title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars, includes musicians from all over the United States, such as guitarist Mundell Lowe, drummer Bill Goodwin, pianist/vocalist Johnny O'Neal, vibraphone player Chuck Redd, pianist/vocalist Ray Reach, and flutist Holly Hofmann.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: After FAME studio founder Rick Hall died in early 2018, "The New Yorker" concluded its retrospective with this comment:


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: "Muscle Shoals remains remarkable not just for the music made there but for its unlikeliness as an epicenter of anything; that a tiny town in a quiet corner of Alabama became a hotbed of progressive, integrated rhythm and blues still feels inexplicable. Whatever Hall conjured there—whatever he dreamt, and made real—is essential to any recounting of American ingenuity. It is a testament to a certain kind of hope." "Al.com" commented that Hall is survived by his family "and a Muscle Shoals music legacy like no other". An editorial in the "Anniston Star" concludes with this epitaph, "If the world wants to know about Alabama – a state seldom publicized for anything but college football and embarrassing politics – the late Rick Hall and his legacy are worthy models to uphold".


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: The original location of Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Sheffield has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since June 2006. From the early 2000s to 2013, it had been partly restored and open for tours. In 2013, the documentary "Muscle Shoals" raised public interest in a major restoration of the original studio. In the same year, the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation was formed to raise funds to purchase the building and to complete major renovations. In June 2013, the owner of the property since 1999 sold it without the historic recording equipment to the Foundation.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: A grant from Beats Electronics, a manufacturer of headphones owned by Apple Inc., and founded by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, provided an essential $1 million. The state tourism director said in 2015 that the 2013 film "Muscle Shoals" had been a significant influence. "The financial support from Beats is a direct result of their film." Additional donations were made by other groups and individuals.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: , tours were visiting the partly-restored studio on Jackson Highway. It was closed when major restoration work started in September 2015. Muscle Shoals Sound Studio reopened as a finished tourist attraction on January 9, 2017. Owned and operated by the foundation, the interior is reminiscent of the 1970s, with relevant recording equipment and paraphernalia. There are plans for future recording projects.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: Even before the Jackson Highway studio reopened, The Alabama Tourism Department named Muscle Shoals Sound Studio as the state's top attraction in 2017.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: The members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section were Pete Carr (lead guitar), Jimmy Johnson (rhythm guitar), Roger Hawkins (drums), David Hood (bass guitar) and Barry Beckett (keyboards).


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: Affectionately called The Swampers, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was a local group of first-call studio musicians (initially working at FAME and then at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios) who were available for back-up. They were given the nickname The Swampers by music producer Denny Cordell during the Leon Russell sessions because of their "funky, soulful Southern 'swamp' sound".


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which , or 0.13%, is water. The local hardiness zone is 7b. Interactive Map | USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 16,275 people, 5,371 households, and 3,738 families residing in the city.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 13,146 people, 5,321 households, and 3,769 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 5,653 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 80.6% White, 15.3% Black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 0.9% Asian, 1.3% from other races, and 1.6% Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.7% of the population.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: There were 5,321 households, out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.4% were married couples living together, 12.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.2% were non-families. 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.93.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 23.6% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 27.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.9 males.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: The median income for a household in the city was $48,134, and the median income for a family was $60,875. Males had a median income of $41,061 versus $37,576 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,237. About 8.3% of families and 10.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.9% of those under age 18 and 4.8% of those age 65 or over.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 11,924 people, 4,710 households and 3,452 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 5,010 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 83.88% White, 14.16% Black or African American, 0.38% Native American, 0.56% Asian, 0.31% from other races, and 0.70% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.16% of the population.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: There were 4,710 households, out of which 34.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.4% were married couples living together, 11.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.7% were non-families. 23.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 2.95.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 24.8% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 29.6% from 25 to 44, 23.9% from 45 to 64, and 13.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.1 males.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: The median income for a household in the city was $40,210, and the median income for a family was $48,113. Males had a median income of $38,063 versus $21,933 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,113. About 5.4% of families and 7.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.1% of those under age 18 and 7.2% of those age 65 or over.


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: The Muscle Shoals City School District is currently led by Superintendent Dr. Chad Holden. There are seven schools in the district:


title: Muscle Shoals, Alabama

text: The city is served by Northwest Alabama Regional Airport, which is one mile east from the town and is served by one commercial airline.


title: Philip I of France

text: Philip I (23 May 1052 – 29 July 1108), called the Amorous, was King of the Franks from 1060 to 1108. His reign, like that of most of the early Capetians, was extraordinarily long for the time. The monarchy began a modest recovery from the low it reached in the reign of his father and he added to the royal demesne the Vexin and Bourges.


title: Philip I of France

text: Philip was born 23 May 1052 at Champagne-et-Fontaine, the son of Henry I and his wife Anne of Kiev. Unusual for the time in Western Europe, his name was of Greek origin, being bestowed upon him by his mother. Although he was crowned king at the age of seven, until age fourteen (1066) his mother acted as regent, the first queen of France ever to do so. Baldwin V of Flanders also acted as co-regent.


title: Philip I of France

text: Following the death of Baldwin VI of Flanders, Robert the Frisian seized Flanders. Baldwin's widow, Richilda, requested aid from Philip, who was defeated by Robert at the battle of Cassel in 1071.


title: Philip I of France

text: Philip first married Bertha of Holland in 1072. Although the marriage produced the necessary heir, Philip fell in love with Bertrade de Montfort, the wife of Fulk IV, Count of Anjou. He repudiated Bertha (claiming she was too fat) and married Bertrade on 15 May 1092. In 1094 following the synod of Autun, he was excommunicated by the papal representative, Hugh of Die, for the first time; after a long silence, Pope Urban II repeated the excommunication at the Council of Clermont in November 1095. Several times the ban was lifted as Philip promised to part with Bertrade, but he always returned to her; in 1104 Philip made a public penance and must have kept his involvement with Bertrade discreet. In France, the king was opposed by Bishop Ivo of Chartres, a famous jurist.


title: Philip I of France

text: Philip appointed Alberic first Constable of France in 1060. A great part of his reign, like his father's, was spent putting down revolts by his power-hungry vassals. In 1077, he made peace with William the Conqueror, who gave up attempting the conquest of Brittany. In 1082, Philip I expanded his demesne with the annexation of the Vexin, in reprisal against Robert Curthose's attack on William's heir, William Rufus. Then in 1100, he took control of Bourges. Philip expanded the royal demesne by incorporating the monasteries of Saint-Denis and Corbie.


title: Philip I of France

text: It was at the aforementioned Council of Clermont that the First Crusade was launched. Philip at first did not personally support it because of his conflict with Urban II. Philip's brother Hugh of Vermandois, however, was a major participant.


title: Philip I of France

text: Philip died in the castle of Melun and was buried per his request at the monastery of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire – and not in St Denis among his forefathers. He was succeeded by his son, Louis VI, whose succession was, however, not uncontested. According to Abbot Suger:


title: Mackenzie Rosman

text: Mackenzie Rosman (born December 28, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for her television role as Ruthie Camden on The WB's long-running drama series "7th Heaven".


title: Mackenzie Rosman

text: In 1996, Rosman was cast in the role of Ruthie Camden on "7th Heaven" after personally greeting each person in the room with a handshake during her audition. In addition to her role on "7th Heaven", Rosman appeared in the independent film "Gideon", starring Christopher Lambert, Charlton Heston and Shelley Winters. She has appeared in numerous television commercials starting at age four including a Tuff's Diaper commercial and a Nike shoe commercial.


title: Mackenzie Rosman

text: Rosman played the role of Loreli in the 2009 film "The Tomb", loosely based on "Ligeia" by Edgar Allan Poe, alongside Wes Bentley and Kaitlin Doubleday. She also played Jill in the 2008 horror film, "Fading of the Cries".


title: Mackenzie Rosman

text: Rosman appeared in four episodes of Brenda Hampton's teen drama "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" playing Zoe, a student at Grant High School who sleeps with Ricky to get back at Adrian for having sex with Zoe's boyfriend Mac. In 2013, she co-starred in the 2013 horror film "Beneath", and in the 2013 television film "Ghost Shark". Rosman posed for "Maxim" magazine in September 2013.


title: Mackenzie Rosman

text: Outside of acting, Rosman enjoys spending time with animals. She owns many horses and is a competitive equestrienne show jumper and rides her horse Mentos Junior in jumping competitions.


title: Mackenzie Rosman

text: Rosman is an active supporter of fundraising for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and wishes to educate the public about the need for organ donation. Mackenzie's stepsister, Katelyn Salmont, lived with cystic fibrosis and underwent a successful double lung transplant in late 2005, her father Randy donating one organ. Both girls were featured in "Teen People's" "20 Teens Who Will Change the World". "7th Heaven" produced a special episode about cystic fibrosis titled "Back in the Saddle" which featured Salmont as herself, and Rosman and Salmont rode horses together, as they did at home. In 2005, Salmont reappeared, post-transplant, on "7th Heaven" (the episode entitled "X-Mas"), to describe the new life she'd been given. Salmont died of pneumonia and cystic fibrosis on Christmas 2008. Rosman also supports Childhelp Inc. and is an ambassador for the organization, which helps severely abused children. Rosman is also the national honorary chairman for CureFinders, a school fundraising program to help fund the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis.


title: Soulmates (TV series)

text: Soulmates is an American science fiction television anthology series created by William Bridges and Brett Goldstein. "Soulmates" premiered on AMC on October 5, 2020. In August 2020, the series was renewed for a second season, ahead of the series premiere.


title: Soulmates (TV series)

text: "Soulmates" is set approximately 15 years in the future, when a company called Soul Connex has developed a test that can determine the person you were most meant to love with 100% accuracy. People who take the test either learn of their soulmate and have the choice to pursue that person, or get a response of, "Your soulmate hasn't tested yet." The series explores through self-contained episodes whether love is destiny or a choice. Says series co-creator Will Bridges, "Your soulmate is the person you will love the most, more than anyone else. A soulmate isn't someone who is going to fix you. It's the person you will feel love for the strongest, and it’s undeniable. Does that mean true happiness, or the best person for you?"


title: Hiro Mashima

text: "Fairy Tail" won the Kodansha Manga Award for "shōnen manga" in 2009, and Mashima was given the Harvey Awards International Spotlight award in 2017 and the Fauve Special Award at the 2018 Angoulême International Comics Festival.


title: Hiro Mashima

text: Mashima stated that he knew he wanted to be a manga artist for as long as he can recall. His father was an artist that aspired to turn professional, but died when Mashima was young. Living in the mountains as a child, his grandfather would bring him discarded manga that he found. After reading them, Mashima would draw from them. In middle school, he began to rebel and get into trouble, but still drew everyday. In high school, he became guitarist in a rock band named Night Meeting, which played a show every two or three months. Mashima was eventually indefinitely suspended from school due to his delinquency and, after reflecting during this time away, decided he would try to make it as a professional manga artist. Moving to Tokyo after graduating high school, he entered a school specializing in teaching manga artists, but left without completing the studies. He stated that while it taught him the basics, he felt it would not help as a professional.


title: Hiro Mashima

text: In 1998, Mashima created the one-shot manga "Magician" while working part-time at an arcade, and entered it into a competition held by Kodansha's "Weekly Shōnen Magazine". While waiting for the results, his one-shot "Bad Boys Song" was published in August 1998. When "Magician" was published in 1998's 51st issue of "Weekly Shōnen Magazine", it won the Rookie Prize and earned Mashima around $7,000. He made his official serialization debut the following year with "Rave Master" in "Weekly Shōnen Magazine". It ran until 2005 and was adapted into an anime titled "Groove Adventure Rave" from 2001 to 2002. In 2003, he collected some of his one-shot titles into the two volume "Hiro Mashima's Playground", which was licensed for a North American release in 2018. After completing "Rave Master", Mashima serialized "Monster Soul" in the monthly magazine "Comic BomBom" from 2005 to 2007.


title: Hiro Mashima

text: Mashima began "Fairy Tail" in "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" in 2006 and it went on to become one of the best-selling manga series in history with over 72 million copies in print. It spawned a large franchise, including numerous spin-offs and adaptations, before ending in 2017. In 2011, Mashima created a crossover manga between "Rave Master" and "Fairy Tail" published in the May issue of "Weekly Shōnen Magazine". It was adapted into an original video animation released in August 2013. A special 2013 issue of "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" featured a small crossover between "Fairy Tail" and Nakaba Suzuki's "The Seven Deadly Sins", where each artist drew a "yonkoma" (four-panel comic) of the other's series. An actual crossover chapter between these two ran in December 2013. From July 17, 2014 to July 17, 2015, "Fairy Tail" had its own monthly magazine titled "Monthly Fairy Tail Magazine", which included a prequel manga by Mashima himself titled "Fairy Tail Zero".


title: Hiro Mashima

text: In 2014, three spin-offs were started: "" by Yūsuke Shirato; "Fairy Tail Blue Mistral" by Rui Watanabe; and "Fairy Girls" by Boku. Another spin-off manga titled "Fairy Tail Side Stories" and created by Kyōta Shibano launched on July 30, 2015 in Kodansha's free "Magazine Pocket" mobile app. On July 25, 2018, "" began on "Magazine Pocket" as the official sequel to "Fairy Tail". Mashima provides the original storyboards for the manga that is illustrated by Atsuo Ueda. At the end of 2021, Mashima approached Kodansha Game Creators Lab to hold a contest looking for video game proposals based on "Fairy Tail" with the winning work receiving $132,300, $88,200 of which came from Mashima himself. The games should be created for platforms such as Steam, iOS and Android, and Kodansha will distribute the winner to be decided in April 2022, with the profits shared between Kodansha and the developers.


title: Hiro Mashima

text: While creating "Fairy Tail", Mashima serialized "Monster Hunter Orage", an adaptation of the "Monster Hunter" video games, in "Monthly Shōnen Rival" from 2008 to 2009. Also in 2008, he drew a remake of Atsushi Kase's gag manga "Chameleon" for the 50th anniversary of "Weekly Shōnen Magazine". Mashima's Japanese-style epic fantasy one-shot "Hoshigami no Satsuki" was published in the September 17, 2014 issue of "Weekly Shōnen Magazine".


title: Hiro Mashima

text: Mashima began the series "Edens Zero" in "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" on June 27, 2018. From October to December 2019, he created the mini-series "Mashima Hero's" in "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" for its 60th anniversary. It is a crossover between his three series "Rave Master", "Fairy Tail" and "Edens Zero". Mashima drew a one-shot manga adaptation of the video game "" for the October issue of Shueisha's "V Jump" magazine, which was released on August 21, 2019. On December 17, 2021, Mashima announced that he was developing an "Edens Zero" video game by himself using RPG Maker. Describing it as a "hobby project" that he worked on in his free time, he released "Rebecca to Kikai no Yōkan" for free on PC on March 16, 2022.


title: Hiro Mashima

text: Mashima listed Akira Toriyama's "Dragon Ball" as his favorite manga growing up, the video game series "Dragon Quest", and Yudetamago's "Kinnikuman" as inspiring him to become an artist. He also read/watched several works by Hayao Miyazaki as a child. In 2008, when asked if there were any current things that inspired him, he gave "Code Geass" as a response. In 2011, "Berserk" was stated to be his favorite manga. Mashima speculated his desire to include strange and surreal mascot characters in his works, such as Happy, was influenced by "Utsurun Desu." author Sensha Yoshida. He also said he finds the visual contrast that such characters bring "beautiful".


title: Hiro Mashima

text: For "Rave", Mashima's inspiration was wanting to travel the world, while for "Fairy Tail" it was simply sitting in bars and partying with his friends, the community aspect, but is also about young people finding their calling. He stated that while he tries to consider both his own interests and the fans' on what will happen next in "Fairy Tail", the fans take precedence.


title: Hiro Mashima

text: Mashima has named his main characters after the seasons. In "Rave", the main character is named Haru, which is Japanese for spring. In "Fairy Tail", the main character is Natsu, which is the Japanese word for summer. In "Monster Soul", the main character is Aki (Autumn), while both "Monster Hunter Orage" and "Edens Zero" have a character named Shiki, which is the Japanese word for seasons. He also named a character in "Fighting Force Mixture" Fuyu, which is Japanese for winter. Mashima said in an "About.com" interview that he did this because Japanese readers may not be familiar with western fantasy names. The main characters of both "Rave" and "Fairy Tail" do not have fathers, partly taken from Mashima's own experience of his father dying when he was young.


title: Hiro Mashima

text: Mashima had six assistants in 2008 that worked in an 8,000 sq. feet area with seven desks, as well as a sofa and TV for video games. He revealed his schedule for "Fairy Tail" was script and storyboards on Monday, rough sketches the following day, and drawing and inking Wednesday through Friday. The weekend was for "Monster Hunter"; working on a quarter of the story each weekend and finishing by the end of the month. In 2011, he stated that he worked six days a week, for 17 hours a day. Mashima's assistants included Miki Yoshikawa, who has gone on to work on the romantic comedies "Yankee-kun and Megane-chan (Flunk Punk Rumble)" and "Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches". In 2008, together they developed a crossover one-shot story called "Fairy Megane" where characters from "Yankee-kun" decide to find part-time jobs at the "Fairy Tail" guild. Other assistants who have gone on to work on projects of their own were Shin Mikuni, who published "Spray King", and Ueda Yui, who published "Tsukushi Biyori".


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: The RSM-56 Bulava (, lit. "mace", NATO reporting name SS-NX-30 or SS-N-32, GRAU index 3M30, 3K30) is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) developed for the Russian Navy and deployed in 2013 on the new of ballistic missile nuclear submarines. It is intended as the future cornerstone of Russia's nuclear triad, and is the most expensive weapons project in the country. The weapon takes its name from "bulava", a Russian word for mace.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Designed by Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, development of the missile was launched in the late 1990s as a replacement for the R-39 Rif solid-fuel SLBM. The Project 955/955A Borei-class submarines carry 16 missiles per vessel. Development and deployment of the Bulava missile within the Russian Navy is not affected by the enforcement of the new START treaty.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: A source in the Russian defense industry told TASS on June 29, 2018, that the D-30 missile system with the R-30 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile had been accepted for service in the Russian Navy after its successful four-missile salvo launch tests in 2018.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: The Bulava missile was developed by Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology under the leadership of chief designer Yury Solomonov. Although it utilizes some engineering solutions used for the recent RT-2PM2 Topol-M ICBM, the new missile has been developed virtually from scratch. Bulava is both lighter and more sophisticated than the Topol-M. The two missiles are expected to have comparable ranges, and similar CEP and warhead configurations. Bulava has a declared START throw weight of 1150 kg to 9,500 kilometers.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: The missile has three stages; the first and second stages use solid fuel propellant, while the third stage uses a liquid fuel to allow high maneuverability during warhead separation. The missile can be launched from an inclined position, allowing a submarine to fire them while moving. It has a low flight trajectory, and due to this could be classified as a quasi-ballistic missile. It is rumored to possess advanced missile defense evasion capabilities and can maneuver at its boost stage.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Borei-class submarines carrying Bulava missiles are expected to be an integral part of the Russian nuclear triad until 2040.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Bulava can be loaded on TEL road mobile launchers, on railway BZhRK trains and other various launchers.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: In the 1990s, Russia had two submarine-launched ICBMs, the solid-fuel R-39 and the liquid-fuel R-29 Vysota family, both developed by the Makeyev Design Bureau. A new missile, designated R-39UTTH Bark was under development to replace the R-39. The Bark was planned to become the only submarine-launched ballistic missile of the Russian nuclear arsenal. However, its development was plagued with problems, and after three test failures the Bark programme was canceled in 1998. Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology was now tasked with developing a new advanced missile. The institute promised that it would able to quickly develop a new naval missile based on its recent Topol-M land-based ICBM.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: The new missile would be deployed per 16 missiles on the Borei I (Project 955) and Borei II (Project 955A) class submarines. As the new submarines would not be ready in time for flight tests, the Typhoon-class submarine "Dmitry Donskoy" was upgraded to carry Bulavas.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Key people involved in the decision to develop Bulava included the institute director and Bulava's chief designer Yury Solomonov; director of the Defense Ministry's Fourth Central Research Institute, Major-General Vladimir Dvorkin; Navy Commander, Fleet Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov; Defense Minister, Marshal Igor Sergeyev; Economics Minister Yakov Urinson and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: The missile completed the first stage launch-tests at the end of 2004. Although it was initially planned to base the Bulava design on the Topol-M, the first tests showed that the new missile was completely different in terms of appearance, dimensions and warhead lay-out. It was later acknowledged that the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology had developed Bulava virtually from scratch, reusing only a few engineering solutions from the Topol-M.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: The missile's flight test programme was problematic. Until 2009, there were 6 failures in 13 flight tests and one failure during ground test, blamed mostly on substandard components. This led to the missile's chief designer, Yury Solomonov resigning from his post in July 2009. Aleksandr Sukhodolskiy was appointed as the new general designer of sea-based ballistic missiles at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology; Solomonov however retained his post of general designer of land-based missiles.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: After a failure in December 2009, further tests were put on hold and a probe was conducted to find out the reasons for the failures. Testing was resumed on 7 October 2010 with a launch from the in the White Sea; the warheads successfully hit their targets at the Kura Test Range in the Russian Far East. Seven launches have been conducted since the probe, all successful. On 28 June 2011, the missile was launched for the first time from its standard carrier, Borei-class submarine , and on 27 August 2011 the first full-range (over ) flight test was conducted. After this successful launch, the start of serial production of Bulava missiles in the same configuration was announced on 28 June 2011. A successful salvo launch on 23 December 2011 concluded the flight test programme. The missile was officially approved for service on 27 December 2011, and was reported to be commissioned aboard "Yuri Dolgorukiy" on 10 January 2013. The missile did however continue to fail in the summer of 2013 and was not operational as of November 2013. The Bulava became operational aboard "Yury Dolgorukiy" as of October 2015. However, recent developments put this in question. In November 2015, the submarine fired two missiles while submerged. One of the missiles self-destructed during the boost phase and the other failed to deliver its warheads to the specified target. After being sent back to the manufacturer, it was determined that the missiles failed due to manufacturing defects.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: After two successful tests in June 2017 and May 2018, a source in the Russian defense industry told TASS on June 29, 2018, that the D-30 missile system with the R-30 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile had been accepted for service in the Russian Navy.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Chief designer Solomonov blamed the failures on the poor state of the Russian defense industry and problems in the design-technology-production chain.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: According to Solomonov, the industry is unable to manufacture 50 of the necessary components for the missile, forcing designers to improvise and look for alternative solutions, which seriously complicates the testing process. Solomonov further said that despite the failures, there was no need for changes in the design.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Sergei Kovalyov, the designer of three generations of Russian strategic submarines said that due to lack of funding, the developers had been unable to conduct test launches from a floating pad to test the underwater segment of the missile's trajectory. He also said that there were insufficient funds to conduct ground-based test launches. Both types of testing had been standard procedure during Soviet times. Kovalyov also criticised the poor quality of missile components provided by a large number of sub-contractors and the absence of military representatives at manufacturing plants.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: The 2009 Norwegian spiral anomalies, a temporary strange light phenomenon over vast areas of northern Norway have been explained with a failed stage of a Bulava missile test.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: According to a spokesman, "The missile's first two stages worked as normal, but there was a technical malfunction at the next, third, stage of the trajectory".


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Due to the delays in Bulava's development, the launch of the fourth Borei-class submarine, "Svyatitel Nikolay", was pushed back. Russia was planning to build eight Borei-class submarines by 2015.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Only one Typhoon-class submarine, "Dmitry Donskoy", was modified to launch Bulavas. The Bulava program is the most expensive weapons project in Russia.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Despite continued test failures, the Russian defense minister, Anatoliy Serdyukov, has stated that the project will not be abandoned. "We will certainly not give up the Bulava. I think that despite all the failures, the missile will fly," he said in an interview in late December 2009. The Russian military has been adamant that there is no alternative to Bulava.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: There has been discussions among analysts about the possibility of re-equipping the Borei-class submarines with the more reliable liquid-propellant R-29RMU Sineva missiles. The Sineva is an upgrade of the R-29RM Shtil and entered service in 2007. According to "RIA Novosti" military analyst Ilya Kramnik, this would have been an attractive option, given that the less advanced Sineva missiles already have "virtually the same impressive specifications as the Trident II (D5) SLBMs wielded by the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy." However, the work needed to redesign and modify the Borei-class submarines to carry Sinevas is regarded as too expensive.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: After a launch failure in December 2009 caused by a defective engine nozzle and which led to the 2009 Norwegian spiral anomaly, further tests were put on hold and a review of the missile program was initiated. The results of the probe were delivered to the Russian government in May 2010.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Testing was resumed for the first time after the probe on 7 October 2010. The missile was launched from the submerged "Dmitry Donskoy", in the White Sea, and the warheads successfully hit their targets at the Kura testing range, to the north of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Russian Far East. The launch reportedly took place at 07:15 UTC. The missile travelled over , and the rocket's trajectory was within the normal parameters, according to a Navy official.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: The next test to be performed from "Yuriy Dolgorukiy" was initially planned to December 2010, but was postponed to mid-summer 2011 due to ice conditions in White Sea.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Each of following new test missiles needed to be built under nearly identical conditions, in order to determine the cause of potential failures.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Russian defense sources have stated that the Bulava missile will not enter service until it is 98-99% reliable. According to the Russian Vice Premier Sergei Ivanov another six successful launches (one planned in 2010, other five in 2011) will be required before the missile could be commissioned.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: After a successful test salvo launch in December 2011, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev announced that the Bulava missile was ready and it would now be adopted for service with the Russian Navy.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: In August 2012 a high-ranking official of Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation said in 2012 Russia will test fire its Bulava missile only once, in November, specifically from the nuclear-powered submarine .


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: Bulava was finally commissioned with its lead carrier "Yuri Dolgorukiy" on 10 January 2013. The official ceremony of raising the Russian Navy colors on the submarine was led by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. After another failed launch in September, Shoigu announced a pause in the state trials of the next two submarines and five more test launches. The entire production run of the missiles was then recalled for factory inspections.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: "The commission has completed its work. The causes have been determined. They are technological and are related to the production of the nozzle," Borisov told a roundtable meeting on state defense contracts.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: The cause of the failure does not call into question "the correctness of the production of the product in general," he said. The flaw that has been revealed has been corrected on the three remaining missiles in this batch, Borisov said. Borisov said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has made a decision to hold another five Bulava launches.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: The intercontinental ballistic missile Bulava was launched at the Kura testing ground in Kamchatka during the state testing of the strategic nuclear submarine Alexander Nevsky in the White Sea on September 6.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: "The missile left the launch container, but its board system failed three minutes into the launch," the Russian Defense Ministry earlier said.


title: RSM-56 Bulava

text: In October 2010 it was reported that 150-170 operational missiles would be built (124 active + reserve for training and tests). After the successful launch on 27 June 2011, the Russian government announced the start of serial production of Bulava missiles. On 10 January 2013, Bulava was adopted into experimental service with its lead carrier submarine "Yuri Dolgorukiy". It was reported in June 2018 that the missile has been accepted for service by the Russian Navy after its successful test firings conducted in 2018.


title: Private first class

text: Private first class (; ) is a military rank held by junior enlisted personnel in a number of armed forces.


title: Private first class

text: Introduced in 1983, the honorific rank is awarded to hardworking conscript citizen-soldiers who performed well in their National Service term. Private First Class (PFC) wear a rank insignia of a single chevron pointing down.


title: Private first class

text: The Private First Class (PFC) rank is rarely awarded nowadays by the Singapore Armed Forces. All private enlistees can be promoted directly to Lance Corporal (LCP) should they meet the minimum qualifying requirements, conduct appraisal and work performance.


title: Private first class

text: In the United States Army, recruits usually enter service as a private in pay grade E-1. Private (E-2), designated by a single chevron, is typically an automatic promotion after six months of service. Private first class (E-3), equivalent to NATO grade OR-3, is designated by a single chevron with one arc or "rocker," and is more common among soldiers who have served in the U.S. Army for one year or more. Soldiers who have achieved an associate degree or its equivalent are entitled to enter the Army at this pay grade. Advancement from private first class is to specialist (E-4); advancement to corporal (also at the E-4 pay grade) requires that the soldier also complete the Basic Leader Course (BLC), the first course of study in a US Army noncommissioned officer's professional development course. Thus, in order to qualify for leadership posts such as team leader, the soldier must have first served as a corporal; a team leader is nominally a sergeant (E-5).


title: Private first class

text: The rank of private first class has existed since 1846 and, prior to 1919, its insignia consisted of the branch of service insignia without any arcs or chevrons. The Secretary of War approved "an arc of one bar" (i.e., a "rocker") under the branch of service or trade insignia for privates first class on 22 July 1919. From August 5, 1920, to May 28, 1968, the rank insignia for private first class was a single chevron, per War Department Circular No. 303. On May 28, 1968, the insignia was changed to its current form, consisting of a single chevron with one arc.


title: Private first class

text: In the United States Marine Corps, the rank of private first class is the second lowest, just under lance corporal and just above Private, equivalent to NATO grade OR-2, being pay grade E-2. It was established on June 3, 1916, to match the already existing Army rank, primarily because US Marine units were "often called upon to serve" with US Army organizations, such as in the American Expeditionary Force that served in Europe during World War I (e.g. 4th Marine Brigade of the U.S. Army's 2nd Infantry Division). At the time the two ranks were directly equivalent. However, the USMC rank of PFC is one grade lower (E-2) than the similarly titled US Army rank.


title: Big Black

text: Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun. In 1985, Pezzati was replaced by Dave Riley, who played on Big Black's two full-length studio albums, "Atomizer" (1986) and "Songs About Fucking" (1987).


title: Big Black

text: Big Black's aggressive and abrasive music was characterized by distinctively clanky guitars and the use of a drum machine rather than a drum kit, elements that foreshadowed industrial rock. The band's lyrics flouted commonly held taboos and dealt frankly—and often explicitly—with politically and culturally loaded topics including murder, rape, child sexual abuse, arson, racism, and misogyny. Though the band's lyrics contained controversial material, the lyrics were meant to serve as a commentary or a display of distaste for the subject matter. They were staunchly critical of the commercial nature of rock, shunning the mainstream music industry and insisting on complete control over all aspects of their career. At the height of their success, they booked their own tours, paid for their own recordings, refused to sign contracts, and eschewed many of the traditional corporate trappings of rock bands. In doing so, they had a significant impact on the aesthetic and political development of independent and underground rock music.


title: Big Black

text: In addition to two studio albums, Big Black released two live albums, two compilation albums, four EPs, and five singles, all through independent record labels. Most of the band's catalog was kept in print through Touch and Go Records for years following their breakup.


title: Big Black

text: Big Black was founded by Steve Albini in 1981 during his second year of college at Northwestern University. Albini had become a fan of punk rock during his high school years in Missoula, Montana, and taught himself to play bass guitar in the fall of 1979, his senior year, while recuperating from a badly broken leg resulting from being struck by a car while riding his motorcycle. Moving to Evanston, Illinois the following year to pursue a journalism degree and fine art minor at Northwestern, Albini immersed himself in the fledgling Chicago punk scene and became a devoted fan of the band Naked Raygun. He also DJ'd for the campus radio station, from which he was repeatedly fired for playing loud and abrasive music during the morning time slot as well as not completing the required logs. He also wrote a controversial column titled "Tired of Ugly Fat?" for the Chicago zine "Matter", publishing confrontational rants about the local music scene which polarized readers into either respecting or hating him.


title: Big Black

text: Albini began playing in college bands, including a short-lived "arty new wave" act called Stations that featured a drum machine. Seeing the advantage in a machine that could play incredibly fast without tiring, always kept a steady beat, and would follow commands exactly, he purchased a Roland TR-606 drum machine and began writing what would become the first Big Black songs. However, he was unable to find other musicians who could play the songs to his satisfaction, later stating in "Forced Exposure" that "I couldn't find anybody who didn't blow out of a pig's asshole." Instead, in the spring of 1981, he bought a guitar, borrowed a four-track multitrack recorder from a friend in exchange for a case of beer, and spent his spring break week recording the "Lungs" EP in his living room, handling the guitar, bass, and vocals by himself and programming the Roland TR-606 to provide the drum sound. Influenced by bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Killing Joke, and the Cure, the EP is described by "Our Band Could Be Your Life" author Michael Azerrad as "cold, dark, and resolutely unlistenable", with the lyrics describing child abusers and other controversial topics, and Albini later regarded the effort as one of his few artistic regrets.


title: Big Black

text: Albini named his new musical project Big Black, calling the moniker "just sort of a reduction of the concept of a large, scary, ominous figure. All the historical images of fear and all the things that kids are afraid of are all big and black, basically." He used the "Lungs" tape to try to enlist other musicians to the project, briefly recruiting Minor Threat guitarist Lyle Preslar who was attending Northwestern, but the two proved incompatible as musicians. Albini passed "Lungs" on to John Babbin of the small local label Ruthless Records, who released 1,500 copies of the EP in December 1982 with random objects such as dollar bills, used condoms, photographs of Bruce Lee, and bloody pieces of paper thrown into the inserts.


title: Big Black

text: In early 1983 Albini met Naked Raygun singer Jeff Pezzati through mutual friends and convinced him to play bass guitar with Big Black. Pezzati recalled that Albini "knew a heck of a lot about, right from the start, how to release a record and get the word out that you have a record", and that "He jumped at the chance to have a band play his stuff." The two practiced in Pezzati's basement, and one day Naked Raygun guitarist Santiago Durango came downstairs and asked to play along. The trio clicked as a unit, Durango's ability to rework arrangements and tweak sounds helping to refine Albini's song ideas. According to Albini, "He ended up being absolutely crucial to Big Black."


title: Big Black

text: Albini "sorta conned" small local label Fever Records into financing the next Big Black EP, bringing in drummer Pat Byrne of Urge Overkill to play on the sessions as accompaniment to the drum machine, which they dubbed "Roland" for album credits. Albini achieved a signature "clanky" sound with his guitar by using metal guitar picks notched with sheet metal clips, creating the effect of two guitar picks at once. The "Bulldozer" EP was recorded with engineer Iain Burgess and released in December 1983, with the first two hundred copies packaged in a galvanized sheet metal sleeve in homage to Public Image Ltd.'s "Metal Box". Many of the EP's lyrics depicted scenarios drawn from Albini's midwest upbringing, such as "Cables", which described the slaughtering of cows at a Montana abattoir, and "Pigeon Kill", about a rural Indiana town that dealt with an overpopulation of pigeons by feeding them poisoned corn.


title: Big Black

text: Even with "Bulldozer" released, Big Black drew very small crowds in their native Chicago. They began venturing outside of Illinois to play shows in Madison, Minneapolis, Detroit, and Muncie, transporting themselves and their equipment in a cramped car and sleeping on people's floors. Albini handled much of the band's logistics himself, setting up rehearsals, booking studio time, and arranging tours. With their reputation growing through small tours, he was able to set up a run of East Coast dates including performances in Washington, D.C. and Boston and at New York City's Danceteria, followed by a European tour on which they won acclaim in the United Kingdom's music press. Big Black simultaneously found themselves gaining popularity in their hometown, but felt embittered that the same locals who had snubbed them just months before were suddenly interested now that they had built a reputation outside the city, and the band actually refused to play in Chicago for some time.


title: Big Black

text: Part of Big Black's local unpopularity stemmed from Albini and the vitriol he regularly directed at Chicago's rock scene: by 1985, the Metro Chicago was the only club in the city that was booking punk rock shows and was also large enough to accommodate Big Black, but after performing there Albini badmouthed the club in an interview and found himself banned from it permanently. Compounding the problem were the band's aggressive, noise-driven sound and Albini's confrontational lyrics, which tested the tolerance of his white liberal audience by mercilessly satirizing racism, sexism, chauvinism, and stereotypes of homosexuality, sometimes using pejoratives like "darkie" and "fag" to drive home the point; this led some listeners to consider him a bigot.


title: Big Black

text: Looking for better distribution of their records, Big Black negotiated a deal with Homestead Records. Gerard Cosloy, who had befriended Albini through writing for "Matter" and gone on to work at Homestead, negotiated an unorthodox deal for the band: Big Black merely licensed their recordings to Homestead for specific lengths of time, rather than the label retaining the rights to the recordings as was typical. Further, the band took no advance payments, paid for their own recordings, and signed no contracts. Durango later remarked that "We came from a punk perspective — we did not want to get sucked into a corporate culture where basically you're signing a contract because you don't trust the other person to live up to their word. We had ideals, and that was one of our ideals." The band members figured that if a record company were going to cheat them, they would be able to do so with or without a contract because the band could not afford to defend themselves.


title: Big Black

text: Albini believed that Big Black had nothing to gain by adopting the usual corporate trappings of rock bands: "If you don't use contracts, you don't have any contracts to worry about. If you don't have a tour rider, you don't have a tour rider to argue about. If you don't have a booking agent, you don't have a booking agent to argue with." Handling the tour booking, equipment hauling, setup, and breakdown of shows themselves also meant that the band did not have to hire a booking agent or road crew with whom they would have to share profits. The lack of a drummer also meant one less member to split profits with, and since there was no drum kit the band did not have to rent a tour van to fit all of their equipment. Thus Big Black was able to profit from most of their tours. They embarked on a 1984 national tour of the United States in preparation for their forthcoming Homestead EP, utilizing the close-knit network of independent rock bands to learn of cities and venues to play.


title: Big Black

text: In late 1984, following the recording of the "Racer-X" EP, Pezzati amicably left the band due to his increasingly demanding job, the need to devote time to his fiancée, and the increasing popularity and busy schedule of Naked Raygun, of which he was still a member. Durango, meanwhile, opted to leave Naked Raygun to commit full-time to Big Black. Pezzati was replaced by Dave Riley, who joined Big Black the week of "Racer-X"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s release in April 1985. Riley had moved to Chicago in 1982 from Detroit, where he had worked at a studio where funk artists George Clinton and Sly Stone had recorded (he is credited as a recording engineer on Parliaments "Trombipulation" and Funkadelic's "The Electric Spanking of War Babies"). In Chicago he joined a band called Savage Beliefs, and his playing style impressed Albini and Durango, who invited him to join Big Black as they were recording the songs that would make up the band's first full-length album.


title: Big Black

text: Albini claimed to be aiming for a "big, massive, slick rock sound" with "Racer-X", which was less frantic than "Bulldozer", but ultimately felt that the EP was "too samey and monolithic." The band had already begun writing new songs by the time "Racer-X" was released, stating in the last sentence of the EP's liner notes that "The next one's gonna make you shit your pants." Big Black's first LP, 1986's "Atomizer", found the band at their most musically developed and aggressive level yet. Riley's funk background brought a slightly greater sense of melody and danceability to the band, while Albini and Durango's guitar work was more violent than ever before. Michael Azerrad comments that "by this time Big Black had both refined the ideas first suggested on "Lungs" and exploded them into something much huger than anyone but Albini had ever imagined", while Mark Deming of Allmusic states that the album "upped the ante on the musical and lyrical ferocity of Big Black's previous body of work, an unrelenting assault of guitar sounds and imagined violence of all sorts." Albini later remarked that "we just had a higher-than-average percentage of really good songs." The lyrics on "Atomizer" presented sociopaths committing evil acts that most people only sometimes contemplate: "Big Money" deals with a corrupt police officer, "Bazooka Joe" profiles a shell-shocked veteran who becomes a contract killer, "Stinking Drunk" describes a violent alcoholic, and "Fists of Love" presents a sadist. One of the album's most controversial songs was "Jordan, Minnesota", about the 1983 scandal in Jordan, Minnesota that saw a large number of the rural town's adults indicted on charges of involvement in a huge child sex ring.


title: Big Black

text: "Kerosene", one of "Atomizer"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s standout tracks, is viewed by both Azerrad and Allmusic's Andy Kellman as the band's peak performance. Azerrad remarks on its "powerful rhythm ripped straight from Gang of Four and guitars that sound like shattering glass", while Kellman calls it "undeniably Big Black's brightest/bleakest moment, an epically roaming track that features an instantly memorable guitar intro, completely incapable of being accurately described by vocal imitation or physical gesture [...] It's Big Black's 'Light My Fire,' literally." Riley explained that the song was about the effects of boredom in rural America: "There's only two things to do: Go blow up a whole load of stuff for fun, or have a lot of sex with the one girl in town who'll have sex with anyone. 'Kerosene' is about a guy who tries to "combine" the two pleasures."


title: Big Black

text: "Atomizer" was a polarizing record that was praised in the national press and became an underground success, surpassing the band's expectations by selling three thousand copies soon after its release. Big Black secured a European distribution deal for their records through Blast First, a label recommended to Albini by Sonic Youth, and met enthusiastic responses to their shows on a 1986 European tour.


title: Big Black

text: The compilation album "The Hammer Party", combining "Lungs" and "Bulldozer", was also released through Homestead Records in 1986, but later that year Big Black had a falling out with the label and its distributor, Dutch East India Trading. According to Albini, Dutch East India's accounting practices were "always fucked. They would do every sleazy, cheap trick to avoid paying you, like send you a check that wasn't signed or send you a check that had a different numeral and literal amount." Homestead then asked to make five hundred copies of a 12-inch single of "Il Duce" for free distribution to radio stations. The band agreed on the condition that the single was not to be offered for sale, since the song had already been released as a 7-inch single in 1985 and, according to Albini, "We didn't want our audience milked for extra money to buy an alternate format." A few weeks after the single's release, Albini began seeing copies for sale in record stores outside of Chicago. He soon found out that the 12-inch single was being sold both in the United States and abroad as a high-priced "collector's item". Though Homestead claimed not to be selling copies, Albini telephoned one of the label's salespeople posing as a record buyer and was told that they would sell him copies, but not in Chicago. As a result of the deception, Albini and Big Black severed ties with Homestead and Dutch East India. Though the band was receiving lucrative offers from major labels, they chose to remain independent and signed to Touch and Go Records, Albini being good friends with label head Corey Rusk.


title: Big Black

text: Big Black's first release for Touch and Go was the "Headache" EP in spring 1987. The cover artwork for the limited original edition of the EP was a pair of forensic photos of an accident victim whose head had been split down the middle, and the record was packaged in a black plastic "body bag" to conceal the artwork from sensitive consumers. A sticker on the EP's cover read "Not as good as "Atomizer", so don't get your hopes up, cheese!" According to Durango, "We didn't want to sit there and screw people. If we felt it wasn't as good, then we should just be honest about it." Indeed, "Headache" recycled many of the same sounds and themes found on "Atomizer", showing signs that the band was lagging creatively. Durango later remarked that "I was feeling tapped out ideawise. At that point I think we had tried everything that we wanted to try, musically and in the studio."


title: Big Black

text: Tensions were also mounting within the band. Albini did not drink alcohol, so Riley and Durango became drinking buddies on the road while Albini was doing interviews and handling the band's logistics. Riley, however, was drinking to excess, and his behavior ruined several of the band's performances. During a key show at CBGB, he drunkenly smashed the drum machine. Albini also accused Riley of a number of other shortcomings including lateness to rehearsals, always needing rides, and "flashes of brilliance offset by flashes of belligerence." However, though he made a number of threats, Albini never fired Riley. Another problem facing the band was that Riley was now in college and both Albini and Durango had to keep day jobs, which limited Big Black's ability to tour. When Durango announced that he intended to enter law school beginning in the fall semester of 1987, the band decided to keep going until he began school and then call it quits. Despite enjoying increased press, radio airplay, record sales, and concert fees, the band did not regret their decision and eschewed the idea of commercial success. According to Riley, "Big Black was never about that. For Big Black to make any money, it wouldn't have been Big Black anymore." Being a lame duck band was also liberating, as the members no longer had to be concerned with the group's future. Albini wrote that he was happy to be breaking up the band before it grew too big:


title: Big Black

text: I am now quite happy to be breaking up. Things getting much too big and uncontrollable. All along we've wanted to keep our hands on everything, so nothing happened that we didn't want to. With international and multi-format/multi-territorial shit, that's proving elusive. I prefer to cut it off rather than have it turn into another Gross Rock Spectacle.


title: Big Black

text: With their breakup announced well in advance, Big Black recorded their final album, "Songs About Fucking", half in London and half at Albini's home studio. Their final tours began in June 1987, taking them to Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, and across the United States. They performed at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium with Sonic Youth on July 22, Albini's 25th birthday. At a sold-out show in London for 1,300 people, Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis of Wire joined Big Black onstage to play an encore of Wire's "Heartbeat" (Big Black had released a cover version of the song as a single in conjunction with "Headache"). Albini wrote of the experience that "If I die right now it will all have been worth it." In the United States the band played in San Francisco, Providence, Boston, New York City, and Newport, Kentucky, concluding with their final performance on August 9, 1987, at the Georgetown Steam Plant in Seattle. At the end of this show the band smashed their instruments onstage.


title: Big Black

text: "Songs About Fucking" was released shortly after the band's breakup and went on to become their most successful record, with an initial pressing of eight thousand copies. Mark Deming of Allmusic calls it "a scabrous masterpiece", while his colleague Andy Kellman states that "each [song] is incisive enough to render a razor as effective as a butter knife. In sum: yowl, ching, thump-thump-screech. Ugly characters line up in the songs like early arrivals at a monster truck rally." Critic Robert Christgau commented that "Anybody who thinks rock and roll is alive and well in the infinite variety of its garage-boy permutations had better figure out how these Hitler Youth rejects could crush the competition and quit simultaneously. No matter what well-meaning rockers think of Steve Albini's supremacist lies, they lie themselves if they dismiss what he does with electric guitars—that Killdozer sound culminates if not finishes off whole generations of punk and metal." Albini himself later considered the album's first side as Big Black's best output.


title: Big Black

text: Following Big Black's breakup, Albini formed and fronted Rapeman from 1987 to 1989 and Shellac from 1992 onward. He also began work as a recording engineer, working with artists such as Slint, the Pixies, the Breeders, Pegboy, Urge Overkill, the Jesus Lizard, the Wedding Present, Superchunk, PJ Harvey, Nirvana, Bush, and Page and Plant. Some of his most well-known recordings include the Pixies' "Surfer Rosa" (1988), Nirvana's "In Utero" (1993), Bush's "Razorblade Suitcase" (1996), and Page and Plant's "Walking into Clarksdale" (1998). In 1997 he opened his own recording studio, Electrical Audio, in Chicago. Albini's recording style is characterized by the use of vintage microphones placed strategically around the performance room, keeping vocals very low in the mix, and using few special effects. He is also known for recording almost any artist who requests his services (usually at very low rates but deliberately charging high amounts to artists on major record labels), disliking being credited on the albums he works on (insisting on being credited as a recording engineer rather than a producer, if at all), and refusing to take royalties for his work (calling them "an insult to the band").


title: Big Black

text: Durango, meanwhile, continued to play music during his law school years, releasing two EPs on Touch and Go as Arsenal and recording with Boss Hog. He then became a practicing lawyer, with clients including Touch and Go Records and Cynthia Plaster Caster. Riley recorded tracks with the groups Algebra Suicide, Bull, and Flour before being incapacitated by a stroke in 1995, which was initially erroneously reported as a suicide attempt. Having lost the ability to walk, he authored a blog about his experiences titled "Worthless Goddamn Cripple". In 2004 he participated in a musical project called Miasma of Funk, releasing the album "Groove on the Mania!", and in 2006 published the book "Blurry and Disconnected: Tales of Sink-or-Swim Nihilism". Riley died December 24, 2019 at the age of 59, from squamous cell carcinoma that began in his throat and spread to his lungs.


title: Big Black

text: In 1992 Big Black's catalog reverted to Touch and Go Records, who re-released their entire discography and kept their records in print long after the band's breakup. That October the label released the live album and video "Pigpile", recorded in London during the band's final tours, as well as the compilation album "The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape", which combined tracks from "Atomizer", "Headache", and the "Heartbeat" single in compact disc format. The re-released version of "The Hammer Party" was expanded to include the tracks from "Racer-X".


title: Big Black

text: On September 9, 2006, Albini and Durango reunited with original bassist Jeff Pezzati for a Big Black reunion performance at Touch and Go's 25th Anniversary festival. Albini's touring schedule with Shellac did not allow time for the band to rehearse a full set, so they instead played a short set of four songs: "Cables", "Dead Billy", "Pigeon Kill", and "Racer-X". Albini explained that the performance was "not about Big Black wanting to get back together or even an audience wanting to see Big Black, it's that ... to not honor Touch and Go would be an insult by way of damning with faint praise", describing the label as "[not] just a benchmark for how a record label should behave, but how people should behave." During the performance he stated that "You can tell [this is] not something we had a burning desire to do, but we did it because we love Touch and Go [and] we love Corey Rusk [...] When history talks about rock music it has a tendency to skip from the Sex Pistols to Nirvana, [but] something started in the 1980s and you're seeing the evidence of it all around you", remarking that the label was "the best thing to happen to music in my lifetime, and we did this to say thanks". The performance prompted offers from promoters for further reunion shows, but Albini stated flatly "that is definitely not going to happen."


title: Big Black

text: Big Black's music challenged convention, pursuing an abrasive sound that was more aggressive than contemporary punk rock. Albini explained that the band strove for intensity, stating that their goal was to make "something that felt intense when we went through it, rather than something that had little coded "indicators" of intensity. Heavy metal and stuff like that didn't really seem intense to me, it seemed comical to me. Hardcore punk didn't really seem intense most of the time — most of the time it just seemed childish. I guess that's how I would differentiate what we were doing from what other people were doing." Both Albini and Riley described Big Black as a punk rock band. AllMusic has associated their sound with both hardcore and post-punk and described them as influential to indie rock as well as pioneers of noise rock and post-hardcore.


title: Big Black

text: A major component of Big Black's music was the drum machine. Rather than attempt to make it emulate the sound of a normal drum kit, the band chose to exploit the idiosyncrasies of its synthetic sounds. On many songs Albini programmed it to accent the first and third beats of the bar, rather than the second and fourth beats typically accented in rock music. "The effect was a monolithic pummeling, an attack", says Michael Azerrad, "their groove, normally the most human aspect of a rock band, became its most inhuman; it only made them sound more insidious, its relentlessness downright tyrannical." On tour, the sound engineers at many rock clubs were befuddled by the drum machine, afraid that it would not work with their sound system or would blow out their speakers, and the band would have to coerce the club owner or threaten to cancel the show in order to get them to put the drum machine through the monitors.


title: Big Black

text: The band's guitar sound was also unconventional. Albini was determined to avoid the "standard rock stud guitar sound", and achieved a signature "clanky" sound by using metal guitar picks notched by sheet metal snips; the notch causing the pick to hit each string twice, creating the effect of two simultaneous guitar picks. Durango remarked: "I always thought that our guitar playing was not so much playing guitars, but assembling noises "created" by guitars." He and Albini respectively billed their guitars as "vroom" and "skinng" in the liner notes for "Atomizer". Mark Deming of Allmusic remarks that "The group's guitars alternately sliced like a machete and ground like a dentist's drill, creating a groundbreaking and monolithic dissonance in the process."


title: Big Black

text: Big Black's music was influenced by a number of genres and artists. Albini was a fan of punk rock bands including Suicide, the Ramones, the Stooges, and Naked Raygun. When Riley joined the band in 1985 he brought with him a funk background, having worked at a Detroit studio where George Clinton and Sly Stone had recorded. During their career Big Black recorded cover versions of songs from a number of styles including post-punk, new wave, funk, hard rock, synthpop, and R&B; these included Rema-Rema's "Rema-Rema", James Brown's "The Payback", Wire's "Heartbeat", Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore", Kraftwerk's "The Model", and the Mary Jane Girls' "In My House". The sound that Big Black forged for themselves, however, was wholly original: Azerrad remarks that "the band's music — jagged, brutal, loud, and nasty — was original to a downright confrontational degree. Big Black distilled years of post-punk and hardcore down to a sound resembling a singing saw blade mercillesly tearing through sheet metal. No one had made records that sounded so harsh."


title: Big Black

text: Big Black's songs explored the dark side of American culture in unforgiving detail, acknowledging no taboos. Albini's lyrics openly dealt with such topics as mutilation, murder, rape, child abuse, arson, immolation, racism, and misogyny. "That's just what was interesting to me as a postcollegiate bohemian", he later remarked. "We didn't have a manifesto. Nothing was off-limits; it's just that that's what came up most of the time." Many of his songs told miniature short stories of sociopaths doing evil things that the average person might merely contemplate. Some, such as "Cables", "Pigeon Kill", and "Jordan, Minnesota", were based on real events, or things that Albini had witnessed during his midwest upbringing. He compared the stories to "Ripley's Believe It or Not!", saying that "If you stumble across something like this, you think 'This can't be!' But it turns out to be true, and that makes it even wilder."


title: Big Black

text: Albini's lyrics drew criticism for apparent racism and homophobia. Racism was a frequent theme in Big Black songs, influenced partly by the sharp racial divisions present in Chicago at the time. The word "darkie" appeared in the first line of the "Lungs" EP, but Albini defended its use as a comical term, saying "in a way that's a play on the concept of a hateful word. Can a word that's so inherently hilarious be hateful? I don't know." He similarly defended his use of gay jokes and the word "fag": "Given how intermingled the gay and punk subcultures were, it was assumed by anyone involved that open-mindedness, if not free-form experimentation, was the norm. With that assumption under your belt, joke all you like. The word 'fag' isn't just a gay term, it's funny on its own — phonetically — like the words 'hockey puck,' 'mukluks,' 'gefilte fish,' and 'Canada. Some critics viewed these defenses as mere justifications for actual deep-seated racism, homophobia, and misogyny on Albini's part, given his level of familiarity with the subject matter, but he insisted that he was not a prejudiced person and was merely satirizing those impulses that rational, civilized persons normally suppress in the course of social interaction: "So once that's given, once you know what you think, there's no reason to be ginger about what you say. A lot of people, they're very careful not to say things that might offend certain people or do anything that might be misinterpreted. But what they don't realize is that the point of all this is to change the way you live your life, not the way you speak."


title: Big Black

text: Albini also emphasized that the songs' lyrics were not the focal point of Big Black, and that the vocals were only there out of necessity: "It seemed like, as instrumental music, it didn't have enough emotional intensity at times, so there would be vocals. But the vocals were not intended to be the center of attention — the interaction within the band and the chaotic nature of the music, that was the important part." However, he did enjoy testing the tolerance of the white liberal hipsters in his audience and provoking reactions out of listeners, stating that one of the band's goals was "to have pointedly offensive records". Terri Sutton of "Puncture" magazine wrote that the band's stark presentation of evil, deep-seated human impulses bolstered their work against criticism: "The topics are so deliberately loaded that you can't criticize their 'art' without looking like some fucking puritan."


title: Big Black

text: Onstage, Big Black presented an intense spectacle to match their music. Albini would set off a brick of firecrackers onstage before the band played, a tradition he carried on from their earliest performances through their dissolution and revived for their 2006 reunion set, and would count in most songs by yelling "One, two, fuck you!" While playing, the band members would slam their hands against their steel guitar strings so hard that they would draw blood, often needing to put adhesive bandages on their fingers. Albini used a specially-made hip-slung guitar strap worn around his waist like a belt, and would "prowl the stage like a spindly gunslinger", according to Azerrad. Gerard Cosloy recalls that "It looked like someone had plugged Steve into the amp [...] he was pretty scary to watch onstage."


title: Big Black

text: During performances of "Jordan, Minnesota", the band would reach a point where they would prolong a discordant, creepy noise while Albini would perform an intense pantomime as though he were one of the children from the song's lyrics being raped. "It was actually very disturbing to watch", says Durango, "It would really get people unsettled." The band would respond to hecklers with acidic comebacks or deliberately offensive jokes. Describing the intensity of a January 1987 Big Black performance in "Forced Exposure", Lydia Lunch remarked that "I was pulverized into near oblivion as wall after wall of frustration, heartache, hatred, death, disease, dis-use, disgust, mistrust, & maelstrom stormed the stage waging war with military precision insistently invading every open orifice with the strength of ten thousand bulls".


title: Big Black

text: Through their aggressive guitar playing and use of a drum machine, Big Black's music served as a precursor to industrial rock. Aesthetically, the band's firmly-held ideals, staunch independence, insistence on creative control, and stark lyrical topics had a significant impact on the developing independent rock community. "Big Black was a band that went where few bands dared to go (and where many felt bands shouldn't go)," writes Mark Deming, "and for good or ill their pervasive influence had a seismic impact on indie rock." Albini summed up several of the band's core ideals in his notes to the "Pigpile" album:


title: Big Black

text: Organizationally, we were committed to a few basic principles: Treat everyone with as much respect as he deserves (and no more), Avoid people who appeal to our vanity or ambition (they always have an angle), Operate as much as possible apart from the "music scene" (which was never our stomping ground), and Take no shit from anyone in the process.


title: Big Black

text: The discography of Big Black consists of two studio albums, two live albums, two compilation albums, four EPs, five singles, and one video album.


title: Big Black

text: I "Rema-Rema" is a Rema-Rema cover included as a one-sided single with issue No. 9 of "Forced Exposure", and limited to 500 copies.


title: Big Black

text: The following Big Black songs were released on compilation albums. This is not an exhaustive list; songs that were first released on the band's albums, EPs, and singles are not included.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Túpac Amaru (1545 – 24 September 1572) (first name also spelled Tupac, Topa, Tupaq, Thupaq, Thupa, last name also spelled Amaro instead of Amaru) was the last Sapa Inca of the Neo-Inca State, the final remaining independent part of the Inca Empire. He was executed by the Spanish following a months-long pursuit after the fall of the Neo-Inca State.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: His name is derived from the Quechua words "thupaq", meaning "royal" or "shining" and "amaru", which can either mean "snake" or refer to the snake-like being from Andean mythology.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Following the Spanish conquest of Peru in the 1530s, a few members of the royal family established the small independent Neo-Inca State in Vilcabamba, which was located in the relatively inaccessible Upper Amazon to the northeast of Cusco. The founder of this state was Manco Inca Yupanqui (also known as Manco Cápac II), who had initially allied himself with the Spanish, then led an unsuccessful war against them before establishing himself in Vilcabamba in 1540. After a Spanish attack in 1544 in which Manco Inca Yupanqui was killed, his son Sayri Tupac assumed the title of "Sapa Inca" (emperor, literally "only Inca"), before accepting Spanish authority in 1558, moving to Cuzco and dying (perhaps by poison) in 1561. He was succeeded in Vilcabamba by his brother Titu Cusi, who himself died in 1571. Túpac Amaru, another brother of the two preceding emperors, then succeeded to the title in Vilcabamba.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: At this time the Spanish were still unaware of the death of the previous "Sapa Inca" (Titu Cusi) and had routinely sent two ambassadors to continue ongoing negotiations being held with Titu Cusi. They were both killed on the border by an Inca captain.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Using the justification that the Incas had "broken the inviolate law observed by all nations of the world regarding ambassadors" the new viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, Count of Oropesa, decided to attack and conquer Vilcabamba. He declared war on 14 April 1572. The first engagement of the war commenced in the Vilcabamba valley on 1 June. The Inca people attacked first with much spirit despite being only lightly armed. Again and again, they attempted to lift the siege held by the Spanish and their native allies but each time they were forced to retreat. On 24 June the Spanish entered Vilcabamba to find it deserted and the "Sapa Inca" gone. The city had been entirely destroyed and the last remnants of the Inca Empire, the Neo-Inca State now officially ceased to exist.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Túpac Amaru had left the previous day with a party of about 100 and headed west into the lowland forests. The group, which included his generals and family members, had then split up into smaller parties in an attempt to avoid capture.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Three groups of Spanish soldiers pursued them. One group captured Titu Cusi's son and wife. A second returned with military prisoners along with gold, silver and other precious jewels. The third group returned with Túpac Amaru's two brothers, other relatives and several of his generals. The "Sapa Inca" and his commander remained at large.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Following this, a group of forty hand-picked soldiers under Martín García Óñez de Loyola set out to pursue them. They followed the Masahuay river for 170 miles, where they found an Inca warehouse with quantities of gold and the Inca's tableware. The Spanish captured a group of Chunco and compelled them to tell them what they had seen, and if they had seen the "Sapa Inca". They reported that he had gone down river, by boat, to a place called Momorí. The Spaniards then constructed five rafts and pursued them.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: At Momorí, they discovered that Tupac Amaru had escaped by land. They followed with the help of the Manarí, who advised which path the Inca had followed and reported that Túpac was slowed by his wife, who was about to give birth. After a fifty-mile march, they saw a campfire around nine o'clock at night. They found the "Sapa Inca" Túpac Amaru and his wife warming themselves. They assured them that no harm would come to them and secured their surrender. Túpac Amaru was arrested.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: The captives were brought back to the ruins of Vilcabamba and together they were all marched into Cuzco on 21 September. The invaders also brought the mummified remains of Manco Cápac and Titu Cusi and a gold statue of Punchao, a representation of the Inca's lineage containing the mortal remains of the hearts of the deceased Inca kings. These sacred items were then destroyed.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: The five captured Inca generals received a summary trial and were sentenced to death by hanging. Several had already died of torture or disease.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: The trial of the "Sapa Inca" himself began a couple of days later. Túpac Amaru was convicted of the murder of the priests in Vilcabamba. Túpac Amaru was sentenced to be beheaded. It was reported in various sources in 1598 that numerous Catholic clerics, convinced of Túpac Amaru's innocence, pleaded to no avail, on their knees, that the Inca be sent to Spain for a trial instead of being executed.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Many have argued that Viceroy Toledo, in executing a head of state recognized by the Spanish as an independent king, exceeded his authority and committed a crime within the political ideas of his own time. Other claims have been made to the contrary – that Túpac Amaru was in rebellion (his predecessors having allegedly accepted Spanish authority), that Toledo had tried peaceful means to settle differences, that three of his ambassadors to the Inca were murdered and that Túpac Amaru subsequently raised an army to resist the colonial army. The King of Spain, Philip II, disapproved of the execution.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: An eyewitness report from the day recalls him riding a mule with hands tied behind his back and a rope around his neck. Other witnesses reported there were great crowds and the "Sapa Inca" was surrounded by hundreds of guards with lances. In front of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo in the central square of Cuzco a black-draped scaffold had been erected. Reportedly 10,000 to 15,000 witnesses were present.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Túpac Amaru mounted the scaffold accompanied by the Bishop of Cuzco. As he did, it was reported by the same witnesses that a "multitude of Indians, who completely filled the square, saw that lamentable spectacle [and knew] that their lord and Inca was to die, they deafened the skies, making them reverberate with their cries and wailing."


title: Túpac Amaru

text: As reported by eyewitnesses Baltasar de Ocampa and Friar Gabriel de Oviedo, Prior of the Dominicans at Cuzco, the "Sapa Inca" raised his hand to silence the crowds and his last words were: "Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yawarniy hichascancuta." ("Pacha Kamaq, witness how my enemies shed my blood.")


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Nearly forty years after the conquest of Peru began with the execution of Atahualpa, the conquest ended with the execution of his nephew. The Spanish Viceroy rounded up the royal descendants. Several dozen, including Túpac Amaru's three-year-old son, were banished to Mexico, Chile, Panama and elsewhere. Some of them were allowed to return home.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Túpac Amaru's memory lived on and would become personified in an important late eighteenth century insurgency that was rooted in aspirations toward a revival of Inca status vis-a-vis the Spanish administration. In 1780, José Gabriel Condorcanqui (Túpac Amaru II), who claimed to be a direct descendant of Túpac Amaru, led an indigenous uprising against continued Spanish presence in Peru alongside his wife Micaela Bastidas. Condorcanqui's rebellion emerged in response to new Bourbon Reforms implemented by the Spanish crown, which included incremental increases in levels of taxation upon indigenous populations – such as the alcabala or sales tax. Túpac Amaru II's rebellion was sparked when he (Condorcanqui) captured and killed the Spanish corregidor Antonio Arriaga in November 1780.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Historian El Inca Garcilaso De La Vega claimed that King Philip II disapproved of the public execution of Tupac Amaru. Tupac Amaru's death in 1572 has generated great interest centuries after.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Relatively little is known about Tupac Amaru, but this has not prevented his death from becoming a symbol of power to those in the region. Public figures such as Andean rebel leader Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui resonated with Tupac Amaru ideology, so much so that he changed his name to Tupac Amaru II. Despite Tupac Amaru's short life and tragic death his legacy precedes him especially among the Peruvian community.


title: Túpac Amaru

text: Primary school number 239 in Warsaw, (Mirów), had been named in honor of Túpac Amaru, but closed in 2001. Rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur was named after Túpac Amaru II.


title: Picsart

text: Picsart is a Miami, Florida-based technology company that develops the Picsart suite of online photo and video editing applications, with a social creative community. The platform allows users to take and edit pictures and videos, draw with layers, and share the images on Picsart and other social networks. It is one of the world's most popular apps, with reportedly more than 1 billion downloads across 180 countries.


title: Picsart

text: Picsart was founded in November 2011 by Armenian entrepreneur Hovhannes Avoyan, and Armenian programmers Artavazd Mehrabyan and Mikayel Vardanyan. Its founders developed the first Picsart application as a stand-alone tool to help people alter a photo image on their phone, and additional capabilities were added over time. The first PicsArt app launched in November 2011 on Android devices.


title: Picsart

text: In January 2013, Picsart for iOS was released for the iPhone. In May, it was released for the iPad. In late 2013, Picsart photo editor became available for Windows Phone.


title: Picsart

text: By April 2015, the company reportedly had seen 250 million downloads for its iOS and Android apps, and had 60 million monthly active users.


title: Picsart

text: In 2017, Picsart launched Remix Chat, a messaging system where users can share images directly or in groups and edit them collectively with friends. The company also launched a feature to let its user community create and share custom stickers for free. Picsart also announced that it reached 90 million monthly active users.


title: Picsart

text: In July, Russian supermodel and philanthropist Natalia Vodianova joined Picsart to help increase social engagement and activism within the Picsart photo community. In October, the company reached 100 million monthly active users and began announcing partnerships with major consumer brands and celebrities.


title: Picsart

text: In March 2019, Picsart reached 130 million monthly active users. Also in 2019, the company was ranked by app analytics company Sensor Tower as the #4 top grossing social photo and video editing app, after Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.


title: Picsart

text: In January 2020, the company launched an artificial intelligence lab in conjunction with the American University of Armenia. The facility employed faculty and students to conduct research in machine learning and computer vision. In July, Picsart acquired motion-based video effects company D'efekt, its first acquisition. Also in July, the company reported over 1 billion app downloads to date.


title: Picsart

text: On August 26, 2021, Picsart CEO Avoyan announced that the company had raised $130 million in Series C funding from Softbank, Sequoia, G Squared, Tribe Capital, Graph Ventures and Siguler Guff & Company with a company valuation nearing $1.5 billion, making it the first tech unicorn born in Armenia.


title: Picsart

text: In February 2022, Picsart acquired Code Republic, a learning platform, to be part of its education division, Picsart Academy.


title: Picsart

text: Also in February, the company launched a new API program called Picsart for Developers, allowing partners to implement Picsart features on their own platforms.


title: Picsart

text: Picsart develops four mobile apps, and a set of web browser tools for editing videos and photos. The app and website tools support social networking activities.


title: Picsart

text: Picsart's web browser tools for PCs have the same features as the Picsart Photo & Video app, but are designed for web browsers on PCs running Windows 8.1 or higher.


title: Picsart

text: Built-in social networking features with the apps and website tools allow users to comment, favorite, and follow others using the tools.


title: Picsart

text: Picsart is headquartered in Miami, Florida. The company has additional offices in Yerevan, Armenia; Beijing; Moscow; Tokyo; Los Angeles; Glasgow, Scotland; and Bangalore, India. In March 2019, the company reported that 70 percent of its then 360 employees worked in engineering and product development, and half of those employees were female.


title: Picsart

text: As of August 2021, the company had received $195 million in cumulative venture funding from Sequoia Capital, Insight Venture Partners, and others, giving it a reported post-money valuation of roughly $1.5 billion.


title: Steven Donziger

text: Steven R. Donziger (born September 14, 1961) is an American attorney known for his legal battles with Chevron, particularly "Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc." and other cases in which he represented over 30,000 farmers and indigenous people who suffered environmental damage and health problems caused by oil drilling in the Lago Agrio oil field of Ecuador. The Ecuadorian court awarded the plaintiffs $9.5 billion ($ in dollars) in damages, which led Chevron to withdraw its assets from Ecuador and launch legal action against Donziger in the US. In 2011, Chevron filed a RICO (anti-corruption) suit against Donziger in New York City. The case was heard by US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who determined that the ruling of the Ecuadorian court could not be enforced in the US because it was procured by fraud, bribery, and racketeering activities. As a result of this case, Donziger was disbarred from practicing law in New York in 2018.


title: Steven Donziger

text: Donziger was placed under house arrest in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of criminal contempt of court, which arose during his appeal against Kaplan's RICO decision, when he refused to turn over electronic devices he owned to Chevron's forensics experts. In July 2021, US District Judge Loretta Preska found him guilty, and Donziger was sentenced to 6 months in jail in October 2021. While Donziger was under house arrest in 2020, twenty-nine Nobel laureates described the actions taken by Chevron against him as "judicial harassment." Human rights campaigners called Chevron's actions an example of a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP). In April 2021, six members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus demanded that the Department of Justice review Donziger's case. In September 2021, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the pre-trial detention imposed on Donziger was illegal and called for his release. Having spent 45 days in prison and a combined total of 993 days under house arrest, Donziger was released on April 25, 2022.


title: Steven Donziger

text: Donziger's mother, a social activist, raised him in Jacksonville, Florida. She took him to picket in support of César Chávez's Salad Bowl strike. Donziger's grandfather was Aaron E. Koota, a Brooklyn district attorney and later Justice of the New York State Supreme Court. Donziger studied history at American University (BA) where he also wrote for his college newspaper. He graduated from Harvard Law School (JD) in 1991.


title: Steven Donziger

text: After graduating from college, Donziger worked as a journalist. His first job was in the United Press International bureau in Managua, after which he freelanced in Nicaragua for "The Fort Lauderdale News", the "Toronto Star", and "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution". He also founded Project Due Process which offered legal services to Cubans who arrived in the US in the Mariel boatlift.


title: Steven Donziger

text: After working as a journalist for three years, Donziger went to Harvard Law School. He graduated from law school in 1991 and worked as a public defender in Washington, D.C. In 1991, he visited Iraq as part of a mission that produced a report on the impact of bombing on civilians during the first Gulf War. The report was adopted by the United Nations. Donziger was the editor of "The Real War on Crime: The Report of the National Criminal Justice Commission", published in 1996 by Harper Perennial. The book described the role of media in increasing fear of crime, racial injustice in the criminal justice system and argues against mandatory minimum sentences.


title: Steven Donziger

text: Starting in the 1970s, Texaco conducted oil drilling operations in the Amazon in partnership with Ecuador's national oil company, Petroecuador. In the 1990s Texaco came to a $40 million agreement with Ecuador to clean up some of the resultant pollution, and was released from liability.


title: Steven Donziger

text: Donziger was asked by Frente de Defensa de la Amazonía (FDA) to help win compensation for the pollution and health effects caused by oil drilling in the Lago Agrio oil field, a region that became known as the "Amazon Chernobyl". He visited Ecuador in 1993, where he says he saw "what honestly looked like an apocalyptic disaster," including children walking barefoot down oil-covered roads and jungle lakes filled with oil. In 1993, after he visited Ecuador, Donziger and other attorneys brought a class-action lawsuit in New York against Texaco on behalf of over 30,000 farmers and Indigenous people from the Amazon region. Since the plaintiffs had no money, Donziger, with FDA support, funded the case by selling shares to investors, offering a small part of any eventual settlement. The lawyers chose to file in New York because at the time Texaco's headquarters were in New York. The lawsuit charged that Texaco's oil drilling in the Amazon had resulted in massive contamination. Chevron bought Texaco in 2001 and argued that Texaco had cleaned up its area of operations and that its partner, Petroecuador, was responsible for any remaining pollution. Chevron requested that the case be tried in Ecuador and, in 2002, the US court dismissed the plaintiffs case based on "forum non conveniens" and ruled that Ecuador had jurisdiction. The US court exacted a promise from Chevron that it would accept the decision of the Ecuadorian courts.


title: Steven Donziger

text: When the case moved to Ecuador, Donziger conducted a public relations campaign to inform Ecuadoreans about the pollution of the Amazon. He said that "the indigenous people would never get a fair trial in Ecuador if they did not illuminate what had happened to them and get public support". Donziger appeared in the 2009 documentary film "Crude" which explored a two-year period in the case. A provincial Ecuadorean court found Chevron guilty in 2011 and awarded the plaintiffs $18 billion in damages. The decision was affirmed by three appellate courts including Ecuador's highest court, the National Court of Justice, although the damages were reduced to $9.5 billion.


title: Steven Donziger

text: To avoid paying the damages awarded by the court in Ecuador, Chevron moved its assets out of the country, leading the plaintiffs to seek enforcement actions in Canada, Brazil, and Argentina for confiscation of Chevron's assets. An editorial in "The Wall Street Journal" stated that appeals courts in Argentina and Brazil's Superior Court of Justice rejected Donziger's petitions to have the Ecuadorean judgment enforced. In 2017, a Canadian court held that the Ecuadorean plaintiffs could not be awarded assets of Chevron's Canadian subsidiary as the subsidiary was legally distinct from its US parent. In 2019, the Ecuadorean plaintiffs ended their Canadian lawsuit against Chevron.


title: Steven Donziger

text: In 2018, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that the $9.5 billion judgment in Ecuador was marked by fraud and corruption and "should not be recognised or enforced by the courts of other States." The amount Ecuador must pay to Chevron to compensate for damages is yet to be determined. The award found that Ecuador violated its obligations under international treaties, investment agreements and international law. The Court of Arbitration's findings of fraudulent activities included that the evidence placed before the Court is "the most thorough documentary, video, and testimonial proof of fraud ever put before an arbitral tribunal", that the plaintiffs championed by the film actually were engaged in blackmail and bribery of Ecuadorian judges. Their efforts triggered an order to appoint an "expert" friendly to the plaintiffs, that Ecuadorian government prosecutors "actively cooperated" with the plaintiffs, that the plaintiffs bribed the "experts" and ghostwrote their report and that the plaintiffs paid a retired judge to draft the acting judge's orders—and that the same judge solicited bribes that Chevron refused to pay.


title: Steven Donziger

text: Chevron stated that a scene in the documentary film "Crude" presented at the Sundance Film Festival showed an environmental scientist present at a legal strategy meeting of plaintiffs' lawyers; the same scientist was later appointed by the Ecuadorian court as an ostensibly impartial expert to write a report on technical issues, but the scene was cut from the theatrical release. Chevron lawyers wanted to know what other potentially compromising scenes were left out by the film's director, Joe Berlinger. On May 6, 2010, federal judge Lewis Kaplan sided with a petition submitted by Chevron and ruled that Berlinger turn over more than 600 hours of original footage created during the film's production. Chevron had sought to subpoena the footage as part of the ongoing lawsuit discussed in the film. Berlinger's legal team has maintained that the footage is protected by reporters' privilege and appealed the court's decision.


title: Steven Donziger

text: In his appeal, Berlinger stated that he was a highly awarded and respected independent filmmaker, that he was independent of Donziger, and argued that he had in fact gone to great lengths to make "Crude" a balanced portrayal. Berlinger acknowledged that he had "tweaked" some scenes at Donziger's request. The scene showing the environmental scientist at the legal strategy session had been cut from the theatrical release (but not the online version for Netflix) after one of the plaintiff lawyers objected to Berlinger that showing the scene was "so serious we could lose everything". The US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed the scope slightly (Berlinger had to turn over 500 hours of outtakes, rather than 600), but in 2011 upheld the lower court ruling against Berlinger, Judge Pierre Leval writing for the court: "Those who do not retain independence as to what they will publish but are subservient to the objectives of others who have a stake in what will be published have either a weaker privilege or none at all."


title: Steven Donziger

text: In 2011, Chevron filed a civil RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) suit against Donziger in New York City, accusing him of bribing an Ecuadorean judge, ghostwriting the damages judgment against it, and "fixing" scientific studies. Chevron's civil suit initially sought $60 billion in damages which would have required a trial by jury. Chevron removed the request for damages two weeks prior to trial, allowing the case to be tried by judge alone. Chevron stated that it wanted to focus "the RICO case on obtaining injunctive relief against the furtherance of Donziger's extortionate scheme against the company". US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan was assigned as the judge.


title: Steven Donziger

text: In 2014, Donziger estimated that the legal fees Chevron was paying to appeal had already exceeded $2 billion. In 2021, Chevron estimated its legal fees at nearly $1 billion.