title: Mespilus germanica

text: Unripe fruits have a relatively high tannin content of about 2.6% and are therefore used for tanning. The tannin causes flocculation of proteins, enabling its use to reduce the turbidity of wine. In Saarland, Germany, a schnapps is made from the fruit of the medlar, which is refined with hawthorn. "Medlar tea" usually is not made from "M. germanica", but from wolfberry or goji, which is sometimes inaccurately translated as "red medlar."


title: Mespilus germanica

text: "Mespilus germanica" kernel oil was used for the first time to produce biodiesel, whereby linoleic acid and oleic acid with about 40% are main constituents of the extracted oil. The physical properties of the produced biodiesel allows an alternative for diesel fuels without any modification to the conventional engines. Leaves of medlar fruit were used to produce activated carbon to remove heavy metals like Ni from aqueous solutions.


title: Mespilus germanica

text: Phytosynthesized silver nanoparticles could be fabricated from "M. germanica" extract and show antibacterial, antibiofilm activities against multidrug resistance of "Klebsiella pneumoniae" clinical strains.


title: Mespilus germanica

text: In general, the medlar fruits were found to be rich in potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and iron.


title: Mespilus germanica

text: "M. germanica" contains various phytochemicals varying between genotypes, fruit ripeness, harvest time and storage conditions. The fruits are particularly rich in monoterpenes and organic acids. Amino acids, sugars, and organic acids affect flavor.


title: Mespilus germanica

text: Fructose content increases steadily during fruit development, whereas sucrose content increases for 4 months and decreases afterwards. Tannin content and fruit acid content, especially ascorbid acid, decreases during fruit development. In ripe fruit, glutamate and aspartate were the major amino compounds, but also total amino acid composition changed during fruit development.


title: Mespilus germanica

text: A fruit which is rotten before it is ripe, the medlar is used figuratively in literature as a symbol of prostitution or premature destitution. For example, in the Prologue to "The Reeve's Tale", Geoffrey Chaucer's character laments his old age, comparing himself to the medlar, which he names using the Old English term for the fruit, "open-arse":


title: Mespilus germanica

text: In William Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens", Apemantus forces an apple upon Timon: "The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends. When thou wast in thy gilt and perfume, they mock'd thee for too much curiosity; in thy rags thou know'st none, but art despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee; eat it", perhaps including a pun on "meddler", one who meddles in affairs, as well as on rottenness. (IV.iii.300–305).


title: Mespilus germanica

text: In "Measure for Measure", Lucio excuses his denial of past fornication because "they would else have married me to the rotten medlar." (IV.iii.171).


title: Mespilus germanica

text: In "As You Like It", Rosalind makes a complicated pun involving grafting her interlocutor with the trees around her which bear love letters and with a medlar: "I'll graff it with you, and then I shall graff it with a medlar. Then it will be the earliest fruit i' th' country; for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the medlar." (III.ii.116–119).


title: Mespilus germanica

text: The most famous reference to medlars, often bowdlerized until modern editions accepted it, appears in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", when Mercutio laughs at Romeo's unrequited love for his mistress Rosaline (II, 1, 34–38):


title: Mespilus germanica

text: In the 16th and 17th centuries, medlars were bawdily called "open-arses" because of the shape of the fruits, inspiring boisterous or humorously indecent puns in many Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. The name survived in common use well into the 20th century.


title: Mespilus germanica

text: In Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote the eponymous hero and Sancho Panza "stretch themselves out in the middle of a field and stuff themselves with acorns or medlars."


title: Mespilus germanica

text: In François Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel, medlars play a role in the origin of giants, including the eponymous characters. After Cain killed Abel, the blood of the just saturated the Earth, causing enormous medlars to grow. Humans who ate these medlars grew to great proportions. Those whose bodies grew longer became giants, and were the ancestors of Gargantua and Pantagruel.


title: Mespilus germanica

text: Thomas Dekker also draws a comparison in his play "The Honest Whore": "I scarce know her, for the beauty of her cheek hath, like the moon, suffered strange eclipses since I beheld it: women are like medlars, no sooner ripe but rotten."


title: Mespilus germanica

text: Another reference can be found in Thomas Middleton's "A Trick to Catch the Old One" in the character of Widow Medler, impersonated by a courtesan, hence the following pun: "Who? Widow Medler? She lies open to much rumour." (II, 2, 59).


title: Mespilus germanica

text: In the Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln, Glückel recalls having had a craving for medlars when she was pregnant with her son Joseph, but ignoring the desire. When the baby was born, he was sickly and too weak to be breastfed. Remembering a superstition about the dangers of pregnant women not fulfilling their cravings, Glückel asked for someone to fetch her some medlars for the baby. As soon as the fruit touched the baby's lips, he ate all the pulp given to him, and was then able to be breastfed. (Book 4, Section 14)


title: Mespilus germanica

text: Saki uses medlars in his short stories, which often play on the decay of Edwardian society. In "The Peace of Mowsle Barton", the outwardly quiet farmstead features a medlar tree and corrosive hatred. In "The Boar Pig", the titular animal, Tarquin Superbus, is the point of contact between society ladies cheating to get into "the" garden party of the season and a not entirely honest young schoolgirl who lures him away by strategically throwing well-bletted medlars: "Come, Tarquin, dear old boy; you know you can't resist medlars when they're rotten and squashy."


title: Mespilus germanica

text: Italian novelist Giovanni Verga's naturalist narrative "I Malavoglia" is titled "The House by the Medlar Tree" in the English translation.


title: Mespilus germanica

text: Philip Pullman describes Sir Charles Latrom's perfume as "rotted like a medlar" in his book "The Subtle Knife".


title: Edith Pretty

text: Edith May Pretty (née Dempster; 1 August 1883 – 17 December 1942) was an English landowner on whose land the Sutton Hoo ship burial was discovered after she hired Basil Brown, a local excavator and amateur archeologist, to find out if anything lay beneath the mounds on her property.


title: Edith Pretty

text: Edith Pretty was born in Elland, Yorkshire, to Elizabeth (née Brunton, died 1919) and Robert Dempster (born 1853). She had an older sister, Elizabeth. The Dempsters were wealthy industrialists who amassed their fortune from the manufacture of equipment related to the gas industry. Robert Dempster's father, also Robert Dempster, had founded Robert Dempster and Sons in 1855 for this purpose.


title: Edith Pretty

text: In 1884 the family moved to Manchester, where her father founded the engineering firm of R. & J. Dempster with his brother, John. Edith and her family travelled extensively abroad, visiting Egypt, Greece, and Austria-Hungary. After finishing her education at Roedean School, Edith spent six months in Paris in 1901. Later that year, the family embarked on a world tour that included visits to the British Raj and the United States.


title: Edith Pretty

text: From 1907 to 1925, Edith's father took a lease on Vale Royal Abbey, a country house near Whitegate, Cheshire, the family seat of Lord Delamere. Edith grew up with an indoor staff of 25 in addition to 18 gardeners. She engaged in public and charitable works that included helping to buy land for a Christian mission.


title: Edith Pretty

text: During World War I, Edith served as quartermaster at the Red Cross' auxiliary hospital at Winsford, and helped to house Belgian refugees. By 1917 she was working with the French Red Cross at Vitry-le-François, and Le Bourget in France.


title: Edith Pretty

text: After her mother's death in 1919, Edith cared for her father at Vale Royal. When he died in Cape Town during a visit to South Africa in 1925, Edith and her sister inherited an estate valued at more than £500,000 – about £32 million in 2022.


title: Edith Pretty

text: In 1926, Edith married Frank Pretty (1878–1934) of Ipswich, who had first proposed on her 18th birthday, and had corresponded with her during the War. Pretty was the son of William Tertius Pretty (1842–1916), owner of a corset-making and drapery business in Ipswich. Pretty had been a Major in the Suffolk Regiment's 4th (Territorial) Battalion and had been wounded twice during the War. His participation in 1915 in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle was captured in a 1918 painting by the artist Fred Roe. After the War, Pretty continued to serve the Suffolk Regiment, obtaining the rank of lieutenant colonel and commander of the 4th Battalion in 1922, while also working in the family business.


title: Edith Pretty

text: Edith gave up the lease on Vale Royal after her marriage and bought the 213-hectare (526-acre) Sutton Hoo estate, including Sutton Hoo House, along the River Deben, near Woodbridge, Suffolk. She served as a magistrate in Woodbridge, and in 1926 donated the Dempster Challenge Cup to Winsford Urban District Council, her former Red Cross posting. The Cup has been awarded annually for most years since to a plot-holder on Winsford's garden allotments.


title: Edith Pretty

text: In 1930, at the age of 47, Edith gave birth to a son, Robert Dempster Pretty. Frank Pretty died on his 56th birthday in 1934, from stomach cancer diagnosed earlier that year.


title: Edith Pretty

text: Edith became interested in Spiritualism, visiting faith healer William Parish and supporting a spiritualist church in Woodbridge.


title: Edith Pretty

text: Edith had become acquainted with archaeological digs early in her life through her travels. In addition, her friend Florence Sayce's Egyptologist uncle, Archibald Sayce; and her father excavated a Cistercian abbey adjoining their home at Vale Royal.


title: Edith Pretty

text: Around 18 ancient burial mounds lay on the Sutton Hoo estate, about 457 m (500 yards) from the Pretty home (now Tranmer House, then called Sutton Hoo House). At the 1937 Woodbridge Flower Fete, Edith discussed the possibility of an excavation with Vincent B. Redstone, a member of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, and Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries. Redstone and the curator of the Ipswich Corporation Museum, Guy Maynard, met Edith in July regarding the project, and self-taught Suffolk archaeologist Basil Brown was subsequently invited to excavate the mounds. Promising finds were made, and Brown returned in the summer of 1939 for further work on the project. He soon unearthed the remains of a large burial site, containing what was later identified as a 7th-century Saxon ship, which may have been the last resting-place of King Rædwald of East Anglia. A curator of the British Museum described the discovery as "one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time".


title: Edith Pretty

text: The excavation was subsequently taken over by a team of professional archaeologists headed by Charles Phillips and included Cecily Margaret Guido and Stuart Piggott. In September 1939, a treasure trove inquest determined that the grave goods unearthed from the ship were Pretty's property to do with as she chose. She subsequently donated the trove to the British Museum. In recognition of this, prime minister Winston Churchill later offered Pretty the honour of a CBE, but she declined.


title: Edith Pretty

text: Edith Pretty died on 17 December 1942 in Richmond Hospital at the age of 59 after suffering a stroke, and was buried in All Saints churchyard at Sutton. A portrait of a 56-year-old Edith was painted by the Dutch artist Cor Visser and donated to the National Trust by David Pretty, her grandson. Most of her estate of £400,000 was placed in a trust for her son, Robert, who was subsequently cared for by his aunt, Elizabeth. Robert died of cancer in June 1988 at the age of 57. Sutton Hoo was used by the War Office until 1946, when it was sold. In the late 20th century the house and Sutton Hoo burial site were bequeathed by the Tranmer family to the National Trust, which now manages the site.


title: Edith Pretty

text: Pretty was the subject of a play by Karen Forbes performed at Sutton Hoo in 2019, and features in the novel "The Dig" by John Preston, published in 2007. She is portrayed by Carey Mulligan in the film adaptation of the same name on the Netflix streaming service in 2021.


title: RJ Balaji

text: Balaji Patturaj (born 20 June 1985), popularly known as RJ Balaji, is an Indian actor, radio jockey, television presenter, comedian and film director in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is best known as the host of the 92.7 Big FM shows "The Night Show with RJ Balaji", "Take it Easy" and it's now defunct segment "Cross Talk", where he made prank calls to unsuspecting victims.


title: RJ Balaji

text: Although mainly a radio jockey, Balaji is also active in other fields; he is known for his association with the television shows "Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Dheva" and "Why This Kolaveri", and for his performance in the films "Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru" (2013), "Vadacurry" (2014) "Naanum Rowdy Dhaan" (2015), "Pugazh" (2016) and "LKG" (2019) (as an actor), "Mookuthi Amman" (2020) and "Veetla Vishesham" (2022) (as an actor and a co-director). He has also been a presenter at many inter-school cultural events in Chennai, a cricket commentator, and has contributed to many social causes, such as providing relief support to the victims of the 2015 South Indian floods along with other actors.


title: RJ Balaji

text: Balaji was born on 20 June, and was raised in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He has four siblings, one younger brother and three younger sisters. He said that his father abandoned his family at an unspecified point. Balaji said in a 2013 interview with "The Hindu" that he changed 24 houses and 11 schools while growing up in Chennai because his "mother just cannot stay in one place.” She would move from Perambur to Thiruvanmiyur to Mylapore... no place close to each other." When he was in college, Balaji realised that his strength was in interaction and that the attention and acclaim he received in his college cultural gave him confidence and he realised that he had to be in the media.


title: RJ Balaji

text: After completing his BSc computer science from the Kumararani Meena Muthiah College of Arts in 2006, Balaji joined the Amrita School of Communication in Coimbatore for a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism, because he wanted to become like his cousin who worked at NDTV, but when he was asked to write a report on his hostel's canteen, the 56-word report contained 47 grammatical errors, and he soon realised that English journalism was not what he was interested in. At that time he saw a newspaper advertisement of a radio station (Radio Mirchi Coimbatore) that auditioned for radio jockeys and he applied for it, though he "never knew what an RJ was back then". He said that he almost did not get selected then when he sang a gaana but was finally selected in November 2006. He has not completed his journalism course since.


title: RJ Balaji

text: Balaji started his career as a radio jockey at Radio Mirchi Coimbatore, where he hosted a three-hour morning drive show called "Hello Coimbatore" which dealt with social issues. After four years he quit the job as he "didn't want to sound angry all the time" and returned to Chennai where his family and friends were living. He joined at 92.7 Big FM because they gave him the freedom to plan and design his four-hour slot; thus the show "Take it Easy" was conceived. The evening prime-time show was created to give people a "break from the serious stuff that they have to deal with during work hours and relax with the nonsense". Balaji created another segment in "Take it Easy", titled "Cross Talk", where he made prank calls to unsuspecting victims, nominated by a friend, cousin, co-worker or neighbour. On how the segment developed, Balaji said, "I was assigned to do a serious socially-relevant show in the beginning but Big [FM] gave me the chance to talk about anything in "Take It Easy". Once when I was talking to a couple about something serious, people who listened found it funny. That's how "Cross Talk" happened". Balaji described Radio Mirchi's Senthil Kumar, who taught him a radio and its basics at Coimbatore, as his favourite RJ, and said, "whatever I am right now is because of him."


title: RJ Balaji

text: "Cross Talk" became very popular among youths; Balaji uploaded several clips of the show on SoundCloud. The links went viral, crossing over a million hits in a single week. Besides India, most of the downloads were in the United States (over 20%), United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Seychelles, Germany and Spain. The show earned him the moniker "Cross Talk Balaji". In November 2011, Balaji and BIG FM RJ's Muthu and Ophelia conducted "Little RJ Hunt", a three-phased event organised as part of the radio station's Children's Day celebrations. Balaji won the RJ of the Year (Tamil) and Best Programme Broadcast after 11 am (Tamil) awards for "Take it Easy" at the 2012 Indian Excellence in Radio Awards. Later he was named among the Top 10 Promising Personalities of Tamil Nadu in 2012 by Ananda Vikatan Group. Balaji was the host for the 2013 event "BIG Manasa Thotta Singer" that was conducted by BIG FM. He has also been running the "RJ Balaji Skool of Radio Studies" since August 2013. Three apps on Balaji have been developed: an Android app simply named "RJ Balaji", an iOS app titled "RJ Balaji Official", and a Windows Phone app as well.


title: RJ Balaji

text: In December 2012, Balaji discontinued "Cross Talk", in response to the suicide of Jacintha Saldanha. In November 2013, he decided to stop the segment "120 Rs." on his show where he reviewed Tamil films after he had been severely criticised by actors and producers from the Tamil film industry. A few months before, he had also been threatened by an employee from UTV Motion Pictures for his review of "Settai". Via Twitter, he announced, "I am a normal guy who wants to do good work every day and go home happy. I can't really handle the aftermath of every show on films. After a lot of thought, I have decided not to speak about films until there's tolerance and maturity among certain people from film fraternity, which is most unlikely to happen. So, '120 show' is no more". He further stated, "I don't want to keep taking my work home. I have a one-and-half-year-old child and my wife is concerned about the phone calls I keep getting". , the show still runs, where he only reviews Hindi and English-language films. In July 2013, Balaji said that he would try remaining a radio jockey for at least 15 years, which he believes "no one has done in Chennai", and reiterated this in November 2015.


title: RJ Balaji

text: After India's Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar told in the Rajya Sabha that legal action would be taken against radio jockeys who ridicule members of parliament, Balaji in August 2014 cryptically told "Deccan Chronicle", "When I was a teenager I would fight with my sister for a room. Today parliamentarians are doing the same thing, fighting like teenagers. How can I not make fun of them?", while fearing that even television anchors like Arnab Goswami and Rajdeep Sardesai would be banned soon. In January 2015, Balaji, radio jockeys Girigiri, Ananthi, Mirdhula and actor R. Sarathkumar contributed to "Kodu Kondadu", an initiative by BIG FM and the non-governmental organisation BHUMI to supply impoverished children with stationary, toys and books. In February, he was a host of the BIG Tamil Melody Awards at Chennai Trade Centre. In July 2015, Balaji launched a new show titled "Loose Talk". The following month, he left with many other Indian RJs for Siachen to conduct a program titled "BIG Paigham – Sarhad Ke Naam" saluting the Indian Army. In January 2016, he won the "Ananda Vikatan" Awards for Promising Personality of Tamil Nadu and RJ of the Year. In April 2017, Balaji launched a new BIG FM show titled "The Night Show with RJ Balaji".


title: RJ Balaji

text: Alongside his radio career, Balaji has been active in other fields as well. He stated, "It is nice to do a lot of things so that you are constantly on your feet". In September 2011, he judged "Channel Surfing", a segment of "Smaraneeyam", the inter-school cultural festival of Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School. Balaji was a performer at Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering's annual cultural festival "Instincts" in March 2012. He hosted the teaser trailer release event for "Maattrraan" in June 2012. In August 2012, Balaji was a guest performer at the fourth anniversary celebrations of Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi's magazine "Inbox 1305". He has conducted the event "Mr. and Ms. Techofes" at the College of Engineering, Guindy's annual cultural event Techofes twice, in 2012 and 2013. He was also the compère of the audio launch of "Kalyana Samayal Saadham", which took place in August 2013. In July 2013, Balaji was the judge of "Reflector", an event in Vidya Mandir's interschool cultural event Reflections. On 30 August, he was a judge at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan's cultural event Reverberations. At the 2015 edition of Techofes at the Guindy College of Engineering, he hosted a new show titled "Boost with Balaji" on 14 February.


title: RJ Balaji

text: In "Puthagam" (2013), Balaji introduces the lead characters played by Sathya, Sanjay, Vignesh, Rakul Preet Singh and Aishwarya Rajesh in a voice-over. In the same year, he made a cameo appearance in "Ethir Neechal" and made his full-fledged acting debut in "Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru". He appeared in a brief role as a show host in "Vallinam" (2014). His second film appearance in 2014 was in "Vaayai Moodi Pesavum". In 2015, he appeared in "Idhu Enna Maayam","Yatchan"and "Naanum Rowdy Dhaan". For his performance in "Naanum Rowdydhaan", Balaji won the SIIMA Award for Best Comedian. In 2016, he appeared in "Jil Jung Juk" and "Pugazh", where he also worked as a singer and lyricist on the song "Podu Podu". In "Muthina Kathirika" (2016), Balaji introduces the main characters, including protagonist Muthupandi (Sundar C.) through a voiceover. He then appeared in "Devi", "Kadavul Irukaan Kumaru" (2016), "Parandhu Sella Vaa" (2016), "Kaatru Veliyidai" (2017), "Spyder" (2017) and "Kee" (2017). RJ Balaji became a full-fledged hero with "LKG" (2019). The film has emerged as a blockbuster at the Tamil Nadu box office. His directorial debut is "Mookuthi Amman" (2020) with Nayanthara in the lead. He later acted, directed a comedy-drama film, "Veetla Vishesham" (2022), a remake of 2018 Hindi blockbuster "Badhaai Ho".


title: RJ Balaji

text: Balaji was a host in the second season of STAR Vijay's dance show "Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Dheva". He was the host of Zee Tamizh's "Why This Kolaveri", a loose adaptation of the American reality show "Killer Karaoke", which premiered in December 2013, and ended in May 2014. In August 2014, Balaji hosted the show "Aiyo Amma Awards", a spoof of the Vijay Awards, on Zee Tamizh.


title: RJ Balaji

text: In December 2011, Balaji participated in "Namma Ooru Website Creation Competition", an initiative jointly organised by IIT Madras' Rural Technology and Business Incubator and the National Internet Exchange of India to disseminate village-specific information and create an identity for villages. In March 2014, he claimed to have been a presenter at Sangarsh, an annual charity concert that raises money for people suffering from various diseases. The same month, he gave an intro in "The Madras Song", a tribute to the 375th anniversary of Chennai, formerly known as Madras.


title: RJ Balaji

text: In November 2014, Balaji created "Panjumittai Productions", a YouTube channel where he uploads short videos dealing with contemporary issues. The first video uploaded to the channel is "Kai Phone Video 01: RJ Balaji's Biriyani!!!", featuring Balaji distributing parcels of biryani to impoverished people on the road. The second, "Kai Phone Video 02: RJ Balaji's 501 Views Success Party!!!", is a satire on the "success parties" that production companies host to celebrate the apparent box office success of their films. The third video, subtitled "RJ Balaji Abusing Sachin Tendulkar..!", has nothing to do with Sachin Tendulkar, but instead features Balaji asking the viewers to spread word so that a heart transplant patient named Kavya could get a heart donor. The video was deliberately titled misleadingly so that the message would spread sooner. On 12 December, less than two weeks after Balaji uploaded the video, Kavya successfully got a donor.


title: RJ Balaji

text: Balaji has also played in the 2015 edition of the Celebrity Cricket League, for the team Chennai Rhinos as an all-rounder. In May 2015, he was a speaker at the first edition of TEDx Mylapore. In August, he joined "Ananda Vikatan" and Raghava Lawrence's campaign "Aram Seiya Virumbu". During the 2015 South India floods, Balaji and actor Siddharth provided relief support to many of the floods' victims, through a movement known as "Chennai Micro". For his actions, Balaji received the CNN-News18 Indian of the Year award in the category of "Public Service". In January, Balaji was featured in "The Most Important Job", a four-minute video by the Murugappa Group that pays tribute to Indian farmers. Following the March 2016 suicide of Abhinath, a student of Sri Sai Ram Engineering College whose suicide was attributed by the college's authorities to him being unhappy about studying engineering, and protesting students claiming it to be the result of his treatment by the authorities, a video of a speech by Balaji was released in the internet; in that speech he urged corporate firms to "go beyond pass percentages and exam results when choosing colleges for campus recruitments". The video received over views. In January 2017, Balaji participated in the pro-Jalikattu protests. From the following year, he began working as a Tamil cricket commentator for the Indian Premier League.


title: RJ Balaji

text: Balaji describes "nonsense humour and nonstop talking" as his unique selling proposition. He also describes conversation as his strength and states that his humour comes out of talking to people. Although he frequently talks about films on the radio, he never entertains gossip on the personal life of actors, due to his lack of interest in the same. He is notorious for his attacks on the English language and his jocular criticism of Tamil films, but popular for his irreverent sense of unique humour. According to photographer Bhargavii Mani of "The Hindu", the frequent echoing of the words "Ada" and "Cha" on Balaji's radio shows make them "exciting". Although known to be vivacious, loud and funny in the media, Balaji has also maintained a "rather soft-spoken, shy" personality. In a 2013 interview, Balaji said that he inherited his sense of humour from his mother, who he called "the funniest person I know ... I have only 10 percent of her comic ability".


title: RJ Balaji

text: Balaji was married at the age of 21 years, and has two sons. Although known to actively perform social services, Balaji does not consider himself a social worker or disaster manager: "I am just someone who wants to help people, and I will just do that." He has always believed in only one thing: "To be good and do good work rather than be famous. So whatever I am doing, be it professionally or working for a cause, I intend to do my best."


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Annastacia Palaszczuk ( , Polish: Annastacia Pałaszczuk, ; born 25 July 1969) is an Australian politician who has been the 39th premier of Queensland since 2015 and the leader of the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2012. She was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for the district of Inala at the 2006 election.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk was a political adviser and lawyer before her election to the Legislative Assembly, succeeding her father Henry Palaszczuk in the seat of Inala. She held several roles in the Bligh Government from 2009 to 2012, when Queensland Labor suffered a historic defeat. One of only seven remaining Labor Assembly Members, Palaszczuk was elected unopposed as the Leader of Queensland Labor, becoming Leader of the Opposition.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Despite Labor's heavy loss in 2012, Palaszczuk led Labor to victory at the 2015 election, becoming the first woman in Australian history to become a state premier from opposition. Her first ministry was majority female, also a first in Australia. She went on to lead Labor to increased majorities at the 2017 and 2020 elections, making her the first Australian female premier to win three terms.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk was raised in the Brisbane suburb of Durack. Her father, veteran state Labor MP Henry Pałaszczuk, was born in Germany to Polish parents. Her Australian mother, Lorelle, is descended from German settlers. She attended St Mary's College, Ipswich from 1982 to 1986. She has degrees in Arts and Laws from the University of Queensland, a Masters of Arts from the London School of Economics (where she was a Chevening Scholar), and a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice from Australian National University.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk worked as a policy adviser to a number of Labor ministers, including Minister for Communities, Disabilities and Seniors, Warren Pitt and former Minister for the Environment, Dean Wells. She later decided to have a career in the legal profession and was studying for admission as a solicitor when her father announced his intention to retire at the 2006 election.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: In the wake of her father's retirement, Palaszczuk contested and won Labor preselection for his seat of Inala in south-west Brisbane, the safest Labor seat in Queensland, and was elected with a margin of more than 30 points.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: On 9 October 2008, Palaszczuk was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Main Roads and Local Government in the wake of Ronan Lee's defection to the Greens. Just over five months later, she was appointed Minister for Disability Services and Multicultural Affairs in the Bligh ministry following the 2009 election. In February 2011, she was promoted to Minister for Transport and Multicultural Affairs.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: At the 2012 election, the Bligh government was overwhelmingly defeated by the Liberal National Party led by Campbell Newman, losing 44 seats. Palaszczuk lost over 17 percent of her primary vote from 2009, but retained her seat with a 46.2 per cent primary vote and a 56.9 per cent two-party vote, representing a 14-percent swing from 2009.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: The day after the election, Bligh resigned as premier and party leader and retired from politics. Palaszczuk, as one of only three surviving members of Bligh's cabinet, announced that she would be a candidate to succeed Bligh. Curtis Pitt initially said he would stand, but withdrew. This left Palaszczuk to take the leadership unopposed at a meeting of the Labor Caucus on 28 March in Ipswich. Bligh did not attend the meeting. Tim Mulherin was elected Deputy Leader, also unopposed.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk faced the task of rebuilding a party which had just suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government in Queensland history, and amongst the worst that a governing party has ever suffered at the state level in Australia. She also faced the difficulty of leading an opposition caucus of only seven members, two short of official status (though Newman subsequently promised that Labor would have the full rights and resources entitled to the official opposition). After taking the leadership, Palaszczuk said, 'We need to make ourselves relevant to voters. We need to get back to our basics. Workers' rights, protecting the environment, investment in education—these are core Labor principles and somewhere along the way we simply lost our way'. She also said, 'I'm under no illusion of the task ahead, of the rebuild that we need to do and the fact that we need to restore people's faith in the Queensland Labor Party'.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Following her election, Palaszczuk apologised for 'breaching the trust of Queenslanders', a reference to the Bligh government's decision to sell off state assets after promising not to do so at the 2009 election. This decision had been 'poorly communicated to the community', she said, 'There were other issues, but that is the single point where we lost faith with the community. For that I apologise'. Palaszczuk defended the decision itself, saying it was made to save jobs across the state, but conceded that the Government should have been more open more quickly regarding the policy.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: On 29 March 2012, Palaszczuk announced that she would support the state parliamentary term being extended to four years, as is the case in the other Australian states. Newman indicated he supported the move as well.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: During her time as opposition leader, Palaszczuk closed the 2-party gap between Labor and the LNP, and on several occasions outpolled Newman as preferred premier. Despite this, most commentators gave Labor little chance of winning the 2015 state election. Labor needed a 36-seat swing to make Palaszczuk Queensland's second female premier and Australia's first female premier elected from opposition—a task thought nearly impossible given that the party only went into the election with nine seats (having won two seats from the LNP in by-elections).


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: However, in a result that surprised even the most optimistic Labor observers, Labor won a 12-point swing, and projections on election night saw the party very close to winning a majority government. Depending on the source, Labor was either two or three seats short of outright victory. Labor also ousted Newman in his own seat, something that had only happened to a sitting Premier once before in Queensland's history. The final result saw 44 Labor seats and 42 LNP seats. The balance of power rested with the lone independent in the chamber, Peter Wellington, and the two MPs from Katter's Australian Party. On 5 February, Wellington announced his support for a Labor government under Palaszczuk, giving Labor 45 of 89 seats, a parliamentary majority of one. Palaszczuk herself reverted Inala to its previous status as a comfortably safe Labor seat, scoring an 18-point swing to increase her majority to 25 percent, the second-safest in the state.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: On 9 February 2015, with projections showing Labor assured of at least a minority government, Palaszczuk said she intended to meet with Governor Paul de Jersey on 11 February and advise him that she could form a government. Hours after the results were declared, de Jersey formally invited Palaszczuk to form a government. She was sworn in on 14 February 2015. It was only the seventh change of government in Queensland since 1915.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: During Palaszczuk's 2015 election campaign, she made public servants and stopping cuts to public service a key priority.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Budgets released by the Labor government has generally increased funding and have been well received in terms of health and education, however budget focus on public servants and unemployment have received mixed reviews.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: The Palaszczuk government prioritised public servant job creation during her first term of government. Over her two completed terms of government, the public service gained 30 000 workers, a larger growth rate than the population.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Successful amendments to the electoral act through legislation and referendums in early 2016 included: adding an additional four parliamentary seats from 89 to 93, changing from optional preferential voting to full-preferential voting, and moving from unfixed three-year terms to fixed four-year terms.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk led Labor into the 2017 Queensland state election in hopes of winning a second term. Polls suggested the race would be close.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: The result was not known for almost two weeks. Eleven days after the election, ABC election analyst Antony Green's election computer indicated that the incumbent Labor minority government had won at least 47 of the 93 seats in the expanded Legislative Assembly, enough to form a majority government. Labor ultimately won 48 seats, a net four-seat swing in its favour, allowing it to form government in its own right by two seats.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk's environmental policies included the introduction a ban on single use plastic bags and the implementation of a container refunding recycling scheme, with support from the LNP opposition.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: In May 2018, after achieving a parliamentary majority, Palaszczuk passed legislation for a suite of new laws on land clearing restriction, with its deforestation rate being the worst in the country. The debate was supposedly so heated that debate was extended to 10:30PM in order for extra time to debate the legislation. Local environmental groups praised the legislation, whilst agriculture businesses protested outside the Queensland Parliament opposing the land-clearing laws.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk launched Labor’s climate change plan to achieve 50% renewables by 2030, and carbon neutrality by 2050.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: On 11 May 2017, the Queensland Parliament made an official apology to the people who were convicted of homosexual offences during its period of criminalisation. She supports same-sex marriage and campaigned for the ‘yes’ vote during the national plebiscite. Palaszczuk supported and helped pass legislation in August 2020 that would ban gay conversion therapy, which would see health practitioners who attempt the practice jailed up to 18 months.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: In October 2018 the Parliament passed the "Termination of Pregnancy Act," which would legalise abortions up to 22 weeks of gestation and establish 150 metre safe zones around abortion clinics.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk has been the subject of controversy from local environmental groups for supporting the Carmichael coal mine.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: The mine has come to significant controversy due to its potential environmental damage and its impact on climate change. Opposition to the coal mine led to the creation of the Greenpeace campaign ‘Stop Adani.’


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Before the 2019 federal election, Palaszczuk was accused by both environmentalists and the coal mining industry of stalling the process of approval. Ultimately the federal election saw a large swing away from Labor in Queensland, which sparked speculation that Palaszczuk could lose government in the next election. However Palaszczuk's government won another term in 2020, winning additional seats.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk signed off on a deal for Adani to defer royalty payments for an unspecified amount of time in October 2020, sparking criticism from the Greens. The deal delays some payments but all royalty taxes must be paid. Treasurer Cameron Dick said: 'I can assure you that Adani will pay every dollar in royalties that they have to pay to the people of Queensland — with interest'.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Queensland detected its first positive case of COVID-19 on 28 January 2020. A day later, Palaszczuk declared a public health emergency. The state recorded its first death from the virus on 13 March.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk announced lockdown measures and state border closures from 23 March, as confirmed cases follow the worldwide trend of skyrocketing. Non-essential services were banned from operating, and schools and universities shut down. As ‘the curve’ began to flatten, Palaszczuk proceeded to gradually ease restrictions from late April, with Queensland easing most coronavirus restrictions by July.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: The most controversial part of the pandemic restrictions were state border closures. After being lifted to all bar Victoria in July, the border was shut to NSW and ACT again in early August after a small spike in cases in these areas. The state border closures met prominent criticism from NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Prime Minister Scott Morrison, particularly after a Canberra woman was denied entry into Queensland to attend her father's funeral. Borders were gradually lifted as cases began to ease in NSW and Victoria, until full border openings to the states on 1 December.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Despite criticism of the state border closures from outside sources, Palaszczuk recorded high approval ratings amongst Queensland voters, recording 65% satisfaction on one Newspoll.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Palaszczuk announced and passed legislation for a public servant wage freeze to start from the beginning of the financial year, with Palaszczuk claiming it was necessary for future job security and creation. The Greens and LNP opposed the freeze, with Shadow Treasurer Tim Mander declaring the situation a 'debacle'.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk led Queensland Labor to the 2020 election and was challenged by the LNP opposition led by Deb Frecklington.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk entered the 2020 election in a strong position, and was immensely popular amongst Queenslanders and voters, with her approval rating often soaring above 60%. In contrast, the LNP leader Deb Frecklington became increasingly unpopular amongst voters, trailing Palaszczuk as preferred premier by around 20 points and suffering negative net approval ratings.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: In order to divert voters from Frecklington's unpopularity, LNP aired many negative ads including unpopular former Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, labelling her as ‘Dodgy Jackie’ and claiming she would become premier in a leadership spill if Labor were to win the election. Labor's campaign exploited Frecklington's unpopularity and claimed her government would echo the fairly unpopular Newman Government.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Although Deputy Premier Jackie Trad was defeated in her seat of South Brisbane, it was the only seat the government lost in the election. Labor picked up four seats; winning 52, the LNP opposition winning just 34, a net loss of five. Along the way, Labor won all but five of Brisbane's 40 seats, their best showing in the capital since 2009. Palaszczuk declared victory on the night of the election, with Frecklington conceding and resigning from leadership the next day.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: During the 2020 election campaign, Palaszczuk announced her government would legalise euthanasia by February 2021, in spite of opposition from the Liberal National Party of Queensland. Many claimed that Palaszczuk's approach to the issue was simply to gain votes from marginal seats, which Palaszczuk denied.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: In 2021, Palaszcuk announced a range of 'tough' new measures aimed at youth offenders. This included enhanced police powers, stricter anti-hooning laws, reversing the presumption of bail for certain offences, GPS ankle monitors and the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry to examine the implementation of remote engine immobilisers.


title: Annastacia Palaszczuk

text: Palaszczuk was married to journalist George Megalogenis from 1996 to 1998, and to Simon Every, who was then Senator Joe Ludwig's chief of staff, from 2004 to 2009. From 2015 to 2018, her partner was Shaun Drabsch, an infrastructure adviser. During the 2017 Queensland election, Drabsch was alleged to have a conflict of interest over Adani Group's Carmichael coal mine. Palaszczuk and Drabsch split amicably in February 2018.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, based on the 1936 novel "The Wheel Spins" by Ethel Lina White, the film is about a beautiful English tourist travelling by train in continental Europe who discovers that her elderly travelling companion seems to have disappeared from the train. After her fellow passengers deny ever having seen the elderly lady, the young woman is helped by a young musicologist, the two proceeding to search the train for clues to the old lady's disappearance.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: "The Lady Vanishes" was filmed at the Gainsborough Studios in Islington, London. Hitchcock caught Hollywood's attention with the film and moved to Hollywood soon after its release. Although the director's three previous efforts had done poorly at the box office, "The Lady Vanishes" was widely successful, and confirmed American producer David O. Selznick's belief that Hitchcock indeed had a future in Hollywood cinema.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: The British Film Institute ranked "The Lady Vanishes" the 35th best British film of the 20th century. In 2017, a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for "Time Out" magazine saw it ranked the 31st best British film ever. It is one of Hitchcock's most renowned British films, and the first of three screen versions of White's novel to date.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: After visiting the fictional country of Bandrika, English tourist Iris Henderson is returning home to get married, but an avalanche blocks the railway line. The stranded passengers are forced to spend the night at a hotel. In the same predicament are Charters and Caldicott, cricket enthusiasts anxious to see the last days of the Test match in Manchester, and Miss Froy, a governess and music teacher. Miss Froy listens to a folk singer in the street; he is strangled to death by an unseen murderer.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: That evening, Iris is bothered by a loud noise from the room above hers. It is caused by Gilbert Redman, an ethnomusicologist who plays the clarinet. She attempts to get him removed from the room, but fails after he confronts her.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: The next morning at the railway station, Iris is hit on the head by a large planter dropped from above. Miss Froy helps her onto the train. Also on board are Charters and Caldicott, Gilbert, lawyer Eric Todhunter and his mistress, who is passing herself off as "Mrs. Todhunter." As a result of her injury, Iris faints. She comes to in a compartment with Miss Froy and several strangers. She joins Miss Froy in the dining car for tea. Soon after, they return to their compartment, where Iris falls asleep.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: When Iris wakes up, Miss Froy has vanished, and the other passengers deny having seen her. Todhunter pretends not to remember her to avoid drawing attention to his liaison with his mistress. Iris searches for Miss Froy with Gilbert's assistance. Brain surgeon Dr. Hartz says Iris may be suffering from "concussion-related hallucinations." Fearing that any delay would make them miss the cricket match, Charters and Caldicott also claim not to remember Miss Froy. Todhunter's mistress admits to seeing Miss Froy, proving to everyone that she exists.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: At the first stop, Dr. Hartz's patient, covered in bandages from tip to toe, is brought aboard on a stretcher and accompanied by a deaf-mute nun. Madame Kummer, dressed exactly like Miss Froy, appears in her place. Now scared that she'll be revealed, Todhunter's mistress says Madame Kummer was Miss Froy. While continuing their search, Iris and Gilbert find Miss Froy's glasses. However, they are attacked by a knife-wielding magician, Signor Doppo, who was in Iris's compartment. They lose the glasses in the chase and the Doppo escapes. After noticing the nun is wearing high-heels, they suspect that Dr. Hartz's patient has been replaced by Miss Froy. Dr. Hartz tells his fellow conspirator, now revealed to be a British woman dressed as a nun, to drug Iris and Gilbert. Convinced they will soon be asleep, Hartz admits to them that he is involved in the conspiracy. The false nun does not follow Hartz's instructions out of loyalty to her fellow countrymen; Gilbert and Iris escape, free Miss Froy and replace her with Madame Kummer.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: When the train stops near the border, Dr. Hartz discovers the switch. He has part of the train diverted onto a branch line, where soldiers wait. Gilbert and Iris inform their fellow passengers what is happening. A uniformed soldier boards and requests that they all accompany him. They knock him out and take his pistol. Another soldier fires, wounding Charters in the hand.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: During the ensuing gunfight, Miss Froy tells Gilbert and Iris that she must get away as she is actually a spy. Just in case, she gives them a message (encoded in a tune) to deliver to the Foreign Office in Whitehall—the same tune that the murdered street musician performed for her. Miss Froy then runs into the forest and those on the train are not sure whether or not she is shot. Todhunter attempts to surrender, waving a white handkerchief, and is shot dead. Gilbert and Caldicott then commandeer the locomotive, but the knocked out soldier wakes up and threatens the rest of the guests. The nun escapes through a side door and changes the tracks but is shot in the leg; however, Caldicott and Gilbert manage to pull her up into the train before she is left behind.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: In London, Charters and Caldicott discover the Test Match has been cancelled due to flooding. Seeing her fiancé from a distance, Iris jumps into a cab with Gilbert. He kisses her. They arrive at the Foreign Office, but in the waiting room Gilbert realizes he cannot remember the vital tune. As they are led into the office, Gilbert and Iris then hear it. The doors open, revealing Miss Froy is playing the tune on a piano.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: "The Lady Vanishes" was originally called "The Lost Lady", and Irish director Roy William Neill was assigned by producer Edward Black to make it. A crew was dispatched to Yugoslavia to do background shots, but when the Yugoslav police accidentally discovered that they were not well-portrayed in the script, they kicked the crew out of the country, and Black scrapped the project. A year later, Hitchcock could not come up with a property to direct to fulfil his contract with Black, so he accepted when Black offered "The Lost Lady" to him.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: Hitchcock worked with the writers to make some changes to tighten up the opening and ending of the story, but otherwise the script did not change much.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: The plot of Hitchcock's film differs considerably from White's novel. In "The Wheel Spins", Miss Froy really is an innocent old lady looking forward to seeing her octogenarian parents; she is abducted because she knows something (without realising its significance) that would cause trouble for the local authorities if it came out. Iris' mental confusion is due to sunstroke, not a blow to the head. In White's novel, the wheel keeps spinning: the train never stops, and there is no final shoot-out. Additionally, the supporting cast differs somewhat; for instance, in the novel, the Gilbert character is Max Hare, a young British engineer building a dam in the hills who knows the local language, and there is also a modern-languages professor character who acts as Iris's and Max's interpreter who does not appear in the film. The cricket-obsessed characters Charters and Caldicott were created especially for the film and do not appear in the novel.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: The plot has clear references to the political situation leading up to the Second World War. The British characters, originally trying their hardest to keep out of the conflict, end up working together to fight off the jack-booted foreigners, while the lawyer who wishes to negotiate with the attackers by waving a white flag is shot and killed.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: At first, Hitchcock considered Lilli Palmer for the female lead, but went instead with Margaret Lockwood, who was at the time relatively unknown. Lockwood was attracted to the heroines of Ethel Lina White's stories and accepted the role.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: Michael Redgrave was also unknown to the cinema audience, but was a rising stage star at the time. He was reluctant to leave the stage to do the film, but was convinced by John Gielgud to do so. As it happened, the film, Redgrave's first leading role, made him an international star. However, according to Robert Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, Redgrave and Hitchcock did not get along; Redgrave wanted more rehearsals, while Hitchcock valued spontaneity more. The two never worked together again.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: Alfred Hitchcock can be seen at Victoria Station, wearing a black coat and smoking a cigarette, near the end of the film. The film marks the first appearance of the comedy double-act Charters and Caldicott (played by Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford).


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: The film was shot at Islington Studios, Shepherd's Bush and on location in Hampshire at Longmoor Military Camp, the site of the Longmoor Military Railway. It was the first film to be made under an agreement between Gaumont-British and MGM, in which Gaumont provided MGM with some of their Gainsborough films for release in the UK, for which MGM would pay half the production costs if MGM decided to release the film in the US. In the case of "The Lady Vanishes", however, 20th Century-Fox handled the American release. Filming was briefly interrupted by an electricians' strike.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: Elisabeth Weis contends that Hitchcock's use of sound in "The Lady Vanishes" uses the "classical style" – that is, that the director eschews expressionistic sounds in favour of sounds heard in a realistic context. For example, when Iris faints on the train, rather than extraneous noises to denote delirium, only the sound of the train is heard. Another striking use of sound is how evil things are often heard before they are shown. The evil doctor Dr. Hartz often is first heard before he appears on screen, representing an aural intrusion "not so much an invasion of privacy as of security".


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: When "The Lady Vanishes" opened in the UK it was an immediate hit, becoming the most successful British film to that date. It was also very successful when it opened in New York. In a contemporary review, the "Monthly Film Bulletin" described the film as an "out of the ordinary and exciting thriller", praising Hitchcock's direction and the cast, especially Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas and Dame May Whitty.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: The film has retained its popularity; in his review for the BBC, Jamie Russell gave the film four out of five stars, calling it a "craftily sophisticated thriller" and a "cracking piece of entertainment". In his review for "BFI Screenonline", Mark Duguid wrote that the film was "arguably the most accomplished, and certainly the wittiest of Hitchcock's British films, and is up there with the best of his American work". Duguid singled out the young writing partnership of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, noting:


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: The American film critic and historian Leonard Maltin gave the film four out of four stars in his "Movie Guide" and included the film in his list of 100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century. "The Guardian" called the film "one of the greatest train movies from the genre's golden era", and a contender for the "title of best comedy thriller ever made". The film frequently ranks among the best British films of all time. On "Metacritic", it has a score of 98 out of 100, based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". In 2016, Empire ranked the film at No. 82 on their list of "The 100 best British films". In 2022, "Time Out" magazine ranked the film at No. 54 on its list of "The 100 best thriller films of all time".


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: "The Lady Vanishes" was named Best Picture of 1938 by "The New York Times". In 1939, Hitchcock received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director, the only time Hitchcock received an award for his directing.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: The cricket-obsessed Charters and Caldicott were created for the film, but became popular in their own right, and appeared in a series of films, radio programmes and a much later TV series.


title: The Lady Vanishes

text: His British films were public domain in the United States for a while. They have been heavily bootlegged on home video. Despite this, various licensed releases have appeared on Blu-ray, DVD and video on demand worldwide from the likes of Network Distributing in the UK and The Criterion Collection in the United States.


title: Triggerfish

text: Triggerfish are about 40 species of often brightly colored fish of the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, with the greatest species richness in the Indo-Pacific. Most are found in relatively shallow, coastal habitats, especially at coral reefs, but a few, such as the oceanic triggerfish ("Canthidermis maculata"), are pelagic. While several species from this family are popular in the marine aquarium trade, they are often notoriously ill-tempered.


title: Triggerfish

text: The largest member of the family, the stone triggerfish ("Pseudobalistes naufragium") reaches , but most species have a maximum length between .


title: Triggerfish

text: Triggerfish have an oval-shaped, highly compressed body. The head is large, terminating in a small but strong-jawed mouth with teeth adapted for crushing shells. The eyes are small, set far back from the mouth, at the top of the head. The anterior dorsal fin is reduced to a set of three spines. The first spine is stout and by far the longest. All three are normally retracted into a groove. Characteristic of the order Tetraodontiformes, the anal and posterior dorsal fins are capable of undulating from side to side to provide slow movement and comprise their primary mode of propulsion. The sickle-shaped caudal fin is used only to escape predators.


title: Triggerfish

text: The two pelvic fins are overlaid by skin for most of their length and fused to form a single spine, terminated by very short rays, their only external evidence. Gill plates (opercula), although present, are also not visible, overlaid by the tough skin, covered with rough, rhomboid scales that form a stout armor on their bodies. The only gill opening is a vertical slit, directly above the pectoral fins. This peculiar covering of the gill plates is shared with other members of the Tetradontae. Each jaw contains a row of four teeth on either side, while the upper jaw contains an additional set of six plate-like pharyngeal teeth.


title: Triggerfish

text: As a protection against predators, triggerfish can erect the first two dorsal spines: The first (anterior) spine is locked in place by erection of the short second spine, and can be unlocked only by depressing the second, “trigger” spine, hence the family name “triggerfish”.


title: Triggerfish

text: With the exception of a few species from the genus "Xanthichthys", the sexes of all species in this family are similar in appearance.


title: Triggerfish

text: The rather bizarre anatomy of the triggerfish reflects its typical diet of slow-moving, bottom dwelling crustaceans, mollusks, sea urchins and other echinoderms, generally creatures with protective shells and spines. Many will also take small fishes and some, notably the members of the genus "Melichthys", feed on algae. A few, for example the redtoothed triggerfish ("Odonus niger"), mainly feed on plankton. They are known to exhibit a high level of intelligence for a fish, and have the ability to learn from previous experiences.


title: Triggerfish

text: Some triggerfish species can be quite aggressive when guarding their eggs. Both the picasso ("Rhinecanthus aculeatus") and titan triggerfish ("Balistoides viridescens") viciously defend their nests against intruders, including scuba divers and snorkelers. Their territory extends in a cone from the nest toward the surface, so swimming upwards can put a diver further into the fishes' territory; a horizontal swim away from the nest site is best when confronted by an angry triggerfish. Unlike the relatively small picasso triggerfish, the titan triggerfish poses a serious threat to inattentive divers due to its large size and powerful teeth.


title: Triggerfish

text: Triggerfish males migrate to their traditional spawning sites prior to mating and establish territories. Some male species (i.e." Balistes carolinensis" and "Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus") build hollow nests within their territories. Triggerfish males are fierce in guarding their territories as having a territory is essential for reproduction. A male's territory is used for spawning and parental care. Most male territories are located over a sandy sea bottom or on a rocky reef. A single territory usually includes more than one female, and the male mates with all of the females residing in or visiting his territory (polygyny). In Hachijojima, Izu Islands, Japan, one male crosshatch triggerfish ("Xanthichthys mento") has up to three females in his territory at the same time, and mates with them in pairs. Each male red-toothed triggerfish ("Odonus niger") mates with more than 10 females in his territory on the same day. Yellow margin triggerfish ("Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus") also exhibit polygyny.


title: Triggerfish

text: Triggerfish spawning is timed in relation to lunar cycles, tides, and time of changeover of tides. In relation to lunar cycles, eggs are observed 2–6 days before the full moon and 3–5 days before the new moon. In relation to tides, spawning happens 1–5 days before the spring tide. In relation to timing of tides, eggs are observed on days when high tides take place around sunset.


title: Triggerfish

text: Male and female triggerfish perform certain prespawning behaviors: blowing and touching. A male and female blow water on the sandy bottom (usually in the same spot at the same time) and set up their egg site. They touch their abdomens on the bottom as if they are spawning. During actual spawning, eggs are laid on the sandy sea bottom (triggerfish are demersal spawners despite their large size). Eggs are scattered and attached to sand particles. Triggerfish eggs are usually very small (diameter of 0.5–0.6 mm) and are easily spread by waves. After spawning, both the male and female participate in caring for the fertilized eggs (biparental egg care). A female triggerfish stays near the spawning ground, around 5 m off the bottom, and guards the eggs within her territory against intruders. Some common intruders include "Parupeneus multifasciatus, Zanclus cornutus, Prionurus scalprum", and conspecifics. Besides guarding, females roll, fan, and blow water on eggs to provide oxygen to the embryos, thereby inducing hatching. This behavior of female triggerfish is called "tending", and males rarely perform this behavior. A male triggerfish stays farther above the eggs and guards all the females and eggs in his territory. Males exhibit aggressive behaviors against conspecific males near the boundaries of their territories.


title: Triggerfish

text: In crosshatch triggerfish ("Xanthichthys mento") and yellow margin triggerfish ("Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus"), eggs are spawned in the morning and they hatch after the sunset on the same day. After hatching of embryos, the female crosshatch triggerfish leaves the male's territory. This mating system is an example of male-territory-visiting polygamy. Triggerfishes exhibit other types of mating systems, as well, such as a nonterritorial-female (NTF) polygyny and territorial-female (TF) polygyny. In NTF polygyny, nonterritorial females stay in the male's territory and reproduce. In TF polygyny, a female owns territory within a male's territory and will spawn in her territory.


title: Triggerfish

text: Triggerfish lay their demersal eggs in a small hole dug in the sea bottom. Off Florida, juveniles of some species of triggerfishes are found in floating "Sargassum", where they feed on the small shrimp, crabs, and mollusks found there.


title: Triggerfish

text: Some species of triggerfish, such as the titan triggerfish, may be ciguatoxic and should be avoided. Others, however, such as the grey triggerfish ("Balistes capriscus"), are edible.


title: The Weather Girls

text: The Weather Girls are an American female duo whose best-known line-up comprised Martha Wash and Izora Armstead. Formed in 1976 in San Francisco, California, The Weather Girls members began their musical career as Two Tons O' Fun, the female backup duo for disco singer Sylvester. After years of limited success singing background for Sylvester, the duo was signed in 1979 to Fantasy Records. The Weather Girls were launched into mainstream recognition following the release of their best-selling single, "It's Raining Men" (1982), which became their first number-one dance song. Despite critical and commercial success, the duo struggled to repeat the success of "It's Raining Men" and ultimately disbanded after the release of their self-titled fifth album "The Weather Girls" in 1988.


title: The Weather Girls

text: In 1991, Armstead reformed the duo with her daughter Dynelle Rhodes. Over the course of a decade, the duo released three albums: "Double Tons of Fun" (1993), "Think Big!", and "Puttin' On The Hits" (1999). In 2004, Armstead died and was replaced with Ingrid Arthur in 2005. Following the release of two albums "Totally Wild!" (2005) and "The Woman I Am" (2009), Arthur left the group and was replaced with Dorrey Lin Lyles in 2012.


title: The Weather Girls

text: The group received a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal in 1983.


title: The Weather Girls

text: Izora Rhodes and Martha Wash met at a young age. Wash attended Church of God in Christ, which was an alley away from the Baptist church Rhodes was attending. Rhodes was the lead vocalist and pianist of the San Francisco Inspirational Choir. Wash and Rhodes eventually landed in a gospel group called N.O.W. (News of the World). While performing part-time in the group, Wash worked as a secretary for UC Hospital while Rhodes worked as a bartender and a nurse assistant. Rhodes also worked as a piano and vocal teacher.


title: The Weather Girls

text: In February 1976, Wash auditioned as a backup singer before American singer-songwriter Sylvester and his manager Brent Thomson. Impressed with her vocal performance, Sylvester inquired if she had another large black friend who could sing, after which she introduced him to Izora Rhodes. Although he referred to them simply as "the girls", Wash and Rhodes formed a musical duo called Two Tons O' Fun. Two Tons O' Fun debuted as Sylvester's backing vocalists on his self-titled third album "Sylvester", released in 1977. The duo sang backup vocals on the album's singles "Down, Down, Down" and "Over and Over", which charted at number eighteen on the "Billboard" Dance chart.


title: The Weather Girls

text: In 1978, Sylvester released his fourth album "Step II", which also featured The Two Tons' background vocals throughout the album. "Dance (Disco Heat)", the album's lead single which featured The Tons, peaked at number one on "Billboard"'s Dance chart and became their first number-one single on that chart. The album's second single "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)", also featuring the duo, became their second number-one single on the Dance chart. In 1979, the duo secured their own record deal with Fantasy Records. That same year, Two Tons O' Fun sang background on Sylvester's live album "Living Proof", one of their final performances together. As they began to work on their own album, the duo appeared in fewer shows with Sylvester.


title: The Weather Girls

text: On January 24, 1980, the duo released their debut self-titled album "Two Tons o' Fun". The album spawned two top-five dance singles: "Earth Can Be Just Like Heaven" and "I Got the Feeling". Shortly after the release of the album, they changed their name to The Two Tons after being informed that an Oklahoma gospel act had already registered the group name "Two Tons o Fun" with ASCAP since 1958. Their second album "Backatcha" was released later that year. The album spawned a single "I Depend On You" that peaked at number seventy-two on the Dance chart. The follow-up single "Never Like This" peaked at number fifty-five on the R&B chart.


title: The Weather Girls

text: In September 1982, the duo released their single "It's Raining Men", their first as The Weather Girls, a name chosen as a pun on the song's subject. The song became their biggest hit to date, peaking at number one on the Dance chart and number forty-six on "Billboard"'s Hot 100 chart. The song also peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, and became certified Silver-status for sales exceeding 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom. "It's Raining Men" received a nomination at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards (1983) for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. Following the success of the song, The Two Tons permanently changed their group name to The Weather Girls. On January 22, 1983, they released their third album "Success". Despite the overall success of the album's lead single, the album experienced mild success. The album's title-track "Success" was released as the second single and peaked at number eighty-nine on the R&B chart. Two additional singles, "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" and "Dear Santa (Bring Me a Man This Christmas)", were also released but failed to chart.


title: The Weather Girls

text: In 1984, The Weather Girls featured on the million-selling title track, "Centipede" by Rebbie Jackson. The song was written, arranged, and produced by Michael Jackson, who also sang background vocals on the song. It reached number 4 on the Black Singles Chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. In 1985, The Weather Girls released their fourth album "Big Girls Don't Cry". With the album's singles "Well-A-Wiggy" and "No One Can Love You More Than Me" experiencing moderate success and poor promotion, the duo were being considered a novelty act. In 1988, The Weather Girls released their self-titled fifth album "The Weather Girls", party produced by Full Force and Reggie Lucas, which was ultimately seen as a commercial failure by their record label. Shortly after the album, The Weather Girls disbanded and Wash took up a solo career and also began working as a session vocalist.


title: The Weather Girls

text: After a three-year hiatus and Wash pursuing her solo career, Armstead reformed The Weather Girls with her daughter Dynelle Rhodes and relocated to Germany in 1991. Their first album together "Double Tons of Fun" was released in 1993. The album's lead single "Can You Feel It" peaked at number two on "Billboard"'s Dance chart. The song also peaked at number 75 on Germany's music chart, their second single to enter that chart since "It's Raining Men". While touring the club circuit, the album's third single "We Shall All Be Free" peaked at number 80 on Germany's music chart. Their follow-up album "Think Big!" was released in December 1995. The album saw Armstead's contribution as a songwriter and penning several songs, including the album's third single "The Sound of Sex (Ooh Gitchie O-La-La-Ay)", which was written with her daughter. The album also contained a cover version of Sylvester's 1979 disco hit "Stars", recorded as a duet with Scottish pop singer Jimmy Somerville.


title: The Weather Girls

text: In 1999, The Weather Girls released their eighth studio album "Puttin' On The Hits", which contained a collection of covered disco songs. In 2002, they joined the Disco Brothers for a participation in the German National Final for the Eurovision Song Contest, with their song "Get Up". In the end, the group only managed a 13th place out of 15. Their final single, the non-album track "Big Brown Girl", was released in 2004. On September 16, 2004, Izora Armstead died of heart failure at age 62.


title: The Weather Girls

text: In 2005, Rhodes continued performing with The Weather Girls (composed of Dynelle Rhodes and new member Ingrid Arthur) to honor her late mother's memory. They released a new album, "Totally Wild". It scored an underground club hit with the single "Wild Thang" in 2004. In 2006, Joan Faulkner began performing with Rhodes and often substituting for Arthur. In 2008, the Weather Girls released a single "Break You", which topped the Dance chart. In 2009, the duo released a new studio album titled "The Woman I Am". In 2012, The Weather Girls released "It's Raining Men 2K12", a newly recorded version of their 1982 hit, produced by Sebo Reed. In the same year, Arthur departed from The Weather Girls to focus on her solo career. Dorrey Lin Lyles, a singer who had worked with the duo in the past, was added to the duo in mid-2012.


title: The Weather Girls

text: The Weather Girls began touring internationally in 2013. In 2018, they released a new single "We Need Love", produced by Torsten Abrolat, Terri B! and featuring, Jason Anousheh.


title: The Weather Girls

text: Widely associated with their biggest song "It's Raining Men", VH1 ranked the song at thirty-five on their list of the 100 Greatest Dance Songs in 2000, and also at thirty-five in their 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 1980s in 2009. "Paste Magazine" ranked the song twelve in their list of The 60 Best Dancefloor Classics in February 2017.


title: The Weather Girls

text: "It's Raining Men" has often been perceived as a gay anthem. A campaign in Facebook was launched on January 19, 2014, to get the song to UK number one in response to a UKIP councillor blaming recent UK floods and adverse weather on divine retribution for the British government's introduction of gay marriage. The campaign was reported widely and The Weather Girls' version reached number 21 on the first day of the chart week. The song re-entered the UK Singles Chart in 2014 at number 31. In 2017, "Rolling Stone" included the song on their 25 Essential LGBTQ Pride Songs list. In 2018, "Billboard" ranked the song at number forty-seven on their The 50 Best Gay Anthems Of All Time list. "The Gay UK" ranked the song at number two on their Top 40 Gay Anthems for Pride list.


title: The Weather Girls

text: To date, The Weather Girls have accumulated an overall total of four number-one dance singles. Dynelle Rhodes holds the rights to the Weather Girls name and performs across Europe.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: Jonathan Safran Foer (; born February 21, 1977) is an American novelist. He is known for his novels "Everything Is Illuminated" (2002), "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" (2005), "Here I Am" (2016), and for his non-fiction works "Eating Animals" (2009) and "We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast" (2019). He teaches creative writing at New York University.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: Safran Foer was born in Washington, D.C. as the son of Albert Foer, a lawyer and president of the American Antitrust Institute, and Esther Safran Foer, a child of Holocaust survivors born in Poland, who is now Senior Advisor at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. Safran Foer is the middle son of a Jewish family. His older brother, Franklin, is a former editor of "The New Republic" and his younger brother, Joshua, is the founder of "Atlas Obscura" and of Sefaria. Safran Foer was a "flamboyant" and sensitive child who, at the age of 8, was injured in a classroom chemical accident that resulted in "something like a nervous breakdown drawn out over about three years," during which "he wanted nothing, except to be outside his own skin."


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: Safran Foer attended Georgetown Day School and in 1994 traveled to Israel with other North American Jewish teenagers in a program sponsored by Bronfman youth fellowships. In 1995, while a freshman at Princeton University, he took an introductory writing course with author Joyce Carol Oates, who took an interest in his writing, telling him that he had "that most important of writerly qualities, energy." Safran Foer later recalled that "she was the first person to ever make me think I should try to write in any sort of serious way. And my life really changed after that." Safran Foer graduated with an A.B. in philosophy from Princeton in 1999 after completing a 40-page-long senior thesis, titled "Before Reading The Book of Anticedents: Intention, Literary Interpretation, and the Hypothesized Author", under the supervision of Gideon Rosen. Oates served as the advisor to Safran Foer's creative writing senior thesis, an examination of the life of his maternal grandfather, the Holocaust survivor Louis Safran. For his thesis, Safran Foer received Princeton's Senior Creative Writing Thesis Prize.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: After graduating from Princeton, Safran Foer briefly attended the Mount Sinai School of Medicine before dropping out to pursue his writing career.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: Safran Foer graduated from Princeton in 1999 with a degree in philosophy, and traveled to Ukraine to expand his thesis. In 2001, he edited the anthology "A Convergence of Birds: Original Fiction and Poetry Inspired by the Work of Joseph Cornell", to which he contributed the short story, "If the Aging Magician Should Begin to Believe". His Princeton thesis grew into a novel, "Everything Is Illuminated", which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2002. The book earned him a National Jewish Book Award (2001) and a Guardian First Book Award (2002). Safran Foer shared the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize with fellow authors Will Heinrich and Monique Truong in 2004. In 2005, Liev Schreiber wrote and directed a film adaptation of the novel, which starred Elijah Wood.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: Safran Foer's second novel "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close", was published in 2005. In it, Safran Foer used 9/11 as a backdrop for the story of 9-year-old Oskar Schell, who learns how to deal with the death of his father in the World Trade Center. The novel used writing techniques known as visual writing. It follows multiple but interconnected storylines, is peppered with photographs of doorknobs and other such oddities, and ends with a 14-page flipbook. Safran Foer's use of these techniques resulted in both praise and excoriation from critics. Warner Bros. and Paramount turned the novel into a film, produced by Scott Rudin and directed by Stephen Daldry.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: Safran Foer wrote the libretto for an opera titled "Seven Attempted Escapes From Silence", which premiered at the Berlin State Opera on September 14, 2005.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: In 2008, Safran Foer taught writing for the first time as a visiting professor of fiction at Yale University. , he teaches in the graduate creative writing program at New York University. Safran Foer published his third novel, "Tree of Codes", in November 2010. In March 2012, "The New American Haggadah", edited by Safran Foer and translated by Nathan Englander, was released to mixed reviews.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: In 2009, Safran Foer published his third book, "Eating Animals". A "New York Times" bestseller, "Eating Animals" provides a morally dense discussion of some of the ramifications that followed the proliferation of factory farms. It attempts to explain why and how humans can be so loving to our companion animals while simultaneously being indifferent to others, and explores what this inconsistency tells us about ourselves―what kinds of stories emerge from this selectivity. The book offers a significant focus on "storytelling"―the title of both the first and the last chapters of the book. Storytelling is Safran Foer's way of recognizing and dealing with the complexity of the subject that is eating animals, and suggests that, ultimately, our food choices tell stories about who we are, or, as Safran Foer has it in his book, "stories about food are stories about us―our history and our values."


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: In May 2012, Safran Foer signed a two-book deal with Little, Brown. His novel, "Escape From Children's Hospital", was due for publication in 2014, but is no longer on the publisher's schedule. In September 2016, he released the novel "Here I Am".


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: In 2019, as part of the book tour for "We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast", Safran Foer took part in an on stage conversation with Samin Nosrat about eating and climate change.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: Safran Foer serves as a board member for Farm Forward, a nonprofit organization that implements innovative strategies to promote conscientious food choices, reduce farmed animal suffering, and advance sustainable agriculture.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: Safran Foer has been an outspoken critic of the meat industry. In 2006, he recorded the narration for the documentary "If This is Kosher...", an exposé of the kosher certification process that advocates Jewish vegetarianism. Safran Foer's first book of non-fiction, "Eating Animals" (2009), addresses problems associated with industrialized meat and the ensuing ethical concerns. He said that he had long been "uncertain about how I felt [about eating meat]" and that the birth of his first child inspired "an urgency because I would have to make decisions on his behalf".


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Safran Foer reiterated his argument that Americans should eat less meat on account of the meat industry's social, environmental, and humanitarian consequences.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: In June 2004, Safran Foer married writer Nicole Krauss. They lived in Park Slope in Brooklyn, New York, and have two children. The couple divorced in 2014 when Jonathan unsuccessfully courted Natalie Portman.


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: Because of Safran Foer's frequent use of modernist literary devices, he is often named as a polarizing figure in modern literature. In his critical article "Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False", Harry Siegel wrote in the "New York Press", "Foer is supposed to be our new Philip Roth, though his fortune-cookie syllogisms and pointless illustrations and typographical tricks don't at all match up to or much resemble Roth even at his most inane."


title: Jonathan Safran Foer

text: In response to charges of historical inaccuracy in "Everything is Illuminated," Safran Foer defended himself in "The Guardian", writing, "Rather than aligning itself with either 'how things were' or 'how things could have been', the novel measures the difference between the two, and by so doing attempts to reflect a kind of experiential (rather than historical or journalistic) truth."


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Poland face legal challenges not faced by non-LGBT residents. According to ILGA-Europe's 2022 report, the status of LGBTQ rights in Poland is the worst among European Union countries.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: Both male and female same-sex sexual activity have been legal in Poland since 1932, when the country introduced an equal age of consent for homosexuals and heterosexuals, which was set at 15. Poland provides LGBT people with the same rights as heterosexuals in certain areas: gay and bisexual men are allowed to donate blood, gays and bisexuals are allowed to serve openly in the Polish Armed Forces, and transgender people are allowed to change their legal gender following certain requirements including undergoing hormone replacement therapy. Polish law bans employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, although such protections may not be effective in practice. No protections for health services, hate crimes and hate speech exist, however. In 2019, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the provision of Polish Petty Offence Code, which made it illegal to deny goods and services without "a just cause", was unconstitutional.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: Polish society tends to hold conservative views about issues dealing with LGBT rights. A majority of the Polish population is affiliated with the Catholic Church, and as such, public perception and acceptance of the LGBT community are strongly influenced by Catholic moral doctrines. Article 18 of the Polish Constitution states that "Marriage, as a union of a man and a woman, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland." According to several jurists, this article bans same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court, the Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Administrative Court have ruled that Article 18 of the Constitution limits the institution of marriage to opposite-sex couples, and that the legalization of same-sex marriage would require a constitutional amendment. Poland does not recognise civil unions either, though discussion on this issue is ongoing. While ahead of the 2015 Polish parliamentary election, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party had taken an anti-migrant stance, and in the run-up to the 2019 Polish parliamentary election, PiS focused on countering alleged Western "LGBT ideology". Encouraged by national PiS politicians, , 100 municipalities (including five voivodships), encompassing about a third of the country, informally declared themselves "LGBT-free zones". Poland is the only country in Central Europe that does not ban all anti-LGBT discrimination.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: Acceptance for LGBT people in Polish society increased in the 1990s and early 2000s, mainly amongst younger people and those living in larger cities such as Warsaw and Kraków. There is a visible gay scene with clubs all around the country, most of them located in large urban areas. There are also several gay rights organizations, the two biggest ones being the Campaign Against Homophobia and Lambda Warszawa. Opinion polls on the public perception of LGBTQ rights in Poland have been contradictory, with many showing large support for registered partnerships, and some indicating a majority of opponents. The general trend however is an increase in the support for registered partnerships and same-sex marriage. Many left-wing and liberal political parties, namely the New Left, Labour Union, the Social Democratic Party, Your Movement, Modern, Together and Spring, have expressed support for the gay rights movement. Individual voices of support can also be found in the centre-right Civic Platform.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: During the Partitions of Poland (1795–1918) and the German occupation of Poland (1939–1945), laws prohibiting homosexuality were imposed on the territory that makes up the current Polish state.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: Following World War I, same-sex activity continued to be formally criminalized in now-independent Poland, because the penal codes of the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austria-Hungarian Empire remained in power. They mostly criminalized male same-sex acts, though the Austrian code included broader provisions against so-called "same-sex fornication" and was also used against women.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: The new Polish Penal Code of 1932 () decriminalized consensual same-sex acts. In 1948 during the Polish People's Republic, age of consent was set to 15, equal to that of heterosexual partners. Homosexual prostitution was legalized in 1969. Homosexuality was removed from the list of diseases in 1991.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: There is no legal recognition of same-sex couples in Poland, though cohabiting same-sex couples do enjoy certain limited benefits, namely in the tenancy of a shared household, the right not to testify against the partner and residency rights under EU law. Same-sex marriage is not recognized, and Article 18 of the Constitution of Poland states that "Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland." This has led to much debate over whether or not it is a definitive ban on same-sex marriage. A ruling in 2019 from an administrative court concluded that the language in Article 18 does not explicitly ban same-sex marriage. The justification of the ruling regarding the meaning of Article 18 is not binding. The sentence is binding only on the parties in the proceedings. Earlier judgments of the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Administrative Court have found the Constitution bans same-sex marriage by defining marriage as a heterosexual-only institution.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: A civil union bill was first proposed in 2003. In 2004, under a left-wing Government, the Senate approved the bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to register their relationship. Parties to a civil union under the bill would have been given a great range of benefits, protections and responsibilities (e.g. pension funds, joint tax and death-related benefits), currently granted only to spouses in a marriage, although they would not have been allowed to adopt children. The bill lapsed in the 2005 general election, however.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: The major opposition to introducing same-sex marriages or civil unions comes from the Roman Catholic Church, which is influential politically, holding a considerable degree of influence in the state. The Church also enjoys immense social prestige. The Church holds that homosexuality is a deviation. In 2012, the nation was 95% Roman Catholic, with 54% practicing every week.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: In January 2013, the Sejm voted to reject five proposed bills that would have introduced civil partnerships for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples. The High Court later issued an opinion stating that the bills proposed by the Democratic Left Alliance, Your Movement and Civic Platform were all unconstitutional, as Article 18 of the Constitution protects marriage. In December 2014, the Sejm refused to deal with a civil partnership bill proposed by Your Movement, with 235 MPs voting against debating the bill, and 185 MPs voting for. In May 2015, the Sejm again refused to deal with the topic, with 215 MPs voting against and only 146 for. Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said that civil partnerships were an issue for the next Parliament to deal with. A new partnership bill was proposed on 12 February 2018 by the Modern party.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: In June 2018, the European Court of Justice ruled that EU members states must grant married same-sex couples, where at least one partner is an EU citizen, full residency rights and recognise their freedom of movement.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: Poland did not implement this ruling, and in July 2020, the European Court of Human Rights notified the Polish government of cases filed by Polish same-sex couples, inviting the Polish government to present its position on the issue (Andersen v. Poland)


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: On 23 February 2007, the Appeals Court in Białystok recognized a same-sex cohabitation. On 6 December 2007, this ruling was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Warsaw.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: While Poland possesses no specific law on cohabitation, it does have a few provisions in different legal acts or Supreme Court rulings that recognise relations between unmarried partners and provides said partners specific rights and obligations. For example, Article 115(11) of the Penal Code () uses the term "the closest person", which covers romantic relations that are not legally formalised. The status of "the closest person" gives the right of refusal to testify against the partner. The term "partner" includes same-sex couples.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: A resolution of the Supreme Court from 28 November 2012 ("III CZP 65/12") on the interpretation of the term "a person who has lived actually in cohabitation with the tenant" was issued with regard to the case of a gay man who was the partner of a deceased person, the main tenant of the apartment. The Court interpreted the law in a way that recognised the surviving partner as authorised to take over the right to tenancy. The Court stated that the person actually remaining in cohabitation with the tenant - in the meaning of Article 691 § 1 of the Civil Code - is a person connected with the tenant by a bond of emotional, physical and economic nature. This also includes a person of the same sex. Previously, in March 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ruled, in the case of "Kozak v. Poland", that LGBT people have the right to inherit from their partners.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: Same-sex couples are unable to legally adopt in Poland. Furthermore, lesbian couples do not have access to IVF.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: In October 2018, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that a lesbian couple may register their 4-year-old boy as their child. Polish media described the case as "the first of its kind in Poland".


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: In July 2020 the President of Poland formally proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would ban adoption by a person in a same-sex relationship.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: In November 2020 a law was proposed to only allow married couples to adopt. This will make it impossible for same-sex couples to adopt, due to same-sex marriage not being allowed in Poland. Demonstrations are unable to be held, due to the COVID-19 virus.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: Anti-discrimination provisions were added to the Labour Code () in 2003. The Polish Constitution guarantees equality in accordance with the law and prohibits discrimination based on "any reason". The proposal to include a prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the Constitution was rejected in 1995, after strong Catholic Church objections.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: In 2007, an anti-discrimination law was under preparation by the Ministry of Labour that would prohibit discrimination on different grounds, including sexual orientation, not only in work and employment, but also in social security and social protection, health care, and education, although the provision of and access to goods and services would only be subject to a prohibition of discrimination on grounds of race or ethnic origin. On 1 January 2011, a new law on equal treatment entered into force. It prohibits sexual orientation discrimination in employment only. In September 2015, Amnesty International concluded that "the LGBTI community in Poland faces widespread and ingrained discrimination across the country" and that "Poland's legal system falls dangerously short when it comes to protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people and other minority groups from hate crimes".


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: Between 2015 and 2020, the Polish government has worked to reduce the effectiveness of the anti-discriminatory protections granted to LGBT people under EU law. Examining recent anti-discrimination cases, legal scholar Marcin Górski found that "the principle of equal treatment in Poland appears generally ineffective".


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: In June 2018, the Polish Supreme Court ruled that a Łódź printer acted illegally when he refused to print banners for an LGBT business group. The court argued that the principle of equality meant the printer did not have the right to withhold services from the business. The court also ruled that sexual orientation, race or other features of a person cannot be the basis for refusal to offer a service, but that freedom of conscience and religion must also be taken into account. The Campaign Against Homophobia welcomed the ruling, but it was condemned by Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro who called the ruling "against freedom" and "state violence in service of the ideology of homosexual activists". Ziobro filed a case with the Constitutional Tribunal to recognize the provision on the basis of which the printer was convicted as unconstitutional. On 26 June 2019, the Tribunal issued a judgment in which it found that the provision was incompatible with the Polish Constitution.


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: In July 2020 the government of Poland sued IKEA for firing an employee for severe homophobic remarks he made on the company's internal website. Poland's justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro called the dismissal, "absolutely scandalous".


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: The Polish ministry of Justice is funding a campaign for "counteracting crimes related to the violation of freedom of conscience committed under the influence of LGBT ideology", which is meant to protect people who "suffer under the pressure of new leftist ideologies".


title: LGBT rights in Poland

text: As of 2019, a bill is pending in Parliament to provide penalty enhancements if a crime is motivated by the victim's gender, gender identity, age, disability or sexual orientation.