title: Disgrace of Gijón

text: Almost 25 years after the World Cup in Spain, former German player Hans-Peter Briegel acknowledged that his team arranged a victory over Austria (1–0) in the first phase, which classified the two teams and eliminated the African team. In an interview for the newspaper 'Al Ittihad', from the United Arab Emirates, Briegel confirmed what everyone suspected since that 25 June 1982 at the El Molinón stadium. "Yes, I apologize for that," said the 51-year-old former Kaiserslautern defender.


title: Grade (slope)

text: The grade (also called slope, incline, gradient, mainfall, pitch or rise) of a physical feature, landform or constructed line refers to the tangent of the angle of that surface to the horizontal. It is a special case of the slope, where zero indicates horizontality. A larger number indicates higher or steeper degree of "tilt". Often slope is calculated as a ratio of "rise" to "run", or as a fraction ("rise over run") in which "run" is the horizontal distance (not the distance along the slope) and "rise" is the vertical distance.


title: Grade (slope)

text: Slopes of existing physical features such as canyons and hillsides, stream and river banks and beds are often described as grades, but typically grades are used for human-made surfaces such as roads, landscape grading, roof pitches, railroads, aqueducts, and pedestrian or bicycle routes. The grade may refer to the longitudinal slope or the perpendicular cross slope.


title: Grade (slope)

text: Any of these may be used. Grade is usually expressed as a percentage, but this is easily converted to the angle by taking the inverse tangent of the standard mathematical slope, which is rise / run or the grade / 100. If one looks at red numbers on the chart specifying grade, one can see the quirkiness of using the grade to specify slope; the numbers go from 0 for flat, to 100% at 45 degrees, to infinity as it approaches vertical.


title: Grade (slope)

text: Slope may still be expressed when the horizontal run is not known: the rise can be divided by the hypotenuse (the slope length). This is not the usual way to specify slope; this nonstandard expression follows the sine function rather than the tangent function, so it calls a 45 degree slope a 71 percent grade instead of a 100 percent. But in practice the usual way to calculate slope is to measure the distance along the slope and the vertical rise, and calculate the horizontal run from that, in order to calculate the grade (100% × rise/run) or standard slope (rise/run). When the angle of inclination is small, using the slope length rather than the horizontal displacement (i.e., using the sine of the angle rather than the tangent) makes only an insignificant difference and can then be used as an approximation. Railway gradients are often expressed in terms of the rise in relation to the distance along the track as a practical measure. In cases where the difference between sin and tan is significant, the tangent is used. In either case, the following identity holds for all inclinations up to 90 degrees:


title: Grade (slope)

text: formula_3. Or more simply, one can calculate the horizontal run by using the Pythagorean theorem, after which it is trivial to calculate the (standard math) slope or the grade (percentage).


title: Grade (slope)

text: For degrees, percentage (%) and per-mille (‰) notations, larger numbers are steeper slopes. For ratios, larger numbers "n" of 1 in "n" are shallower, easier slopes.


title: Grade (slope)

text: In vehicular engineering, various land-based designs (automobiles, sport utility vehicles, trucks, trains, etc.) are rated for their ability to ascend terrain. Trains typically rate much lower than automobiles. The highest grade a vehicle can ascend while maintaining a particular speed is sometimes termed that vehicle's "gradeability" (or, less often, "grade ability"). The lateral slopes of a highway geometry are sometimes called fills or cuts where these techniques have been used to create them.


title: Grade (slope)

text: In the United States, maximum grade for Federally funded highways is specified in a design table based on terrain and design speeds, with up to 6% generally allowed in mountainous areas and hilly urban areas with exceptions for up to 7% grades on mountainous roads with speed limits below .


title: Grade (slope)

text: The steepest roads in the world are Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand, Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech, Wales and Canton Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Guinness World Record once again lists Baldwin Street as the steepest street in the world, with a 34.8% grade (1 in 2.87) after a successful appeal against the ruling that handed the title, briefly, to Ffordd Pen Llech. The Pittsburgh Department of Engineering and Construction recorded a grade of 37% (20°) for Canton Avenue. The street has formed part of a bicycle race since 1983.


title: Grade (slope)

text: The San Francisco Municipal Railway operates bus service among the city's hills. The steepest grade for bus operations is 23.1% by the "67-Bernal Heights" on Alabama Street between Ripley and Esmeralda Streets.


title: Grade (slope)

text: Grade, pitch, and slope are important components in landscape design, garden design, landscape architecture, and architecture; for engineering and aesthetic design factors. Drainage, slope stability, circulation of people and vehicles, complying with building codes, and design integration are all aspects of slope considerations in environmental design.


title: Grade (slope)

text: Ruling gradients limit the load that a locomotive can haul, including the weight of the locomotive itself. On a 1% gradient (1 in 100) a locomotive can pull half (or less) of the load that it can pull on level track. (A heavily loaded train rolling at 20 km/h on heavy rail may require ten times the pull on a 1% upgrade that it does on the level at that speed.)


title: Grade (slope)

text: Early railways in the United Kingdom were laid out with very gentle gradients, such as 0.07575% (1 in 1320) and 0.1515% (1 in 660) on the Great Western main line, nicknamed Brunel's Billiard Table, because the early locomotives (and their brakes) were feeble. Steep gradients were concentrated in short sections of lines where it was convenient to employ assistant engines or cable haulage, such as the section from Euston to Camden Town.


title: Grade (slope)

text: Extremely steep gradients require the use of cables (such as the Scenic Railway at Katoomba Scenic World, Australia, with a maximum grade of 122% (52°), claimed to be the world's steepest passenger-carrying funicular) or some kind of rack railway (such as the Pilatus railway in Switzerland, with a maximum grade of 48% (26°), claimed to be the world's steepest rack railway) to help the train ascend or descend.


title: Grade (slope)

text: Gradients can be expressed as an angle, as feet per mile, feet per chain, 1 in , % or per mille. Since designers like round figures, the method of expression can affect the gradients selected.


title: Grade (slope)

text: Gradients on sharp curves are effectively a bit steeper than the same gradient on straight track, so to compensate for this and make the ruling grade uniform throughout, the gradient on those sharp curves should be reduced slightly.


title: Grade (slope)

text: In the era before they were provided with continuous brakes, whether air brakes or vacuum brakes, steep gradients made it extremely difficult for trains to stop safely. In those days, for example, an inspector insisted that Rudgwick railway station in West Sussex be regraded. He would not allow it to open until the gradient through the platform was eased from 1 in 80 to 1 in 130.


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: Queer heterosexuality is heterosexual practice or identity that is controversially called queer. "Queer heterosexuality" is argued to consist of heterosexual, cisgender and allosexual persons who show nontraditional gender expressions, or who adopt gender roles that differ from the hegemonic masculinity and femininity of their particular culture.


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: The concept was first discussed in the mid-1990s, critically within radical feminism, and as a positive identification by Clyde Smith in a paper delivered at a conference in Amsterdam in 1997; in 2003, "The Village Voice" published an article called "The Queer Heterosexual", which has since been cited by others using the term.


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: The idea that any heterosexual can be called "queer" is highly contested. Some in the LGBTQ+ community consider the use of the term "queer" by heterosexual people to be an offensive misappropriation, involving members perceived not to experience oppression for their sexual orientation or gender identity appropriating aspects of queer identities perceived as "fashionable" or attractive, and disregarding the concurrent oppression experienced by those they appropriate from.


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: Kitzinger and Wilkinson argued that the rehabilitation of heterosexuality through "'queer' heterosexuality" as "a concept derived from postmodernist and queer theory" is seen as flawed from a radical feminist perspective. Acknowledging that 'queer heterosexuality' is rarely explored in detail, they explain that "the notion of the 'queer heterosexual' had become established in queer theory", gaining currency not because people are convinced it is possible or desirable, but "because queer heterosexuality is a necessary component of 'gender-fucking'" in Butlerian terms. 'Queer heterosexuality' becomes named in the project as destabilising all such categories, and moving towards a world where categories such as 'heterosexual' are rendered redundant. The queer theory was created to understand the concepts of gender, besides the binary- male and female.


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: In a 2004 paper, Annette Schlichter describes the discourse on queer heterosexuality as aiming at "the de- and possible reconstruction of heterosexual subjectivity through the straight authors' aspiration to identify as queer". In the paper, a genealogy of queer heterosexuality is outlined, pointing out that "the queer critique of sexual normativity is both bound to the history of specific identities and committed to the destabilization of sexual identities—including those that have become hegemonic", while "critics concerned about issues of lesbian visibility and difference occasionally raise the specter of the queer heterosexual ... as an indication of the queer project's perversion of social and political identities and their relations to power."


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: Putting to one side the question of whether the idea of homosexual contagion is necessarily homophobic, Guy Davidson uses the article from the Village Voice as an example of how the idea of queer subversion of heterosexuality can have "politically positive implications", specifically in relation to Tristan Taormino's writing on celebration of the LGBT movement's queering of heterosexual sex practices the production of the "queer heterosexual".


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: In "Straight writ queer", the authors acknowledge that the queer heterosexual is only starting to emerge from the closet, seeking in the book to "identify and out the queer heterosexual" in historic and contemporary literature and to identify "inherently queer heterosexual practices" which critique heteronormativity and open up possibilities for the future. The examples in the book include anchorites, the Marquis de Sade and Algernon Charles Swinburne as examples of queer heterosexuals. "Male masochism disavows a masculinity predicated on phallic mastery, and hence becomes a strategic site for queer heterosexual resistance to heteronormativity".


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: In a 2018 paper, Heather Brook compares how the term 'same-sex marriage' is similarly oxymoronic to 'queer heterosexuality'. They both challenge and connect to essentialist understandings of heterosexuality. However, where 'same-sex marriage' aims to gain social capital from the normativeness of heterosexual marriage, 'queer heterosexuality' pulls on the fluidity of queerness. Brook describes how both terms incite fear of appropriation and the pejoration of a gendered understanding of societal institutions. Specifically, when straight people use 'queer', a term which was reclaimed by the community it now describes, to describe their heterosexuality, it straightens the word within the social consciousness. Brook posits that queer heterosexuality forces an exploration of how heteronormative institutions like marriage can be defined outside of binary oppositions like "hetero and homo; men and women; queer and straight".


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: In 2005, Robert Heasley explored queer heterosexuality among a group of men that he identifies as "straight-queer males." According to Heasley, these men are self-identified heterosexuals who do not find social spaces dominated by traditionally masculine personalities to be comfortable. Heasley believes that a lack of understanding of masculinity can be addressed by creating a terminology to describe non-hegemonic masculine behavior. He lists seriously discussing homosexuality, being held or cuddled, hand-holding, dressing femininely, and expressing emotional openness among the behaviors displayed by straight-queer males.


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: Men who have been surveyed about their "mostly straight" behavior gave various reasons for this self-identification: some felt constrained by traditional models of gender and sexual orientation, others found men attractive. Some had a small amount of sexual interest in men but no desire for romantic same-sex relationships or intercourse, while others felt romantic but not sexual interest in other men.


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: As 'queer' is generally defined either as a synonym for LGBT, or defined as "non-heterosexual", the term 'queer heterosexual' is considered controversial. Some LGBT people disapprove of the appropriation of 'queer' by cisgender heterosexual individuals, as the term has been used as a slur to oppress LGBT people. Straight celebrities self-identifying as queer have also faced backlash, with some arguing that their identities constitute "playing" with the "fashionable" parts of being LGBT, without having to suffer the resulting oppression of being LGBT, thus trivializing the struggles experienced by queer people.


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: Critics of the term compare the use of 'queer heterosexual' to the appropriation engaged in by celebrities like Madonna, who used vogue dancing - a style and subculture originating amongst gay men, particularly African-American and Latino gay men - in her performances, profiting from the use of it while the style's originators did not. Daniel Harris, author of "The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture", said that people who call themselves a 'queer heterosexual' "are under the impression they're doing something brave. . . . I'm a little sick that straight men would use those (terms)". Sky Gilbert referred to Calvin Thomas as "a little heterosexual male desperately wishing to be a card-carrying member of the gay community."


title: Queer heterosexuality

text: Gay reviewer Jameson Fitzpatrick said of James Franco's "Straight James / Gay James": "I can't imagine the difficulty of being a straight, cis person who isn't fooled by the foundational fictions of hetero- and cisnormative power structures and doesn't wish to perpetuate them—except to say that I can't imagine that difficulty could possibly be greater than the various violences that many queer people still face today. This might be key to the problem that persists in Franco's claim to queerness, and what about it that rankles so many gay men: a lack of perspective." Fitzpatrick said he knew many people who might qualify as a queer heterosexual, but none who would use the label for themselves, and none who would "flaunt their privilege" as Fitzpatrick viewed Franco as doing in his book. A discussion of Franco and queer heterosexuality by Anthony Moll rejects the idea that Franco's art is queer: "From the concept of the interview between his straight self and his gay selves, to his ham-handed attempt to discuss queer heterosexuality, Franco comes across as a novice queer theorist who is talking through interesting, yet ultimately incomplete, ideas".


title: Capital Group Companies

text: Capital Group is an American financial services company. It ranks among the world's oldest and largest investment management organizations, with over $2.6 trillion in assets under management. Founded in Los Angeles, California in 1931, it is privately held and has offices around the globe in the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: Capital offers a range of products focused on active management, including more than 40 mutual funds through its subsidiary, American Funds Distributors, as well as separately managed accounts (or collective investment trusts), private equity, investment services for high net worth investors in the U.S., and a range of other offerings for institutional clients and individual investors globally.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: In 1931, Jonathan Bell Lovelace founded the investment firm, "Lovelace, Dennis & Renfrew", which would eventually become Capital Group. Lovelace had previously been a partner in the stock brokerage firm "E.E. MacCrone", where he explored the concept of developing an open-end mutual fund. He eventually sold his stake in that company, just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: In 1933, Lovelace's firm took over management of "The Investment Company of America", which he had launched at E.E. MacCrone in 1927. For the next 20 years, his firm enjoyed modest success. As mutual funds gained in popularity in the 1950s, Capital's roster of mutual funds grew.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: The International Resources Fund, established in 1954, was Capital's first foray into international investing. A year earlier, Lovelace had established an international investment staff at the urging of his son, Jon Lovelace Jr. The establishment of the firm's first overseas research office in Geneva followed in 1962.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: In 1958, Jon Lovelace Jr. introduced a new system of managing the firm's mutual funds and accounts. Rather than assign a portfolio to a single manager, he divided each portfolio among several managers. Each manager would share ideas with peers but have total discretion over a section of the portfolio. Known today as The Capital System, it avoids the phenomenon of creating single-manager "stars," who can impact a fund's results should they leave. In the mid-1960s, Capital began to include research analysts in the management of the portfolios, reserving a portion of each to allow analysts to pursue their highest conviction investment ideas.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: Capital Group's long-term approach has helped it avoid some of the pitfalls that have plagued other firms. In the late 1990s, the firm was criticized for not offering then-popular tech funds. But when the tech bubble burst, Capital was praised for not jumping on the bandwagon.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: Former British PM Theresa May's husband Philip May has worked as a relationship manager for the Capital Group.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: As of 2019, Capital Group held 5% of BAE Systems, 9% of British American Tobacco, and 15.28% of ASML Holding.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: The chairman and chief executive is Tim Armour, who took over in 2015 after the death of James Rothenberg.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: Funds typically have between 3 and 13 managers; in addition to financial research, the managers may do on-the-ground due diligence, and in 2018 logged 12,400 to facilities such as factories. It has 3 independent divisions focused on equities: Capital World Investors, Capital Research Global Investors and Capital International Investors, as well as 1 focused on bonds, Capital Fixed Income Investors.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: As of 2019, it had 36 funds. Growth Fund of America, founded in 1973, was the largest actively-managed fund as of 2020 with around $150 billion.


title: Capital Group Companies

text: Capital Group employs more than 7,500 associates worldwide. North American locations include Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Indianapolis, New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington, D.C. As part of expansion plans in Europe, Capital Group established a presence in Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan and Zurich, adding to its offices in Geneva, London and Luxembourg. Its Asia offices include Beijing, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Singapore and Tokyo. Capital Group also has a growing presence in Sydney.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Amelia Elizabeth Dyer (née Hobley; 1836 – 10 June 1896) was an English serial killer who murdered infants in her care over a thirty-year period during the Victorian era of the United Kingdom. Trained as a nurse and widowed in 1869, Dyer turned to baby farming—the practice of adopting unwanted infants in exchange for money—to support herself. She initially cared for the children legitimately, in addition to having two of her own, but whether intentionally or not a number of them died in her care, leading to a conviction for neglect and six months' hard labour. She then began directly murdering children she "adopted", strangling at least some of them, and disposing of the bodies to avoid attention. Mentally unstable, she was committed to several mental asylums throughout her life, despite suspicions of feigning, and survived at least one serious suicide attempt.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Dyer's downfall came when the bagged corpse of an infant was discovered in the River Thames, with evidence leading to her. She was arrested on 4 April 1896. In one of the most sensational trials of the Victorian period, she was found guilty of the murder of infant Doris Marmon and hanged on 10 June 1896. At the time of her death, a handful of murders were attributed to Dyer, but there is little doubt she was responsible for many more similar deaths—possibly 400 or more, making her a candidate for history's most prolific serial killer.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Dubbed the "Ogress of Reading", Dyer inspired a popular murder ballad, and her case led to stricter laws for adoption and child protection, and also helped raise the profile of the fledgling National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), which formed in 1884.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Amelia Dyer was born the youngest of five (with three brothers Thomas, James and William and a sister, Ann) in the small village of Pyle Marsh, just east of Bristol, the daughter of master shoemaker Samuel Hobley and Sarah Hobley (née Weymouth). Amelia learned to read and write and developed a love of literature and poetry. However, her childhood was marred by the mental illness of her mother, caused by typhus. Amelia witnessed her mother's violent fits and was obliged to care for her until she died in 1848. Researchers later commented on the effect this had on Dyer, and also what it taught her about the symptoms exhibited by those who appear to lose their mind through illness.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Dyer had an elder sister, Sarah Ann, who died in 1841 at age 6, and a younger sister, also named Sarah Ann, who died in 1845 aged a few months. An elder cousin had an illegitimate daughter at the time who was later accepted as the daughter of the grandparents, William and Martha Hobley, who were Dyer's aunt and uncle. After her mother's death Amelia lived with an aunt in Bristol for a time before serving an apprenticeship with a corset maker. Her father died in 1859. Her eldest brother, Thomas, inherited the family shoe business. In 1861, at the age of 24, Amelia became permanently estranged from at least one of her brothers, James, and moved into lodgings in Trinity Street, Bristol. There she married George Thomas. George was 59 and they both lied about their ages on the marriage certificate to reduce the age gap. George deducted eleven years from his age and Amelia added six years to hers—many sources later reported this age as fact, causing much confusion.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: After marrying George Thomas, Dyer trained as a nurse. From contact with a midwife, Ellen Dane, she learned of an easier way to earn a living—using her own home to provide lodgings for young women who had conceived illegitimately and then farming off the babies for adoption or allowing them to die of neglect and malnutrition. (Dane was forced to decamp to the US, shortly after meeting Amelia, to escape the attention of the authorities.) Unmarried mothers during the Victorian period often struggled to gain an income since the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act had removed any financial obligation from the fathers of illegitimate children, whilst bringing up their children in a society where single parenthood and illegitimacy were stigmatized. This led to the practice of baby farming, in which individuals acted as adoption or fostering agents in return for regular payments or a single, up-front fee from the babies' mothers. Many businesses were set up to take in these young women and care for them until they gave birth. The mothers subsequently left their unwanted babies to be looked after as "nurse children".


title: Amelia Dyer

text: The predicament of the parents involved were often exploited for financial gain: if a baby had well-off parents who wanted to keep the birth secret, the single fee might be as much as eighty pounds. Fifty pounds might be negotiated if the father of the child wanted to hush up his involvement. However, it was more common for these expectant young women to be impoverished. Such women would be charged about five pounds.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Unscrupulous carers resorted to starving the farmed-out babies, to save money and even to hasten death. Noisy or demanding babies could be sedated with easily available alcohol and/or opiates. Godfrey's Cordial—known colloquially as "Mother's Friend" (a syrup containing opium)—was a frequent choice, but there were several other similar preparations. Many children died as a result of such dubious practices: "Opium killed far more infants through starvation than directly through overdose." Dr. Greenhow, investigating for the Privy Council, noted how children "kept in a state of continued narcotism<nowiki> will be thereby disinclined for food, and be but imperfectly nourished." Death from severe </nowiki>malnutrition would result, but the coroner was likely to record the death as debility from birth,' or 'lack of breast milk,' or simply 'starvation. Mothers who chose to reclaim or simply check on the welfare of their children could often encounter difficulties, but some would simply be too frightened or ashamed to tell the police about any suspected wrongdoing. Even the authorities often had problems tracing any children that were reported missing.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: This was the world opened up to her by the now-departed Ellen Dane. Dyer had to leave nursing with the birth of a daughter, Ellen Thomas. In 1869 the elderly George Thomas died and Amelia needed an income.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Dyer was keen to make money from baby farming, and alongside taking in expectant women, she advertised to nurse and adopt a baby, in return for a substantial one-off payment and adequate clothing for the child. In her advertisements and meetings with clients, she assured them that she was respectable and married and that she would provide a safe and loving home for the child.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: In 1872, Amelia married William Dyer, a brewer's laborer from Bristol. They had two children together: Mary Ann, also known as Polly, and William Samuel. Amelia eventually left her husband.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: At some point in her baby farming career, Dyer decided to forgo the expense and inconvenience of letting the children die through neglect and starvation; soon after the receipt of each child, she murdered them, thus allowing her to pocket most or all of the fee.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: For some time, Dyer eluded the resulting interest of the police. She was eventually caught in 1879 after a doctor was suspicious about the number of child deaths he had been called to certify in Dyer's care. However, instead of being convicted of murder or manslaughter, she was sentenced to six months' hard labour. The experience allegedly almost destroyed her mentally, though others have expressed incredulity at the leniency of the sentence when compared to those handed out for lesser crimes at that time.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Upon release, she attempted to resume her nursing career. She had spells in mental hospitals due to mental instability and suicidal tendencies; these always coincided with times when it was convenient for her to "disappear". Being a former asylum nurse Dyer knew how to behave to ensure a relatively comfortable existence as an asylum inmate. Dyer appears to have begun abusing alcohol and opium-based products early in her killing career; her mental instability could have been related to her substance abuse. In 1890, Dyer cared for the illegitimate baby of a governess. When she returned to visit the child, the governess was immediately suspicious and stripped the baby to see if a birthmark was present on one of its hips. It wasn't, and prolonged suspicions by the authorities led to Dyer having or feigning, a breakdown. Dyer at one point drank two bottles of laudanum in a serious suicide attempt, but her long-term use had built up her tolerance to opium products, so she survived.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: She returned to baby farming and murder. Dyer realized the folly of involving doctors to issue death certificates and began disposing of the bodies herself. The precarious nature and extent of her activities again prompted undesirable attention; she was alert to the attention of police—and of parents seeking to reclaim their children. She and her family frequently relocated to different towns and cities to escape suspicion, regain anonymity—and to acquire new business. Over the years, Dyer used a succession of aliases.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: In 1893, Dyer was discharged from her final committal at the Somerset and Bath Lunatic Asylum near Wells. Unlike previous "breakdowns", this had been a most disagreeable experience and she never entered another asylum. Two years later, Dyer moved to Caversham, Berkshire, accompanied by an unsuspecting associate, Jane "Granny" Smith, whom Dyer had recruited from a brief spell in a workhouse and Dyer's daughter and son-in-law, Mary Ann (known as Polly) and Arthur Palmer. This was followed by a move to 45 Kensington Road, Reading, Berkshire later the same year. Smith was persuaded by Dyer to be referred to as 'mother' in front of innocent women handing over their children. This was an effort to present a caring mother-daughter image.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: In January 1896, Evelina Marmon, a popular 25-year-old barmaid, gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Doris, in a boarding house in Cheltenham. She quickly sought offers of adoption and placed an advertisement in the "Miscellaneous" section of the "Bristol Times & Mirror" newspaper. It simply read: "Wanted, respectable woman to take a young child." Marmon intended to go back to work and hoped to eventually reclaim her child.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Coincidentally, next to her own, was an advertisement reading: "Married couple with no family would adopt a healthy child, nice country home. Terms, £10". Marmon responded, to a "Mrs. Harding", and a few days later she received a reply from Dyer. From Oxford Road in Reading, "Mrs. Harding" wrote that "I should be glad to have a dear baby girl, one I could bring up and call my own." She continued: "We are plain, homely people, in fairly good circumstances. I don't want a child for money's sake, but the company and home comfort ... I and my husband are dearly fond of children. I have no child of my own. A child with me will have a good home and a mother's love".


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Evelina Marmon wanted to pay a more affordable, weekly fee for the care of her daughter, but "Mrs. Harding" insisted on being given the one-off payment in advance. Marmon was in dire straits, so she reluctantly agreed to pay the £10, and a week later "Mrs. Harding" arrived in Cheltenham.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Marmon was surprised by Dyer's advanced age and stocky appearance, but as Dyer was affectionate towards Doris, Evelina handed over her daughter, a cardboard box of clothes, and £10. Still distressed at having to give up care for her daughter, Evelina accompanied Dyer to Cheltenham station, and then on to Gloucester. She returned to her lodgings "a broken woman". A few days later, she received a letter from "Mrs. Harding" saying all was well; Marmon wrote back, but received no reply.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Dyer did not travel to Reading, as she had told Marmon. She went instead to 76 Mayo Road, Willesden, London where her 23-year-old daughter Polly was staying. There, Dyer quickly found some white edging tape used in dressmaking, wound it twice around the baby's neck and tied a knot. Death would not have been immediate. Dyer later said: "I used to like to watch them with the tape around their neck, but it was soon all over with them."


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Both women allegedly helped to wrap the body in a napkin. They kept some of the clothes Marmon had packed; the rest was destined for the pawnbroker. Dyer paid the rent to the unwitting landlady and gave her a pair of child's boots as a present for her little girl. The following day, Wednesday 1 April 1896, another child, named Harry Simmons, was taken to Mayo Road. However, with no spare white edging tape available, the length around Doris's corpse was removed and used to strangle the 13-month-old boy.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: On 2 April, both bodies were stacked into a carpet bag, along with bricks for added weight. Dyer then headed for Reading. At a secluded spot she knew well near a weir at Caversham Lock, she forced the carpetbag through railings into the River Thames.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Unbeknownst to Dyer, on 30 March 1896, a package was retrieved from the Thames at Reading by a bargeman. The package Dyer dumped was not weighted adequately and had been easily spotted. It contained the body of a baby girl, later identified as Helena Fry. In the small detective force available to Reading Borough Police, Detective Constable Anderson made a crucial breakthrough. As well as finding a label from Temple Meads station, Bristol, he used microscopic analysis of the wrapping paper and deciphered a faintly legible name—Mrs. Thomas—and an address.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: This evidence was enough to lead police to Dyer, but they still had no strong evidence to connect her directly with a serious crime. Additional evidence they gleaned from witnesses, and information obtained from Bristol police, only served to increase their concerns, and D.C. Anderson, with Sgt. James placed Dyer's home under surveillance. Subsequent intelligence suggested that Dyer would abscond if she came at all under suspicion. The officers decided to use a young woman as a decoy, hoping she would be able to secure a meeting with Dyer to discuss her services. This may have been designed to help the detectives to positively link Dyer to her business activities, or it may have simply given them a reliable opportunity to arrest her.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: It transpired that Dyer was expecting her new client (the decoy) to call, but instead, she found detectives waiting on her doorstep. On 3 April (Good Friday), the police raided her home. They were struck by the stench of human decomposition, although no human remains were found. There was, however, plenty of other related evidence, including white edging tape, telegrams regarding adoption arrangements, pawn tickets for children's clothing, receipts for advertisements and letters from mothers inquiring about the well-being of their children.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: The police calculated that in the previous few months alone, at least twenty children had been placed in the care of a "Mrs. Thomas", now revealed to be Amelia Dyer. It also appeared that she was about to move home again, this time to Somerset. This rate of murder has led to some estimates that Mrs. Dyer may, over decades, have killed over 400 babies and children, making her one of the most prolific murderers ever.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Dyer was arrested on 4 April and charged with murder. Her son-in-law Arthur Palmer was charged as an accessory. During April, the Thames was dredged and six more bodies were discovered, including Doris Marmon and Harry Simmons—Dyer's last victims. Each baby had been strangled with white tape, which as she later told the police "was how you could tell it was one of mine".


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Eleven days after handing her daughter to Dyer, Evelina Marmon, whose name had emerged in items kept by Dyer, identified her daughter's remains.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: At the inquest into the deaths in early May, no evidence was found that Mary Ann or Arthur Palmer had acted as Dyer's accomplices. Arthur Palmer was discharged as the result of a confession written by Amelia Dyer. In Reading Gaol she wrote (with her spelling and punctuation preserved):


title: Amelia Dyer

text: On 22 May 1896, Dyer appeared at the Old Bailey and pleaded guilty to one murder, that of Doris Marmon. Her family and associates testified at her trial that they had been growing suspicious and uneasy about her activities, and it emerged that Dyer had narrowly escaped discovery on several occasions. Evidence from a man who had seen and spoken to Dyer when she had disposed of the two bodies at Caversham Lock also proved significant. Her daughter had given graphic evidence that ensured Dyer's conviction.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: The only defence Dyer offered was insanity: she had been twice committed to asylums in Bristol. However, the prosecution argued successfully that her exhibitions of mental instability had been a ploy to avoid suspicion; both committals were said to have coincided with times when Dyer was concerned her crimes might have been exposed.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: It took the jury only four and a half minutes to find her guilty. In her three weeks in the condemned cell, she filled five exercise books with her "last true and only confession". A chaplain visited her the night before her execution and asked if she had anything to confess, she offered him her exercise books, saying, "isn't this enough?" Curiously, she was subpoenaed to appear as a witness in Polly's trial for murder, set for a week after her execution date. However, it was ruled that Dyer was already legally dead once sentenced and that therefore her evidence would be inadmissible. Thus, her execution was not delayed. On the eve of her execution, Dyer heard that the charges against Polly had been dropped. Dyer was hanged by James Billington at Newgate Prison on Wednesday, 10 June 1896. Asked on the scaffold if she had anything to say, she said "I have nothing to say", just before being dropped at 9:00a.m. precisely.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: It is uncertain how many more children Amelia Dyer murdered. However, inquiries from mothers, evidence of other witnesses, and material found in Dyer's homes, including letters and many babies' clothes, pointed to many more.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: The Dyer case caused a scandal. She became known as the "Ogress of Reading", and she inspired a popular ballad:


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Adoption laws were subsequently made stricter, giving local authorities the power to police baby farms in the hope of stamping out abuse. Despite this and the scrutinizing of newspaper personal ads, the trafficking and abuse of infants did not stop. Two years after Dyer's execution, railway workers inspecting carriages at Newton Abbot, Devon, found a parcel. Inside was a three-week-old girl but, though cold and wet, she was alive. The daughter of a widow, Jane Hill, the baby had been given to Mrs. Stewart, for £12. She had picked up the baby at Plymouth—and dumped her on the next train. It has been claimed that "Mrs. Stewart" was Polly, the daughter of Amelia Dyer.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: Because she was a murderess alive at the time of the Jack the Ripper killings, some have suggested that Dyer was Jack the Ripper. This suggestion was put forward by author William Stewart, although he preferred Mary Pearcey as his chosen suspect. There is, however, no evidence to connect Dyer to the Jack the Ripper murders, and she does not figure prominently among the Jack the Ripper suspects.


title: Amelia Dyer

text: The character of Amelia Dyer appeared in the short story "The Baby Farmer" by Philip Fracassi in his horror collection "Behold the Void".


title: Amelia Dyer

text: English folk singer Reg Meuross wrote a song about Dyer called "The Angel Maker", which is a track on his 2018 album "Songs About A Train".


title: Amelia Dyer

text: The Amelia Dyer case was partly dramatized on an episode of the 2022 BBC Radio podcast series "Lucy Worsley's Lady Killers".


title: Jessica Harper

text: Jessica Harper (born October 10, 1949) is an American actress and singer. Harper began her feature film career with a starring role in Brian De Palma's "Phantom of the Paradise" (1974), "My Favorite Year" (1982), as well as a role in "Inserts" (1975). She is best known for her portrayal of Suzy Bannion, the protagonist of Dario Argento's cult classic "Suspiria" (1977), and appeared in a supporting role in Luca Guadagnino's 2018 remake.


title: Jessica Harper

text: Her other films include "Stardust Memories" (1980), "Shock Treatment" (1981) (the followup to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in which she replaced Susan Sarandon as Janet Weiss), "Pennies from Heaven" (1981), "The Blue Iguana" (1988), "Safe" (1995), and "Minority Report" (2002). In addition to acting, Harper is also an author of children's music and books.


title: Jessica Harper

text: Harper was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Eleanor (née Emery), a writer, and Paul Church Harper Jr., a painter and the former chairman of the Needham Harper Worldwide advertising agency in New York. She attended the North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, Illinois, and Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She has two sisters, Lindsay Harper duPont an illustrator and Diana Harper a teacher and three brothers: her twin brother William Harper who is a composer; Sam Harper, a screenwriter and director; and Rev. Charles Harper.


title: Jessica Harper

text: Harper has appeared in more than twenty motion pictures, most notably Dario Argento's "Suspiria", Brian DePalma's "Phantom of the Paradise" & the follow-up to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", "Shock Treatment". She was also in "My Favorite Year", alongside Peter O'Toole and Mark Linn-Baker, and costarred with Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in "Pennies from Heaven". Woody Allen featured her in his films "Stardust Memories" and "Love and Death", and she appeared in the fourth season of "It's Garry Shandling's Show" as well as the Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise film "Minority Report". She was seen in a 2005 episode ("Forget Me Not") of the television series "Crossing Jordan".


title: Jessica Harper

text: She has written eleven books for children, and made seven albums of songs for children. She was named by "Parenting" magazine as "Parent of the Month" in 2004. In 2000, she sang background vocals on selected tracks on the Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks album "Beatin' the Heat".


title: Jessica Harper

text: In December 2010, Harper released a cookbook titled "The Crabby Cook Cookbook: Recipes and Rants". In a January 2011 interview Harper said, "I thought it was high time there was a book that acknowledged that not everybody experiences the joy of cooking, that sometimes cooking for a family on a daily basis can be really irritating! This book, with 135 easy recipes, is for those people, crabby cooks like me! It's a collection of humor, survival tips and recipes, for the kitchen-challenged!" In March 2011, she was on tour promoting her book. Stops included Chicago, where she held a "Lunch and Learn with Jessica Harper".


title: Jessica Harper

text: Harper married Thomas Edgar Rothman, a top executive at Sony Pictures (formerly of 20th Century Fox) on March 11, 1989 in an ecumenical ceremony. She has two daughters, Elizabeth and Nora, who are featured on her children's albums and books. Harper resides in Los Angeles, California, and New York City.


title: Jessica Harper

text: In a blog post on her official website in 2017, Harper revealed she had suffered from neovascular macular degeneration for the past 15 years, and that she receives injections in her eye every six weeks to treat the condition.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: Top Gear was a British motoring magazine programme created by the BBC and aired on BBC Two between 22 April 1977 and 17 December 2001. The programme focused on a range of motoring topics, the most common being car reviews, road safety and consumer advice. Originally presented by Angela Rippon and Tom Coyne, the show saw a range of different presenters and reporters front the programme's half-hourly slots, including Noel Edmonds, Jeremy Clarkson, Tiff Needell, William Woollard and Quentin Willson. The programme proved popular during the late 80s and early 90s, and launched a number of spin-offs, including its own magazine entitled "Top Gear Magazine".


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: By 1999, viewing figures in "Top Gear" had declined after the departure of notable presenters, leading to the BBC cancelling the programme in 2001. While a number of presenters and production staff moved over to Channel 5 to produce a new motoring programme, Clarkson and fellow presenter Andy Wilman convinced the BBC to revive the programme under a revamped format, relaunching it a year later in October 2002.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: "Top Gear" functioned under a magazine format focusing on key topics that could be covered within each episode's 30-minute timeslot. Presenters focused on various motoring-related subjects, the most common being road tests of new cars, consumer advice, road safety, and motorsport. Other subjects covered varied over its 24-year history, but included elements such as road safety and interviews with figures related to transportation and cars. Alongside standard episodes, the programme included a number of specials focused on cars or journeys.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: The original programme and its title were conceived by producer Derek Smith, who proposed the concept to BBC Midlands as a monthly television series with a magazine format aimed at looking at various subjects such as new cars, road safety and other topics, and involving presenters supported by reporters. The format had already been proven by Thames Television's well established "Drive-In" (later "Wheels"), which had been running since 1974, and featured future "Top Gear" presenters Chris Goffey and Sue Baker. BBC Midlands commissioned a series of nine episodes of "Top Gear" for 1977, with the production staff operating out of Pebble Mill Studios, Birmingham, with Smith assigned as its executive producer, while Angela Rippon and Tom Coyne, the front man of the local evening news programme Midlands Today, were hired to present the new programme alongside local reporters. As it was designed mainly as a regional programme, "Top Gear" was made available only to BBC Midlands viewers during its broadcast.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: In 1978, the BBC took interest in "Top Gear", and decided upon it being broadcast nationally across the United Kingdom, commissioning ten episodes for the first series. Both Smith and Rippon remained within their respective roles, with Barrie Gill replacing Coyne as co-presenter, with topics covered during its first series including holiday driving, the MOT test, a search for a female rally driver, traffic jams, rust and corrosion, and tachographs in lorries. Alongside the standard motoring topics, the production staff also included films focused on motoring events, such as the Le Mans 24 Hour race and the British International Motor Show. A year later, the BBC commissioned a second series, with Rippon and Gill retaining their roles and joined by a new team of reporters.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: By 1980, the growing popularity of the programme led to the BBC making "Top Gear" a staple part of its schedules for BBC Two, commissioning two series per year - one for the late Winter-Early Spring schedule, and the other for the Autumn-Early Winter schedule. However, as Rippon and Gill had left the programme after its second series, the responsibility of presenting "Top Gear" was assigned to Noel Edmonds, who maintained the role of the main presenter for two series before being replaced by William Woollard, formerly of BBC1's science series "Tomorrow's World", in 1981. Former "Drive-In" / "Wheels" presenters Chris Goffey and Sue Baker defected from Thames to the BBC and "Top Gear" around the same period.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: The role of executive producer was maintained by Smith for a further three years before it was handed over to Dennis Adams in 1983. Between 1980–1985, the programme's broadcast included specials that focused on coverage of motoring events, including the bi-annual British Motor Show, and the London Motorfair, though "Top Gear" achieved sole dominance of rallying events, a sport that the BBC's sport division could not control.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: In 1986, Dennis Adams resigned as executive producer, leading to Tom Ross being hired as his replacement, going on to become editor in 1988, leaving his former role to Jon Bentley and Ken Pollock. By this time, the programme underwent a number of subtle changes in its presentation, despite reported threats within the BBC for its cancellation, which were aimed at raising its profile and increasing it audience through a wider range of motoring topics - these included consumer issues, classic cars, motorbikes, and a wide range of motorsport events. Around this time, "Top Gear" began to see the involvement of new presenters, several of whom became prominent figures within television, with these new additions including former Formula One driver Tiff Needell, and journalist Jeremy Clarkson, whom Bentley recruited after coming across his work in "Performance Car Magazine".


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: Despite enduring criticism regarding the presentation of the programme, including concerns it encouraged irresponsible driving behaviour, and ignored issues surrounding the impact of driving on the environment, "Top Gear" was pulling in high viewing figures, regularly becoming BBC Two's most viewed programme after 1988 with an average of five million viewers. Part of this increased popularity was attributed to the involvement of Clarkson, as his style of presentation and reviewing of cars proved to be well-received with viewers - in a review of the original Vauxhall Vectra, Clarkson was bluntly honest about his opinion of the car when he declared that "I know it's the replacement for the Cavalier. I know. But I'm telling you it's just a box on wheels."


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: In 1991, Ross and Woollard left the programme after its 25th series. While Bentley took over as editor for the 26th series, the 1990s saw a host of new faces taking part to replace others, including car dealer Quentin Willson, Steve Berry, racing driver Vicki Butler-Henderson, and journalist James May. Additional formats were added including a series of car awards for the best car considered by the presenting team. In addition, the programme also received a number of additional spin-offs, and further specials. After "Top Gear"'s success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of competing programmes were introduced, including Channel 4's "driven", Central's "Pulling Power", Granada's "Vroom Vroom" and BBC World's "India's Wheels".


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: From 1994, the show also spawned a monthly magazine. This included a customer satisfaction survey which was first highlighted on the show and then published in detail in the magazine. Cars of two and three years old were rated by their customers on a ratio of 1 to 5 for factors including performance, fuel economy, build quality, reliability and dealer service. The Toyota Corolla was the winner of the first four surveys (1994 to 1997), followed by the Subaru Impreza in 1998 and 1999 and the Subaru Legacy in 2000 and 2001. The Vauxhall Frontera was judged to be the least satisfying car to own in the original 1994 survey, followed a year later by the Ford Escort, in 1996 and 1997 by the Lada Samara, the Vauxhall Vectra in 1998, Ford Galaxy in 1999 and Vauxhall Sintra in 2000 and 2001. Cars from the likes of Honda, Mazda and Skoda also enjoyed consistently good performances in the survey, whereas the opposite was frequently true for many cars from the likes of Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Fiat, Peugeot, Renault and Rover. Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen were also highlighted at times for failing to match their traditionally high standards of build quality and reliability.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: By 1999, after the departure of Clarkson, the peak audience figures of "Top Gear", while still favourable, began to decline, affected further by additional members of the presenting team leaving the programme - a notable departure was of Brendan Coogan, who was forced to resign after being convicted of drunk-driving in July. Presenting duties were mainly handled by Willson and Kate Humble, before the final series was fronted by Jason Barlow, following his work on Channel 4's "Driven". Despite remaining a popular programme on BBC Two, with its final series run continuously between September 2000 to October 2001, the BBC determined that "Top Gear" deserved no further series and cancelled the programme in December 2001.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: After the cancellation of "Top Gear", most of the production staff and several of the programme's presenters decided to move over to Channel 5, as part of a deal to create a new motoring programme. Under its format, aimed as a fresh take on "Top Gear"s own, the programme would feature its own car reviews, consumer advice, and other examination of motoring subject, with Tiff Needell, Quentin Willson and Vicki Butler-Henderson working as its presenters, with Jon Bentley working as producer. The programme was launched in April 2002 under the title of "Fifth Gear", as the BBC would not relinquish the rights to the name of "Top Gear" for legal reasons.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: "Top Gear" was a title sponsor of the 1987 and 1988 Formula One "Winter Series", the 1990 and 1991 Historic Rally Championships and the 1992 and 1993 British Rally Championships. Due to the success of the main show, other motoring shows on the BBC also carried the "Top Gear" name including coverage of the British Motor Show, a show dedicated to motorsport, presented by Tiff Needell, "Top Gear Motorsport" and the Lombard RAC Rally highlights show, presented by William Woollard, Sue Baker and Tony Mason, "Top Gear Rally Report". Quentin Willson presented the classic car show "The Car's The Star" which told the story of famous classic cars, running for six series between 1994 and 1999.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: The show's opening theme music from the very first programme in 1977 was the Allman Brothers Band instrumental "Jessica" from the album "Brothers and Sisters" (1973), although remixed versions were used after 1999. For much of the series' lifespan, Elton John's instrumental "Out of the Blue" from the album "Blue Moves" (1976) played over the closing credits.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: The opening and closing titles music were suggested to executive producer Derek Smith by his son Graham, who had the two albums at home. He played the tracks to his father and was asked to write down the details, so they could be sourced from the record library in the BBC.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: In September 1993, the BBC launched a magazine entitled "Top Gear Magazine", which featured articles and columns from the presenters and additional contributors, as well as a customer satisfaction survey from 1994. The magazine became a commercial hit across the United Kingdom in the wake of its launch. In addition, the broadcaster also launched CD albums and a selection of VHS sets consisting of unique specials, presented by the team between 1994-2000.


title: Top Gear (1977 TV series)

text: After the first series of "Fifth Gear" was completed, the BBC decided to relaunch "Top Gear", but in a new studio based format as opposed to the magazine format used until the cancellation. The idea came from producer Andy Wilman and Jeremy Clarkson, who presented the relaunched show with Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe. James May replaced Dawe from the second series onwards of the current format. The pre-cancellation show is referred to as "Old "Top Gear"", when mentioned on the new show due to the differences in style.


title: Henry Sy

text: Henry Tan Chi Sieng Sy Sr. (; ; October 15, 1924 – January 19, 2019) was a Filipino businessman and investor.


title: Henry Sy

text: Born in Fujian, he moved with his family to the Philippines at age 12. While his family returned to China, he stayed behind and founded ShoeMart, a small Manila shoe store, in 1958. Over the decades he developed ShoeMart into SM Investments, one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines, including 49 SM malls in the Philippines and China, 62 department stores, 56 supermarkets and over 200 grocery stores. SM also owns Banco de Oro, the second-largest bank in the Philippines, as well as real estate holdings.


title: Henry Sy

text: For eleven straight years until his death, Sy was named by "Forbes" as the richest person in the Philippines. When he died, his net worth was estimated at US$19 billion.


title: Henry Sy

text: Henry Sy, also known as "Sy Chi Sieng" in Philippine Hokkien ("Shī Zhìchéng" in Mandarin), was born in Jinjiang in Fujian, then still under the Republic of China (ROC), on October 15, 1924. At age 12, he and his family moved to the Philippines during the Commonwealth Era under American colonial period, where his father set up a shop that sold various household items. At his father's store, Sy helped his father sell rice, sardines and other items. Following World War II, the store was obliterated along with the rest of Manila. His family decided to return to China, but Sy stayed in the Philippines where he completed his secondary education at an institution now known as the Chiang Kai Shek College in Tondo, Manila and earned his Associate of Arts degree in commercial studies at Far Eastern University in 1950. At school, he learned English and Filipino (Tagalog).


title: Henry Sy

text: In his twenties, Sy became a store manager working for an American business involved in the local shoe industry in the Philippines; he opened his first sole-proprietorship store in Quiapo, Manila in 1948. He opened at least three shoe stores in the Carriedo area which was then known for its heavy pedestrian traffic. His decision to sell shoes was due to the losses his family experienced in World War II thinking that everyone would need shoes following the aftermath of the war.


title: Henry Sy

text: He sold surplus G.I. boots and saved finances before he established ShoeMart in 1958, his own small shoe store in Quiapo, that marked the beginning of SM Prime. He later encountered difficulties in sourcing shoes locally and decided to import shoes from outside the country.


title: Henry Sy

text: Sy became involved in the banking industry when he acquired Acme Savings Bank (later renamed Banco de Oro or BDO) in 1967.


title: Henry Sy

text: In November 1972, he opened SM Quiapo, SM's first stand alone department store, and entrusted his 22-year-old daughter Teresita to run the store. On November 8, 1985, he established his first SM Supermall, SM City North EDSA. In the early 1990s, SM started opening more shopping malls with the setting up of two malls in Metro Manila and a solitary mall in Cebu City. SM Prime Holdings was incorporated in 1994 and went public.


title: Henry Sy

text: Sy was named "Richest Man of the Year" by the Makati Business Club in 1999 and was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Business Management by De La Salle University in January of that year. He and his wife established the SM Foundation Inc., which helps underprivileged youths, the disabled and the elderly. He established business presence in Mainland China when the SM Group opened its first shopping mall in his native Xiamen. Other malls were later set up in other parts of Southern China.


title: Henry Sy

text: In August 2005, Sy's stake in the San Miguel Corporation, Southeast Asia's largest food and beverage conglomerate, reached 11%. He sold that stake in October 2007 for $680 million.


title: Henry Sy

text: Sy's holding company, SM Investments (also known as SM Group), has been frequently named as one of the best managed companies in the Philippines. SM Investments is the operator of Banco de Oro (BDO) and owner of Chinabank. In 2006, Sy bought the remaining 66% of Equitable PCI Bank, the Philippines' third largest lender, and merged it into BDO the following year. The transaction turned BDO into the second largest financial company in the country.


title: Henry Sy

text: He was the Philippines' richest man, gaining $5 billion in 2010, amid the global financial crisis. The huge gain was due to his holding company, SM Investments, which has interests in BDO, inter alia. For 11 straight years until his death in 2019, "Forbes" ranked him as the richest person in the Philippines, with an estimated net worth of US$19 billion in 2019.


title: Henry Sy

text: In 2017, Sy stepped down as chairman of SM Investments Corporation and was given the honorary title of Chairman Emeritus as recognition for being the founder of the SM Group. Jose Sio succeeded Sy as chairman.


title: Henry Sy

text: Sy was married to Felicidad Tan, who was a shoelace vendor. The couple had six children: Teresita, Elizabeth, Henry Jr., Hans, Herbert, and Harley. Teresita and Henry Jr. are vice chairpersons of SM Investments, serving under chairman Jose Sio, a longtime lieutenant of Henry Sr. Harley serves as executive director of SM.


title: Henry Sy

text: Sy had several grandchildren, including the deceased Jan Catherine Sy, from his son Henry Jr. and Marc Sy, from his daughter Elizabeth Sy


title: Henry Sy

text: Sy died in his sleep on January 19, 2019, aged 94. He was discovered on the morning of that day, in his home in Forbes Park, Makati. The interment took place at the Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig, on January 24.


title: Bennington College

text: Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in the liberal arts curriculum. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.


title: Bennington College

text: The planning for the establishment of Bennington College began in 1924 and took nine years to be realized. While many people were involved, the four central figures in the founding of Bennington were Vincent Ravi Booth, Mr. and Mrs. Hall Park McCullough, and William Heard Kilpatrick.


title: Bennington College

text: A Women's Committee, headed by Mrs. Hall Park McCullough, organized the Colony Club Meeting in 1924, which brought together some 500 civic leaders and educators from across the country. As a result of the Colony Club Meeting, a charter was secured and a board of trustees formed for Bennington College. One of the trustees, John Dewey, helped shape many of the college's signature programs such as The Plan Process and Field Work Term through his educational principles.


title: Bennington College

text: In 1928, six years before the college would begin, Robert Devore Leigh was recruited by the Bennington College executive committee to serve as the first president of Bennington. Leigh presided over the forging of Bennington's structure and its early operation. In 1929 Leigh authored the Bennington College Prospectus which outlined the "Bennington idea".


title: Bennington College

text: The first class of eighty-seven women arrived on campus in 1932. The college was the first to include the visual and performing arts as full-fledged elements of the liberal arts curriculum. Every year since the college began in 1932, every Bennington College student has engaged in internships and volunteer opportunities each winter term. Originally called the Winter Field & Reading Period, the two-month term was described by President Robert Devore Leigh in his 1928 Bennington College Prospectus as "a long winter recess giving students and faculty opportunity for travel, field work, and educational advantages of metropolitan life". This internship was renamed twice, as Non-Resident term and, as it is called today, Field Work Term.


title: Bennington College

text: In 1934 the Bennington School of Dance summer program was founded by Martha Hill. Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Hanya Holm, and Charles Weidman all taught at this laboratory. The program gained attendance by José Limón, Bessie Schonberg, Merce Cunningham, and Betty Ford. In 1935 the administration agreed to admit young men into the Bennington Theater Studio program, since men were needed for theatrical performances. Among the men who attended was the actor Alan Arkin.


title: Bennington College

text: Between 1935 and 1939 the famous social psychologist Theodore Newcomb conducted a study about the change of political attitude during the New Deal period.


title: Bennington College

text: President Leigh resigned in 1941, at the age of 50, saying he thought no college should be "shackled by executive leadership gradually growing stale, feeble or lacking in initiative". He was succeeded by a member of the Bennington faculty, Dr. Lewis Webster Jones, economist and labor mediator.


title: Bennington College

text: In 1946, Paula Jean Welden, a sophomore at the college, disappeared while on a hike of the nearby Long Trail. She was living in Dewey House at the time and had traveled alone. Many students assisted in the search, but Paula was never found. Frederick H. Burkhardt, who had been ready to decline an invitation to become president of the college, visited the campus was impressed with the cohesion and support of the community in the face of this tragedy and accepted the offer. At age 35, he became the youngest college president in the nation.


title: Bennington College

text: In 1951 the U.S. State Department issued a documentary on Bennington highlighting its unique educational approach as a model for the Allied rebuilding of German society after the War.


title: Bennington College

text: The college continued to expand its physical infrastructure. Built in 1959, the Edward Clark Crossett Library was designed by the modernist architect Pietro Belluschi. After opening, Crossett Library was featured in "Architectural Forum" and became a focus of study for many architecture students in the 1960s. Crossett Library went on to win the 1963 Honor Award for library design. In 1968, three new student houses were completed to help house the growing student population and were named in honor of William C. Fels, Jessie Smith Noyes, and Margaret Smith Sawtell. These houses were designed by the distinguished modernist architect, Edward Larrabee Barnes, who posthumously earned the 2007 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal.


title: Bennington College

text: In 1969, Bennington became fully coeducational, a move that attracted major national attention, including a major feature story in "The New York Times Magazine".


title: Bennington College

text: In 1993, the Bennington College Board of Trustees initiated a process known as "The Symposium". Arguing that the college suffered from "a growing attachment to the status quo that, if unattended, is lethal to Bennington's purpose and pedagogy", the board of trustees "solicit[ed] ... concerns and proposals on a wide and open-ended range of issues from every member of the faculty, every student, every staff member, every alumna and alumnus, and dozens of friends of the College." According to the trustees, the process was intended to reinvent the college, and the board said it received over 600 contributions to this end.


title: Bennington College

text: The results of the process were published in June 1994 in a 36-page document titled "Symposium Report of the Bennington College Board of Trustees". Recommended changes included the following:


title: Bennington College

text: Near the end of June 1994, 27 faculty members (approximately one-third of the total faculty body) were notified by certified mail that their contracts would not be renewed. (The exact number of fired faculty members is listed as 25 or 26 in some reports, a discrepancy partly because at least one faculty member, photographer Neil Rappaport, was reinstated on appeal shortly after his firing.) As recommended in the Symposium, the trustees abolished the presumptive tenure system, leaving the institution with no form of tenure. The firings attracted considerable media attention.


title: Bennington College

text: Some students and alumni protested, and the college was censured for its actions by the American Association of University Professors, who said, "academic freedom is insecure, and academic tenure is nonexistent today at Bennington College." Critics of the Symposium, and the 1994 firings, have alleged that the Symposium was essentially a sham, designed to provide a pretext for the removal of faculty members to whom the college's president, Elizabeth Coleman, was hostile. Some have questioned the timing of the firings, arguing that by waiting until the end of June, the college made it impossible for students affected by the firings to transfer to other institutions.


title: Bennington College

text: President Coleman responded that the decision was fundamentally "about ideas", stating that "Bennington became mediocre over time" and that the college was in need of radical change. Coleman argued that the college was in dire financial straits, saying that "had Bennington done nothing ... the future of this institution was seriously in doubt." In a letter to "The New York Times", John Barr, chairman of the board of trustees, asserted that Coleman was "not responsible for the redesign of the college ... It was the board of trustees".


title: Bennington College

text: In May 1996, 17 of the faculty members terminated in the 1994 firings filed a lawsuit against Bennington College, seeking $3.7 million in damages and reinstatement to their former positions. In December 2000, the case was settled out of court; as part of the settlement, the fired faculty members received $1.89 million and an apology from the college. In the immediate wake of the controversy, for the 1994–1995 academic year, the college's enrollment dropped to a record low of 370 undergraduates, and the following year (1995–1996), undergraduate enrollment declined to 285. According to Coleman, a student body of 600 undergraduates was required for the college to break even.


title: Bennington College

text: , the college reports a total enrollment of 755 students with steady increases in quality student applications. Bennington College appeared on the Princeton Review's 2018 Best Northeastern Colleges List, which includes the schools that it considers "academically outstanding and well worth consideration in your college search". Bennington also appeared on Princeton's "Green Schools" list. Notably, Bennington was also featured in a 2016 article by "Forbes" as one of "Tomorrow's Hot Colleges" highlighting the institution's recent flourishing "under bold, entrepreneurial leadership".


title: Bennington College

text: In 2015 Bennington College announced a $5 million gift from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. The largest single gift ever awarded by the foundation has helped establish the Helen Frankenthaler Fund for the Visual Arts and provides support for all aspects of the school's visual arts program including curricula, facilities, programs, and faculty. In recognition of the gift, the visual arts wing of the college's 120,000-square-foot arts facility was renamed the Helen Frankenthaler Visual Arts Center.


title: Bennington College

text: In October 2016 the faculty adopted an open-access policy to make its scholarship publicly accessible online.


title: Bennington College

text: In the summer of 2020, the board of trustees announced that Laura Walker would be the next college president.


title: Bennington College

text: In 2015, the college had a student to faculty ratio of 8:1 and an average class size of 13 students. Bennington College is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. In 2021, "U.S. News & World Report" ranked Bennington #76 in National Liberal Arts Colleges and #38 in Best Undergraduate Teaching Programs for National Liberal Arts Colleges.


title: Bennington College

text: At Bennington, students receive graduate-style advising from a faculty member who assists with course selection, internship and job applications, graduate school preparation, and more. Bennington does not have traditional academic majors for undergraduate students. Instead, the Plan Process is an alternative to majors, which encourages students to lead their own education, rather than choosing from pre-existing paths.


title: Bennington College

text: Within the Plan Process, there are no required courses, so from the moment students arrive, they are free to begin crafting their plan of study to meet their interests and explore new fields. In their second year, students must submit an essay-style Plan proposal, which details their desired primary and secondary areas of study, a summary of their interests and previous coursework, and a framework for how their studies should progress to culminate in senior work in one of the existing disciplines such as Society, Culture and Thought, Advancement of Public Action, Dance, Environmental Studies, Visual Arts, and others. Students then meet with a committee of faculty members and their academic adviser to review the proposed Plan and make any necessary changes. After their Plan is improved, students regularly meet with their adviser to choose relevant courses and meet again with the Plan committee each fall to discuss their progress towards completion. Because of the Plan Process, no two students at Bennington will graduate with the same exact mix of learning.


title: Bennington College

text: Field Work Term is a required annual internship program that gives students the opportunity to gain professional experience beyond the classroom before graduating. Field Work Term experiences often inform students' decisions about career planning and can even lead to job opportunities post graduation. Bennington is the only college that has required an annual internship for students since its founding.


title: Bennington College

text: Bennington college offers the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in multiple disciplines and the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program. Previously an MAT or BA/MAT was offered in Education through the Center for Creative Teaching, until discontinued around 2012.


title: Bennington College

text: Bennington Writing Seminars is a low-residency Master of Fine Arts program in writing founded by Poet Liam Rector in 1994. After Rector's death in August 2007, Sven Birkerts was director until 2017. Poet Mark Wunderlich is the current director of Bennington Writing Seminars. U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall was a long time writer-in-residence.


title: Bennington College

text: In 2007, "The Atlantic" named it one of the nation's best, and "Poets & Writers Magazine" named it one of the top three low-residency programs in the world in 2011. Core faculty has included fiction writers David Gates, Amy Hempel, Alice Mattison, Jill McCorkle, Rick Moody, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, and Paul Yoon; nonfiction writers Eula Biss, Jenny Boully, Susan Cheever, Melissa Febos, Phillip Lopate, and James Wood; and poets April Bernard, Jennifer Chang, Amy Gerstler, Major Jackson, Timothy Liu, Ed Ochester, Carmen Giménez Smith, Craig Morgan Teicher, and Mark Wunderlich.


title: Bennington College

text: Notable alumni of the program include Bill Ayers, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Jasmin Darznik, Amy Gerstler, Tod Goldberg, Nathalie Handal, Erica Hunt, Angela Jackson, Suleika Jaouad, Morgan Jerkins, Molly Jong-Fast, Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Megan Mayhew Bergman, Susan Scarf Merrell, Marie Mutsuki Mockett, Ivy Pochoda, Rolf Potts, Jamie Quatro, Mark Sarvas, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, and Sarai Walker.


title: Bennington College

text: The MFA in Dance is designed as a two-year, four-term program; however, those who cannot commit to four consecutive terms are encouraged to propose an alternative schedule when applying.


title: Bennington College

text: Like the MFA in Dance program, the MFA in Music is a two-year, four-term program. Students pursue work at an advanced level in either composition or voice. (In exceptional cases, students wishing to pursue postgraduate work in other performance areas may be considered.)


title: Bennington College

text: The Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College established a Master of Fine Arts in Public Action in 2018. Directed by Susan Sgorbati, the program is designed to give accomplished artists working as agents of social change the time, space, and focus to conduct research and develop new work. MFA candidates are expected to have substantial professional experience in socially or civically engaged public art or related areas, well beyond undergraduate studies.


title: Bennington College

text: Bennington's PostBac program was suspended indefinitely in 2021. It was a one-year program, beginning and ending in June, and it covered the basic requirements for medical school and other health profession tracks.


title: Bennington College

text: The groundbreaking ceremony for Bennington College took place on August 16, 1931, and construction of the original Bennington College campus was completed by 1936. The Boston architectural firm, J.W. Ames and E.S. Dodge designed Commons, the 12 original student houses, as well as the reconfiguration of the Barn from a working farm building into classrooms and administrative offices. The original student houses were named for the people integral to the founding of the college. The campus was built by more than 100 local craftsmen, many of whom had been out of work since the stock market crash of 1929. The campus stretches 440 acres with main campus centered on 10 acres. There are 300 wooded acres, 15 acres of wetland, and 5 acres of tilled farmland.


title: Bennington College

text: 94% of students live on campus. There are 21 student houses and all dorms are co-educational. Each dorm hosts a weekly "Coffee Hour" on Sunday evenings where students discuss campus and house issues together. There are also 15 staff/faculty houses.


title: Bennington College

text: Bennington College has a total undergraduate enrollment of 668, with a gender distribution of 32.9 percent male students and 67.1 percent female students. 94.0 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 6.0 percent of students live off campus.


title: Bennington College

text: "The Silo" is a student-run and produced journal of arts and letters at Bennington College. It has been published since 1943.


title: Bennington College

text: "The Bennington Free Press" is the student-run and produced newspaper of Bennington College. It has been published since 2003.


title: Bennington College

text: "Footnotes" is an academic journal created by the Student Educational Policies Committee, beginning in Spring 2016.


title: Bennington College

text: Faculty has included Wharton and James biographer R. W. B. Lewis, essayist Edward Hoagland, literary critics Camille Paglia and Stanley Hyman (whose wife Shirley Jackson referenced Bennington College in her writing, particularly "Hangsaman"), rhetorician Kenneth Burke, former United Artists' senior vice-president Steven Bach, novelists Arturo Vivante, Bernard Malamud and John Gardner, trumpeter/composer Bill Dixon, saxophonist and pianist Charles Gayle, composers Allen Shawn, Henry Brant, and Vivian Fine, painters Kenneth Noland, Mary Lum and Jules Olitski, politicians Mansour Farhang and Mac Maharaj, poets Léonie Adams and Howard Nemerov, sculptor Anthony Caro, dancer/choreographer Martha Graham, drummer Milford Graves, author William Butler (author of "The Butterfly Revolution"), economist Karl Polanyi and a number of Pulitzer Prize-winning and acclaimed poets including W. H. Auden, Stanley Kunitz, Mary Oliver, Theodore Roethke, Donald Hall, and Anne Waldman, and educator Joseph S. Murphy, the future Chancellor of the City University of New York.


title: Bennington College

text: In 2017, Bennington College acquired the Robert Frost Stone House Museum through a gift from the Friends of Robert Frost. Robert Frost lived in the colonial era home in Shaftsbury, VT from 1920 to 1929, during which time he wrote many of his well known works including the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".


title: Bennington College

text: Frost was involved in the founding of Bennington during the 1930s, suggesting the use of narrative evaluations which became a core aspect of the college's academic process.


title: Bennington College

text: Camden College, a fictionalized version of Bennington, appears in the works of Bret Easton Ellis, Jill Eisenstadt, and Jonathan Lethem. Whereas Ellis's Camden College is located in New Hampshire, Lethem's Camden is in Vermont, and is notable for being the most expensive college in America. All three of the writers attended Bennington College, which is really located in Vermont, and was at one time notorious for being the most expensive college in America. Bennington graduate Donna Tartt uses the same Bennington-inspired backdrop for her 1992 novel "The Secret History", but for her it is "Hampden" College. However, Eisenstadt and Lethem use 'Camden' in "From Rockaway" (1987) and "The Fortress of Solitude" (2003), respectively.


title: Bennington College

text: Camden is first mentioned in Ellis's debut novel "Less than Zero" (1985), and is the central setting of his next, "The Rules of Attraction" (1987). Eisenstadt's "From Rockaway" and Tartt's "The Secret History" both depict working class young people who gain scholarships to the fictionalized liberal arts college; both are alluded to in "The Rules of Attraction" (Ellis having read the first draft of "Secret History"). Characters said to have attended Camden appear in Ellis's "American Psycho" (1991), "The Informers" (1994) and "Glamorama" (1998), the last of which features flashback sequences to the characters' Camden days. In Jonathan Lethem's "The Fortress of Solitude" (2003), Camden appears later in the novel once main character Dylan Ebdus begins college. In Ellis's pseudo-autobiographical horror novel "Lunar Park" (2005), the fictional Bret Easton Ellis attended Camden College and recalls many of its fictional characters.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: The Kingdom is a 2007 action thriller film directed by Peter Berg and starring Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, and Jennifer Garner. The film is set in Saudi Arabia, and is based on the 1996 bombing of the Khobar housing complex, also on the 2004 Khobar massacre and the two 2003 bombings of four compounds in Riyadh. It was released in the United States on September 28, 2007.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: During a softball game at an American oil company housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, al-Qaeda terrorists set off a bomb, killing Americans and Saudis. While one team hijacks a car and shoots residents, a suicide bomber wearing a fake police uniform blows himself up, killing everyone near him. Sergeant Haytham of the Saudi State Police kills the carjackers. The FBI Legal Attaché in Saudi Arabia, Special Agent Fran Manner, calls his US colleague, Special Agent Ronald Fleury, to advise him about the attack. Manner is discussing the situation with DSS Special Agent Rex Burr when an ambulance full of explosives is detonated, killing Manner, Burr, and many others.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: At FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Fleury briefs his rapid deployment team on the attack. Although the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. State Department hinder FBI efforts to investigate the attack, Fleury blackmails the Saudi ambassador into allowing an FBI investigative team into Saudi Arabia. Fleury gathers Special Agent Janet Mayes, a forensic examiner, FBI analyst Adam Leavitt, an intelligence analyst, and Special Agent Grant Sykes, a bomb technician, to go to Saudi Arabia. On arrival they are met by Colonel Faris al-Ghazi, the commander of the Saudi State Police Force providing security at the compound. The investigation is being run by General Al Abdulmalik of the SANG, who does not give Fleury and his team permission to investigate.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: The FBI team is invited to the palace of Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Khaled for a dinner. While at the palace, Fleury persuades the Prince that Colonel al-Ghazi is a natural detective and should be allowed to lead the investigation. With this change in leadership, the Americans are allowed hands-on access to the crime scene. While searching for evidence, Sergeant Haytham and Sykes discover the second bomb was detonated in an ambulance. Fleury learns the brother of one of the dead terrorists had access to ambulances and police uniforms. Colonel al-Ghazi orders a special forces team to raid a house, managing to kill a few heavily armed terrorists. Following the raid, the team discovers clues, including photos of the U.S. and other Western embassies in Riyadh. Soon afterward, the U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Damon Schmidt notifies Fleury and his team that they have been ordered to return to the United States.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: On their way to King Khalid International Airport, their convoy is attacked and incapacitated. Leavitt is dragged out of the wrecked car and kidnapped while Fleury manages to wound one attacker. Al-Ghazi commandeers a civilian vehicle to chase the fourth SUV and the other car holding Leavitt into the dangerous Al-Suwaidi neighborhood of Riyadh. As they pull up, a gunman fires rocket-propelled grenades at them and a fierce firefight starts. Leavitt is tied up inside a complex.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: While Sykes and Haytham watch the entrance to the complex, al-Ghazi, Fleury, and Mayes follow a blood trail and kill many gunmen inside. Mayes, separated from the others, finds Leavitt and his attackers, preparing an execution video of Leavitt. She kills the remaining insurgents, and al-Ghazi and the team start to leave. Fleury then realizes there is a trail of blood leading to the back of the apartment. After they enter, Mayes comforts a girl in the apartment and offers her candy. In return, the girl offers Mayes a marble, similar to those embedded in the bodies of some bombing victims. Al-Ghazi sees the grandfather, reaches out with his hand, and offers to help him stand. When the old man gives him his hand, al-Ghazi sees that the man is missing the same fingers as Abu Hamza al-Masri in the terrorist group's many videos and confirms his suspicion that the grandfather is the terrorist leader. Abu Hamza's teenage grandson walks out of the bedroom and shoots al-Ghazi in the neck, then he starts to point his gun at Mayes, prompting Fleury to kill him. Abu Hamza then pulls out an assault rifle and Haytham kills him. As Abu Hamza dies, another grandchild hugs him and Abu Hamza whispers something into his ear to calm the child down. Al-Ghazi dies in Fleury's arms.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: At al-Ghazi's house, Fleury and Haytham meet his family. Fleury tells his son that al-Ghazi was his good friend, mirroring a similar scene earlier in the movie wherein he comforted Special Agent Manner's son. Fleury and his team return to the United States, where they are commended by FBI Director James Grace for their outstanding work. Leavitt asked Fleury and Mayes what he had whispered to her to calm her down earlier in the film. The scene cuts to Abu Hamza's daughter asking her own son what his grandfather whispered to him as he was dying. The grandson tells his mother, "Don't fear them, my child. We are going to kill them all," a similar line to what Fleury had whispered to Mayes.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: Prior to filming, director Peter Berg spent two weeks in Saudi Arabia researching the film. Filming began on July 10, 2006, on the west side of the old Maricopa County Courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona. Additional scenes were being filmed concurrently in Mesa, Arizona; the scenes at the American compound were shot at the Polytechnic campus of Arizona State University. In some of the trailer frames, saguaro cacti not native to Saudi Arabia are visible in the background. The scenes in the men's locker room at the beginning of the film were filmed in the men's locker room and detention area of the Gilbert Police Department. The FBI briefing scene was filmed in the media amphitheater/classroom in the same police building. The high speed driving scenes were filmed on Loop 202, which runs through Mesa and Gilbert, just prior to its opening for public use only a few miles from the ASU campus.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: While shooting on location in Mesa, Berg was involved in a fatal accident that resulted in the death of another member of the production team. The SUV he was riding in collided with a John Deere Gator all-terrain vehicle driven by Nick Papac. Papac died three hours later. On August 8, 2008, Papac's parents Michael Papac and Michele Bell filed a lawsuit against the director, a driver, and the production company. The lawsuit was dropped in 2008. Filming resumed one day after the incident.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: On-location filming took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for two weeks in mid-September. Since Universal Pictures does not have an office in the Middle East, the production was facilitated by a local production firm called Filmworks, based in Dubai. Filming also took place at the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 51% based on 180 reviews, with a rating average of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "While providing several top-notch action scenes, "The Kingdom" ultimately collapses under the weight of formula and muddled politics." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has an average weighted score of 56 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: "Weekly Standard" columnist John Podhoretz called the film "perfectly paced" and "remarkably crisp and satisfying", arguing that it evokes the films "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three", "Dog Day Afternoon", and "The New Centurions". "The New York Times" critic A. O. Scott called it "a slick, brutishly effective genre movie". He also stated that "Just as "" offered the fantasy do-over of the aftermath of the Vietnam War, "The Kingdom" can be seen as a wishful revisionist scenario for the American response to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film three stars out of four, remarking "Fleury goes John Wayne on their ass." Evan Williams of "The Australian" called it "an excellent thriller" and stated that it "may be the first Hollywood film to confront Saudi involvement in international terrorism."


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: "New York Post" critic Lou Lumenick stated that "Hollywood provides the Islamic world another reason to hate America with "The Kingdom"," calling it "xenophobic" and "pandering." "The A.V. Club"s Scott Tobias gave the movie a C, criticizing the movie's "queasy brand of escapism" by offering the audience the pleasure of "[w]inning imaginary wars" and giving an idealized portrayal of the efficiency of American intelligence. He says the film appeals to the audience's "basest instincts" and that, despite one sympathetic Arab character, the film could be tarred as racist. Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" accused the film of "treating its audience like cash-dispensing machines". Kenneth Turan of "The Los Angeles Times" called it "a slick excuse for efficient mayhem that's not half as smart as it would like to be." He added that "the film's thematic similarity to those jingoistic World War II-era 'Yellow Peril' films makes it hard not to feel your humanity being diminished." Scholar Moustafa Bayoumi has critiqued the racialization of Arabs in the film (along with The Siege) and suggested it is representative of an emerging sub-genre he says is defined by "the notion of African-American leadership of the Arab world, intertwined with friendship with it."


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: Faisal Abbas, media editor of the London-based international Arabic journal "Asharq Al Awsat", wrote on the newspaper's English website that "despite some aspects which might be perceived by some as negative, many might be pleasantly surprised after watching this film, bearing in mind that Arabs have for a long time been among Hollywood's favorite villains." Faisal concluded that "In all cases, the film is definitely action-packed, and perhaps Saudis and Arabs may enjoy it more than Americans, as events are depicted as taking place in the Saudi capital…and it is not every day that you watch a Hollywood-style car chase happening on the streets of Riyadh. For Westerners, the movie might be an interesting "insight" to a culture that is very different to their own."


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: In a review titled "One good Arab" for "The Guardian", Palestinian writer Sharif Nashashibi argues the film is one in a long tradition of Western works where Arabs are vilified and Americans are portrayed as heroes, only that this time it bothered to add "a token Arab 'good guy'", equating good with pro-American, "to make up for the fact that the rest of the Arab characters are bad." All other Arab characters in the movie, he says, "are portrayed negatively - from the brutal, hate-filled, anti-western, religiously fanatical terrorists, to the inept, corrupt, heavy-handed, secretive and frustratingly bureaucratic Saudi authorities", as opposed to the "humanity, grief, compassion, determination, ability and patriotism of most of the American characters". He concludes that ""The Kingdom" perpetuates negative stereotypes for a quick buck and an adrenaline rush, at a time in the world where breeding such ignorance and prejudice has proven catastrophic." He also took issue with what he perceived to be star Jamie Foxx's anti-Arab comments to Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, despite being "treated 'like royalty' in the United Arab Emirates" during the shooting.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: "The Kingdom" grossed $47.5 million in the United States and $39 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $86.6 million.


title: The Kingdom (film)

text: The film grossed $17.1 million in 2,733 theatres in the United States and Canada in its opening weekend, ranking #2 at the box office. It also grossed £919,537 in the United Kingdom, about $1.9 million.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

text: Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language gangster film written by Rajat Arora and directed by Milan Luthria. It stars Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut, Prachi Desai and Randeep Hooda. Produced by Ekta Kapoor under the Balaji Motion Pictures banner, "Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai" was released on 30 July 2010 to generally positive reviews from critics, and was a box office hit. The film is loosely based on the lives of Mumbai underworld gangsters Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim. A sequel, "Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara!", was released in 2013.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

text: The film opens in March 1993 in Bombay, with a suicide attempt by ACP Agnel Wilson on the pretext of the recent Bombay bombings. When questioned by his superior over his actions, he breaks down and claims that the bombings are his own fault. Wilson recounts that 18 years ago, when he was posted as the ACP in the Bombay crime branch, his inability to take necessary action led to the rise of Shoaib Khan, a dreaded gangster who played a central role in the bombings.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

text: Throughout the film, Wilson narrates the story of 1970s Bombay, when it was ruled by a kind-hearted smuggler Sultan Mirza, and how Mirza's eventual downfall led to Shoaib's rise to power.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

text: After being hit by a flood in his hometown of Madras, a young Mirza arrives in Bombay, where he lands a job as a coal shoveller near the docks. Despite his meagre earnings, Mirza never fails to help the poor and needy, which soon gains him their respect and admiration. Mirza has thus been given the nickname "Sultan".


title: Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

text: As a grown man, Sultan Mirza becomes the kingpin of Bombay's smuggling underworld in the '70s. Through his influence, Mirza peacefully divides the city among four gangsters, thus thwarting police efforts to curb illegal activities. Despite being a criminal, Sultan Mirza is portrayed as a man of principle with a heart of gold and a godfather-like figure to the people, even going to the extent of refraining from smuggling contraband as it is against his Muslim faith.