title: Apostolic succession

text: In 1833, before his conversion to Roman Catholicism, Newman wrote about the apostolic succession: "We must necessarily consider none to be ordained who has not been ordained". After quoting this, Michael Ramsey continues: "With romantic enthusiasm, the Tractarians propagated this doctrine. In doing so they involved themselves in some misunderstandings of history and in some confusion of theology". He goes on to explain that they ascribed to early Anglican authors a far more exclusive version of the doctrine than was the case, they blurred the distinction between succession in office (Irenaeus) and succession in consecration (Augustine); they spoke of apostolic succession as the channel of grace in a way that failed to do justice to His gracious activity within all the dispensations of the New Covenant. J. B. Lightfoot argued that monarchial episcopacy evolved upwards from a college of presbyters by the elevation of one of their number to be the episcopal president and A.C. Headlam laid great stress on Irenaeus' understanding of succession which had been lost from sight behind the Augustinian 'pipe-line theory'.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Wide variations exist within Lutheranism on this issue. Most Lutheran churches in Scandinavian countries are favorable to the traditional doctrine of apostolic succession. Others de-emphasize it, e.g., many German Lutheran churches in former Prussian lands, resulting from their state-ordered union with Reformed (Calvinist) churches in 1817.


title: Apostolic succession

text: In Scandinavia and the Baltic region, Lutheran churches participating in the Porvoo Communion (those of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania), as well as non-Porvoo membership Lutheran churches in the region (including those of Latvia, and Russia), and the confessional Communion of Nordic Lutheran Dioceses, believe that they ordain their bishops in apostolic succession in lines stemming from the original apostles. "The New Westminster Dictionary of Church History" states that "In Sweden the apostolic succession was preserved because the Catholic bishops were allowed to stay in office, but they had to approve changes in the ceremonies."


title: Apostolic succession

text: The Lutheran Church of Finland was at that time one with the Church of Sweden and so holds the same view regarding the see of Åbo/Turku.


title: Apostolic succession

text: In 2001, Francis Aloysius Sullivan wrote: "To my knowledge, the Catholic Church has never officially expressed its judgement on the validity of orders as they have been handed down by episcopal succession in these two national Lutheran churches." In 2007, the Holy See declared: "Christian Communities born out of the Reformation of the sixteenth century [...] do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church." This statement speaks of the Protestant movement as a whole, not specifically of the Lutheran churches in Sweden and Finland. The 2010 report from the Roman Catholic – Lutheran Dialogue Group for Sweden and Finland, "Justification in the Life of the Church", states: "The Evangelical-Lutheran churches in Sweden and Finland [...] believe that they are part of an unbroken apostolic chain of succession. The Catholic Church does however question how the ecclesiastical break in the 16th century has affected the apostolicity of the churches of the Reformation and thus the apostolicity of their ministry." Emil Anton interprets this report as saying that the Roman Catholic Church does not deny or approve the apostolic succession directly, but will continue with further inquiries about the matter.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Negotiated at Järvenpää, Finland, and inaugurated with a celebration of the Eucharist at Porvoo Cathedral in 1992, the Porvoo Communion agreement of unity includes the mutual recognition of the traditional apostolic succession among the following churches:


title: Apostolic succession

text: At least one of the Scandinavian Lutheran churches in the Porvoo Communion of churches, the Church of Denmark has bishops, but strictly speaking they were not in the historic apostolic succession prior to their entry into the Porvoo Communion, since their episcopate and holy orders derived from Johannes Bugenhagen, who was a pastor, not a bishop. In 2010, the Church of Denmark joined the Porvoo Communion of churches, after a process of mutual consecrations of bishops had led to the introduction of historic apostolic succession. The Lutheran Church in Great Britain also joined the Porvoo Agreement, in 2014.


title: Apostolic succession

text: In Scandinavia, where High Church Lutheranism and Pietist Lutheranism has been highly influential, the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, Mission Province of the Church of Sweden, and the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of Norway entered into schism with their national churches due to "the secularization of the national/state churches in their respective countries involving matters of both Christian doctrine and ethics"; these have altar and pulpit fellowship through the Communion of Nordic Lutheran Dioceses and are members of the confessional International Lutheran Council with their bishops having lines of apostolic succession from other traditional Lutheran Churches, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Similarly, in the High Church Lutheranism of Germany, some religious brotherhoods such as Hochkirchliche St. Johannes-Bruderschaft and Hochkirchlicher Apostolat St. Ansgar have managed to arrange for their own bishop to be re-ordained in apostolic succession. The members of these brotherhoods do not form into separate ecclesia.


title: Apostolic succession

text: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, North America's largest Lutheran body, gained apostolic succession through Lutheran bishops in the historic episcopate; this allowed for full communion with the Episcopal Church in 2000, upon the signing of "Called to Common Mission". By this document the full communion between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church was established. As such, "all episcopal installations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America take place with the participation of bishops in the apostolic succession." The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is headed by a presiding bishop who is elected by the churchwide assembly for a six-year term.


title: Apostolic succession

text: The Evangelical Catholic Church, a Lutheran denomination of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship based in North America, taught:


title: Apostolic succession

text: In recent years a number of Lutheran churches of the Evangelical Catholic and High Church Lutheran churchmanship in the United States of America have accepted the doctrine of apostolic succession and have successfully recovered it, generally from Independent Catholic churches. At present, most of these church bodies have memberships numbering in the hundreds.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Many German Lutherans appear to demur on this issue, which may be sourced in the church governance views of Martin Luther. Luther's reform movement usually did not abrogate the ecclesiastic office of bishop.


title: Apostolic succession

text: An important historical context to explicate the wide differences among German Lutheran churches is the Prussian Union of 1817, whereby the secular government directed the Lutheran churches in Prussia to merge with non-Lutheran Reformed churches in Prussia. The Reformed churches generally oppose on principle the traditional doctrine of ecclesiastic Apostolic Succession, e.g., not usually even recognising the church office of bishop. Later in the 19th century, other Lutheran and Reformed congregations merged to form united church bodies in some of the other 39 states of the German Confederation, e.g., in Anhalt, Baden, Bremen, Hesse and Nassau, Hesse-Kassel and Waldeck, and the Palatinate. Yet the partial nature of this list also serves to show that in Germany there remained many Lutherans who never united with the Reformed.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Other Lutheran churches are indifferent as a matter of doctrine regarding this particular issue of ecclesiastical governance. In America, the conservative Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) places its church authority in the congregation rather than in the bishop, although its founder, C. F. W. Walther, while establishing congregational polity for the LCMS, considered polity (a church's form of government) to be a matter of adiaphora (something indifferent).


title: Apostolic succession

text: In the beginnings of the Methodist movement, adherents were instructed to receive the sacraments within the Anglican Church since the Methodists were still a movement and not as yet a separate church in England until 1805. The American Methodists soon petitioned to receive the sacraments from the local preachers who conducted worship services and revivals. The Bishop of London refused to ordain Methodist priests and deacons in the British American colonies. John Wesley, the founder of the movement, was reluctant to allow unordained preachers to administer the sacraments:


title: Apostolic succession

text: Some scholars argue that in 1763, Greek Orthodox bishop Erasmus of the Diocese of Arcadia, who was visiting London at the time, consecrated John Wesley a bishop, and ordained several Methodist lay preachers as priests, including John Jones. Wesley could not openly announce his episcopal consecration without incurring the penalty of the Præmunire Act. In light of Wesley's episcopal consecration, the Methodist Church can lay a claim on apostolic succession, as understood in the traditional sense. Since John Wesley "ordained and sent forth every Methodist preacher in his day, who preached and baptized and ordained, and since every Methodist preacher who has ever been ordained as a Methodist was ordained in this direct 'succession' from Wesley, then the Methodist Church teaches that it has all the direct merits coming from apostolic succession, if any such there be." This apostolic succession is recognized by Unity Catholic Church, an independent Catholic church.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Most Methodists view apostolic succession outside its high church sense. This is because Wesley believed that the offices of bishop and presbyter constituted one order, citing an ancient opinion from the Church of Alexandria; Jerome, a Church Father, wrote: "For even at Alexandria from the time of Mark the Evangelist until the episcopates of Heraclas and Dionysius the presbyters always named as bishop one of their own number chosen by themselves and set in a more exalted position, just as an army elects a general, or as deacons appoint one of themselves whom they know to be diligent and call him archdeacon. For what function, excepting ordination, belongs to a bishop that does not also belong to a presbyter?" (Letter CXLVI). John Wesley thus argued that for two centuries the succession of bishops in the Church of Alexandria, which was founded by Mark the Evangelist, was preserved through ordination by presbyters alone and was considered valid by that ancient Church.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Since the Bishop of London refused to ordain ministers in the British American colonies, this constituted an emergency and as a result, on 2 September 1784, Wesley, along with a priest from the Anglican Church and two other elders, operating under the ancient Alexandrian habitude, ordained Thomas Coke a superintendent, although Coke embraced the title bishop.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Today, the United Methodist Church follows this ancient Alexandrian practice as bishops are elected from the presbyterate: the "Discipline of the Methodist Church", in ¶303, affirms that "ordination to this ministry is a gift from God to the Church. In ordination, the Church affirms and continues the apostolic ministry through persons empowered by the Holy Spirit." It also uses sacred scripture in support of this practice, namely, 1 Timothy 4:14, which states:


title: Apostolic succession

text: The Methodist Church also buttresses this argument with the leg of sacred tradition of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral by citing the Church Fathers, many of whom concur with this view.


title: Apostolic succession

text: In addition to the aforementioned arguments – or perhaps instead of them – in 1937 the annual Conference of the British Methodist Church located the "true continuity" with the Church of past ages in "the continuity of Christian experience, the fellowship in the gift of the one Spirit; in the continuity in the allegiance to one Lord, the continued proclamation of the message; the continued acceptance of the mission;..." [through a long chain which goes back to] "the first disciples in the company of the Lord Himself ... This is our doctrine of apostolic succession" [which neither depends on, nor is secured by,] "an official succession of ministers, whether bishops or presbyters, from apostolic times, but rather by fidelity to apostolic truth".


title: Apostolic succession

text: The Church of North India, Church of Pakistan and Church of South India are members of the World Methodist Council and the clergy of these three united Protestant churches possess lines of apostolic succession, according to the Anglican understanding of this doctrine, through the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon (CIBC), which finished merging with these three in the 1970s.


title: Apostolic succession

text: In June 2014, the Church of Ireland, a province of the Anglican Communion, extended its lines of apostolic succession into the Methodist Church in Ireland, as "the Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Down and Dromore took part in the installation of the new President of the Methodist Church of Ireland, the Rev. Peter Murray." In May 2014, the "Church of Ireland’s General Synod approved an agreement signed with the Methodist Church that provided for the interchangeability of clergy, allowing an ordained minister of either church to come under the discipline and oversight of the other."


title: Apostolic succession

text: The Moravian Church, as with the Hussite Church, teaches the doctrine of apostolic succession. The Moravian Church claims apostolic succession as a legacy of the old Unity of the Brethren. In order to preserve the succession, three Bohemian Brethren were consecrated bishops by Bishop Stephen of Austria, a Waldensian bishop who had been ordained by a Roman Catholic bishop in 1434. These three consecrated bishops returned to Litice in Bohemia and then ordained other brothers, thereby preserving the historic episcopate.


title: Apostolic succession

text: "Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici" (English translation: The Divine Right of Church Government), which was promulgated by Presbyterian clergy in 1646, holds that historic ministerial succession is necessary for legitimate ministerial authority. It states that ministerial succession is conferred by elders through the laying on of hands, in accordance with Timothy 4:14. The Westminster Assembly held that "There is one general church visible" and that "every minister of the word is to be ordained by imposition of hands, and prayer, with fasting, by those preaching presbyters to whom it doth belong".


title: Apostolic succession

text: The Church of North India, Church of Pakistan and Church of South India are members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the clergy of these three united Protestant churches possess lines of apostolic succession, according to the Anglican understanding of this doctrine, through the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon (CIBC), which finished merging with these three in the 1970s.


title: Apostolic succession

text: On 6 February 2003, Rt. the Rev. Dr. K. J. Samuel, the Moderator Bishop of the Church of South India (a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion), along with the Rt. Rev. P.M. Dhotekar, Bishop of Nagpur of the Church of North India, and the Rt. Rev. Bancha Nidhi Nayak, Bishop of Phulbani of the Church of North India, consecrated Pentecostal minister K. P. Yohannan as a bishop in Anglican lines of apostolic succession; the Rt. Rev. K.P. Yohannan thereafter became the first Metropolitan of the Believers Eastern Church, a Pentecostal denomination which acquired an episcopal polity of ecclesiastical governance.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Many other Pentecostal Christians teach that "the sole guarantor of apostolic faith, which includes apostolic life, is the Holy Spirit." In addressing the Church of God General Assembly, Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson stated that "Although we do not claim a line of succession from the holy apostles, we do believe we are following in their example."


title: Apostolic succession

text: Denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement preach the necessity of apostolic succession and claim it through the process of restoration. According to their teaching, a period of universal apostasy followed the death of the Twelve Apostles. Without apostles or prophets left on the earth with the legitimate Priesthood Authority, many of the true teachings and practices of Christianity were lost. Eventually these were restored to the prophet Joseph Smith and various others in a series of divine conferrals and ordinations by angelic men who had held this authority during their lifetimes ("see this partial list of restoration events"). As it relates to apostolic succession, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said that the apostles Peter, James, and John appeared to them in 1829 and conferred upon them the Melchizedek Priesthood and with it "the keys of the kingdom, and of the dispensation of the fullness of times".


title: Apostolic succession

text: For the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the largest denomination in the Latter-day Saint movement, Apostolic Succession involves the leadership of the church being established through the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Each time the President of the Church dies, the most senior apostle, who is designated as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is set apart as the new church president.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Some Nonconformist Protestants, particularly those in the Calvinist tradition, deny the doctrine of apostolic succession, believing that it is neither taught in Scripture nor necessary for Christian teaching, life, and practice. Accordingly, these Protestants strip the notion of apostolic succession from the definition of "apostolic" or "apostolicity". For them, to be apostolic is simply to be in submission to the teachings of the original twelve apostles as recorded in Scripture. This doctrinal stance reflects the Protestant view of authority, embodied in the doctrine known as Sola Scriptura.


title: Apostolic succession

text: Among the first who rejected the doctrine of apostolic succession were John Calvin, and Martin Luther. They both said that the episcopacy was inadequate to address corruption, doctrinal or otherwise, and that this inadequacy justified the intervention of the church of common people. In part this position was also necessary, as otherwise there would have been no means to elicit or initiate reform of the church.


title: Apostolic succession

text: In the 20th century, there has been more contact between Protestants and Christians from Eastern traditions which claim apostolic succession for their ministry. Like the Roman Catholic Church, these ancient Eastern churches may use the doctrine of apostolic succession in ministry in their apologetics against some forms of Protestantism. Some Protestants feel that such claims of apostolic succession are proven false by the differences in traditions and doctrines between these churches: Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox consider both the Church of the East and the Oriental Orthodox churches to be heretical, having been anathematized in the early ecumenical councils of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) respectively. Churches that claim apostolic succession in ministry distinguish this from doctrinal orthodoxy, holding that "it is possible to have valid orders coming down from the apostles, and yet not to have a continuous spiritual history coming down from the apostles".


title: Apostolic succession

text: All Christians who have a genuine relationship with God through and in Christ are part of the "true Church", according to exemplary statements of evangelical Protestant theology, notwithstanding condemnation of the Catholic Church by some Protestants. According to these statements, claims that one or more denominations might be the "true Church" are nothing more than propaganda which has evolved over centuries to support authoritarian claims – based on tradition or based on scripture – of merely human institutions. Such claims can be found among the worldwide community of Christians. Yet all appear to treasure the truth that liberates, and Jesus taught his followers to love one another.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Spanish-style bullfighting is a type of bullfighting that is practiced in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, as well as in parts of southern France and Portugal. This style of bullfighting involves a physical contest with humans (and other animals) attempting to publicly subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull. The most common bull used is the Spanish Fighting Bull ("Toro Bravo"), a type of cattle native to the Iberian Peninsula. This style of bullfighting is seen to be both a sport and performance art. The red colour of the cape is a matter of tradition – bulls are color blind. They attack moving objects; the brightly-colored cape is used to mask blood stains.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: In a traditional "corrida", three "toreros "(or "matadores") each "fight" against two out of a total of six "fighting" bulls to death, each bull being at least four years old and weighs up to about (with a minimum weight limit of ). Bullfighting season in Spain runs from March to October. The practice is also known as a "corrida de toros" ("bull-running") or "tauromaquia". Since the late-1980s, bullfighting in Spain has declined in popularity due to animal welfare concerns, its association with blood sport, and its links to nationalism.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Most historians trace festivities involving bulls to prehistoric times, as a trend that once extended through the entire Mediterranean coast and has just survived in Iberia and part of France. Early bullfights had a high mortality rate. Alejandro Recio, a Spanish historian, considers the Neolithic city of Konya, Turkey, discovered by James Mellaart in 1958, as evidence of sacrificial tauromaquia associated with traditional rituals. This claim is based on the abundance of representations of bulls, as well as on the preservation of horns and bullheads attached to walls. Since then various archeological findings have proven the uninterrupted importance of the bull as a symbol of the sun for the Iberian cults, like the presence of berracos (known in Portuguese as "berrão"), or the importance of the bull in the surviving Celtiberian and Celtic rituals that continued into the 21st century. These pre-Roman religions centered on the ritual sacrifice of sacred animals through direct or symbolic combat and was a likely motive for the depiction of bulls.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Bullrings are believed to originate their bullfighting tradition from Roman gladiator games. During Roman Hispania gladiators were forced to fight animals by sword, such as bulls, bears, and wolves. The Romans tried to abolish and ban the "puere" practice of bullfighting, considering it was too risky for the youth and not a proper way to worship the state deities.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: According to "Frommer's Travel Guide," bullfighting in Spain traces its origins to 711 CE, with the first official bullfight, or "corrida de toros," being held in honor of the coronation of King Alfonso VIII. Once part of the Roman Empire, Spain owes its bullfighting tradition in part to gladiator games. At first, bullfighting was done on horseback and was reserved for Spanish aristocracy.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: During the Arab rule of Iberia, the ruling class tried to ban the practice of bullfighting, considering it a pagan celebration and heresy. Bullfighting was illegal in all Arab territory but became a mark of identity and resistance for Christian Iberians, especially for the nobility that started using it as a way to gain prestige. At first, bullfighting was done on horseback and was reserved for Spanish aristocracy; in contests the "fighters" were referred to as "rejoneadores".


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: In the 16th century Pope Pius V banned bullfighting for its ties to paganism and for the danger it posed to the participants. Anyone who would sponsor, watch or participate in a bullfight was to be excommunicated by the Church. Spanish and Portuguese bullfighters kept the tradition alive covertly, and his successor, Pope Gregory XIII, took efforts to relax this penalty. Pope Gregory advised bullfighters to not use the sport as way to honor Jesus Christ or the Saints, as was typical in Spain and Portugal.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: King Philip V, the first King of Spain of Bourbon descent, ended bullfighting in the country because he believed it was in poor taste for nobles to practice such a bloody sport. The change in bullfighting standards ran parallel to the discontent of the foreign rule of the Bourbons, and their lack of interest in understanding the politics, economics or culture of their new kingdom culminated in the Esquilache Riots of 1766. New forms of bullfighting continued to develop despite anti-French and anti-nobility sentiments. After growing in popularity in Spain, King Carlos III attempted to ban bullfighting in 1771. He attempted to reduce the social tension by building two of the eldest and largest bullfighting rings in Madrid as part of an offensive to fix the hostility and alienation that the Spanish felt towards the French rulers. King Charles IV attempted to formally ban the sport again after his predecessor made concessions. King Joseph Bonaparte reversed this decision by hosting a bullfight during his coronation in 1808.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Joaquín Rodríguez Costillares (1743–1800) was a Spanish bullfighter from Seville who has been credited with founding modern Spanish-style bullfighting. He established the "cuadrillas tradition" where teams of two or three banderilleros and two picadors taunt the bull. He also organized the "tercios de lidia" ("thirds of fight") borrowed from the theatre; invented the Veronica and other basic cape movements as well as the current "traje de luces" ("suit of light"); and created the cape maneuvers ("muleta"), typical in this style of bullfighting since the 19th century.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Each matador has six assistants—two "picadores" ("lancers") mounted on horseback, three "banderilleros" ("flagmen"), and a "mozo de espada" ("the lad of the swords"). Collectively they compose a "cuadrilla" or team of bullfighters. The crew also includes an "ayuda" (aide to sword servant) and "subalternos" (subordinates) including at least two "peones" (pages, singular "peón").


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: The modern Spanish-style bullfight ("corrida") is highly standardized, with three distinct parts (or "tercios"), the start of each of which is announced by a trumpet sound. The participants first enter the arena in a parade ("paseíllo") to salute the presiding dignitary ("presidente"), usually accompanied by band music. The corrida begins to the tune of live-played pasodobles, many of which were composed to honour famous "toreros". "Torero" costumes are influenced by 17th century Andalusian clothing. Matadors are distinguished by a "suit of lights" ("traje de luces"), custom-made and embroidered with silver or golden thread.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: The bull then enters the ring to be tested for aggressiveness by the matador and "banderilleros" with the magenta and gold "capote" (dress cape). Bulls are raised on the open range by specialist breeding estates called "ganadería". The bull enters the arena with a rosette on its back bearing the colours of the estate of its origin.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: The first stage is called the tercio de varas ("part of lances"). The matador observes how the bull reacts to the waving of the banderilleros' cloak. They also note vision problems, unusual head movements, or if the bull favors a part of the ring called a (territory). A bull trying to reach its querencia is often more dangerous than a bull that is attacking the cape directly. The initial attack by the matador is called the "suerte de capote" ("act of the cape"), and there are a number of fundamental "lances" (or passes) that matadors make; the most common being the "verónica" (named after Saint Veronica), which is the act of a matador letting their cloak trail over the bull's head as it runs past.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Then two picadores enter the arena each armed with a lance ("vara"), mounted on large heavily-padded and blindfolded horses. The entrance of the horse attracts the bull to the picadores. The picadores repeatedly drive their lances into the muscles ("morrillo") of the bull's neck to weaken the animal. As the picadores stab the bull's neck, the bull charges and attempts to lift the picador's horse. If the picador is successful, the bull will hold its head and horns lower as a result of injury and weakness during the following stages of the fight. This makes the bull less dangerous to enable the matador to perform the passes of modern bullfighting. In a mandatory step in the corrida, regulations require that a plaza judge ensures a certain number of hits are made before it is considered completed.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: In the next stage – the tercio de banderillas ("part of small flag") – the matador attempts to plant two barbed or dart-like sticks known as "banderillas" ("little flags") onto the bull's shoulders. These weaken the ridges of neck and shoulder muscle (which set fighting bulls apart from cattle) through loss of blood, while also spurring the bull into making more aggressive charges. By this point the bull has lost a significant amount of blood, exhausting the animal. The matador then enters with his cape and sword, attempting to tire the bull further with several runs at the cape.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: The matadors place the "banderillas" around the bull. If the presidente decides that the bull is relatively weak or unwilling to fight, they may order the use of black banderillas, considered to be a poor reflection on the breeder.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: In the third and final stage – the tercio de muerte ("part of death") – the matador re-enters the ring alone with a small red cape or "muleta" in one hand and a sword (estoc) in the other. This cape is stretched with a wooden dowel and, in right-handed passes, the sword as well. Having dedicated the bull to an individual or the whole audience, the matador uses his cape to attract the bull in a series of passes, demonstrating their control over it. The red colour of the cape is a matter of tradition – bulls are color blind. The movement of the cape is what irritates bulls; the colour by itself has the purpose of masking blood stains.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: The "faena" is the entire performance combined with the "muleta", which is usually broken down into a series of "tandas" (episodes). A typical "tanda" consists of three to five basic passes and then the finishing touch ("remate"), such as a "pase de pecho", or "pase de desprecio". Well-received passes are celebrated by the audience with shouts of ""¡ole!"". The "faena" ends with a final series of passes in which the matador with a attempts to manoeuvre the bull into a position to stab it between the shoulder blades and through the aorta or heart. The entire part of the bullfight with the is called the "tercio de muerte" ("third of death") or "suerte de muleta" ("act of "muleta"").


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: The act of thrusting the sword ("estoca" or "estoque") is called an "estocada". A clumsy "estocada" that fails to give a "quick and clean death" will often raise loud protests from the crowd and may ruin the whole performance. If estocada is not successful, the matador must then perform a and cut the bull's spinal cord with a second sword called "verdugo", to kill it instantly and spare the animal pain. Although the matador's final blow is usually fatal, it may take the bull some time to die. A "coup de grâce" is therefore administered by a named a , using a dagger to further pierce the spinal cord. The matador must kill the bull in 15 minutes after the first pass, at most. After 10 minutes, if the bull is still alive, the will order an , a warning given with a trumpet sound. If a further three minutes elapse, a second will be given; a third and final is given after a further two minutes. The "presidente" will then give an order to have the bull returned to its pen (), or, if local law so requires, to have the bull killed outside the ring. It is a dishonor for the failing matador.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: The bull's body is dragged out by a team of mules. If the is impressed by the performance of the bull, he orders a tour around the ring to honour the animal. Very rarely, a bull will be allowed to survive a fight as an indulgence granted in recognition of an exceptional performance. The spectators will demand an from the , by waving handkerchiefs before the . The matador will stop and look at the . If he stands still, he will resume their action and kill the bull. But if he has an orange handkerchief hung on his balcony, the matador will imitate the with a or with the palm of his hand and the bull will be "freed". Such bulls are generally retired from competition and raised as studs, as their experience in the ring makes them extremely dangerous opponents. A fighting bull is never used in the ring twice, because they learn from experience, and the entire strategy of the matador is based on the assumption that the bull has not learned from previous experience. This also invalidates bulls who have been run in their estate by illegal fighters (), who in earlier times would sneak into an estate by night to practice their skills.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: A (trophy) is the usual indicator of a successful . When the records of bullfights are kept, earned by the matador are always mentioned. If the crowd demands, the matador is allowed to take a lap of victory around the ring. If at least half of the spectators petition the by waving handkerchiefs, the is obliged to award the matador with one ear of the bull. To award the matador with another ear or with two ears and the tail (), depends solely on the 's appreciation. A matador who won at least two ears is given the permission to be carried on the shoulders of the admirers (). In some cities, such as Seville, three matadors take on two bulls each, and is only available to a matador that wins a total of three between his two bulls. In general, a matador that faces a bull that is freed is usually awarded , although only symbolically; ears or the tail can only be physically cut off of a dead bull.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Bullfighting is normally fatal for the bull, and it is dangerous for the matador. Picadors and banderilleros are sometimes gored, but this is not common. The suertes with the capote are risky, but it is the faena, in particular the estocada, that is the most dangerous. A matador of classical (Manolete) style is trained to divert the bull with the muleta but to come close to the right horn as he makes the fatal sword-thrust between the scapulae and through the aorta. At this moment, the danger to the matador is the greatest.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Most matadors have been gored many times. A special type of surgeon has developed, in Spain and elsewhere, to treat "cornadas", or horn-wounds. The bullring normally has an infirmary with an operating room, reserved for the immediate treatment of matadors with cornadas. The bullring has a chapel where a matador can pray before the corrida and where a priest can be found in case an emergency sacrament of extreme unction (also known as Anointing of the Sick or Last Rites) is needed.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: A poll conducted in 2014–2015 by the Spanish Ministry of Culture places bullfighting 10th in the list of most popular paid leisure activities. In 2015 9.5% of Spaniards went to a paid bullfight. By Autonomous Communities, Navarre headed the list, followed by Castile-Leon, Aragon, La Rioja, Castile-La Mancha and Extremadura. The regions least interested in bullfighting were Galicia, the Canary Islands, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. According to the poll, during the 2014–15 period 9.5% of the potential audience (Spaniards aged 15 and higher) would have attended a "corrida" at least once; this amounts to over 3.5 million people.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: The history of female bullfighters participating in Spanish-style bullfighting has been traced to the sport's earliest renditions, namely during the late-1700s and early 1800s. Francisco Goya, an 18th-century Spanish painter, first depicted a female bullfighter in his work "La Pajuelera", which featured a woman sparring with a bull on horseback. The Spanish government banned women from participating in the sport from 1909 to 1934, following the Second Spanish Republic's liberation of women until 1939. On 10 August 1974, under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, women were once again allowed to bullfight. María de los Ángeles Hernández Gómez was the first woman to earn her bullfighting license ("torera") after the ban was lifted. During the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, women were forced to exile in other Spanish-speaking countries and the United States in order to continue bullfighting. Throughout the 1980s women had difficulty completing their "alternativa", a ceremony where a bullfighter becomes a matador, due to the social pressures of the decade.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Activism against bullfighting has existed in Spain since the beginning of the early 20th century, when a group of intellectuals, belonging to the Generation of '98, rallied against the popularity of bullfighting and other social issues, dismissing them as "non-European" elements of Spanish culture which were to blame for the country's social and economic backwardness.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: In the 21st century, bullfighting has come under increasing attack from animal rights activists and political actors for its links to Spanish nationalism. Separatist and nationalist sentiment in Catalonia has played a key role in the region wide ban of a practice which is strongly associated to Spanish national identity.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Galician and Basque nationalists have also expressed abolitionist stances, although in the case of the latter this has been somewhat mooted by the conundrum of bullfighting being at the heart of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona. Animal welfare concerns are perhaps the prime driver of opposition to bullfighting outside Spain, although rejection of traditionalism and Criollo elitism may also play a role in Latin America.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: In the Canary Islands, bullfights are banned but cock fights, banned in the rest of Spain, are popular.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Animal rights activists claim bullfighting is a cruel or barbarous blood sport, in which the bull suffers severe stress and a slow, torturous death. A number of animal rights or animal welfare activist groups such as Antitauromaquia and StopOurShame undertake anti-bullfighting actions in Spain and other countries.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: Other arguments in favor of bullfighting include those to the effect that the death of animals in slaughterhouses is often much worse than the death in the ring, and that both types of animal die for entertainment since humans do not need to consume meat, eating it instead for taste (bulls enter the food chain after the bullfight). The last common defense to the practice is the conservationist stance point for both the tradition itself and the Bravo bull variety, as Bravo bulls are the closest living relative to the European wild bull, completely extinct now and divided into sub-breeds whose only use is provision of meat and milk, serving the food industry.


title: Spanish-style bullfighting

text: After years of increased pressure against bullfighting by abolitionist movements within Spain, the death of bullfighter Victor Barrio in July 2016 led to hundreds of comments being posted on various social media expressing joy towards the event and openly mocking his family and widow. This led to a significant backlash within Spain against anti-bullfighting activism, and criminal investigations are ongoing against those involved. Within a few days of Barrio's death, over 200,000 signatures had been collecting demanding action be taken against one such activist.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet; Nd:YAlO) is a crystal that is used as a lasing medium for solid-state lasers. The dopant, triply ionized neodymium, Nd(III), typically replaces a small fraction (1%) of the yttrium ions in the host crystal structure of the yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG), since the two ions are of similar size. It is the neodymium ion which provides the lasing activity in the crystal, in the same fashion as red chromium ion in ruby lasers.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Laser operation of Nd:YAG was first demonstrated by J.E. Geusic "et al." at Bell Laboratories in 1964.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG lasers are optically pumped using a flashtube or laser diodes. These are one of the most common types of laser, and are used for many different applications.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG lasers typically emit light with a wavelength of 1064 nm, in the infrared. However, there are also transitions near 946, 1120, 1320, and 1440 nm. Nd:YAG lasers operate in both pulsed and continuous mode. Pulsed Nd:YAG lasers are typically operated in the so-called Q-switching mode: An optical switch is inserted in the laser cavity waiting for a maximum population inversion in the neodymium ions before it opens. Then the light wave can run through the cavity, depopulating the excited laser medium at maximum population inversion. In this Q-switched mode, output powers of 250 megawatts and pulse durations of 10 to 25 nanoseconds have been achieved. The high-intensity pulses may be efficiently frequency doubled to generate laser light at 532 nm, or higher harmonics at 355, 266 and 213 nm.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG absorbs mostly in the bands between 730–760 nm and 790–820 nm. At low current densities krypton flashlamps have higher output in those bands than do the more common xenon lamps, which produce more light at around 900 nm. The former are therefore more efficient for pumping Nd:YAG lasers.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: The amount of the neodymium dopant in the material varies according to its use. For continuous wave output, the doping is significantly lower than for pulsed lasers. The lightly doped CW rods can be optically distinguished by being less colored, almost white, while higher-doped rods are pink-purplish.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Other common host materials for neodymium are: YLF (yttrium lithium fluoride, 1047 and 1053 nm), YVO (yttrium orthovanadate, 1064 nm), and glass. A particular host material is chosen in order to obtain a desired combination of optical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Nd:YAG lasers and variants are pumped either by flashtubes, continuous gas discharge lamps, or near-infrared laser diodes (DPSS lasers). Prestabilized laser (PSL) types of Nd:YAG lasers have proved to be particularly useful in providing the main beams for gravitational wave interferometers such as LIGO, VIRGO, GEO600 and TAMA.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG lasers are used in ophthalmology to correct posterior capsular opacification, after cataract surgery, for peripheral iridotomy in patients with chronic and acute angle-closure glaucoma, where it has largely superseded surgical iridectomy, for the treatment of vitreous eye floaters, for pan-retinal photocoagulation in the treatment of proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and to damage the retina in ophthalmology animal research.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG lasers emitting light at 1064 nm have been the most widely used laser for laser-induced thermotherapy, in which benign or malignant lesions in various organs are ablated by the beam.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: In oncology, Nd:YAG lasers can be used to remove skin cancers. They are also used to reduce benign thyroid nodules, and to destroy primary and secondary malignant liver lesions.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: To treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), Nd:YAG lasers can be used for laser prostate surgery—a form of transurethral resection of the prostate.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: These lasers are also used extensively in the field of cosmetic medicine for laser hair removal and the treatment of minor vascular defects such as spider veins on the face and legs. Nd:YAG lasers are also used to treat Venous Lake lip lesions. Recently Nd:YAG lasers have been used for treating dissecting cellulitis of the scalp, a rare skin disease.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Using hysteroscopy the Nd:YAG laser has been used for removal of uterine septa within the inside of the uterus.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: In podiatry, the Nd:YAG laser is being used to treat onychomycosis, which is fungus infection of the toenail. The merits of laser treatment of these infections are not yet clear, and research is being done to establish effectiveness.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG dental lasers have been used for the removal of dental caries as an alternative to drill therapy, although evidence supporting its use is of low quality. They have also been used for soft tissue surgeries in the oral cavity, such as gingivectomy, periodontal sulcular debridement, LANAP, and pulpotomy. Nd:YAG dental lasers have also been shown to be effective at treating and preventing dental hypersensitivity, as an adjunct for periodontal instrumentation, and for the treatment of recurrent aphthous stomatitis.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG lasers are used in manufacturing for engraving, etching, or marking a variety of metals and plastics, or for metal surface enhancement processes like laser peening. They are extensively used in manufacturing for cutting and welding steel, semiconductors and various alloys. For automotive applications (cutting and welding steel) the power levels are typically 1–5 kW. Super alloy drilling (for gas turbine parts) typically uses pulsed Nd:YAG lasers (millisecond pulses, not Q-switched). Nd:YAG lasers are also employed to make subsurface markings in transparent materials such as glass or acrylic glass. Lasers of up to 2 kW are used for selective laser melting of metals in additive layered manufacturing. In aerospace applications, they can be used to drill cooling holes for enhanced air flow/heat exhaust efficiency.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG lasers are also used in the non-conventional rapid prototyping process laser engineered net shaping (LENS).


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Laser peening typically uses high energy (10 to 40 Joule), 10 to 30 nanosecond pulse, flashed laser systems to generate gigawatts of power on the surface of a part by focusing the laser beam down to a few millimeters in diameter. Laser peening is unlike the other manufacturing processes in that it neither heats or adds material; it is a mechanical process of cold working the metallic component to impart compressive residual stresses. Laser peening is widely used in gas fired turbine engines in both aerospace and power generation for component damage tolerance improvement and fatigue life and strength increase.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG lasers can be used for flow visualization techniques in fluid dynamics (for example particle image velocimetry or laser-induced fluorescence).


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG lasers are frequently used to build optical tweezers for biological applications. This is because Nd:YAG lasers mostly emit at a wavelength of 1064 nm. Biological samples have a low absorption coefficient at this wavelength, as biological samples are usually mostly made up of water.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Researchers from Japan's National Institutes of Natural Sciences are developing laser igniters that use YAG chips to ignite fuel in an engine, in place of a spark plug. The lasers use several 800 picosecond long pulses to ignite the fuel, producing faster and more uniform ignition. The researchers say that such igniters could yield better performance and fuel economy, with fewer harmful emissions.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: During the Iran–Iraq War, Iranian soldiers suffered more than 4000 cases of laser eye injury, caused by a variety of Iraqi sources including tank rangefinders. The 1064 nm wavelength of Nd:YAG is thought to be particularly dangerous, as it is invisible and initial exposure is painless.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: The Chinese ZM-87 blinding laser weapon uses a laser of this type, though only 22 have been produced due to their prohibition by the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. North Korea is reported to have used one of these weapons against American helicopters in 2003.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: The Nd:YAG may be used in the application of cavity ring-down spectroscopy, which is used to measure the concentration of some light-absorbing substance.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: A range of Nd:YAG lasers are used in analysis of elements in the periodic table. Though the application by itself is fairly new with respect to conventional methods such as XRF or ICP, it has proven to be less time consuming and a cheaper option to test element concentrations. A high-power Nd:YAG laser is focused onto the sample surface to produce plasma. Light from the plasma is captured by spectrometers and the characteristic spectra of each element can be identified, allowing concentrations of elements in the sample to be measured.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: Nd:YAG lasers, mainly via their second and third harmonics, are widely used to excite dye lasers either in the liquid or solid state. They are also used as pump sources for vibronically broadened solid-state lasers such as or via the second harmonic for pumping Ti:sapphire lasers.


title: Nd:YAG laser

text: For many applications, the infrared light is frequency-doubled or -tripled using nonlinear optical materials such as lithium triborate to obtain visible (532 nm, green) or ultraviolet light. Cesium lithium borate generates the 4th and 5th harmonics of the Nd:YAG 1064 nm fundamental wavelength. A green laser pointer is a frequency doubled Nd:YVO diode-pumped solid state laser (DPSS laser). Nd:YAG can be also made to lase at its non-principal wavelength. The line at 946 nm is typically employed in "blue laser pointer" DPSS lasers, where it is doubled to 473 nm.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: Robin of Sherwood is a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 28 April 1984 to 28 June 1986 on the ITV network. In the United States it was shown on the premium cable TV channel Showtime and, later, on PBS. The show starred Michael Praed and Jason Connery as two different incarnations of the title character. Unlike previous adaptations of the Robin Hood legend, "Robin of Sherwood" combined a gritty, authentic production design with elements of real-life history, 20th-century fiction, and pagan myth. "Robin of Sherwood" has been described by historian Stephen Knight as "the most innovative and influential version of the myth in recent times". The series is also notable for its musical score by Clannad, which won a BAFTA award.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: Richard Carpenter had previously worked with producer Paul Knight on two other dramas involving historical adventure, "Dick Turpin" (1979–1982) and "Smuggler" (1981). For their next project, Carpenter and Knight decided to have their production company Gatetarn do an adaptation of the Robin Hood legend. With the aid of television producer Sidney Cole, Carpenter and Knight were able to create a production deal for the show. Goldcrest Films, the US network Showtime, HTV and Gatetarn agreed to fund the series. "Robin of Sherwood" was more expensive than Carpenter and Knight's previous series; each episode of "Robin of Sherwood" cost around £500,000 to film. Filming on "Robin of Sherwood" began in 1983. The show premiered in 1984, on ITV in the UK and on Showtime in the United States. There were three series, composed of a two-hour opening episode and 24 one-hour long episodes, although the pilot is sometimes screened as two one-hour episodes. The episodes comprising "The Swords of Wayland" were transmitted as one episode in the UK on their original screening, on a bank holiday weekend in 1985. The show was shot on film and almost entirely on location, mostly in the northeast and southwest of England; HTV West in Bristol was the base of operations, and most of the filming was done in and around Bristol and its surrounding counties. Primary locations were the Blaise Castle Estate in North Bristol and Vassals Park to the south. Some of the forest scenes were shot near Bradford-on-Avon.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: "Robin of Sherwood" is one of the most influential treatments of the core Robin Hood legend since "The Adventures of Robin Hood", featuring a realistic period setting and introducing the character of a Saracen outlaw. Carpenter also added fantasy elements to the story (which had not appeared in previous TV versions of the legend). These included Robin's supernatural mentor Herne the Hunter, Robin gaining a magic sword called Albion, and the outlaws battling against black magicians and demons as well as the Sheriff and his henchmen.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: Michael Praed played Robin of Loxley in the first two series. His 'Merry Men' consisted of Will Scarlet (Ray Winstone), Little John (Clive Mantle), Friar Tuck (Phil Rose), Much (Peter Llewellyn Williams), the Saracen Nasir (Mark Ryan) and Lady Marian (Judi Trott). He is also assisted by Herne the Hunter (John Abineri). As in the legend, Robin is opposed by the Sheriff of Nottingham (Nickolas Grace) and Guy of Gisburne (Robert Addie), as well as the Sheriff's brother Abbot Hugo (Philip Jackson) (representing all the greedy abbots in the legends).


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: In the opening story, "Robin Hood and the Sorcerer", Robin and his half-brother Much fall foul of the Sheriff's henchman, Sir Guy of Gisburne and are imprisoned in Nottingham Castle. They manage to escape, and gather a team of fellow rebels to fight back against the Sheriff's authority.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: At the end of the second series, Robin of Loxley is killed, and Robert of Huntingdon (played by Jason Connery) replaces him as Robin Hood. The third series had the same episode count as the first two combined, so each incarnation of Robin featured in the same number of episodes.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: At the conclusion of Series Three, Goldcrest was forced to pull out of the venture, due to a downturn in the fortunes of their film arm. Goldcrest had been responsible for critical and commercial hits such as "Chariots of Fire" (1981) and "Gandhi" (1982) earlier in the 1980s, but had hit a lean period with such films as "Revolution" (1985) and "Absolute Beginners" (1986). The series was expensive to produce; HTV could not afford to finance it alone, and so "Robin of Sherwood" came to an unexpected end. Goldcrest invested £1,289,000 in the first six episodes, £1,944,000 in the next seven and £4,035,000 in the next twelve. Despite the huge popularity of the series, Goldcrest's financial difficulties due to its cinematic investments, prevented further production.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: During the course of the third series, the new Robin discovers that he is the half-brother of his nemesis Guy of Gisburne (an idea suggested to Carpenter by the fact that both actors had blond hair). Carpenter planned to have Guy eventually discover that his greatest enemy was also his half-brother. This particular story arc was never resolved, as the show's intended fourth (and final) series was never made. The fourth season would have also featured the return of Baron de Belleme. The sudden cancellation also broke off Robin and Marion's intended marriage and left Marion at Halstead Abbey as a novice. Carpenter later said that, if he had known the third season would be last, he would have married Robin and Marion.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: After the series ended, Carpenter and Knight tried several times to revive the show. First, Knight tried to gain funding from US producers for a fourth season, but was unsuccessful. Carpenter then wrote a script for a feature film adaptation of the series, and tried to get funding for it. Carpenter said in a 1990 interview that the film was intended to star the TV series' regular cast (with a new actor playing Robin if Connery was unavailable). Carpenter also said that the film would not be an adaptation of the unmade fourth season, but "a story on its own". The appearance of two Robin Hood films in 1991 ("Robin Hood" and "") meant that Carpenter and Knight could not interest potential producers in a third Robin Hood film.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: "Robin of Sherwood" is set in the usual period for Robin Hood stories – England in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, during the reigns of the Angevin kings Richard I and John.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: "Robin Hood and the Sorcerer" opens in the year 1180 AD, before flashing forward fifteen years ahead. In the final episode of Series One, however, King Richard's return to England following his capture and ransom is depicted, which occurred in 1194. The Series Two episode "The Prophecy" is set in the year 1199 AD, when Prince John becomes King of England. In the Series Three episode "The Time of the Wolf (Part One)", the Sheriff dictates a legal document dated for the year 1211 AD, and the plot of the episode involves King John raising an army to fight Llywelyn of Wales (a historical event which took place in that same year).


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: In repeats, episodes have frequently been broadcast out of order, and alternative orders have been suggested. The original running order creates a number of continuity errors, the most notable being Marian's father being referred to as being dead in "The Swords of Wayland" even though he was discovered to be alive in "The Prophecy" and appears in later episodes.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: The music for "Robin of Sherwood" was composed and performed by Irish folk group Clannad. The show's original soundtrack, "Legend", was released in 1984 and won the BAFTA award for Best Original Television Music.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: Three singles were released from the album: the theme-tune "Robin (The Hooded Man)", "Now is Here" and "Scarlet Inside". An EP contained a remix of "Robin (The Hooded Man)" from the third series.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: While not all of the show's music is found on the "Legend" album, some additional pieces can be found on Clannad's albums "Macalla" (released 1986) and "" (released 2005). In November 2003, Clannad revealed on their official web site that "there were several other pieces of music recorded for the third series of "Robin of Sherwood" that were not included on the "Legend" album. Unfortunately no-one has been able to locate the master tapes of this music. The search is continuing and hopefully one day these recordings will be able to be released."


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: Reviewing "Robin of Sherwood" for "SFX" magazine, Jayne Nelson stated that "this incarnation of England's most famous outlaw will probably never be bettered". Nelson praised the show's "excellent writing, moody cinematography and haunting score." Nelson also said that "The Greatest Enemy" was the best episode of the show, followed by "The Swords of Wayland" and "The Sheriff of Nottingham".


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: ITV aired "Robin of Sherwood" during an early-evening television slot, and promoted the programme as being for a family audience. Mary Whitehouse and the National Viewers and Listeners' Association criticised "Robin of Sherwood" as being unsuitable for children (as the organisation previously did with "Doctor Who"). Whitehouse claimed that the show depicted "extensive violence", objected to the depiction of Satanic villains in "The Swords of Wayland", and also criticised the apparent "resurrection" of Robin in "The Greatest Enemy" as being disrespectful to Christianity. Carpenter later met Whitehouse for a public debate, and introduced himself to her and the audience by saying "I'm Richard Carpenter, and I'm a professional writer. And you're a professional... what?" "The Guinness Book of Classic British TV" defended "Robin of Sherwood", stating that the show's "swordplay was strictly zero blood" and that the supernatural elements were the result of Carpenter's "love for the subject matter".


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: A comic strip based on "Robin of Sherwood" ran in "Look-in" magazine from April 1984 to September 1986.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: In the US and Canada, the first and second series have been released by Acorn Media in a five DVD set. A second set, containing the complete third series was released on 9 October 2007


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: In October 2010 Network DVD announced the forthcoming release of Series 1 and 2 in a single Region B Blu-ray set, entitled "Robin of Sherwood: Michael Praed" (the 3-Disc Blu-ray and DVD bonus disc). This was released on 15 November 2010. In the US and Canada, the first and second series were released on 7 June 2011 by Acorn Media as "Robin of Sherwood: Set 1".


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: On "The Complete Collection" DVD set, there are "seventeen hours of special features", including fourteen commentary tracks, a documentary on the folk group Clannad creating the score for the series, outtakes, bonus footage, a behind the scenes documentary, four documentaries that look back on the making of the show with former cast and crew, and other behind the scenes footage too.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: In July 2015, Bafflegab Productions, the producers of the audio play/comic book series "The Scarifyers", and co-producer Barnaby Eaton-Jones announced that they were adapting a feature-length script entitled "", written by Richard Carpenter before his death in 2012. Jason Connery, Judi Trott, Ray Winstone, Clive Mantle, Mark Ryan, Phil Rose, Philip Jackson, and Nickolas Grace (Robert of Huntingdon, Lady Marion, Will Scarlet, Little John, Nasir, Friar Tuck, Abbot Hugo, and the Sheriff of Nottingham, respectively) all agreed to reprise their roles for the project, with Daniel Abineri taking the role of Herne in place of his father, John Abineri, who died in 2000. In December 2015, Barnaby Eaton-Jones took over as sole producer of the audio play, with Spiteful Puppet (the award-winning audio company who produced 'Hood') as executive producers; as approved by ITV Studios and Richard 'Kip' Carpenter's estate. After beginning its crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo in September 2015, the production set a goal of £10,000 within 30 days to cover production costs; due to enthusiastic fan support, however, the goal was reached in just under 24 hours. The audio play was released in 2016, with proceeds going to the Sherwood Forest Trust and the British Red Cross.


title: Robin of Sherwood

text: The success of the play led to Spiteful Puppet announcing a set of four further 'Robin of Sherwood' plays for 2017, two featuring Jason Connery and two featuring Michael Praed. This release was later pushed back to 2018 however a series of enhanced audiobooks was announced, with the first four being released in December 2017.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: Collin County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and a small portion of the city of Dallas is in the county. At the 2020 United States census, the county's population is 1,064,465, making it the sixth-most populous county in Texas and the 43rd-largest county by population in the United States. Its county seat is McKinney.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: Both the county and the county seat were named after Collin McKinney (1766-1861), one of the five men who drafted the Texas Declaration of Independence and the oldest of the 59 men who signed it.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of , of which is land and (5.1%) is covered by water.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau determined 491,675 people resided in Collin County. With the economic and population growth of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, its population increased to 1,064,465 at the 2020 U.S. census. The population density as of 2019 was 1,229.8 people per square mile. Among the population, its median age was 37.3, up from the statewide median age of 35.1. Linguistically, 11.6% of the county spoke Spanish as their household language, followed by Asian and Pacific Islander languages. Altogether 29.7% of Collin County spoke a language other than English at home, contributed in part by its large foreign-born population which made up 22% of the population according to 2019 estimates from the American Community Survey.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: The median income for a household in the county as of 2019 was $96,134, up from $70,835 in 2000. Families had a median household income of $113,471, married-couple families $127,575, and non-family households $53,986. An estimated 6.3% of Collin County's residents lived at or below the poverty line from 2014 to 2019. In 2000, about 3.30% of families and 4.90% of the population lived at or below the poverty line, including 5.10% of those under age 18 and 7.10% of those aged 65 and older.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: Of its residential properties, the median value of an owner-occupied housing unit was $354,100 in 2019, with a total of 8% of owner-occupied housing units ranging from less than $100,000 up to $200,000. In 2007, Collin County was ranked No. 21 for high property taxes in the U.S. as percentage of the homes' value on owner-occupied housing. It also tanked in the top 100 for amount of property taxes paid and for percentage of taxes of income. Part is this is due to the Robin Hood plan school financing system in Texas.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: "Note: the U.S. Census Bureau treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race."


title: Collin County, Texas

text: At the 2000 census, the racial and ethnic makeup of the county was 81.39% White, 4.79% Black or African American, 0.47% Native American, 6.92% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 4.26% from other races, and 2.11% from two or more races; 10.27% of the population were Hispanic or Latino American of any race. In 2019, the American Community Survey estimated its non-Hispanic white population now represented 55%, reflecting a national demographic trend of diversification. The Black or African American population grew to 10%, Asian Americans made up 16% of the population, and Hispanic or Latino Americans increased to 16% of the total population in 2019; multiracial Americans made up an estimated 2% of the county population. The largest European ancestry groups from 2014 to 2019 were Germans, English Americans, and Irish and Italian Americans. By the publication of the 2020 census, the racial and ethnic makeup of Collin County was 50.96% non-Hispanic white, 10.16% Black or African American, 0.36% American Indian or Alaska Native, 17.70% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.46% some other race, 4.41% multiracial, and 15.89% Hispanic or Latino American of any race.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: Christianity has historically been the predominant religious affiliation among the county's residents as part of the Bible Belt. According to the 2020 Public Religion Research Institute study, non-Christian religions are present and have been growing, largely due to migration into the county; among the non-Christian population, 3% were Hindu, 2% Muslim and 2% Jewish. Overall among its Christian population, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics and non- or inter-denominational Christians have been prominent.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: Collin County, like all counties in Texas, is governed by a Commissioners Court. The court is chaired by a county judge (equivalent to a county executive in other states) who is elected county-wide, and four commissioners who are elected by the voters in each of four precincts.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: Since the 1960s, Collin County has consistently supported Republican candidates in presidential and congressional elections. The last Democrat to win the county was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. No Democrat has represented any part of Collin County in the Texas Legislature since 1994. In 2020, Collin County had become a political bellwether.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: In the 1990s Plano ISD received many non-Hispanic white families leaving urban areas. From circa 1997 and 2015 the number of non-Hispanic white children in K-12 schools in the county increased by 40,000 as part of a trend of white flight and suburbanization by non-Hispanic white families; however the same number of Plano ISD in particular decreased by 10,000 in that period.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: Collin College opened its first campus on Highway 380 in McKinney in 1985. The college has grown to seven campuses/locations—two in McKinney and two in Plano and as well as Frisco, Allen, Rockwall, Wylie, Farmersville, and Celina. Collin College's official service area includes all of Collin County.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: Dallas Baptist University also has an extension site in Frisco, DBU Frisco, as well as the University of North Texas's extension side, UNT Frisco. The majority of the University of Texas at Dallas campus in Richardson, Texas lies within Collin County.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: Collin County is part of the Dallas/Fort Worth media market. Local media outlets are: KDFW-TV, KXAS-TV, WFAA-TV, KTVT-TV, KERA-TV, KTXA-TV, KDFI-TV, KDAF-TV, and KFWD-TV. Other nearby stations that provide coverage for Collin County come from the Sherman/Denison market and they include: KTEN-TV and KXII-TV.


title: Collin County, Texas

text: Newspapers in the Collin County area include the "Allen American", "Celina Record", "Farmersville Times", "Frisco Enterprise", "McKinney Courier-Gazette", and the "Plano Star-Courier". Nearby publications "The Dallas Morning News" and the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" also provide news coverage of cities in the county.


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: El Último Tour Del Mundo (; Spanish for "The Final Tour of the World", stylized in all caps) is the third solo studio album and fourth overall by Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny. It was released on November 27, 2020, by Rimas Entertainment, only nine months after the release of his previous record "YHLQMDLG", which achieved both commercial success and critical acclaim. Comprising sixteen tracks, it is primarily a Latin trap and reggaeton album infused with a variety of rock music styles, and features guest appearances from Jhay Cortez, Rosalía and Abra. The album's title refers to how Bad Bunny imagined what his last concert tour would look like, as he imagined his final tour in the year 2032. The album was written and recorded during the COVID-19 quarantine and is a departure from Bad Bunny's aggressive reggaetón sound.


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: It became the first all-Spanish-language album to reach number one on the US "Billboard" 200. "El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo" was the best selling Latin album in the United States of 2021 and was the most consumed and streamed album in Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina that year. The album won Best Urban Music Album at the 22nd Annual Latin Grammy Awards and Best Música Urbana Album at the 64th Grammy Awards. To promote the album, he embarked in a concert tour with the same name.


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: Bad Bunny first teased his third studio album on February 29, 2020, when he sang on the song "<3": "this album is so hot, I did it for you all; and in nine months I'll come back and release another one; to retire pleasingly like Miguel Cotto". On October 30, the lead single of the album, "Dakiti", featuring Puerto Rican singer and close friend Jhay Cortez was released, reaching number one on the "Billboard" Global 200 chart. The album's title was teased in the video for "Dakiti", in which a big truck drives by with a message that displays the title. On November 24, 2020, he again hinted at a new album, tweeting the word "Temazo", which translates to "hit". He posted a similar post on Twitter before "YHLQMDLG" was released. The day after, he announced the release date of the album, its title, and tracklist. The album was released along with a video for the single "Yo Visto Así", featuring cameos from, among others, Ricky Martin and Sofía Vergara. A video for the track "Hoy Cobré" was released on December 11. A video for another track, "Booker T", was released on January 2, 2021, starring WWE wrestler Booker T. A video for "Te deseo lo mejor" was made in collaboration with "The Simpsons".


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: "El Último Tour Del Mundo" is a Latin trap and reggaeton album, infused with a variety of rock music styles, namely alternative rock, indie rock, pop rock, acoustic rock, punk rock, post-punk, rock en español, and rock and roll, as well as influences from alternative pop, synth-pop, new wave, electronic, house, ballad, holiday, latin, pop, hip-hop, and R&B.


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: "El Último Tour Del Mundo" has been regarded as Bad Bunny's "most personal and creatively ambitious work yet". An "experimental, futuristic and edgy" body of work, the album marks a departure from Bad Bunny's perreo style, as it is a "more introspective, sometimes acoustic fare" and contains only two collaborations: one with R&B artist Abra and the other with Rosalía ("La Noche de Anoche"). Both songs were recorded separately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regarding the lack of guest appearances, Bad Bunny stated: "I thought it was time to demonstrate versatility and bring something fresh to the fans". He called the album "completely different from "YHLQMDLG". This is a more sentimental album, more chill, the kind of thing you can listen to in your room"; he considered how people were unable to go out or party during the COVID-19 pandemic. He described the album as "rock 'n' roll, a lot of guitars–there's one song that only has guitar–it's more musical, has more fusions, and also reggaetón and rap". The album was conceived entirely during the 2020 quarantine. Bad Bunny worked on the album while traveling, in Los Angeles, Mexico, and at his home in Puerto Rico. The album was engineered by Bad Bunny's frequent engineer La Paciencia.


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 83 based on four reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: Thom Jurek of AllMusic named the album Bad Bunny's "most adventurous outing" which may take longtime fans "a few listens to fully grasp" but it will ultimately "leave its infectious hooks, earworms, and strangeness fully embedded." Writing for "Remezcla", Diego Urdaneta noticed that Bad Bunny is "more interested in his artistic legacy than predictability", which the writer considers is "a blueprint for many artists to follow in order to break the barriers of mainstream Latin music and dare to innovate within reaggetón and trap," as the artist mostly did not feature songs that can be categorized as club appealing. Matthew Ismael Ruiz of "Pitchfork" commented that "El Último Tour Del Mundo" "gets at the core of what makes Bad Bunny so appealing", presenting a wide range of influences with a genuine connection to his music and persona, while he also "toes the line" between rap braggadocio and "vulnerable everyman" with "relative ease." Ruiz argued that it is not Bad Bunny's best release, but "that's almost beside the point." Julyssa Lopez of "Rolling Stone" deemed the album "a defiant industry game-changer lit up by streaks of rock guitar," and "an eccentric good time" that "isn't by any means a repudiation of the genres that have made Bad Bunny a star; if anything, it's proof of how far they can stretch,"


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: Verónica Bastardo of "The Quietus" noticed that Bad Bunny decided to put "the dembow rhythms and party vibes aside" to experiment with "the fuzzed-up guitars and iconoclasm of punk rock" creating "fresh sound narratives" in a rather "monotone" reggaeton music scene. Gary Suarez of Vulture.com described the album as "polarizing by design" that "reflects the exciting uncertainty of the future", and considered that his three solo studio albums "showcase the Bunny we know—sensitive yet cocksure, playful yet determined." He further compared the "universally adored" "YHLQMDLG" to the "individualistic, left of center" "El Último Tour Del Mundo".


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: "El Último Tour Del Mundo" debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200 with 116,000 becoming the first all-Spanish-language album to top the chart. It earned Bad Bunny his fourth top 10 entry. Before "El Último Tour Del Mundo", only two mostly Spanish-sung albums reached number one on the chart, Selena's "Dreaming of You" (1995) and Il Divo's "Ancora" (2006). It also became the fourth all-Spanish language album to enter the top five, the others being Shakira's "Fijación Oral, Vol. 1" (2005) and Maná's "Amar es Combatir" (2006), both at number four, and his album "YHLQMDLG" (2020) at number two. In its second week, the album dropped to number two on the chart, earning an additional 57,000 units. It was the 4th Best Selling Latin Album of 2020 in the United States with 348,000 units. It was the Best Selling Latin Album in the United States of 2021 with 854,000 units. As of January 2022, El Último Tour del Mundo had sold 1.2 millions of equivalent units in the United States.


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: In Argentina, El Ultimo Tour del Mundo was the most streamed album on Spotify. In Chile, El Ultimo Tour Mundo was the most consumed album and Bad Bunny the most listened international artist on Spotify. In Mexico and Colombia, "El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo" was the most listened album on Spotify and "Dakiti" the most cosumed song.


title: El Último Tour Del Mundo

text: In an article for "Billboard", Leila Cobo considered the number-one position "a huge win" for the Latin music industry, that "for decades has seen its artists systematically undermined by the mainstream media, and by the industry overall, unless they either sing in English or collaborate with a mainstream act who does." Among the factors that made that possible, she cited Bad Bunny being "arguably one of the most popular artists globally", the era of streaming, Latin music genre's sustained growth both in the US and globally, and that he was not "subjected" to the barriers to entry that Latin artists "have had to crash into for years" in the US, as they did not enjoy the same distribution, radio airplay, media coverage or presence, award show nominations or appearances as mainstream acts, "even when their global music sales merited it." She also deemed him "a unique artist with a unique appeal that's not easily replicated." Ben Sisario of "The New York Times" also cited streaming as "key" for his success.


title: The French Angel

text: Maurice Tillet (October 23, 1903 – September 4, 1954) was a Russian-born French professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, The French Angel. Tillet was a leading box office draw in the early 1940s and was twice World Heavyweight Champion in the American Wrestling Association run by Paul Bowser in Boston.


title: The French Angel

text: Tillet was born in 1903 in the Ural Mountains in Russia to French parents. His mother was a teacher and his father was a railroad engineer. Tillet's father died when he was young. As a child, he had a completely normal appearance and was even given the nickname "The Angel" by his mother due to his innocent face. In 1917, Tillet and his mother left Russia due to the Revolution and moved to France, where they settled in Reims. When Tillet was twenty years old, he noticed swelling in his feet, hands, and head, and after visiting a doctor was diagnosed with acromegaly—a condition usually caused by a benign tumor on the pituitary gland, resulting in bone overgrowth and thickening.


title: The French Angel

text: Tillet completed his law degree at the University of Toulouse, but felt he would never be successful due to his deep voice and physical appearance. Tillet served in the submarine service of the French Navy for five years as an engineer.


title: The French Angel

text: In February 1937, Tillet met Karl Pojello (Lithuanian Karolis Požėla) in Singapore. Pojello was a professional wrestler, and persuaded Tillet to enter the business. Tillet and Pojello moved to Paris for training, and Tillet wrestled for two years in France and England until World War II forced them to leave for the United States in 1939.


title: The French Angel

text: In Boston, Massachusetts, in 1940, promoter Paul Bowser pushed Tillet, who was wrestling as The French Angel, as a main eventer, and he became a large draw in the area. As a result of his popularity, Tillet was booked as unstoppable, and was unbeaten for a span of nineteen consecutive months. Tillet was the AWA World Heavyweight Champion from May 1940 until May 1942. He reappeared with the Boston-based title for a short time in 1944.


title: The French Angel

text: As a result of his success, several Angel imitators emerged, including Paul Olaffsen (Swedish Angel), who also had acromegaly; Tony Angelo (Russian Angel), Tor Johnson (Super Swedish Angel), Jack Rush (Canadian Angel), Wladislaw Tulin (Polish Angel), Stan Pinto (Czech Angel), Clive Welsh (Irish Angel), Jack Falk (Golden Angel), Gil Guerrero (Black Angel), and Jean Noble (Lady Angel). Tillet competed against Tor Johnson, who was billed as The Swedish Angel on those occasions.


title: The French Angel

text: By 1945, Tillet's health began to fail and he was no longer advertised as unstoppable. In his final wrestling match, in Singapore on February 14, 1953, working The National Wrestling Alliance Mid South Area then known as Tri-State and owned by Leroy McGuirk he agreed to lose to Bert Assirati.


title: The French Angel

text: In 1950, Chicago sculptor Louis Linck befriended Tillet and made a series of plaster busts commemorating him for his wrestling career. One of the busts is in Chicago's International Museum of Surgical Science. Another is now in the personal collection of Bruce Prichard.


title: The French Angel

text: Tillet died on September 4, 1954, in Chicago, from cardiovascular disease after hearing of his trainer's death. Tillet is buried at the Lithuanian National Cemetery in Justice, Illinois, Cook County, south of Chicago.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: Steven Alexander James, FRSA (born 21 November 1968) is an English musician, best known as the bassist of the rock band Blur, he has also played with temporary bands Fat Les, Me Me Me, WigWam and Bad Lieutenant.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: James was born in Boscombe, Bournemouth, and attended the state grammar school Bournemouth School, where he started playing in bands. He credits the Beatles with inspiring him to pursue music: "I was off school with chickenpox when John Lennon was shot in 1980. I spent the week watching a VHS recording of the Beatles film Help!, which was broadcast on TV the day he died. I still watch it once a year. Then I bought a Beatles songbook and a guitar, figured out the chord shapes and started strumming and singing along. I never looked back."


title: Alex James (musician)

text: In 1988, James met future bandmate Graham Coxon at Goldsmiths College, where James studied French. Introductions with Coxon's old school friend Damon Albarn and Dave Rowntree soon took place; at the time Albarn and Rowntree were part of a band called Circus.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: In 1989, James joined Coxon, Albarn and Rowntree's new band, Seymour, which would later be renamed Blur. While he has been in the band ever since, he now describes the experience as "a past-life".


title: Alex James (musician)

text: Despite this, Blur got together with returning bandmate Graham Coxon to perform at Glastonbury Festival, Hyde Park, Oxegen and T in the Park during the summer of 2009. They also played shows at Goldsmiths College, Essex Museum and other venues around the UK and mainland Europe. Blur headlined a show at Hyde Park for the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. In 2013, the band performed at the Rock Werchter in Belgium, the Spanish and Portuguese dates of the Primavera Sound festival, and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the United States.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: Unlike Albarn, Coxon and Rowntree, James has not released any solo material, although he has been involved in other collaborative side projects. In 1998, James formed Fat Les with actor Keith Allen and artist Damien Hirst, releasing the unofficial theme song (excluding three others) "Vindaloo" for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart. He also worked on side project Me Me Me with Stephen Duffy, co-wrote songs for Marianne Faithfull (appearing in drag playing a double bass in the music video for her single "Sex With Strangers") and Jane McDonald, and worked with Florence and the Machine and Gene Loves Jezebel.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: James worked with Sophie Ellis-Bextor on her solo debut "Read My Lips", co-writing and co-producing "Move This Mountain", and co-producing "I Believe" with Ellis-Bextor and producer Ben Hillier. He also played bass on both tracks. Ellis-Bextor's 2003 album, "Shoot from the Hip" also featured James as bass player and co-writer on the track "Love Is It Love". He also joined his friend and singer-songwriter Betty Boo in a band called WigWam in 2005. In 2009, James appeared as bass player on debut Bad Lieutenant record "Never Cry Another Tear". The band consists of New Order lead singer Bernard Sumner and guitarist Phil Cunningham, along with Jake Evans of Rambo And Leroy. In 2013, James co-wrote the song "Did I Lose You?", performed by Giorgia and Olly Murs.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: Alex James is a food writer for "The Sun" and has a weekly column, 'Alex James on All Things Food'; as well as a regular column on farm and family life in The Sunday Telegraph titled 'Mucking In'. He also writes a monthly column on cheese for Esquire Magazine.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: Alex contributes to a number of other British newspapers including "The Independent", "The Observer", "The Times", and "The Sunday Times", as well as "Q" magazine, "The Spectator" and "The Idler". An autobiography of James's experience with Blur, "Bit of a Blur", was published in June 2007 by Little, Brown & Company. It has since been described as "the definitive guide to Britpop". James published a follow-up entitled "All Cheeses Great and Small: A Life Less Blurry" in September 2011, charting his transformation from rock star to cheesemaker as he moves to a farm in Oxfordshire.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: In 2001, James and Graham Coxon appeared in the Channel 4 Pixies documentary "Gouge". James represented "The Idler" on BBC Two's "" in 2005 with John Moore of Black Box Recorder. They secured a heavy win over the "Financial Times" in their heat, but did not score highly enough to return for the tournament's later stages. In 2007, James was a judge on the Channel 4 show Orange unsignedAct and, in November 2007, appeared as a panellist on the BBC One satirical news quiz, "Have I Got News for You". He also appeared in episode #3.4 of Gordon Ramsay's The F Word TV series as a participant in the Recipe Challenge which occurs in each episode. In August 2008, James appeared in reality TV series, "Maestro" on "BBC Two." He was voted out in the fourth episode of the series.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: In September 2008, a documentary television series, "Cocaine Diaries: Alex James in Colombia", premiered on BBC America, in conjunction with the BBC America Reveals program. As the documentary progresses, James – who admits to having used cocaine extensively during Blur's Britpop heyday – learns about Colombia's violent drug export trade. In October 2009, James presented an episode of "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" and, in January 2010, he participated in the ITV1 reality television programme "Popstar to Operastar". On 4 March 2012, James appeared on "Top Gear" as a guest for their 'star in a reasonably priced car' segment, clocking in at 1:45.2.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: On 3 December 2011, he appeared on "The Chase" with Sara Cox, Ann Widdecombe and Eamonn Holmes against chaser Anne Hegerty, but he was caught by the chaser. On 16 March 2012, James appeared on "The Bank Job" and made the final, where he was beaten by Rachel Riley. He is also the first Bank Job contestant to find two "bankrupts" in a single game. James has been a participant in BBC One programme "10 Things You Need to Know About Losing Weight". On 26 December 2014, he appeared as one of the celebrity homeowners on "Through the Keyhole" with Keith Lemon. In August 2015, he won the Channel 4 programme "[Celebrity Fifteen to One]".


title: Alex James (musician)

text: A 2016 documentary titled "Alex James: Slowing Down Fast Fashion" examined the fashion industry and how "consumers' seemingly unquenchable thirst for cheap clothing is having a huge effect on the environment and workers, both at home here in the UK and abroad".


title: Alex James (musician)

text: In 2007, James presented the BBC Radio 4 programme "On Your Farm". He presents "Alex James's Date Night" on Classic FM every Saturday at 7-10pm.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: James presented "The A-Z of Classic FM Music". The show was named Commercial Radio Programme of the Year at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards on 5 June 2009. He has also contributed to the show's accompanying memorabilia, writing the foreword to both the book and CD box set, published by "Reader's Digest" in 2010.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: James has become notable for his production of cheese. After his success with Blur, he moved to the Cotswolds, purchasing a farmhouse and renovating it into a burgeoning cheese farm. The 200-acre cheese farm in Kingham, Oxfordshire, now produces award-winning cheeses including 'Alex James Presents' – a range of British artisan cheeses – 'Good Queen Maude', 'Blue Monday', 'Little Wallop', 'Farleigh Wallop', and most recently 'Goddess'.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: James's range of everyday cheeses hit the shelves of Asda in 2011. The flavour combinations include 'cheddar and tomato ketchup', 'cheddar and salad cream', and 'cheddar and tikka masala'.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: James announced he would open his Oxfordshire farm to host an annual food and music festival. The event, titled Alex James Presents Harvest, took place from 9 to 12 September 2011, in conjunction with promoter Big Wheel Promotions.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: However, the event had a shaky start when Big Wheel Promotions went bankrupt leaving the ticketing company out of pocket and stallholders and performers unpaid.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: The local primary school, Kingham Primary, were also owed £7000 for the entertainment they organised, with the headteacher telling the Guardian that "We are either going to have to lose the music teacher or take it from other budgets which will reduce other parts of the curriculum".


title: Alex James (musician)

text: Then, in December 2011, a concert was staged locally to settle the debt. "I pledged to match the funds raised from my own pocket ... I was very happy to do that" said James. Big Wheel Promotions, the company behind 'Harvest', then abruptly ceased trading even though it had already taken ticket fees for 2012. 'Alex James Presents Harvest' will also be remembered for a photograph of Alex James with David Cameron and Jeremy Clarkson.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: Since 2012, James, along with Jamie Oliver, has hosted The Big Feastival, an annual food and music festival, on his Oxfordshire farm. On joining forces with James, Oliver said "The Big Feastival was a great success in South London last year and I cannot wait to take this celebration of the greatest chefs, the best local produce and suppliers and some fantastic entertainment to a more rural location at Alex's." Along with live musical performances from Paloma Faith, Gaz Coombes, The Cuban Brothers, Noisettes, Razorlight, Texas, and Sahand, there has been cooking demonstrations and masterclasses, Q&As and book signings with well-known chefs, as well as family entertainment from Peppa Pig, Slow Food Kids' Taste Adventure and Chipping Norton Theatre. 'The Big Feastival' returned to James's farm on 31 August and 1 September 2013 with a line-up including KT Tunstall, The Feeling, Rizzle Kicks and Basement Jaxx. The festival attracted over 30,000 attendees in 2014 and has continued to be held annually on August Bank Holiday weekend.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: On 19 June 2019, James visited Bledington Primary School and invited the children to submit a fun, colourful, festival-inspired design. The winning entry was displayed as a stage backdrop at The Big Feastival.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: The 2019 festival took place on 23–25 August. The music line-up included Elbow, Lewis Capaldi, Jess Glyne, Rudimental and Jonas Blue, with chefs including Prue Leith, Mark Hix and Candice Brown.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: James's father, Jason, was sales director of a company selling waste compactors and baling machines. James married Claire Neate, a music video producer, in April 2003 in Cheltenham. They have five children: three boys, Geronimo and twins Artemis and Galileo, and two daughters, Sable and Beatrix. The family live near Kingham in Oxfordshire on a 200-acre (0.81 km2) cheese farm; James is considered by the press to be a member of the Chipping Norton set.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: In his book, James describes a long period of decadent lifestyle. To celebrate his birthday in São Paulo one year, he got the tour manager to find him a balthazar of champagne, which he shared with the five prettiest groupies who were at the hotel door. James estimated that he spent about 1 million pounds on champagne and cocaine; in 2015, however, he said that this story was not true. He mentions a long list of favourite bars, including the Groucho Club and The Colony Room.


title: Alex James (musician)

text: Bournemouth University presented James with an honorary doctorate in November 2010. He also received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Gloucestershire in November 2013.


title: Panchen Lama

text: The Panchen Lama () is a tulku of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Panchen Lama is one of the most important figures in the Gelug tradition, with its spiritual authority second only to Dalai Lama. Along with the council of high lamas, he is in charge of seeking out the next Dalai Lama. "Panchen" is a portmanteau of "Pandita" and "Chenpo", meaning "great scholar".


title: Panchen Lama

text: The recognition of Panchen Lamas began with Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, tutor of the 5th Dalai Lama, who received the title "Panchen Bogd" from Altan Khan and the Dalai Lama in 1645. "Bogd" is Mongolian, meaning "holy". Khedrup Gelek Pelzang, Sönam Choklang and Ensapa Lobsang Döndrup were subsequently recognized as the first to third Panchen Lamas posthumously.


title: Panchen Lama

text: In 1713, the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty granted the title Panchen Erdeni to the 5th Panchen Lama. In 1792, the Qianlong Emperor issued a decree known as the 29-Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet, and Article One of the decree was designed to be used in the selection of rinpoches, lamas and other high offices within Tibetan Buddhism, including the Dalai Lamas, Panchen Lamas and Mongolian lamas.


title: Panchen Lama

text: Traditionally, the Panchen Lama is the head of Tashilhunpo Monastery, and holds religious and secular power over the Tsang region centered in Shigatse, independent of the Ganden Podrang authority led by the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama are closely connected, and each participate in the process of recognizing each other's reincarnations.


title: Panchen Lama

text: The current 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, was recognized by the 14th Dalai Lama on 14 May 1995. Three days later, the six-year-old Panchen Lama was kidnapped by the Chinese government and his family was taken into custody. The Chinese government instead named Gyaincain Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama. Their nomination has been widely rejected by Buddhists in Tibet and abroad, while governments have called for information about and the release of the Panchen Lama. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has never been publicly seen since 1995.