands used by "Harry Potter" stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, John Barrymore's facial profile (reflecting his nickname "The Great Profile"), Betty Grable's legs, and Marilyn Monroe's earring.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Western stars William S. Hart and Roy Rogers left imprints of their guns. Herbie, a Volkswagen Beetle, left the imprints of his tires. The hoofprints of Tom Mix's horse, "Tony", Gene Autry's horse, "Champion", and Rogers' horse, "Trigger", were left in the concrete beside the prints of their owners.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: Since 2011, a surge of concrete ceremonies has occurred, many of which have been paid for by movie studios for publicity reasons. One of the theater's current owners, Donald Kushner, acknowledged this and referred to them as mock ceremonies. This influx has been a matter of concern for film buffs and historians, as well as misleading for fans. However, despite the increase of concrete blocks, the ones placed within the forecourt are still chosen by a special committee which selects celebrities based on their contributions to Hollywood cinema. Practice blocks, completed inside the theater before the ceremony, are placed on the walls of the Chinese 6 Theatre lobby, which is also used as an event space.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: In April 2013, owners announced plans to convert the original theatre for IMAX. The new silver screen is curved and can be masked for premieres and screening events of non-IMAX films. To accommodate better sightlines and a taller screen, seating was re-arranged in stepped rows, descending from street level to the floor of the former basement.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: The auditorium's decorative walls and ceiling remain unaltered, the existing curtain was extended, decorative lighting effects were added and TCL added digital signage. The theatre reopened on September 20, 2013, with the IMAX 3D version of "The Wizard of Oz". Although it opened with only a digital projection system, a 70 mm projection system was added for "Interstellar".


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: In April 2015, the IMAX system was upgraded to use the new dual-4K IMAX with Laser projector system for the premiere of "Furious 7".


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: A full-scale recreation of the Chinese Theatre's exterior facade and lobby exists at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The recreation originally housed The Great Movie Ride which opened with the park on May 1, 1989, and closed on August 13, 2017. Its replacement attraction, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, opened on March 4, 2020. It also has concrete handprints inside the sidewalks from the years 1988–1995.


title: Grauman's Chinese Theatre

text: A sized-down recreation of the Chinese Theatre, both interior and exterior was built at Parque Warner Madrid theme park in San Martín de la Vega, near Madrid, Spain. The building shows films relevant to Warner Bros., previously "The Lego Movie" and "Storks". During Halloween, horror films for guests over the age of 18 are shown such as "Friday the 13th".


title: Landfill

text: A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, refuse was simply left in piles or thrown into pits; in archeology this is known as a midden.


title: Landfill

text: Some landfill sites are used for waste management purposes, such as temporary storage, consolidation and transfer, or for various stages of processing waste material, such as sorting, treatment, or recycling. Unless they are stabilized, landfills may undergo severe shaking or soil liquefaction of the ground during an earthquake. Once full, the area over a landfill site may be reclaimed for other uses.


title: Landfill

text: Operators of well-run landfills for non-hazardous waste meet predefined specifications by applying techniques to:


title: Landfill

text: They can also cover waste (usually daily) with layers of soil or other types of material such as woodchips and fine particles.


title: Landfill

text: During landfill operations, a scale or weighbridge may weigh waste collection vehicles on arrival and personnel may inspect loads for wastes that do not accord with the landfill's waste-acceptance criteria. Afterward, the waste collection vehicles use the existing road network on their way to the tipping face or working front, where they unload their contents. After loads are deposited, compactors or bulldozers can spread and compact the waste on the working face. Before leaving the landfill boundaries, the waste collection vehicles may pass through a wheel-cleaning facility. If necessary, they return to the weighbridge for re-weighing without their load. The weighing process can assemble statistics on the daily incoming waste tonnage, which databases can retain for record keeping. In addition to trucks, some landfills may have equipment to handle railroad containers. The use of "rail-haul" permits landfills to be located at more remote sites, without the problems associated with many truck trips.


title: Landfill

text: Typically, in the working face, the compacted waste is covered with soil or alternative materials daily. Alternative waste-cover materials include chipped wood or other "green waste", several sprayed-on foam products, chemically "fixed" bio-solids, and temporary blankets. Blankets can be lifted into place at night and then removed the following day prior to waste placement. The space that is occupied daily by the compacted waste and the cover material is called a daily cell. Waste compaction is critical to extending the life of the landfill. Factors such as waste compressibility, waste-layer thickness and the number of passes of the compactor over the waste affect the waste densities.


title: Landfill

text: The term "landfill" is usually shorthand for a municipal landfill or sanitary landfill. These facilities were first introduced early in the 20th century, but gained wide use in the 1960s and 1970s, in an effort to eliminate open dumps and other "unsanitary" waste disposal practices. The sanitary landfill is an engineered facility that separates and confines waste. Sanitary landfills are intended as biological reactors (bioreactors) in which microbes will break down complex organic waste into simpler, less toxic compounds over time. These reactors must be designed and operated according to regulatory standards and guidelines (See environmental engineering).


title: Landfill

text: Usually, aerobic decomposition is the first stage by which wastes are broken down in a landfill. These are followed by four stages of anaerobic degradation. Usually, solid organic material in solid phase decays rapidly as larger organic molecules degrade into smaller molecules. These smaller organic molecules begin to dissolve and move to the liquid phase, followed by hydrolysis of these organic molecules, and the hydrolyzed compounds then undergo transformation and volatilization as carbon dioxide (CO) and methane (CH), with rest of the waste remaining in solid and liquid phases.


title: Landfill

text: During the early phases, little material volume reaches the leachate, as the biodegradable organic matter of the waste undergoes a rapid decrease in volume. Meanwhile, the leachate's chemical oxygen demand increases with increasing concentrations of the more recalcitrant compounds compared to the more reactive compounds in the leachate. Successful conversion and stabilization of the waste depend on how well microbial populations function in syntrophy, i.e. an interaction of different populations to provide each other's nutritional needs.:


title: Landfill

text: As the waste is placed in the landfill, the void spaces contain high volumes of molecular oxygen (O). With added and compacted wastes, the O content of the landfill bioreactor strata gradually decreases. Microbial populations grow, density increases. Aerobic biodegradation dominates, i.e. the primary electron acceptor is O.


title: Landfill

text: The O is rapidly degraded by the existing microbial populations. The decreasing O leads to less aerobic and more anaerobic conditions in the layers. The primary electron acceptors during transition are nitrates and sulphates since O is rapidly displaced by CO in the effluent gas.


title: Landfill

text: Hydrolysis of the biodegradable fraction of the solid waste begins in the acid formation phase, which leads to rapid accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in the leachate. The increased organic acid content decreases the leachate pH from approximately 7.5 to 5.6. During this phase, the decomposition intermediate compounds like the VFAs contribute much chemical oxygen demand (COD). Long-chain volatile organic acids (VOAs) are converted to acetic acid (CHO), CO, and hydrogen gas (H). High concentrations of VFAs increase both the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and VOA concentrations, which initiates H production by fermentative bacteria, which stimulates the growth of H-oxidizing bacteria. The H generation phase is relatively short because it is complete by the end of the acid formation phase. The increase in the biomass of acidogenic bacteria increases the amount of degradation of the waste material and consuming nutrients. Metals, which are generally more water-soluble at lower pH, may become more mobile during this phase, leading to increasing metal concentrations in the leachate.


title: Landfill

text: The acid formation phase intermediary products (e.g., acetic, propionic, and butyric acids) are converted to CH and CO by methanogenic microorganisms. As VFAs are metabolized by the methanogens, the landfill water pH returns to neutrality. The leachate's organic strength, expressed as oxygen demand, decreases at a rapid rate with increases in CH and CO gas production. This is the longest decomposition phase.


title: Landfill

text: The rate of microbiological activity slows during the last phase of waste decomposition as the supply of nutrients limits the chemical reactions, e.g. as bioavailable phosphorus becomes increasingly scarce. CH production almost completely disappears, with O and oxidized species gradually reappearing in the gas wells as O permeates downwardly from the troposphere. This transforms the oxidation–reduction potential (ORP) in the leachate toward oxidative processes. The residual organic materials may incrementally be converted to the gas phase, and as organic matter is composted; i.e. the organic matter is converted to humic-like compounds.


title: Landfill

text: Landfills have the potential to cause a number of issues. Infrastructure disruption, such as damage to access roads by heavy vehicles, may occur. Pollution of local roads and watercourses from wheels on vehicles when they leave the landfill can be significant and can be mitigated by wheel washing systems. Pollution of the local environment, such as contamination of groundwater or aquifers or soil contamination may occur, as well.


title: Landfill

text: When precipitation falls on open landfills, water percolates through the garbage and becomes contaminated with suspended and dissolved material, forming leachate. If this is not contained it can contaminate groundwater. All modern landfill sites use a combination of impermeable liners several metres thick, geologically stable sites and collection systems to contain and capture this leachate. It can then be treated and evaporated. Once a landfill site is full, it is sealed off to prevent precipitation ingress and new leachate formation. However, liners must have a lifespan, be it several hundred years or more. Eventually, any landfill liner could leak, so the ground around landfills must be tested for leachate to prevent pollutants from contaminating groundwater.


title: Landfill

text: Rotting food and other decaying organic waste create decomposition gases, especially CO and CH from aerobic and anaerobic decomposition, respectively. Both processes occur simultaneously in different parts of a landfill. In addition to available O, the fraction of gas constituents will vary, depending on the age of landfill, type of waste, moisture content and other factors. For example, the maximum amount of landfill gas produced can be illustrated a simplified net reaction of diethyl oxalate that accounts for these simultaneous reactions:


title: Landfill

text: On average, about half of the volumetric concentration of landfill gas is CH and slightly less than half is CO. The gas also contains about 5% molecular nitrogen (N), less than 1% hydrogen sulfide (HS), and a low concentration of non-methane organic compounds (NMOC), about 2700 ppmv.


title: Landfill

text: Landfill gases can seep out of the landfill and into the surrounding air and soil. Methane is a greenhouse gas, and is flammable and potentially explosive at certain concentrations, which makes it perfect for burning to generate electricity cleanly. Since decomposing plant matter and food waste only release carbon that has been captured from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, no new carbon enters the carbon cycle and the atmospheric concentration of CO is not affected. Carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. In properly managed landfills, gas is collected and flared or recovered for landfill gas utilization.


title: Landfill

text: Poorly run landfills may become nuisances because of vectors such as rats and flies which can spread infectious diseases. The occurrence of such vectors can be mitigated through the use of daily cover.


title: Landfill

text: Other potential issues include wildlife disruption due to occupation of habitat and animal health disruption caused by consuming waste from landfills, dust, odor, noise pollution, and reduced local property values.


title: Landfill

text: Gases are produced in landfills due to the anaerobic digestion by microbes. In a properly managed landfill this gas is collected and used. Its uses range from simple flaring to the landfill gas utilization and generation of electricity. Landfill gas monitoring alerts workers to the presence of a build-up of gases to a harmful level. In some countries, landfill gas recovery is extensive; in the United States, for example, more than 850 landfills have active landfill gas recovery systems.


title: Landfill

text: Landfills in Canada are regulated by provincial environmental agencies and environmental protection legislation.


title: Landfill

text: Older facilities tend to fall under current standards and are monitored for leaching. Some former locations have been converted to parkland.


title: Landfill

text: In the European Union, individual states are obliged to enact legislation to comply with the requirements and obligations of the European Landfill Directive.


title: Landfill

text: The majority of EU member states have laws banning or severely restricting the disposal of household trash via landfills.


title: Landfill

text: Landfilling is currently the major method of municipal waste disposal in India. India also has Asia's largest dumping ground in Deonar, Mumbai. However issues frequently arise due alarming growth rate of landfills and poor management by authorities. On and under surface fires have been commonly seen in the Indian landfills over the last few years.


title: Landfill

text: Landfilling practices in the UK have had to change in recent years to meet the challenges of the European Landfill Directive. The UK now imposes landfill tax upon biodegradable waste which is put into landfills. In addition to this the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme has been established for local authorities to trade landfill quotas in England. A different system operates in Wales where authorities cannot 'trade' amongst themselves, but have allowances known as the Landfill Allowance Scheme.


title: Landfill

text: U.S. landfills are regulated by each state's environmental agency, which establishes minimum guidelines; however, none of these standards may fall below those set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).


title: Landfill

text: Permitting a landfill generally takes between five and seven years, costs millions of dollars and requires rigorous siting, engineering and environmental studies and demonstrations to ensure local environmental and safety concerns are satisfied.


title: Landfill

text: One can treat landfills as a viable and abundant source of materials and energy. In the developing world, waste pickers often scavenge for still-usable materials. In commercial contexts, companies have also discovered landfill sites, and many have begun harvesting materials and energy. Well-known examples include gas-recovery facilities.


title: Landfill

text: Other commercial facilities include waste incinerators which have built-in material recovery. This material recovery is possible through the use of filters (electro filter, active-carbon and potassium filter, quench, HCl-washer, SO-washer, bottom ash-grating, etc.).


title: Landfill

text: In addition to waste reduction and recycling strategies, there are various alternatives to landfills, including waste-to-energy incineration, anaerobic digestion, composting, mechanical biological treatment, pyrolysis and plasma arc gasification. Depending on local economics and incentives, these can be made more financially attractive than landfills.


title: Landfill

text: Countries including Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, have banned the disposal of untreated waste in landfills. In these countries, only certain hazardous wastes, fly ashes from incineration or the stabilized output of mechanical biological treatment plants may still be deposited.


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Adrian Pasdar (born April 30, 1965) is an American film, television, and voice actor. He is known for his roles in "Profit", "Near Dark", "Carlito's Way", "Mysterious Ways", "Heroes" and as Glenn Talbot on "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Additionally, he directed the feature film "Cement". He is also the voice of Iron Man in "Marvel Anime", as well as in the animated series "Ultimate Spider-Man" and "Avengers Assemble". He also played district attorney Alec Rybak on "The Lying Game". He has appeared on the American TV drama "Grand Hotel" as Felix.


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Pasdar was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His father, Homayoon Pasdar (; born 1935), was an Iranian immigrant who was a cardiac surgeon, with a practice near Philadelphia. His mother, Rosemarie Sbresny, worked as a travel agent. He graduated from Marple Newtown High School, where he played football and studied acting.


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Pasdar turned his attention to campus stage productions and rediscovered an early interest in writing and acting. No longer able to play football, he dropped out of school and returned home, taking a job with a theater group, People's Light and Theatre Company. There, he worked on sound and lighting as part of the stage crew responsible for set construction. He had a painful accident on the set, cutting off the end of his left thumb. His resulting medical compensation paid for attendance at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in New York City.


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Pasdar was also selected to play a bit part as a police officer in the Dixie Chicks video for their song "Goodbye Earl". The music video won both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association's Video of the Year Awards in 2000.


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: At the age of 19, he auditioned for a role in "Top Gun". Director Tony Scott was so impressed that he wrote the part of "Chipper" just for him. This led to bigger roles in "Solarbabies" (1986), "Streets of Gold" (1986), and Kathryn Bigelow's cult vampire movie "Near Dark" (1987), with Pasdar in the lead role of Caleb Colton. His other major roles include "Vital Signs" (1990). Pasdar got his biggest break in movies, when he starred as a beautiful woman opposite Julie Walters in the British movie "Just Like a Woman". In 1992, he left Hollywood and returned to New York, working as a cashier for room and board, while taking the occasional small part, such as Frankie in Brian De Palma's "Carlito's Way" (1993).


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Adrian Pasdar wrote and directed the short film "Beyond Belief" and directed his first feature film, the art-house neo-noir "Cement", a contemporary retelling of "Othello", in 1999. The $1.7 million independent feature, which won Best Picture awards on the festival circuit, starred Chris Penn, Jeffrey Wright, Sherilyn Fenn, and Henry Czerny, and was written by "Farscape" screenwriter Justin Monjo. "I've used every ounce of energy and every drop of money I had to make "Cement"," Pasdar said.


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Pasdar's major break into television came in 1996, when he was cast as the title character on the Fox series "Profit". He also guest-starred in the two-hour season finale of the fourth season of "Touched by an Angel". From 2000 to 2002, Pasdar played the lead role of anthropology Professor Declan Dunn in the spooky cult drama series "Mysterious Ways" on PAX.


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Pasdar played David McClaren in the final two seasons of the CBS drama "Judging Amy" from 2003 through 2005. In 2006, he had a high-profile guest role as Gabrielle Solis's sleazy lawyer in "Desperate Housewives".


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: He starred as Nathan Petrelli in the NBC superhero drama "Heroes". Pasdar based his mysterious character on "the most morally liquid characters" that he's encountered in his life. The character is not based on one particular political figure, but on a melange of different ones, both good and bad. Pasdar's character was killed off in an episode that aired November 30, 2009.


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Pasdar voices Hawkeye in the animated series "The Super Hero Squad Show" and voiced Captain America in the "Black Panther" animated series. Having also voiced Iron Man in the English dub of the "Iron Man" anime series, Pasdar reprised the role in "Marvel's Avengers Assemble" (seasons 1–3), "Ultimate Spider-Man", and "Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.".


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Pasdar also played a role on "The Lying Game" as Alec Rybak, a corrupt district attorney. From 2014 to 2018, he played the recurring role of Glenn Talbot on the Marvel TV series "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", and from 2016 to 2017, recurred as Nolan Burgess on the series "Colony". He also starred in the pilot of the Amazon Studios series "The After". He also portrays the DC Comics character Morgan Edge in season 3 of The CW's "Supergirl".


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Pasdar married musician Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks on June 24, 2000. They have two sons, born in 2001 and 2004. On July 5, 2017, Maines announced that she and Pasdar were divorcing after 17 years of marriage. The divorce was finalized on December 19, 2019. The divorce took over two years as Pasdar contested the validity of a pre-nuptial agreement and attempted to plead poverty to the court to obtain spousal support, despite reporting over $400,000 in income in 2018, according to court documents. Maines said that the Chicks' 2020 album "Gaslighter" includes songs with deeply personal themes, written during the divorce. The album surrounds the topic of a husband gaslighting and cheating on his wife, ending with the dissolution of the marriage.


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: Pasdar is a guitarist for charity rock band Band from TV. Part of the proceeds from the band's concerts go to his nominated charity, the Rush Epilepsy Center.


title: Adrian Pasdar

text: In 2010, Pasdar narrated an audiobook edition of the cult novel "Queer Fish in God's Waiting Room" by the British writer Lee Henshaw. It was released in early 2011.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: Mike and the Mechanics (stylised as Mike + The Mechanics) is an English rock supergroup formed in Dover in 1985 by Mike Rutherford, initially as a side project during a hiatus period for his earlier group Genesis. The band is known for hit singles "Silent Running", "All I Need Is a Miracle", "Taken In", "The Living Years", "Word of Mouth" and "Over My Shoulder".


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: Initially, the band included Rutherford (the only constant member), vocalists Paul Carrack and Paul Young, keyboardist Adrian Lee, and drummer Peter Van Hooke. After a decade together, Lee and Van Hooke dropped out in 1995 and were not replaced. Following Young's death in 2000, Carrack became the band's sole lead vocalist until 2004 when the band (essentially a duo at this point) dissolved, with Rutherford and Carrack both agreeing the band had "run its course". In 2010, the band was revived with Rutherford headlining a completely new set of musicians, including vocalists Andrew Roachford and Tim Howar.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: During hiatuses from Genesis, Mike Rutherford had been pursuing a solo career, releasing "Smallcreep's Day" in 1980 and "Acting Very Strange" in 1982. However, he found the process of recording a solo album excessively difficult and the results artistically unsatisfying, particularly in regards to singing lead vocals on the latter album. He recalled, "I had a revelation, too, in this time period ... that I'm not complete on my own. ... I'm much more creative and inspired when there are other people around me and I'm bouncing ideas off." However, he still felt that working only with Genesis would leave him unfulfilled, and to satisfy both his desire to create music outside the format of Genesis and his desire to collaborate with other musicians, he set about forming his own band.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: Rutherford had already started a songwriting partnership with Scottish singer/writer/composer B. A. Robertson, and for the band's self-titled debut album he enlisted the services of producer Christopher Neil. Besides producing, Neil co-wrote most of the songs, selected the material for inclusion, and performed backing vocals. He would continue to play a key role in the band's albums for their first decade of existence.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: Similarly to Steely Dan, in the studio Mike and the Mechanics were not a tight-knit band but a vehicle for the songwriting of Rutherford, Robertson, and Neil, and session keyboardists, drummers, guitarists, and even lead vocalists often performed on the songs in place of the official band members. Indeed, the line-up of Mike and the Mechanics came together gradually over the course of recording their first album; Paul Young, who was recommended for the group by Neil and his manager, said that by the time he joined, all the backing tracks for the album had been recorded.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: Rutherford was more than satisfied with the resulting album and decided to continue the band indefinitely, rather than leaving it as a one-off project. When the album was released in 1985, his decision was further bolstered by its immense commercial success. While Rutherford's solo albums had been moderately successful, he had never managed a Top 40 hit (except in Canada, where "Maxine" from "Acting Very Strange" reached No. 39); "Mike + the Mechanics" scored three of them, including two US Top 10s, "Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)", "All I Need is a Miracle" and an additional No. 32 hit with "Taken In". "Silent Running" was featured in the movie "On Dangerous Ground", released in North American cinemas in 1986 as "Choke Canyon".


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: The single "The Living Years" (US#1, UK#2) became the band's biggest hit, and featured on the band's second album "Living Years". The song was written by Rutherford and Robertson after both of their fathers had recently died, but the lyrics were written solely by Robertson and centered on the unresolved dissension between Robertson and his father. The song was sung by Carrack, who also had an emotional attachment to the song, having lost his own father when he was 11 years old. The album also featured the song "Nobody's Perfect", sung by Young; it served as the background music to a television advertising campaign for Tennent's bitter.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: At this point Carrack began to take a much larger role in the band, joining their stable of songwriters and adding keyboards. The group's third album, "Word of Mouth", followed in 1991. It was less successful than its predecessors, particularly in the US, but scored another trio of charting singles in the UK, with the lead single becoming one of their most popular songs yet.