title: JB Hi-Fi

text: In August 2018, JB Hi-Fi was ranked as the equal 7th largest consumer electronics and home appliance retailer in the world.


title: JB Hi-Fi

text: On 28 April 2021, it was announced that Richard Murray, JB Hi-Fi's CEO of seven years, would be leaving his role at the end of August to work alongside trader Solomon Lew at the latter's company Premier Investments. Terry Smart, the head of The Good Guys, was announced as Murray's replacement on the same day.


title: Google Chat

text: Google Chat (formerly known as Hangouts Chat) is a communication service developed by Google. Initially designed for teams and business environments, it has since been made available for general consumers. It provides direct message, group conversations, and spaces, which allow users to create and assign tasks and share files in a central place in addition to chatting. It can be accessed through its own website and app or through the Gmail website and app.


title: Google Chat

text: It was first launched on March 9, 2017, as one of the two apps that constitute the replacement for Google Hangouts, the other being Google Meet. It was renamed to Google Chat on April 9, 2020. It was initially only available for Google Workspace customers, but in February 2021, Google began rolling out Google Chat in "early access" to regular consumer accounts until it became fully available in April 2021. Google deprecated the original Hangouts and replaced it with Chat in November 1, 2022.


title: Google Chat

text: Google Chat was first launched as Hangouts Chat on March 9, 2017, for Google Workspace (called G Suite until October 2020) customers only as a replacement for Google Hangouts. All G Suite packages had identical features except for a lack of Vault data retention in the Basic package.


title: Google Chat

text: On April 9, 2020, Google rebranded Hangouts Chat to Google Chat. Following this rebranding, and along with a similar change for Hangouts Meet, the Hangouts brand is to be removed from Google Workspace.


title: Google Chat

text: Google first announced their plan to begin retiring Google Hangouts in October 2019. In October 2020, Google announced that it would open Google Chat up to consumers in 2021. Google also announced that Hangouts conversations, contacts, and history would be migrated over to Google Chat.


title: Google Chat

text: Google Chat began to roll out to consumer accounts in "early access" in February 2021, but at the time Google stated that Hangouts would remain a consumer-level product for people using standard Google accounts. By April 2021, Google Chat became fully available for free as an "early access" service, for users who choose to use it instead of Hangouts.


title: Google Chat

text: In August 2021, Google started automatically signing out Google Hangouts users on iOS and Android and notifying them to switch to Google Chat.


title: Google Chat

text: Google plans to deprecate Google Hangouts and replace it with Google Chat in early 2022. In February 2022, Google announced plans to begin the final migration of all Google Workspace customers from Google Hangouts to Google Chat, which is scheduled to be finalized in May 2022. In September 2022, Google announced all Hangouts data will be deleted by January 1, 2023.


title: Google Chat

text: Google Chat is divided into two sections, chat and spaces. The Chat section contains direct conversations with other people and group conversations. In addition to be able to access Google Chat from its website and app, Google Chat can also be accessed through its integration with the Gmail website and app.


title: Google Chat

text: In May 2022, Google announced that Chat would display banners warning users against potential phishing and malware attacks coming from personal accounts. This development for Google Chat was the latest attempt to prevent phishing and security breaches for users.


title: Google Chat

text: Spaces, originally called Rooms, is a chat room feature built within Google Chat for topic-based collaboration, with shared files, tasks and conversations. It functions alongside Google Chat and Google Meet to integrate group productivity features like message threading and real-time collaboration to organize topic-based conversations without exiting Gmail. The feature revives the brand name previously used in an unrelated service of the same name from 2016 to 2017, with the rebranding occurring as part of the expansion of Google Workspace to all users in 2021. Spaces are designed for collaboration on long-term projects. In contrast to spaces, group conversations only support chatting and do not have any task functionality or a separate files tab to view a list of shared files. Spaces also allow users to change the name of the chat, which is not possible with group conversations, and they allow users to only be notified when they are mentioned. Each space has three tabs, a chat tab for chatting, a files tab for sharing files, and a tasks tab for creating and assigning tasks.


title: Google Chat

text: The service is accessible from within Gmail alongside Chat and Meet as part of the Google Workspace expansion to all Gmail users. With the relaunch, Spaces allows up to 8,000 users to collaborate on projects and utilize other Workspace features such as creating Google Drive documents and Google Meet meetings from within a Space, as well as integration with Task creation and Calendar availability. By the end of 2022, the Spaces team size limit will increase to 25,000. Spaces are discoverable across an organization and a Space's creator is the default manager of the space with the ability to delegate manager status to another user. The move from Rooms to Spaces also brought improvements in moderation and security features. In February 2022, Google rolled out a new Gmail interface for Workspace that was designed to better integrate Spaces as well as Chat and Meet. Spaces is expected to gain increased functionality when Google Currents is shut down sometime in 2023 and user content is moved to Spaces.


title: Croke Park

text: Croke Park (, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Since 1891 the site has been used by the GAA to host Gaelic sports, including the annual All-Ireland in Gaelic football and hurling.


title: Croke Park

text: A major expansion and redevelopment of the stadium ran from 1991 to 2005, raising capacity to its current 82,300 spectators. This makes Croke Park the third-largest stadium in Europe, and the largest not usually used for association football in Europe.


title: Croke Park

text: Other events held at the stadium include the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2003 Special Olympics, and numerous musical concerts. In 2012, Irish pop group Westlife sold out the stadium in record-breaking time: less than 5 minutes. From 2007 to 2010, Croke Park hosted home matches of the Ireland national rugby union team and the Republic of Ireland national football team, while their new Aviva Stadium was constructed. This use of Croke Park for non-Gaelic sports was controversial and required temporary changes to GAA rules. In June 2012, the stadium hosted the closing ceremony of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress during which Pope Benedict XVI gave an address over video link.


title: Croke Park

text: The area now known as Croke Park was owned in the 1880s by Maurice Butterly and known as the City and Suburban Racecourse, or Jones' Road sports ground. From 1890 it was also used by the Bohemian Football Club. In 1901 Jones' Road hosted the IFA Cup football final when Cliftonville defeated Freebooters.


title: Croke Park

text: Recognising the potential of the Jones' Road sports ground a journalist and GAA member, Frank Dineen, borrowed much of the £3,250 asking price and bought the ground in 1908. In 1913 the GAA came into exclusive ownership of the plot when they purchased it from Dineen for £3,500. The ground was then renamed Croke Park in honour of Archbishop Thomas Croke, one of the GAA's first patrons.


title: Croke Park

text: In 1913, Croke Park had only two stands on what is now known as the Hogan stand side and grassy banks all round. In 1917, a grassy hill was constructed on the railway end of Croke Park to afford patrons a better view of the pitch. This terrace was known originally as Hill 60, later renamed Hill 16 in memory of the 1916 Easter Rising. It is erroneously believed to have been built from the ruins of the GPO, when it was constructed the previous year in 1915.


title: Croke Park

text: In 1918, the GAA set out to create a high capacity stadium at Croke Park. Following the Hogan Stand, the Cusack Stand, named after Michael Cusack from Clare (who founded the GAA and served as its first secretary), was built in 1927. 1936 saw the first double-deck Cusack Stand open with 5000 seats, and concrete terracing being constructed on Hill 16. In 1952 the Nally Stand was built in memorial of Pat Nally, another of the GAA founders. Seven years later, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the GAA, the first cantilevered "New Hogan Stand" was opened.


title: Croke Park

text: The highest attendance ever recorded at an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final was 90,556 for Offaly v Down in 1961. Since the introduction of seating to the Cusack stand in 1966, the largest crowd recorded has been 84,516.


title: Croke Park

text: On 21 November 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, Croke Park was the scene of a massacre perpetrated by the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC).This was in response to the Irish Republican Army organised by Michael Collins, who assassinated the "Cairo Gang" – a group of alleged undercover British intelligence agents working and living in Dublin. IRA operatives went to a number of addresses and killed or fatally wounded 15 men. 2 members of the public were also murdered during these attacks. The status of some of these killings remains unclear. The RIC entered the ground and began shooting into the crowd, killing or fatally wounding 14 civilians during a Dublin-Tipperary Gaelic football match. The dead included 13 spectators and Tipperary player Michael Hogan. Posthumously, the Hogan stand, built in 1924, was named in his honour. Those shootings, on the day which became known as Bloody Sunday, were a reprisal for the killing of 15 people associated with the Cairo Gang, a group of British intelligence officers, by Michael Collins' "Squad" earlier that day.


title: Croke Park

text: In 1924, American rodeo promoter, Tex Austin, staged the Dublin Rodeo, Ireland's first professional rodeo at Croke Park Stadium. For seven days, with two shows each day from August 18 to August 24, sell out crowds saw cowboys and cowgirls from Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina and Australia compete for rodeo championship titles. Canadian bronc riders such as Andy Lund and his brother Art Lund, trick riders such as Ted Elder and Vera McGinnis were among the contestants. British Pathe filmed some of the rodeo events.


title: Croke Park

text: In 1984 the organisation decided to investigate ways to increase the capacity of the old stadium. The design for an 80,000 capacity stadium was completed in 1991. Gaelic sports have special requirements as they take place on a large field. A specific requirement was to ensure the spectators were not too far from the field of play. This resulted in the three-tier design from which viewing games is possible: the main concourse, a premium level incorporating hospitality facilities and an upper concourse. The premium level contains restaurants, bars and conference areas. The project was split into four phases over a 14-year period. Such was the importance of Croke Park to the GAA for hosting big games, the stadium did not close during redevelopment. During each phase different parts of the ground were redeveloped, while leaving the rest of the stadium open. Big games, including the annual All-Ireland Hurling and Football finals, were played in the stadium throughout the development.


title: Croke Park

text: The first phase of construction was to build a replacement for Croke Park's Cusack Stand. A lower deck opened for use in 1994. The upper deck opened in 1995. Completed at a cost of £35 million, the new stand is 180 metres long, 35 metres high, has a capacity for 27,000 people and contains 46 hospitality suites. The new Cusack Stand contains three tiers from which viewing games is possible: the main concourse, a premium level incorporating hospitality facilities and finally an upper concourse. One end of the pitch was closer to the stand after this phase, as the process of slightly re-aligning the pitch during the redevelopment of the stadium began. The works were carried out by Sisk Group.


title: Croke Park

text: Phase Two of the development started in late 1998 and involved extending the new Cusack Stand to replace the existing Canal End terrace. It involved reacquiring a rugby pitch that had been sold to Belvedere College in 1910 by Frank Dineen. In payment and part exchange, the college was given the nearby Distillery Road sportsgrounds.


title: Croke Park

text: It is now known as The Davin Stand (Irish: "Ardán Dáimhím"), after Maurice Davin, the first president of the GAA. This phase also saw the creation of a tunnel which was later named the Ali tunnel in honour of Muhammad Ali and his fight against Al Lewis in July 1972 in Croke Park.


title: Croke Park

text: Phase Three saw the building of the new Hogan Stand. This required a greater variety of spectator categories to be accommodated including general spectators, corporate patrons, VIPs, broadcast and media services and operation staff. Extras included a fitted-out mezzanine level for VIP and Ard Comhairle (Where the dignitaries sit) along with a top-level press media facility. The end of Phase Three took the total spectator capacity of Croke Park to 82,000.


title: Croke Park

text: The 1999 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final was the last to be held with the old Hogan Stand in place.


title: Croke Park

text: After the 2003 Special Olympics, construction began in September 2003 on the final phase, Phase Four. This involved the redevelopment of the Nally Stand, named after the athlete Pat Nally, and Hill 16 into a new Nally End/Dineen Hill 16 terrace. While the name Nally had been used for the stand it replaced, the use of the name Dineen was new, and was in honour of Frank Dineen, who bought the original stadium for the GAA in 1908, giving it to them in 1913. The old Nally Stand was taken away and reassembled in Pairc Colmcille, home of Carrickmore GAA in County Tyrone.


title: Croke Park

text: The phase four development was officially opened by the then GAA President Seán Kelly on 14 March 2005. For logistical reasons (and, to a degree, historical reasons), and also to provide cheaper high-capacity space, the area is a terrace rather than a seated stand, the only remaining standing-room in Croke Park. Unlike the previous Hill, the new terrace was divided into separate sections – Hill A (Cusack stand side), Hill B (behind the goals) and the Nally terrace (on the site of the old Nally Stand). The fully redeveloped Hill has a capacity of around 13,200, bringing the overall capacity of the stadium to 82,300. This made the stadium the second biggest in the EU after the Camp Nou, Barcelona. However, London's new Wembley stadium has since overtaken Croke Park in second place. The presence of terracing meant that for the brief period when Croke Park hosted international association football during 2007–2009, the capacity was reduced to approximately 73,500, due to FIFA's statutes stating that competitive games must be played in all-seater stadiums.


title: Croke Park

text: The pitch in Croke Park is a soil pitch that replaced the Desso GrassMaster pitch laid in 2002. This replacement was made after several complaints by players and managers that the pitch was excessively hard and far too slippery.


title: Croke Park

text: Since January 2006, a special growth and lighting system called the SGL Concept has been used to assist grass growing conditions, even in the winter months. The system, created by Dutch company SGL (Stadium Grow Lighting), helps in controlling and managing all pitch growth factors, such as light, temperature, CO, water, air and nutrients.


title: Croke Park

text: With the 2007 Six Nations clash with France and possibly other matches in subsequent years requiring lighting the GAA installed floodlights in the stadium (after planning permission was granted). Indeed, many other GAA grounds around the country have started to erect floodlights as the organisation starts to hold games in the evenings, whereas traditionally major matches were played almost exclusively on Sunday afternoons. The first game to be played under these lights at Croke Park was a National Football League Division One match between Dublin and Tyrone on 3 February 2007 with Tyrone winning in front of a capacity crowd of over 81,000 – which remains a record attendance for a National League game, with Ireland's Six Nations match with France following on 11 February. Temporary floodlights were installed for the American Bowl game between Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers on the pitch in 1997, and again for the 2003 Special Olympics.


title: Croke Park

text: There was great debate in Ireland regarding the use of Croke Park for sports other than those of the GAA. As the GAA was founded as a nationalist organisation to maintain and promote indigenous Irish sport, it has felt honour-bound throughout its history to oppose other, foreign (in practice, British), sports. In turn, nationalist groups supported the GAA as the prime example of purely Irish sporting culture.


title: Croke Park

text: Until its abolition in 1971, rule 27 of the GAA constitution stated that a member of the GAA could be banned from playing its games if found to be also playing association football, rugby or cricket. That rule was abolished but rule 42 still prohibited the use of GAA property for games with interests in conflict with the interests of the GAA. The belief was that rugby and association football were in competition with Gaelic football and hurling, and that if the GAA allowed these sports to use their ground it might be harmful to Gaelic games, while other sports, not seen as direct competitors with Gaelic football and hurling, were permitted, such as the two games of American football (Croke Park Classic college football game between The University of Central Florida and Penn State, and an American Bowl NFL preseason game between the Chicago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers) on the Croke Park pitch during the 1990s.


title: Croke Park

text: In June 2003, Croke Park served as the main venue for the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games with a noted highlight of the Special Olympics being Muhammad Ali attending the opening ceremony. They were the first edition of the Special Olympics World Summer Games not to be held in the United States.


title: Croke Park

text: On 16 April 2005, a motion to temporarily relax rule No. 42 was passed at the GAA Annual Congress. The motion gives the GAA Central Council the power to authorise the renting or leasing of Croke Park for events other than those controlled by the Association, during a period when Lansdowne Road – the venue for international soccer and rugby matches – was closed for redevelopment. The final result was 227 in favour of the motion to 97 against, 11 votes more than the required two-thirds majority.


title: Croke Park

text: In January 2006, it was announced that the GAA had reached agreement with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) to stage two Six Nations games and four soccer internationals at Croke Park in 2007 and in February 2007, use of the pitch by the FAI and the IRFU in 2008 was also agreed. These agreements were within the temporary relaxation terms, as Lansdowne Road was still under redevelopment until 2010. Although the GAA had said that hosted use of Croke Park would not extend beyond 2008, irrespective of the redevelopment progress, fixtures for the 2009 Six Nations rugby tournament saw the Irish rugby team using Croke park for a third season. 11 February 2007 saw the first rugby union international to be played there. Ireland were leading France in a Six Nations clash, but lost 17–20 after conceding a last minute (converted) try. Raphael Ibanez scored the first try in that match; Ronan O'Gara scored Ireland's first ever try in Croke Park.


title: Croke Park

text: A second match between Ireland and England on 24 February 2007 was politically symbolic because of the events of Bloody Sunday in 1920. There was considerable concern as to what reaction there would be to the singing of the British national anthem "God Save the Queen". Ultimately the anthem was sung without interruption or incident, and applauded by both sets of supporters at the match, which Ireland won by 43–13 (their largest ever win over England in rugby).


title: Croke Park

text: On 2 March 2010, Ireland played their final international rugby match against a Scotland team that was playing to avoid the wooden spoon and hadn't won a championship match against Ireland since 2001. Outside half, Dan Parks inspired the Scots to a 3-point victory and ended Irish Hopes of a triple crown.


title: Croke Park

text: On 24 March 2007, the first association football match took place at Croke Park. The Republic of Ireland took on Wales in UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group D, with a Stephen Ireland goal securing a 1–0 victory for the Irish in front of a crowd of 72,500. Prior to this, the IFA Cup had been played at the then Jones' Road in 1901, but this was 12 years before the GAA took ownership.


title: Croke Park

text: Negotiations took place for the NFL International Series's 2011 game to be held at Croke Park but the game was awarded to Wembley Stadium. In July 2013, it was announced that Penn State would open their 2014 college football season against Central Florida at Croke Park.


title: Croke Park

text: Croke Park was included as one of the stadiums in the Euro 2028 bid by England, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.


title: Croke Park

text: On 2 May 2009, Croke Park was the venue for a Heineken Cup rugby semi-final, in which Leinster defeated Munster 25–6. The attendance of 82,208 set a new world record attendance for a club rugby union game. This record stood until 31 March 2012 when it was surpassed by an English Premiership game between Harlequins and Saracens at Wembley Stadium which hosted a crowd of 83,761. This was beaten again in 2016 in the Top 14 final at the Nou Camp which hosted a crowd of 99,124


title: Croke Park

text: A walkway, known under a sponsorship deal as Etihad Skyline Croke Park, opened on 1 June 2012. From 44 metres above the ground, it offers views of Dublin city and the surrounding area. The Olympic Torch was brought to the stadium and along the walkway on 6 June 2012.


title: Croke Park

text: On 11 February 2013, the GAA opened the Hall of Fame section in the Croke Park museum. The foundation of the award scheme is the Teams of the Millennium the football team which was announced in 1999 and the hurling team in 2000 and all 30 players were inducted into the hall of fame along with Limerick hurler Éamonn Cregan and Offaly footballer Tony McTague who were chosen by a GAA sub-committee from the years 1970–74.


title: Croke Park

text: New inductees will be chosen on an annual basis from the succeeding five-year intervals as well as from years preceding 1970.


title: Croke Park

text: In April 2014, Kerry legend Mick O'Dwyer, Sligo footballer Micheál Kerins, along with hurlers Noel Skehan of Kilkenny and Pat McGrath of Waterford became the second group of former players to receive hall of fame awards.


title: Croke Park

text: The new National Handball Centre, located at the southeast corner of the stadium on Sackville Avenue, is close to completion, with the final minor stages of building delayed slightly due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The new centre contains three 4-Wall handball courts - including a three sided glass wall show court with amphitheatre style seating for a capacity of 500 spectators, a Softball show court with seating capacity for 200 spectators and three 1-Wall courts as well as offices for GAA Handball staff, a bar and cafe as well as a community centre. The centre was used by Ireland's national health service, the Health Service Executive for COVID-19 testing during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Centre's Official Opening has been delayed due to both the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the final completion of remaining building works, the Centre has had a 'soft' opening in Spring 2022, allowing registered players to book the courts through Croke Park. The official opening of the centre will be taking place in December 2022, coinciding with the first ever European 1-Wall Tour "EliteStop" taking place on Saturday 10th - Sunday 11th December 2022. It is expected the best One-wall handball/wallball players from around the world will be invited to attend. The event is being organised by the GAA in partnership with the European 1-Wall Tour and is expected to be livestreamed, with the finals broadcast live on Irish television.


title: Manila Luzon

text: Karl Philip Michael Westerberg, better known by the stage name Manila Luzon (born August 10, 1981), is an American drag queen, recording artist, comedian and reality television personality. Luzon came to international attention as a contestant on the third season of "RuPaul's Drag Race" and on the first and fourth seasons of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars".


title: Manila Luzon

text: The publicity generated by her participation on the show brought many new opportunities to perform at various national and international LGBT events throughout the U.S. and Canada, including New York Pride and Vancouver Pride. She has been active in AIDS awareness and activism. After being featured in a Gilead Sciences ad titled "Red Ribbon Runway" with fellow "Drag Race" co-stars Carmen Carrera, Delta Work, Shangela and Alexis Mateo, the dress she was featured wearing was auctioned off by Logo in commemoration of World AIDS Day. Proceeds from the auction were donated to the National Association of People with AIDS.


title: Manila Luzon

text: In 2011, Luzon, along with third season "Drag Race" contestants Carmen Carrera and Shangela, appeared in a television commercial for travel-related website Orbitz. In addition to the commercial, she and Shangela also did an entertainment news segment for "US Weekly" where they discussed current male celebrities and reimagine them as drag queens. In August 2012, NiniMomo, a Long Island-based company specializing in poseable fashion dolls, released a doll in Luzon's likeness and wearing the now famous pineapple dress she wore during her time on "Drag Race". The doll, which was available via special order, marked the first time a "Drag Race" contestant has been immortalized as a doll. Two years later, a couple of fans of Manila produced their very own 3D-printed Manila Luzon doll.


title: Manila Luzon

text: On 6 August 2012, it was announced that Manila was one of twelve past "Drag Race" contestants selected to join the cast of the of "", which premiered on the Logo network on October 22, 2012. Paired with contestant Latrice Royale to form "Team Latrila", the duo was eliminated in the third episode of the series that aired on November 5, 2012, placing in joint 7th/8th place. Their elimination was one of many who led to widespread criticism of the first installment of "All Stars". On October 12, 2012, Manila appeared on an episode of the MTV series "Made" where she mentored a young man in the art of drag, allowing him to explore his drag alter-ego as he prepared for New York City's Gay Pride March. Prior to the airing of the season finale of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars", Manila (along with "All Stars" contestants Raven, Latrice Royale, and Tammie Brown) appeared in a television commercial for travel website Orbitz's new portal for LGBT leisure travel. After the season, Luzon was a playable character with Pandora Boxx and Yara Sofia for the "RuPaul's Drag Race: Dragopolis" mobile app.


title: Manila Luzon

text: On November 9, 2018, it was announced that Manila would return to "All Stars 4," alongside fellow "" "Team Latrila" team-mate Latrice Royale, but this time would compete separately against each other rather than as a team. Despite being one of the season's front-runners with three challenge wins, Manila was controversially eliminated by Naomi Smalls in the eighth episode of the season, which aired on February 1, 2019, ultimately placing sixth. On November 16, 2018, indie musician VELO released the single "Where My Man At," featuring Luzon and "Drag Race" season 9 and season 10 contestant Eureka O'Hara. The two also appear in the song's music video, together with Thorgy Thor, Ginger Minj and Trinity the Tuck). She later appeared as a guest for the first challenge in the premiere of season 11 of "Drag Race". On February 1, 2019, Luzon released her single "Go Fish" alongside its music video. The video features fellow "All Stars 4" contestant Naomi Smalls, Luzon's husband, and the "Heathers", a prominent clique of "Drag Race 3" contestants featuring Luzon, Raja, Delta Work, and Carmen Carrera. Following the buzz of her controversial departure in "All Stars", the video received more than 300,000 views in less than 24 hours. Luzon made a guest appearance on "General Hospital" in late summer 2019. In June 2019, a panel of judges from "New York" magazine placed her 19th on their list of "the most powerful drag queens in America", a ranking of 100 former "Drag Race" contestants.


title: Manila Luzon

text: Westerberg took his drag name from the capital city (Manila) and the largest island (Luzon) of the Philippines, where his mother was born. His father is American. Westerberg grew up in Minnesota and resides in Los Angeles, but he also considers New York City home. A longtime resident of Manhattan, Westerberg resided in Harlem with his boyfriend at the time, Antoine Ashley (Sahara Davenport), who was a contestant on the second season of "Drag Race". Ashley later died of heart failure at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on October 1, 2012. Westerberg studied graphic design at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.


title: Manila Luzon

text: As of 2013, Westerberg resides in Los Angeles, California where he moved shortly after Ashley's death. In November 2016, Westerberg proposed to his boyfriend Michael Alvarez, also known as Mic J Rez. On December 24, 2017, the couple wed at the Silver Bells Wedding Chapel, with an Elvis impersonator as the officiant.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was estimated 32,711 in 2019, making it the third-largest city in Wyoming after Cheyenne and Casper. Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is north west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie was settled in the mid-19th century along the Union Pacific Railroad line, which crosses the Laramie River at Laramie. It is home to the University of Wyoming, WyoTech, and a branch of Laramie County Community College. Laramie Regional Airport serves Laramie. The ruins of Fort Sanders, an army fort predating Laramie, lie just south of the city along Route 287. Located in the Laramie Valley between the Snowy Range and the Laramie Range, the city draws outdoor enthusiasts with its abundance of outdoor activities.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: In 2011, Laramie was named as one of the best cities in which to retire by "Money Magazine", which cited its scenic location, low taxes, and educational opportunities.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie was named for Jacques LaRamie, a French or French-Canadian trapper who disappeared in the Laramie Mountains in the early 1820s and was never heard from again. He was one of the first Europeans to visit the area. European-American settlers named a river, mountain range, peak, US Army fort, county, and city for him. More Wyoming landmarks are named for him than for any other trapper but Jim Bridger. Because the name was used so frequently, the town was called Laramie City for decades to distinguish it from other uses.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The city was founded in the mid-1860s as a tent city near the Overland Stage Line route, the Union Pacific portion of the first transcontinental railroad, and just north of Fort Sanders army post. The rails reached Laramie on May 4, 1868 when construction crews worked through town. A few passengers arrived on that same day. The first regular passenger service began on May 10, 1868, by which time entrepreneurs were building more permanent structures. Laramie City (as it was known in early years) soon had stores, houses, a school, and churches. Laramie's fame as the western terminal of the Union Pacific Railroad, acquired when the section from North Platte, Nebraska was opened in May, ended in early August 1868 when a section of track was opened to Benton, east of present-day Sinclair, Wyoming.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The frontier town initially suffered from lawlessness. Its first mayor, M. C. Brown, resigned his office on June 12, 1868 after six turbulent weeks, saying that the other officials elected alongside him on May 2 were guilty of "incapacity and laxity" in dealing with the city's problems. This was due to the threat to the community from three half-brothers, early Old West gunman "Big" Steve Long, Con Moyer and Ace Moyer. Long was Laramie's first marshal, and with his brothers owned the saloon "Bucket of Blood." The three began harassing settlers, forcing them to sign over the deeds to their property to them. Any who refused were killed, usually goaded into a gunfight by Long. By October 1868, Long had killed 13 men.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The first Albany County sheriff, rancher N. K. Boswell, organized a "Vigilance Committee" in response. On October 28, 1868, Boswell led the committee into the "Bucket of Blood," overwhelmed the three brothers, and lynched them at an unfinished cabin down the street. Through a series of other lynchings and other forms of intimidation, the vigilantes reduced the "unruly element" and established a semblance of law and order.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: In 1869, Wyoming was organized as Wyoming Territory, the first legislature of which passed a bill granting equal political rights to women in the territory. In March 1870, five Laramie residents became the first women in the world to serve on a jury. As Laramie was the first town in Wyoming to hold a municipal election, on September 6, 1870, Laramie resident Louisa Swain was the first woman in the United States to cast a legal vote in a general election.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Early businesses included rolling mills, a railroad-tie treatment plant, a brick yard, a slaughterhouse, a brewery, a glass manufacturing plant, and a plaster mill, as well as the railroad yards. In 1886, a plant to produce electricity was built. Several regional railroads were based in Laramie, including the Laramie, North Park and Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company founded in 1880 and the Laramie, North Park and Western Railroad established in 1901.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Governor Francis E. Warren signed a bill that established the University of Wyoming (UW) in 1886, the only public university in the state. Laramie was chosen as its site, and UW opened there in 1887. Under the terms of the Morrill Act, also known as the Land Grant College Act, in 1891 UW added an agricultural college and experiment station to gain benefits as a land grant college.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The city was covered by international media in 1998 after the murder of Matthew Shepard, who was a gay student at the University of Wyoming. His murder generated an international outcry. It became the symbolic focus for a nationwide campaign against gay hate crimes. Federal hate crimes legislation was signed into law in 2009. As of September 2021, Wyoming does not have a hate crimes law, having failed to pass its most recent attempt at a hate crimes law in March 2021. Shepard's murder was the subject of the award-winning play, later adapted as a movie, "The Laramie Project".


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: In 2004, Laramie became the first city in Wyoming to pass a law to prohibit smoking in enclosed workplaces, including bars, restaurants and private clubs. Opponents of the clean indoor air ordinance, funded in part by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, immediately petitioned to have the ordinance repealed. However, the voters upheld the ordinance in a citywide referendum which was conducted concurrently with the 2004 general election. The opponents challenged the validity of the election in court, claiming various irregularities. However, the judge ruled that the opponents had failed to meet their burden of showing significant problems with the election, and the ordinance, which had become effective in April 2005, remained in effect. In August 2005, Laramie's City Council defeated an attempt to amend the ordinance to allow smoking in bars and private clubs.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie is located at (41.312927, −105.587251). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie is on a high plain between two mountain ranges, the Snowy Range, about to the west, and the Laramie Range, to the east. The city's elevation above sea level is approximately . The Laramie River runs through Laramie toward its confluence with the North Platte River east of the Laramie Range.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The city is about west of Cheyenne, and north of Denver, Colorado. Laramie lies along U.S. Route 30, Interstate 80, and U.S. Route 287, and it remains an important junction on the Union Pacific Railroad line.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie's total precipitation averages about a year, and the average number of rainy days per year is about 86. The city experiences a day that is or warmer 2.2 times a year. The average temperature in December is , and in July it is . Annual snowfall averages . Because of the high elevation, winters are long, and summers are short and relatively cool. The growing season is short, as the average window for freezing temperatures is September 14 through June 6, while for accumulating (≥) it is October 5 through May 12.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie has a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification "BSk") with long, cold, dry winters and short, warm, somewhat wetter summers.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 30,816 people, 13,394 households, and 5,843 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 14,307 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 89.5% White, 3.2% Asian, 2.8% from two or more races, 2.5% from other races, 1.3% African American, 0.7% Native American, and 0.1% Pacific Islander. 9.2% of residents were Hispanic or Latino of any race.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: There were 13,394 households, of which 20.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.0% were married couples living together, 6.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 56.4% were non-families. 36.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.14 and the average family size was 2.85.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The median age in the city was 25.4 years. 15.9% of residents were under the age of 18; 32.7% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.5% were from 25 to 44; 17.4% were from 45 to 64; and 7.5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 52.0% male and 48.0% female.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 27,204 people, 11,336 households, and 5,611 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,442.5 people per square mile (942.9/km). There were 11,994 housing units at an average density of 1,076.9 per square mile (415.7/km). The racial makeup of the city was 90.81% White, 1.24% African American, 0.89% Native American, 1.92% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 2.89% from other races, and 2.19% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.94% of the population.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: There were 11,336 households, out of which 23.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.3% were married couples living together, 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.5% were non-families. 33.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.19 and the average family size was 2.83.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 17.5% under the age of 18, 31.8% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 16.8% from 45 to 64, and 8.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females, there were 107.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.7 males.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The median income for a household in the city was $27,319, and the median income for a family was $43,395. Males had a median income of $30,888 versus $22,009 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,036. About 11.1% of families and 22.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.7% of those under age 18 and 8.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie Jubilee Days started in 1940 to celebrate Wyoming Statehood Day on July 10. Since then, Jubilee Days has expanded to include several days around the Fourth of July. Events typically include food, live music, games, carnival rides, a street fair, a parade, a softball tournament, and rodeo events.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The Geological Museum at the University of Wyoming is open to the public and houses more than 50,000 catalogued mineral, rock, and fossil specimens, including a dinosaur exhibit. The university's art museum offers gallery exhibits, lectures, workshops, classes, and public tours year-round. The Fine Arts Concert Hall on campus presents frequent concerts and recitals during the school year. Housed in the Ivinson Mansion near the center of town is the Laramie Plains Museum. The Wyoming Children's Museum and Nature Center has interactive exhibits and pottery classes for children aged 3 and older. In 2012, the Wyoming House for Historic Women was opened in downtown Laramie.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The central library of the Albany County Library system, with a wide range of materials for adults and children, is near downtown Laramie; the system's branch libraries are in Centennial, west of Laramie and Rock River, northwest of Laramie. William Robertson Coe Library, the main library of the University of Wyoming, has materials for general research in business, education, fine arts, science, humanities, and the social sciences as well as audio visual and government documents collections. The Brinkerhoff Geology Library specializes in geology, geophysics, physical geography, mining and petroleum geology, and geological engineering. Also at the university are the George W. Hooper Law Library, the Library Annex, a high-density storage facility located in the basement of the UW Science Complex, the Rocky Mountain Herbarium Library, a learning resources center with materials for teachers and children, and an archives, rare book, and manuscript repository known as the American Heritage Center.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Twenty-one sites in Laramie, including the Wyoming Territorial Penitentiary, are included on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The prison site includes buildings and other exhibits from a frontier community of the late 19th century. The other sites are the Downtown Laramie Historic District, the Ivinson Mansion and Grounds, Old Main on the University of Wyoming campus, the Barn at Oxford Horse Ranch, Bath Ranch, Bath Row, Charles E. Blair House, John D. Conley House, Cooper Mansion, East Side School, Fort Sanders Guardhouse, William Goodale House, Lehman-Tunnell Mansion, Lincoln School, Richardson's Overland Trail Ranch, St. Matthew's Cathedral Close, St. Paulus Kirche, Snow Train Rolling Stock, Union Pacific Athletic Club, and the Vee Bar Ranch Lodge.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Two other Albany County sites near Laramie are on the NRHP. About east of the city is the Ames Monument, a large granite pyramid dedicated to brothers Oakes Ames, a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts, and Oliver Ames, Jr., who were influential in building the Union Pacific portion of the First transcontinental railroad. Oakes Ames was also implicated in the Credit Mobilier scandal and censured by the U.S. House. The other site is Como Bluff, a long ridge extending east–west between Rock River and Medicine Bow. Geologic formations in the ridge contain fossils, including dinosaurs, from the Late Jurassic.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The University of Wyoming Cowboys compete at the NCAA Division I level (FBS-Football Bowl Subdivision for football) as a member of the Mountain West Conference. UW offers 17 NCAA-sanctioned sports teams – nine women's sports and eight men's sports. Wyoming's nine NCAA sports for women include basketball; cross country; golf; soccer; swimming and diving; tennis; indoor track & field; outdoor track and field; and volleyball. UW's eight NCAA sports for men include basketball; cross country; football; golf; swimming and diving; indoor track and field; outdoor track and field; and wrestling.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Sports enthusiasts find much to do in and near Laramie, nestled at above sea level between the Laramie Range (Laramie Mountains) and the Snowy Range (Medicine Bow Mountains). Popular activities include skiing, snowmobiling, mountain biking, hunting, fishing, and hiking.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Rock climbing, hiking, and camping are among the attractions of Vedauwoo, an assemblage of weathered granite slabs, boulders, and cliffs covering in the Medicine Bow – Routt National Forest, about east of Laramie off Interstate 80.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Volunteers from the Medicine Bow Nordic Association, in cooperation with the Forest Service, maintain groomed cross-country ski trails in a sector of the Laramie Range about east of the city. To the west, Snowy Range cross-country trails run through the national forest west of Centennial, and other trails follow gentle terrain southwest of Laramie near Woods Landing. Miles of snowmobile trails wind through the forests, and many forest areas are open to travel by snowshoe.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The Snowy Range Ski Area, about west of Laramie off Wyoming Highway 130, offers downhill skiing and snowboarding on 27 trails ranging in difficulty from beginner to expert.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie is a center for mountain biking. Mountain bike trails meander through forests in the Laramie Range and the Snowy Range. The Medicine Bow Mountain Bike Patrol, part of the Laramie Bicycling Network, is a non-profit volunteer organization that works with the Forest Service to patrol and maintain biking trails east of Laramie. The Medicine Bow Rail–Trail is a mountain bike trail, long, built between 2005 and 2007 on the bed of an abandoned railroad southwest of Laramie. It starts near the town of Albany and Lake Owen and extends south to the town of Mountain Home near the Wyoming–Colorado border. The Laramie Enduro 111K, an endurance mountain bike race of is held annually on Laramie Range trails.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Other annual events include the Poker Run recreational ski race held in the Snowy Mountains each February, and the Tour De Laramie, a bicycle rally with stops at local pubs held in May. The Wyoming Marathon Races, a series of running and ultra-running events held in Medicine Bow National Forest, are held annually each Memorial Day weekend.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Trout fishing is another popular sport in and near Laramie. The Laramie River, which flows north into Wyoming from Colorado, is fished as are the smaller streams in both mountain ranges and the many small plains lakes in the Laramie Basin.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Other outdoor activities popular near Laramie include camping, picnicking, rafting on the Laramie River and the North Platte River, viewing of wildlife such as mule deer, elk, moose, and pronghorn, and general sightseeing. For of its length as it crosses the Snowy Range, the Highway 130 corridor has been designated a National Forest Scenic Byway.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie has 14 city parks that, among them, include playgrounds, seasonal wading pools, jogging and biking paths, baseball and softball fields, basketball hoops, a skateboard park, horseshoe pits, tennis courts, volleyball courts, a fitness circuit court, soccer fields, picnic tables, river fishing, and a seasonally stocked fishing pond. In addition to a public country club and golf course, Laramie residents also have access to the University of Wyoming's 18-hole golf course, and to a wide variety of university recreation sites including squash courts, handball courts, baseball and softball diamonds, basketball courts, a climbing wall, and fields for football, soccer, and track.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The Community Recreation Center has an outdoor swimming pool, an indoor pool, an eight-lane lap pool, water slides, a full-court gymnasium, cardio equipment, circuit weights, and an indoor playground, and it offers programs in adult fitness, youth volleyball, junior basketball, and aquatics. The Community Ice Arena is open for ice skating, skating lessons, hockey, synchronized skating, adult co-ed broomball, and other ice-related activities from October through mid-March. A children's hockey club, a figure skating club, university hockey teams, and adult non-check hockey teams as well as the general public use the ice arena.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: According to a 2012 report by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), a former industrial site for the production of aluminum, arsenic acid, strategic metals and cement now owned by L.C. Holdings, south of Laramie had arsenic concentrations in on-site water well samples 3,100-times higher than DEQ cleanup levels. The site has been storing a 1,000-ton pile of contaminated flue dust from Bunker Hill Mine and Smelting Complex, an Idaho superfund site, under a tarp since the 1980s. In 2011 L.C. Holdings entered the DEQ's "Voluntary Remediation Program".


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie has a council–manager form of government. The council, the city's legislative body, consists of nine members who serve overlapping four-year terms. The council members set policy, approve budgets, pass ordinances, appoint citizen volunteers to advisory boards, and oversee the city staff. Two members of the council are elected from each of three wards. The council picks a mayor and vice-mayor once every two years at the first council meeting in January. Laramie is the county seat of Albany County and houses county offices, courts, and the county library.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: In 2015, Laramie passed an LGBT anti-discrimination bill. The ordinance bans discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing and public accommodations such as bars and restaurants.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Albany County School District #1, the only school district in the county, is headquartered in Laramie. It governs 19 public schools in an area of including Laramie, Centennial, Rock River, and rural locations. A total of about 4,000 students attend these schools, the Laramie fraction of which includes seven elementary schools, one middle school, Laramie High School, and Whiting High School. Snowy Range Academy, a charter school, serves children in grades K–7. The University of Wyoming also offers a Lab School (colloquially referred to as "Prep") for K–9 students.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: St. Laurence, a Catholic school of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne, formerly served children in grades K–6. It opened in 1951 and in 2016 it had 30 students. It closed on June 30, 2016 as its costs had increased and the numbers of students had declined. Laramie Montessori School now occupies the campus.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The main campus of the University of Wyoming is in Laramie. In 2009, about 13,400 students were enrolled there at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels. A branch campus of Laramie County Community College is also in Laramie.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The WyoTech campus offers 9-month courses in Automotive Technology, Collision & Refinishing Technology, and Diesel Technology, as well as a variety of specialized industry programs—including High-Performance Power Trains, Street Rod, Trim and Upholstery, Chassis Fabrication, and Applied Service Management.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The "Laramie Boomerang" is Laramie's main newspaper. The "Branding Iron" is a student-run newspaper at the University of Wyoming. Wyoming Public Television station KCWC-DT, licensed to Central Wyoming College in Riverton, has a transmitter near Laramie known as KWYP-DT.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Many radio stations broadcast from Laramie. Three are Wyoming Public Radio stations: KUWR, 91.9 FM; KUWY, 88.5 FM, classical, and KUWL, 90.1 FM, jazz. The others are KOCA-LP, 93.5 FM, Spanish; KCGY, 95.1 FM, country; KIMX, 104.5 FM, top 40 (CHR); KLMI 106.1, Variety, KRQU, 98.7 FM, classic rock; KARS, 102.9 FM, classic rock; KHAT, 1210 AM, country; and KOWB, 1290 AM, news and talk.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: "The Man from Laramie" was a 1955 western film starring James Stewart. It was shot in the Bonanza Creek Ranch and other places near Santa Fe, New Mexico.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: From 1958 to 1962, Laramie was the setting for ABC TV series "Lawman", starring John Russell and Peter Brown, and from 1959 to 1963, "Laramie" was also the name of an NBC western television series, starring John Smith and Robert Fuller as ranch partners who operate a stagecoach station east of the city. In July 2017, the 83-year-old Fuller visited the city for the very first time, serving as grandmaster of Laramie's annual Jubilee Days parade and festivities.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie in its early days is also featured in Seasons 4 and 5 of the AMC western television drama series "Hell On Wheels", set in California and in Laramie.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: In addition to "The Laramie Project" and the play from which it was adapted, several other cultural depictions of Matthew Shepard are set in Laramie.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: In 2011, German actor and writer Joachim Meyerhoff wrote his first novel, "Amerika", about the year he spent as a student in Laramie. The book was a bestseller in Germany.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: SkyWest Airlines (United) provides daily commercial flights between Laramie Regional Airport and Denver, Colorado. The airport, west of the central business district, is operated and financed by the City of Laramie and Albany County. In addition to commercial flights, the airport serves private and corporate planes and atmospheric research aircraft from the University of Wyoming.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: For intercity service, Laramie is served by Greyhound Lines, with service to and from Cheyenne and Fort Collins. Green Ride of Northern Colorado provides service from Laramie to Fort Collins and Denver International Airport.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: Laramie had passenger rail service from the Union Pacific until 1971. Amtrak continued service until 1983 on the "Pioneer", then again from 1991 to 1997. Only curbside Thruway bus service is currently available.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The former Union Pacific passenger depot in Laramie was donated to the Laramie Plains Museum in 1985, and then to the Laramie Railroad Depot Association in 2009, which operates it as a small museum and a venue for community events.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

text: The city's drinking water comes from the Big Laramie River, the largest single source, and wellfields in the Casper Aquifer, and it is treated in a modern plant. The city's wastewater plant, which replaced an older plant, began operation in 1998. The Solid Waste Division operates the city-owned landfill, about north of the city. Laramie has of streets and of alleys.


title: Honky Château

text: Honky Château is the fifth studio album by English musician Elton John. It was released in 1972, and was titled after the 18th century French chateau where it was recorded, Château d'Hérouville. The album reached number one in the US, the first of John's seven consecutive US number one albums.


title: Honky Château

text: Two singles were released worldwide from "Honky Château", "Rocket Man" and "Honky Cat". A third single, "Hercules", was prepared for release, but this never materialised. This was the final Elton John album on the Uni label in the US and Canada before MCA consolidated all of its various labels under the MCA brand. This and John's earlier Uni albums were later reissued on MCA Records.


title: Honky Château

text: In 2003, the album was ranked number 357 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was revised to number 359 in 2012, and raised to number 251 in a 2020 list. It was certified gold in July 1972 and platinum in October 1995 by the RIAA.


title: Honky Château

text: "Honky Château" was the first in Elton John's streak of chart-topping albums in the US, which culminated with 1975's "Rock of the Westies". Writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the album as an eclectic collection of "ballads, rockers, blues, country-rock, and soul songs."


title: Honky Château

text: It was also the first studio album to feature John's road band of Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums, along with new member Davey Johnstone on electric and acoustic guitars and other fretted instruments, as the core group of musicians. Previously, the record label insisted that John use them for only one track each on "Tumbleweed Connection" and "Madman Across the Water"; the rest of the songs on those two albums were performed by session players. Johnstone had played acoustic guitar, mandolin and sitar on "Madman Across the Water", but on "Honky Chateau", he would be invited to join permanently as a full-band member and he extended his contributions to electric guitar, banjo, slide guitar and backing vocals.


title: Honky Château

text: The opening track "Honky Cat" is a New Orleans funk track reminiscent of Dr. John and Allen Toussaint, and features a four-piece horn section arranged by producer Gus Dudgeon. Also of note is the on-record debut of the backing vocal combination of Johnstone, Murray and Olsson, who first added what would soon become their "trademark" sound to "Rocket Man". The trio's unique approach to arranging their backing vocal tracks would be a fixture on John's singles and albums for the next several years.


title: Honky Château

text: In 1995, Dudgeon remastered the album, adding only an uptempo, piano-based, rock and roll version of "Slave", that was originally sidelined in favour of the slower, guitar-based version on the original LP. This alternate version was originally due to be released as the B-Side to the ultimately unreleased "Hercules" single. It didn't get an official release until it appeared on the compilation Rare Masters in 1992.


title: Honky Château

text: Critically, "Honky Château" is regarded as one of John's finest records. Jon Landau of "Rolling Stone" approved the original LP as "a rich, warm, satisfying album that stands head and shoulders above the morass of current releases". In the "Los Angeles Times", Robert Hilburn hailed the music as innovative and Taupin's lyrics as humorous, ironic and satirical.


title: Honky Château

text: Retrospective reviews of "Honky Château" have also been incredibly positive"." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of "AllMusic" wrote of the album that it "plays as the most focused and accomplished set of songs Elton John and Bernie Taupin ever wrote," despite its eclectic appearance. Chris Roberts also praised the album in a review for BBC, saying that the album "stands up as one of [John's] most eclectic, durable collections".


title: Honky Château

text: "Honky Château" became the first of a string of albums by Elton John to hit No. 1 in the "Billboard" Charts in the US. In Canada, the album peaked at No. 3 on the "RPM 100" Top Albums Chart, reaching this position on 29 July 1972, dropping two places to No. 5, then returning to No. 3 for a further twelve consecutive weeks before falling to No. 9 on 4 November of the same year.


title: NCAA Division II

text: NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment offered in Division III.


title: NCAA Division II

text: Before 1973, the NCAA's smaller schools were grouped together in the College Division. In 1973, the College Division split in two when the NCAA began using numeric designations for its competitions. The College Division members who wanted to offer athletic scholarships or compete against those who did became Division II, while those who chose not to offer athletic scholarships became Division III.


title: NCAA Division II

text: Nationally, ESPN televises the championship game in football, CBS televises the men's basketball championship, and ESPN2 televises the women's basketball championship. Stadium broadcasts six football games on Thursdays during the regular season, and one men's basketball game per week on Saturdays during that sport's regular season.


title: NCAA Division II

text: There are currently 300 full, 4 reclassifying and 2 provisional members of Division II. Division II schools tend to be smaller public universities and many private institutions. A large minority of Division II institutions (133 schools / 42%) have fewer than 2,499 students. Only 12 institutions have more than 15,000 undergraduates, and only Simon Fraser University has more than 25,000. Division II has a diverse membership, with two active member institutions in Alaska and three in Hawaii. Additionally, it is the only division that has member institutions in Puerto Rico and the only division that has expanded its membership to include an international member institution. Simon Fraser University became the first institution outside the US to enter the NCAA membership process. This occurred after the Division II Membership Committee accepted the institution's application during a July 7–9 meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. Simon Fraser, located in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, British Columbia, began a two-year candidacy period September 1, 2009. Prospective members also must complete at least one year of provisional status before being accepted as full-time Division II members. In the fall of 2012, the NCAA President's Council officially approved Simon Fraser University as the organization's first international member. In April 2017, the NCAA made permanent the pilot program under which Simon Fraser was admitted to the NCAA, allowing each division to determine whether to allow Canadian or Mexican schools to join. In January 2018, Division II became the first NCAA division to officially allow Mexican schools to apply for membership, provided that they meet the same standards as US-based D-II members, including US regional accreditation. The Mexican school CETYS, which is fully accredited in both countries, is seeking to join the NCAA with the backing of the California Collegiate Athletic Association. At this time, CETYS had men's and women's basketball, men's and women's volleyball, baseball, softball, men's soccer, cheerleading and football. Because their football team carries a larger roster than most sports, this may require the university to field six women's teams and four men's team in order to meet the equal gender balance requirement (they were also looking to add a track and field team for men).


title: NCAA Division II

text: Sports are ranked according to total possible scholarships (number of teams x number of scholarships per team). Since all Division II sports are considered equivalency sports (as opposed to the "head-count" status of several Division I sports: men's and women's basketball, FBS football, women's gymnastics, women's tennis, women's [indoor] volleyball), all scholarship numbers are indicated with a decimal point, with a trailing zero if needed.


title: NCAA Division II

text: Another feature unique to Division II is what the NCAA calls the "National Championships Festival"—an annual event, explicitly modeled after the Olympics, in which a single city hosts national championship finals in multiple sports over a period of several days. Each festival has formal opening and closing ceremonies, and competitors are housed in a centrally located hotel, allowing a village-like experience. The first such festival was held in Orlando, Florida in 2004 for spring sports. It became an annual event in the 2006–07 school year, and has been held each school year since with the exception of 2009–10. Since the current annual cycle began in 2006–07, the event has rotated between featuring fall, spring, and winter sports, in that order (the cycling was not interrupted by the one-year hiatus).


title: NCAA Division II

text: Division II institutions have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women (or four for men and six for women), with two team sports for each sex, and each playing season represented by each sex. Teams that consist of both men and women are counted as men's teams for sports sponsorship purposes. There are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria—football and men's and women's basketball teams must play at least 50 percent of their games against Division II or Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) or Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) opponents. For sports other than football and basketball there are no scheduling requirements, as long as each contest involves full varsity teams. The only NCAA sport in which contests against club teams can count toward a team's contest minimum is women's rugby, in which two such contests per school year can be counted. There are not attendance requirements for football, nor arena size requirements for basketball. There are maximum financial aid awards for each sport, as well as a separate limit on financial aid awards in men's sports, that a Division II school must not exceed. Division II teams usually feature a number of local or in-state student-athletes. Many Division II student-athletes pay for school through a combination of scholarship money, grants, student loans and employment earnings. Division II athletics programs are financed in the institution's budget like other academic departments on campus. Traditional rivalries with regional institutions dominate schedules of many Division II athletics programs.


title: NCAA Division II

text: Athletic scholarships are offered in most sponsored sports at most institutions, but with more stringent limits as to the numbers offered in any one sport than at the Division I level. For example, Division II schools may give financial aid in football equivalent to 36 full scholarships (whereas each school in Division I FBS, the highest level, is allowed 85 individuals receiving financial aid for football), although some Division II conferences limit the number of scholarships to a lower level. Division II scholarship programs are frequently the recipients of student-athletes transferring from Division I schools; a transfer student does not have to sit out a year before resuming sports participation as would usually be the case in the event of transferring from one Division I institution to another. Several exceptions to this rule currently exist, of which three are the most significant. First, football players transferring from a Division I FBS school to a Division I FCS school do not have to sit out a year, provided that the player has at least two remaining seasons of athletic eligibility. The same also applies to players transferring from scholarship-granting FCS schools to non-scholarship FCS schools. Second, a first-time transfer does not have to sit out a year, provided that the player's former institution grants a scholarship release. Before the 2021–22 school year, this applied to sports other than football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, and men's ice hockey; it was extended to the remaining sports effective in 2021–22. Additionally, student-athletes in any sport who complete a bachelor's degree and still have athletic eligibility remaining can transfer to another school and be immediately eligible, provided that they enroll in a separate degree program (whether graduate, undergraduate, or professional) at the new institution. There are also some restrictions with transferring to another school for the same sport in the same conference.


title: NCAA Division II

text: The newest D-II conference is the Mountain East Conference, formed in 2012 after the football-sponsoring schools in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) announced that they would leave to form a new league, a move that led to the demise of the WVIAC. The Mountain East was approved by the NCAA Division II Membership Committee in February 2013, and became an official conference on September 1 of that year.


title: NCAA Division II

text: The most recent change to the roster of D-II conferences was the demise of the Heartland Conference at the end of the 2018–19 school year. In August 2017, eight of its nine members announced a mass exodus to the Lone Star Conference. The remaining Heartland member, Newman University, announced in February 2018 that it would become a de facto member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association at that time. Newman technically became an associate member because it does not sponsor football, a mandatory sport for full MIAA members, but now houses all of its varsity sports in that league. One of the eight schools that originally announced a move to the LSC, Rogers State University, later changed course and instead chose to follow Newman into de facto MIAA membership (like Newman, and indeed all other Heartland members, Rogers State does not sponsor football).


title: NCAA Division II

text: A more recent change saw the Great Northwest Athletic Conference drop football after the 2021–22 school year. Over time, the GNAC saw most of its football-playing schools drop the sport, and it entered into a football scheduling alliance for 2020 and 2021 with the Lone Star Conference. The alliance was further extended for 2022 and 2023, by which time the GNAC football membership had dropped to three, but was superseded when the three GNAC schools became football-only LSC members effective in 2022.


title: NCAA Division II

text: The NCAA imposes limits on the total financial aid each Division II member may award in each sport that the school sponsors. All Division II sports are classified as "equivalency" sports, meaning that the NCAA restricts the total financial aid that a school can offer in a given sport to the equivalent of a set number of full scholarships. This differs from Division I, in which some sports are "head-count" sports in which the NCAA limits the total number of individuals who can receive athletic aid. In another practice that differs from Division I, Division II members are limited to a combined total of 60 scholarship equivalents for men's sports apart from football and basketball.


title: NCAA Division II

text: Scholarship limits in bold are identical to those for Division I members in the same sport for the same sex. Most, but not all, of these sports have a single championship open to schools from all divisions (for example bowling and rifle), or a combined Division I/II national championship and a separate Division III championship (as in women's ice hockey and men's volleyball). Examples of sports with identical scholarship numbers in the two divisions, but separate national championships for each, include men's cross-country and women's rowing.


title: NCAA Division II

text: In sports that conduct "National Collegiate" championships open to schools from multiple divisions, Division II schools are allowed to award the same number of scholarships as Division I members. If the Division I scholarship limit is higher than the Division II limit, the D-II member must annually file a declaration of intent to compete under Division I rules with the NCAA prior to June 1.


title: NCAA Division II

text: Additionally, if the NCAA sponsors a Division I championship but not a Division II championship in a given sport, D-II members are allowed to compete in the D-I championship, and are also allowed to operate under D-I scholarship limits. An example of this situation can be seen in men's ice hockey, which has not had a Division II championship in the 21st century. Several full members of the Northeast-10 Conference, plus men's hockey-only member Post University, compete under Division II scholarship limits; other Division II schools with programs in that sport choose to play as Division I programs under the higher Division I scholarship limits.


title: NCAA Division II

text: The NCAA classifies teams that consist of both men and women as men's teams for purposes of sports sponsorship and D-II limitations on total scholarships. Three NCAA sports are open to competitors of both sexes. In rifle, not only is there a single team championship for all divisions, but men and women compete as equals. Fencing and skiing also have single team championships, but schools have separate men's and women's squads, with all bouts or races involving members of a single sex, and the NCAA has separate men's and women's scholarship limits in both sports.


title: NCAA Division II

text: The NCAA does not strictly prevent its member institutions from playing outside of their own division, or indeed playing against schools that are not members of the NCAA, but it is discouraged in many sports.


title: NCAA Division II

text: Many Division II schools frequently schedule matches against members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), which consists of colleges and universities across the United States and Canada that promote competitive and character-based athletics that is controlled by its membership, as opposed to the NCAA that serves as a regulating body.


title: NCAA Division II

text: Division II schools also frequently schedule "money games", usually in football and men's basketball, against Division I schools.


title: NCAA Division II

text: In football, D-II teams once occasionally played games against schools that are now in Division I FBS, but this practice has ended because, under current NCAA rules, FBS schools cannot use victories over schools below the FCS level for establishing a bowl eligibility. Today, D-II "money games" are exclusively against FCS schools, whose postseason eligibility is less seriously impacted by scheduling a D-II opponent. In basketball, where conference tournaments play a large role in determining postseason participants, D-I schools have less of a penalty for scheduling an occasional D-II opponent, resulting in more "money games".


title: NCAA Division II

text: In any event, the D-II school is almost invariably the visiting team, and is invited to play with the knowledge that it will likely be defeated but will receive a substantial (at least by Division II standards) monetary reward which will help to finance much of the rest of the season and perhaps other sports as well. Such games are funded by Division I schools that can afford such games.


title: NCAA Division II

text: In recent years, "money games" in men's basketball have also included preseason exhibitions against D-I programs, typically in the same region, that do not count in official statistics for either team. Under NCAA rules, Division I teams are allowed to play two exhibition games in a season and must host these games.


title: NCAA Division II

text: The University of Kansas helps the state's four Division II members by rotating them onto the Jayhawks' exhibition schedule annually. Milwaukee, which has been a Division I member since 1990, has continued its series with their former Division II rival Wisconsin-Parkside as part of their exhibition schedule.


title: NCAA Division II

text: When these exhibition games do happen, there are times when the Division II team does win, and against a well-respected Division, I program. In 2009, a Division II team beat the eventual Big East regular season champion. In 2010, two other Division II teams beat teams that reached the NCAA Division I tournament. In 2011, another Division II team defeated a Division I team that finished in the top half of the Pac-12 Conference. In 2012, another Division II team beat eventual Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season and tournament champion Miami.


title: NCAA Division II

text: Also in basketball, one of the best-known early-season tournaments for D-I men's teams, the Maui Invitational, is hosted by D-II member Chaminade. Through the 2017 edition, Chaminade competed in every tournament, but now competes only in odd-numbered years. The now-defunct Great Alaska Shootout, which had men's and women's tournaments, was also hosted by a D-II member, namely Alaska–Anchorage. Chaminade typically loses all games it plays in Maui; Alaska–Anchorage also typically lost all of its men's Shootout games, but was frequently competitive in the women's version.


title: NCAA Division II

text: Matches between the different collegiate divisions in non-revenue sports are often quite competitive. Indeed, in some sports, among them ice hockey and men's volleyball, there is no Division II national championship. In hockey, many schools whose athletic programs are otherwise Division II compete in Division I, and men's volleyball has a truncated divisional structure with a Division III championship but no Division II championship. In any sport that does not have a Division II national championship, Division II members are allowed to award the same number of scholarships as Division I members. One D-II conference, the East Coast Conference, features D-I Bryant as an associate member in bowling, a sport with a single NCAA championship event open to all divisions.


title: NCAA Division II

text: An earlier example is that at least during the 1970s, NCAA golf tournaments in California were usually played with Division I and Division II schools competing together in one group. Sometimes, Division II schools won those tournaments. Additionally, matches involving two or four schools were common among schools from these two divisions.


title: Ginger Zee

text: Ginger Renee Colonomos (née Zuidgeest; born January 13, 1981), known by her pseudonym Ginger Zee, is an American television personality. She is the chief meteorologist for ABC News, after having been the network's weekend meteorologist.


title: Ginger Zee

text: Zee was born Ginger Renee Zuidgeest on January 13, 1981, in Orange, California, the daughter of Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft ("née" Hemleb) and Robert Zuidgeest. The family moved to Michigan before she was 1 year old. Zee was named after "Ginger" from "Gilligan's Island" by her Dutch father, due to his love of the show.


title: Ginger Zee

text: In her extended family, Zee has a stepfather named Carl Craft, and two half-sisters, Adrianna and Elaina Craft. Zee's paternal grandparents are Adriaan Cornelis "Adrian" or "Arie" Zuidgeest and Hillegonda "Hilda" Zuidgeest ("née" VanderShoor), who both immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands. Zee's maternal grandfather is George Joseph Hemleb and grandmother Paula Adeline Wesner.


title: Ginger Zee

text: Zee said she chose to be a meteorologist because "I saw a waterspout on Lake Michigan when I was eight... I was mesmerized. I really thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen." In 1999, Zee graduated from Rockford High School in Rockford, Michigan. After that, Zee went on to Valparaiso University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in meteorology as well as a major in both mathematics and Spanish. Her goal at graduation was to be a meteorologist on "The Today Show" by age 30.


title: Ginger Zee

text: After graduating from college, Zee worked for various media outlets such as WEYI-TV in Flint, Michigan, WYIN-TV in Merrillville, Indiana, WLAV-FM and WOOD-TV both in Grand Rapids, Michigan, WBMA-LD ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, Alabama as an intern under chief meteorologist James Spann, and WMAQ in Chicago, Illinois, an NBC owned and operated station. While working at WMAQ from 2006-2011, Zee was once asked to fill in as a guest meteorologist on the weekend edition of "The Today Show", and this fulfilled her high school goal. In addition, Zee is an AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist.


title: Ginger Zee

text: Zee reached national prominence when she joined "Good Morning America Weekend" on November 12, 2011. Zee occasionally appears on other ABC programming such as "Nightline" and "ABC World News Tonight".


title: Ginger Zee

text: On December 2, 2013, ABC News announced that Zee would become Chief Meteorologist for "Good Morning America" and weather editor for ABC News, succeeding Sam Champion, who took a job with The Weather Channel.


title: Ginger Zee

text: In 2015, she competed in an episode of "Celebrity Jeopardy!" against Bellamy Young, who won, and Josh Gad.


title: Ginger Zee

text: On March 4, 2016, Zee was announced as a celebrity competitor on the 22nd season of "ABC's Dancing with the Stars". She was paired with professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy. The couple finished in third place behind Paige VanZandt in second and Nyle DiMarco in first.


title: Ginger Zee

text: At age 21, Zee was diagnosed with narcolepsy. In August 2013, Zee became engaged to WNBC personality Benjamin Aaron Colonomos, known as Ben Aaron. The couple wed on June 7, 2014. Their first child together, a son, named Adrian Benjamin Colonomos, was born in December 2015 in Petoskey, Michigan. On August 14, 2017, she announced on "Good Morning America" she was pregnant with her second child. In February 2018, she gave birth to another son, Miles Macklin. The family lives in Manhattan.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: Breakout is an arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and released on May 13, 1976. It was designed by Steve Wozniak, based on conceptualization from Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow who were influenced by the seminal 1972 Atari arcade game "Pong". In "Breakout", a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen and the goal is to destroy them all by repeatedly bouncing a ball off a paddle into them. The arcade game was released in Japan by Namco. "Breakout" was a worldwide commercial success, among the top five highest-grossing arcade video games of 1976 in both the United States and Japan and then among the top three highest-grossing arcade video games of 1977 in the US and Japan. The 1978 Atari VCS port uses color graphics instead of a monochrome screen with colored overlay.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: While the concept was predated by Ramtek's "Clean Sweep" (1974), "Breakout" spawned an entire genre of clones. It was the inspiration for aspects of the Apple II computer and Taito's "Space Invaders" (1978). An official sequel was released in 1978, "Super Breakout", which eventually became the pack-in game for the Atari 5200 console in 1982. "Super Breakout" introduced multiple balls in play at once, which became a common feature in the genre. In 1986 the "Breakout" concept found new legs with Taito's "Arkanoid", which itself spawned dozens of imitators. In Japan, the genre is known as "block kuzushi" ("block breaker") games.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: "Breakout" begins with eight rows of bricks, with each two rows a different kinds of color. The color order from the bottom up is yellow, green, orange and red. Using a single ball, the player must knock down as many bricks as possible by using the walls and/or the paddle below to hit the ball against the bricks and eliminate them. If the player's paddle misses the ball's rebound, they will lose a turn. The player has three turns to try to clear two screens of bricks. Yellow bricks earn one point each, green bricks earn three points, orange bricks earn five points and the top-level red bricks score seven points each. The paddle shrinks to one-half its size after the ball has broken through the red row and hit the upper wall. Ball speed increases at specific intervals: after four hits, after twelve hits, and after making contact with the orange and red rows.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: The highest score achievable for one player is 896; this is done by eliminating two screens of bricks worth 448 points per screen. Once the second screen of bricks is destroyed, the ball in play harmlessly bounces off empty walls until the player restarts the game, as no additional screens are provided. However, a secret way to score beyond the 896 maximum is to play the game in two-player mode. If "Player One" completes the first screen on their third and last ball, then immediately and deliberately allows the ball to "drain", Player One's second screen is transferred to "Player Two" as a third screen, allowing Player Two to score a maximum of 1,344 points if they are adept enough to keep the third ball in play that long. Once the third screen is eliminated, the game is over.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: The original arcade cabinet of Breakout featured artwork that revealed the game's plot to be that of a prison escape. According to this release, the player is actually playing as one of a prison's inmates attempting to knock a ball and chain into a wall of their prison cell with a mallet. If the player successfully destroys the wall in-game, their inmate escapes with others following.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: A precursor to "Breakout" was "Clean Sweep", released by Ramtek in 1974. In that game, the player uses a paddle to hit a ball up towards a playfield of dots, which disappear as the ball moves through the dots; the goal is to achieve a clean sweep by erasing all the dots. "Clean Sweep" was one of the top ten best-selling arcade video games of 1974 and sold a total of 3,500 arcade cabinets.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: "Breakout", a discrete logic (non-microprocessor) game, was designed by Nolan Bushnell, Steve Wozniak, and Steve Bristow, all three of whom were involved with Atari and its Kee Games subsidiary. Atari produced innovative video games using the "Pong" hardware as a means of competition against companies making ""Pong" clones". Bushnell wanted to turn "Pong" into a single player game, where the player would use a paddle to maintain a ball that depletes a wall of bricks. Bushnell was certain the game would be popular, and he and Bristow partnered to produce a concept. Al Alcorn was assigned as the "Breakout" project manager, and he began development with Cyan Engineering in 1975. Bushnell assigned Steve Jobs to design a prototype. Jobs was offered $750, with an award for every TTL (transistor-transistor logic) chip fewer than 50. Jobs promised to complete a prototype within four days.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: Bushnell offered the bonus because he disliked how new Atari games required 150 to 170 chips; he knew that Jobs' friend Steve Wozniak, an employee of Hewlett-Packard, had designed a version of Pong that used about 30 chips. Jobs had little specialized knowledge of circuit board design but knew Wozniak was capable of producing designs with a small number of chips. He convinced Wozniak to work with him, promising to split the fee evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Wozniak had no sketches and instead interpreted the game from its description. To save parts, he had "tricky little designs". Near the end of development, Wozniak considered moving the high score to the screen's top, but Jobs claimed Bushnell wanted it at the bottom; Wozniak was unaware of any truth to his claims. The original deadline was met after Wozniak worked at Atari four nights straight, doing some additional designs while at his day job at Hewlett-Packard. This equated to a bonus of $5,000, which Jobs kept secret from Wozniak. Wozniak has stated he only received payment of $350; he believed for years that Atari had promised $700 for a design using fewer than 50 chips, and $1000 for fewer than 40, stating in 1984 that "we only got 700 bucks for it". Wozniak was the engineer, and Jobs was the breadboarder and tester. Wozniak's original design used 42 chips; the final, working breadboard he and Jobs delivered to Atari used 44, but Wozniak said: "We were so tired we couldn't cut it down".


title: Breakout (video game)

text: The simplicity of the game created a problem when the copyright filing was denied because it "did not contain at least a minimum amount of original pictorial or graphic authorship, or authorship in sounds" and Atari appealed. In "Atari Games Corp. v. Oman", then Court of Appeals Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg found that the work was copyrightable.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: Atari was unable to use Wozniak's design. By designing the board with as few chips as possible, he made the design difficult to manufacture; it was too compact and complicated to be feasible with Atari's manufacturing methods. However, Wozniak claims Atari could not understand the design and speculates "maybe some engineer there was trying to make some kind of modification to it". Atari ended up designing their own version for production, which contained about 100 TTL chips. Wozniak found the gameplay to be the same as his original creation and could not find any differences.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: The arcade cabinet uses a black and white monitor, but the monitor has strips of colored cellophane placed over it so that the bricks appear to be in color.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: A software version of "Breakout" was written for the Atari 2600 by Brad Stewart. The game was published in 1978, but with only six rows of bricks, and the player is given five turns to clear two walls instead of three. In the Breakthru variant, the ball does not bounce off of the bricks but continues through them until it hits the wall. Atari had this term trademarked and used it in addition to "Breakout" to describe gameplay, especially in look-alike games and remakes.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: In October 1976, the annual "RePlay" chart listed "Breakout" as the fifth highest-earning arcade video game of 1976 in the United States, below Midway Manufacturing's "Sea Wolf", "Gun Fight" and "Wheels" ("Speed Race") by Taito and Midway, and Atari's "Indy 800". "Breakout" was later the third highest-earning arcade video game of 1977 in the US, below "Sea Wolf" and "Sprint 2", and the fifth highest-earning arcade video game of 1978 in the US. "Breakout" had a total arcade production run of 11,000 cabinets manufactured by Atari, estimated to have generated over ( adjusted for inflation) in sales revenue.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: "Breakout" was also a commercial success for Namco in Japan. On the first annual "" arcade chart, "Breakout" was the fourth highest-grossing arcade video game of 1976 in Japan, below Taito's "Ball Park" ("Tornado Baseball") and "Speed Race DX" and Sega's "Heavyweight Champ". The following year, "Breakout" was Japan's third highest-grossing arcade game of 1977, below only two racing games, Namco's electro-mechanical game "F-1" and Taito's video game "Speed Race DX". In total, "Breakout" sold 15,000 arcade units worldwide by 1981.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: The Atari 2600 version sold 256,265 units in 1980, making it the second best-selling home video game of 1980, below "Space Invaders". "Breakout" went on to sell a total of 1,650,336 units by 1983, making it the ninth best-selling Atari game .


title: Breakout (video game)

text: In 2021, "The Guardian" listed "Breakout" as the fourth greatest video game of the 1970s, below "Galaxian", "Asteroids" and "Space Invaders".


title: Breakout (video game)

text: "Breakout" was an influential game that had an impact on the video game and computer industries. "Breakout" spawned an entire genre of clones. Ten years later, the concept found new legs with Taito's 1986 "Arkanoid", which itself spawned dozens of imitators. In Japan, the genre is known as "block kuzushi" ("block breaker") games. "Breakout" was also the basis and inspiration for certain aspects of the Apple II personal computer and Taito's arcade shoot 'em up game "Space Invaders" (1978).


title: Breakout (video game)

text: "Breakout" directly influenced Wozniak's design for the Apple II computer. He said: "A lot of features of the Apple II went in because I had designed "Breakout" for Atari. I had designed it in hardware. I wanted to write it in software now". This included his design of color graphics circuitry, the addition of game paddle support and sound, and graphics commands in Integer BASIC, with which he wrote "Brick Out", a software clone of his own hardware game. Wozniak said in 1984:


title: Breakout (video game)

text: Tomohiro Nishikado cited "Breakout" as the original inspiration behind his hit "Space Invaders" (1978). He wanted to adapt the same sense of achievement and tension from destroying targets one at a time for a shooting game.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: The success of the game resulted in "Super Breakout"'s release in 1978. It contains three separate game modes. The home ports include "Breakout" as a fourth mode, using the "Super Breakout" visual style.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: A 3D "Breakout"-inspired game was published simply as "Breakout" in 2000 for the PC and PlayStation by Hasbro Interactive's Atari Interactive subsidiary.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: In 2011 Atari S.A. released an updated version of "Breakout" as "Breakout Boost". The chief difference is the addition of improved graphics, power-ups, and unique brick types.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: An updated version of the game has been announced for release exclusively for the Intellivision Amico.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: A revamped version of the game titled, "Breakout: Recharged", released on February 10, 2022, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows and Atari VCS. It was developed by Adamvision Studios and SneakyBox.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: "Pilgrim in the Microworld" is an autobiography by David Sudnow detailing his obsession with "Breakout". Sudnow describes studying the game's mechanics, visiting the manufacturer in Silicon Valley, and interviewing the programmers.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: The first-generation iPod Classic had an Easter egg where holding down the center button for a few seconds in the "About" menu caused "Breakout" to appear.


title: Breakout (video game)

text: On the 37th anniversary of the game's release, Google released a secret version of "Breakout" accessible by typing "atari breakout" in Google Images. The image thumbnails form the "breakout" bricks, turn different colors, and after a ball and paddle appear the game begins.


title: Arlene Francis

text: Arlene Francis (born Arline Francis Kazanjian; October 20, 1907 – May 31, 2001) was an American actress, radio and television talk show host, and game show panelist. She is known for her long-running role as a panelist on the television game show " What's My Line?", on which she regularly appeared for 25 years, from 1950 to 1975, on both the network and syndicated versions of the show.


title: Arlene Francis

text: Francis was born on October 20, 1907, in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Leah (née Davis) and Aram Kazanjian. Her Armenian father was studying art in Paris at the age of 16 when he learned that both his parents had died in one of the massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman government in Turkey between 1894 and 1896, known as the Hamidian Massacres. He emigrated to the United States and became a portrait photographer, opening his own studio in Boston in the early 20th century. Later in life, Kazanjian painted canvases of dogwoods, "rabbits in flight", and other nature scenes, selling them at auction in New York.


title: Arlene Francis

text: When Francis was seven years old, her father decided that opportunities were greater in New York and moved the family to a flat in Washington Heights, Manhattan. She remained a New York resident until she entered a San Francisco nursing home in 1993.


title: Arlene Francis

text: After attending Finch College, Francis began a varied career as an entertainer based in New York City. She became an accomplished stage actress, performing in many local theatre and off-Broadway plays and in 25 Broadway plays through 1975. In 1932, she made her film debut in Universal's "Murders in the Rue Morgue". She appeared in films sporadically until the 1970s.


title: Arlene Francis

text: Francis became a well-known New York City radio personality, hosting several programs. In 1938 she became the female host of the radio game show "What's My Name?". Although several men appeared as co-hosts over the years, Francis was the sole female host throughout the program's long run (on ABC, NBC, and Mutual networks) until it ended in 1949.


title: Arlene Francis

text: In 1943, she began as host of a network radio game show, "Blind Date", which she hosted also on ABC and NBC television from 1949 to 1952. She was a regular contributor to NBC Radio's "Monitor" in the 1950s and 1960s and hosted a long-running midday chat show on WOR-AM that ran from 1960 to 1984.


title: Arlene Francis

text: Francis was a panelist on the weekly game show "What's My Line?" from its second episode on CBS in 1950 until its network cancellation in 1967, and in its daily syndicated version from 1968 to 1975.