title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: Their fourth album, "Beggar on a Beach of Gold", did not appear until 1995. It yielded both a UK top 40 hit in the title track, and a number 12 hit in "Over My Shoulder". The latter, which was their first hit to be co-written by Carrack, became arguably their most aired song on British radio.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: Their run of successes was capped with 1996's "Hits", which compiled most of their hit singles with a new reworking of "All I Need is a Miracle" that reached number 27 in the UK, a higher placing than that of the original version. The album was certified platinum in the UK within two months of its release.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: In 1995, the band began to fall apart: Adrian Lee and Peter Van Hooke left (before and after "Beggar on a Beach of Gold", respectively), and Christopher Neil's long tenure as songwriter/producer for the group ended. However, Rutherford opted to continue Mike and the Mechanics as a singer/songwriter trio. The group's fifth studio album was released in 1999, "Mike & The Mechanics". It is generally known as "M6", the "Hits" album being their fifth release. As the band no longer had a distribution deal with an American record label, "M6" was available to the American market as an import only. Its only hit, "Now That You've Gone", peaked at No. 35 in the UK.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: Another blow struck the following year: On 15 July 2000, Paul Young died from a heart attack. The band regrouped in 2004 as Mike and the Mechanics featuring Paul Carrack. As implied by the new name, Carrack played a larger role than before, performing all the band's lead vocals and keyboards and co-writing all the songs. They released the album "Rewired", which became their first album to lack a hit. Van Hooke briefly worked with the band again during this time, not as an official member but as a co-producer of "Rewired". He also performed drums and percussion on the album and its tour.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: Shortly after, Carrack became too involved with solo work to devote time to the group. In a 2007 interview Rutherford stated that Mike and the Mechanics had "run its course."


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: Over several months of 2009 and 2010, Rutherford formed a new band. Despite there being no hope of the original group ever reforming, he opted to again use the Mike and the Mechanics name. In a December 2009 interview, Rutherford stated that "I'm actually doing a new Mike and the Mechanics album. I kind of thought I had put it to bed, but I still enjoy songwriting. Working with a few new co-writers and a couple of new faces for the band. Paul Carrack is doing some solo stuff, so we have a guy called Andrew Roachford, an R&B kind of singer. It's a little different, but the soul seems to be there."


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: A new album, "The Road", and the 'Hit the Road Tour 2011' were announced in November 2010. The album was released in April 2011. It featured both Roachford and Tim Howar on vocals, Luke Juby on keyboards, Gary Wallis on drums, and Anthony Drennan on guitar and bass. Though it became the first album not to feature B. A. Robertson as a co-writer, the album also marked the return of Christopher Neil as songwriter/producer. The tour included performances across the UK, Germany, and various other European cities.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: In April 2017, this incarnation of the band released another album, "Let Me Fly". It continues to tour.


title: Mike and the Mechanics

text: In a 1996 article for "Q" magazine, critic Peter Kane said that while the band 'fly in the face of fashion', their music has a 'basic decency' and 'unquestionably speaks to more people than many of us are sometimes prepared to accept'. He stressed, 'Mike and the Mechanics: they're quite good, really.'


title: Doujinshi

text: , also romanized as , is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of "doujin" (self-published) works, "doujinshi" are often derivative of existing works and created by amateurs, though some professional artists participate in order to publish material outside the regular industry.


title: Doujinshi

text: Groups of "doujinshi" artists refer to themselves as a . Several such groups actually consist of a single artist: they are sometimes called .


title: Doujinshi

text: Since the 1980s, the main method of distribution has been through regular "doujinshi" conventions, the largest of which is called Comiket (short for "Comic Market") held in the summer and winter in Tokyo's Big Sight. At the convention, over of "doujinshi" are bought, sold, and traded by attendees. "Doujinshi" creators who base their materials on other creators' works normally publish in small numbers to maintain a low profile so as to protect themselves against litigation, making a talented creator's or circle's "doujinshi" a coveted commodity.


title: Doujinshi

text: The pioneer among "doujinshi" was , published in the early Meiji period (since 1874). Not a literary magazine in fact, "Meiroku Zasshi" nevertheless played a big role in spreading the idea of "doujinshi". The first magazine to publish "doujinshi" novels was , founded in 1885 by writers Ozaki Kōyō and Yamada Bimyo. "Doujinshi" publication reached its peak in the early Shōwa period, and "doujinshi" became a mouthpiece for the creative youth of that time. Created and distributed in small circles of authors or close friends, "doujinshi" contributed significantly to the emergence and development of the "shishōsetsu" genre. During the postwar years, "doujinshi" gradually decreased in importance as outlets for different literary schools and new authors. Their role was taken over by literary journals such as "Gunzo", "Bungakukai" and others. One notable exception was , which was published from 1933 until 1969. Few "doujinshi" magazines survived with the help of official literary journals. "Haiku" and "tanka" magazines are still published today.


title: Doujinshi

text: It has been suggested that technological advances in the field of photocopying during the 1970s contributed to an increase in publishing "doujinshi". During this time, manga editors were encouraging manga authors to appeal to a mass market, which may have also contributed to an increase in the popularity of writing "doujinshi".


title: Doujinshi

text: During the 1980s, the content of "doujinshi" shifted from being predominantly original content to being mostly parodic of existing series. Often called "aniparo", this was often an excuse to feature certain characters in romantic relationships. Male authors focused on series like "Urusei Yatsura", and female authors focused on series like "Captain Tsubasa". This coincided with the rise in popularity of Comiket, the first event dedicated specifically to the distribution of "doujinshi", which had been founded in 1975.


title: Doujinshi

text: As of February 1991, there were some "doujinshi" creators who sold their work through supportive comic book stores. This practice came to light when three managers of such shops were arrested for having a "lolicon" "doujinshi" for sale.


title: Doujinshi

text: Over the last decade, the practice of creating "doujinshi" has expanded significantly, attracting thousands of creators and fans alike. Advances in personal publishing technology have also fueled this expansion by making it easier for "doujinshi" creators to write, draw, promote, publish, and distribute their works. For example, some "doujinshi" are now published on digital media. Furthermore, many "doujinshi" creators are moving to online download and print-on-demand services, while others are beginning to distribute their works through American channels such as anime shop websites and specialized online direct distribution sites. In 2008, a white paper on the otaku industry was published, this estimated that gross revenue from sales of "doujinshi" in 2007 were 27.73 billion yen, or 14.9% of total otaku expenditure on their hobby.


title: Doujinshi

text: To avoid legal problems, the was created. A license format inspired by Creative Commons licenses, the first author to authorize the license was Ken Akamatsu in the manga "UQ Holder!", released on August 28, 2013, in the magazine "Weekly Shōnen Magazine".


title: Doujinshi

text: Comiket is the world's largest comic convention. It is held twice a year (summer and winter) in Tokyo, Japan. The first CM was held in December 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees. About 80% of these were female, but male participation in Comiket increased later. In 1982, there were fewer than 10,000 attendees, this increased to over 100,000 attendees as of 1989, and over half a million people in recent years.


title: Doujinshi

text: . This rapid increase in attendance enabled "doujinshi" authors to sell thousands of copies of their works, earning a fair amount of money with their hobby.


title: Doujinshi

text: In 2009, Meiji University opened a "dōjin" manga library, named “Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library” to honour its alumni in its Surugadai campus. It contains Yonezawa's own "doujinshi" collection, comprising 4137 boxes, and the collection of Tsuguo Iwata, another famous person in the sphere of "doujinshi".


title: Doujinshi

text: Like their mainstream counterparts, "doujinshi" are published in a variety of genres and types. However, due to the target audience, certain themes are more prevalent, and there are a few major division points by which the publications can be classified. It can be broadly divided into original works and "aniparo"—works which parody existing anime and manga franchises.


title: Doujinshi

text: As in fanfics, a very popular theme to explore is non-canonical pairings of characters in a given show (for "doujinshi" based on mainstream publications). Many such publications contain "yaoi" or "yuri" (stories containing same-sex romance) themes, either as a part of non-canon pairings, or as a more direct statement of what can be hinted by the main show.


title: Doujinshi

text: Another category of "doujinshi" is furry or "kemono", often depicting homosexual male pairings of anthropomorphic animal characters and, less often, lesbian pairings. Furry "doujinshi" shares some characteristics with the "yaoi" and "yuri" genres, with many furry "doujinshi" depicting characters in erotic settings or circumstances, or incorporating elements typical of anime and manga, such as exaggerated drawings of eyes or facial expressions.


title: Doujinshi

text: A major part of "doujinshi", whether based on mainstream publications or original, contains sexually explicit material, due to both the large demand for such publications and absence of restrictions official publishing houses have to follow. Indeed, often the main point of a given "doujinshi" is to present an explicit version of a popular show's characters. Such works may be known to English speakers as ""H-doujinshi"", in line with the former Japanese use of letter H to denote erotic material. The Japanese usage, however, has since moved towards the word "ero", and so is the term almost exclusively used to mark "doujinshi" with adult themes. Sometimes they will also be termed or (an abbreviation of


title: Doujinshi

text: Most "doujinshi" are commercially bound and published by "doujinshi-ka" (doujinshi authors) who self-publish through various printing services. Copybooks, however, are self-made using xerox machines or other copying methods. Few are copied by drawing by hand.


title: Doujinshi

text: Not all category terms used by English-language fans of "doujinshi" are derived from Japanese. For example, an "AU doujinshi" is one set in an alternate universe.


title: Doujinshi

text: Many "doujinshi" are derivative works that are produced without the permission of the original creator, a practice that has existed since the early 1980s. "Doujinshi" are considered "shinkokuzai" under Japanese copyright law, meaning that "doujinshi" creators cannot be prosecuted unless a complaint is made by the holders of the copyrights they have violated. In 2016, then-Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe affirmed that "doujinshi" "don't compete in the market with the original works and don't damage the original creators' profits, so they are "shinkokuzai"." Copyright holders take an unofficial policy of non-enforcement towards the "doujinshi" market, as it is seen as having a beneficial impact on the commercial manga market: it creates an avenue for aspiring manga artists to practice, and talented "doujinshi" creators are often recruited by publishers. Salil K. Mehra, a law professor at Temple University, hypothesizes that "doujinshi" market causes the manga market to be more productive, and that strict enforcement of copyright law would cause the industry to suffer.


title: Doujinshi

text: In 1999, the author of an erotic Pokémon manga was prosecuted by Nintendo. This created a media furor as well as an academic analysis in Japan of the copyright issues around "doujinshi". At this time, the legal analysis seemed to conclude that "doujinshi" should be overlooked because they are produced by amateurs for one-day events and not sold in the commercial market. In 2006, an artist selling an imagined "final chapter" for the series "Doraemon", which was never completed, was given a warning by the estate of author Fujiko F. Fujio. His creation apparently looked confusingly similar to a real Doraemon manga. He ceased distribution of his "doujinshi" and sent compensation to the publisher voluntarily. The publisher noted at this time that "doujinshi" were not usually a cause of concern for him. The Yomiuri Shinbun noted, "Fanzines don't usually cause many problems as long as they are sold only at one-day exhibitions," but quoted an expert saying that due to their increasing popularity a copyright system should be set up.


title: Doujinshi

text: In 2020, the Intellectual Property High Court ordered a "doujinshi" sharing website to pay ¥2.19 million to a creator whose "doujinshi" were uploaded to the website without their consent. The file sharing site claimed that as the "doujinshi" was a derivative work it was not protected by copyright law, though the court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to classify the "doujinshi" as an illegally derivative work. The ruling was noted by commentators as potentially broadening rights for "doujinshi" creators under commercial law.


title: Doujinshi

text: John Oppliger of AnimeNation stated in 2005 that creating "doujinshi" is largely popular with Japanese fans, but not with Western fans. Oppliger claimed that because Japanese natives grow up with anime and manga "as a constant companion", Japanese fans "are more intuitively inclined" to create or expand on existing manga and anime in the form of "doujinshi". Since Western fans experience a "more purely" visual experience as most Western fans cannot understand the Japanese language, the original language of most anime, and are "encouraged by social pressure to grow out of cartoons and comics during the onset of adolescence", most of them usually participate in utilizing and rearranging existing work into anime music videos.


title: Doujinshi

text: In most Western cultures, "doujinshi" is often perceived to be derivative of existing work, analogous to fan fiction and almost completely pornographic. This is partly true: "doujinshi" are often, though not always, parodies or alternative storylines involving the worlds of popular manga, game or anime series, and can often feature overtly sexual material. However, there are also many non sexually explicit "doujinshi" being created as well. The Touhou Project series for example, is known to be notable for the large amount of "doujinshi" being produced for it that are not pornographic in nature. Some groups releasing adults-only themed materials during the annual Touhou only event Reitaisai in 2008 were only estimated at 10%.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: "Face Off" is the thirteenth episode and season finale of the fourth season of the American television drama series "Breaking Bad", and the 46th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on AMC in the United States on October 9, 2011. It was directed and written by series creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: The episode marks the culmination of the arc concerning the conflict between Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) which served as the focus of the fourth season. The episode marks Esposito's final appearance as Fring, as well as the final appearances of recurring characters Hector Salamanca and Tyrus Kitt, played by Mark Margolis and Ray Campbell, respectively.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: The episode received widespread critical acclaim on its initial airing and was named by "TV Guide" as one of the best episodes in all of television in 2011.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: Walter White removes the bomb from Gus Fring's car and asks Jesse Pinkman if he knows of a place Gus frequents that does not have security cameras. Before Jesse can think of one, he is approached by two detectives concerned about his knowledge of ricin who interrogate him. When Saul Goodman arrives as Jesse's lawyer, Jesse tells him of a potential location that Gus goes to that is not well guarded: Hector Salamanca's retirement home, the Casa Tranquila.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: Walt visits Hector and offers him a truce via an opportunity to kill Gus as revenge. Hector asks to speak with the DEA but rather than disclosing anything, simply insults them (by spelling out S-U-C-K-M-Y and F-U-C on a letter board). However, Gus believes Hector is going to the DEA to tell them about his true identity and visits Hector to kill him, as Walt anticipated. Tyrus Kitt inspects Hector's retirement home room for any traps but finds nothing. Gus enters and admonishes him for supposedly being a coward, and prepares to kill him via lethal injection. However, Hector looks up at Gus for the first time in years, with a helpless expression, and Gus is shocked. Hector then breaks out into a rage, smiling and repeatedly ringing his bell, detonating the bomb underneath his wheelchair. The explosion kills him and Tyrus. Gus walks out of the room with his face half blown off, before dying.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: Walt hears the news of the explosion on the radio and is relieved. Jesse is released from police custody but is forced to cook meth at the lab at gunpoint. Walt heads to the lab, kills Gus' two henchmen stationed there, and frees Jesse. Knowing that Hank Schrader is closing in on the lab, Walt and Jesse burn it down.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: Later, Jesse tells Walt that Brock Cantillo will live and that he was poisoned by lily of the valley berries, which children sometimes eat because of their sweet taste. Although Jesse questions killing Gus, since Gus never poisoned Brock after all, Walt assures Jesse that it had to be done. Walt calls Skyler White, who—along with the rest of the family, still under lockdown—is learning of the explosion from the news. Skyler asks Walt if he had caused the explosion and what happened, to which he simply replies, "I won". The episode ends with a shot of a lily of the valley plant in Walt's backyard, revealing that it was him who poisoned Brock.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: The episode was written and directed by the series creator Vince Gilligan. It marked Gilligan's final directorial credit on the series before the series finale.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: This episode marks the final appearance in the series of Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring, and recurring actors Mark Margolis as Hector Salamanca and Ray Campbell as Tyrus Kitt. Esposito, Campbell and Margolis would reprise their respective roles in "Breaking Bad" spin-off series "Better Call Saul": Margolis from the show's second season, and Esposito and Campbell from the third.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: The plot wrapup was planned by the series' production team since the beginning of the season, partly because they were not certain at the time whether the series was going to be renewed for another season. The visual effect of Gus Fring's massive facial wounds took months to prepare, with assistance from Greg Nicotero and the special effects team from fellow AMC drama "The Walking Dead". The effect was produced using elaborate makeup on Giancarlo Esposito's face, with additional computer-generated imagery that combined two separate shots. The episode's title "Face Off" was also meant to be a reference to Gus losing half of his face in the explosion.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: The songs playing throughout the episode were "Black" by Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi featuring Norah Jones, "Goodbye" by Apparat, and "Freestyle" by Taalbi Brothers. The use of all three songs was praised as among the series' greatest musical choices by "Uproxx", while "Complex" specifically named "Black" on a similar list.


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: The episode received unanimous acclaim from television critics. Seth Amitin of "IGN" awarded the episode 9.5 out of 10, describing it as "the perfect blend of Breaking Bad". Alan Sepinwall, reviewing for HitFix, said the episode was "fantastic, from beginning to end". Matt Richenthal of TV Fanatic awarded the episode a 4.8 out of 5 and described "Breaking Bad" as "the best show on television". Donna Bowman of "The A.V. Club" awarded the episode an "A". James Poniewozik of "Time" magazine described the finale as "stunning, morally searing and, well, explosive ... with a few holy-crap moments for the ages", while Tim Goodman of "The Hollywood Reporter" reckoned that the episode "did a lot of things right, course-correcting most ... worries and giving viewers not only an action-packed, satisfying episode but putting the show on the path to finish ... in a nearly perfect dramatic state."


title: Face Off (Breaking Bad)

text: The episode was nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards at the 64th ceremony, including Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for Vince Gilligan; Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for Mark Margolis; Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series; Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series; Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series; Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One-Hour); and Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role. Editor Skip Macdonald won the ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited One-Hour Series for Commercial Television for this episode. Gilligan was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series. The episode also received nominations for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Series at the Cinema Audio Society Awards; Best Sound Editing in Television – Short Form: Sound Effects and Foley at the Golden Reel Awards; and Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program at the Visual Effects Society Awards.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: The Norse exploration of North America began in the late 10th century, when Norsemen explored areas of the North Atlantic colonizing Greenland and creating a short term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland. This is known now as L'Anse aux Meadows where the remains of buildings were found in 1960 dating to approximately 1,000 years ago. This discovery helped reignite archaeological exploration for the Norse in the North Atlantic. This single settlement, located on the island of Newfoundland and not on the North American mainland, was abruptly abandoned.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: The Norse settlements on Greenland lasted for almost 500 years. L'Anse aux Meadows, the only confirmed Norse site in present-day Canada, was small and did not last as long. Other such Norse voyages are likely to have occurred for some time, but there is no evidence of any Norse settlement on mainland North America lasting beyond the 11th century.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: The Norse exploration of North America has been subject to numerous controversies concerning the European exploration and Settlement of North America. Pseudoscientific and pseudo-historical theories have emerged since the public acknowledgment of these Norse expeditions and settlements.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Norsemen from Iceland first settled Greenland in the 980s. There is no special reason to doubt the authority of the information that the sagas supply regarding the very beginning of the settlement, but they cannot be treated as primary evidence for the history of Norse Greenland because they embody the literary preoccupations of writers and audiences in medieval Iceland that are not always reliable.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Erik the Red (Old Norse: Eiríkr rauði), having been banished from Iceland for manslaughter, explored the uninhabited southwestern coast of Greenland during the three years of his banishment. He made plans to entice settlers to the area, naming it Greenland on the assumption that "people would be more eager to go there because the land had a good name". The inner reaches of one long fjord, named "Eiriksfjord" after him, was where he eventually established his estate "Brattahlid". He issued tracts of land to his followers.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Norse Greenland consisted of two settlements. The Eastern was at the southwestern tip of Greenland, while the Western Settlement was about 500 km up the west coast, inland from present-day Nuuk. A smaller settlement near the Eastern Settlement is sometimes considered the Middle Settlement. The combined population was around 2,000–3,000. At least 400 farms have been identified by archaeologists. Norse Greenland had a bishopric (at Garðar) and exported walrus ivory, furs, rope, sheep, whale and seal blubber, live animals such as polar bears, supposed "unicorn horns" (in reality narwhal tusks), and cattle hides. In 1126, the population requested a bishop (headquartered at Garðar), and in 1261, they accepted the overlordship of the Norwegian king. They continued to have their own law and became almost completely politically independent after 1349, the time of the Black Death. In 1380, the Kingdom of Norway entered into a personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: There is evidence of Norse trade with the natives (called the by the Norse). The Norse would have encountered both Native Americans (the Beothuk, related to the Algonquin) and the Thule, the ancestors of the Inuit. The Dorset had withdrawn from Greenland before the Norse settlement of the island. Items such as comb fragments, pieces of iron cooking utensils and chisels, chess pieces, ship rivets, carpenter's planes, and oaken ship fragments used in Inuit boats have been found far beyond the traditional range of Norse colonization. A small ivory statue that appears to represent a European has also been found among the ruins of an Inuit community house.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: The settlements began to decline in the 14th century. The Western Settlement was abandoned around 1350, and the last bishop at Garðar died in 1377. After a marriage was recorded in 1408, no written records mention the settlers. It is probable that the Eastern Settlement was defunct by the late 15th century. The most recent radiocarbon date found in Norse settlements as of 2002 was 1430 (±15 years). Several theories have been advanced to explain the decline.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: The Little Ice Age of this period would have made travel between Greenland and Europe, as well as farming, more difficult; although seal and other hunting provided a healthy diet, there was more prestige in cattle farming, and there was increased availability of farms in Scandinavian countries depopulated by famine and plague epidemics. In addition, Greenlandic ivory may have been supplanted in European markets by cheaper ivory from Africa. Despite the loss of contact with the Greenlanders, the Norwegian-Danish crown continued to consider Greenland a possession.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Not knowing whether the old Norse civilization remained in Greenland or not—and worried that if it did, it would still be Catholic 200 years after the Scandinavian homelands had experienced the Reformation—a joint merchant-clerical expedition led by the Nowegian missionary Hans Egede was sent to Greenland in 1721. Though this expedition found no surviving Europeans, it marked the beginning of Denmark's re-assertion of sovereignty over the island.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Norse Greenlanders were limited to scattered fjords on the island that provided a spot for their animals (such as cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and cats) to be kept and farms to be established. In these fjords, the farms depended upon stables ("byres") to host their livestock in the winter, and routinely culled their herds so that they could survive the season. The coming warmer seasons meant that livestock were taken from their byres to pasture, the most fertile being controlled by the most powerful farms and the church. What was produced by livestock and farming was supplemented with subsistence hunting of mainly seal and caribou as well as walrus for trade. The Norse mainly relied on the "Nordrsetur" hunt, a communal hunt of migratory harp seals that would take place during spring.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Trade was highly important to the Greenland Norse and they relied on imports of lumber due to the barrenness of Greenland. In turn they exported goods such as walrus ivory and hide, live polar bears, and narwhal tusks. Ultimately these setups were vulnerable as they relied on migratory patterns created by climate as well as the viability of the few fjords on the island. A portion of the time the Greenland settlements existed was during the Little Ice Age and the climate was, overall, becoming cooler and more humid. As climate began to cool and humidity began to increase, this brought more storms, longer winters and shorter springs, and affected the migratory patterns of the harp seal. Pasture space began to dwindle and fodder yields for the winter became much smaller. This combined with regular herd culling made it hard to maintain livestock, especially for the poorest of the Greenland Norse. Closer to the Eastern Settlement, temperatures remained stable but a prolonged drought reduced fodder production. In spring, the voyages to where migratory harp seals could be found became more dangerous due to more frequent storms, and the lower population of harp seals meant that "Nordrsetur" hunts became less successful, making subsistence hunting extremely difficult. The strain on resources made trade difficult, and as time went on, Greenland exports lost value in the European market due to competing countries and the lack of interest in what was being traded. Trade in elephant ivory began competing with the trade in walrus tusks that provided income to Greenland, and there is evidence that walrus over-hunting, particularly of the males with larger tusks, led to walrus population declines.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: In addition, it seemed that the Norse were unwilling to integrate with the Thule people of Greenland, either through marriage or culture. There is evidence of contact as seen through the Thule archaeological record including ivory depictions of the Norse as well as bronze and steel artifacts. However, there is essentially no material evidence of the Thule among Norse artifacts. In older research it was posited that it was not climate change alone that led to Norse decline, but also their unwillingness to adapt. For example, if the Norse had decided to focus their subsistence hunting on the ringed seal (which could be hunted year round, though individually), and decided to reduce or do away with their communal hunts, food would have been much less scarce during the winter season. Also, had Norse individuals used skin instead of wool to produce their clothing, they would have been able to fare better nearer to the coast, and wouldn't have been as confined to the fjords.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: However, more recent research has shown that the Norse did try to adapt in their own ways. Some of these attempts included increased subsistence hunting. A significant number of bones of marine animals can be found at the settlements, suggesting increased hunting with the absence of farmed food. In addition, pollen records show that the Norse didn't always devastate the small forests and foliage as previously thought. Instead the Norse ensured that overgrazed or overused sections were given time to regrow and moved to other areas. Norse farmers also attempted to adapt. With the increased need for winter fodder and smaller pastures, they would self-fertilize their lands in an attempt to keep up with the new demands caused by the changing climate. However, even with these attempts, climate change was not the only thing putting pressure on the Greenland Norse. The economy was changing, and the exports they relied on were losing value. Current research suggests that the Norse were unable to maintain their settlements because of economic and climatic change happening at the same time.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: According to the Icelandic sagas"Eirik the Red's Saga", "Saga of the Greenlanders", plus chapters of the "Hauksbók" and the "Flatey Book"the Norse started to explore lands to the west of Greenland only a few years after the Greenland settlements were established. In 985, while sailing from Iceland to Greenland with a migration fleet consisting of 400–700 settlers and 25 other ships (14 of which completed the journey), a merchant named Bjarni Herjólfsson was blown off course, and after three days' sailing he sighted land west of the fleet. Bjarni was only interested in finding his father's farm, but he described his findings to Leif Erikson who explored the area in more detail and planted a small settlement fifteen years later.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: The sagas describe three separate areas that were explored: Helluland, which means "land of the flat stones"; Markland, "the land of forests", definitely of interest to settlers in Greenland where there were few trees; and Vinland, "the land of wine", found somewhere south of Markland. It was in Vinland that the settlement described in the sagas was founded.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Markland was first mentioned in the Mediterranean area in 1345 by the Milanese friar Galvaneus Flamma. He probably derived it from oral sources in Genoa.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Using the routes, landmarks, currents, rocks, and winds that Bjarni had described to him, Leif sailed from Greenland westward across the Labrador Sea, with a crew of 35—sailing the same knarr Bjarni had used to make the voyage. He described Helluland as "level and wooded, with broad white beaches wherever they went and a gently sloping shoreline." Leif and others had wanted his father, Erik the Red, to lead this expedition and talked him into it. However, as Erik attempted to join his son Leif on the voyage towards these new lands, he fell off his horse as it slipped on the wet rocks near the shore; thus he was injured and stayed behind.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Sometime around AD 1000, Leif spent the winter, probably near Cape Bauld on the northern tip of Newfoundland, where one day his foster father Tyrker was found drunk, on what the saga describes as "wine-berries." Squashberries, gooseberries, and cranberries all grew wild in the area. There are varying explanations for Leif apparently describing fermented berries as "wine."


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Leif spent another winter at "Leifsbúðir" without conflict, and sailed back to Brattahlíð in Greenland to assume filial duties to his father.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: A couple years later, Leif's brother Thorvald Eiriksson sailed with a crew of 30 men to Vinland and spent the following winter at Leif's camp. In the spring, Thorvald attacked nine of the native people who were sleeping under three skin-covered canoes. The ninth victim escaped and soon came back to the Norse camp with a force. Thorvald was killed by an arrow that succeeded in passing through the barricade. Although brief hostilities ensued, the Norse explorers stayed another winter and left the following spring. Subsequently, another of Leif's brothers, Thorstein, sailed to the New World to retrieve his dead brother's body, but he died before leaving Greenland.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: A few years later, Thorfinn Karlsefni, also known as "Thorfinn the Valiant", supplied three ships with livestock and 160 men and women (although another source sets the number of settlers at 250). After a cruel winter, he headed south and landed at "Straumfjord". He later moved to "Straumsöy", possibly because the current was stronger there. A sign of peaceful relations between the indigenous peoples and the Norsemen is noted here. The two sides bartered with furs and gray squirrel skins for milk and red cloth, which the natives tied around their heads as a sort of headdress.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: There are conflicting stories but one account states that a bull belonging to Karlsefni came storming out of the wood, so frightening the natives that they ran to their skin-boats and rowed away. They returned three days later, in force. The natives used catapults, hoisting "a large sphere on a pole; it was dark blue in color" and about "the size of a sheep's stomach", which flew over the heads of the men and "made an ugly din when it struck the ground".


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: The Norsemen retreated. Leif Erikson's half-sister Freydís Eiríksdóttir was pregnant and unable to keep up with the retreating Norsemen. She called out to them to stop fleeing from "such pitiful wretches", adding that if she had weapons, she could do better than that. Freydís seized the sword belonging to a man who had been killed by the natives. She pulled one of her breasts out of her bodice and slapped it with the sword, frightening the natives, who fled.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: For centuries it remained unclear whether the Icelandic stories represented real voyages by the Norse to North America. Although the idea of Norse voyages to, and a colony in, North America was discussed by Swiss scholar Paul Henri Mallet in his book "Northern Antiquities" (English translation 1770), the sagas first gained widespread attention in 1837 when the Danish antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn revived the idea of a Viking presence in North America. North America, by the name Winland, first appeared in written sources in a work by Adam of Bremen from approximately 1075. The most important works about North America and the early Norse activities there, namely the Sagas of Icelanders, were recorded in the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1420, some Inuit captives and their kayaks were taken to Scandinavia. The Norse sites were depicted in the Skálholt Map, made by an Icelandic teacher in 1570 and depicting part of northeastern North America and mentioning Helluland, Markland and Vinland.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Evidence of the Norse west of Greenland came in the 1960s when archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad and her husband, outdoorsman and author Helge Ingstad, excavated a Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. They found a bronze, ring-headed pin like those the Norse used to fasten their cloaks inside the cooking pit of one of the larger dwellings. A stone oil lamp and a small spindle whorl, used as the flywheel of a handheld spindle, were found inside another building. A fragment of a bone needle believed to have been used for knitting was discovered in the firepit of a third dwelling. A small, decorated brass fragment, once gilded, was also discovered. Much slag formed as a by-product from the smelting and working of iron was found on the site along with many iron boat nails or rivets.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: In 2012 Canadian researchers identified possible signs of Norse outposts in Nanook at Tanfield Valley on Baffin Island, as well as on Nunguvik, Willows Island, and Avayalik. Unusual fabric cordage found on Baffin Island in the 1980s and stored at the Canadian Museum of Civilization was identified in 1999 as possibly of Norse manufacture; that discovery led to more comprehensive exploration of the Tanfield Valley archaeological site for points of contact between Norse Greenlanders and the indigenous Dorset people.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: In 2021 some wood from L'Anse aux Meadows was dated to 1021, reinforcing the archaeological evidence that the settlement was built by Norsemen. The same year, Yale acknowledged that the Vinland Map is a forgery and Gordon Campbell's book "Norse America" was published. The book develops his thesis that the "fleeting and ill-documented" idea that Vikings "discovered America" quickly seduced Americans of northern European Protestant descent, some of whom went on to deliberately manufacture evidence to support it.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Purported runestones have been found in North America, most famously the Kensington Runestone. These are generally considered forgeries or misinterpretations of Native American petroglyphs.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: In late 1898 Swedish immigrant Olof Öhman stated that he found this rune in Kensington, Minnesota, while clearing land he had recently acquired. He stated that the rune was lying face down and tangled in various roots near the crest of a small knoll within an area of wetlands. After Olaus J. Breda (1853–1916), professor of Scandinavian Languages and Literature in the Scandinavian Department at the University of Minnesota analyzed the inscriptions, she declared the rune to be a forgery and published a discrediting article in "Symra" in 1910. Breda also forwarded copies of the inscription to various contemporary Scandinavian linguists and historians, such as Oluf Rygh, Sophus Bugge, Gustav Storm, Magnus Olsen and Adolf Noreen. They "unanimously pronounced the Kensington inscription a fraud and forgery of recent date".


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: The nineteenth-century Harvard chemist Eben Norton Horsford connected the Charles River Basin to places described in the Norse sagas and elsewhere, notably Norumbega. He published several books on the topic and had plaques, monuments, and statues erected in honor of the Norse. His work received little support from mainstream historians and archeologists at the time, and even less today.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Other nineteenth-century writers, such as Horsford's friend Thomas Gold Appleton, in his "A Sheaf of Papers" (1875), and George Perkins Marsh, in his "The Goths in New England", seized upon such false notions of Viking history also to promote the superiority of white people (as well as to oppose the Catholic Church). Such misuse of Viking history and imagery reemerged in the twentieth century among some groups promoting white supremacy.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: During the mid-1960's Yale University announced the acquisition of a map purportedly drawn around 1440 that showed Vinland and a legend concerning Norse voyages to the region. However certain experts doubted the authenticity of the map, based on linguistic and cartographic inconsistencies. Chemical analysis of the map's ink later shed further doubts on its authenticity. Scientific debate continued until in 2021 the university finally acknowledged that the Vinland Map is a forgery.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Archeological findings in 2015 at Point Rosee, on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, were originally thought to reveal evidence of a turf wall and the roasting of bog iron ore, and therefore a possible 10th century Norse settlement in Canada. Findings from the 2016 excavation suggest the turf wall and the roasted bog iron ore discovered in 2015 were the result of natural processes. The possible settlement was initially discovered through satellite imagery in 2014, and archaeologists excavated the area in 2015 and 2016. Birgitta Linderoth Wallace, one of the leading experts of Norse archaeology in North America and an expert on the Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows, is unsure of the identification of Point Rosee as a Norse site. Archaeologist Karen Milek was a member of the 2016 Point Rosee excavation and is a Norse expert. She also expressed doubt that Point Rosee was a Norse site as there are no good landing sites for their boats and there are steep cliffs between the shoreline and the excavation site. In their 8 November 2017, report Sarah Parcak and Gregory Mumford, co-directors of the excavation, wrote that they "found no evidence whatsoever for either a Norse presence or human activity at Point Rosee prior to the historic period" and that "none of the team members, including the Norse specialists, deemed this area as having any traces of human activity."


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: Settlements in continental North America aimed to exploit natural resources such as furs and in particular lumber, which was in short supply in Greenland. It is unclear why the short-term settlements did not become permanent, though it was likely in part because of hostile relations with the indigenous peoples, referred to as the "Skræling" by the Norse. Nevertheless, it appears that sporadic voyages to Markland for forages, timber, and trade with the locals could have lasted as long as 400 years.


title: Norse colonization of North America

text: James Watson Curran writes:From 985 to 1410, Greenland was in touch with the world. Then silence. In 1492 the Vatican noted that no news of that country "at the end of the world" had been received for 80 years, and the bishopric of the colony was offered to a certain ecclesiastic if he would go and "restore Christianity" there. He didn't go.


title: Lil B

text: Brandon Christopher McCartney (born August 17, 1989), professionally known as Lil B and as his alter ego The BasedGod, is an American rapper. Lil B has recorded both solo and with Bay Area group The Pack. His solo work spans several genres, including hip hop, new age, indie rock and choral music. He describes his work as "based", a term which denotes a lifestyle of positivity and tolerance; and is noted for his extensive use of social media to build an online cult following.


title: Lil B

text: McCartney grew up in Berkeley, California, and attended high school at Albany High in Albany. He adopted the name Lil B, and began rapping at age 15 with San Francisco Bay Area based hip hop group The Pack. After two locally successful mixtapes, at the peak of the Bay Area's hyphy movement, the group's song "Vans" became a surprise hit. The song was ranked as the fifth best of 2006 by "Rolling Stone" magazine. The strength of "Vans" led the group to release the "Skateboards 2 Scrapers" EP, featuring a "Vans" remix with Bay Area rappers Too $hort and Mistah F.A.B. In 2007, Lil B and The Pack released their first album, "Based Boys".


title: Lil B

text: On September 24, 2009, Lil B released his first digital album, "I'm Thraxx", via independent label Permanent Marks. On December 22, 2009, Lil B released his second digital album, "6 Kiss", to critical reception. On March 25, 2010, Lil B released his debut mixtape "Dior Paint". On April 3, 2010, Lil B officially signed to fellow artist Soulja Boy's label SODMG Entertainment. On May 7, 2010, Lil B released a mixtape entitled "Base World Pt. 1". On July 5, 2010, Lil B released a collaboration mixtape with Soulja Boy entitled "Pretty Boy Millionaires". Lil B had recorded over 1,500 tracks as of July 2010, including hits "Like A Martian", "Wonton Soup", "Pretty Bitch", "I'm God", all of which were released for free. On September 21, 2010, Lil B released his debut studio album, "Rain in England", through Weird Forest Records; it was described by " The Guardian" as "a beatless, Beat poetry-style set where Lil B, voice a-quiver with earnestness, ponders love, beauty and all the bad things in the world over naïf new-age synth washes".


title: Lil B

text: On December 29, 2010, it was announced and confirmed that Lil B apparently signed an album deal with Amalgam Digital. On July 10, 2011, Lil B released the EP "Paint", through his label BasedWorld Records.


title: Lil B

text: On January 18, 2011, Lil B released his fourth digital album entitled "Angels Exodus", through Amalgam Digital. On April 14, 2011, Lil B announced that his next album would be entitled "I'm Gay", which caused a degree of controversy. On June 29, 2011, Lil B released his fifth digital album, "I'm Gay (I'm Happy)", through Amalgam Digital; the album entered the "Billboard" R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at number 56 and the Heatseekers Albums chart at number 20 for the week of July 16, 2011.


title: Lil B

text: On May 17, 2012, Lil B released his first instrumental album, "Choices and Flowers", under the alias "The Basedgod". On September 16, 2012, Lil B released a rock single entitled "California Boy". On December 30, 2012, Lil B released his second instrumental album entitled "Tears 4 God", also under the alias "The Basedgod".


title: Lil B

text: On December 24, 2013, Lil B released the mixtape "05 Fuck Em", which contained 101 songs. On June 1, 2014, Lil B released a mixtape entitled "Hoop Life", which would be known for containing a track entitled "F*ck KD" that called out NBA player Kevin Durant. On October 14, 2014, Lil B released the "Ultimate Bitch" mixtape, featuring the song "No Black Person Is Ugly." On July 19, 2015, Lil B and Chance the Rapper announced that they recorded a new collaborative mixtape.


title: Lil B

text: On August 17, 2017, Lil B released "Black Ken", describing it as his "first official mixtape." The mixtape reached number 24 on the Top Heatseekers chart and number 44 on the Independent Albums chart for the week of September 2, 2017.


title: Lil B

text: Lil B and music critics refer to his rapping style as "based", a word that Lil B also uses to describe a positive, tolerant lifestyle. "Based" is a reclaimed word, as described by Lil B in "Complex":


title: Lil B

text: "Slate" columnist Jonah Weiner labeled him as one of a "growing number of weird-o emcees", calling him a "brilliantly warped, post-Lil Wayne deconstructionist from the Bay Area". Musical critic Willy Staley described Lil B's work as "variegated", because it ranges from critical parodies of the hip-hop genre to "half new age, half spoken word". He further notes that Lil B draws from a large variety of genres, especially those not commonly used by other rappers. In an interview with Staley, Lil B agrees with this analysis, saying, "I can do 'Swag OD' but then my favorite musical artist right now could be Antony and the Johnsons. That's the difference between me and these other rappers, and other musical artists in general."


title: Lil B

text: "Takin' Over by Imposing the Positive!" is a book written by McCartney and published through Kele Publishing in 2009. The book is a collection of and written in the form of e-mails and text messages, and is written in such a way that the author is e-mailing the reader. Subjects include positivity, optimism, and living what he calls a "Based Lifestyle". The book was passed out in an unscripted NYU lecture in March 2012. On March 30, 2013, McCartney announced that he was in the process of writing his second book.


title: Lil B

text: Lil B has given motivational lectures at several colleges, including MIT and Carnegie Mellon University. They are generally focused around his personal experience in life and current events. On May 28, 2015, the rapper gave a lecture at UCLA, where he touched on subjects like money, the media, technology, space, awareness, and love.


title: Lil B

text: Lil B launched the "Basedmoji" app on January 16, 2015. On January 17, 2015, Lil B released "vegEMOJI", in cooperation with vegan company "Follow Your Heart", despite the fact that Lil B is not yet a vegan, he has stated that he is cutting down on his consumption of processed foods, and that he is "ashamed of eating meat".


title: Lil B

text: On January 16, 2015, Lil B's apartment building in Contra Costa County, California, caught on fire early in the morning on Thursday after an electrical fire spread through the building. Lil B and six other people were saved by 15-year-old Mateo Ysmael, who ran through the building to wake everyone up.


title: Lil B

text: For the 2016 U.S. presidential election, he endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, citing his civil rights record.


title: Lil B

text: When Lil B released his fifth album, titled "I'm Gay", he received several death threats. Although he is heterosexual, he says the title is a message of support to the LGBT community. Referring to the original definition of gay, he says he is gay because he is happy, and subsequently changed the title to "I'm Gay (I'm Happy)".


title: Lil B

text: In 2010, a number of exchanges between Lil B and Joe Budden were had over Twitter. Budden had been seeming to speak mockingly about Lil B's "Based" movement and his tweets, to which Lil B responded, initially friendly but then with insults. Lil B went on to release a diss track called "T Shirts & Buddens", which was then featured on his "Everything Based" mixtape. Lil B later apologized for his insults and noted his respect for Budden, calling him a "legend".


title: Lil B

text: In 2011, after hearing a verse from Lil B on the Lil Wayne mixtape "Sorry 4 the Wait", Compton rapper Game referred to Lil B as the "wackest rapper of all time." Lil B responded by calling Game "irrelevant," to which Game then threatened to knockout Lil B. Game targeted Lil B in his verse in his track "Martians vs Goblins" featuring Lil Wayne and Tyler, the Creator, with the line "Tie Lil B up to a tank full of propane, swag, now watch him cook". Lil B addressed this on his track "Tank of Propaine" on his "White Flame" mixtape. Several weeks later, the two settled their differences through Twitter after which Lil B urged fans to purchase Game's "The R.E.D. Album".


title: Lil B

text: Lil B took offense to the lyrics in the song "Survival Tactics" by late rapper Capital STEEZ, a founding member of the group Pro Era. In this, he raps, "They say hard work pays off / Well, tell the BasedGod don't quit his day job." Lil B responded with a song titled "I'm The Bada$$". Joey Bada$$ then responded with a song titled "Don't Quit Your Day Job!" When the feud became public on Twitter, Joey became a target of a lot of attacks from Lil B's fans, which ended up with Joey deleting his Twitter account, though restoring it later. In an interview with WWPR-FM, Joey Badass denied that he deleted his Twitter account because of Lil B's fans. Later, in an interview with VladTV, Joey admitted the feud was created for publicity, and admitted he's a fan of Lil B's more serious work.


title: Lil B

text: In 2011, NBA superstar Kevin Durant tweeted his befuddlement with Lil B's popularity, and Lil B responded by "cursing" Durant that he would never win the NBA championship. The curse had been rescinded in 2012 but then reinstated in 2014. The feud between the two has simmered since then, resulting in Lil B releasing the diss track "Fuck KD" in 2014 and a commercial on NBA TV, where Lil B calls out Kevin Durant. Lil B has claimed the "curse of the Based God" to be responsible for Durant and his Oklahoma City Thunder team's loss to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals of the 2016 NBA Playoffs. The Thunder had been up 3 games to 1 in a best-of-7 series, but then went on to lose the series in stunning fashion after losing the next 3 games in a row. On July 4, 2016, following the announcement of Durant leaving the Thunder for the Golden State Warriors, Lil B rescinded the curse again. Coincidentally, Durant proceeded to win an NBA Championship the following two years in 2017 and 2018.


title: Lil B

text: During the Western Conference Finals of the 2015 NBA Playoffs, Lil B began questioning NBA superstar James Harden's "cooking dance", a dance allegedly coined by Lil B which he had been doing all season long, and tweeted that if he doesn't receive an answer from Harden regarding that dance then Harden will receive the "Based God curse" similar to Kevin Durant. Lil B attributed the Houston Rockets loss to the Golden State Warriors with the score of 99–98 in Game 2, and again in Game 3 with the score of 115–80, to the curse. On May 24, 2015, Lil B announced on "TMZ Sports" that he has placed Harden under the "Based God curse" for the remainder of the playoffs and until further notice. On May 27, 2015, Lil B was present at Oracle Arena for Game 5 where the Warriors ultimately defeated the Rockets with the score of 104–90, becoming the Western Conference champions. Additionally, during this same game Harden set an NBA Playoff record with 13 turnovers, prompting Lil B to publicly consider lifting the curse. On June 4, 2017, Lil B announced on a live taping of "First Take" that he has lifted the curse from Harden.


title: Lil B

text: At the 2017 Rolling Loud Bay Area festival, Lil B was forced to cancel his set due to an alleged altercation with A Boogie wit da Hoodie backstage. Upon taking the stage to announce the cancellation of his set, he told the crowd he was attacked by "A Boogie and his whole crew" and that his equipment was also stolen, attributing the event to his criticism of New York hip hop in a recent Tweet. Footage of the altercation subsequently surfaced, and Lil B fans immediately expressed outrage on social media. Witnesses backstage also accused PnB Rock of being involved in the attack. Despite the incident, Lil B maintained a positive stance and even urged his supporters to forgive A Boogie later that day on Twitter.


title: Lil B

text: The incident led to an immediate wave of support of Lil B from fans and other figures in the music industry. Schoolboy Q and Travis Scott, fellow performers at the festival, expressed their support for the rapper upon taking the stage for their respective sets. Other artists including Big Sean, Skepta, G-Eazy, 6lack, Kreayshawn, A-Trak, Alison Wonderland, SpaceGhostPurrp, Lupe Fiasco, Kaytranada, and Mike Dean also expressed their support of the rapper on social media. Amidst the fallout of the incident, PnB Rock was pulled from the festival's lineup and replaced by Kreayshawn. Lil B and A Boogie officially ended the feud two days later, through a phone call initiated by Kilo Curt of the late Mac Dre's Thizz Entertainment. Both artists took to Twitter to announce the end of the feud.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: Wolfgang Petersen (14 March 1941 – 12 August 2022) was a German film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for the World War II submarine warfare film "Das Boot" (1981). His other films include "The NeverEnding Story" (1984), "Enemy Mine" (1985), "In the Line of Fire" (1993), "Outbreak" (1995), "Air Force One" (1997), "The Perfect Storm" (2000), "Troy" (2004), and "Poseidon" (2006).


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: Petersen was born on 14 March 1941 in Emden, the son of a naval officer. From 1953 to 1960, Petersen attended the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums in Hamburg.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: He made his first films with an 8 mm camera while still at school. In the 1960s he was directing plays at Hamburg's Ernst Deutsch Theater. After studying theater in Berlin and Hamburg, Petersen attended the Film and Television Academy in Berlin (1966–1970).


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: Petersen's first productions were for German television, and it was during his work on the popular German "Tatort" ("Crime Scene") TV series that he first met and worked with the actor Jürgen Prochnow — who would later appear as the U-boat captain in Petersen's famous "Das Boot". The most famous of his "Tatort" episodes is "Reifezeugnis" (Maturity Certificate) from 1977 with the young Nastassja Kinski. He shot 6 "Tatort" episodes.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: Petersen made his first theatrical feature film in 1974, the psychological thriller "One or the Other of Us", based on the novel "Einer von uns beiden" by Horst Bosetzky and published anonymously under his pseudonym and starring Jürgen Prochnow. He next directed the 1977 film "Die Konsequenz", a black/white adaptation of Alexander Ziegler's autobiographical novel of homosexual love. In its time, the film was considered so radical that when first broadcast in Germany, the Bavarian network Bayerischer Rundfunk turned off the transmitters rather than broadcast it.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: His next feature was the World War II epic "Das Boot", released in early 1982. The film chronicles the experiences of a German submarine crew engaged in the "Battle of the Atlantic". Though not an immediate financial success, the film received highly positive reviews and was nominated for six Academy Awards, two of which (for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay) went to Petersen; he was also nominated for a BAFTA Award and DGA Award. The film starred Jürgen Prochnow as the U-boat Captain, who became a good example of Petersen's action characters, a man at war who confronts danger and fate at sea.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: After "The NeverEnding Story" (1984), Petersen's first English-language film, he directed "Enemy Mine" (1985), which was not a critical or box office success. He hit his stride in 1993 with the assassination thriller "In the Line of Fire". Starring Clint Eastwood as an angst-ridden presidential Secret Service guard, "In the Line of Fire" gave Petersen the box office clout he needed to direct another suspense thriller, "Outbreak" (1995), starring Dustin Hoffman. The 1997 Petersen blockbuster "Air Force One" did very well at the box office, with generally positive critical reviews from movie critics. For both "Air Force One" and "Outbreak", Petersen teamed up with the German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, who has also worked frequently with director Martin Scorsese.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: By 1998, Petersen was an established Hollywood director, with the power to both re-release his classic "Das Boot" in a new director's cut and to helm star-studded action-thrillers. As such, he was originally considered to direct the first movie in the "Harry Potter" film series, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". Petersen pulled out of the running in March 2000.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: In the 2000s, Petersen continued to direct two summer blockbusters, the films "The Perfect Storm" (2000) and "Troy" (2004). The success of the former helped his Radiant Productions company to sign a deal with Warner Bros.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: Petersen's $160 million epic film "Poseidon", a re-telling of the 1969 Paul Gallico novel "The Poseidon Adventure" (previously adapted for the 1972 disaster film), was released by Warner Bros. in May 2006. The film performed poorly in the U.S., barely exceeding $60 million in domestic box office receipts by early August, but international sales surpassed $121 million.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: Although hired to direct the film adaptation of "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card that was scheduled for release in 2008, he later "moved on" from the project. His potential projects included a live-action adaptation of the 2006 anime film "Paprika" and a film adaptation of the science fiction novel "Old Man's War".


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: After a ten-year hiatus, Petersen returned in 2016 as director of the heist comedy "Vier gegen die Bank", his first German-language film since "Das Boot" in 1981.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: Petersen's first marriage was with actress ; they had a son. In 1978, he married his assistant Maria Borgel. Petersen moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and subsequently acquired American citizenship.


title: Wolfgang Petersen

text: Petersen died of pancreatic cancer on 12 August 2022, at the age of 81, at his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, United States.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: Anthony Fantano ( ; born October 28, 1985) is an American music critic and YouTuber who runs the YouTube channel The Needle Drop and its tie-in website. He discusses and reviews music from a variety of genres in his YouTube videos and on his website.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: Fantano spent his teenage years in Wolcott, Connecticut. As a teenager, Fantano became interested in politics through the work of the musician Jello Biafra, former lead singer of the punk band Dead Kennedys, calling him "pretty much my political idol".


title: Anthony Fantano

text: Fantano started his career in the mid-2000s as a music director for the Southern Connecticut State University college radio station. In 2007, Fantano started working at Connecticut Public Radio (WNPR), where he hosted "The Needle Drop". That same year, he launched "The Needle Drop" in the form of written reviews, eventually launching his series of video reviews on the YouTube channel of the same name in January 2009, starting with a Jay Reatard record. Fantano has said that his review for Flying Lotus' 2010 album "Cosmogramma" appearing next to other Flying Lotus videos in YouTube's "Featured Videos" section gave him the "hint" to continue making video reviews. In 2010, Fantano removed older reviews that contained music clips in order to avoid violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. At the time, he was working on "The Needle Drop" at the college radio station, as well as at a pizza restaurant. In late 2011, he decided to pursue "The Needle Drop" full-time, but kept affiliation with WNPR until 2014. Fantano was offered an album review show on Adult Swim but declined.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: In order to earn enough money to pay his editor Austin Walsh, by November 2016, Fantano had recorded more regularly on a secondary YouTube channel, "thatistheplan", on which he reviewed memes and recorded "often irreverent videos that don't fall into the record review format", according to "Spin". This secondary channel came into question and controversy in October 2017, when an article published in "The Fader" accused Fantano of promoting alt-right sentiments in videos on "thatistheplan". Fantano was criticized for the use of Pepe the Frog memes (which had recently been labeled an alt-right symbol) and targeting feminists. After the article was released, multiple scheduled dates of "The Needle Drop" U.S. tour were cancelled, with at least one ticket booking site for a Brooklyn tour date stating that their cancellation was due to the "Fader" article.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: Fantano produced a video response calling the critical article a "hit job". He disputed accusations of sympathizing with the alt right and stated that the videos in question were satirical. The article was later deleted by "The Fader", with both parties saying that the claims were settled. In a later interview, Fantano acknowledged that there had been some "grubby, closed-minded, young, aggressive male" viewers on the "thatistheplan" channel and disavowed what he saw as the "toxic and problematic" side of internet humor, stating that the incident had led him to be more vocal in his advocacy for social justice issues.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: By the end of 2017, Fantano had reached a million subscribers and diversified his content to include weekly "track roundup" videos, livestreamed Q&As, and video think-pieces alongside his album reviews.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: In June 2019, Fantano had a cameo in Lil Nas X's video for the Young Thug and Mason Ramsey remix of "Old Town Road", appearing as a security guard for the Area 51 military installation (a reference to the "Storm Area 51" meme). Later that year he curated a charity compilation, "The Needle Drop LP", which consists of "artists that have either been featured on the site or reviewed favorably in the past". Profits from the album were donated to The Immigrant Legal Resource Center non-profit.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: On September 15, 2022, Fantano uploaded a video on his second channel claiming that Canadian musician Drake had sent private messages to him on Instagram, specifically recommending Fantano a vegan cookie recipe. One day later, Drake revealed the actual contents of his message to Fantano on Instagram Stories as a diss against him. Fantano later revealed his astonishment on an Instagram livestream, going on to joke about the debacle.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: The Needle Drop won the 2011 O Music Awards in the "Beyond the Blog" category. In 2014, Nick Veronin of "Wired" said of Fantano "Instead of deploying ten-dollar words to describe a riff or synth tone, Fantano relies on gestures, clenching his fists or contorting his elastic, expressive face. It gets at some of the more ephemeral qualities of music that written words can't begin to touch."


title: Anthony Fantano

text: When asked about the merits of Fantano's reviews, veteran music critic Robert Christgau said in 2019:


title: Anthony Fantano

text: [Fantano] seems to have arrived at a plausible brand of 21st-century rockcrit taste that runs toward what I'll call dark prog [...] Nowhere near as insensible to hip-hop/r&b as dark proggers tend to be, but note that very few female artists crack his top 10s, which in 2018 was really missing the action. Fantano seems to have figured out a way to make some kind of living by disseminating his own criticism in the online age.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: In his 2019 book "Perfect Sound Whatever", comedian James Acaster called Fantano's best albums of 2016 list "a real music fan's Top 50" and said of Fantano "perhaps more than anybody else, he appreciates how the reviewer's role has changed since the internet became a thing [...] The job of a reviewer used to be telling people what's worth their money but now it's telling people what's worth their time." In September 2020, "New York Times" culture correspondent Joe Coscarelli described Fantano as "probably the most popular music critic left standing". According to Coscarelli, Fantano has successfully brought an "old art to a new medium" and has revitalized the record review format for a younger generation of music consumers.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: Fantano resides in Connecticut. He is a vegan, having swapped to the diet after first going vegetarian in his late teens.


title: Anthony Fantano

text: In March 2018, Fantano told "Polygon" that he is a "free speech purist". Fantano endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2020 United States presidential election.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: Burning () is a 2018 South Korean psychological thriller film co-written, produced, and directed by Lee Chang-dong. The film is based on the short story "Barn Burning" from "The Elephant Vanishes" by Haruki Murakami, with elements inspired by William Faulkner's story of the same name. It stars Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, and Jeon Jong-seo. The plot depicts a young deliveryman, Jong-su (Yoo), who runs into his childhood friend, Hae-mi (Jeon). They soon meet an enigmatic young man named Ben (Yeun), whom Jong-su becomes suspicious of and begins to believe Hae-mi is in danger.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: The first film by Lee after a hiatus of eight years, the film premiered on May 16, 2018, at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or; it ended up receiving the FIPRESCI International Critics' Prize at the festival. It was released the following day in South Korea and on October 26, 2018, in the United States.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: It received almost universal critical acclaim, particularly for its sense of unease, ambiguous narrative, and performances. It was selected as the South Korean entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards; although it was not nominated, it became the first Korean film to make it to the final nine-film shortlist; another South Korean film, "Parasite" (2019), won that award at the following year's ceremony. It received numerous other accolades, and was included on several critics' "top ten" lists for the year 2018, notably those of "The New York Times", "Los Angeles Times", and the Associated Press. It has been regarded by some critics as one of the best films of the 21st century, and it was voted as the best Korean film of all time on Korean Screen, from a poll of over 150 critics from 28 countries.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: Lee Jong-su, an aspiring young novelist, performs odd jobs in Paju. One day he runs into Shin Hae-mi, a childhood neighbor and classmate, at a promotion at which he is making a delivery. Jong-su initially does not remember her, but Hae-mi tells him she had plastic surgery. Jong-su gives her the pink watch that he wins at the promotion. Later, she tells him about her upcoming trip to Africa and asks him to feed her cat, Boil, while she is away. Before Hae-mi's departure, Jong-su's father, a cattle farmer, becomes entangled in disagreeable legal affairs, and Jong-su has to return to the farm. Jong-su visits Hae-mi's apartment, where he receives instructions about feeding the cat. They then have sex.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: After Hae-mi departs, Jong-su dutifully feeds her cat, although he never sees it. He does, however, know that a cat is there because he finds feces in the litter box. He begins habitually masturbating in Hae-mi's apartment. One day Hae-mi calls, saying she had become stranded at Nairobi Airport for three days after a bombing nearby. When Jong-su comes to pick her up, she arrives with Ben, a man whom she met and bonded with during the crisis. The three go out for dinner, where Hae-mi cries and confesses that she wants to disappear. Ben is well-off, but does not give a clear answer when asked what he does for a living.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: At Jong-su's farm, the trio smoke cannabis and Hae-mi dances topless. After Hae-mi has fallen asleep on the sofa, Ben confesses that every two months, he burns an abandoned greenhouse as a hobby. He notes that Jong-su's rural neighborhood is full of greenhouses. When asked when his next burning will take place, Ben claims it will be very soon and close to Jong-su's house. Jong-su chastises Hae-mi for disrobing in front of other men. She quietly gets into Ben's car and they drive off.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: Jong-su keeps watch around the neighborhood to see if any greenhouses burn down, but none do. One afternoon, in front of an intact greenhouse that he is inspecting, he receives a call from Hae-mi, which cuts off after a few seconds of ambiguous noises. Jong-su becomes worried as she does not answer any of his calls, and begins to investigate after her phone number becomes disconnected. He convinces the landlady to let him into Hae-mi's apartment so that he can feed her cat. Hae-mi's apartment is unnaturally clean; her suitcase remains, and all signs of the cat are gone. Jong-su begins staking out Ben's apartment and following him to see where he goes. When he sees Ben's Porsche parked outside a restaurant, he goes inside to confront him. Ben insists that he did burn down a greenhouse near Jong-su's house. A young woman approaches the table, apologizing to Ben for being late. As the three of them leave the restaurant, Jong-su asks Ben if he has heard from Hae-mi and whether she had gone on a trip. Ben says he has not heard from her, and he doubts she had gone on a trip because she could not afford it. Ben says Jong-su was the only person she trusted and that it made him jealous for the first time in his life.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: One day, Ben finds Jong-su waiting outside his place and invites him up to his apartment. Ben has a new cat, which he claims is a rescued stray. In the restroom, Jong-su finds a pink watch, similar to the one he gave Hae-mi, hidden in a drawer containing other pieces of women's jewelry. When Ben's cat runs out of the apartment, Jong-su finds that it answers to the name "Boil."


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: Jong-su asks to meet Ben in the countryside, claiming he is with Hae-mi. After Ben sees that Hae-mi is not there, Jong-su stabs him to death. Jong-su douses Ben's car and body in gasoline and sets them on fire, tossing his blood-soaked clothes in as well. He stumbles naked to his truck and drives off.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: Developed as the work of the international project which was based on one of Haruki Murakami's short stories in "The Elephant Vanishes", "Barn Burning". Production was set to begin in November 2016 but was delayed by a dispute between Murakami and NHK, which owns the rights to many of Murakami's works. It also merges elements of William Faulkner's 1939 short story of the same name. In October 2016 at the Busan International Film Festival, however, Lee said, "it is a story about young people in today’s world. When they think of their lives and the world, it must feel like a mystery". In September 2017, the studio said that it had only brought the basic outlines of the story.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: In 2016, it was thought that Gang Dong-won and Yoo Ah-in would feature in the film, but an official announcement was not made. On September 5, 2017, it was announced that Yoo Ah-in had been confirmed for the role of Jong-su. Three days later, newcomer Jeon Jong-seo was cast for the role of Hae-mi based on auditions which began in August. On September 20, Steven Yeun joined the film as Ben.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: Principal photography began on September 11, 2017. Filming was completed on January 30, 2018, in Paju.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: The first film directed by Lee Chang-dong in eight years, "Burning" was widely predicted by film critics and insiders to be an in-competition entry at the upcoming 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Lee's 2007 film "Secret Sunshine" and his 2010 film "Poetry" both premiered as in-competition entries at the Cannes Film Festival. In April 2018, "Burning" was among the lineup of in-competition entries announced for the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: "Burning" was sold to more than 100 countries and territories at the Marché du Film in Cannes Film Festival. This included Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Greece, Poland and Turkey. In South Korea, "Burning" premiered in theaters on May 17, 2018. It was released in the United States on October 26, 2018. Film rights were acquired by Energia Entusiasta for Latin America. On April 29, 2019, Netflix released "Burning" on its streaming service.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: , "Burning" has grossed in the United States and Canada, and $6.1 million in other territories (including $4.2 million in South Korea), for a total worldwide gross of .


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: On its opening day in South Korea, "Burning" attracted 52,324 viewers in total, ranking second at the box office behind "Deadpool 2" (248,904 viewers). Over the first weekend of its release, "Burning" received 220,717 admissions, placing third at the local box office. By the end of its run, the film recorded 528,168 admissions in its home country.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: In its opening weekend in France, the film attracted 53,876 audience in total, ranking third at the box office behind "Mile 22", while in its opening weekend in the United States, the film made $26,130 from two theaters. The film had its widest release in its third weekend, playing in 27 theaters and grossing $76,608.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of from reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, ""Burning" patiently lures audiences into a slow-burning character study that ultimately rewards the viewer's patienceand subverts many of their expectations." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: "Los Angeles Times"s Justin Chang called it "a masterpiece of psychological uneasethe most lucid and absorbing new movie I've seen this year, as well as the most layered and enigmatic". "The Guardian"s Peter Bradshaw called it "a gripping nightmare" and lavished praise on how "Lee creates a sense of mood and place with masterly flair." "Sight & Sound" rated it the third best film of 2018, and Jessica Kiang wrote in her Cannes review, "The embers are banked up so gradually that it's not until a few hours after the ending of this elusive, riveting masterpiece that you are far enough away to appreciate the scale of the conflagration." Tim Robey in "The Daily Telegraph" observed, "This is Lee's closest ever film to a thriller, but it defies expectations, offering multiple, murky solutions to a set of mysteries at once." "Vulture"s Emily Yoshida praised the film for its "perception of the rich vampirizing youthnot directly biologically or physically or financially, but emotionally" but considered that ""Burning" lost its steam in its second half". Peter Debruge of "Variety" suggested that "[t]he degree to which "Burning" succeeds will depend largely on one's capacity to identify with the unspoken but strongly conveyed sense of jealousy and frustration its lower-class protagonist feels". "Rolling Stone"s Peter Travers wrote that the film "sizzles with a cumulative power that will knock the wind out of you" and declared that "Lee has crafted a hypnotic and haunting film that transcends genre to dig deep into the human condition. You won’t be able to get it out of your head."


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: Geoff Andrew of "Time Out" was similarly positive, hailing it as a "movie rich in teasing ambiguities and possible lies... Lee's interest lies not in crime-solving but in exploring Jongsu's emotional confusion... Both a slow-burn suspense drama and an intriguing enigma, his film is beautifully executed". Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" reacted enthusiastically to the film, writing that "[t]his is a beautifully crafted film loaded with glancing insights and observations into an understated triangular relationship, one rife with subtle perceptions about class privilege, reverberating family legacies, creative confidence, self-invention, sexual jealousy, justice and revenge". For The Canadian Press, David Friend said the film includes "simmering layers of subtext and tension build over the film's two-and-a-half hour runtime".


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: Nick Pinkerton, writing in "Artforum", was more muted, writing that ""Burning" is strewn with all sorts of information whose exact meaning and validity is impossible to determine... a film with such a diffident, often passive protagonist must generate its tensions and attractions elsewherememorable supporting players, a tactile atmosphere, a complex sense of the social sphere, an emphatic emotionalism".


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: The depiction of the female character Hae-mi in the film attracted some criticism. However, Adam Nayman from "Film Society of Lincoln Center" argued and emphasized for "The Ringer" that the story is "told fully from Jongsu's point of view", so "it's fair to ask whether Lee Chang Dong is cultivating true audience solidarity or urging us to understand the story exclusively through the lens of his hero's prejudices: to see Haemi and Ben as idealized and demonized figures, respectively." Phoebe Chen of the "Film Feminist Journal: Another Gaze", analyzed that Haemi's existence had a grander purpose in the film, and wrote, "If you know "Burning" is adapted from a Haruki Murakami short story, however loosely, you know that Haemi will vanish. The trope of the missing woman is built into Murakami's narrative DNA: her vanishing will preoccupy the protagonist, neurotically at first, then fade over the months and years to a dull malaise", and "The mystery of Haemi’s disappearance is technically 'solved', but becomes supplanted by one grander: the mystery of a world that tantalises with the hope of futurity while locking its millions of subjects in a cold impasse." Alexandra Heller-Nicholas of "Alliance of Women Film Journalists" emphasized that the character of Hae-mi is much more than simply a missing woman as plot device but one of the most powerful parts of a film that casually yet firmly addresses the pressures on women, "While the film's well-executed action and unflinching, profound exploration of its deeper thematic questions circle Jong-su and Ben with increasing intensity, it is this question of Hae-mi that drives the story. This is much, much more than simply a missing woman as plot device: one of the most powerful parts of a film that can comfortably boast a range of achievements is how casually yet firmly the film addresses the pressures on womennot just Hae-mi and her colleagues, but Jong-su's own motherto live up to financially unsustainable images of femininity in contemporary South Korea."


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: "Burning" won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It became the highest-rated film in the history of Screen International’s Cannes jury grid. "Burning" also won Best Foreign Language Film in Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Best Foreign Language Film in Toronto Film Critics Association and National Board of Review's Top Five Foreign Language Film. It went on to be nominated for three Asia Pacific Screen Awards, winning the Jury Grand Prize. It was included on Roger Ebert's Great Movies. It was nominated for eight Asian Film Awards, including Best Film, and won Best Director award. In September 2019, it won Saturn Award for Best International Film.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: "Burning" was selected as the South Korean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 91st Academy Awards; although it was not nominated, it became the first Korean film to make it to the final nine-film shortlist.


title: Burning (2018 film)

text: In late 2019, "Burning" also appeared on the "Best films of the decade" lists of "Rolling Stone", "The A.V. Club", Associated Press, "The Boston Globe", "Indiewire", "Insider", and "Film Comment".


title: Essen

text: Essen (; Latin: "Assindia") is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as the ninth-largest city of Germany. Essen lies in the larger Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region and is part of the cultural area of Rhineland. Because of its central location in the Ruhr, Essen is often regarded as the Ruhr's "secret capital". Two rivers flow through the city: in the north, the Emscher, the Ruhr area's central river, and in the south, the Ruhr River, which is dammed in Essen to form the Lake Baldeney ("Baldeneysee") and Lake Kettwig ("Kettwiger See") reservoirs. The central and northern boroughs of Essen historically belong to the Low German (Westphalian) language area, and the south of the city to the Low Franconian (Bergish) area (closely related to Dutch).


title: Essen

text: Essen is seat to several of the region's authorities, as well as to eight of the 100 largest publicly held German corporations by revenue, including three DAX-listed corporations. Essen is often considered the energy capital of Germany with E.ON and RWE, Germany's largest energy providers, both headquartered in the city. Essen is also known for its impact on the arts through the respected Folkwang University of the Arts, its Zollverein School of Management and Design, and the Red Dot industrial product design award. In early 2003, the universities of Essen and the nearby city of Duisburg (both established in 1972) were merged into the University of Duisburg-Essen with campuses in both cities and a university hospital in Essen. In 1958, Essen was chosen to serve as the seat to a Roman Catholic diocese (often referred to as "Ruhrbistum" or "diocese of the Ruhr").


title: Essen

text: Founded around 845, Essen remained a small town within the sphere of influence of an important ecclesiastical principality (Essen Abbey) until the onset of industrialization. The city then—especially through the Krupp family iron works—became one of Germany's most important coal and steel centers. Essen, until the 1970s, attracted workers from all over the country; it was the fifth-largest city in Germany between 1929 and 1988, peaking at over 730,000 inhabitants in 1962. Following the region-wide decline of heavy industries in the last decades of the 20th century, the city has seen the development of a strong tertiary sector of the economy. The most notable witness of this "Strukturwandel" (structural change) is the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, which had once been the largest of its kind in Europe. Ultimately closed in 1993, both the coking plant and the mine have been inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2001.


title: Essen

text: Notable accomplishments of the city in recent years include the title of European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area in 2010 and the selection as the European Green Capital for 2017.


title: Essen

text: Essen is located in the centre of the Ruhr area, one of the largest urban areas in Europe (see also: megalopolis), comprising eleven independent cities and four districts with some 5.3 million inhabitants. The city limits of Essen itself are long and border ten cities, five independent and five "kreisangehörig" (i.e., belonging to a district), with a total population of approximately 1.4 million. The city extends over from north to south and from west to east, mainly north of the River Ruhr.


title: Essen

text: The Ruhr forms the reservoir in the boroughs of Fischlaken, Kupferdreh, Heisingen and Werden. The lake, a popular recreational area, dates from 1931 to 1933, when some thousands of unemployed coal miners dredged it with primitive tools. Generally, large areas south of the River Ruhr (including the suburbs of Schuir and Kettwig) are quite green and are often quoted as examples of rural structures in the otherwise relatively densely populated central Ruhr area. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Essen with 9.2% of its area covered by recreational green is the greenest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the third-greenest city in Germany. The city has been shortlisted for the title of European Green Capital two consecutive times, for 2016 and 2017, winning for 2017. The city was singled out for its exemplary practices in protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity and efforts to reduce water consumption. Essen participates in a variety of networks and initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve the city's resilience in the face of climate change.


title: Essen

text: The lowest point can be found in the northern borough of Karnap at , the highest point in the borough of Heidhausen at . The average elevation is .


title: Essen

text: Essen comprises fifty boroughs which in turn are grouped into nine suburban districts (called "Stadtbezirke") often named after the most important boroughs. Each Stadtbezirk is assigned a Roman numeral and has a local body of nineteen members with limited authority. Most of the boroughs were originally independent municipalities but were gradually annexed from 1901 to 1975. This long-lasting process of annexation has led to a strong identification of the population with "their" boroughs or districts and to a rare peculiarity: The borough of Kettwig, located south of the Ruhr River, and which was not annexed until 1975, has its own area code and remains part of the Archdiocese of Cologne, whereas all other boroughs of Essen and some neighbouring cities constitute the Diocese of Essen.


title: Essen

text: Essen has a typical oceanic climate (Köppen: "Cfb") with cool winters and warm summers (different of Berlin or Stuttgart). Without large mountains and the presence of inland seas, it ends up extending a predominantly marine climate is found in Essen, usually a little more extreme and drier in other continents in such geographical location. Its average annual temperature is : during the day and at night. The average annual precipitation is . The coldest month of the year is January, when the average temperature is . The warmest months are July and August, with an average temperature of . The record high is and the record low is .


title: Essen

text: In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it has the same form as the German infinitive of the verb for "eating" (written as lowercase "essen"), and/or the German noun for food (which is always capitalized as "Essen", adding to the confusion). Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of the name, there remain a few noteworthy interpretations. The oldest known form of the city's name is "Astnide", which changed to Essen by way of forms such as Astnidum, Assinde, Essendia and Esnede. The name Astnide may have referred either to a region where many ash trees were found or to a region in the East (of the Frankish Empire). The Old High German word for fireplace, Esse, is also commonly mentioned due to the industrial history of the city, but is highly unlikely since the old forms of the city name originate from times before industrialization.


title: Essen

text: The oldest archaeological find, the "Vogelheimer Klinge", dates back to 280,000 – 250,000 BC. It is a blade found in the borough of in the northern part of the city during the construction of the Rhine–Herne Canal in 1926. Other artifacts from the Stone Age have also been found, although these are not overly numerous. Land utilization was very high—especially due to mining activities during the Industrial Age—and any more major finds, especially from the Mesolithic era, are not expected. Finds from 3,000 BC and onwards are far more common, the most important one being a Megalithic tomb found in 1937. Simply called Steinkiste (Chest of Stone), it is referred to as "Essen's earliest preserved example of architecture".


title: Essen

text: Essen was part of the settlement areas of several Germanic peoples (Chatti, Bructeri, Marsi), although a clear distinction among these groupings is difficult.


title: Essen

text: Recent research into Ptolemy's "Geographia" has identified the "polis" or "oppidum" Navalia as Essen.


title: Essen

text: Around 845, Saint Altfrid (around 800–874), the later Bishop of Hildesheim, founded an abbey for women ("coenobium Astnide") in the centre of present-day Essen. The first abbess was Altfrid's relative Gerswit (see also: Essen Abbey). In 799, Saint Liudger had already founded Benedictine Werden Abbey on its own grounds a few kilometers south. The region was sparsely populated with only a few smallholdings and an old and probably abandoned castle. Whereas Werden Abbey sought to support Liudger's missionary work in the Harz region (Helmstedt/Halberstadt), Essen Abbey was meant to care for women of the higher Saxon nobility. This abbey was not an abbey in the ordinary sense, but rather intended as a residence and educational institution for the daughters and widows of the higher nobility; led by an abbess, the members other than the abbess herself were not obliged to take vows of chastity.


title: Essen

text: Around 852, construction of the collegiate church of the abbey began, to be completed in 870. A major fire in 946 heavily damaged both the church and the settlement. The church was rebuilt, expanded considerably, and is the foundation of the present Essen Cathedral.


title: Essen

text: The first documented mention of Essen dates back to 898, when Zwentibold, King of Lotharingia, willed territory on the western bank of the River Rhine to the abbey. Another document, describing the foundation of the abbey and allegedly dating back to 870, is now considered an 11th-century forgery.


title: Essen

text: In 971, Mathilde II, granddaughter of Emperor Otto I, took charge of the abbey. She was to become the most important of all abbesses in the history of Essen. She reigned for over 40 years, and endowed the abbey's treasury with invaluable objects such as the oldest preserved seven branched candelabrum, and the Golden Madonna of Essen, the oldest known sculpture of the Virgin Mary in the western world. Mathilde was succeeded by other women related to the Ottonian emperors: Sophia, daughter of Otto II and sister of Otto III, and Teophanu, granddaughter of Otto II. It was under the reign of Teophanu that Essen, which had been called a city since 1003, received the right to hold markets in 1041. Ten years later, Teophanu had the eastern part of Essen Abbey constructed. Its crypt contains the tombs of St. Altfrid, Mathilde II, and Teophanu herself.