title: Denis Diderot

text: These twenty years were to Diderot not merely a time of incessant drudgery, but harassing persecution and desertion of friends. The ecclesiastical party detested the "Encyclopédie", in which they saw a rising stronghold for their philosophic enemies. By 1757 they could endure it no longer—the subscribers had grown from 2,000 to 4,000, a measure of the growth of the work in popular influence and power. Diderot wanted the "Encyclopédie" to give all the knowledge of the world to the people of France. However, the "Encyclopédie" threatened the governing social classes of France (aristocracy) because it took for granted the justice of religious tolerance, freedom of thought, and the value of science and industry. It asserted the doctrine that the main concern of the nation's government ought to be the nation's common people. It was believed that the "Encyclopédie" was the work of an organized band of conspirators against society, and that the dangerous ideas they held were made truly formidable by their open publication. In 1759, the "Encyclopédie" was formally suppressed. The decree did not stop the work, which went on, but its difficulties increased by the necessity of being clandestine. Jean le Rond d'Alembert withdrew from the enterprise and other powerful colleagues, including Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, declined to contribute further to a book which had acquired a bad reputation.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Diderot was left to finish the task as best he could. He wrote about 7,000 articles, some very slight, but many of them laborious, comprehensive, and long. He damaged his eyesight correcting proofs and editing the manuscripts of less scrupulous contributors. He spent his days at workshops, mastering manufacturing processes, and his nights writing what he had learned during the day. He was incessantly harassed by threats of police raids. The last copies of the first volume were issued in 1765.


title: Denis Diderot

text: In 1764, when his immense work was drawing to an end, he encountered a crowning mortification: he discovered that the bookseller, Le Breton, fearing the government's displeasure, had struck out from the proof sheets, after they had left Diderot's hands, all passages that he considered too dangerous. "He and his printing-house overseer," writes Furbank, "had worked in complete secrecy, and had moreover deliberately destroyed the author's original manuscript so that the damage could not be repaired." The monument to which Diderot had given the labor of twenty long and oppressive years was irreparably mutilated and defaced. It was 12 years, in 1772, before the subscribers received the final 28 folio volumes of the "Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers" since the first volume had been published.


title: Denis Diderot

text: When Diderot's work on the "Encyclopédie" project came to an end in 1765, he expressed concerns to his friends that the twenty-five years he had spent on the project had been wasted.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Although the "Encyclopédie" was Diderot's most monumental product, he was the author of many other works that sowed nearly every intellectual field with new and creative ideas. Diderot's writing ranges from a graceful trifle like the "Regrets sur ma vieille robe de chambre" ("Regrets for my Old Dressing Gown") up to the heady "D'Alembert's Dream" ("Le Rêve de d'Alembert") (composed 1769), a philosophical dialogue in which he plunges into the depths of the controversy as to the ultimate constitution of matter and the meaning of life. "Jacques le fataliste" (written between 1765 and 1780, but not published until 1792 in German and 1796 in French) is similar to "Tristram Shandy" and "The Sentimental Journey" in its challenge to the conventional novel's structure and content.


title: Denis Diderot

text: "La Religieuse" was a novel that claimed to show the corruption of the Catholic Church's institutions.


title: Denis Diderot

text: The novel began not as a work for literary consumption, but as an elaborate practical joke aimed at luring the Marquis de Croismare, a companion of Diderot's, back to Paris. "The Nun" is set in the 18th century, that is, contemporary France. Suzanne Simonin is an intelligent and sensitive sixteen-year-old French girl who is forced against her will into a Catholic convent by her parents. Suzanne's parents initially inform her that she is being sent to the convent for financial reasons. However, while in the convent, she learns that she is actually there because she is an illegitimate child, as her mother committed adultery. By sending Suzanne to the convent, her mother thought she could make amends for her sins by using her daughter as a sacrificial offering.


title: Denis Diderot

text: At the convent, Suzanne suffers humiliation, harassment and violence because she refuses to make the vows of the religious community. She eventually finds companionship with the Mother Superior, Sister de Moni, who pities Suzanne's anguish. After Sister de Moni's death, the new Mother Superior, Sister Sainte-Christine, does not share the same empathy for Suzanne that her predecessor had, blaming Suzanne for the death of Sister de Moni. Suzanne is physically and mentally harassed by Sister Sainte-Christine, almost to the point of death.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Suzanne contacts her lawyer, Monsieur Manouri, who attempts to legally free her from her vows. Manouri manages to have Suzanne transferred to another convent, Sainte-Eutrope. At the new convent, the Mother Superior is revealed to be a lesbian, and she grows affectionate towards Suzanne. The Mother Superior attempts to seduce Suzanne, but her innocence and chastity eventually drives the Mother Superior to insanity, leading to her death.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Suzanne escapes the Sainte-Eutrope convent using the help of a priest. Following her liberation, she lives in fear of being captured and taken back to the convent as she awaits the help from Diderot's friend the Marquis de Croismare.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Diderot did not use the novel as an outlet to condemn Christianity, but as a way to criticize cloistered life. In Diderot's telling, the Church fostered a hierarchical society, prevalent in the power dynamic between the Mother Superior and the girls in the convent. Girls were forced against their will to take their vows and endure the intolerable life of the convent. Diderot highlighted the victimization of women by the Catholic Church. Their subjection to the convent dehumanized them and represses their sexuality. Furthermore, the novel took place during a time in France when religious vows were regulated and enforced by the government. Through his cross-identification writing style, Diderot manifested the demeaning Catholic standards towards women that forced them to obey their determined fate under the hierarchical society.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Although "The Nun" was completed in about 1780, the work was not published until 1796, after Diderot's death.


title: Denis Diderot

text: The dialogue "Rameau's Nephew" (French: "Le Neveu de Rameau") is a "farce-tragedy" reminiscent of the "Satires" of Horace, a favorite classical author of Diderot's whose lines "Vertumnis, quotquot sunt, natus iniquis" ("Born under (the influence of) the unfavorable (gods) Vertumnuses, however many they are") appear as epigraph. According to Nicholas Cronk, "Rameau's Nephew" is "arguably the greatest work of the French Enlightenment's greatest writer."


title: Denis Diderot

text: The narrator in the book recounts a conversation with , nephew of the famous Jean-Philippe Rameau. The nephew composes and teaches music with some success but feels disadvantaged by his name and is jealous of his uncle. Eventually he sinks into an indolent and debauched state. After his wife's death, he loses all self-esteem and his brusque manners result in him being ostracized by former friends. A character profile of the nephew is now sketched by Diderot: a man who was once wealthy and comfortable with a pretty wife, who is now living in poverty and decadence, shunned by his friends. And yet this man retains enough of his past to analyze his despondency philosophically and maintains his sense of humor. Essentially he believes in nothing—not in religion, nor in morality; nor in the Roussean view about nature being better than civilization since in his opinion every species in nature consumes one another. He views the same process at work in the economic world where men consume each other through the legal system. The wise man, according to the nephew, will consequently practice hedonism:


title: Denis Diderot

text: The dialogue ends with Diderot calling the nephew a wastrel, a coward, and a glutton devoid of spiritual values to which the nephew replies: "I believe you are right."


title: Denis Diderot

text: Diderot's intention in writing the dialogue—whether as a satire on contemporary manners, a reduction of the theory of self-interest to an absurdity, the application of irony to the ethics of ordinary convention, a mere setting for a discussion about music, or a vigorous dramatic sketch of a parasite and a human original—is disputed. In political terms it explores "the bipolarisation of the social classes under absolute monarchy," and insofar as its protagonist demonstrates how the servant often manipulates the master, "Le Neveu de Rameau" can be seen to anticipate Hegel's master–slave dialectic.


title: Denis Diderot

text: The publication history of the "Nephew" is circuitous. Written between 1761 and 1774, Diderot never saw the work through to publication during his lifetime, and apparently did not even share it with his friends. After Diderot's death, a copy of the text reached Schiller, who gave it to Goethe, who, in 1805, translated the work into German. Goethe's translation entered France, and was retranslated into French in 1821. Another copy of the text was published in 1823, but it had been expurgated by Diderot's daughter prior to publication. The original manuscript was only found in 1891.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Diderot's most intimate friend was the philologist Friedrich Melchior Grimm. They were brought together by their common friend at that time, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In 1753, Grimm began writing a newsletter, the "La Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique", which he would send to various high personages in Europe.


title: Denis Diderot

text: In 1759, Grimm asked Diderot to report on the biennial art exhibitions in the Louvre for the "Correspondance". Diderot reported on the Salons between 1759 and 1771 and again in 1775 and 1781. Diderot's reports would become "the most celebrated contributions to La Correspondance."


title: Denis Diderot

text: According to Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Diderot's reports initiated the French into a new way of laughing, and introduced people to the mystery and purport of colour by ideas. "Before Diderot", Anne Louise Germaine de Staël wrote, "I had never seen anything in pictures except dull and lifeless colours; it was his imagination that gave them relief and life, and it is almost a new sense for which I am indebted to his genius".


title: Denis Diderot

text: Diderot had appended an "Essai sur la peinture" to his report on the 1765 Salon in which he expressed his views on artistic beauty. Goethe described the "Essai sur la peinture" as "a magnificent work; it speaks even more usefully to the poet than to the painter, though for the painter too it is a torch of blazing illumination".


title: Denis Diderot

text: Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805) was Diderot's favorite contemporary artist. Diderot appreciated Greuze's sentimentality, and more particularly Greuze's portrayals of his wife who had once been Diderot's mistress.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Diderot wrote sentimental plays, "Le Fils naturel" (1757) and "Le Père de famille" (1758), accompanying them with essays on theatrical theory and practice, including "Les Entretiens sur "Le Fils Naturel"" (Conversations on "The Natural Son"), in which he announced the principles of a new drama: the 'serious genre', a realistic midpoint between comedy and tragedy that stood in opposition to the stilted conventions of the classical French stage. In 1758, Diderot introduced the concept of the fourth wall, the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. He also wrote "Paradoxe sur le comédien" ("Paradox of the Actor"), written between 1770 and 1778 but first published after his death in 1830, which is a dramatic essay elucidating a theory of acting in which it is argued that great actors do not experience the emotions they are displaying. That essay is also of note for being where the term "l'esprit de l'escalier" (or "l'esprit d'escalier") comes from. It is a French term used in English for the predicament of thinking of the perfect reply too late.


title: Denis Diderot

text: When the Russian Empress Catherine the Great heard that Diderot was in need of money, she arranged to buy his library and appoint him caretaker of it until his death, at a salary of 1,000 livres per year. She even paid him 50 years salary in advance. Although Diderot hated traveling, he was obliged to visit her.


title: Denis Diderot

text: On 9 October 1773, he reached St. Petersburg, met Catherine the next day and they had several discussions on various subjects. During his five-month stay at her court, he met her almost every day. During these conversations, he would later state, they spoke 'man to man'.


title: Denis Diderot

text: He would occasionally make his point by slapping her thighs. In a letter to Madame Geoffrin, Catherine wrote:


title: Denis Diderot

text: One of the topics discussed was Diderot's ideas about how to transform Russia into a utopia. In a letter to Comte de Ségur, the Empress wrote that if she followed Diderot's advice, chaos would ensue in her kingdom.


title: Denis Diderot

text: When returning, Diderot asked the Empress for 1,500 rubles as reimbursement for his trip. She gave him 3,000 rubles, an expensive ring, and an officer to escort him back to Paris. He wrote a eulogy in her honor upon reaching Paris.


title: Denis Diderot

text: In 1766, when Catherine heard that Diderot had not received his annual fee for editing the "Encyclopédie" (an important source of income for the philosopher), she arranged for him to receive a massive sum of 50,000 livres as an advance for his services as her librarian.


title: Denis Diderot

text: In July 1784, upon hearing that Diderot was in poor health, Catherine arranged for him to move into a luxurious suite in the "Rue de Richelieu". Diderot died two weeks after moving there—on 31 July 1784.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Among Diderot's last works were notes "On the Instructions of her Imperial Majesty...for the Drawing up of Laws". This commentary on Russia included replies to some arguments Catherine had made in the Nakaz. Diderot wrote that Catherine was certainly despotic, due to circumstances and training, but was not inherently tyrannical. Thus, if she wished to destroy despotism in Russia, she should abdicate her throne and destroy anyone who tries to revive the monarchy. She should publicly declare that "there is no true sovereign other than the nation, and there can be no true legislator other than the people." She should create a new Russian legal code establishing an independent legal framework and starting with the text: "We the people, and we the sovereign of this people, swear conjointly these laws, by which we are judged equally." In the "Nakaz", Catherine had written: "It is for legislation to follow the spirit of the nation." Diderot's rebuttal stated that it is for legislation to "make" the spirit of the nation. For instance, he argued, it is not appropriate to make public executions unnecessarily horrific.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Ultimately, Diderot decided not to send these notes to Catherine; however, they were delivered to her with his other papers after he died. When she read them, she was furious and commented that they were an incoherent gibberish devoid of prudence, insight, and verisimilitude.


title: Denis Diderot

text: In his youth, Diderot was originally a follower of Voltaire and his deist "Anglomanie", but gradually moved away from this line of thought towards materialism and atheism, a move which was finally realised in 1747 in the philosophical debate in the second part of his "The Skeptic's Walk" (1747). Diderot opposed mysticism and occultism, which were highly prevalent in France at the time he wrote, and believed religious truth claims must fall under the domain of reason, not mystical experience or esoteric secrets. However, Diderot showed some interest in the work of Paracelsus. He was "a philosopher in whom all the contradictions of the time struggle with one another" (Rosenkranz).


title: Denis Diderot

text: In his 1754 book "On the interpretation of Nature", Diderot expounded on his views about nature, evolution, materialism, mathematics, and experimental science. It is speculated that Diderot may have contributed to his friend Baron d'Holbach's 1770 book "The System of Nature". Diderot had enthusiastically endorsed the book stating that:


title: Denis Diderot

text: In conceiving the "Encyclopédie", Diderot had thought of the work as a fight on behalf of posterity and had expressed confidence that posterity would be grateful for his effort. According to Diderot, "posterity is for the philosopher what the 'other world' is for the man of religion."


title: Denis Diderot

text: Diderot died of pulmonary thrombosis in Paris on 31 July 1784, and was buried in the city's Église Saint-Roch. His heirs sent his vast library to Catherine II, who had it deposited at the National Library of Russia. He has several times been denied burial in the Panthéon with other French notables.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Diderot's remains were unearthed by grave robbers in 1793, leaving his corpse on the church's floor. His remains were then presumably transferred to a mass grave by the authorities.


title: Denis Diderot

text: The French government considered memorializing him on the 300th anniversary of his birth, but this did not come to pass.


title: Denis Diderot

text: Marmontel and commented on the great pleasure of having intellectual conversations with Diderot. Morellet, a regular attendee at D'Holbach's salon, wrote: "It is there that I heard...Diderot treat questions of philosophy, art, or literature, and by his wealth of expression, fluency, and inspired appearance, hold our attention for a long stretch of time." Diderot's contemporary, and rival, Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote in his "Confessions" that after a few centuries Diderot would be accorded as much respect by posterity as was given to Plato and Aristotle. In Germany, Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing expressed admiration for Diderot's writings, Goethe pronouncing Diderot's "Rameau's Nephew" to be "the classical work of an outstanding man" and that "Diderot is Diderot, a unique individual; whoever carps at him and his affairs is a philistine."


title: Denis Diderot

text: As atheism fell out of favor during the French Revolution, Diderot was vilified and considered responsible for the excessive persecution of the clergy.


title: Denis Diderot

text: In the next century, Diderot was admired by Balzac, Delacroix, Stendhal, Zola, and Schopenhauer. According to Comte, Diderot was the foremost intellectual in an exciting age. Historian Michelet described him as "the true Prometheus" and stated that Diderot's ideas would continue to remain influential long into the future. Marx chose Diderot as his "favourite prose-writer."


title: Denis Diderot

text: Otis Fellows and Norman Torrey have described Diderot as "the most interesting and provocative figure of the French eighteenth century."


title: Denis Diderot

text: In 1993, American writer Cathleen Schine published "Rameau's Niece", a satire of academic life in New York that took as its premise a woman's research into an (imagined) 18th-century pornographic parody of Diderot's "Rameau's Nephew". The book was praised by Michiko Kakutani in the "New York Times" as "a nimble philosophical satire of the academic mind" and "an enchanting comedy of modern manners."


title: Denis Diderot

text: French author Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt wrote a play titled "Le Libertin" ("The Libertine") which imagines a day in Diderot's life including a fictional sitting for a woman painter which becomes sexually charged but is interrupted by the demands of editing the "Encyclopédie". It was first staged at Paris' Théâtre Montparnasse in 1997 starring Bernard Giraudeau as Diderot and Christiane Cohendy as Madame Therbouche and was well received by critics.


title: Denis Diderot

text: In 2013, the tricentennial of Diderot's birth, his hometown of Langres held a series of events in his honor and produced an audio tour of the town highlighting places that were part of Diderot's past, including the remains of the convent where his sister Angélique took her vows. On 6 October 2013, a museum of the Enlightenment focusing on Diderot's contributions to the movement, the Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot, was inaugurated in Langres.


title: Dinah Jane

text: Dinah Jane Milika Ilaisaane Hansen (; born June 22, 1997) is an American singer and a member of girl group Fifth Harmony. In October 2017, she featured in RedOne's single "Boom Boom" with Daddy Yankee and French Montana. After the group's hiatus announcement in 2018, Jane signed as a solo artist with L.A. Reid's HitCo Entertainment. Her first single outside of Fifth Harmony, "Bottled Up" featuring Ty Dolla Sign and Marc E. Bassy was released in September 2018. She followed it with the release of her extended play "Dinah Jane 1" (2019).


title: Dinah Jane

text: Dinah Jane grew up in Santa Ana, California, and is the daughter of Gordon Hansen and Milika Amasio. The eldest of 8 children, she grew up with over 24 family members in her home. Jane is Tongan and has Danish, Samoan, and Fijian descent. She is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


title: Dinah Jane

text: Raised in a musical family, Jane was introduced to music at the age of 4. She performed in public for the first time at age seven singing the national anthem, and sang at local events in Orange County. In 2011, she recorded her first song "Dancing Like a White Girl". She graduated from Orange County School of the Arts in 2015.


title: Dinah Jane

text: Jane auditioned for "The X Factor" in 2012 singing "If I Were a Boy" by Beyoncé. For her bootcamp solo performance she sang "Hero" by Mariah Carey and is the only member from Fifth Harmony to have it aired. She sang against Diamond White for her bootcamp round singing "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" during which she forgot some of the lyrics. She was eliminated during the bootcamp round of competition, but was brought back along with Ally Brooke, Normani, Lauren Jauregui, and Camila Cabello to form the girl group now known as Fifth Harmony. The group made it all the way to the finals and landed in third place.


title: Dinah Jane

text: Fifth Harmony's debut song was "Miss Moving On". They released their debut EP, "Better Together" in 2013, their first album "Reflection" in January 2015, and their second album "7/27" in May 2016. Their first two albums generated the singles "Worth It" and "Work from Home", respectively, which reached the top 10 in several international charts. The group also contributed music to the soundtrack of the animated film "Hotel Transylvania 2" with their song "I'm in Love with a Monster". They released their third self-titled third studio album, and first as a four-member group on August 25, 2017, following Cabello's departure. On March 19, 2018, the group announced an indefinite hiatus to focus on solo projects.


title: Dinah Jane

text: In 2015, Jane auditioned to play the role of the main character in the then-upcoming animated film "Moana;" however, the role eventually went to Auliʻi Cravalho. Fuse's website included Jane on an article of the faces of future Asian and Pacific history, naming the most promising entertainers of the region in 2017. She was featured in RedOne's song "Boom Boom" along with Daddy Yankee and French Montana. The single was released in October 2017. The following month, Jane sang the Tongan national anthem "Ko e fasi ʻo e tuʻi ʻo e ʻOtu Tonga" at the 2017 Rugby League World Cup semi-final game. Jane released a Christmas medley with singer Leona Lewis in December 2017.


title: Dinah Jane

text: In August 2018, it was announced that Jane had signed a solo record deal with Hitco Entertainment, founded by L.A. Reid and Charles Goldstuck. She released her debut solo single "Bottled Up" featuring Ty Dolla Sign and Marc E. Bassy, along with its lyric video, on September 21, 2018. She released the song's music video and performed the single on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in October 2018. Jane performed two new songs "Retrograde" and "I Don't Mind" at the Jingle Bash on December 3, 2018. On March 26, 2019, Jane released the music video to her then-unreleased song "Retrograde".


title: Dinah Jane

text: On March 28, 2019, Jane announced the release of her debut solo EP, "Dinah Jane 1", for April 19, 2019. She released the song "Heard It All Before", followed by its music video, as the EP's lead single on April 19. In May, Jane officially released "Retrograde" for digital download and streaming, followed by "SZNS" featuring A Boogie wit da Hoodie in July. In January 2020, she announced a solo tour following her first few headline shows during 2019. Titled the Dinah Jane World Tour, it would begin in April 2020 in Arizona and travel to other US locations before performing in selected cities in Europe. Indonesia singer Angez Mo was to be her opening act. Coinciding with her tour announcement, Jane announced a new single to be released on February 14, 2020, titled "Missed a Spot". However, the single was pushed back, with Jane releasing two promotional singles titled "Lottery" and "1501" weeks later instead. "Missed a Spot" was released on April 2, 2020, with an animated visualizer released on YouTube the following day. The tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Dinah Jane

text: Jane has described her music as "urban R&B ... meets '90s to 2000s". Her musical influences are Christina Aguilera, Patti LaBelle, Beyoncé, Leona Lewis, Mariah Carey and Etta James.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is a 2006 American musical fantasy comedy film about comedy rock duo Tenacious D. Written, produced by and starring Tenacious D members Jack Black and Kyle Gass, it is directed and co-written by musician and puppeteer Liam Lynch. Despite being about an actual band, the film is a fictitious story set in the 1990s about the band's origins, and their journey to find a pick belonging to Satan that allows its users to become rock legends.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: The film was released on November 22, 2006, and was a box office bomb. The soundtrack, "The Pick of Destiny", was also released in 2006 as the band's second studio album. Despite the poor box office reception of the film at release, it has since been considered a "cult classic".


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: As a young man, JB runs away from his religious family and oppressive Midwestern town for Hollywood after being graced by the word of Dio on a quest to form the world's "most awesome" rock band. There he meets acoustic guitarist KG, nicknamed Kage, who is performing on the street, and begins worshipping him as a rock god because of his perceived skills and attitude. JB attempts to ask KG to teach him rock and roll lessons, only to be refused. Later in the night, a crestfallen JB mopes on a park bench, seconds before being beaten up. KG takes pity on JB and agrees to teach him. KG feeds JB's fantasy by pretending to be famous with a self-named band ("The Kyle Gass Project") and exploits him to do work such as cleaning his apartment and buying him weed (under the promise that JB can audition for his fictitious band). After JB learns KG is actually unemployed and living off his parents, the two become equal, and KG apologizes to JB by giving him a brand-new guitar. They create their own band: Tenacious D, named after matching birthmarks found on their buttocks.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: Soon JB and KG learn the deepest secret of rock: all the rock legends used the same guitar pick, "the Pick of Destiny", which has supernatural powers. It was created by a dark wizard who'd summoned Satan for his own purposes, but was promptly attacked. A nearby blacksmith heard the commotion and distracted the demon by tossing a horseshoe at it, chipping its tooth in the process. As Satan was now "incomplete", the wizard was able to banish Satan back to Hell. To repay the blacksmith, who desired the heart of a fair maiden, the wizard fashioned the tooth into a pick that would give its holder unnatural prowess with stringed instruments. Infatuated by the prospect of becoming the next great rock star, JB immediately sets Tenacious D on a quest to steal the Pick of Destiny from a rock history museum. Along the way, the band briefly splits up, when KG decides that sex comes first in "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" after getting invited to a party by young women, while JB wants to stick to the mission at hand. They are eventually reunited after KG is kicked out of the party.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: Later, the two manage to steal the Pick of Destiny from the rock museum. Armed with this supernatural pick, they plan to use the winnings from a local bar's talent contest to pay their rent, but before they can go on stage, they argue over who gets to use the pick first, snapping it in half accidentally. The bar's owner persuades them to go onto the contest without the pick. The owner is revealed to be Satan in human form, who places the Pick of Destiny back on his broken tooth. Complete again, he obtains supernatural powers on earth and threatens to make Tenacious D his first victims.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: To save their lives, Tenacious D challenge Satan to a rock-off, which under the terms of the "demon code" he cannot decline. The terms, suggested by JB, are that if Tenacious D win, Satan must return to hell and pay their rent, but if they lose, Satan can take KG back with him as a sex slave. After the duel, Satan deems his rock better and attempts to shoot KG with a bolt of energy. JB jumps in the way, and the bolt bounces off The "JB KG" drawn logo on the base of the guitar, blowing off a piece of Satan's horn. As Satan is now incomplete once again, JB sends him back to Hell with the wizard's magical incantation.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: The two turn Satan's horn into the "Bong of Destiny", which the two smoke from as they write new songs.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: As actors, Black and Gass had wished to make a Tenacious D film since the band's forming in 1994; archived footage of banter at an early concert records Black saying ""a movie – like that would be the pinnacle"".


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: The duo conceptualized numerous ideas for the plot, though the first actual known draft of a script was published on November 7, 2000. The script was based around many songs that would later be released on the duo's eponymous debut album that would be released the following year. There is little known about the script, other than it being based around the band playing coffee shops, Black becoming fascinated by Atlantis and Black and Gass both falling in love with a girl called Simmeon who has written books about the fictional island. They later meet Ronnie James Dio, and are sent on a road trip to Miami. This concept was later scrapped.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: At some point prior to 2003, the band were in negotiations with British studio Working Title Films to write and distribute a Tenacious D film, but Black and Gass decided to assume creative control when they were not satisfied with the writers' ideas.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: In February 2003, it was announced that the band had signed with New Line Cinema to create a Tenacious D film, with Liam Lynch as the director, and Black, Gass and Lynch writing the script and being producers on the production. There was also speculation that Red Hour Productions would produce the film, which was later confirmed. Later in 2003, Black announced the film's working title as "Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny" and that the script was about the band's search for a sacred guitar pick. Filming had been expected to take place by the end of 2003; however, it was delayed by almost a year due to Black being cast in Peter Jackson's big budget remake of "King Kong". In December 2004, Black and Gass performed some songs from the upcoming soundtrack of the film whilst touring Australia, and announcing that the film would include cameos from Meat Loaf and Ronnie James Dio.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: Principal photography for "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny" commenced in the spring of 2005, with the production finishing later that summer. The film held its first test screening to the press in October 2005. The film held two re-shoots in the summer of 2006 and according to Lynch, every crew member from the principal photography came back because they "had such a fun time working on set". Black also stated that the filming on this production was "the most fun I've ever had filming a movie".The film held its British premiere on November 1, 2006 at the Vue West End cinema in London, England. The film's domestic premiere was held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on November 9, 2006. Many of the actors who had cameos in the film were in attendance; including Ronnie James Dio, Dave Grohl, and Ben Stiller.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: Black agreed to a pay cut from his standard $12 million fee to $1 million that was then split between Black and Gass.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: The film performed poorly at the box office, only grossing a total of $8.2 million in the United States. It debuted with a mere $3 million during its opening weekend at number eleven.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 52% based on 124 reviews with an average rating of 5.60/10. The website's consensus states, "Tenacious D fan will find this movie hilarious; everybody else will see only a low-brow concept movie and a small assembly of jokes stretched past the 100 minute mark." On Metacritic it has a score of 55% based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: Michael Phillips criticized the frequency of the drug-use by saying: "This may be the problem. Pot rarely helped anybody's comic timing." Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" suggested that the film could be viewed as a "jolly rock 'n' roll comedy", but he also described the progression of the film as being a "garish mess".


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: In 2019, Black expressed his disappointment with the reception of the movie, saying that both he and Gass were "devastated" that nobody went to see it. Regardless, he remains proud of "The Pick of Destiny" to this day and also the fact it has reached cult status.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: The band featured on numerous shows to promote the film, including musical performances on Saturday Night Live, Spike Video Game Awards, The David Letterman Show, American Music Awards, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, as well as appearances on The Howard Stern Show, The British Comedy Awards and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: The band started a tour to support the film and soundtrack on November 11, 2006, with it finishing on February 21, 2007. The tour featured two legs in North America, one in Europe and one in Australia.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny" was released by New Line Home Entertainment on February 27, 2007 on DVD. A version sold by retail chain Best Buy came with an extra disc with exclusive footage. Wal-Mart customers received a copy of the CD More Rocktastic Music from the Film bundled with the DVD, featuring excerpts of the score by Andrew Gross and John King, as well as songs from Gass' Trainwreck.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: The film was released on home video on July 26, 2008 in Japan, with a deluxe edition of the movie with a t-shirt.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: Home video releases have seen it bundled with "Run, Fat Boy, Run" and "Dumb and Dumber" in a three disc set for the United States and Canada whereas for the UK there was a three disc set with "Fracture" and "The Alibi". The Australian re-release featured the movie with "Be Kind Rewind" in a two disc set as well as another set with the film being bundled with "Grandma's Boy".


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: A spin-off graphic novel book was released by Titan Books prior to the film's release, including high quality images through the set of the plot.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: The soundtrack, the band's second studio album, includes vocals by Ronnie James Dio and Meat Loaf. Dave Grohl plays drums on the album, as he did on their first album, "Tenacious D" (2001). Grohl also contributes his vocals on "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)", as Satan. An edited version of the album was also released, replacing all of the profanity with made-up nonsense words.


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: The band's 2012 album, "Rize of the Fenix", is centred around the fictional plot of the band breaking up following the release of the film, with Gass going mentally insane as Black continued his fame in the film industry. The album also begins with the opening lyrics ""When The Pick Of Destiny was released, it was a bomb"".


title: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

text: In 2016, the band marked ten years of the film's release by using The Pick of Destiny as their backdrop at various European festival appearances.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Kenneth Anderson (born March 6, 1976) is an American professional wrestler. Anderson is known for his tenure with WWE from 2005 to 2009 under the ring name Mr. Kennedy, and his work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as Mr. Anderson from 2010 to 2016. He is currently signed to Top Rank Boxing as their announcer


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Anderson started his career on the independent circuit, until he was signed to a development contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling, WWE's farm territory. He was promoted to the main roster in 2005. One year after his debut, he won the WWE United States Championship, which he held for 42 days. At WrestleMania 23, he won the 2007 Money in the Bank briefcase with a title shot for the promotion's world title. However, he dropped the briefcase to Edge after suffering an injury. Kennedy would remain with the promotion until 2009.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: In 2010, Anderson signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA, now Impact Wrestling), where he competed under the ring names Mr. Anderson and Ken Anderson. In 2011, he would win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship twice during a feud with the villainous group Immortal. After losing the title, he would remain with the promotion as a mid-card wrestler, joining the villainous faction Aces & Eights at one point, until he departed TNA in 2016. In 2019, Anderson came back to pro wrestling programming when he worked for National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: In 2016, Anderson opened a wrestling school called The Academy in Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with Shawn Daivari, Molly Holly, Ariya Daivari, and Arik Cannon. He has also worked occasionally as an actor and starred as Master Chief Petty Officer Carter Holt in the WWE Studios production "" in 2009.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Kenneth Anderson was born on March 6, 1976, in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. His father died on April 13, 2006, from cancer. Anderson graduated from Washington High School in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. During his time there, he excelled at swimming and track and field. He also announced school basketball games and did a radio assignment in his Mass Media class. When doing this, a friend suggested to Anderson to repeat the surnames to make it funnier. That element was eventually used again in his wrestling character when encouraged by Paul Heyman. Before beginning his wrestling career, Anderson worked as a security officer at Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant and a personal trainer. He also served in the United States Army.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Anderson, under the ring name "Two Rivers Jack," made his debut on September 11, 1999, at a North American Wrestling Federation event in Whitewater, Wisconsin, losing to Golga. He wrestled just twenty-one matches before appearing for the World Wrestling Federation on "Jakked" in 2001, where he lost to Essa Rios. He occasionally worked as enhancement talent for WWF when shows ran in Wisconsin. Anderson also made an appearance on 's secondary television program, "Xplosion". The owner of the promotion, Jeff Jarrett, approached him for a contract but communications broke down.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Upon signing with WWE in February 2005, Anderson was sent to the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) developmental territory, where he would remain for six months. When he arrived, Jim Cornette was in charge of the organization and, according to Anderson, did not see potential in his abilities and declined to feature him as more than an occasional bit-player on OVW's programming. When Cornette departed, his replacement, Paul Heyman, showed immediate interest in Anderson, comparing his qualities to The Rock and Steve Austin. Five weeks later, Anderson was called up to WWE's main roster to work on "Velocity". He credits Heyman with helping him develop the character with which he would achieve success. Before his first "SmackDown!" match, he showed himself to be a cocky and arrogant wrestler by taking a microphone and performing his own ring announcement. He referred to himself as "Mr. Anderson" for this match. A few weeks later, to avoid comparisons with the more famous Anderson family (as well as former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson), he changed his name to "Ken Kennedy," or "Mr. Kennedy." The change was initially suggested by Heyman and was chosen because it is the middle name of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Kennedy, as a heel, defeated Funaki in his "SmackDown!" debut on August 25. Kennedy also created an ongoing mini-feud with SmackDown! ring announcer Tony Chimel based on Kennedy believing that Chimel's announcing was not done well enough or with sufficient respect, and therefore performing his own introductions or forcing Chimel to introduce him again. Kennedy's self-ring introductions before the match became one of his trademarks. While working on both "Velocity" and "SmackDown!", he was also still working in OVW. Kennedy made his pay-per-view debut at No Mercy, defeating Hardcore Holly and injuring Holly's ribs during the match.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: On the November 11 episode of "SmackDown!", Kennedy faced Eddie Guerrero to compete for a spot on SmackDown!""'s Survivor Series team. He lost the match when Guerrero tossed him a steel chair and played possum, a move which Guerrero had made famous. The referee turned around and saw Guerrero on the ground with Kennedy holding the chair, and consequently disqualified Kennedy, awarding the place on Team SmackDown! to Guerrero. This was Kennedy's first loss. In retaliation, Kennedy struck Guerrero over the head with the chair after the match. This was Guerrero's final televised match, as he died two days later. In interviews about the incident, Kennedy has stated that he considers this an "unfortunate honor".


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: In December, Kennedy participated in WWE's overseas tour. On the second day in Italy, Kennedy suffered a legitimate latissimus dorsi tear. Kennedy was sidelined for nearly six months while he rehabilitated the injury. He continued to make appearances on "SmackDown!" and "Velocity" throughout January and February and even made an appearance on the January 11, 2006, episode of "WWE Byte This!" with Todd Grisham to maintain visibility.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: At the OVW tapings on May 17, Kennedy returned to in-ring action, facing OVW Heavyweight Champion CM Punk in a title match that Kennedy lost. Kennedy made his return to "SmackDown!" on the June 9 episode with a victory over Scotty 2 Hotty after using the "Kenton Bomb." On the July 14 episode of "SmackDown!", Matt Hardy used a roll-up to defeat Kennedy, ending Kennedy's streak of never being defeated by pin or submission. On the July 21 episode of "SmackDown!", Batista put out an open challenge to find an opponent for The Great American Bash, as his original opponent, Mark Henry, had been injured. Kennedy accepted the challenge and won the match by disqualification, however, he suffered an injury during the match after being thrown headfirst into the steel steps, resulting in an exposed cranium laceration which required twenty stitches to close. Kennedy helped Vince and Shane McMahon in their feud with D-Generation X, appearing at both SummerSlam and the August 28 episode of "Raw" to attack them.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: On the September 1 episode of "SmackDown!", Kennedy defeated Finlay and Bobby Lashley in a triple threat match to win the WWE United States Championship, his first and only championship reign in WWE. On the September 8 episode of "SmackDown!", Kennedy announced that he wanted to move over to the Raw brand, as "SmackDown!" did not interest him anymore since he had already defeated every top performer on the roster. This led to SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long making a match between Kennedy and The Undertaker, who Kennedy had never faced, to be held at No Mercy. Kennedy won the match by disqualification after The Undertaker hit him with the United States Championship belt. On the October 13 episode of "SmackDown!", Kennedy, now with a win over The Undertaker, again stated his desire to move to Raw. However, Long again put him against an opponent who he had never faced—this time Chris Benoit—with the United States Championship on the line. Long said that if Kennedy were to defeat Benoit, he would be given his release and be allowed to go to Raw. Ultimately, Kennedy lost the match and the United States Championship to Benoit after submitting to the ""Crippler Crossface"" following a distraction by The Undertaker.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: In November, Kennedy joined forces with Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) in matches against The Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane). On the November 3 episode of "SmackDown!", Kennedy and MVP lost to the Brothers of Destruction three times. After first getting counted out, Theodore Long restarted the match with no countouts. When Kennedy disqualified his team by performing a low blow, Long restarted the match again with no countouts and no disqualifications. Kennedy and MVP continued to feud with the two, with MVP feuding with Kane while Kennedy challenged the Undertaker to a match at Survivor Series, which was later announced as a First Blood match. Kennedy defeated the Undertaker at Survivor Series after MVP turned on Kennedy and aimed for his head with a steel chair, but missed and hit the Undertaker instead, leaving the Undertaker bleeding. After the match, the Undertaker attacked Kennedy, forcing him to bleed. At Armageddon, Kennedy and the Undertaker met in a final match; they were scheduled in a Last Ride match. In the match, the Undertaker defeated Kennedy.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: After a brief hiatus, Kennedy returned to "SmackDown!" on January 5, 2007, and defeated Chris Benoit in a "Beat the Clock" match, with the overall prize being a shot at Batista's World Heavyweight Championship at the Royal Rumble. After he prevented The Undertaker from beating his time, Kennedy's time of 5:07 ended up being the fastest. At the Royal Rumble, he lost to Batista, as well as a subsequent rematch on the February 9 episode of "SmackDown!". From there, Kennedy began a short feud with ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley, leading to a match at No Way Out for the ECW World Championship, which Kennedy won by disqualification after Lashley hit him with a chair. Kennedy challenged Lashley unsuccessfully for the ECW World Championship on the February 20 episode of "ECW" and the March 2 episode of "SmackDown!" as well.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Kennedy earned a spot in the 2007 Money in the Bank ladder match by defeating Sabu in an Extreme Rules match on the February 27 episode of "ECW". At WrestleMania 23, Kennedy won the Money in the Bank ladder match, giving him the right to challenge any world champion in WWE at any date up until WrestleMania XXIV. Kennedy announced on the April 30 episode of "Raw" that he would be cashing in his Money in the Bank championship opportunity in eleven months at WrestleMania XXIV. On the May 7 episode of "Raw", Kennedy, however, lost his Money in the Bank briefcase to Edge, losing moments after being struck with a monitor before the match began. Because of the injury Kennedy sustained during his match with Edge, it was revealed that his right triceps muscle tore off the bone and he would be out for a minimum of five to seven months. The injury, however, was not as serious as initially reported, as the triceps tendon did not tear off the bone but was, in fact, a massive hematoma.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: On the June 11 episode of "Raw", Kennedy was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the WWE Draft. On the August 20 episode of "Raw", Carlito hosted the interview segment "Carlito's Cabana". During the segment, Carlito challenged his guest, Umaga for his Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam, and Kennedy also demanded a shot at the title. Raw General Manager William Regal, scheduled a match between Kennedy and Carlito, in which the winner would receive an opportunity to face off against Umaga at SummerSlam. After the match ended in a draw, Regal booked a triple threat match at SummerSlam between the three men for the Intercontinental Championship; at SummerSlam, Umaga retained the title. On the September 10 episode of "Raw", Mr. McMahon revealed that Kennedy had, in storyline, been suspended for "impersonating a McMahon." This angle was written because Kennedy being named one of the eleven wrestlers implicated in a steroid scandal and therefore suspended for thirty days in accordance with WWE's Wellness Policy.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: After his suspension, Kennedy returned to television on the October 1 episode of "Raw", facing John Cena in the main event and losing. At No Mercy, Kennedy took part in a six-man tag team match alongside World Tag Team Champions Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, defeating Paul London, Brian Kendrick and Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy. For several weeks, Kennedy began a feud with Hardy, which consisted of the two facing off in a singles match and numerous tag team matches, most of which Hardy won. At Cyber Sunday, Kennedy and Hardy were two of the eligible wrestlers that could earn a WWE Championship match that evening, pending a fan votes. Neither man won the opportunity, as Shawn Michaels won the vote and earned a shot at the title. Kennedy defeated Hardy at Cyber Sunday.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Kennedy next entered a feud with Michaels on the night after Survivor Series. Kennedy claimed that it was time for Michaels to move on and let the younger wrestlers achieve success. At Armageddon, Michaels defeated Kennedy by executing "Sweet Chin Music." On the December 31 episode of "Raw", Kennedy pinned Michaels in a rematch by executing his new finishing move, the "Mic Check." In subsequent rematches, the two traded wins over each other.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: After several months of minor feuds and short storylines, Kennedy was not seen for weeks after WrestleMania XXIV because he was filming "". Kennedy returned to "Raw" on April 28, 2008, confronting and brawling with Raw General Manager and newly crowned King of the Ring William Regal, turning face in the process. On the May 19 episode of "Raw", Kennedy defeated Regal in a "Loser Gets Fired match", thereby opening up the General Manager spot on the Raw brand.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: During the WWE Draft on June 23 on "Raw", Kennedy was drafted back to the SmackDown brand. On August 4, he dislocated his shoulder in a match against Shelton Benjamin at a house show, keeping him off television for three months. Kennedy made his return to WWE television, in a non-wrestling capacity, on the November 24 episode of "Raw", promoting "Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia."


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: On April 15, 2009, Mr. Kennedy was drafted back to Raw as the brand's first pick of the 2009 Supplemental Draft. On the May 11 episode of "Raw", WWE aired a video package to promote Kennedy's return. He made his official Raw return two weeks later, competing in a 10-man tag team match, which his team won.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Kennedy was released from his WWE contract on May 29, just four days after his return. In a March 2010 interview with "WrestleZone", Anderson explained that his release was due to fellow wrestler Randy Orton complaining to WWE management that Kennedy was reckless in the ring, citing a botched backdrop that caused Orton to land on his head and neck instead of on his back. Orton argued that this could have potentially ended his career. According to Kennedy, Orton also persuaded John Cena to complain to Vince McMahon about Kennedy's in-ring performance, which prompted McMahon to release Kennedy from his contract.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: In his first interview since his release, Kennedy expressed to 540 ESPN Radio in Milwaukee his interest in joining Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Kennedy appeared at World Wrestling Council's 2009 Anniversary show, where he lost to Eddie Fatu. After a number of matches in independent promotions, he competed on the tour in Australia. Under the ring name Mr. Anderson, he again worked matches with Fatu, the latter's final matches before his unexpected death on December 4.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: In January 2010, Anderson signed a one-year deal with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He made his debut for the company at the Genesis pay-per-view on January 17, 2010, working under the ring name Mr. Anderson. As a mystery opponent, he wrestled Abyss, whom he pinned after using brass knuckles, establishing himself as a heel in the process. Anderson made his "Impact!" debut on January 21, delivering a promo on and being attacked by Abyss.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: At Against All Odds, Anderson defeated Kurt Angle and Abyss to advance to the finals of the 8 Card Stud Tournament, where he lost to D'Angelo Dinero. On the following edition of "Impact!", Angle, whom Anderson had defeated by hitting him with dog tags, accused him of disrespecting U.S. soldiers, which led to Anderson hitting him with a mic, effectively starting a feud between the two. At Destination X, Angle defeated Anderson by submission. Afterwards, Anderson and Angle were booked in a steel cage match at Lockdown. On the April 5 episode of "Impact!", Anderson defeated Angle in a ladder match to win possession of the key to the cage door to be used at Lockdown. Angle defeated Anderson in the cage match. At Sacrifice, Anderson was defeated by Jeff Hardy. After the match, Anderson offered to shake Hardy's hand, but Hardy declined. On the following episode of "Impact!", Anderson helped Hardy defeat Sting in the main event of the show. After the match, both Anderson and Hardy were attacked by Sting. This turned Anderson face. At Slammiversary VIII, Anderson and Hardy, now known collectively as the Enigmatic Assholes, defeated Beer Money, Inc. (Robert Roode and James Storm) in a tag team match.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: At Victory Road, Anderson and Hardy attempted to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship from Rob Van Dam in a four-way match, also involving Abyss, but both were unsuccessful. On the August 19 edition of "Impact!", the TNA World Heavyweight Championship was vacated and Anderson was entered into an eight-man tournament for the title, defeating Jay Lethal in the first round and D'Angelo Dinero in the semifinals. On September 21, TNA President Dixie Carter announced that Anderson had signed a new long-term contract with the company. At Bound for Glory, Anderson failed in his attempt to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship when Jeff Hardy, with the assistance of both Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, pinned him in a three-way match (which also included Kurt Angle) to win the title, ending their partnership. Two weeks later, Anderson competed in a number one contender Ultimate X match against Kazarian, who won following interference from his Fortune stablemates. Anderson was blindsided by Hardy after the match, which consequently earned Anderson a title shot. During the attack, Anderson suffered a legitimate concussion, which kept him from taking part in the title match.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Anderson returned on December 2, chasing Hardy and Fortune out of the ring, before being announced as the special guest referee for the title match between Hardy and Matt Morgan at Final Resolution. Anderson was bloodied and taken out of that match by Eric Bischoff, who helped Hardy retain the title after another referee replaced Anderson. On January 9, 2011, at Genesis, Anderson defeated Morgan in a number one contender's match. Immediately afterwards, Bischoff announced that Anderson would get his title match against Jeff Hardy immediately. After interference from Morgan, Mick Foley, Matt Hardy, Rob Van Dam, and Bischoff, Anderson defeated Hardy to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. On the February 3 episode of "Impact!", Anderson defeated Hardy in a rematch for the title after Fortune turned on Immortal, who were interfering. On February 13 at Against All Odds, Anderson lost the TNA World Heavyweight Championship back to Hardy in a ladder match.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Eleven days later, Anderson defeated Kurt Angle and Rob Van Dam in a three-way match to earn a rematch for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Anderson was looking to get his title match on the following edition of "Impact!", but it was instead given to the returning Sting, who defeated Hardy to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. On the March 10 edition of "Impact!", Anderson attacked Sting backstage, claiming that he had been screwed out of his title match. In the main event of that show, Anderson teamed with Jeff Hardy against Rob Van Dam and Sting. During the match, Anderson took on the role of a tweener by turning on Hardy before being pinned by Van Dam. On April 17 at Lockdown, Anderson failed in his attempt to regain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship from Sting in a three-way steel cage match which also included Van Dam. On May 12, Anderson defeated 24 other men in a battle royal to earn a shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Slammiversary IX. In the weeks leading up to Slammiversary, Anderson tried to get under Sting's skin by dressing up like he did in the early 1990s during his "surfer" gimmick, attacking Disco Inferno during his own "Scorpion Sitdown" interview segment, and wrestling Eric Young, who was dressed as The Great Muta.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: On June 12 at Slammiversary IX, Anderson defeated Sting after a low blow from Eric Bischoff and a "Mic Check" to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship for the second time, turning heel once again. On June 18, Anderson represented TNA at Mexican promotion AAA's Triplemanía XIX pay-per-view, where he and Abyss unsuccessfully challenged Extreme Tiger and Jack Evans for the AAA World Tag Team Championship in a steel cage match. On the July 7 edition of "Impact Wrestling", Anderson joined Immortal. The following week, Anderson lost the TNA World Heavyweight Championship back to Sting. On July 28, Anderson faced Angle in a steel cage match, but was defeated following a distraction from fellow Immortal member Bully Ray. The tension between the two stablemates eventually led to a match on August 7 at Hardcore Justice, where Ray defeated Anderson with a low blow. On the following edition of "Impact Wrestling", the rest of Immortal turned on Anderson and kicked him out of the group. This turned him face. Anderson returned on August 25, attacking his former stablemates. On the September 8 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Anderson challenged Kurt Angle, who won the world title at Hardcore Justice, but the match ended in a disqualification due to interference from Immortal. Three days later, at No Surrender, Anderson again failed to capture the title in a three-way match, which also included Sting. Anderson and Bully Ray settled their grudge on October 16 at Bound for Glory, where Anderson won a Falls Count Anywhere match. On November 13 at Turning Point, Anderson and Abyss defeated Ray and Scott Steiner in a tag team match, ending his year-long storyline with Immortal.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: After a four-month absence, Anderson returned to TNA on March 8, 2012, aligning himself with A.J. Styles in his feud with Christopher Daniels and Kazarian. The following week, Anderson defeated Daniels in his return match. The rivalry continued on April 15 at Lockdown, where the two duos were on opposing teams in the annual Lethal Lockdown match. Anderson and Styles, on the team led by Garett Bischoff, defeated Daniels and Kazarian, on the team led by Eric Bischoff. On the following episode of "Impact Wrestling", Anderson and Jeff Hardy were defeated by Rob Van Dam in a three-way number one contender's match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. During the first "Open Fight Night" the following week, Anderson teamed up with Hardy to unsuccessfully challenge Magnus and Samoa Joe for the TNA World Tag Team Championship. On June 10 at Slammiversary, Anderson defeated Hardy and Rob Van Dam in a three-way match to become the number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. On the following edition of "Impact Wrestling", Anderson unsuccessfully challenged Bobby Roode for the world championship. As a result, he was entered into the 2012 Bound for Glory Series to try to earn another shot at the title. Anderson was mathematically eliminated on August 23. On September 27, Anderson received a shot at the vacant TNA Television Championship, but was defeated by Samoa Joe via submission with the "Coquina Clutch."


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: After several weeks of absence, Anderson returned to "Impact Wrestling" on December 27, where he was offered a position in Aces & Eights, a heel stable, which Anderson accepted the following week. On January 10, Anderson explained his joining by noting how nobody helped him when he was attacked by the Aces & Eights back in October. Anderson wrestled his return match on three days later at Genesis, defeating Samoa Joe after interference from Aces & Eights member Mike Knox. On March 10 at Lockdown, Aces & Eights, represented by Anderson, Devon, DOC, Garett Bischoff, and Mike Knox, were defeated by Team TNA, consisting of Eric Young, James Storm, Magnus, Samoa Joe, and Sting, in a Lethal Lockdown match. On June 2 at Slammiversary XI, Anderson, Bischoff, and Wes Brisco were defeated by Jeff Hardy, Magnus, and Samoa Joe in a six-man tag team match. On the following episode of "Impact Wrestling", Anderson began campaigning to be the new Vice President of the Aces & Eights. The following week, Anderson defeated his fellow Aces & Eights stablemates in a battle royal to qualify for the 2013 Bound for Glory Series. Anderson defeated Joseph Park in his first BFG series match via pinfall on the June 20 episode of "Impact Wrestling" to earn seven points in the tournament. On the July 11 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Anderson was voted to become Vice President of Aces & Eights.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: In August, he started a feud with Bully Ray, as Anderson frequently disagreed with Ray's decisions. Anderson's participation in the Bound for Glory series ended on the September 5 episode of "Impact Wrestling", when he was eliminated from a twenty-point battle royal by Samoa Joe. Later that night, Anderson turned face by costing Bully Ray his no-disqualification match with Sting and announcing himself as his TNA World Heavyweight Championship opponent at No Surrender. The following week, Anderson unsuccessfully challenged Ray for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a Last Man Standing match. Afterwards, as Anderson was being stretchered away, Ray attacked him and executed a piledriver to him onto the stage. On September 23, Anderson profile was quietly removed from TNA's website, seemingly indicating his departure from the company. However, he would make his return on October 24, continuing his storyline with Ray. At "Impact Wrestling: Turning Point", he defeated Ray and forced Aces & Eights to disband.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: On February 20, 2014, Anderson started a feud with Samuel Shaw when he attacked him and Christy Hemme during an interview. At that time, Shaw played a character of a man with an obsession with Hemme. At Lockdown, Shaw defeated Anderson in a steel cage match by escaping the cage by using Hemme as a distraction by pulling her through the camera cut-out of the steel cage. Anderson rescued Hemme but was caught in Shaw's kata gatame submission hold. The referee, who had been knocked out earlier in the match, only saw Shaw escape the cage and declared him the winner. They faced each other two more times at "Impact Wrestling", but their final match happened at Sacrifice, where Anderson defeated Shaw in a "Committed match", a match where you have to put the rival into a van, in order to win. Anderson won the match and, in storyline, Shaw was sent to a psychiatric facility for intervention. On May 1, Anderson attacked James Storm after the latter lost to Willow. On May 22, Anderson challenged Storm to a drinking contest, then went on to attack him outside the bar. Anderson won a match between the two at Slammiversary XII.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Following Slammiversary, Anderson formed a tag team with Gunner despite his relationship with Samuel Shaw, whom Gunner had been helping through the kayfabe psychiatric counseling. Anderson and Gunner continued to team together with Shaw at their side. Shaw would frequently try to help them in their matches, but Anderson refused, citing his lack of trust. On August 14, Anderson and Shaw brawled during a match between the former and Gunner. At Hardcore Justice, Anderson was defeated by Shaw in an I Quit match. Anderson returned to TNA on the February 20, 2015, episode of "Impact Wrestling", confronting Ethan Carter III and Tyrus for what they were doing to Rockstar Spud and Mandrews by attacking Tyrus and giving him a haircut. On May 8, Anderson was defeated by Carter in a Falls Count Anywhere match. The following week, Anderson defeated Tyrus. At Slammiversary, Anderson and Lashley lost to Carter and Tyrus. Several months later, Anderson engaged in a short feud against Bram, defeating him at both No Surrender and Turning Point. At Bound for Glory, Anderson was eliminated in the Bound for Gold by Tyrus. Throughout October and November, Anderson participated in the TNA World Title Series for the vacant TNA World Heavyweight Championship. However, he ended last in Group Champions. Anderson's final match in TNA was a dark match on January 7, 2016, where he defeated TNA King of the Mountain Champion Eric Young by disqualification in a title match. In March, it was reported that Anderson was fired from TNA for failing an on-the-spot drug test at an "Impact Wrestling" taping.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: In his first independent appearance since his firing from TNA, Anderson competed in Preston City Wrestling's Road to Glory tournament, defeating Luther Ward in the first round and losing to Drew Galloway the next day in the quarter-finals. On March 6, Anderson made his first appearance for Insane Championship Wrestling, losing to Joe Hendry on "Friday Night Fight Club". On December 3, at , Anderson defeated The Sadist. On April 29, 2017, at Ring of Honor Masters of the Craft, Anderson made a one-time appearance for the company, unsuccessfully challenging for Marty Scurll's ROH World Television Championship.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Anderson debuted for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) at their television tapings on September 30 for "NWA Power", defeating enhancement talent in a tag team match alongside Colt Cabana. At the December 16 tapings, Anderson won an eight-man gauntlet match to replaced the injured Zane Dawson in the NWA World Television Championship tournament. Anderson, however, was not medically cleared to compete in the tournament, therefore losing his match against Tim Storm by forfeit.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Anderson appeared in a feature film "Fighting The Still Life", directed by Matt Burns, who wrestled under the name Sick Nick Mondo. He also starred in the action film "" (2009), a sequel to "Behind Enemy Lines" (2001). Anderson booked the role through WWE. On July 24, 2007, Anderson appeared on "Tom Green Live!" in character.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Anderson, along with Mickie James and Josh Mathews, represented WWE at the 2008 Republican National Convention in an effort to persuade fans to register to vote in the 2008 US presidential election. During the Pittsburgh Penguins' 2009 Stanley Cup championship run, when National Hockey League winger Tyler Kennedy scored a goal, the Mellon Arena public address announcer would announce his family name twice, and the local crowd would chant it similar to Mr. Kennedy. Anderson twice appeared on "Family Feud": once in 2007 on a WWE-themed episode and again in 2010 on a TNA-themed episode. In June 2014, Anderson and comedian David Vox Mullen started the "Push The Button" podcast to cover topics such as religion, sex, and politics.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Anderson has appeared in a number of video games as a playable character, including "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007", "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008", "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009" and "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010".


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: Anderson married girlfriend Shawn Trebnick on January 9, 2008. Anderson has a red and black tattoo on his upper back, which took nearly eight hours to complete. In 2016, Anderson and fellow WWE alum Shawn Daivari founded The Academy professional wrestling school.


title: Ken Anderson (wrestler)

text: In an interview on August 18, 2007, Anderson admitted to using steroids when he was performing on the independent wrestling scene, stating that he had quit using them in November 2005 to comply with WWE's Talent Wellness Program, implying that his job in the promotion was worth more than extra muscle mass. However, 12 days later on August 30, Anderson and nine other WWE wrestlers were named in a "Sports Illustrated" article as having received performance-enhancing drugs, in violation of the WWE Talent Wellness Program. Anderson received anastrozole, somatropin, and testosterone between October 2006 and February 2007. He later claimed that the steroids were for his latissimus dorsi muscle, which was injured in 2005.


title: Judi Love

text: Judy Veronica Thomas (born 4 June 1980), known professionally as Judi Love, is an English stand-up comedian and presenter. She began her stand-up career in 2011 but came to prominence as a panellist on the ITV talk show "Loose Women". As well as competing on the BBC competition series "MasterChef", Love also competed in the nineteenth series of "Strictly Come Dancing"; finishing in tenth place, and the thirteenth series of "Taskmaster".


title: Judi Love

text: Judi Love was born on 4 June 1980 in Hackney, London to Jamaican parents and is the youngest of five children. She spent the majority of her youth in and around the East London area. Love studied a degree in Community Arts and Social Science and a Masters in Social Work from the Tavistock Institute. Love has two children, a daughter and a son.


title: Judi Love

text: Love began comedy when she performed a set in front of her class for a module, in which she revealed the comedic side of caring for her mother, who died in 2009 with dementia. In 2011, Love made her professional stage debut with a show titled "Laughter Is Healing". Love hosted the 2019 London Critics' Circle Awards, and in 2020, she began appearing as a panellist on the ITV talk show "Loose Women". Love also appeared on "Celebrity MasterChef" in July 2020, in which she was a finalist. In 2021, Love was announced as a contestant on the nineteenth series of "Strictly Come Dancing". She was eliminated on 31 October 2021, finishing in tenth place. Love has most recently starred in series 13 of "Taskmaster", alongside presenters Greg Davies and Alex Horne.


title: Food industry

text: The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditional, family-run activities that are highly labor-intensive, to large, capital-intensive and highly mechanized industrial processes. Many food industries depend almost entirely on local agriculture, produce, or fishing.


title: Food industry

text: It is challenging to find an inclusive way to cover all aspects of food production and sale. The UK Food Standards Agency describes it as "the whole food industry – from farming and food production, packaging and distribution, to retail and catering." The Economic Research Service of the USDA uses the term "food system" to describe the same thing, stating: "The U.S. food system is a complex network of farmers and the industries that link to them. Those links include makers of farm equipment and chemicals as well as firms that provide services to agribusinesses, such as providers of transportation and financial services. The system also includes the food marketing industries that link farms to consumers, and which include food and fiber processors, wholesalers, retailers, and foodservice establishments." The food industry includes:


title: Food industry

text: Areas of research such as food grading, food preservation, food rheology, food storage directly deal with the quality and maintenance of quality overlapping many of the above processes.


title: Food industry

text: Only subsistence farmers, those who survive on what they grow, and hunter-gatherers can be considered outside the scope of the modern food industry.


title: Food industry

text: The dominant companies in the food industry have sometimes been referred to as Big Food, a term coined by the writer Neil Hamilton.


title: Food industry

text: Most food produced for the food industry comes from commodity crops using conventional agricultural practices. Agriculture is the process of producing food, feeding products, fiber and other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). On average, 83% of the food consumed by humans is produced using terrestrial agriculture. Other food sources include aquaculture and fishing.


title: Food industry

text: Scientists, inventors, and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. One in three people worldwide are employed in agriculture, yet it only contributes 3% to global GDP. In 2017, on average, agriculture contributes 4% of national GDPs. Global agricultural production is responsible for between 14 and 28% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it one of the largest contributors to global warming, in large part due to conventional agricultural practices, including nitrogen fertilizers and poor land management.


title: Food industry

text: Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, fibre, and land reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences. Agronomists today are involved with many issues including producing food, creating healthier food, managing the environmental impact of agriculture, and extracting energy from plants.


title: Food industry

text: Food processing includes the methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food for human consumption. Food processing takes clean, harvested or slaughtered and butchered components and uses them to produce marketable food products. There are several different ways in which food can be produced.


title: Food industry

text: One-off production: This method is used when customers make an order for something to be made to their own specifications, for example, a wedding cake. The making of one-off products could take days depending on how intricate the design is.


title: Food industry

text: Batch production: This method is used when the size of the market for a product is not clear, and where there is a range within a product line. A certain number of the same goods will be produced to make up a batch or run, for example a bakery may bake a limited number of cupcakes. This method involves estimating consumer demand.


title: Food industry

text: Mass production: This method is used when there is a mass market for a large number of identical products, for example chocolate bars, ready meals and canned food. The product passes from one stage of production to another along a production line.


title: Food industry

text: Just-in-time (JIT) (production): This method of production is mainly used in restaurants. All components of the product are available in-house and the customer chooses what they want in the product. It is then prepared in a kitchen, or in front of the buyer as in sandwich delicatessens, pizzerias, and sushi bars.


title: Food industry

text: The food industry has a large influence on consumerism. Organizations, such as The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), have been criticized for accepting monetary donations from companies within the food industry, such as Coca-Cola. These donations have been criticized for creating a conflict of interest and favoring an interest such as financial gains.


title: Food industry

text: There are a number of books, film, TV and web-related exposés and critiques of the food industry, including:


title: Food industry

text: The Bretton Woods Institutions - The World Bank and International Monetary Fund - play a large role in how the food industry functions today. These global funds were born after World War II, to help rebuild Europe and prevent another Great Depression. Overall, their main purpose was to stabilize economies. The IMF provided short term loans while the World Bank was focused on larger projects that would bring electricity back to cities, roads, and other "essential" needs. The World Banks mission and purpose, however, transformed as its President Robert McNamara issued a system of loans known as Structural Adjustment. In accepting loans from the World Bank, countries - especially the Global South - became economically, politically, and socially tied to the West. Many countries struggled to pay back their loans, beginning the process of global debt, privatization, and the downfall of local economies. As a result of Western intervention, many small scale farmers have been displaced, as US corporations have bought out land in other countries and continued to monopolize on food. Today, several multinational corporations have pushed agricultural technologies on developing countries including improved seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides, crop production.


title: Food industry

text: In 2020 scientists reported that reducing emissions from the global food system is essential to achieving the Paris Agreement's climate goals. In 2020, an evidence review for the European Union's Scientific Advice Mechanism found that, without significant change, emissions would increase by 30–40% by 2050 due to population growth and changing consumption patterns, and concluded that "the combined environmental cost of food production is estimated to amount to some $12 trillion per year, increasing to $16 trillion by 2050". The IPCC's and the EU's reports concluded that adapting the food system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions impacts and food security concerns, while shifting towards a sustainable diet, is feasible.


title: Food industry

text: Since World War II, agriculture in the United States and the entire national food system in its entirety has been characterized by models that focus on monetary profitability at the expense of social and environmental integrity. Regulations exist to protect consumers and somewhat balance this economic orientation with public interests for food quality, food security, food safety, animal well-being, environmental protection and health.


title: Food industry

text: In 2020, researchers published projections and models of potential impacts of policy-dependent mechanisms of modulation, or lack thereof, of how, where, and what food is produced. They analyzed policy-effects for specific regions or nations such as reduction of meat production and consumption, reductions in food waste and loss, increases in crop yields and international land-use planning. Their conclusions include that raising agricultural yields is highly beneficial for biodiversity-conservation in sub-Saharan Africa while measures leading to shifts of diets are highly beneficial in North America and that global coordination and rapid action are necessary.


title: Food industry

text: A vast global cargo network connects the numerous parts of the industry. These include suppliers, manufacturers, warehousers, retailers and the end consumers.) Wholesale markets for fresh food products have tended to decline in importance in urbanizing countries, including Latin America and some Asian countries as a result of the growth of supermarkets, which procure directly from farmers or through preferred suppliers, rather than going through markets.


title: Food industry

text: The constant and uninterrupted flow of product from distribution centers to store locations is a critical link in food industry operations. Distribution centers run more efficiently, throughput can be increased, costs can be lowered, and manpower better utilized if the proper steps are taken when setting up a material handling system in a warehouse.


title: Food industry

text: With worldwide urbanization, food buying is increasingly removed from food production. During the 20th century, the supermarket became the defining retail element of the food industry. There, tens of thousands of products are gathered in one location, in continuous, year-round supply.


title: Food industry

text: Food preparation is another area where the change in recent decades has been dramatic. Today, two food industry sectors are in apparent competition for the retail food dollar. The grocery industry sells fresh and largely raw products for consumers to use as ingredients in home cooking. The food service industry, by contrast, offers prepared food, either as finished products or as partially prepared components for final "assembly". Restaurants, cafes, bakeries and mobile food trucks provide opportunities for consumers to purchase food.


title: Food industry

text: In the 21st century online grocery stores emerged and digital technologies for community-supported agriculture have enabled farmers to directly sell produce. Some online grocery stores have voluntarily set social goals or values beyond meeting consumer demand and the accumulation of profit.


title: Food industry

text: Modern food production is defined by sophisticated technologies. These include many areas. Agricultural machinery, originally led by the tractor, has practically eliminated human labor in many areas of production. Biotechnology is driving much change, in areas as diverse as agrochemicals, plant breeding and food processing. Many other types of technology are also involved, to the point where it is hard to find an area that does not have a direct impact on the food industry. As in other fields, computer technology is also a central force.


title: Food industry

text: As consumers grow increasingly removed from food production, the role of product creation, advertising, and publicity become the primary vehicles for information about food. With processed food as the dominant category, marketers have almost infinite possibilities in product creation. Of the food advertised to children on television 73% is fast or convenience foods.


title: Food industry

text: Until the last 100 years, agriculture was labor-intensive. Farming was a common occupation and millions of people were involved in food production. Farmers, largely trained from generation to generation, carried on the family business. That situation has changed dramatically today. In America in 1870, 70–80% of the US population was employed in agriculture. , less than 2% of the population is directly employed in agriculture, and about 80% of the population lives in cities.


title: McMaster University

text: McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Gardens. It operates six academic faculties: the DeGroote School of Business, Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities, Social Science, and Science. It is a member of the U15, a group of research-intensive universities in Canada.


title: McMaster University

text: The university bears the name of William McMaster, a prominent Canadian senator and banker who bequeathed C$900,000 to its founding. It was incorporated under the terms of an act of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1887, merging the Toronto Baptist College with Woodstock College. It opened in Toronto in 1890. Inadequate facilities and the gift of land in Hamilton prompted its relocation in 1930. The Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec controlled the university until it became a privately chartered, publicly funded non-denominational institution in 1957.


title: McMaster University

text: McMaster University has over 27,000 undergraduate and over 4,000 post-graduate students. Alumni and former students reside across Canada and in 139 countries. Its athletic teams are known as the Marauders, and are members of U Sports. Notable alumni include government officials, academics, business leaders, Rhodes Scholars, Gates Cambridge Scholars, and Nobel laureates.


title: McMaster University

text: McMaster University resulted from the outgrowth of educational initiatives undertaken by Baptists as early as the 1830s. The predecessor institution of McMaster was established in 1881 as Toronto Baptist College. Canadian Senator William McMaster, the first president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, bequeathed funds to endow a university, which was incorporated through a merger of Toronto Baptist College and the faculty of theology in Woodstock College, Woodstock, Ontario. The merger was formalized in 1887 when the "Act to unite Toronto Baptist College and Woodstock College" was granted royal assent, with the newly incorporated institution being named McMaster University.


title: McMaster University

text: In 1887, the widow of William McMaster, Susan Moulton McMaster, conveyed a former family residence to the university for the purpose of establishing a preparatory school for girls. The Ladies' Department of Woodstock College transferred control of its Ladies' Department to the university, and the building was reopened as Moulton Ladies' College in 1888. The preparatory school operated until 1958, when it was closed by the university.


title: McMaster University

text: The new university, housed in McMaster Hall in Toronto, was sponsored by the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec as a sectarian undergraduate institution for its clergy and adherents. The first courses—initially limited to arts and theology leading to a BA degree—were taught in 1890, and the first degrees were conferred in 1894.


title: McMaster University

text: As the university grew, McMaster Hall started to become overcrowded. The suggestion to move the university to Hamilton was first brought up by a student and Hamilton native in 1909, although the proposal was not seriously considered by the university until two years later. By the 1920s, after previous proposals between various university staff, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce launched a campaign to bring McMaster University to Hamilton. As the issue of space at McMaster Hall became more acute, the university administration debated the future of the university. The university nearly became federated with the University of Toronto, as had been the case with Trinity College and Victoria College.


title: McMaster University

text: Instead, in 1927, the university administration decided to move the university to Hamilton. The Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec secured $1.5 million, while the citizens of Hamilton raised an additional $500,000 to help finance the move. The lands for the university and new buildings were secured through gifts from graduates. Lands were transferred from Royal Botanical Gardens to establish the campus area. The first academic session on the new Hamilton campus began in 1930. McMaster's property in Toronto was sold to the University of Toronto when McMaster moved to Hamilton in 1930. McMaster Hall is now home to the Royal Conservatory of Music.


title: McMaster University

text: Professional programs during the interwar period were limited to just theology and nursing. By the 1940s the McMaster administration was under pressure to modernize and expand the university's programs. During the Second World War and post-war periods the demand for technological expertise, particularly in the sciences, increased. This problem placed a strain on the finances of what was still a denominational Baptist institution. In particular, the institution could no longer secure sufficient funds from denominational sources alone to sustain science research. Since denominational institutions could not receive public funds, the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec decided to reorganize the university, creating two federated colleges. The arts and divinity programs were reconstituted as University College and science was reorganized under the newly incorporated Hamilton College as a separate division capable of receiving provincial grants. Hamilton College was incorporated in 1948 by letters patent under "The Companies Act", although it remained only affiliated with the university. The university traditionally focused on undergraduate studies, and did not offer a PhD program until 1949.


title: McMaster University

text: Through the 1950s increased funding advanced the place of sciences within the institution. In 1950, the university had completed the construction of three academic buildings for the sciences, all designed by local architect William Russell Souter. Public funding was eventually necessary to ensure the humanities and social sciences were given an equal place. Thus, in 1957 the university reorganized once again under "The McMaster University Act, 1957", dissolving the two colleges. Its property was vested to McMaster and the university became a nondenominational institution eligible for public funding. The historic Baptist connection was continued through McMaster Divinity College, a separately chartered affiliated college of the university. Also in 1957, PhD programs were consolidated in a new Faculty of Graduate Studies. Construction of the McMaster Nuclear Reactor also began in 1957, and was the first university-based research reactor in the Commonwealth when it began operating in 1959.


title: McMaster University

text: In 1965, with the support of the Ontario government, the university established a medical school and teaching hospital, graduating its first class of physicians in 1972. In 1968 the university was reorganized under an amended act of the McMaster Act into the Divisions of Arts, Science, and Health Sciences, each with its own vice-president, while the Divinity College continued under its existing arrangement. In 1974 the divisional structure of the university was dissolved and reorganized again under "The McMaster University Act, 1976" and the vice-presidents were replaced by a single vice-president (academic). The Faculties of Business, Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities, Science, and Social Sciences were retained, each under the leadership of a dean.


title: McMaster University

text: McMaster University is in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, in the Golden Horseshoe along the western end of Lake Ontario. The main campus is bordered to the north by Cootes Paradise, an extensive natural marshland; to the east and west by residential neighbourhoods; and to its south by Main Street West, a major transportation artery. Its northern boundaries are a popular destination for walkers who use the many trails that connect the campus to Royal Botanical Gardens. While the main campus is , most of the teaching facilities are within the core . In addition to its main campus in Hamilton, McMaster owns several other properties around Hamilton as well as in Burlington, Kitchener, and St. Catharines, Ontario.


title: McMaster University

text: In 2017, the university owned and managed 58 buildings, including both on and off campus housing. The buildings at McMaster vary in age—from Hamilton Hall which opened in 1926, to the university's new Bertrand Russell Archives and Research Centre, which opened 25 June 2018. McMaster's main campus is divided into three main areas: the Core Campus, North Campus and West Campus. The Core Campus has most of the university's academic, research and residential buildings, while the North Campus is made up of the university's athletic precinct and a small amount of surface parking. The West Campus is the least developed area of the main campus, containing only a few buildings, surface parking, and undeveloped land. Security at the university is provided by special constables employed by McMaster University Security Service, a department of the university.


title: McMaster University

text: The university's campus has gone through continuous development since 1928. The main campus's six original buildings are of Collegiate Gothic architecture, designed by William Lyon Somerville, who also laid out the initial campus plan. They are now flanked by over fifty structures built predominantly from the 1940s to 1960s. The largest facility is the McMaster University Medical Centre, a multi-use research hospital that is home to the second-largest neonatal intensive care unit and the third-largest child and youth mental health unit in the country. It is connected to the Life Sciences building and the Michael DeGroote Centre for Learning & Discovery, which houses many well-funded research groups in areas of genetics, infectious diseases, and several specific conditions.


title: McMaster University

text: The McMaster Nuclear Reactor (MNR) has been the largest university reactor in the Commonwealth since it began operation and is the second largest research reactor in North America. It is a "pool-type" reactor with a core of enriched uranium fuel moderated and cooled by distilled water. While the MNR's primary purpose is research and the production of medical isotopes, the MNR serves students in nuclear engineering, medical and health physics, and other applied radiation sciences. The university provides a wide range of irradiation, laboratory, and holding facilities, which include a cyclotron, an accelerator, a small-angle neutron-scattering detector, and wide-angle neutron scattering facilities. The cyclotron is used for the production of fluorine-18, and is used for research purposes, particularly the development of novel molecular imaging agents.


title: McMaster University

text: The university's library system is a member of 31 organizations, including the Association of Research Libraries. Around 2.8 million articles were downloaded from the library system's electronic journal collection during the 2016 academic year. The university library employs 138 professional, and support staff. The library's resource expenditure for the 2016–2017 academic year was approximately $11.5 million, with 81 per cent of the budget allocated to serial and e-resource subscriptions, 9 per cent on hard copy acquisitions, and 10 per cent to membership and collections support. The library system include four libraries housing 1,274,265 paper books and 3,689,973 total resources, including videos, maps, sound recordings, and microfilm. Mills Library houses the humanities and social sciences collections, with a wide range of print and digital resources. Innis Library houses content which supports the academic and research interests of the DeGroote School of Business. Thode Library houses academic material of various disciplines of science and engineering, while the Health Science Library houses books pertaining to medical sciences. The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections at McMaster University consist of papers of Canadian publishers; British personalities and of Canadian literary figures such as Farley Mowat, Pierre Berton, Matt Cohen, and Marian Engel. It includes the archives of Bertrand Russell, and of labour unions.