title: Louis Koo

text: In 2004, Koo took on the role of Sze-to Bo, a perpetually drunk and despondent former judo champion with hereditary eye disease, in Johnnie To’s "Throw Down" which was premiered at the 61st Venice International Film Festival. The movie was a marked departure from his usual commercial genres, and he also began his long-term collaboration with To and Milkyway Image.


title: Louis Koo

text: Koo later received international acclaim for his chilling performance in Johnnie To's "Election 2" (a.k.a. "Triad Election"), which was screened at the "Out of Competition" section at the 59th Cannes Film Festival ("Election" was competitive film at the 58th Cannes Film Festival). He won the award for Most Beloved Actor in the Hong Kong UA Film Awards 2006 through public voting for his role in "Election 2".


title: Louis Koo

text: In a female perspective romantic film "Happy Birthday" (2006) adapted by Sylvia Chang from 'Rene Liu's novella, Koo portrayed a sensitive man who continued to take care of his ex-girlfriend after his death.


title: Louis Koo

text: Koo also took supporting roles in action movies, such as Jackie Chan's "Robin B Hood" (2006), Donnie Yen's "Flash Point" (2007).


title: Louis Koo

text: His character as an unscrupulous drug addict in Derek Yee's "Protégé" (2007) differed from his previous performances, as he forwent his suave image for an emaciated look. The supporting role earned him positive critical feedback and Best Supporting Actor nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards.


title: Louis Koo

text: In Sylvia Chang's female perspective gangster film "Run Papa Run" (2008), Koo played a reckless triad leader who tried to shield his daughter from his past misdemeanours. Koo earned Best Actor nominations in the Hong Kong Film Awards and Golden Horse Award for this role, which required him to portray a character from his late teens to his fifties. Since then Koo took more challenging father roles and middle-aged roles.


title: Louis Koo

text: In the remake of "Cellular", "Connected" (2008) directed by Benny Chan, he played an average Joe cast in a race against time to save a stranger.


title: Louis Koo

text: In Soi Cheang's "Accident" (2009) which was a competitive film at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, Koo acted as a highly-strung killer-group leader who was good at disguising murders as accidents.


title: Louis Koo

text: In "Overheard" (2009) directed by Alan Mak and Felix Chong, he put on 30 pounds’ weight to take the role of a middle-aged cop and father of four more convincingly, and earned Best Actor nominations in Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards. This film was successful and was then made into a series with the same cast and directors but different stories.


title: Louis Koo

text: In 2010 Koo signed pre-paid contracts with Pegasus Motion Pictures, then appeared in its "All's well, ends well" comedy series, and it's anti-corruption film series ("Z Storm", "S Storm").


title: Louis Koo

text: In costume "A Chinese Ghost Story" (2011), Koo acted as a Chinese Taoist "Exorcist" who fell in love with a fox-fairy and sacrificed himself in the end. Koo made a return to his romantic comedy roots in "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and sequel "Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2" (2014) directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Hui, acting as a dissolute stock broker.


title: Louis Koo

text: In "Drug War" (2012) directed by Johnnie To, Koo took on the role of a ruthless and deliberate Hong Kong drug lord who dared to do anything to get away from mainland China's death penalty.


title: Louis Koo

text: Koo received a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor nomination again for his undercover cop role in Benny Chan's 2013 film "The White Storm".


title: Louis Koo

text: In "Out of Inferno" (2013), Koo acted as a resigned firefighter who encountered a fire in a high-rise building.


title: Louis Koo

text: In Soi Cheang's "" (2015), Koo took the role of an ill and evil mastermind of a criminal organization. In Johnnie To's "Three" (2016), Koo acted as a cop leader at the edge of crime.


title: Louis Koo

text: In "Shed Skin Papa" (2017), a competitive film at the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival, Koo acted as a frustrated director who came to understand his father after his mother's funeral and a series of fantastic incidents.


title: Louis Koo

text: In "Paradox" (2017), Koo played a cop who was determined to avenge his daughter, and performed most of the film's action sequences without the use of a stunt double. For his performance in the film, Koo won Asian Film Award for Best Actor at the 12th Asian Film Awards as well the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild Award for Best Actor at the 12th Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild Award in March 2018. Koo's performance also won him the Best Actor award at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards held on 15 April 2018.


title: Louis Koo

text: Koo was captivated by "Star Wars" film series when he was a child. After a decades-long acting career in the film industry, he anticipated the rise of China's own Sci-fi films, so he purchased several Visual effects and Prosthetic make-up companies. In 2013, Koo founded "One Cool Group Limited". As of 2018, One Cool Group has produced 20 films. The sci-fi action film "Warriors of Future", which Koo produced and stars in, was released on 25 August 2022.


title: Louis Koo

text: Koo was able to acquire the rights of the series "A Step into the Past" in 2015 and adapt it for the big screen - "Back to the Past". Production for the film officially wrapped on 7 July 2019. Koo will also star in the film reprising his role from the series.


title: Louis Koo

text: In 2021, Koo served as executive producer for two Hollywood animation films, "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" and "Vivo", with the former being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 94th Academy Awards.


title: Louis Koo

text: Koo has published several books over the years including his photo albums "Present" (1999) and "Cool" (2001), as well as his autobiography "Find Happiness" (2002). He also released "Toys Battle" (2008), a book chronicling his love for comic book characters and movie superheroes, and donated all proceeds to UNICEF. Koo has been writing blogs everyday on his own website since December 2006.


title: Louis Koo

text: Koo recorded several theme songs for the TVB dramas he had starred in and several TV advertisement songs he had endorsed. He had also cut four albums: "Boyfriend" and "Popular Louis" in 2000, "optimism" in 2001, "Mr.Cool" in 2003.


title: Louis Koo

text: Koo was a designer of his own eyewear brand ZeroX, Level Nine, and Louis Koo. He also participated in designs of his own books, websites, company logos and some endorsed brands.


title: Louis Koo

text: With a career spanning two decades, Koo has endorsed a large number of brands in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Some of the major brand endorsements include, Pepsi, Brooks Brothers, Samsung Galaxy, Xbox 360 Kinect, Toyota Corolla, Yokohama Tire, Lay's, Lipton, Lotte chewing gum, Tropicana, Gillette, OSIM, Tag Heuer, Epson printer, Matisse, Johnnie Walker, Pentax camera, Clinique, Hugo Boss Perfume, Bally, Puma, DBS Black World MasterCard.


title: Louis Koo

text: In July 2012, Chinese microblogs caught on to the news of Koo's low profile philanthropy in China, which became a trending topic, more and more people born in different remote rural areas found that local elementary schools were built with donation of Koo, and upload photos to the microblogs. Major Chinese dailies further reported that he had helped build 49 schools to help the underprivileged in remote areas in rural China for the past three years without any publicity. Koo was reluctant to comment on the issue but it was learnt that Koo set up his charity foundation after witnessing the devastation from the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. According to "Grace charity" website, Koo has helped build 97 elementary school buildings, 18 clinics and 751 small water supply projects in remote undeveloped areas of rural China through "Grace Charity Foundation Limited" and local government by 2017.


title: Louis Koo

text: In 2018, 55382 Kootinlok, a main-belt asteroid discovered by Bill Yeung at the Desert Eagle Observatory in 2001, was named in honor of Koo.


title: Louis Koo

text: On May 20, 2021, Weibo Starlight Awards 2020 ceremony was held online. The winners were all over the world, including Koo, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Takuya Kimura, etc.　Koo, was awarded the "Starlight of Fame (Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan)" and "Starlight Influential Actor of the Year".


title: Area codes 718, 347, and 929

text: Area codes 718, 347, and 929 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the New York City boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, as well as the Marble Hill section of Manhattan. They are part of a larger overlay plan with area code 917, which comprises all of New York City.


title: Area codes 718, 347, and 929

text: For the first 37 years after the establishment of the North American Numbering Plan in 1947, all of New York City was a single numbering plan area (NPA), area code 212. In 1984, New York Telephone asked the New York Public Service Commission to split part of New York City into a new area code to "prevent an impending exhaustion of telephone numbers." On February 1, 1984, the commission voted to split serve Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island into a new area code, with Manhattan and the Bronx retaining 212. The announcement of the impending split triggered protests and threats of legal action from local officials and lawmakers representing the outer boroughs. Despite this, New York Telephone implemented the new 718 area code on September 1, 1984. The split was implemented in a way that split the city's three million telephone numbers roughly in half. Permissive dialing of 212 continued across New York City until January 1, 1985.


title: Area codes 718, 347, and 929

text: On July 1, 1992, the Bronx and the neighborhood of Marble Hill, Manhattan were also split from numbering plan area 212, and were added to 718. A permissive dialing period for using either area code 212 or 718 in the affected area lasted until May 16, 1993.


title: Area codes 718, 347, and 929

text: On December 16, 2009, the New York Public Service Commission approved an additional overlay code for the 718/347 numbering plan area. On January 22, 2010, NeuStar announced another overlay code (929) for the New York City 718 and 347 area codes used by boroughs outside Manhattan. Area code 929 became effective on April 16, 2011. This had the effect of assigning 23.4 million numbers to an area of 6.7 million people.


title: Area codes 718, 347, and 929

text: Area code 917 overlays area codes 718, 347, and 929, as well as area codes 212, 646 and 332 in Manhattan.


title: Area codes 718, 347, and 929

text: Despite being legally a part of the borough of Manhattan, per the Greater New York Charter of 1897, the neighborhood of Marble Hill is excluded from the Manhattan numbering plan areas 212, 646, and 332, instead using the 718, 347, and 929 area codes. It used to be attached to Manhattan Island. After the Harlem River Ship Canal was built in 1895, Marble Hill was separated from Manhattan Island by water. Soon after, the Spuyten Duyvil Creek was filled in with landfill, physically connecting Marble Hill to the Bronx.


title: Area codes 718, 347, and 929

text: When the 718 numbering plan area was extended to the Bronx, Marble Hill residents unsuccessfully fought to retain area code 212. Marble Hill receives its dial tone from central offices in the Bronx, and it would have been too expensive for New York Telephone to reroute Marble Hill's trunk so that it could remain in 212.


title: Area codes 718, 347, and 929

text: The 718 area code was celebrated in the 1998 2 Skinnee J's song "718", in which the rappers tell of people moving from Manhattan (212) to other boroughs (718) for lower rent.


title: Area codes 718, 347, and 929

text: Area codes 212 and 718 are included in the 2001 song "Area Codes" as two of the many locations where rapper Ludacris has "hoes".


title: Area codes 718, 347, and 929

text: A telephone number in area code 347 appears as "Come forth and call 489-4608, and I'll be here" in the lyrics of "Diary", a track on the album "The Diary of Alicia Keys".


title: The Sims 2

text: The Sims 2 is a 2004 strategic life simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major title in "The Sims" series, and is the sequel to "The Sims." The game was released for Microsoft Windows on September 14, 2004, and a port for MacOS was released on June 17, 2005. Eight expansion packs and nine "stuff packs" were subsequently released between 2005 and 2008. In addition, versions of "The Sims 2" were released on various consoles and mobile platforms, including the Nokia Ovi Store. A sequel, "The Sims 3", was released in June 2009.


title: The Sims 2

text: Like its predecessor, "The Sims 2" allows the player to create and dress characters called "Sims", design neighborhoods, and build and furnish houses. Players manage their Sims from birth to death, forming relationships in a manner similar to real life. Sims have life goals, wants, and fears, the fulfillment of which can produce good or bad outcomes. "The Sims 2" was the first game in the series to incorporate a 3D graphics engine, which allowed the player to get 360º views of the game as opposed to the fixed 2D isometric view of "The Sims". Genetics are also a new game mechanic, as previously children in "The Sims" did not always look like their parents. Although gameplay is not linear, storylines and scripted events exist in the game's pre-built neighborhoods.


title: The Sims 2

text: "The Sims 2" was critically acclaimed, gaining a 90% score from aggregators Metacritic and GameRankings. It has been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. It was also a commercial success, selling one million copies in its first ten days, a record at the time. In April 2008, "The Sims 2"'s official website announced that 100 million copies of "The Sims" series had been sold. By March 2012, the game had sold 13 million copies over all platforms with over six million PC copies, making it one of the best-selling PC games of all-time. The Sims 2 was the final game in the series that creator Will Wright worked on.


title: The Sims 2

text: From the neighborhood view, the player selects one lot to play, as in "The Sims". There are both residential and community lots, but Sims can only live in residential lots. Sims can travel to community lots in order to purchase things like clothing and magazines, and to interact with NPCs and townies.


title: The Sims 2

text: The player can choose between playing a pre-made inhabited lot, moving a household into an unoccupied pre-built lot, or constructing a building on an empty lot. One novelty from "The Sims" is foundations.


title: The Sims 2

text: The player switches among the "live" mode (default) to control Sims, the "buy" mode to add, move or delete furniture, or the "build" mode to rebuild the house and make structural changes. Buy and build mode cannot be accessed when on a community lot, but the lots can be built on by using the neighborhood view. It is also possible to import neighborhood terrains from "SimCity 4".


title: The Sims 2

text: The game contains some time-bound social challenges that provide a reward if successful. Sims can throw parties to gain aspiration points or invite the headmaster over for dinner in order to enroll their children in private school. Some expansion packs have new mini-games, like running a Greek house in "University" or dating in "Nightlife". In "Nightlife", each date is a challenge to keep both Sims as happy as possible while accumulating aspiration points. Various other expansion packs introduce supernatural characters which Sims can be turned into, such as Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, PlantSims, and Witches.


title: The Sims 2

text: The main part of the game is to lead a Sim from the start of life to death. A Sim will be born when a female Sim and a male Sim try for a baby several times. The mother will spend 3 Sim days (each day lasts 24 minutes though time can be sped-up) pregnant before giving birth to a baby. During Pregnancy, the belly does not expand gradually. Instead, every day, it "pops" to a bigger size. Players can name the new Sim upon birth. The baby's appearance and personality will be based on the genetics of its parents (though the baby's appearance is hidden until it becomes a toddler). Babies can also be adopted by calling adoption service on the phone, even by single parents, old age sims or same-gender couples. The baby will change into a toddler in 3 days, and 4 more days for the toddler to change into a child. After 8 days, the child grows into a teenager, and will live 15 days before changing into an adult. After 29 days, the Sim will become an elder. An elder will eventually die; the length of this final stage depends on the aspiration bar when they become an elder.


title: The Sims 2

text: Babies, toddlers, children, teens, and adults can be advanced to their next life stage at any time during the 24 Sim hours before they will grow up automatically. For babies, this requires using the birthday cake. Toddlers, children, teens, and adults can use the "Grow Up" self-interaction. If the university expansion pack is installed, teens have the option to go to college, where they will be young adults for approximately 24 days. Aging can be disabled via cheats.


title: The Sims 2

text: Players will need to build up talent badges, skills and relationships with other people, so that they can be successful in their career. A player will also need to make sure a Sim is happy and well by fulfilling wants (including lifetime wants, avoiding fears, and fulfilling motives).


title: The Sims 2

text: Pregnancy, toddlers, teens, and elders are new stages of life. Young adult is a unique age added with the "University" expansion. Teen Sims will become young adults once they are moved to a university, and will be adults once they leave campus, regardless of the reason.


title: The Sims 2

text: In "The Sims 2", Create a Family is entered by clicking the "Families" button in the lower left-hand corner of the neighborhood view, then clicking the large "Create New Family" button. Clicking the button labeled "Create A Sim" will expand a tab which has the "Create a Sim" and "Make a Child" icons. "Make a Child" will be grayed out unless the family contains an adult male and adult female. Clicking the "Create a Sim" icon will generate a random adult Sim, who may be male or female which can be edited by the player.


title: The Sims 2

text: As opposed to "The Sims", any age besides baby or young adult (which must be made in the University Create a Student) may be created. Instead of having to choose from already finished faces which include hair, it is now possible to alter the facial structure (e.g. widening the nose, thinning the lips, elongating the chin, etc.) and choose any hairstyle to go with it. Different eye colors and an additional skin tone is available for the Sims as well. If Sims are older than a child, their aspiration and turn-ons/offs (Nightlife or later) may be determined. There are ten personality traits which are: sloppy, neat, shy, outgoing, lazy, active, serious, playful, grouchy, and nice but only 25 personality points which can be assigned to those traits. However, in "The Sims 2", all personality points must be assigned. Additionally, there are twelve pre-set personalities, one for each zodiac sign. A zodiac sign will be set which matches the personality the player has selected for the Sim. A sim also has one of six Aspirations which is a lifetime goal that strongly influences their Wants and Fears which are: Grow Up, Romance, Family, Knowledge, Popularity, and Fortune.


title: The Sims 2

text: "The Sims 2" also comes with "The Sims 2 Body Shop," which enables users to create custom genetics, make-up, clothes, and Sims, with the help of third-party tools, such as Microsoft Paint, Paint.NET, Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, and SimPE.


title: The Sims 2

text: There are several new social interactions introduced in "The Sims 2". These new social interactions can create memories and can be related to certain age groups. Social interactions can come up in the Wants and Fears panel and can be dependent on the Sim's personality and aspiration. Sims with certain personalities may not want to complete certain social interactions.


title: The Sims 2

text: There are careers that come with the game that require skills and a certain number of friends in order for promotion. Success in these careers unlocks career rewards and higher salaries plus bonuses. Sims also receive chance cards. Correct answers to these chance cards creates rewards for Sims while incorrect answers could cause a Sim to lose its job. "Nightlife" and "Apartment Life" allow Sims to gain promotions through social interactions with other Sims. One specific career option is "Jazzercise instructor".


title: The Sims 2

text: "The Sims 2" ships with three pre-made worlds, known as "neighborhoods" for the player to explore, all with a specific theme and storylines. These worlds are Pleasantview, a continuation of the playable neighborhood from "The Sims", featuring many of the same families, such as the Goths and the Pleasants - Strangetown, a small desert town themed around the supernatural, with aliens, mad scientists and haunted graveyards. The final neighborhood, Veronaville, is a European-themed town based on the works of William Shakespeare, with its central plot being a loose, modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Aside from these pre-made neighborhoods, players can create and populate towns of their own, using built-in presets, or create their own entirely using SimCity 4, since SimCity 4 maps are compatible with "The Sims 2".


title: The Sims 2

text: Expansion packs also add several new neighborhoods, such as University towns, a shopping district, a Downtown area and several vacation destinations. "Seasons" adds a fully-fledged neighborhood, a rural small town called Riverblossom Hills, "Free Time" adds a hobby-themed town named Desiderata Valley, while "Apartment Life" adds Belladonna Cove, a bigger, more metropolitan area featuring apartments and high-rises.


title: The Sims 2

text: Graphically, "The Sims 2" is more detailed than "The Sims" and lets players view its world in full 3D. This is a change from earlier Sim games, such as "SimCity 2000", which used dimetric projection and fixed resolutions, as the camera was in "The Sims". In "The Sims", Sims are 3D meshes, but "The Sims 2" introduces far more detail in mesh quality, texture quality, and animation capability. A Sim's facial features are customizable and unique, and Sims can smile, frown, and blink. The player can adjust a Sim's features in the in-game Create-a-Sim tool; for example, noses can be made to be very large or very small. Texturing is achieved through use of raster images, though it appears more lifelike.


title: The Sims 2

text: "The Sims 2" characters pass through seven life stages — babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, young adults (only with "University"), adults, and elders — with eventual death of old age, while babies in "The Sims" only become children before ceasing to age further. The aspiration system (described above) is also new to "The Sims 2". Sims can become pregnant and produce babies that take on genetic characteristics of their parents, such as eye color, hair color, facial structure, and personality traits as opposed to "The Sims", in which the baby would take on random appearance and personality. Genetics play a major role in the game, and as such, dominant and recessive genes play a larger role than they did in the original game. A player can also aspire to have a Sim abducted by aliens. Males then have the chance to become impregnated and produce after three Sim days a half-alien child.


title: The Sims 2

text: Some of the other additions to gameplay are career rewards, a week cycle, the "cleaning" skill (which was a hidden skill in "The Sims"), a variety of meals (depending on time of day), exercise clothing, body shape affected by diet and exercise, and houses built on foundations. Cutscenes were another new feature in "The Sims 2". There are cutscenes featuring first kiss, woohoo, child birth, alien abductions, also going to college and graduating in "".


title: The Sims 2

text: Preliminary development on "The Sims 2" began in late 2000 following the release of "The Sims". EA Games announced on May 5, 2003, that the Maxis studio had begun development on "The Sims 2". A teaser trailer was provided on "The Sims: Makin' Magic" CD, released October 2003, which was later uploaded to websites all over the Internet. The game was first shown at E3 in Los Angeles, California on May 13, 2003. Will Wright admitted that while most of the content of "The Sims 2" are original ideas, inspiration for its own expansions and constituents spawned from the successes of the first game. The community interest in the antecedent "The Sims: Unleashed" and "The Sims: Hot Date" expansions ensured the creation of "The Sims 2: Pets" and "The Sims 2: Nightlife" expansions, respectively.


title: The Sims 2

text: After development concluded, designers from Maxis regarded "The Sims 2" as very capricious during creation. Bugs would appear, and Sims would be "tweaked", or have anomalies not present in a previous run.


title: The Sims 2

text: On December 15, 2012, Electronic Arts announced that the official website would be shut down on January 14, 2013. It is now no longer possible to download content from the official site, create exchanges, or participate in the official forum communities.


title: The Sims 2

text: On July 16, 2014, Electronic Arts announced the end of support for "The Sims 2". As a response "The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection" was released at the same time as a limited time offer. The game became available for free download from Origin exclusively following an announcement by EA that they would no longer be supporting the Game. This offer ended at 10:00 PDT July 31, 2014.


title: The Sims 2

text: On August 7, 2014, Aspyr Media released "The Sims 2: Super Collection" as digital download exclusively available at the Mac App Store; the game was updated for OS X Mavericks, 4K and Retina. This compilation only includes the first six expansion packs and the first three stuff packs. Aspyr stated they were unable to include the remaining packs for the game due to licensing conflicts with EA. Like the "Ultimate Collection", no new updates on when the remaining packs will be released separately or as a single add-on to the "Super Collection" have emerged.


title: The Sims 2

text: Mark Mothersbaugh composed the build mode, buy mode, Create a Sim, neighborhood music, and main theme of "The Sims 2". The game also features original "Simlish"-language songs on the radio, provided by Jerry Martin, The Humble Brothers, Kirk Casey, and others.


title: The Sims 2

text: In later expansion and stuffpacks, well-known recording artists provided "Simlish" versions of their songs for the in-game radio stations, including Depeche Mode, Kajagoogoo, Lily Allen, Datarock, Plain White T's, and Katy Perry, among others. "Pressure" by Paramore, "Don't Cha" by The Pussycat Dolls, "Good Day" by Tally Hall, and "Like Light to the Flies" by Trivium were among the songs re-recorded by their original artists in Simlish for the console version of "The Sims 2".


title: The Sims 2

text: "The Sims 2" received widespread critical acclaim. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, "The Sims 2" has an average score of 90 based on 61 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The game also received the Editor's Choice Award from IGN and GameSpy upon final review of the finished product. "The Sims 2" had a successful E3. From 71 online reviews, the average score was 90 out of 100. Seven of those sources awarded the game a 100-out-of-100 score. X-Play gave the game a 4/5. "Computer Gaming World" awarded the game as their 2004 "Strategy Game of the Year (General)", beating out RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, The Political Machine, and Silent Storm. However, critics noted some serious bugs in the game.


title: The Sims 2

text: "The Sims" creator, Will Wright, was recognized by being nominated at the Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards for Visionary and Game Developer. The game was also nominated for two international awards in 2005. The Mac version of the game won an Apple Design Award in 2006. "Computer Games Magazine" named "The Sims 2" the sixth-best computer game of 2004. The editors wrote that it is "more of a game and less of a dollhouse [than "The Sims"], but it remains a celebration of the beauty of the mundane." It also won the magazine's "Best Voice Acting" award.


title: The Sims 2

text: "The Sims 2" was an instant commercial success, selling a then-record one million copies in its first ten days. The game sold 4.5 million units within its first year, and 7 million by October 2006. It received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. It received a "Double Platinum" award from the (aDeSe), for more than 160,000 sales in Spain during its first 12 months.


title: The Sims 2

text: As of March 2012, "The Sims 2" had sold 13 million units across all platforms with at least six million units on PC, making it one of the best-selling PC games of all-time.


title: The Sims 2

text: The 2016 World Video Game Hall of Fame Inductees announced that 200 million copies of "The Sims" series had been sold, becoming one of the top best-selling video game franchises of all time.


title: The Sims 2

text: Even after subsequent "Sims" installments, "The Sims 2" still has an active fanbase. To this day, the game has a large modding community, with new user-created content being continually uploaded to fansites such as Mod The Sims and "Sim"-themed blogs hosted on Tumblr (nicknamed "Simblrs.")


title: The Sims 2

text: "The Sims 2"s malleable content and open-ended customization have led to controversy on the subject of pay sites. Custom content is distributed through independent websites, some of which charge for downloading materials. Charging money for custom content is considered a violation of the game's EULA, which prohibits the commercial use of Electronic Arts' intellectual property.


title: The Sims 2

text: On July 22, 2005, Florida attorney Jack Thompson alleged that Electronic Arts and "The Sims 2" promoted nudity through the use of a mod or a cheat code. The claim was made that pubic hair, labia and other genital details were visible once the "blur" (the pixelation that occurs when a Sim is using the toilet or is naked in the game) was removed. Electronic Arts executive Jeff Brown said in an interview with GameSpot:


title: The Sims 2

text: Prior to Thompson's statement, there was an enterable code which allowed to modify the size (including to zero) of pixelation accessible from the console menu. Shortly after the statement, subsequent patches and expansion packs removed the "intProp censorGridSize" code; this code had been left over from the beta testing stage of the original game and had not been intended for a public audience.


title: The Sims 2

text: Many "Sims" games have been ported to macOS by Aspyr. "The Sims 2" has also been ported to a number of video game consoles including the PlayStation 2, the Xbox, Nintendo DS and the Nintendo GameCube.


title: The Sims 2

text: macOS ports of the base game, the first six expansion packs, and the first three Stuff Packs have been released by Aspyr Media. The port for the base game was announced on October 19, 2004. "The Sims 2" had reached beta status on March 1, 2005, and was released on June 17 the same year. It was, at release, compatible with Mac OS X Panther and above on PowerPC Macintosh systems. "The Sims 2 Body Shop" was also available for macOS. Aspyr Media released The Sims 2 with all ported expansions and stuff packs as "The Sims™2: Super Collection" for Intel Macs in 2014. The game is available for purchase on the Mac App Store for OS X 10.9 Mavericks and above.


title: The Sims 2

text: The console versions of "The Sims 2" featured local splitscreen multiplayer, a story mode and an option to control game characters directly, as opposed to queuing options as is traditional Sims gameplay. In this videogame, you cannot have children nor age, but you are only adults (excluding elders), even though you can get married. You must earn aspiration points to unlock rewards by filling up your "goals" which will also be needed to complete story mode. Story mode is a sequence of multiple levels along with developed storylines which each character asks you to fulfill wants that pertain to their story. There is also a sandbox mode where you can live in a preset family or build your own.


title: The Sims 2

text: The three handheld versions of the game are completely different among themselves, unlike the home console versions of the game which are virtually identical to each other. All three handheld versions take on more of a linear storyline.


title: The Sims 2

text: The Game Boy Advance version of "The Sims 2" takes place in Strangetown, and shares a similar GUI to its predecessors ("The Sims Bustin' Out" and ""). Players are guided through a goal-oriented game based on the reality television concept in which partitions of the game are divided into "episodes". Characters from the previous handheld sims games also appeared.


title: The Sims 2

text: The Nintendo DS version of "The Sims 2" (commonly referred to as "The Sims 2 Hotel") begins with the player's car breaking down in Strangetown. Upon arriving, an anonymous donor grants the player the deed to a hotel which can be operated and customized at the player's discretion. The player's job is to bring life back into Strangetown by encouraging people to come to the hotel, which players can do by upgrading it and making the guests happy. There are several ways in which a player can make Strangetown a nicer place, but is up to the player to find them. Unlike most games in the Sim series, this one takes place in real-time.


title: The Sims 2

text: The PlayStation Portable version of the game is played in third person, much like the Nintendo DS version. The game contains elements of role-playing games and has more of a solid storyline the player is required to navigate through in order to unlock most of the things available in the other versions. The option to build your own home is replaced by a pre-built home where you can customize the furniture and decor. Conversations and jobs are carried out via a mini-game function. The player's character does not age, nor are they able to marry or have children, but they can have a significant other and "WooHoo". Relationships are mainly used for the point of solving goals, though a close friend may move in with the player after progressing in the game. When the player completes a goal their sanity meter, represented as a Plumbob, will fill up slightly and if the player actively doesn't complete their goals the sanity meter will rapidly deplete until the player is hospitalised or abducted by aliens. The player can also earn "Sanity Points" by completing goals which they can use to unlock special perks. Another feature unique to this, and the Nintendo DS, version are "Secrets" which the player can find scattered around Strangetown or by socialising with characters.


title: The Sims 2

text: The game begins with the player's character driving through the Strangetown desert, presumably the "Road to Nowhere" in their car, when suddenly a flying green diamond (Also known as the Plumbob, the marker and logo of the Sims games) flies past the player and causes them to lose control of, and damage, their car. Fortunately, the player finds a gas station. The player takes their car into the garage. At that point the player takes control. The player is introduced to a vehicle mechanic named Oscar who, after a brief tutorial in teaching the player how to talk to NPC Sims, informs the player their car will only take a short while to fix.


title: The Sims 2

text: The player is then free to roam around the gas station, and after being introduced to some more NPCs, including Bella Goth, who claims to be abducted by aliens, completing tasks and being taught the basic objective of the game which is "Secret Hunting" for the store clerk. The player then exits the shop only to find the garage around the back has completely disappeared along with Oscar and their car, with only the foundation of the garage remaining. The only thing left from the disappearance is a cell phone, which the player answers and a man named Doctor Dominic Newlow offers the player a job, requiring him or her to get a ride into town and find a place to stay.


title: The Sims 2

text: The player informs Police Deputy Duncan about the situation who replies that he can do nothing about it and suggests the player find a place to stay. After having bought Bella's house for pocket change and getting donuts for Deputy Duncan (which happen to have been found in the trash), the player finally gets a lift into Strangetown's Paradise Place, only to find more tasks and mysteries.


title: The Sims 2

text: "The Sims 2" expansion packs provide additional game features and items. Eight expansion packs were released throughout the game's lifecycle. "" is the final expansion pack for "The Sims 2".


title: The Sims 2

text: Stuff packs are add-ons that intend to add only new items (usually in the amount of 60) to the base game. However, some releases include certain gameplay elements introduced in previous expansion packs. There are ten total stuff packs. However, "The Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack" served as the pilot release for this line of products, which were called "booster packs". After the success of the pilot release, EA named the releases "stuff packs" and launched the line with "The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff." "The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden Stuff" is the final stuff pack for "The Sims 2".


title: The Sims 2

text: Most of expansion packs and stuff packs were released with pre-order items. This game content was redeemable at the official site using a code supplied by the retailer from which the player purchased, each retailer was often associated with an exclusive download. A total of 60 pre-order items were released.


title: The Sims 2

text: The Sims 2 Store was an online store where players of "The Sims 2" for PC could purchase and download content for their game online for additional fees. It offered objects, clothing, skins, and hairstyles that are both exclusive to the store and also come from earlier expansion and stuff packs.


title: The Sims 2

text: It also had featured seven exclusive item collections that could only be found in the store. The store used a point system that players can purchase. It was opened from July 2008 to March 31, 2011, as a beta version limited to the United States and Canada. To download, players must install "The Sims 2" Store Edition and the EA Download Manager. The exclusive collections were "Cubic", "Art Deco", "Spooky", "Castle", "Asian Fusion", "Art Nouveaulicious" and "Oh Baby", including a total of 471 items.


title: The Sims 2

text: Since the closure of The Sims 2 Store on March 31, 2011, "The Sims 2: Store Edition" and the savegame cannot be used with "The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection".


title: The Sims 2

text: "SimPE" is an open-source utility for "The Sims 2" that allows editing of Sims' characteristics, relationships and careers. It also allows the creation of objects. As the tool is intended for use by experienced modders, the "SimPE" interface is not considered intuitive and users risk corrupting the game files. "TS2 Enhancer", developed by Rick Halle, is a commercial utility for editing characters and neighborhoods, but has since fallen into disuse.


title: Golden plates

text: According to Latter Day Saint belief, the golden plates (also called the gold plates or in some 19th-century literature, the golden bible) are the source from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the faith. Some accounts from people who reported handling the plates describe the plates as weighing from , gold in color, and composed of thin metallic pages engraved with hieroglyphics on both sides and bound with three D-shaped rings.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith said that he found the plates on September 22, 1823, on a hill near his home in Manchester, New York, after the angel Moroni directed him to a buried stone box. He said that the angel prevented him from taking the plates but instructed him to return to the same location in a year. He returned to that site every year, but it was not until September 1827 that he recovered the plates on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve them. He returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock, which he then put in a box. He allowed others to heft the box but said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original "reformed Egyptian" language.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith dictated the text of the plates while a scribe wrote down the words which would later become the Book of Mormon. Eyewitnesses to the process said Smith translated the plates, not by looking directly at them, but by looking through a transparent seer stone in the bottom of his hat. Smith published the first edition of the translation in March 1830 as the Book of Mormon, with a print run of 5,000 copies at a production cost of $3,000 (or 60 cents per book).


title: Golden plates

text: Smith eventually obtained testimonies from 11 men who said that they had seen the plates, known as the Book of Mormon witnesses. After the translation was complete, Smith said that he returned the plates to the angel Moroni; thus they could never be examined. Latter Day Saints believe the account of the golden plates as a matter of faith, while critics often assert that either Smith manufactured them himself or that the Book of Mormon witnesses based their testimony on visions rather than physical experience.


title: Golden plates

text: In the words of Mormon historian Richard Bushman, "For most modern readers, the plates are beyond belief, a phantasm, yet the Mormon sources accept them as fact." Smith said that he returned the plates to the angel Moroni after he finished translating them, and their authenticity cannot be determined by physical examination. They were reportedly shown to several close associates of Smith. Mormon scholars have formed collaborations such as Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies to provide apologetic answers to critical research about the golden plates and topics in the field of Mormon studies. The credibility of the plates has been a "troublesome item", according to Bushman.


title: Golden plates

text: The Book of Mormon itself portrays the golden plates as a historical record, engraved by two pre-Columbian prophet-historians from around the year AD 400: Mormon and his son Moroni. Mormon and Moroni, the book says, had abridged earlier historical records from other sets of metal plates. Their script, according to the book, was described as "reformed Egyptian", a language unknown to linguists or Egyptologists. Scholarly reference works on languages do not acknowledge the existence of either a "reformed Egyptian" language or "reformed Egyptian" script as it has been described in Mormon belief, and there is no archaeological, linguistic, or other evidence of the use of Egyptian writing in ancient America. Historically, Latter Day Saint movement denominations have taught that the Book of Mormon's description of the plates' origin is accurate, and that the Book of Mormon is a translation of the plates. The Community of Christ, however, accepts the Book of Mormon as scripture but no longer takes an official position on the historicity of the golden plates. Some adherents accept the Book of Mormon as inspired scripture but do not believe that it is a literal translation of a physical historical record, even in the more theologically conservative Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).


title: Golden plates

text: Non-Mormons and some liberal Mormons have advanced naturalistic explanations for the story of the plates. For example, it has been theorized that the plates were fashioned by Smith or one of his associates, that Smith had the ability to convince others of their existence through illusions or hypnosis, or that witnesses were having ecstatic visions.


title: Golden plates

text: The story of the golden plates consists of how, according to Joseph Smith and his contemporaries, the plates were found, received from the angel Moroni, translated, and returned to the angel before the publication of the Book of Mormon. Smith is the only source for a great deal of the story because much of it occurred while he was the only human witness. Nevertheless, Smith told the story to his family, friends, and acquaintances, and many of them provided second-hand accounts. Other parts of the story are derived from the statements of those who knew Smith, including several witnesses who said that they saw the golden plates.


title: Golden plates

text: The best-known elements of the golden plates story are found in an account told by Smith in 1838 and incorporated into the official church histories of some Latter Day Saint movement denominations. The LDS Church has canonized part of this 1838 account as part of its scripture, the Pearl of Great Price.


title: Golden plates

text: During the Second Great Awakening, Joseph Smith lived on his parents' farm near Palmyra, New York. At the time, churches in the region contended so vigorously for souls that western New York later became known as the "burned-over district" because the fires of religious revivals had burned over it so often. Western New York was also noted for its participation in a "craze for treasure hunting". Beginning as a youth in the early 1820s, Smith was periodically hired, for about $14 per month, as a scryer, using what were termed "seer stones" in attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure. Smith's contemporaries described his method for seeking treasure as putting the stone in a white stovepipe hat, putting his face over the hat to block the light, and then "seeing" the information in the reflections of the stone.


title: Golden plates

text: According to Richard Bushman, Smith did not consider himself to be a "peeper" or "glass-looker", a practice he is said to have called "nonsense", despite his use of seer stones. Rather, Smith and his family viewed their folk magical practices as spiritual gifts. Although Smith later rejected his youthful treasure-hunting activities as frivolous and immaterial, he never repudiated the stones themselves, denied their presumed power to find treasure, or ever relinquish the magic culture in which he was raised. He came to view seeing with a stone in religious terms as the work of a "seer". Smith's first stone, apparently the same one that he used at least part of the time to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of a chicken egg, found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors. The LDS Church released photographs of the stone on August 4, 2015.


title: Golden plates

text: According to Smith, he found the plates after he was directed to them by a heavenly messenger whom he later identified as the angel Moroni. According to the story, the angel first visited Smith's bedroom late at night, on September 22 in 1822 or 1823. Moroni told Smith that the plates could be found buried in a prominent hill near his home, later called "Cumorah", a name found in the Book of Mormon. Before dawn, Moroni reappeared two more times and repeated the information.


title: Golden plates

text: However, the angel would not allow Smith to take the plates until he obeyed certain "commandments". Smith recorded some of these commandments but made it clear the main thrust of Moroni's message was that he had to keep God's commandments in general. Some contemporaries who later claimed he told them the story said there were others, some of which are relevant to the modern debate about whether or how closely events of early Mormonism were related to the practice of contemporary folk magic. Smith's writings say that the angel required at least the following: (1) that he have no thought of using the plates for monetary gain, (2) that he tell his father about the vision, and (3) that he never show the plates to any unauthorized person. Smith's contemporaries who claimed to have heard the story, both sympathetic and unsympathetic, generally agreed that Smith mentioned the following additional commandments: (4) that Smith take the plates and leave the site in which they had been buried without looking back, and (5) that the plates never directly touch the ground until they were safe at home in a locked chest. Some unsympathetic listeners who allegedly heard the story from Smith or his father recalled that Smith had said the angel required him (6) to wear "black clothes" to the place where the plates were buried, (7) to ride a "black horse with a switchtail", (8) to call for the plates by a certain name, and (9) to "give thanks to God."


title: Golden plates

text: In the morning, Smith began work as usual and did not mention the visions to his father because, he said, he did not think his father would believe him. Smith said he then fainted because he had been awake all night, and while unconscious, the angel appeared a fourth time and chastised him for failing to tell the visions to his father. When Smith then told all to his father, he believed his son and encouraged him to obey the angel's commands. Smith then set off to visit the hill, later stating that he used his seer stone to locate the place that the plates were buried but that he "knew the place the instant that [he] arrived there."


title: Golden plates

text: Smith said he saw a large stone covering a box made of stone (or possibly iron). Using a stick to remove dirt from the edges of the stone cover and prying it up with a lever, Smith saw the plates inside the box, together with other artifacts.


title: Golden plates

text: According to Smith's followers, Smith said he took the plates from the box, put them on the ground, and covered the box with the stone to protect the other treasures that it contained. Nevertheless, the accounts say that when Smith looked back at the ground after closing the box, the plates had once again disappeared into it. When Smith once again raised the stone and attempted to retrieve the plates, he said that he was stricken by a supernatural force that hurled him to the ground as many as three times.


title: Golden plates

text: Disconcerted by his inability to obtain the plates, Smith said he briefly wondered whether his experience had been a "dreem of Vision" [sic]. Concluding that it was not, he said he prayed to ask why he had been barred from taking the plates.


title: Golden plates

text: In response to his question, Smith said the angel appeared and told him he could not receive the plates because he "had been tempted of the advisary and saught the Plates to obtain riches and kept not the commandments that I should have an eye single to the Glory of God" [sic]. According to Smith's followers, Smith had also broken the angel's commandment "not to lay the plates down, or put them for a moment out of his hands," and according to a nonbeliever, Smith said, "I had forgotten to give thanks to God," as required by the angel.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith said the angel instructed him to return the next year, on September 22, 1824, with the "right person": his older brother Alvin. Alvin had died in November 1823, and Smith returned to the hill in 1824 to ask what he should do. Smith said he was told to return the following year (1825) with the "right person" but the angel did not tell Smith who that person might be. However, Smith determined after looking into his seer stone that the "right person" was Emma Hale, his future wife. For the visit on September 22, 1825, Smith may have attempted to bring his treasure-hunting associate Samuel T. Lawrence.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith said that he visited the hill "at the end of each year" for four years after the first visit in 1823, but there is no record of him being in the vicinity of Palmyra between January 1826 and January 1827, when he returned to New York from Pennsylvania with his new wife. In January 1827, Smith visited the hill and then told his parents that the angel had severely chastised him for not being "engaged enough in the work of the Lord," which may have meant that he had missed his annual visit to the hill in 1826.


title: Golden plates

text: The next annual visit on September 22, 1827 would be, Smith told associates, his last chance to receive the plates. According to Brigham Young, as the scheduled final date to obtain the plates approached, several Palmyra residents expressed concern "that they were going to lose that treasure" and sent for a skilled necromancer from 60 miles (96 km) away, encouraging him to make three separate trips to Palmyra to find the plates. During one of the trips, the unnamed necromancer is said to have discovered the location but was unable to determine the value of the plates. A few days prior to the September 22, 1827 visit to the hill, Smith's loyal treasure-hunting friends Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight Sr. traveled to Palmyra, in part, to be there during Smith's scheduled visit to the hill.


title: Golden plates

text: Another of Smith's former treasure-hunting associates, Samuel T. Lawrence, was also apparently aware of the approaching date to obtain the plates, and Smith was concerned that he might cause trouble. Therefore, on the eve of September 22, 1827, the scheduled date for retrieving the plates, Smith dispatched his father to spy on Lawrence's house until dark. If Lawrence attempted to leave, the elder Smith was to tell him that his son would "thrash the stumps with him" if he found him at the hill. Late at night, Smith took a horse and carriage to the hill Cumorah with Emma. While Emma stayed behind kneeling in prayer, Smith walked to the site of the buried plates. Some time in the early morning hours, he said that he retrieved the plates and hid them in a hollow log on or near Cumorah. At the same time, Smith said he received a pair of large spectacles he called the Urim and Thummim or "Interpreters," with lenses consisting of two seer stones, which he showed his mother when he returned in the morning.


title: Golden plates

text: Over the next few days, Smith took a well-digging job in nearby Macedon to earn enough money to buy a solid lockable chest in which to put the plates. By then, however, some of Smith's treasure-seeking company had heard that Smith had said that he had been successful in obtaining the plates, and they wanted what they believed was their share of the profits from what they viewed as part of a joint venture in treasure hunting. Spying once again on the house of Samuel Lawrence, Smith Sr., determined that a group of ten to twelve of these men, including Lawrence and Willard Chase, had enlisted the talents of a renowned and supposedly talented seer from 60 miles (96 km) away, in an effort to locate where the plates were hidden by means of divination. When Emma heard of that, she rode a stray horse to Macedon and informed Smith, who reportedly determined through his Urim and Thummim that the plates were safe. He nevertheless hurriedly rode home with Emma.


title: Golden plates

text: Once home in Manchester, he said he walked to Cumorah, removed the plates from their hiding place, and walked home through the woods and away from the road with the plates wrapped in a linen frock under his arm. On the way, he said a man had sprung up from behind a log and struck him a "heavy blow with a gun... Knocking the man down with a single punch, Joseph ran as fast as he could for about a half mile before he was attacked by a second man trying to get the plates. After similarly overpowering the man, Joseph continued to run, but before he reached the house, a third man hit him with a gun. In striking the last man, Joseph said, he injured his thumb." He returned home with a dislocated thumb and other minor injuries. Smith sent his father, Joseph Knight, and Josiah Stowell to search for the pursuers, but they found no one.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith is said to have put the plates in a locked chest and hid them in his parents' home in Manchester. He refused to allow anyone, including his family, to view the plates or the other artifacts that he said he had in his possession, but some people were allowed to heft them or feel what were said to be the artifacts through a cloth. A few days after retrieving the plates, Smith brought home what he said was an ancient breastplate, which he said had been hidden in the box at Cumorah with the plates. After letting his mother feel through a thin cloth what she said was the breastplate, he placed it in the locked chest.


title: Golden plates

text: The Smith home was approached "nearly every night" by villagers hoping to find the chest, where Smith said the plates were kept. After hearing that a group of them would attempt to enter the house by force, Smith buried the chest under the hearth, and the family was able to scare away the intended intruders. Fearing the chest might still be discovered, Smith hid it under the floor boards of his parents' old log home nearby that was then being used as a cooper shop. Later, Smith told his mother he had taken the plates out of the chest, left the empty chest under the floor boards of the cooper shop, and hid the plates in a barrel of flax. Shortly thereafter the empty box was discovered and the place ransacked by Smith's former treasure-seeking associates, who had enlisted one of the men's sisters to find the hiding place by looking in her seer stone.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith said that the plates were engraved in an unknown language, and he told associates that he was capable of reading and translating them. The translation took place mainly in Harmony, Pennsylvania (now Oakland Township), Emma's hometown, where Smith and his wife had moved in October 1827 with financial assistance from a prominent, though superstitious, Palmyra landowner Martin Harris. The translation occurred in two phases: the first, from December 1827 to June 1828, during which Smith transcribed some of the characters and then dictated 116 manuscript pages to Harris, which were lost. The second phase began sporadically in early 1829 and then in earnest in April 1829 with the arrival of Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher who volunteered to serve as Smith's full-time scribe. In June 1829, Smith and Cowdery moved to Fayette, New York, completing the translation early the following month.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith used scribes to write the words he said were a translation of the golden plates, dictating the words while peering into seer stones, which he said allowed him to see the translation. Smith's translation process evolved from his previous use of seer stones in treasure-seeking. During the earliest phase of translation, Smith said he used what he called Urim and Thummim, two stones set in a frame like a set of large spectacles. Witnesses said Smith placed the Urim and Thummim in his hat while he was translating.


title: Golden plates

text: After the loss of the first 116 manuscript pages, Smith translated with a single seer stone, which some sources say he had previously used in treasure-seeking. Smith placed the stone in a hat, buried his face in it to eliminate all outside light, and peered into the stone to see the words of the translation. A few times during the translation, a curtain or blanket was raised between Smith and his scribe or between the living area and the area where Smith and his scribe worked. Sometimes, Smith dictated to Harris from upstairs or from a different room.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith's translation did not require the use of the plates themselves. Though Smith himself said very little about the translation process, his friends and family said that as he looked into the stone, the written translation of the ancient script appeared to him in English. There are several proposed explanations for how Smith composed his translation. In the 19th century, the most common explanation among anti-Mormons was that he copied the work from a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding. That theory is repudiated by Smith's preeminent modern biographers. The most prominent modern theory among many ex-Mormons is that Smith composed the translation in response to the provincial opinions of his time, perhaps while in a magical trance-like state. As a matter of faith, Latter Day Saints generally view the translation process as either an automatic process of transcribing text written within the stone or an intuitive translation by Smith, assisted by a mystical connection with God, through the stone. Some Latter Day Saint apologists argue that because of the length of the Book of Mormon (roughly 270,000 words) and the timeframe in which the Book was dictated, it is unlikely that he wrote it or memorized the words from elsewhere. It is also argued that Smith was unfamiliar with the text, often pausing to attempt to pronounce names of people and places that were unfamiliar to him, and therefore it is unlikely that he had read the text before or written it previously.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith's dictations were written down by a number of assistants, including Emma Smith, Martin Harris, and Oliver Cowdery. In May 1829, after Smith had lent 116 unduplicated manuscript pages to Harris, and Harris had lost them, Smith dictated a revelation explaining that Smith could not simply retranslate the lost pages because his opponents would attempt to see if he could "bring forth the same words again." According to Grant Palmer, Smith believed "a second transcription would be identical to the first. This confirms the view that the English text existed in some kind of unalterable, spiritual form rather than that someone had to think through difficult conceptual issues and idioms, always resulting in variants in any translation."


title: Golden plates

text: When Smith and Emma moved to Pennsylvania in October 1827, they transported a wooden box, which Smith said contained the plates, hidden in a barrel of beans. For a time, the couple stayed in the home of Emma's father, Isaac Hale, but when Smith refused to show Hale the plates, Hale banished the concealed objects from his house. Afterward, Smith told several of his associates that the plates were hidden in the nearby woods. Emma said that she remembered the plates being on a table in the house, wrapped in a linen tablecloth, which she moved from time to time when it got in the way of her chores. According to Smith's mother, the plates were also stored in a trunk on Emma's bureau. However, Smith did not require the physical presence of the plates to translate them.


title: Golden plates

text: In April 1828, Martin Harris's wife, Lucy, visited Harmony with her husband and demanded to see the plates. When Smith refused to show them to her, she searched the house, grounds, and woods. According to Smith's mother, during the search Lucy was frightened by a large, black snake and so was prevented from digging up the plates. As a result of Martin Harris's loss of the 116 pages of manuscript, Smith said that between July and September 1828, the angel Moroni took back both the plates and the Urim and Thummim as a penalty for his having delivered "the manuscript into the hands of a wicked man." According to Smith's mother, the angel returned the objects to Smith on September 22, 1828, the anniversary of the day that he first received them.


title: Golden plates

text: In March 1829, Martin Harris visited Harmony and asked to see the plates. Smith told him that he "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself." Harris followed the directions but could not find the plates.


title: Golden plates

text: In early June 1829, the unwanted attentions of locals around Harmony necessitated Smith's move to the home of David Whitmer and his parents in Fayette, New York. Smith said that during this move the plates were transported by the angel Moroni, who put them in the garden of the Whitmer house, where Smith could recover them. The translation was completed at the Whitmer home.


title: Golden plates

text: After translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to the angel, but he did not elaborate about this experience. According to accounts by several early Mormons, a group of Mormon leaders, including Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and possibly others accompanied Smith and returned the plates to a cave inside the Hill Cumorah. There, Smith is said to have placed the plates on a table near "many wagon loads" of other ancient records, and the Sword of Laban hanging on the cave wall. According to Brigham Young's understanding, which he said that he had gained from Cowdery, on a later visit to the cave, the Sword of Laban was said to be unsheathed and placed over the plates and inscribed with the words: "This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ."


title: Golden plates

text: Smith taught that part of the golden plates were "sealed." The "sealed" portion is said to contain "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof." Many Latter Day Saints believe that the plates will be kept hidden until a future time, when the sealed part will be translated and, according to one early Mormon leader, transferred from the hill to one of the Mormon temples.


title: Golden plates

text: David Whitmer is quoted as stating that he saw just the "untranslated" portion of the plates sitting on the table with the sword (and also a breastplate). Apparently, Whitmer was aware of expeditions at Cumorah to locate the sealed portion of the plates through "science and mineral rods," which, he said, "testify that they are there."


title: Golden plates

text: Smith said the angel Moroni had commanded him not to show the plates to any unauthorized person. However, Smith eventually obtained the written statement of several witnesses who saw the plates. It is unclear whether the witnesses believed they had seen the plates with their physical eyes or had seen them in a vision. For instance, although Martin Harris continued to testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon even when he was estranged from the church, at least during the early years of the movement, he "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience."


title: Golden plates

text: According to some sources, Smith initially intended that the first authorized witness be his firstborn son; but this child was stillborn in 1828. In March 1829, Martin Harris came to Harmony to see the plates, but was unable to find them in the woods where Smith said they could be found. The next day, Smith dictated a revelation stating that Harris could eventually qualify himself to be one of three witnesses with the exclusive right to "view [the plates] as they are".


title: Golden plates

text: By June 1829, Smith determined that there would be eight additional witnesses, a total of twelve including Smith. During the second half of June 1829, Smith took Harris, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer (known collectively as the Three Witnesses) into woods in Fayette, New York, where they said they saw an angel holding the golden plates and turning the leaves. The four also said they heard "the voice of the Lord" telling them that the translation of the plates was correct, and commanding them to testify of what they saw and heard. A few days later, Smith took a different group of Eight Witnesses to a location near Smith's parents' home in Palmyra where they said Smith showed them the golden plates. Statements over the names of these men, apparently drafted by Smith, were published in 1830 as an appendix to the Book of Mormon. According to later statements ascribed to Martin Harris, he viewed the plates in a vision and not with his "natural eyes."


title: Golden plates

text: In addition to Smith and the other eleven who claimed to be witnesses, a few other early Mormons said they saw the plates. For instance, Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith said she had "seen and handled" the plates. Smith's wife Emma and his younger brother William and younger sister Katharine also said they had examined and lifted the plates while they were wrapped in fabric. Others said they had visions of the plates or had been shown the plates by an angel, in some cases years after Smith said he had returned the plates.


title: Golden plates

text: The plates were said to be bound at one edge by a set of rings. In 1828, Martin Harris, is reported to have said that the plates were "fastened together in the shape of a book by wires". In 1859 Harris said that the plates "were seven inches [18 cm] wide by eight inches [20 cm] in length, and were of the thickness of plates of tin; and when piled one above the other, they were altogether about four inches [10 cm] thick; and they were put together on the back by three silver rings, so that they would open like a book". David Whitmer, another of the Three Witnesses, was quoted by an 1831 Palmyra newspaper as having said the plates were "the thickness of tin plate; the back was secured with three small rings ... passing through each leaf in succession". Anomalously, Smith's father is quoted as saying that the plates were only half an inch (1.27 centimeter) thick. Smith's mother, who said she had "seen and handled" the plates, is quoted as saying they were "eight inches [20 cm] long, and six [15 cm] wide ... all connected by a ring which passes through a hole at the end of each plate".


title: Golden plates

text: Hyrum Smith and John Whitmer, also witnesses in 1829, are reported to have stated that the rings holding the plates together were, in Hyrum's words, "in the shape of the letter D, which facilitated the opening and shutting of the book". Smith's wife Emma and his younger brother William said they had examined the plates while wrapped in fabric. Emma said she "felt of the plates, as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book". William agreed that the plates could be rustled with one's thumb like the pages of a book.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith did not provide his own published description of the plates until 1842, when he said in a letter that "each plate was six inches [15 cm] wide and eight inches [20 cm] long, and not quite so thick as common tin. They were ... bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches [15 cm] in thickness".


title: Golden plates

text: The plates were first described as "gold", and beginning about 1827, the plates were widely called the "gold bible". When the Book of Mormon was published in 1830, the Eight Witnesses described the plates as having "the appearance of gold". The Book of Mormon describes the plates as being made of "ore". In a June 1830 court hearing, Josiah Stowell testified that he inadvertently caught a glimpse of a corner of the plates (making him "the only witness to see the plates 'by accident,'") and said it "resembled a stone of a greenish caste." In 1831, a Palmyra newspaper quoted David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses, as having said that the plates were a ""whitish yellow" color", with "three small rings of the same metal".


title: Golden plates

text: Smith's first published description of the plates said that the plates "had the appearance of gold", and Smith said that Moroni had referred to the plates as "gold." Late in life, Martin Harris stated that the rings holding the plates together were made of silver, and he said the plates themselves, based on their heft of "forty or fifty pounds" (18–23 kg), "were lead or gold". Joseph's brother William, who said he felt the plates inside a pillow case in 1827, said in 1884 that he understood the plates to be "a mixture of gold and copper ... much heavier than stone, and very much heavier than wood".


title: Golden plates

text: Different people estimated the weight of the plates differently. According to Smith's one-time-friend Willard Chase, Smith told him in 1827 that the plates weighed between 40 and 60 pounds (18–27 kg), most likely the latter. Smith's father Joseph Smith Sr., who was one of the Eight Witnesses, reportedly weighed them and said in 1830 that they "weighed thirty pounds" (14 kg). Smith's brother William, who had lifted the plates, thought they "weighed about sixty pounds [27 kg] according to the best of my judgment". Others who lifted the plates while they were wrapped in cloth or enclosed in a box thought that they weighed about 60 pounds [27 kg]. Martin Harris said that he had "hefted the plates many times, and should think they weighed forty or fifty pounds [18–23 kg]". Smith's wife Emma never estimated the weight of the plates but said they were light enough for her to "move them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work".


title: Golden plates

text: From descriptions of the plates' dimensions, had the plates been made of 24-karat gold (which Smith never claimed), they would have weighed about 140 pounds (64 kg). Based on the plates' lighter weight and Stowell's description of its corner's "greenish cast", one scholar has hypothesized Smith made the plates from copper, which weighs less than gold and rusts green. LDS writers have speculated the plates could also exhibit those qualities if it were made of a copper-gold alloy like Mesoamerican tumbaga.


title: Golden plates

text: According to Smith and others, the golden plates contained a "sealed" portion containing "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof." Smith never described the nature of the seal, and the language of the Book of Mormon may be interpreted to describe a sealing that was spiritual, metaphorical, physical, or a combination of these elements.


title: Golden plates

text: The Book of Mormon refers to other documents and plates as being "sealed" to be revealed at some future time. For example, the Book of Mormon says the entire set of plates was "sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord" and that separate records of John the Apostle were "sealed up to come forth in their purity" in the end times. One set of plates to which the Book of Mormon refers was "sealed up" in the sense that they were written in a language that could not be read.


title: Golden plates

text: Smith may have understood the sealing to be a supernatural or spiritual sealing "by the power of God" (2 Nephi 27:10), an idea supported by a reference in the Book of Mormon to the "interpreters" with which Smith said they were buried or "sealed." Oliver Cowdery also stated that when Smith visited the hill, he was stricken by a supernatural force because the plates were "sealed by the prayer of faith."


title: Golden plates

text: Several witnesses described a physical sealing placed on part of the plates by Mormon or Moroni. David Whitmer said that when an angel showed him the plates in 1829, "a large portion of the leaves were so securely bound together that it was impossible to separate them," that the "sealed" part of the plates were held together as a solid mass "stationary and immovable," "as solid to my view as wood," and that there were "perceptible marks where the plates appeared to be sealed" with leaves "so securely bound that it was impossible to separate them." In 1842, Lucy Mack Smith said that some of the plates were "sealed together" while others were "loose." The account of the Eight Witnesses says they saw the plates in 1829 and handled "as many of the leaves as Smith has translated," implying that they did not examine untranslated parts, such as the sealed portion. In one interview, David Whitmer said that "about half" the book was unsealed; in 1881, he said "about one-third" was unsealed. Whitmer's 1881 statement is consistent with an 1856 statement by Orson Pratt, an associate of Smith's who never saw the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses, that "about two-thirds" of the plates were "sealed up".


title: Golden plates

text: The golden plates were said to contain engravings that the Book of Mormon describes as reformed Egyptian. Smith described the writing as "Egyptian characters ... small, and beautifully engraved," exhibiting "much skill in the art of engraving."


title: Golden plates

text: John Whitmer, one of the Eight Witnesses, said the plates had "fine engravings on both sides," and Orson Pratt, who did not see the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses, understood that there were engravings on both sides of the plates, "stained with a black, hard stain, so as to make the letters more legible and easier to be read."


title: Golden plates

text: The golden plates are significant within the Latter Day Saint movement because they are the reputed source for the Book of Mormon, which Smith called the "most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion." However, the golden plates are just one of many known and reputed metal plates with significance in the Latter Day Saint movement. The Book of Mormon itself refers to a long tradition of writing historical records on plates, of which the golden plates are a culmination (see List of plates (Latter Day Saint movement)).


title: Golden plates

text: Some Latter Day Saints, especially those within the Community of Christ, have doubted the historicity of the golden plates and downplayed their significance. For most adherents of the Latter Day Saint faith, however, the physical existence and authenticity of the golden plates are essential elements of their faith. For them, the message of the Book of Mormon is inseparable from the story of its origins.


title: Golden plates

text: Hugh Nibley, a Latter-day Saint scholar popular among church members, said in 1957 that he believed even proof of the actual existence of the golden plates would not settle disputes about the Book of Mormon and the story of its origin.


title: Golden plates

text: A few other sets of plates have arisen to prominence in various denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement.


title: Golden plates

text: In 1843, after reading a missionary tract written by Orson Pratt, three men in Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois—Robert Wiley, Wilburn Fugate, and Bridge Whitton—decided to collaborate to counterfeit a set of metal plates and "startle the natives," as one of Fugate's sons recalled. The trio forged plates from copper, etched them with acid, and buried them in a mound, digging them up on April 23, 1843 in a pretended discovery. The "Quincy Whig" published a story on the discovery, and the "Times and Seasons" and "Nauvoo Neighbor", a publication of the church and of the city respectively, reprinted the story. The Mormon community soon expressed much interest in the plates.""


title: Golden plates

text: By May 1, the plates had been brought to Nauvoo and Smith, apparently believing they were authentic, attempted to translate them. Smith's private secretary William Clayton recorded that upon receiving the plates, Smith sent for his "Hebrew Bible & Lexicon", suggesting that rather than translate the plates by direct revelation, Smith attempted to translate the plates by more conventional means. That day, Clayton wrote in his journal:


title: Golden plates

text: Scholars examining the Kinderhook plates in retrospect have found that one character coincidentally resembles a character in Smith's Egyptian Alphabet Book, the alleged meaning of which matches Smith's attempted translation of the Kinderhook plates, further suggesting Smith tried to translate the plates as an amateur linguist.


title: Golden plates

text: Apostles John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, editors of the "Nauvoo Neighbor", anticipated Smith would translate the plates in their entirety and promised in a June 1843 article that "The contents of the plates, together with a Fac-simile of the same, will be published in the 'Times and Seasons,' as soon as the translation is completed." However, the plates were returned untranslated to Wiley and Fugate in Kinderhook. Smith did not express reservations about the plates to any of his compatriots, but whether or not he recognized the Kinderhook plates as fraudulent, "he did not swing into a full-fledged translation" as he had with his earlier encounter with Egyptian scrolls.


title: Golden plates

text: In 1886, a signed letter from Fugate was published in the book "Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and His Friends: A Study Based on Facts and Documents", and in the letter Fugate revealed the hoax and the fabrication of the plates. Nevertheless, many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a denomination of Mormons who followed Brigham Young after Smith's death) refused to accept Fugate's confession and defended the Kinderhook plates as authentic and Smith's translation as legitimate until 1980, when Northwestern University materials science professor D. Lynn Johnson examined a plate still held by the Chicago Historical Society and conclusively proved it was a nineteenth-century creation.


title: Golden plates

text: Two other sets of alleged plates, the Voree plates and the Book of the Law of the Lord, were translated by James Strang—one of three major contenders to succeed Smith—who went on to lead the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite). The Voree plates were alleged to have been written by an ancient inhabitant of what is now Burlington, Wisconsin, while the Book of the Law of the Lord was alleged by Strang to be a translation of the Plates of Laban mentioned in the Book of Mormon. Neither of these alleged discoveries by Strang is accepted as authentic outside of the Strangite community.


title: Jingle Bells

text: "Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and most commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857. It has been claimed that it was originally written to be sung by a Sunday school choir for Thanksgiving, or as a drinking song. Although it has no original connection to Christmas, it became associated with winter and Christmas music in the 1860s and 1870s, and it was featured in a variety of parlor song and college anthologies in the 1880s. It was first recorded in 1889 on an Edison cylinder; this recording, believed to be the first Christmas record, is lost, but an 1898 recording also from Edison Records survives.


title: Jingle Bells

text: It is an unsettled question where and when Pierpont originally composed the song that would become known as "Jingle Bells". A plaque at 19 High Street in the center of Medford Square in Medford, Massachusetts, commemorates the "birthplace" of "Jingle Bells", and claims that Pierpont wrote the song there in 1850, at what was then the Simpson Tavern. Previous local history narratives claim the song was inspired by the town's popular sleigh races during the 19th century.


title: Jingle Bells

text: "Jingle Bells" was originally copyrighted with the name "The One Horse Open Sleigh" on September 16, 1857. The song was dedicated to John P. Ordway, Esq. The songwriting credit was listed as: "Song and Chorus written and composed by J. Pierpont."


title: Jingle Bells

text: The song was republished in 1859 by Oliver Ditson and Company, 277 Washington Street, Boston, with the new title "Jingle Bells; or, The One Horse Open Sleigh". The sheet music cover featured a drawing of sleigh bells around the title. Sleigh bells were strapped across the horse to make the jingle, jangle sound.


title: Jingle Bells

text: The song was first performed on September 15, 1857, at Ordway Hall in Boston by the blackface minstrel performer Johnny Pell.


title: Jingle Bells

text: The song was in the then popular style or genre of "sleighing songs". Pierpont's lyrics are strikingly similar to lines from many other sleigh-riding songs that were popular at the time; researcher Kyna Hamill argued that this, along with his constant need for money, led him to compose and release the song solely as a financial enterprise: "Everything about the song is churned out and copied from other people and lines from other songs—there's nothing original about it."


title: Jingle Bells

text: By the time the song was released and copyrighted, Pierpont had relocated to Savannah, Georgia, to serve as organist and music director of that city's Unitarian Universalist Church, where his brother, Rev. John Pierpont Jr. served as minister. In August 1857, Pierpont married Eliza Jane Purse, the daughter of the mayor of Savannah. Pierpont remained in Savannah and never went back North.


title: Jingle Bells

text: The double-meaning of "upsot" was thought humorous, and a sleigh ride gave an unescorted couple a rare chance to be together, unchaperoned, in distant woods or fields, with all the opportunities that afforded. This "upset", a term Pierpont transposed to "upsot", became the climactic component of a sleigh-ride outing within the sleigh narrative.


title: Jingle Bells

text: James Lord Pierpont's 1857 composition "Jingle Bells" became one of the most performed and most recognizable secular holiday songs ever written, not only in the United States, but around the world. In recognition of this achievement, James Lord Pierpont was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.


title: Jingle Bells

text: "Jingle Bells" was first recorded by Will Lyle on October 30, 1889, on an Edison cylinder, but no surviving copies are known to exist. The earliest surviving recording was made by the Edison Male Quartette in 1898, also on an Edison cylinder, as part of a Christmas medley titled "Sleigh Ride Party". In 1902, the Hayden Quartet recorded "Jingle Bells". The song became a Christmas favorite in the early twentieth century.


title: Jingle Bells

text: In 1943, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded "Jingle Bells" as Decca 23281 which reached No. 19 on the charts and sold over a million copies. In 1941, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra with Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, Ernie Caceres, and the Modernaires on vocals had a No. 5 hit with "Jingle Bells" on RCA Victor, University 11353. In 1935, Benny Goodman and His Orchestra reached No. 18 on the charts with their recording of "Jingle Bells". In 1951, Les Paul had a No. 10 hit with a multi-tracked version on guitar. In 2001, House of Mouse version, sung by Wayne Allwine, Russi Taylor, and Bill Farmer. In 2006, Kimberley Locke had a No. 1 hit on the "Billboard" Adult Contemporary chart with a recording of the song.


title: Jingle Bells

text: "Jingle Bells" was one of the first songs to broadcast from space, in a Christmas-themed prank by Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra. While in space on December 16, 1965, they sent this report to Mission Control:


title: Jingle Bells

text: The astronauts then produced a smuggled harmonica and sleigh bells, and with Schirra on the harmonica and Stafford on the bells, broadcast a rendition of "Jingle Bells". The harmonica, shown to the press upon their return, was a Hohner "Little Lady", a tiny harmonica approximately one inch (2.5 cm) long, by 3/8 of an inch (1 cm) wide.


title: Jingle Bells

text: Music historian James Fuld notes that "the word "jingle" in the title and opening phrase is apparently an imperative verb." In the winter in New England in pre-automobile days, it was common to adorn horses' harnesses with straps bearing bells as a way to avoid collisions at blind intersections, since a horse-drawn sleigh in snow makes almost no noise. The rhythm of the tune mimics that of a trotting horse's bells. However, "jingle bells" is commonly taken to mean a certain kind of bell.


title: Jingle Bells

text: Although less well-known than the opening, the remaining verses depict high-speed youthful fun. In the second verse, the narrator takes a ride with a girl and loses control of the sleigh:


title: Jingle Bells

text: In the last verse, after relating his experience, he gives advice to a friend to pick up some girls, find a faster horse, and take off at full speed:


title: Jingle Bells

text: The two first stanzas and chorus of the original 1857 lyrics differed slightly from those known today. It is unknown who replaced the words with those of the modern version. Underlined lyrics are the removed lyrics from the original version. Bold lyrics are the new lyrics in the current version.


title: Jingle Bells

text: The original 1857 version of "Jingle Bells" featured a substantially different chorus. The progression of descending chords in the original refrain (A–E/G–Fm–C–D–A/E–E–A; in Roman numeral analysis, I–V–vi–V/vi–IV–I–V–I) bears some resemblance to that of Pachelbel's Canon. The verses, on the other hand, have mostly the same melody (with some minor simplifications) in modern renditions as they did in 1857. The origin of the simpler, modern refrain is unknown, but it dates back at least 1898, when the oldest surviving phonograph recording of the song was released through Edison Records.


title: Jingle Bells

text: The "Jingle Bells" tune is used in French and German songs, although the lyrics are unrelated to the English lyrics. Both songs celebrate winter fun, as in the English version. The French song, titled "Vive le vent" ("Long Live the Wind"), was written by Francis Blanche and contains references to Father Time, Baby New Year, and New Year's Day. There are several German versions of "Jingle Bells", including Roy Black's "Ein kleiner weißer Schneemann".


title: Jingle Bells

text: Like many simple, catchy, and popular melodies, "Jingle Bells" is often the subject of parody. "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" has been a well-known parody since the mid-1960s, with many variations on the lyrics. Bart Simpson sings this version on "The Simpsons", the first time being in the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (December 17, 1989).


title: Jingle Bells

text: Parodies or novelty versions of "Jingle Bells" have been recorded by many artists, and include Yogi Yorgesson's "Yingle Bells", Da Yoopers' "Rusty Chevrolet", Bucko and Champs' "Aussie Jingle Bells", The Three Stooges' "Jingle Bell Drag", and Jeff Dunham's "Jingle Bombs", performed in his "Achmed the Dead Terrorist" sketch. Another popular spoof of the song is "Pumpkin Bells", a "Pumpkin Carol" which celebrates Halloween and the "Great Pumpkin". It originated in "The Peanuts Book of Pumpkin Carols", a booklet based on the "Peanuts" comic strip and published by Hallmark Cards in the 1960s.


title: Jingle Bells

text: The Australian "Aussie Jingle Bells" broadly translates the idea of the original song to the summertime Christmas of the Southern hemisphere:


title: Jingle Bells

text: "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms pays homage to "Jingle Bells", directly referencing the source song's lyrics, but with a different melody. Originally recorded and released by Helms in a rockabilly style, "Jingle Bell Rock" has itself since become a Christmas standard.


title: Jingle Bells

text: The first notes in the chorus have become a motif that has been inserted into recordings of other Christmas songs, most notably at the beginning and end of Bing Crosby's "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"; a guitar passage at the end of Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song"; and Clarence Clemons performing a saxophone solo in the middle of Bruce Springsteen's "Merry Christmas Baby". A piano is also heard playing these notes at the end of Springsteen's version of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town". A slow version of the chorus opening forms the conclusion of Stan Freberg's 1957 "Green Chri$tma$", interspersed with cash-register noises. Mariah Carey utilizes a bit of the melody in her song "When Christmas Comes". Joni Mitchell's 1971 song "River" begins with a melancholy version of the chorus on piano. In 2010 the Israeli satirical website Latma produced a parody titled "Jihad Bells", where the Palestinian Minister of Uncontrollable Rage explains the persecution of Christians in the Muslim world.


title: Teams and organizations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

text: The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on superhero films and other series starring various titular superheroes independently produced by Marvel Studios and based on characters that appear in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters. Over the course of the films and related media (such as Disney+ miniseries), several teams and organizations have been formed, each with different aims and purposes.


text: The Avengers are the central team of protagonist superheroes of "The Infinity Saga" within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Created by Nick Fury and led primarily by Steve Rogers / Captain America, the team is a United States-based organization composed mainly of enhanced individuals committed to the world's protection from threats. The Avengers operate in New York State; beginning at Avengers Tower in Midtown Manhattan, and subsequently, from the Avengers Compound in Upstate New York.


text: They were foreshadowed in the 2008 film, "Iron Man", in which the "Avengers Initiative" was referenced by Nick Fury in a post-credit scene. The team first appear in "The Avengers" (2012), consisting of Tony Stark / Iron Man, Steve Rogers / Captain America, Bruce Banner / Hulk, Thor, Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, and Clint Barton / Hawkeye. The lineup that was depicted by Joss Whedon is primarily based on the Ultimates of Ultimate Marvel, with the exception of two classic founders, Hank Pym / Ant-Man and the Janet van Dyne / The Wasp. In "," Pietro Maximoff and Wanda Maximoff joins the Avengers before the Battle of Sokovia while Vision, James Rhodes / War Machine, and Sam Wilson / Falcon and also joins them in a new team roster led by Rogers. In "," the Avengers break apart into two teams, one led by Rogers and one led by Stark. In "", the Avengers battle Thanos, and Stark officially makes Peter Parker / Spider-Man a member of the team. In "", five years after the events of "Infinity War", Nebula, Rocket, Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel, and Scott Lang / Ant-Man join the Avengers as well.


text: The Avengers appear in the films "The Avengers", "Avengers: Age of Ultron", "Captain America: Civil War", "Avengers: Infinity War", "Captain Marvel" (mid-credits scene), and "Avengers: Endgame"; as well as the Disney+ series "Loki" (archival footage). Alternate versions of the team also appear in the animated Disney+ series "What If...?". Individual members of the Avengers are central characters in almost all films of the MCU.


text: The Children of Thanos were an elite team of powerful individuals who used their abilities to serve their adoptive father Thanos. As Thanos's vicious generals, they assisted him in his mission to find and harness the power of the Infinity Stones. Thanos adopted six known children: Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, Cull Obsidian, Gamora, and Nebula, and trained them in the ways of combat, turning each of them into a deadly warrior. Over the years, Gamora and Nebula would both turn on Thanos, while the rest of his children continued to serve him faithfully. In 2018, once Thanos initiated his crusade to acquire the six Infinity Stones, he sends them to Earth in order to retrieve the Time and Mind Stones. Maw and Obsidian attempt to remove the former from Doctor Strange's Eye of Agamotto while Glaive and Midnight attempt to steal the latter from Vision, but they are each killed by members of the Avengers. Five years later, alternate versions of the Children of Thanos from 2014 time-travel to 2023 and participate in the battle between Thanos's forces and the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Masters of the Mystic Arts, and Ravagers. Obsidian and Glaive are killed during the battle, while Maw and Midnight both disintegrate after Stark uses the Infinity Stones to snap his fingers. An alternate version shown in "What If...?" shows how Thanos lost the team to the Collector when he became good.


text: They appeared in the films "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame"; as well as the Disney+ animated series "What If...?", in which they are referred to as the Black Order.


text: The Dora Milaje, also known simply as the Dora, are an elite organization of female bodyguards and Wakanda's special forces. The current general is Ayo. Florence Kasumba portrays Ayo, a member of the Dora Milaje, in "Captain America: Civil War", as a guard of T'Challa. They next appear in "Black Panther". Florence Kasumba reprises her role, Danai Gurira portrays Okoye, and Sydelle Noel portrays Xoliswa while the unnamed Dora Milaje are portrayed by Marija Abney, Janeshia Adams-Ginyard, Maria Hippolyte, Marie Mouroum, Jénel Stevens, Zola Williams, Christine Hollingsworth, and Shaunette Renée Wilson. After Killmonger takes over Wakanda and seemingly kills T'Challa, the Dora Milaje reluctantly stand by him as they must remain loyal to the throne. After T'Challa returns, the Dora Milaje fight Killmonger, though Xoliswa is killed in the process.


text: In 2018, the Dora Milaje join the Avengers in defending Wakanda from Thanos's forces., whilst they fight Thanos's forces again in 2023.


text: In 2024, after Bucky Barnes breaks Helmut Zemo out of prison, the Dora Milaje pursue the latter, and eventually capture him before sending him to the Raft. Ayo advises Barnes not to return to Wakanda for some time, though he is able to ask them to create a suit for Sam Wilson.


text: They appeared in the films "Captain America: Civil War", "Black Panther", "Avengers: Infinity War", "Avengers: Endgame," and "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"; as well as the Disney+ television series "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" and "What If...?".