title: Negev

text: Vines have been planted in the Negev since ancient times. In modern times, vineyards have been established in the northern Negev hills using innovative computerized watering methods for irrigation. Carmel Winery was the first of the major wineries to plant vineyards in the Negev and operates a boutique winery at Ramat Arad. Tishbi has vineyards at Sde Boker and Barkan grows its grapes in Mitzpe Ramon. Yatir Winery is a winery in Tel Arad. Its vineyards are on a hill 900 meters above sea level on the outskirts of Yatir Forest. Carmey Avdat is Israel's first solar-powered winery.


title: Negev

text: The Negev is home to hazardous infrastructures that include Negev Nuclear Research Center nuclear reactor, 22 agrochemical and petrochemical factories, an oil terminal, closed military zones, quarries, a toxic waste incinerator at Ne'ot Hovav, cell towers, a power plant, several airports, a prison, and two rivers of open sewage.


title: Negev

text: In 2005, the Tel Aviv municipality was accused of dumping waste in the Negev at the . The Manufacturers Association of Israel established an authority in 2005 to move 60 industrial enterprises active in the Tel Aviv region to the Negev.


title: Negev

text: In 1979, the Ramat Hovav toxic waste facility was established in Wadi el-Na'am because the area was perceived as invulnerable to leakage. However, within a decade, cracks were found in the rock beneath Ramat Hovav. In 2004, the Israeli Ministry of Health released Ben Gurion University research findings describing the health problems in a 20 km vicinity of Ramat Hovav. The study, funded in large part by Ramat Hovav, found higher rates of cancer and mortality for the 350,000 people in the area. Prematurely released to the media by an unknown source, the preliminary study was publicly discredited; However, its final conclusions – that Bedouin and Jewish residents near Ramat Hovav are significantly more susceptible than the rest of the population to miscarriages, severe birth defects, and respiratory diseases – passed a peer review several months later.


title: Citation

text: A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of acknowledging the relevance of the works of others to the topic of discussion at the spot where the citation appears.


title: Citation

text: Generally, the combination of both the in-body citation and the bibliographic entry constitutes what is commonly thought of as a citation (whereas bibliographic entries by themselves are not).


title: Citation

text: Citations have several important purposes. While their uses for upholding intellectual honesty and bolstering claims are typically foregrounded in teaching materials and style guides (e.g.,), correct attribution of insights to previous sources is just one of these purposes. Linguistic analysis of citation-practices has indicated that they also serve critical roles in orchestrating the state of knowledge on a particular topic, identifying gaps in the existing knowledge that should be filled or describing areas where inquiries should be continued or replicated. Citation has also been identified as a critical means by which researchers establish stance: aligning themselves with or against subgroups of fellow researchers working on similar projects and staking out opportunities for creating new knowledge.


title: Citation

text: Conventions of citation (e.g., placement of dates within parentheses, superscripted endnotes vs. footnotes, colons or commas for page numbers, etc.) vary by the citation-system used (e.g., Oxford, Harvard, MLA, NLM, American Sociological Association (ASA), American Psychological Association (APA), etc.). Each system is associated with different academic disciplines, and academic journals associated with these disciplines maintain the relevant citational style by recommending and adhering to the relevant style guides.


title: Citation

text: A bibliographic citation is a reference to a book, article, web page, or other published item. Citations should supply detail to identify the item uniquely. Different citation systems and styles are used in scientific citation, legal citation, prior art, the arts, and the humanities. Regarding the use of citations in the scientific literature, some scholars also put forward "the right to refuse unwanted citations" in certain situations deemed inappropriate.


title: Citation

text: Along with information such as author(s), date of publication, title and page numbers, citations may also include unique identifiers depending on the type of work being referred to.


title: Citation

text: Broadly speaking, there are two types of citation systems, the Vancouver system and parenthetical referencing. However, the Council of Science Editors (CSE) adds a third, the" citation-name system".


title: Citation

text: The Vancouver system uses sequential numbers in the text, either bracketed or superscript or both. The numbers refer to either footnotes (notes at the end of the page) or endnotes (notes on a page at the end of the paper) that provide source detail. The notes system may or may not require a full bibliography, depending on whether the writer has used a full-note form or a shortened-note form. The organizational logic of the bibliography is that sources are listed in their order of appearance in-text, rather than alphabetically by author last name.


title: Citation

text: For example, an excerpt from the text of a paper using a notes system "without" a full bibliography could look like:


title: Citation

text: The note, located either at the foot of the page (footnote) or at the end of the paper (endnote) would look like this:


title: Citation

text: In the humanities, many authors also use footnotes or endnotes to supply anecdotal information. In this way, what looks like a citation is actually supplementary material, or suggestions for further reading.


title: Citation

text: Parenthetical referencing, also known as Harvard referencing, has full or partial, in-text, citations enclosed in circular brackets and embedded in the paragraph.


title: Citation

text: Depending on the choice of style, fully cited parenthetical references may require no end section. Other styles include a list of the citations, with complete bibliographical references, in an end section, sorted alphabetically by author. This section is often called "References", "Bibliography", "Works cited" or "Works consulted".


title: Citation

text: In-text references for online publications may differ from conventional parenthetical referencing. A full reference can be hidden, only displayed when wanted by the reader, in the form of a tooltip. This style makes citing easier and improves the reader's experience.


title: Citation

text: Citation styles can be broadly divided into styles common to the Humanities and the Sciences, though there is considerable overlap. Some style guides, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, are quite flexible and cover both parenthetical and note citation systems. Others, such as MLA and APA styles, specify formats within the context of a single citation system. These may be referred to as citation formats as well as citation styles. The various guides thus specify order of appearance, for example, of publication date, title, and page numbers following the author name, in addition to conventions of punctuation, use of italics, emphasis, parenthesis, quotation marks, etc., particular to their style.


title: Citation

text: A number of organizations have created styles to fit their needs; consequently, a number of different guides exist. Individual publishers often have their own in-house variations as well, and some works are so long-established as to have their own citation methods too: Stephanus pagination for Plato; Bekker numbers for Aristotle; citing the Bible by book, chapter and verse; or Shakespeare notation by play.


title: Citation

text: The Citation Style Language (CSL) is an open XML-based language to describe the formatting of citations and bibliographies.


title: Citation

text: In some areas of the Humanities, footnotes are used exclusively for references, and their use for conventional footnotes (explanations or examples) is avoided. In these areas, the term "footnote" is actually used as a synonym for "reference", and care must be taken by editors and typesetters to ensure that they understand how the term is being used by their authors.


title: Citation

text: In their research on footnotes in scholarly journals in the field of communication, Michael Bugeja and Daniela V. Dimitrova have found that citations to online sources have a rate of decay (as cited pages are taken down), which they call a "half-life", that renders footnotes in those journals less useful for scholarship over time.


title: Citation

text: Other experts have found that published replications do not have as many citations as original publications.


title: Citation

text: Another important issue is citation errors, which often occur due to carelessness on either the researcher or journal editor's part in the publication procedure. For example, a study that analyzed 1,200 randomly selected citations from three major business ethics journal concluded that an average article contains at least three plagiarized citations when authors copy and paste a citation entry from another publication without consulting the original source. Experts have found that simple precautions, such as consulting the author of a cited source about proper citations, reduce the likelihood of citation errors and thus increase the quality of research.


title: Citation

text: Research suggests the impact of an article can be, partly, explained by superficial factors and not only by the scientific merits of an article. Field-dependent factors are usually listed as an issue to be tackled not only when comparisons across disciplines are made, but also when different fields of research of one discipline are being compared. For example, in medicine, among other factors, the number of authors, the number of references, the article length, and the presence of a colon in the title influence the impact; while in sociology the number of references, the article length, and title length are among the factors.


title: Citation

text: Studies of methodological quality and reliability have found that "reliability of published research works in several fields may be decreasing with increasing journal rank". Nature Index recognizes that citations remain a controversial and yet important metric for academics. They report five ways to increase citation counts: (1) watch the title length and punctuation; (2) release the results early as preprints; (3) avoid referring to a country in the title, abstract, or keywords; (4) link the article to supporting data in a repository; and (5) avoid hyphens in the titles of research articles.


title: Citation

text: Citation patterns are also known to be affected by unethical behavior of both the authors and journal staff. Such behavior is called impact factor boosting and was reported to involve even the top-tier journals. Specifically the high-ranking journals of medical science, including "The Lancet", "JAMA" and "The New England Journal of Medicine", are thought to be associated with such behavior, with up to 30% of citations to these journals being generated by commissioned opinion articles. On the other hand, the phenomenon of citation cartels is rising. Citation cartels are defined as groups of authors that cite each other disproportionately more than they do other groups of authors who work on the same subject.


title: Norwegians

text: Norwegians () are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the Norse of the Early Middle Ages who formed a unified Kingdom of Norway in the 9th century. During the Viking Age, Norwegians and other Norse peoples conquered, settled and ruled parts of the British Isles, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. Norwegians are closely related to other North Germanic peoples and descendants of the Norsemen such as Danes, Swedes, Icelanders and the Faroe Islanders, as well as groups such as the Scots whose nation they significantly settled and left a lasting impact in. The Norwegian language is part of the larger Scandinavian dialect continuum of generally mutually intelligible languages in Scandinavia. Norwegian people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Norwegians are traditionally Lutheran since the Reformation in Denmark–Norway and Holstein which made Lutheranism the only legal religion in the country, however large portions of the population are now either non-practicing, atheist or agnostic.


title: Norwegians

text: Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, Proto-Indo-European speaking Battle-Axe peoples migrated to Norway bringing domesticated horses, agriculture, cattle and wheel technology to the region.


title: Norwegians

text: During the Viking Age, Harald Fairhair unified the Norse petty kingdoms after being victorious at the Battle of Hafrsfjord in the 880s. Two centuries of Viking expansion tapered off following the decline of Norse paganism with the adoption of Christianity in the 11th century. During The Black Death, approximately 60% of the population died and in 1397 Norway entered a union with Denmark.


title: Norwegians

text: In 1814, following Denmark-Norway's defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, Norway entered a union with Sweden and adopted a new constitution. Rising nationalism throughout the 19th century led to a 1905 referendum granting Norway independence. Although Norway remained officially neutral in World War I, the country was unofficially allied with the Entente powers. In World War II Norway proclaimed its neutrality, but was nonetheless occupied for five years by Nazi Germany (1940–45). In 1949, neutrality was abandoned and Norway became a member of NATO. Discovery of oil and gas in adjacent waters in the late 1960s boosted Norway's economic fortunes but in referendums held in 1972 and 1994, Norway rejected joining the EU. Key domestic issues include integration of a fast growing immigrant population, maintaining the country's generous social safety net with an aging population, and preserving economic competitiveness.


title: Norwegians

text: As with many of the people from European countries, Norwegians are spread throughout the world. There are more than 100,000 Norwegian citizens living abroad permanently, mostly in the U.S. and other Scandinavian countries.


title: Norwegians

text: Norwegian or Norse Vikings travelled north and west and founded vibrant communities in the Faroe Islands, Shetland, Orkney, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, and northern England. They conducted extensive raids in Ireland and founded the cities of Cork, Dublin, and Limerick. In 947, a new wave of Norwegian Vikings appeared in England when Erik Bloodaxe captured York. In the 8th century and onwards, Norwegian and Danish Vikings also settled in Normandy, most famously those led by Rollo, and thus began the tradition of the Normans (also meaning 'men from the north'), who expanded to England, Sicily, and other Mediterranean islands.


title: Norwegians

text: Apart from Britain and Ireland, Norwegian Vikings established settlements in largely uninhabited regions. The first known permanent Norwegian settler in Iceland was Ingólfur Arnarson. In the year 874 he settled in Reykjavík.


title: Norwegians

text: After his expulsion from Iceland Erik the Red discovered Greenland, a name he chose in hope of attracting Icelandic settlers. Viking settlements were established in the sheltered fjords of the southern and western coast. Erik's relative Leif Eriksson later discovered North America.


title: Norwegians

text: During the 17th and 18th centuries, many Norwegians emigrated to the Netherlands, particularly Amsterdam. The Netherlands was the second most popular destination for Norwegian emigrants after Denmark.


title: Norwegians

text: Loosely estimated, some 10% of the population may have emigrated, in a period when the entire Norwegian population consisted of some 800,000 people.


title: Norwegians

text: The Norwegians left with the Dutch trade ships that when in Norway traded for timber, hides, herring and stockfish (dried codfish). Young women took employment as maids in Amsterdam. Young men took employment as sailors. Large parts of the Dutch merchant fleet and navy came to consist of Norwegians and Danes. Most took Dutch names, leaving no trace of Norwegian names in the Dutch population of today. One well-known illustration is that of Admiral Kruys. He was hired in Amsterdam by Peter I to develop the Russian navy, but was originally from Stavanger, Norway (Kruys means "cross", and the Russian maritime flag is today also a blue cross on white background).


title: Norwegians

text: The emigration to the Netherlands was so devastating to the homelands that the Danish-Norwegian king issued penalties of death for emigration, but repeatedly had to issue amnesties for those willing to return, announced by posters in the streets of Amsterdam. Increasingly, Dutchmen who search their genealogical roots turn to Norway. Many Norwegians who emigrated to the Netherlands, and often were employed in the Dutch merchant fleet, emigrated further to the many Dutch colonies such as New Amsterdam (New York).


title: Norwegians

text: Many Norwegians emigrated to the U.S. between the 1850s and the 1920s. Today, the descendants of these people are known as Norwegian Americans. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, three million Americans consider Norwegian to be their sole or primary ancestry. It is estimated that as many as a further 1.5 million more are of partial Norwegian ancestry.


title: Norwegians

text: Travelling to and through Canada and Canadian ports were of choice for Norwegian settlers immigrating to the United States. In 1850, the year after Great Britain repealed its restrictive Navigation Acts in Canada, more and more emigrating Norwegians sailed the shorter route to the Ville de Québec (Quebec City) in Canada, to make their way to US cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, and Green Bay by steamer. For example, in the 1850s, 28,640 arrived at Quebec, Canada, en route to the US, and 8,351 at New York directly.


title: Norwegians

text: Norwegian Americans represent 2–3% of the non-Hispanic Euro-American population in the U.S. They mostly live in both the Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest.


title: Norwegians

text: As early as 1814, a party of Norwegians was brought to Canada to build a winter road from York Factory on Hudson Bay to the infant Red River settlement at the site of present-day Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Norway House is one of the oldest trading posts and Native-Canadian missions in the Canadian West. Willard Ferdinand Wentzel served the North West Company of Canada in the Athabasca and Mackenzie regions and accompanied Sir John Franklin on his overland expedition in 1819–20 to the Canadian Arctic.


title: Norwegians

text: Norwegians immigrated to Canada in search of the Canadian Dream. This immigration lasted from the mid-1880s until 1930, although Norwegians were already working in Canada as early as 1814. It can be divided into three periods of roughly fifteen years each. In the first, to about 1900, thousands of Norwegians homesteaded on the Canadian prairies. In the second, from 1900 to 1914, there was a further heavy influx of Norwegians immigrating to Canada from the United States because of poor economic conditions in the US, and 18,790 from Norway. In the third, from 1919 to 1930, 21,874 people came directly from Norway, with the peak year in 1927, when 5,103 Norwegians arrived, spurred by severe depression at home. They came with limited means, many leaving dole queues.


title: Norwegians

text: From 1825 to 1900 some 500,000 Norwegians landed at Ville du Quebec in Canada (and other Canadian ports) for travelling through Canada was the shortest corridor to the United States' central states. In spite of efforts by the Government of Canada to retain these immigrants for Canada, very few remained because of Canada's somewhat restrictive land policies at that time and negative stories being told about Canada from U.S. land agents deterring Norwegians from going to Canada. Not until the 1880s did Norwegians accept Canada as a land of opportunity. This was also true of the many Americans of Norwegian heritage who immigrated to Canada from the US with "Canada Fever" seeking homesteads and new economic opportunities. By 1921 one-third of all Norwegians in Canada had been born in the US.


title: Norwegians

text: These new Canadians became British subjects in Canada, and part of the British Empire. Canadian citizenship, as a status distinct from that of a British subject, was created on 1 January 1947, with Canada being the first Commonwealth country to create their own citizenship. Prior to that date, Canadians were British subjects and Canada's nationality law closely mirrored that of the United Kingdom. On 1 January 1947, Canadian citizenship was conferred on most British subjects connected with Canada. Unlike the US, Canada was part of the British Empire and most Norwegians would have become Canadians and British subjects at the same time.


title: Norwegians

text: According to the 2011 Census, 452,705 Canadians reported Norwegian ancestry (Norwegian-Canadians). Norwegians make up 2% of the White Canadian population. However, the actual figure may be higher. It is important to note that because so many Norwegian women married men of other nationalities, and thus by census rules are not counted as having children of this ethnic origin, this tends to reduce the number in the statistics.


title: Norwegians

text: As of 2011, there were 3,710 Norwegian-born Australians, and 23,037 Norwegians of Australian descent.


title: Norwegians

text: In the 19th century a community known as the Kola Norwegians settled in the environs of the Russian city of Murmansk. They have suffered persecution under Joseph Stalin and after 1992 were offered a chance to get back to Norway. There are very few of them left there today.


title: Norwegians

text: According to recent genetic analysis, both mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) and Y chromosome polymorphisms showed a noticeable genetic affinity between the Norwegian population and other ethnic groups in Northern and Central Europe, particularly with the Germans. This is due to a history of at least a thousand years of large-scale migration both in and out of Norway.


title: Norwegians

text: The Norwegian population is typical of the Northern European population with Haplogroup I1 being the most common Y-haplogroup, at about 37,3%. Norwegians also show the characteristic R1a genes of the paternal ancestorship at 17.9% to 30.8%. Such large frequencies of R1a have been found only in East Europe and India. R1b gene showing paternal descent is also widespread at 25.9% to 30.8%.


title: Norwegians

text: Norwegian genetic ancestry also exists in many locations where Norwegians immigrated. In particular, several northern states in the United States (Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana) show Scandinavian (which includes Norwegian) ancestry proportions among European descent (white) persons of 10 to 20%. Similarly, Norwegian ancestry has been found to account for about 25% of ancestry of the population of the Shetland Islands and Danish-Norwegian ancestry has been found to account for about 25% of ancestry of the population of Greenland.


title: Norwegians

text: Y-Chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) represents the male lineage, The Norwegian Y-chromosome pool may be summarized as follows where haplogroups R1 & I comprise generally more than 85% of the total chromosomes.


title: Norwegians

text: Mitochondrial DNA mtDNA represents the female lineage, Haplogroup H represent about 40% of the Norwegian mitochondrial DNA lineages


title: Norwegians

text: Norwegian is a North Germanic language with approximately 5 million speakers, of whom most are located in Norway. There are also some speakers of Norwegian in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Britain, Spain, Canada, and the United States, where the largest community of speakers exists, with 55,311 speakers as of 2000; approximately half of the speakers live in Minnesota (8,060), California (5,865), Washington (5,460), New York (4,200), and Wisconsin (3,520).


title: Norwegians

text: As of 2006, in Canada, there are 7,710 Norwegian speakers, of whom 3,420 reside in British Columbia, 1,360 in Alberta, and 1,145 in Ontario.


title: Norwegians

text: Norwegian culture is closely linked to the country's history and geography. The unique Norwegian farm culture, sustained to this day, has resulted not only from scarce resources and a harsh climate but also from ancient property laws. In the 18th century, it brought about a strong romantic nationalistic movement, which is still visible in the Norwegian language and . In the 19th century, Norwegian culture blossomed as efforts continued to achieve an independent identity in the areas of literature, art and music.


title: Norwegians

text: Norway's culinary traditions show the influence of long seafaring and farming traditions with salmon (fresh and cured), herring (pickled or marinated), trout, codfish and other seafood balanced by cheeses, dairy products and excellent breads (predominantly dark/darker). Lefse is a common Norwegian potato flatbread, common around Christmas. For renowned Norwegian dishes, see lutefisk, smalahove, pinnekjøtt, Krotekake and fårikål.


title: Norwegians

text: Along with the classical music of romantic composer Edvard Grieg and the modern music of Arne Nordheim, Norwegian black metal has become something of an export article in recent years.


title: Norwegians

text: Norway's classical performers include Leif Ove Andsnes, one of the world's more famous pianists, and Truls Mørk, an outstanding cellist.


title: Norwegians

text: The jazz scene in Norway is also thriving. Jan Garbarek, Mari Boine, Arild Andersen, and Bugge Wesseltoft are internationally recognised while Paal Nilssen-Love, Supersilent, Jaga Jazzist and Wibutee are becoming world-class artists of the younger generation.


title: Norwegians

text: Norway has a strong folk music tradition which remains popular to this day. Among the most prominent folk musicians are Hardanger fiddlers Andrea Een, Olav Jørgen Hegge, Vidar Lande and Annbjørg Lien, violinist Susanne Lundeng, and vocalists Agnes Buen Garnås, Kirsten Bråten Berg and Odd Nordstoga.


title: Norwegians

text: Norwegians celebrate their national day on 17 May, dedicated to the Constitution of Norway. Many people wear "bunad" (traditional costumes) and most participate in or watch the Norwegian Constitution Day


title: Norwegians

text: parade that day, consisting mostly of children, through the cities and towns. The national romanticist author Henrik Wergeland was the founder of the 17 May parade.


title: Norwegians

text: Common Christian holidays are also celebrated, the most important being Christmas (called "Jul" in Norway after the pagan and early Viking winter solstice) and Easter (Påske). In Norway, the Santa (called Nissen) comes at Christmas Eve, the 24 December, with the presents, not the morning after as in many English speaking countries. He usually comes late in the evening, after the Christmas dinner many children consider long, boring and unnecessary.


title: Norwegians

text: "Jonsok" (St. John's Passing), or "St. Hans" (St. John's Day), i.e. 24 June, is also a commonly revered holiday. It marks midsummer and the beginning of summer vacation, and is often celebrated by lighting bonfires the evening before. In Northern areas of Norway, this day has 24 hours of light, while southern areas have only 17.5 hours.


title: Norwegians

text: The conversion of Norway to Christianity from Norse paganism began in 1000. By the middle of the 11th century, Christianity had become well-established in Norway and had become dominant by the middle of the 12th century. The Norwegians were Catholics until the Danish king Christian III of Denmark forced them to convert to Lutheranism and established a state-governed church. The church undertook a program to convert the Sámi in the 16th and 17th century, with the program being largely successful.


title: Norwegians

text: In the 19th century, emigration from Norway for political and religious motives began and Lutheranism spread to the United States. As a result of this, many of the Norwegians remaining in Norway were religiously moderate; subsequently, church attendance declined throughout the 20th century, as reflected by 78% of the population stating that religion is unimportant in a Gallup poll and low weekly church attendance, at 2%, particularly when compared to that of North Dakota, the state in which Norwegians constitute approximately 30.4% of the population. Of all U.S. states, North Dakota has the lowest percentage of non-religious people and the largest number of churches per capita. It weekly church attendance is at 43%.


title: Norwegians

text: In Norway the Church of Norway and state are not entirely separated. An act approved in 2016 created the Church of Norway as an independent legal entity, effective from 1 January 2017. The Church of Norway was previously the country's official religion, and its central administrative functions were carried out by the Royal Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs until 2017. The Evangelical Lutheran Church is still mentioned in the constitution, for example, the King is still required to profess an evangelical Lutheran faith. When baptised, children are registered in the Church of Norway's member register, leading to a large membership, although many people do not remain observant as adults. A majority of both ethnic Norwegians and Sámi are nominally Christian, but not necessarily observant. In Norway as of 2018, 70% of the population are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though only 47.1% answered "Yes" to the question "Do you believe in God?" in a 2018 European Values Study.


title: Paul Sparks

text: Paul Sparks (born October 16, 1971) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as gangster Mickey Doyle in the HBO period drama series "Boardwalk Empire", writer Thomas Yates in the Netflix political drama series "House of Cards", mall owner John Breem in the Apple TV+ comedy-drama series "Physical", attorney David Tellis in the Starz anthology drama series "The Girlfriend Experience", and a recurring role in the limited series "The Night Of". Sparks has also starred in the films "Deception" (2008), "Afterschool" (2008), "The Missing Person" (2008), "Mud" (2012), "Parkland" (2013), "Stealing Cars" (2015), "Thoroughbreds" (2017), and "The Greatest Showman" (2017).


title: Paul Sparks

text: Sparks is a native of Marlow, Oklahoma, and attended Marlow High School, where his father coached football, graduating in 1990. While attending school in Marlow, Paul was a part of the Marlow Outlaw Speech Team (M.O.S.T.) where he was coached by Paula and Gary McConnell. Sparks earned a scholarship to Oklahoma State University to study chemistry, but later transferred to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama in 1995.


title: Paul Sparks

text: In 2010, Sparks began portraying the regular role of Mickey Doyle on HBO's drama series "Boardwalk Empire", which was created by Terence Winter and executive produced by Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg. The series ended in 2014, after completing five seasons.


title: Paul Sparks

text: Sparks is married to actress Annie Parisse, after meeting in 2005. Together they have two children, son Emmett (born 2009), and daughter Lydia (born 2014). Sparks has diabetes mellitus type 1 and works with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He is good friends with fellow actor Michael Shannon; the two have worked together on a number of projects including "Waco", "The Missing Person", "Mud", "Boardwalk Empire", and "Midnight Special".


title: Shawn Andrews (actor)

text: Shawn Andrews (born Shawn Andrew Milgroom) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Kevin Pickford in the 1993 Richard Linklater film "Dazed and Confused".


title: Shawn Andrews (actor)

text: Andrews first feature film was the cult film "Dazed and Confused", where Andrews was cast as the character Kevin Pickford. He went on to lead roles such as in "The Small Hours" and "City of Ghosts". He played the lead protagonist in "Fix", being awarded Best Actor at the Brooklyn Film Festival. Andrews then appeared in "Big Heart City", which was nominated for an award at the Los Angeles Film Festival.


title: Shawn Andrews (actor)

text: In 1992 Andrews was briefly married to Milla Jovovich, who was 16 at the time. The marriage was annulled by Jovovich's mother two months later.


title: Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2018

text: The "Billboard" Hot 100 is a chart that ranks the best-performing singles of the United States. Its data, published by "Billboard" magazine and compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, is based collectively on each single's weekly physical and digital sales, as well as airplay and streaming. At the end of a year, "Billboard" will publish an annual list of the 100 most successful songs throughout that year on the Hot 100 chart based on the information. For 2018, the list was published on December 4, calculated with data from December 2, 2017 to November 17, 2018.


text: The top Hot 100 artist of 2018 was Drake, who placed eight songs on the list, including the number-one song of the year, "God's Plan". Rapper Cardi B also placed eight songs on the list.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: Queer Eye is an American reality television series that premiered on the cable television network Bravo in July 2003. Originally Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the title was later shortened to broaden the overall scope. The series was created by executive producers David Collins and Michael Williams along with David Metzler through their company, Scout Productions.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: Each episode features a team of gay professionals in the fields of fashion, personal grooming, interior design, entertaining and culture collectively known as the "Fab Five" performing a makeover (in the parlance of the show, a "make-better"), usually for a heterosexual (straight) man: revamping wardrobe, redecorating, and offering advice on grooming, lifestyle, and food.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" quickly became a surprise success, resulting in merchandising, franchising of the concept internationally, and a woman-oriented spin-off, "Queer Eye for the Straight Girl". "Queer Eye" won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program in 2004. The series' name was abbreviated to "Queer Eye" at the beginning of its third season to include making over individuals regardless of gender or sexual orientation. "Queer Eye" ended production during June 2006 and the final episode aired on October 30, 2007. During September 2008, the Fine Living Network briefly aired "Queer Eye" in syndication.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The series was revived with a new Fab Five in 2018 when a Netflix reboot released its first season to positive reviews.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: Producers Collins and Metzler were given approval by Bravo to develop "Queer Eye" after the ratings success the network experienced when it counterprogrammed a marathon of its 2002 series "Gay Weddings" at the same time as Super Bowl XXXVII during 2003 January. The pilot episode was filmed in Boston, Massachusetts during June 2002. Of the eventual Fab Five, only Kressley and Allen appeared. The culture, design and grooming roles were filled by James Hannaham, Charles Daboub Jr., and Sam Spector, respectively.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The pilot was delivered to Bravo during September 2002, and was well received in audience testing. Soon thereafter, NBC purchased Bravo and ordered 12 episodes of the series. NBC promoted the show extensively, including billboard campaigns and print advertisements in national magazines.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: Kyan Douglas and Thom Filicia joined the show for these episodes, along with Blair Boone in the role of "culture guy." Boone filmed two episodes (which were broadcast as the second and third episodes and for which he was credited as a "guest culture expert") but was replaced by Rodriguez beginning with production of the third episode. Each episode was shot over a span of four days and edited to create the perception that the events of the episode took place in a single day.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The majority of "Queer Eye" episodes use the same basic format. The episode begins with the Fab Five in an SUV (usually in New York City, where the series was based) discussing their heterosexual client. The Five review details of the subject's personal life and note problems in their various areas of expertise. The Five usually have a specific event for which they plan to prepare the client. These included everything from throwing a backyard barbecue for friends to preparing to ask for a salary increase to proposing marriage.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: Upon arriving at the subject's home, the Fab Five go through his belongings, performing a running commentary of catty remarks about the state of his wardrobe, home decor, cleanliness and grooming. They also speak with the subject and family members to get an idea of the sort of style they like and their goals for the experience and to discuss the planned event.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The remainder of the first half of the episode follows the Fab Five as they escort the subject to various locales to select new furniture and clothes. Often, Ted demonstrates how to select and prepare food for a particular dish that the subject will prepare for the special event, and Kyan takes him for spa treatments and a new haircut. Each such segment includes a style tip superimposed on the screen, summarizing the style issues addressed in the segment. Interspersed with this are interview segments in which friends and family members of the subject discuss his style issues.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: In the next section, the subject returns to a completely redecorated home and models articles of his new wardrobe for the Fab Five. Each of the Five offer final words of advice and encouragement, accompanied by supplies of grooming products, food and kitchenware, and in some cases expensive electronics items such as entertainment centers and computers.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The final section follows the subject as he prepares for the special event, with the Fab Five watching edited footage of his preparations and critiquing how well or how poorly he followed their advice. Finally, the subject is followed through the event itself, with the Five again performing a running commentary and the subject often expressing his deep gratitude to the Fab Five for their counsel. A final tip from each of the Fab Five, usually relating to one of the topics covered in the episode, plays just before the credits.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: Special episodes of "Queer Eye" that deviated from this formula included episodes in which the Fab Five journeyed outside the greater New York area, including shows filmed in England, Texas, and Las Vegas. In two episodes, the Fab Five made over homosexual men (both of which aired during June, Gay Pride Month, during 2004 and 2006) and in one episode made over a transgender man. The show also featured makeovers of members of the Boston Red Sox after their 2004 World Series victory, several holiday specials, and, in the final season, a "Mister Straight Guy" pageant featuring subjects from the series' history.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" debuted on July 15, 2003 and the series quickly attained high ratings, peaking during September of that year with 3.34 million viewers per episode. The popularity of the series established the Fab Five as media celebrities, with high-profile appearances at the Emmys and a "make-better" of Jay Leno and his "The Tonight Show" set in August of that year. Fab Five members parlayed their celebrity into endorsement deals, notably Thom Filicia's becoming the spokesman for Pier 1 Imports.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The American press almost universally complimented the series and the Fab Five. "Out" magazine listed the Fab Five in its "OUT 100", the "greatest gay success stories" of 2003. "Instinct" magazine declared Kressley one of the "Leading Men" of 2004.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The series attracted criticism for making generalizations about sexual identity, namely that homosexual men are inherently more fashionable and stylish than heterosexuals. Among those making this critique were Tom Shales in "The Washington Post" ("stereotypes on parade"), Richard Goldstein in "Village Voice" ("Haven't fags always been consigned to the role of body servant?") and United States Congressman Barney Frank speaking to the "New York Post". Author Gustavus Stadler presents similar critiques of "Queer Eye" emphasizing the expectation placed on homosexual men by society. "Queer Eye," Stadler claims, is an example of an unrealistic world in which all queer men are fashionable, hip, witty, and very much enjoy helping a straight man to reach their straight potential. Similarly, Stadler claims this is why heterosexual men find enjoyment in watching "Queer Eye", as they envy the “simple” imaginary gay lifestyle held by queer men; a life free from divorce rates, children, and demanding jobs.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: Before same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States, there was a study on the distribution of attitudes about gay marriage from residents in Louisiana, Arizona, and Minnesota. Reportedly in this study, 60.9% disagreed with gay marriage with the "intensity of disagreement also stronger for those who disagree compared to those who agree". While "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" did last from 2003 to 2007, the attitudes of the U.S audience during these years might have had an effect on the show's popularity during their airing.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: With the success of the first season, original "culture guy" Blair Boone sued the show for breach of contract, claiming he should be paid not just for two episodes but for the season that he had been contracted to film.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The popularity of the series inspired a number of parodies. Comedy Central hosted a satirical television series named "Straight Plan for the Gay Man", which featured four heterosexual men teaching homosexual men how to be more stereotypically straight, redecorating their homes with neon beer signs and teaching them about sports. "South Park" spoofed the show and its hosts in the episode "South Park Is Gay!", in which the protagonists learn that the Fab Five are actually evil Crab People trying to control the world by converting heterosexual men into metrosexuals.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: "Queer Eye" won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program during 2004 and was nominated for another Emmy in the same category during 2005. The series also received GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding Reality Program during 2004 and 2005, and was nominated for a third during 2006.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: In the second season, ratings decreased, averaging about 1.8 million viewers per episode with an average of 804,000 viewers in the important 18-40 demographic. New episodes continued to be broadcast for two more seasons. Bravo confirmed in early 2007 that "Queer Eye" had been cancelled. The remaining fifth-season episodes were billed as "Queer Eye: The Final Season" and aired twice weekly beginning October 2, 2007.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The show attracted more criticism than other similar television series from the same time period. James Keller asserts that the title itself seems to cross a boundary; gay men objectifying straight men. Keller also criticizes the exemplification of stereotypes on both sides; gay men who are effeminate, only pursuing artistic careers, while straight men are rude, uncultured and uncivilized.  The largest criticism from Keller to be that even if the stereotypes are correct, the show tended to take too simplistic of a view, relying on a sophisticated audience.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: Joshua Gamson praises the series and its portrayal of gay men on television saying that it has “produced a fascinating reversal of fortune” where gay men are admired, and straight men are praised for being more like gay men.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: During January 2005, Scout Productions premiered a spin-off series titled "Queer Eye for the Straight Girl", set in Los Angeles. It featured a cast of four lifestyle experts (three men and a woman, known as the "Gal Pals") who performed makeovers for women. The show was cancelled after one season.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: "Queer Eye"s American success caused television networks in several countries to syndicate the American episodes, with a number of countries creating their own local versions of "Queer Eye" for broadcast in their countries. However, few of these homegrown versions have proven as successful as the original, and most did not last long before cancellation. Licensing of the format is managed by NBCUniversal.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: NBCU licensed television producer David Hedges and his UK production house vialondon.tv to produce local versions for Europe, with Flextech's Living channel doing the same to produce the United Kingdom's version after a first attempt at a UK production by "Making Time" was abandoned.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The first episode of the Finnish version, "", created controversy for the blatant product placement considered to be a transgression of a Finnish law against surreptitious advertising.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: The soundtrack for "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" was released February 10, 2004, in the USA. It reached number one on the electronic music chart, number two on the soundtrack charts and the top 40 in the "Billboard" 200 album chart. In Australia, the soundtrack was released for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and the popularity of the series in Australia resulted in the soundtrack scoring in the top 10 of the Australian album chart on March 8, 2004. It was certified gold in Australia in March 2004. The song "Superstar" by Jamelia from the soundtrack also went to number one on the Australian singles charts in the same week, and the theme song of the show, "All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)" by Widelife, went to the top 20 that month. "All Things" scored a 2005 Juno Award for "Dance Recording of the Year" for Widelife (Rachid Wehbi & Ian Nieman). Rob Eric was the executive producer for the album.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: A tie-in book titled "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy: The Fab 5's Guide to Looking Better, Cooking Better, Dressing Better, Behaving Better and Living Better" was published during 2004 by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Random House.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: Several DVDs were released in conjunction with the series. Kressley, Filicia and Allen each had individual releases emphasizing their topics of expertise. Douglas and Rodriguez were featured together in a single DVD focused on grooming. Additional DVD releases include "Queer Eye for the Red Sox" (featuring the team makeover episode) and a multi-disc box set.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: Netflix ordered eight new episodes of "Queer Eye" in January 2017, to feature a new Fab Five. Scout Productions has contributed involvement with the revival, which trades the original New York setting for Georgia in the first two seasons, and Missouri in the third and fourth.


title: Queer Eye (2003 TV series)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the season holds an approval rating of 100% based on 13 reviews, and an average rating of 7.35/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Queer Eye" adapts for a different era without losing its style, charm, or sense of fun, proving that the show's formula remains just as sweetly addictive even after a change in location and a new group of hosts." On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Following its success, Netflix has subsequently renewed it for five seasons.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National League (NL). Starting fielders are selected by fans, pitchers are selected by managers, and reserves are selected by players and managers.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The game is usually played on the second or third Tuesday in July, and is meant to mark the symbolic halfway point of the MLB season (though not the mathematical halfway point, which, for most seasons, falls within the previous calendar week). Both leagues share an "All-Star break", with no regular-season games scheduled from the day before through two days after the All-Star Game, with the exception of a single Thursday night game starting in the 2018 season. Some additional events and festivities associated with the game take place each year close to and during this break in the regular season.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: No official MLB All-Star Games were held in 1945 and 2020, and no official selection of players took place, due to World War II travel restrictions and the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. Two All-Star Games were held each season from 1959 to 1962. The most recent All-Star Game was held on July 19, 2022, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, home of the NL's Los Angeles Dodgers.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Baseball teams put on benefit games for the families of players who died unexpectedly. For example, the Addie Joss Benefit Game in raised $12,914 for the Joss family ($ in current dollar terms).


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The first All-Star Game was held on July 6, , at Comiskey Park in Chicago as part of the 1933 World's Fair, and was initiated by Arch Ward, then sports editor for the "Chicago Tribune". Initially intended to be a one-time event, its success resulted in making the contest an annual one.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: From to , two All-Star Games were held each season, in order to increase the money going to the players' pension fund. This practice ended after the owners agreed to give the players a larger share of the income from a single game.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: MLB chooses the venue for the All-Star Game. The criteria for venue selection are subjective; generally, cities with new ballparks and those who have not hosted the Game in many years – or evertend to get selected. Over time, this has resulted in certain cities being selected to host more often than others. Cleveland Stadium and the original Yankee Stadium have each hosted four All-Star Games, the most of any venue, and New York City has hosted more Games than any other city, having done so nine times in five different stadiums. At the same time, the New York Mets did not host for 48 seasons (1965–2012), while the Los Angeles Dodgers did not host for 42 years, (1980–2022; They were originally chosen to host the 2020 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, but the delayed season due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused the game to be cancelled.) The Tampa Bay Rays are currently the only club yet to host an All-Star Game, and 4 other teams have never hosted the All-Star Game at their current stadium: The New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field, the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park (although they will host in 2026) and the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park (who were supposed to host in 2021 before the game was moved).


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The venues traditionally alternated between the American and National Leagues every year, with an AL team hosting in an odd-numbered year and an NL club hosting in an even-numbered year. This tradition has been broken several times; the first time was in 1951, when the AL's Detroit Tigers hosted the game as part of the city's 250th birthday (corrected by the NL hosting the next two seasons). The second was when the two-game format from 1959 to 1962 resulted in the AL being one game ahead in turn. The NL hosted two straight games in 2006 and 2007 (Pittsburgh and San Francisco), and in 2021 and 2022 (in Denver and Los Angeles). The NL also hosted four straight games from 2015 to 2018 (in Cincinnati, San Diego, Miami, and Washington).


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: During the first two decades of the Game's history, there were two pairs of teams that shared ballparks. In Philadelphia, the AL's Athletics and NL's Phillies both played at Shibe Park, and in St. Louis, the AL's Browns and NL's Cardinals shared Sportsman's Park. This led to some shorter-than-usual gaps between All-Star Games played at the same venue; Sportsman's Park hosted the All-Star Game twice in eight years (the Cardinals hosted in 1940 and the Browns in 1948), while Shibe Park was the All-Star venue twice in nine years (the Athletics hosted in 1943 and the Phillies in 1952).


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The "home team" has traditionally been the league in which the host franchise plays its games. The lone exception has been the 2016 Game in which the AL was the "home" team, despite its being played in Petco Park, home of the NL's San Diego Padres. This was announced after the 2017 All-Star Game was awarded to Miami, marking a third straight game hosted at an NL venue. This was done because, from 2003 to 2016, the league who won the All-Star Game was given home field advantage in the World Series, and MLB did not want to allow the NL to have the last at-bat in an All-Star Game for three straight years. MLB ended this practice in 2017, and the All-Star Game reverted to having the host team's league serve as the home team.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Since 1934, the managers of the game are the managers of the previous year's league pennant winners and World Series clubs.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The coaching staff for each team is selected by its manager. This honor is given to the manager, not the team, so it is possible that the All-Star manager could no longer be with the team with which he won. This happened in 2003, when Dusty Baker managed the National League team despite having moved from the National League champion San Francisco Giants to the Chicago Cubs. This has also included situations where the person is no longer actively managing a team. For the first All-Star Game, intended as a one-time event, Connie Mack and John McGraw were regarded as baseball's venerable managers, and were asked to lead the American and National League teams, respectively. McGraw came out of retirement for that purpose. Dick Williams resigned after managing the Oakland Athletics to the 1973 World Series. In 1974, he became manager of the California Angels, whose uniform he wore for the game. Tony La Russa, who managed the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals in 2011, and retired after the season, came back to manage the National League in 2012.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: In 1979, Bob Lemon managed the American League team after having been fired by New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. Lemon led the Yankees to the 1981 World Series but did not make it to the '82 All-Star Game as manager after again being fired by Steinbrenner, so Billy Martin, skipper of the 1981 AL runner-up Oakland Athletics, led the All-Star squad.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: There have been some exceptional cases where the usual rule was abandoned. After the 1964 season and the World Series, the managers, Johnny Keane of the St. Louis Cardinals and Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees, both left their teams and found new jobs in the other league – Keane was hired to manage the Yankees and Berra became a player-coach with the New York Mets. The Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds had finished in a second-place tie in the NL; the Chicago White Sox had finished second in the AL. Cincinnati's manager, Fred Hutchinson, had died in the off-season, so Gene Mauch of the Phillies and Al López of the White Sox were chosen to be the managers for the 1965 All-Star Game. The rule may have needed abandoning again in 2020, as the manager of the 2019 American League champion Houston Astros, A. J. Hinch, was suspended for the 2020 season (and subsequently fired by the Astros) for his role in the Astros' scandal involving the usage of video to steal signs, however the game was cancelled.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Because of the season-ending 1994–95 MLBPA strike where the season was abandoned without official league champions, the 1995 game featured the "unofficial" league champions, the managers of the clubs leading their respective leagues' won-loss records, Buck Showalter of the New York Yankees and Felipe Alou of the Montreal Expos for the All-Star Game.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The All-Star Game roster size for each league was 18 starting in 1933, 20 in 1934, 25 in 1939, 30 in 1982, 32 in 2003, 33 in 2009, and 34 in 2010. Since 2018, there have been 34 players on each league's team roster.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: One continuing controversy of the player selection process is the rule that each team has to have at least one representative on its league's All-Star roster.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: On April 29, 2010, MLB announced several rules changes for future All-Star games, effective with the 2010 edition.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Since the first game, American League players have worn their respective team uniforms rather than wearing uniforms made specifically for the game, while National League players waited until the second game to do this. In the first game, the National League All-Star Team wore gray uniforms with navy blue letters spelling "NATIONAL LEAGUE" across the front of the jersey with "NL" caps.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: During the games of the 1970s and 1980s, alternate jerseys were commonly worn by players from the Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. When the late 1980s and early 1990s approached, fewer alternates were worn for the games. They were back in use for the 1992 game by White Sox pitcher Jack McDowell and infielder Robin Ventura, and for the final time in the 1997 game by Seattle Mariners outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. and by San Diego Padres 3rd baseman Ken Caminiti. Under current MLB rules, alternate jerseys are no longer allowed to be worn during the game, as players must wear either their team's white or gray uniforms, depending on which league is the home team.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Game-specific uniforms are made every year, but are not worn for the game itself. Instead these uniforms were worn during batting practice and the Home Run Derby. However, starting with the 2021 game, Major League Baseball and Nike would release new All-Star Game uniforms annually, and these uniforms would be worn by the players during the game.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Starting with the 2014 All-Star Game, players began to wear special All-Star Game caps. For the workout, batting practice and Home Run Derby contest, players started using one type of cap with colors corresponding the league. For the All-Star Game day, players started wearing a cap with the team's logo on front and the All-Star Game logo on the right side.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: In 1933 and 1934, the fans selected the 18 starters for game and the managers chose the rest of the teams players. From 1935 through 1944 and in 1946, the manager of each All-Star squad selected the entire team; in 1945, no MLB All-Star Game was held and no All-Stars were officially named.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: In 1947, fans were given the opportunity to vote on the eight starting position players, but in 1957, fans of the Cincinnati Reds stuffed the ballot box (see below), and elected a Red to every position except first base. Commissioner Ford Frick stepped in and removed two Reds from the lineup. As a response to this unfairness, fan voting was discontinued; players, coaches, and managers were given the sole authority to elect starting position players, for the next dozen years.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Between the lack of fan input and over-exposure due to the double All-Star games in 1959–1962, interest in the game was thought to be waning. As part of the rise of the MLB Promotion Corporation's attempts to modernize marketing of baseball, fan balloting for the starting eight was restored for the 1970 game.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Sometime in the 1960s, the distinction between left-fielder, center-fielder, and right-fielder was dropped, and it was provided that the top 3 vote-getters in the outfield category would start regardless of position. Oft-heard remarks prior to this time included ones such as "If you had Clemente, you couldn't have Aaron", and so on.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Rico Carty was the first player ever selected to an All-Star team as a write-in candidate by fans, in 1970, the first year that voting was given back to the fans. Steve Garvey was the second player ever selected to an All-Star team as a write-in candidate by fans, in 1974. He was later the Most Valuable Player of that game as well as the National League MVP for that year.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: From 2002 to 2018, the final roster selection has been made by the public via the All-Star Final Vote.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Until 2003, reserves and pitchers were chosen by the manager. Player voting was re-introduced in 2003 after the managers were criticized for picking players from their own team over more deserving players from other teams. This was particularly evident in 2002, when National League manager Bob Brenly selected his own catcher, Damian Miller, over the more deserving Paul Lo Duca; while American League manager Joe Torre selected his own third baseman, Robin Ventura, over the Oakland Athletics' Gold Glove and Silver Slugger-winning third baseman Eric Chavez.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Before the 2009 game, Major League Baseball announced that an additional pitcher would be added to each roster, bringing the total for each league to 33 players. The following year, MLB announced that an extra position player would be added to each roster for the 2010 game and beyond, bringing the total to 34 for each league.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: One continuing controversy of the player selection process is the rule that each team has to have at least one representative on its league's All-Star roster. Supporters of the rule point out that this prevents the large-market teams from totally dominating the squad, and keeps fan and media interest in the game, as fans would not be interested in the game if their team did not have any players involved. Opponents of the rule contend that the purpose of the game is to spotlight Major League Baseball's best players, and that some players from stronger teams are left off the roster in favor of possibly less deserving players from weaker teams.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Both these arguments were strengthened by the greater urgency of winning the game, due to the former rule that the winning league attains home field advantage in the World Series. A number of compromises were suggested in the sports/news media as measures to mitigate these selection issues, including limiting the number of representatives a particular team could have; or requiring only that a certain percentage of the 30 teams be represented; or expanding the size of the All-Star rosters.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The only exception is if a team trades its lone All-Star before the game; in this case, its league's All-Star Game manager is not required to include another player from that team.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: In 1957, Cincinnati Reds fans stuffed the ballot box and elected seven Reds players to start in the All-Star Game: Johnny Temple (2B), Roy McMillan (SS), Don Hoak (3B), Ed Bailey (C), Frank Robinson (LF), Gus Bell (CF), and Wally Post (RF), and the only non-Red elected to start for the National League was St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Stan Musial.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: While the Reds were a good offensive team, most baseball observers agreed that they did not deserve seven starters in the All-Star Game. An investigation ordered by Commissioner Ford Frick showed that over half of the ballots cast came from Cincinnati, as the "Cincinnati Enquirer" had printed up pre-marked ballots and distributed them with the Sunday newspaper to make it easy for Reds fans to vote often for their favorite stars.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Commissioner Ford Frick appointed Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves to substitute for Reds players Gus Bell and Wally Post, and took fan voting rights away in future games; Bell was kept as a reserve, while Post was injured and would have been unable to play in any event.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Managers, players, and coaches picked the entire team until 1969, when the vote for starters again returned to the fans. To prevent a repeat of this incident, from 1970 until the start of internet voting, each team has been given the same number of ballots to hand out. In 1998, that number was roughly 400,000 ballots.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The 1988 Game was surrounded by tacit accusations against Oakland A's fans of stuffing the ballot box in favor of catcher Terry Steinbach, whose qualifications as a starter were questioned by some sportswriters. Steinbach wound up being named the game's Most Valuable Player, hitting a home run and a sacrifice fly to get both RBIs in a 2–1 win.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Since the dawn of the internet age, online voting has again led to ballot stuffing. In 1999, Chris Nandor, a Red Sox fan, utilized a simple computer program to vote for Nomar Garciaparra over 39,000 times. Upon discovery, MLB rejected the votes.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: In 2015, Kansas City Royals fans were accused of stuffing the ballot box when eight of their players (Salvador Pérez, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, Eric Hosmer, Kendrys Morales, Alex Gordon, and Omar Infante) were leading the ballots at their respective positions before the final tally was taken. Had this result stood, the only non-Royal in the American League's starting lineup would have been Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim player Mike Trout. This also would have been a record for the most players from one team starting in the All-Star game. However, after MLB cancelled 65 million votes deemed to be fraudulent, the final starting roster included only Salvador Pérez, Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar, and Alex Gordon (Gordon would be replaced due to injury). The only other Royals to make the final lineup were Mike Moustakas, Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis; Moustakas as the winner of the AL All-Star Final Vote while Herrera and Davis, both pitchers, were chosen through either Player Ballots or by Royals and AL Manager, Ned Yost.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: In 1989, a designated hitter was allowed in the All-Star Game for the first time. Between 1989 and 2010, the designated hitter rule was applied based on the league in which the host team plays; it was used for games played in American League ballparks in each such instance, both teams used a designated hitter while in National League ballparks, managers have scheduled the pitcher to hit, though pinch hitters have almost always been used in practice. This allows a deserving nonstarter to make a plate appearance. In 2010, Major League Baseball announced the designated hitter rule would apply for every All-Star Game; while the 2010 game was already to have the DH, the 2011 game was the first played in a National League park with a DH.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award is presented annually to the most outstanding player of each season's All-Star Game. Presented each year beginning in 1962 (two games were held in 1962 and an award was presented for each game), the MVP award was originally called the "Arch Ward Memorial Award", after the man who came up with the concept of the All-Star Game in 1933. In 1970, the name was changed to the "Commissioner's Trophy" (two NL players were presented the award in 1975); however, the name change was reversed in 1985, so that the World Series Trophy (first awarded in 1967) could be renamed the Commissioner's Trophy. In 2002, the trophy itself retained its eponym, while the award itself was dedicated as "The Ted Williams Most Valuable Player Award", in honor of former Boston Red Sox player Ted Williams, who had died earlier that year.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The first tie in an All-Star Game occurred on July 31, 1961 at Fenway Park in Boston when the game was called at 1–1 after nine innings due to rain; the only other rain-shortened game was in 1952, but the National League defeated the American League, 3–2 in five innings.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The 2002 All-Star Game, held in Milwaukee, ended in controversy in the 11th inning when both teams ran out of substitute players available to pitch in relief. At that point, Commissioner Bud Selig (a Milwaukee native and former owner of the Brewers) declared that the game would end after 11 innings, and it ended in a 7–all tie. The crowd booed and threw beer bottles onto the field, and the media were highly critical of this unsatisfactory conclusion.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: To provide additional incentive for victory, Major League Baseball reached an agreement with the players union to award home-field advantage for the to the champion of the league that won the All-Star Game, for 2003 and 2004. The agreement was extended for both 2005 and 2006, and it remained in place until 2016. Since 2017, home-field advantage has been awarded to the World Series team having the better regular season record.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Previously, home-field advantage in the World Series alternated between the two leagues each year. The American League took advantage of the new rule in each of its first seven years: between 2003 and 2009, the American League won four Series and the National League won three. The National League champion benefited from this rule for the first time in 2010.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Even with this rule in effect, there was no guarantee that a repeat of the 2002 situation would not occur; to avoid future ties due to lack of available players, managers have been instructed to (and have voluntarily) hold back a few select position players and pitchers. This has resulted in some fan dissatisfaction and controversy when these players are never actually used in the game, such as Tim Wakefield in the 2009 All-Star Game. Such a move has resulted in calls to allow limited re-entry of players who have been replaced during the game (in addition to catchers, which is already allowed), thereby giving the freedom to use all the players on the roster without leaving teams with the situation where no players are available, as was the case in 2002. Since 2010, each league's manager is allowed to designate one position player who can re-enter the game to replace an injured or ejected player at any position, in addition to the existing rule covering catchers.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: A tie game could have also been deemed a "suspended game" in which case it would have ended tied if no make-up date was scheduled, but it would be extremely difficult to find such a make-up date in any event as Major League Baseball would have to postpone one or more days of the regular season and/or schedule the make-up date on a travel day during the postseason, the latter which would be unfair to teams involved in the upcoming series. Since 2012, there have been off days for all teams on the Wednesday and Thursday after the All-Star Game, and if necessary, the game could have been finished in the morning or afternoon on Wednesday/Thursday if the situation warranted it.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Furthermore, various writers have stated that home-field advantage in the World Series should be decided based on the regular season records of the participants, not on an exhibition game such as the All-Star Game played several months earlier. Some writers especially questioned the integrity of this rule after the 2014 All-Star Game, when St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright suggested that he intentionally gave Derek Jeter some easy pitches to hit in the New York Yankees' shortstop's final All-Star appearance before he retired at the end of that season.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: In 2019 and 2021, any All-Star games that ended up tied after regulation would have had each extra inning start with a runner placed on second base to begin each half inning (a rule later used in the regular season from 2020-2022). However, both the 2019 and 2021 All-Star games were decided in regulation and the 2020 game was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making the rule unused.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Since 2022, any All-Star game ending in a tie after 9 regulation innings will result in teams battling in a best-of-three-round home run derby. Three players are chosen by managers to determine who will bat. Each player gets three swings. Whoever hits the most homers in the three rounds will win it and be credited one run and hit each; otherwise, teams play sudden-death single-swing rounds until one team homers. Under this rule, extra innings are abolished.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Ninety-one All-Star Games have been played (including two games per year from 1959–1962), with the AL leading 47-43–2. The All-Star Game has seen several "eras" in which one league tended to dominate. From 1933 to 1949, the American League won 12 of the first 16. The National League dominated from 1950 to 1987, going 33–8–1. This included a stretch from 1963 to 1982 when it won 19 of 20, including 11 in a row from 1972 to 1982. Since 1988, the American League has dominated, going 27–6–1, including a 13-game unbeaten streak (12–0–1) from 1997 to 2009.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The longest All-Star Game, in terms of innings, lasted 15 innings, which has occurred twice: 1967 and 2008; the latter of which was the longest game, with a total time of four hours and 50 minutes.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Except for 1983, the All-Star Game has been scheduled on a Tuesday in July since 1963. In that year, in order to observe the 50-year anniversary of the first All-Star Game, the game was held on a Wednesday night, July 6, fifty years to the day of the first such event (July 6, 1933), at the same venue, Chicago's Comiskey Park.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: There have been two All-Star Games scheduled on Tuesday that were subsequently moved during the season.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The game was played at night for the first time in 1942, at the Polo Grounds, located in New York City. Since 1970 every All-Star Game has been played under the lights, though when held at venues near enough to the west coast, the game starts in daylight in the late afternoon.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Twice, the MLB All-Star Game has been deferred because of travel restrictions. In 1945, severe wartime travel restrictions in effect led to the game scheduled to be played at Boston's Fenway Park being deferred to the next season. In 2020, severe pandemic restrictions for MLB teams, including prohibiting teams from playing outside their divisions, the game scheduled to be played at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium was deferred to 2022.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: There were two All-Star Games played each season from 1959 through 1962. The second game was added to raise money for the MLB players' pension funds, as well as other causes. The experiment was later abandoned on the grounds that having two games watered down the appeal of the event.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: In 1981, the game was moved from July to August, after the middle portion of the 1981 season, including the scheduled All-Star break, had been erased by the MLB players' strike. The game (in Cleveland) was moved from its original July date to August 9. The season would resume in a split season format, second-half regular-season play began the next afternoon with a game in Wrigley Field in Chicago.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: The 2021 All-Star Game was held in Denver, home of the NL's Colorado Rockies. MLB moved the 2021 game from Atlanta in response to a recently-passed Georgia election law, stating, "Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box."


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Since 1985, the Home Run Derby, a contest among home run hitters, has been held on the day before the All-Star Game. The most recent Home Run Derby Champion is Juan Soto of the Washington Nationals, after defeating rookie phenom Julio Rodríguez of the Seattle Mariners. This result received some controversy, as Rodríguez had hit 28 more home runs than Soto (81 and 53 respectively).


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Since 1999, the All-Star Futures Game has been held during All-Star Week. The two teams, one consisting of young players from the United States and the other consisting of young players from all other nations, are usually chosen based on prospect status in the minor leagues.


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Since 2001, the All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game pits teams with a mixture of former stars from the host team's past, as well as celebrities from music, film, and television. This game is held during the day prior to the Home Run Derby. (However, it is tape-delayed and broadcast after the Derby.)


title: Major League Baseball All-Star Game

text: Since 2002, the ESPY Awards ceremony has been conducted on the Wednesday in July following the game. Because none of the major North American professional leagues have games scheduled for that day the National Basketball Association, National Football League, and National Hockey League are not in-season, MLB does not have games that day, and likewise college sports are on summer vacation major sports figures are available to attend. The show used to air on the subsequent Sunday five days later, with the results announced on ESPN.com and thereafter across media outlets immediately after taping was complete. Since 2010, the ESPY Awards are shown live (the first time was 2003); this helps the network fill airtime that would go unfilled because of the lack of any major league or high-level college sporting events.


title: Babs Olusanmokun

text: Babs Olusanmokun (born September 18, 1984) is a Nigerian actor. In 2017, he appeared in "Black Museum", an episode of the anthology series "Black Mirror". He also appeared in the video game "Max Payne 3" as Serrano, for which he provides both acting and voice content. In 2021 he appeared as Jamis in "Dune". He plays Dr. Joseph M'Benga in the Paramount+ original series "" (since 2022).


title: Babs Olusanmokun

text: Olusanmokun is fluent in English, French and Portuguese, and is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt and champion.


title: Actors Studio

text: The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded on October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis, who provided training for actors who were members. Lee Strasberg joined later and took the helm in 1951 until his death on February 17, 1982.


title: Actors Studio

text: The Studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method acting. The approach was originally developed by the Group Theatre in the 1930s based on the innovations of Konstantin Stanislavski. While at the Studio, actors work together to develop their skills in a private environment where they can take risks as performers without the pressure of commercial roles.


title: Actors Studio

text: , the studio's co-presidents are Ellen Burstyn, Alec Baldwin and Al Pacino. The artistic director in New York is Beau Gravitte, and the Associate Artistic Director in New York is Estelle Parsons.


title: Actors Studio

text: After an initial meeting held on October 5, 1947, at the Labor Stage, located at 106 W. 39th Street (formerly the Princess Theatre), in which goals and ground rules of the new organization were discussed, the studio officially opened for business the following day at the Union Methodist Episcopal Church, located at 229 West 48th Street, previously home to the Actors Kitchen and Lounge (maintained to assist actors and others unable to afford meals), and long a source of rental rehearsal space for local theatrical producers.


title: Actors Studio

text: Before settling in its current location in 1955, the Studio moved regularly over an eight-year period: In January 1948, it was a dance studio on East 59th Street. In April of that year, a move to the CBS Building at 1697 Broadway, near 53rd Street, established some semblance of stability; the Studio would not move again until the summer of 1952. From that point, the old Theatre Guild rehearsal rooms on the top floor of the ANTA Theatre became home, as they would remain until October 1954, when theatre renovations reduced the Studio to renting space twice a week. This it did at the Malin Studios at 1545 Broadway, room 610. This arrangement continued throughout the 1954–1955 theatrical season, even as the Studio was acquiring and renovating its current venue.


title: Actors Studio

text: In 1955, it moved to its current location in the former West 44th Street United Presbyterian Church, a Greek Revival structure which was built for the Seventh Associate Presbyterian Church in 1858 or 1859. It was one of the last churches to be built in that style in New York City.


title: Actors Studio

text: From September 1994 through May 2005, the Studio collaborated with The New School in the education of master's-level theatre students at the Actors Studio Drama School (ASDS). After ending its contract with The New School, the Actors Studio established The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in 2006.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: Nicholas David Kershaw (born 1 March 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: Kershaw came to prominence in 1984 as a solo artist. He released eight singles that entered the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart during the decade, including "Wouldn't It Be Good", "Dancing Girls", "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", "Human Racing", "The Riddle", "Wide Boy", "Don Quixote" and "When a Heart Beats". His 62 weeks on the UK Singles Chart through 1984 and 1985 beat all other solo artists. Kershaw appeared at the dual-venue concert Live Aid in 1985 and has also penned a number of hits for other artists, including a UK No. 1 single in 1991 for Chesney Hawkes, "The One and Only".


title: Nik Kershaw

text: Nicholas "Nik" Kershaw was born on 1 March 1958 in Bristol, England, and grew up in Ipswich, Suffolk. His father was a flautist and his mother was an opera singer. He was educated at Northgate Grammar School for Boys where he played the guitar – he was self-taught on this instrument. He left school in the middle of his A-Levels and got a job at an unemployment benefit office. He also sang in a number of underground Ipswich bands. However, when the last of these, Fusion, split up in 1982, he embarked on a full-time solo career as a musician and songwriter.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: Kershaw was unemployed for a year after leaving Fusion, but during this time he found manager Mickey Modern after placing an advertisement in the magazine "Melody Maker". Modern secured a record deal for Kershaw at MCA. In September 1983, Kershaw released his first single "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", which reached No. 47 in the UK Singles Chart. It became a major hit in Scandinavia, Switzerland and the Netherlands.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: At the beginning of 1984, Kershaw released his breakthrough song "Wouldn't It Be Good", which reached No. 4 in the UK, and was a big success in Europe, particularly in Ireland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Scandinavia, and also in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The music video, featuring Kershaw as a chroma key-suited alien, received heavy rotation from MTV, helping the song to reach No. 46 in the United States. He enjoyed three more Top 20 hits from his debut solo album "Human Racing", including the title track and a successful re-issue of "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". This track ultimately proved his biggest hit as a performer when it reached No. 2 in the UK.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: Kershaw's second album was "The Riddle". The title-track, released in November 1984, proved to be his third international hit single, reaching No. 3 in the UK and Ireland, and No. 6 in New Zealand. The album also spawned two more UK Top 10 hits, "Wide Boy" and "Don Quixote", as it went multi-platinum. During this time, Kershaw toured extensively with his backing band the Krew, consisting of Keith Airey, Tim Moore, Mark Price and Dennis Smith.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: In July 1985, Kershaw was among the performers at Live Aid, held at Wembley Stadium. He described the experience as "absolutely terrifying". The concert turned out to be the peak of his career, as his stardom began to wane soon afterwards and he enjoyed only one more UK Top 40 hit. He continued to record and release records and collaborated with others on a number of projects, including playing guitar on Elton John's hit single, "Nikita".


title: Nik Kershaw

text: A cover of "Wouldn't it be Good" by the Danny Hutton Hitters appeared on the soundtrack of the 1986 teen romantic comedy drama "Pretty in Pink". Later that same year, Kershaw's third solo album, "Radio Musicola", was released to critical acclaim but to little commercial success. "The Works" was released in 1989, also to little success. Two singles were released from the album, "One Step Ahead" and "Elisabeth's Eyes".


title: Nik Kershaw

text: Kershaw's prowess as a songwriter served him well in 1991, when his song "The One and Only" appeared on the soundtrack to the British film "Buddy's Song", and in the American movie "Doc Hollywood". "The One and Only" proved to be a UK No. 1 hit for the star of "Buddy's Song", Chesney Hawkes.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: During 1991, he worked with Tony Banks, the keyboard player of Genesis, on Banks' third solo album "Still". Kershaw co-wrote two songs with Banks, providing lead vocals on both. He also sang on the Banks composition "The Final Curtain".


title: Nik Kershaw

text: In 1993, the Hollies had a minor hit with another of Kershaw's songs, "The Woman I Love". During the mid-1990s he also wrote and produced material for the boy band Let Loose, with two of the tracks ("Seventeen" and "Everybody Say Everybody Do") achieving reasonable success. Following this year, Kershaw appeared on Elton John's 1993 "Duets" album, where Kershaw not only wrote the song but produced, and played all the instruments on the track.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: The year 1999 saw the release of the album "15 Minutes". Kershaw decided to record the tracks himself, when he could not envisage them being recorded by other artists. The album spawned two singles, "Somebody Loves You" and "What Do You Think of It So Far?", the latter a song described as "an elegant and soaring ode to the transience of time, infused with both self-doubt and an acceptance of life that can only come with maturity".


title: Nik Kershaw

text: The follow-up album, "To Be Frank", was released in 2001. Over the years, Kershaw has collaborated on albums with artists such as Elton John, Bonnie Tyler, Sia and Gary Barlow.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: In 2005, Kershaw released "Then And Now", a collection of earlier material with four new tracks. In 2006, he completed another solo album, "You've Got to Laugh", available only through his website or digitally through iTunes. This album contained twelve tracks and was released on the musician's own label, Shorthouse Records. Neither "Then And Now" nor "You've Got To Laugh" was promoted by a tour. The year also saw the digital re-release of his 1980s back catalogue including "Human Racing", "The Riddle", "Radio Musicola" and "The Works".


title: Nik Kershaw

text: In August 2009, Kershaw performed at Fairport's Cropredy Convention and the Rewind Festival on Temple Island Meadows at Henley-on-Thames.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: On 13 May 2010, Kershaw appeared on stage and hosted "Our Friends Acoustic" in aid of Mencap. He performed "The Riddle", "Wouldn't It Be Good", "Dancing Girls" and "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". Other 1980s performers joined him and performed their own songs, including Andy Bell, Carol Decker, Howard Jones, Jimmy Somerville, China Crisis and Steve Strange at The O2 in London.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: Kershaw wrote songs and performed for the soundtrack of the 2010 film, "Round Ireland with a Fridge" by Tony Hawks. He wrote and sang the theme song, "If It Gets Much Better Than This". He also appeared as an extra in the penultimate scene, presenting a copy of the book to Hawks for signing in the book shop.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: Following the release of his eighth studio album in 2012 ("Ei8ht", his first release to reach the UK Albums Chart since 1986), Kershaw undertook a small tour of the UK, with some European dates. As part of each show he played the entirety of his debut album, which had been re-mastered and re-released in March 2012.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: In 2012, Kershaw was featured as the lead singer on a new recording of "The Lamia", originally recorded by Genesis for their 1974 album "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", with Steve Hackett for the latter's "Genesis Revisited II" album. He is also featured as a guest performer on the same song on Hackett's "Genesis Revisited: Live at Hammersmith" CD and DVD, released November 2013.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: Kershaw performed a solo acoustic set at Fairport's Cropredy Convention in August 2013. He was on tour in the UK and Ireland in Autumn 2014. He continues to perform at 1980s revival events and festivals each year. In the latter part of 2015 he performed a 31-date tour of the UK, on a double bill with Go West, supported by Carol Decker.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: On 11 November 2016, Kershaw performed in Reykjavík, Iceland, together with the band Todmobile. He joined them after a short set of eight songs and played guitar in three Todmobile songs.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: In June 2020, Kershaw released an EP of six new songs, "These Little Things". "Oxymoron" is Kershaw's most recent full studio album, which was released in October 2020. It features 16 songs, which were recorded at Abbey Road Studios.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: Nik Kershaw's first wife was Canadian Sheri Kershaw, herself a musician who featured on several of Kershaw's early albums. The couple married in July 1983, had three children together, and divorced in 2003. His second son was born with Down syndrome. Kershaw remarried in 2009 and has also had a child with his second wife Sarah.


title: Nik Kershaw

text: In 2019, Kershaw received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Suffolk for his services to the music industry.


title: Buddhism in Japan

text: Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century CE. Japanese Buddhism () created many new Buddhist schools, and some schools are original to Japan and some are derived from Chinese Buddhist schools. Japanese Buddhism has had a major influence on Japanese society and culture and remains an influential aspect to this day.


title: Buddhism in Japan

text: According to the Japanese Government's Agency for Cultural Affairs estimate, , with about 84 million or about 67% of the Japanese population, Buddhism was the religion in Japan with the second most adherents, next to Shinto, though a large number of people practice elements of both. According to the statistics by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2021, the religious corporation under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan had 135 million believers, of which 47 million were Buddhists and most of them were believers of new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185－1333). According to these statistics, the largest sects of Japanese Buddhism are the Jōdo Buddhists with 22 million believers, followed by the Nichiren Buddhists with 11 million believers. There are a wide range of estimates, however; the Pew Research Center estimated 36.2% of the population in 2010 practiced Buddhism. The Japanese General Social Survey places the figure at less than 20% of the population in 2017, and along with the 2013 Japanese National Character Survey, shows that roughly 70% of the population do not adhere to any religious beliefs. Another survey indicates that about 60% of the Japanese have a Butsudan (Buddhist shrine) in their homes. According to a Pew Research study from 2012, Japan has the third largest Buddhist population in the world, after China and Thailand.


title: Buddhism in Japan

text: Buddhism arrived in Japan by first making its way to China and Korea through the Silk Road and then traveling by sea to the Japanese archipelago. As such, early Japanese Buddhism is strongly influenced by Chinese Buddhism and Korean Buddhism. Though the "official" introduction of Buddhism to the country occurred at some point in the middle of the sixth century, there were likely earlier contacts and attempts to introduce the religion. Immigrants from the Korean Peninsula, as well as merchants and sailors who frequented the mainland, likely brought Buddhism with them independent of the transmission as recorded in court chronicles. Some Japanese sources mention this explicitly. For example, the Heian Period "Fusō ryakki" (Abridged Annals of Japan), mentions a foreigner known in Japanese as Shiba no Tatsuto, who may have been Chinese-born, Baekje-born, or a descendent of an immigrant group in Japan. He is said to have built a thatched hut in Yamato and enshrined an object of worship there. Immigrants like this may have been a source for the Soga clan's later sponsorship of Buddhism.


title: Buddhism in Japan

text: The "Nihon Shoki" ("Chronicles of Japan") provides a date of 552 for when King Seong of Baekje (now western South Korea) sent a mission to Emperor Kinmei that included an image of the Buddha Shakyamuni, ritual banners, and sutras. This event is usually considered the official introduction of Buddhism to Japan. Other sources, however, give the date of 538 and both dates are thought to be unreliable. However, it can still be said that in the middle of the sixth century, Buddhism was introduced through official diplomatic channels.


title: Buddhism in Japan

text: According to the "Nihon Shoki", after receiving the Buddhist gifts, the Japanese emperor asked his officials if the Buddha should be worshipped in Japan. They were divided on the issue, with Soga no Iname (506–570) supporting the idea while Mononobe no Okoshi and Nakatomi no Kamako worried that the kami of Japan would become angry at this worship of a foreign deity. The "Nihon Shoki" then states that the emperor allowed only the Soga clan to worship the Buddha, to test it out.


title: Buddhism in Japan

text: Thus, the powerful Soga clan played a key role in the early spread of Buddhism in the country. Their support, along with that of immigrant groups like the Hata clan, gave Buddhism its initial impulse in Japan along with its first temple (Hōkō-ji, also known as Asukadera). The Nakatomi and Mononobe, however, continued to oppose the Soga, blaming their worship for disease and disorder. These opponents of Buddhism are even said to have thrown the image of the Buddha into the Naniwa canal. Eventually outright war erupted. The Soga side, led by Soga no Umako and a young Prince Shōtoku, emerged victorious and promoted Buddhism on the archipelago with support of the broader court.