title: Pietism

text: It likewise gave a new emphasis to the role of the laity in the church. Rudolf Sohm claimed that "It was the last great surge of the waves of the ecclesiastical movement begun by the Reformation; it was the completion and the final form of the Protestantism created by the Reformation. Then came a time when another intellectual power took possession of the minds of men." Dietrich Bonhoeffer of the German Confessing Church framed the same characterization in less positive terms when he called Pietism the last attempt to save Christianity as a religion: Given that for him religion was a negative term, more or less an opposite to revelation, this constitutes a rather scathing judgment. Bonhoeffer denounced the basic aim of Pietism, to produce a "desired piety" in a person, as unbiblical.


title: Pietism

text: Pietism is considered the major influence that led to the creation of the "Evangelical Church of the Union" in Prussia in 1817. The King of Prussia ordered the Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia to unite; they took the name "Evangelical" as a name both groups had previously identified with. This union movement spread through many German lands in the 1800s. Pietism, with its looser attitude toward confessional theology, had opened the churches to the possibility of uniting. The unification of the two branches of German Protestantism sparked the Schism of the Old Lutherans. Many Lutherans, called Old Lutherans formed free churches or emigrated to the United States and Australia, where they formed bodies that would later become the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the Lutheran Church of Australia, respectively. (Many immigrants to America, who agreed with the union movement, formed German Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed congregations, later combined into the Evangelical Synod of North America, which is now a part of the United Church of Christ.)


title: Pietism

text: In the middle of the 19th century, Lars Levi Laestadius spearheaded a Pietist revival in Scandinavia that upheld what came to be known as Laestadian Lutheran theology, which is heralded today by the Laestadian Lutheran Church as well as by several congregations within mainstream Lutheran Churches, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Church of Sweden. After encountering a Sami woman who experienced a conversion, Laestadius had a similar experience that "transformed his life and defined his calling". As such, Laestadius "spend the rest of his life advancing his idea of Lutheran pietism, focusing his energies on marginalized groups in the northernmost regions of the Nordic countries". Laestadius called on his followers to embrace their Lutheran identity and as a result, Laestadian Lutherans have remained a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the national Church in that country, with some Laestadian Lutherans being consecrated as bishops. In the United States, Laestadian Lutheran Churches were formed for Laestadian Pietists. Laestadian Lutherans observe the Lutheran sacraments, holding classical Lutheran theology on infant baptism and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and also heavily emphasize Confession. Uniquely, Laestadian Lutherans "discourage watching television, attending movies, dancing, playing card games or games of chance, and drinking alcoholic beverages", as well as avoiding birth control—Laestadian Lutheran families usually have four to ten children. Laestadian Lutherans gather in a central location for weeks at a time for summer revival services in which many young adults find their future spouses.


title: Pietism

text: R. J. Hollingdale, who translated Friedrich Nietzsche's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" into English, argued that a number of the themes of the work (especially "amor fati") originated in the Lutheran Pietism of Nietzsche's childhood – Nietzsche's father, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche, was a Lutheran pastor who supported the Pietist movement.


title: Pietism

text: In 1900, the Church of the Lutheran Brethren was founded and it adheres to Pietist Lutheran theology, emphasizing a personal conversion experience.


title: Pietism

text: In the United States, Richard L. McCormick says, "In the nineteenth century voters whose religious heritage was pietistic or evangelical were prone to support the Whigs and, later, the Republicans." Paul Kleppner generalizes, "the more pietistic the group's outlook the more intensely Republican its partisan affiliation." McCormick notes that the key link between religious values and politics resulted from the "urge of evangelicals and Pietists to 'reach out and purge the world of sin'". Pietism became influential among Scandinavian Lutherans; additionally it affected other denominations in the United States, such as the Northern Methodists, Northern Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, and some smaller groups. The great majority were based in the northern states; some of these groups in the South would rather support the Democrats.


title: Pietism

text: In England in the late 19th and early 20th century, the Nonconformist Protestant denominations, such as the Methodists, Baptists and Congregationalists, formed the base of the Liberal Party. David Hempton states, "The Liberal Party was the main beneficiary of Methodist political loyalties."


title: Pietism

text: Pietism was a major influence on John Wesley and others who began the Methodist movement in 18th-century Great Britain. John Wesley was influenced significantly by Moravians (e.g., Zinzendorf, Peter Boehler) and Pietists connected to Francke and Halle Pietism. The fruit of these Pietist influences can be seen in the modern American Methodists and members of the Holiness movement.


title: Pietism

text: Pietism had an influence on American religion, as many German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania, New York, and other areas. Its influence can be traced in Evangelicalism. Balmer says that:


title: Pietism

text: Evangelicalism itself, I believe, is quintessentially North American phenomenon, deriving as it did from the confluence of Pietism, Presbyterianism, and the vestiges of Puritanism. Evangelicalism picked up the peculiar characteristics from each strain – warmhearted spirituality from the Pietists (for instance), doctrinal precisionism from the Presbyterians, and individualistic introspection from the Puritans – even as the North American context itself has profoundly shaped the various manifestations of evangelicalism: fundamentalism, neo-evangelicalism, the holiness movement, Pentecostalism, the charismatic movement, and various forms of African-American and Hispanic evangelicalism.


title: Pietism

text: The Merton Thesis is an argument about the nature of early experimental science proposed by Robert K. Merton. Similar to Max Weber's famous claim on the link between Protestant ethic and the capitalist economy, Merton argued for a similar positive correlation between the rise of Protestant Pietism and early experimental science. The Merton Thesis has resulted in continuous debates.


title: Pietism

text: The most extensive and current edition on Pietism is the four-volume edition in German, covering the entire movement in Europe and North America


title: The Simple Life

text: The Simple Life is an American reality television series starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. It depicts the two wealthy socialites, as they struggle to do manual, low-paying jobs such as cleaning rooms, farm work, serving meals in fast-food restaurants, and working as camp counselors. The series premiered on December 2, 2003, on Fox, and concluded on August 5, 2007, on E!. A falling out between Hilton and Richie in 2005 led the series to be cancelled by Fox following its third season. It was eventually picked up by E!, which aired its fourth and fifth seasons. "The Simple Life" helped catapult Hilton and Richie into international stardom, and maintained a consistently high viewership throughout its run on both networks. It also spawned a number of international remakes.


title: The Simple Life

text: In the first season, Paris and Nicole agreed to leave behind their cellphones, credit cards and celebrity status to move in with the Leding family in Altus, Arkansas for a month. The second season follows the two socialites traveling across the United States in a pink pickup truck (driven by Paris), pulling an airstream trailer, and participating in such activities as catching craw fish, working as maids in a nudist resort, and sausage-making. In the third season, Paris and Nicole take various internships with companies along the East Coast of the United States. For the fourth season, both women alternated in the "wife" role to a different family every episode, in a similar manner to "Wife Swap". The fifth and final season follows Hilton and Riche working as counselors at Camp Shawnee.


title: The Simple Life

text: The idea for "The Simple Life" was generated in Fox's comedy department. Brad Johnson, Senior Vice President of comedy development, said "The Simple Life" was born out of a challenge from Fox Television Entertainment Group Chairman, Sandy Grushow, and News Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer, Peter Chernin, to find another way to do comedies outside of the traditional sitcom format.


title: The Simple Life

text: "The areas that seemed simplest and cleanest was to go back to those high-concept 1960s sitcoms and say let's do them for real", Johnson said. "The Simple Life" was inspired by "Green Acres", a sitcom about a New York society couple who moved to a farm. Johnson said they originally thought of moving an entire family to the South. Cameras would observe as the former socialites, deprived of access to their bank accounts and Beemers, attempt to get a job, buy groceries, and fit in with average Americans. At the same time the comedy department was developing the idea, Paris Hilton was meeting with the studio's casting department. Sharon Klein, senior VP of casting at the studio, said she was immediately fascinated by Hilton and wanted to do a show with her. "I'm used to meeting with actors who are putting on a facade", Klein said. "She was so real. She was funny. At that first meeting she did not come off stupid. She was in her own reality and not embarrassed to talk about it. There was a sweetness to her."


title: The Simple Life

text: The two departments talked and realized they had their show: Send Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky, who had never worked a day in their lives, to live and work on a farm. At the time, the studio was working closely with Mike Darnell, head of reality programming at Fox, who liked the idea. "They wanted to see stilettos in cow shit," Klein said. Paris was convinced to come on board, however Nicky, being somewhat shy to the limelight at the time, opted out. Paris told some media that she was in talks to do the show by herself, but ultimately, Fox decided the city-living cast had to be a duo. Paris allegedly asked several close friends on board, including Kimberly Stewart and Band Aid heiress, Casey Johnson. After Johnson declined, Hilton ended up making the agreement with Nicole Richie.


title: The Simple Life

text: Fox hired Bunim-Murray Productions to produce the series. The first season was filmed from April to May 2003, in Altus, Arkansas, and the 8-episode first season premiered on December 2, 2003. During its airing, Fox added two extra episodes, one of which was a reunion special. The second season was filmed from March to April 2004, and aired from June 16 to August 5, 2004, and consisted of 10 episodes (plus a television special). The special, titled "The Simple Life – The Stuff We Weren't Allowed To Show You", aired on November 17, 2004. It showcased several cut scenes from the season (some of which appear on its DVD release) as well as preview clips for the third season. Filming for the third season took place from October to November 2004. It aired from January 25 to May 12, 2005, consisting of 16 episodes.


title: The Simple Life

text: In an interview with "USA Today", Hilton confirmed the rumor that she and Nicole were no longer friends, and that Nicole would not be part of the fourth season. However, Fox Network head Peter Ligouri told the 2005 Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles that Paris and Nicole were actually both contracted for another two seasons, and that Paris and Nicole are, in his words "TV professionals, who will be ready to work together when the time comes." Fox ultimately canceled its plans for any further seasons of "The Simple Life" in October 2005, both because it had filled its mid-season show quota, and because Paris and Nicole had had the falling out as friends.


title: The Simple Life

text: After it was dropped by Fox, other networks, such as NBC, UPN, The WB, VH1, and MTV were all reported to be interested in obtaining the rights to air new seasons of the show. On November 28, 2005, E! announced that they had picked up "The Simple Life" and had ordered production go ahead on the fourth season, along with the rights to re-air the first three seasons. Filming for the new season began February 27, 2006. It premiered on June 5, 2006. The fifth and final season of "The Simple Life" debuted on Memorial Day, on May 28, 2007, and ended on August 5, 2007.


title: The Simple Life

text: On July 30, 2007, E! announced that they had canceled the show, stating: ""The Simple Life" has been a wonderful addition to the E! Schedule for two years and we will always be grateful to Paris and Nicole for their hard work and graciousness." That day, at the premiere of "Rush Hour 3", Hilton herself said that, "It's been a great five years and we had so much fun, but I'm happy to end it at that," suggesting she had opted out of any continuation of the series. Distribution rights to "The Simple Life" are held by Disney-ABC Domestic Television.


title: The Simple Life

text: Despite a significant criticism of reality television and the scrutiny that both Hilton and Richie faced throughout "The Simple Life" run, the series received moderately positive reviews from critics, who generally highlighted its tongue-in-cheek humour in spite of its vacuous nature. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season an approval rating of 69% based on 16 reviews. The site's critical consensus states, ""The Simple Life" is an incredibly vapid show, but there is no denying that Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are downright entertaining." Writing for "Variety", Brian Lowry considered that the series was "made palatable and watchable because the primary objects of derision are heiress/party girls Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. Easy-to-promote concept plays like a light-hearted romp, where mercifully [...] nobody has learned much of anything". Ken Tucker, for "Entertainment Weekly", gave the series a "B" rating and asserted that "the producers know precisely what tone to take". "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" editor Melanie McFarland remarked: "Hilton and Richie try to bring Beverly fabulousness, and brattiness, to the country folk. They fail miserably. We all get a good laugh. At least their unapologetic shallowness and good-natured mental incapacity carry the thing through".


title: The Simple Life

text: The December 2, 2003 debut of "The Simple Life" drew 13 million viewers, increasing Fox's adults 18-49 rating a "phenomenal" 79%. The second episode showed a growth in ratings, reaching 13.3 million viewers. An audience of 9.8 million viewers watched the series' second-season premiere on June 16, 2004. After moving to E!, the series' fourth season premiered on June 4, 2006, drawing 1.3 million viewers. While "those ratings would have been dismal for Fox, it was actually more than four times E!'s prime-time average". According to "TV Week", "ratings more than tripled from the network's average" in key adult demographic groups.


title: The Simple Life

text: "The Simple Life" first season received a DVD release in the United States on January 20, 2004, which included the bonus episode and the reunion episode. The second season was released to DVD on November 2, 2004, and was accompanied by a CD-soundtrack. The DVD of the third season was released in the United States on March 19, 2006. The series' first and fourth seasons were added to the iTunes Store on July 28, 2006. The fourth season was officially released to DVD on December 26, 2006. The fifth and final season's DVD was released on January 22, 2008. It contained no special features and not even the extended version of the first episode that was only shown on the premiere. This season also became available for download on iTunes, where a compilation of camp songs dubbed "The Simple Life: Camp Songs" was released on August 13, 2007.


title: The Simple Life

text: Paris and Nicole's rural misadventures on "The Simple Life" proved so popular with U.S. viewers that a number of international remakes have been produced.


title: The Simple Life

text: In 2005, NBC produced a reality series titled "I Want To Be a Hilton", which took the idea of "The Simple Life", and reversed it. Hosted by Kathy Hilton, Paris' mom, the show saw several contestants from rural country and suburban areas having to perform certain tasks ranging from dog grooming to a fashion show and organizing a charity event, while learning etiquette and manners. The finalist of the competition received a prize package that included a $200,000 trust fund, a new apartment, wardrobe and the opportunity to live the life of high society for one year. Paris and Nicky guest starred in an episode, and Paris's dog Tinkerbell (who appeared in "The Simple Life") also took part.


title: The Simple Life

text: A new incarnation of "The Simple Life" nearly occurred, in a developed spin-off that, following negotiations, was set to air on E!, featuring Kelly Osbourne and Kimberly Stewart in Paris and Nicole's shoes. However, the series was not picked up after Kelly opted out of the project following a few days' shooting, branding it "demeaning and juvenile".


title: The Simple Life

text: "The Simple Life" has also been emulated by other television productions. E!'s "" (2005) shared various unquestionable similarities with "The Simple Life", and centered on sending several well-known young socialites (including Kourtney Kardashian and Brittny Gastineau, among others) to live on a rural ranch, minus cellphones and other luxuries they have come to swear by. MTV produced "Exiled!" (2008), which took eight former stars of "My Super Sweet 16", who have grown up spoiled, self-involved and without any idea about real work, and sent them to live in third-world countries to teach them a lesson in how hard life can be for other people.


title: The Simple Life

text: In the United Kingdom, Channel 4 broadcast "Princess Nikki" (2006), a series based on the foundations of "The Simple Life", starring reality television star Nikki Grahame, who rose to fame after her popularity on popular reality show "Big Brother 7". This included Nikki taking on jobs such as being a farmer, an extreme cleaner and a sewage worker. South Korean television channel KBS2 has produced a reality-variety show, titled "Invincible Youth" (2009–2012) which is loosely based on "The Simple Life", consisting of various K-pop girl group members.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: This Is It was a planned concert residency by American singer Michael Jackson, scheduled to take place at the O2 Arena, London, between July 13, 2009 and March 6, 2010. The concerts were canceled following Jackson's death on June 25, 2009.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: Jackson announced This Is It at a press conference in the O2 Arena, and said it would be his final series of concerts in London. AEG Live, the concert promoters, released a promotional video that used an entire commercial break on ITV, setting an ITV record. Initially, only 10 concerts were announced, but 40 more were added following public demand. Ticket sales broke several records and Jackson's album sales increased following the announcement; AEG Live estimated that the first 10 concerts would have earned Jackson approximately £50 million.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: In preparation for the concert series, Jackson had collaborated with figures including fashion designer Christian Audigier, choreographer Kenny Ortega and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno. Prior to his death, Allgood Entertainment sued him for $40 million, claiming that he had breached an exclusivity agreement by agreeing to the This Is It concerts; the case was dismissed.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: After Jackson's death, AEG Live offered either refunds to ticket holders or a special "souvenir" ticket designed by Jackson. The cancelled shows, record-breaking ticket sales and potential for a world tour led to This Is It being described as "the greatest concert[s] that never happened". Columbia Pictures acquired the footage of the rehearsals and released a concert film, "Michael Jackson's This Is It," accompanied by a soundtrack album.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: Jackson announced "This Is It" at a press conference at the O2 Arena in London on March 5, 2009. The conference was attended by fans from several countries and 350 journalists. He told the crowd: "This is it. When I say this is it, it really means this is it. This will be the final curtain call." Immediately after the conference, a statement confirmed that Jackson would play 10 shows at the London O2 Arena, "performing in London for the last time". The statement promised "an explosive return with a band of the highest calibre, a state-of-the-art stage show and incredible surprise support acts".


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: Jackson had not toured since the 1996–1997 HIStory World Tour. In 2005, he was acquitted of child sexual abuse charges, and kept out of the public eye in the years following. Reports circulated that he was facing financial problems; he had closed his Neverland Ranch residence and auctioned more than 2,000 possessions. The "Independent" reported that "for a man who has been absent for 10 years from the stage, after a messy court battle to shake off the paedophilia charges, a reputed cash crisis and the loss of his ranch, Michael Jackson looked surprisingly rehabilitated".


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: Hours before the press conference, promotional posters for the residency were displayed around London. Further promotion took up an entire commercial break period on ITV London during "Dancing on Ice", the first time this has ever happened for a musical artist. The advert, which cost £1 million to air, was viewed by 11 million people.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: The shows, Jackson's first significant concert events since the in 2001, had been deemed one of the year's most important musical events. Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live, stated that the first 10 dates would earn Jackson approximately £50 million (about US$80.1 million). "The Guardian" characterized the concerts as an "astonishing comeback for a man who in recent years has been dogged by controversy", adding that Jackson still had "enormous commercial clout". The "Evening Standard" stated that the deal was the "showbiz coup of the decade" for AEG Live, while "The Independent" remarked that the finalized 50 concerts would provide London with a "much-needed" economic boost. Joe Cohen, chief executive of Seatwave, told BBC 6 Music that the shows would generate £1 billion for the economy.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: Sales of Jackson's albums increased following the press conference. Overnight, sales of "Off the Wall" rose 200%, "Bad" rose 110%, "Dangerous" rose 165% and "Thriller 25" rose 155%.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: Some websites offered early tickets, which the Association of Secondary Ticket Agents warned were fake. Jackson's website allowed fans to register early for a "pre-sale" draw. The website was not able to deal with the number of registrations—reportedly up to 16,000 applications a second. In the space of 24 hours, nearly a million people from around the world registered for pre-sale tickets, enough to fill the venue 50 times over. Tickets that had not even been printed were selling on auction website eBay for £300.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: The two-day pre-sale began on March 11, and 40 extra dates were added to meet high demand; five dates were reserved in their entirety for the public sale. More than 1.5 million fans caused two sites offering pre-sale tickets to crash within minutes of going online. In the space of four hours, 750,000 tickets were sold. Two million people tried to buy pre-sale tickets in the space of 18 hours. Veronica Schmidt of "The Times" said that "Michael Jackson has floored his critics", while organizers proclaimed it a "cultural phenomenon".


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: Jackson was set to break the record for number of shows performed by an artist at a single venue, which had been set by Prince, who hosted a residency at the same arena for his concerts. According to Jackson's website, the following records were or would have been broken: "The biggest audience ever to see an artist in one city", "The greatest number of people to attend a series of arena shows", "The fastest ticket sales in history". Randy Phillips acknowledged that Jackson could have sold out even more dates, but this would have conflicted with other career plans. On March 13, the other 50% of seats for dates 1–45 and all the seats for dates 46–50 went on sale to the general public. Within four hours, all 50 dates had sold out. At this stage, the sales of "King of Pop" were up 400% and the sales of "Thriller" were up 200%. Tickets appeared on eBay for as much as £10,000.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: In June 2009, concert promoter Allgood Entertainment, represented by Ira Meyerowitz and Jon Kekielek of MJlawfirm, sued Jackson for $40 million. He claimed that Jackson, through his manager Frank DiLeo, had agreed to a single and a $30 million reunion concert with The Jackson 5 and his sister Janet Jackson. According to the concert promoter, the alleged contractual agreement prevented Jackson from performing elsewhere before the reunion concert and for a three-month period after it. Thus, agreeing to a 50 date residency at the O2 Arena was an alleged breach of the Allgood Entertainment contract. The filing company stated that AEG Live knew of the alleged agreement with Jackson and used their dominance in the industry to coerce Jackson into agreeing to the residency. In August 2010, the judge dismissed the case, stating that there was no evidence of a binding agreement, no contracts were signed. The case was in limbo as of 2013.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: The 50-concert run was originally slated to start on July 8, 2009 and conclude on February 24, 2010. Each of the shows would have been performed at the O2 Arena in London, which has a capacity of 23,000. New York designer Zaldy was head costumer. Jay Ruckel of La Crasia Gloves recreated Jackson's iconic single glove. The costumes were encrusted with 300,000 Swarovski crystals. In April 2009, more than 700 dancers arrived to audition from the 13th to the 15th for Jackson, who helped select the 11 finalists. Kenny Ortega, who had collaborated with Jackson previously, was to work on the overall design and direction of concerts. Ortega said that the final product would have been a "theatrical musical experience". According to Randy Phillips, $20 million was to be spent on producing the concerts, which would have included 18–22 songs and 22 different sets. There also would have been aerial dancing similar to routines by Cirque du Soleil. Carla Ferrigno told Reuters that her husband Lou had been helping Jackson train in advance of the shows. Jackson and Ferrigno had previously worked together.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: On May 20, it was announced that the first concert would be pushed back five days to July 13 and three other July dates would be reslated for March 2010. AEG Live said that the delay was necessary because more time was needed for dress rehearsals. The revised schedule called for 27 shows between July 13 and September 29, 2009, followed by a three-month break, before resuming in the new year with 23 more shows between January 7 and March 6, 2010. Some fans petitioned for the reversal of AEG Live's decision. In late June, several hundred seats for each of the dates were put on sale. These seats were held back until production logistics were worked out.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: It was suggested that after the London concerts, Jackson might head to Australia, Europe, India, China, Hong Kong and Japan before moving on to North America. Randy Phillips, the CEO of AEG Live, told the "LA Times" that Australia was part of Michael Jackson's international tour plans.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: On June 25, 2009, eighteen days before the first slated This Is It performance, Jackson died after suffering a cardiac arrest caused by an overdose of Propofol and benzodiazepines. AEG Live, who persuaded Jackson to sign up for the shows, faced a liability of up to £300 million and an empty venue for the next nine months. The O2 Arena stated that full refunds, including all ticket service charges, would be available to those who purchased tickets through authorized agents, and that fans would also have the option to receive the tickets as souvenirs instead of a refund. Fans who bought their tickets from private sellers potentially faced problems. eBay recommended that purchasers contact their sellers for refunds and stated that those who used PayPal could get refunds if the purchase was made during the last 45 days. PayPal later announced that all ticket buyers would receive a full refund.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: Following Jackson's death, AEG stated that they had over "100 hours of footage of preparations and rehearsals for the shows". On August 10, 2009, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff approved a deal between film distributor Columbia Pictures and AEG Live for the former company to purchase and distribute rehearsal footage of Jackson for a film entitled "Michael Jackson's This Is It". According to court documents, Columbia paid $60 million (£35 million) for rights to the rehearsal footage. The papers filed in court had reportedly stated that Jackson's estate will get 90% of the profits and that AEG Live will get the remaining 10% from the film's revenue. The film was directed by Kenny Ortega who was also the director of the live concert. It was compiled mostly from footage that was shot as reference for production discussions and was never meant to be shown publicly. Some of the music and vocals in the film were added from previous recordings, though most were from the live performance. The film was released on October 28, 2009.


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: An accompanying album to the film was also released. Titled "This Is It", the compilation was distributed internationally on October 26, and to North America the following day. The two-disc album features music "inspired from the documentary of the same name". Of the album, Sony said, "Disc one will feature the original album masters of some of Michael's biggest hits arranged in the same sequence as they appear in the film" and stated that "the disc ends with two versions of the 'never-released' 'This Is It' [...] This song is featured in the film's closing sequence and includes backing vocals by Michael's brothers, The Jacksons and Alvin Chea of Take 6." Sony added that the second disc will feature previously unreleased versions from Jackson's "catalogue of hits", along with a spoken word poem entitled "Planet Earth" and a 36-page commemorative booklet with "exclusive photos of Michael from his last rehearsal".


title: This Is It (concert residency)

text: The 50 concerts for This Is It were scheduled to start on July 13, 2009 and end on March 6, 2010. The concert series was originally going to be 10 shows starting on July 8, 2009 but it was expanded on March 12, 2009 to 50 shows. Four concerts were postponed, including the opening show which was rescheduled to July 13, 2009. Each of the shows would've been performed at the O Arena, which has a capacity of 23,000, therefore a total of 1,150,000 people would have attended.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: Justice League: Gods and Monsters is a 2015 American animated superhero film and the 23rd film of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies. It features an alternate universe version of the DC Comics superhero team the Justice League. It was released as a download on July 21, 2015, and released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 28.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: In an alternate universe, the Justice LeagueBatman (Dr. Kirk Langstrom), Wonder Woman (Bekka), and Superman (Hernan Guerra, son of General Zod) is an autonomous brutal force that maintains order on Earth; thus public opinion is mixed with awe and hatred. Scientists Victor Fries, Ray Palmer, and Silas Stone (who was hired by Superman to work on a project for him), along with his young son Victor, are killed by methods similar to the Justice League. President Amanda Waller asks they cooperate with the government's investigation. Meanwhile, Superman invites Lois Lane to the Tower of the Justice, where he tells her of his goals to help humanity and reveals how little he knows about Krypton or his heritage.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: Batman discovers an email sent to Dr. Stone and several scientists, including Dr. Will Magnus, Kirk's best friend who helped with his transformation. He asks Magnus, and his wife Tina, about "Project Fair Play", which involved scientists under Lex Luthor's employ; Magnus offers to ask what the others know. Magnus gathers the remaining scientists (John Henry Irons, Thomas Morrow, Michael Holt, Pat Dugan, Emil Hamilton, Karen Beecher (whom Will Magnus argued with), Thaddeus Sivana, Kimiyo Hoshi, and Stephen Shin) for answers. However, they are attacked by three robotic assassins who travel via Boom tube. Despite their efforts, the assassins leave Magnus as the sole survivor of the attack.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: The League takes Magnus to the Tower to recover, while Superman flies to Luthor's satellite orbiting the moon. Luthor reveals the Project is a way to destroy the League if necessary; he also reveals the truth about Zod to Superman. As Superman leaves, a robotic assassin who has Superman's powers booms in and destroys the satellite, seemingly killing Luthor. Steve Trevor shows satellite footage of the explosion and Superman's presence to Waller. She retaliates with Project Fair Play, which consists of troops and vehicles armed with energy weapons powered by red solar radiation like Krypton's sun.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: Superman and Wonder Woman face the army while Batman stays inside the Tower, where he activates the forcefield, thinking Magnus can clear the League. Tina suddenly appears and subdues Batman before shape-shifting into a liquid metal robot named Platinum, and revives Magnus with an organic nanite serum that enhances his strength and healing. Magnus reveals he orchestrated everything using his Metal Men; he intends to detonate a Nanite Bomb, to forcefully link humanity together into a hive mind. He confesses he killed the real Tina in a fit of rage and replaced her with Platinum, a robotic duplicate. He joined Fair Play for its resources to fund his secret Nanite Bomb project.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: As Magnus prepares his weapon, Luthor, who escaped the explosion, teleports into the middle of the battle outside and tells everyone he has discovered Magnus' plan. Batman frees himself and seizes the opportunity to drop the forcefield. With Batman fighting Magnus, Wonder Woman faces Platinum, and Superman takes on the Metal Men, who quickly merge into a single, more powerful entity that initially has the upper hand on Superman due to repeatedly ambushing him via rapid teleportation using its three Mother Boxes within itself. Wonder Woman uses her sword's boom tube to send Platinum into the sun. Simultaneously, Superman finally manages to destroy the Mother Boxes inside the unified Metal Man before taking it underground and melting it inside molten rock. The League destroys the bomb (at the cost of Superman's Kryptonian escape craft) and, after being defeated by Batman, a remorseful Magnus commits suicide by disintegrating himself with nanites as he tells Kirk to forgive him for his actions.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: A week later, the Justice League has been cleared of all wrongdoing, and the world, along with Lois Lane, views them differently. Bekka decides to leave the Justice League to face her past along with Luthor, who wants to explore other universes after growing bored with this one. Before leaving, Luthor gives Superman all the data on Krypton and tells him to be a "real hero." The film ends with Superman and Batman deciding to use the data to help humanity.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: It received mostly positive reviews from critics. Kofi Outlaw from "Screen Rant" gave the film 5 out of 5 stars, praising Timm's and Burnett's writing, the new versions of the DC Trinity, the fight scenes and characters and calling it "a must-see for any DC fan". Joshua Yehl of IGN gave the film an 8.9/10 praising the concept, Wonder Woman's origin story, the voice acting and the use of violence.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: In the weeks before the debut of the film, a three-part series, "Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles", which focused on the characters and the universe of the film, was released online by Machinima on June 8, 2015. The series is the first collaboration between Warner Bros. and Machinima, following the former's investment of $18 million in Machinima in March 2014. The series is also the first production of Blue Ribbon Content, a digital content production unit of Warner Bros. formed in 2014 and led by the president of Warner Bros. Animation Sam Register.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: The first season consisted of three episodes concluding on June 12, 2015. A second season of the series was planned to be released in 2016 and would have featured ten episodes. However, as of September 30, 2020, it has been shelved.


title: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

text: A series of one-shot comics written by J. M. DeMatteis and Bruce Timm was released and focused on each hero's origin story. Additionally, a three-issue prequel comic book series written by DeMatteis and Timm was also released.


title: Brother Industries

text: Brother's history began in 1908 when it was originally called Yasui Sewing Machine Co in Nagoya, Japan. In 1955, Brother International Corporation (US) was established as their first overseas sales affiliate. In 1958 a European regional sales company was established in Dublin. The corporate name was changed to Brother Industries, Ltd. in 1962. Brother entered the printer market during its long association with Centronics.


title: Brother Industries

text: In 1968 the company moved its UK headquarters to Audenshaw, Manchester, after acquiring the Jones Sewing Machine Company, a long-established British sewing machine maker.


title: Brother Industries

text: In March 2005, "Brother Communication Space" (now the Brother Museum), a corporate museum that also serves as a public relations facility, opened in Nagoya.


title: Brother Industries

text: In December 2011, Brother diversified its offerings by acquiring Nefsis, an innovator in web-based remote collaboration and conferencing software.


title: Brother Industries

text: In November 2012, Brother announced that it had built the last UK-made typewriter at its north Wales factory. It had made 5.9 million typewriters in its Wrexham factory since it opened in 1985. Brother donated the last machine to London's Science Museum.


title: Brother Industries

text: As of 31 March 2020, Brother's annual sales revenue had reached 637,259 million yen (US$6,044,666,710 at October 2020 exchange rates).


title: Brother Industries

text: In 2010, the sewing divisions of Brother Industries around Europe were consolidated into one larger company called "Brother Sewing Machines Europe GmbH". With a turnover in excess of €80 million, it is the 4th largest company under the Brother Industries Ltd umbrella of organisations.


title: Brother Industries

text: Brother Industries manufactures mechanical sewing machines in Zhuhai, China and computerised sewing & embroidery machines in Taiwan. A new sewing machine factory was opened in 2012 in Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam, which is the largest single brand sewing machine factory in the world.


title: Brother Industries

text: As for Industrial sewing machines, Brother introduced S-7300A “NEXIO” is the world's first lockstitch sewing machine which adopts the Electronic Feed. NEXIO are world's first IoT applicable industrial sewing machines . The visualization by connecting sewing machine and computer technology enables the customer to analyze, manage processes and speed up productivity improvement and maintenance work.


title: Brother Industries

text: In 1908, Kanekichi Yasui established Yasui Sewing and Co. that provided repair services and parts for sewing machines. Meanwhile, Masayoshi Yasui inherited his company and renamed it to Yasui Brothers' Sewing Machine Co.


title: Brother Industries

text: In 1928, the company's first product was a chain stitch sewing machine capable of producing straw hats. The machine was popular for its durability compared to German machines at the time.


title: Brother Industries

text: They introduced and began mass production of home sewing machines in 1932, when Jitsuichi Yasui, Masayoshi's younger brother and co-founder of their company, succeeded in developing shuttle hooks.


title: Brother Industries

text: In 1934, they were renamed Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Co. which they subsequently manufacture industrial sewing machines in 1936.


title: Brother Industries

text: Their 200 HA-1 domestic straight stitching sewing machines were exported to Shanghai, being requested by the Japanese government.


title: Brother Industries

text: In 1979, they introduced and manufactured their first computerized sewing machine called ZZ3-B820 "Opus 8".


title: Brother Industries

text: They started making commercial/multi needle sewing machines in 2003 with the introduction of the "PR-600". 2010 marked their introduction of a PC design and editing software on their sewing/embroidery machines ("Innov-is I") called PE-Design.


title: Brother Industries

text: For the Japanese market, Brother introduced a sewing and embroidery combination machine called "Parie" in 2017.


title: Brother Industries

text: On August 7, 2018, Brother officially revealed their new 2019 sewing machine product lineup at their Back To Business Dealer Conference held annually in Orlando, Florida to commemorate Brother's 100th anniversary since its inception in 1908. The newest top-of-the-line Brother Sewing/Embroidery/Quilting machine is the Luminaire Innov-ìs XP-1. It features StitchVision technology, which uses light projections to virtually preview a stitch accurately and precisely, as well as a 10.6" by 16" maximum embroidery area.


title: Brother Industries

text: Brother diversified into manufacturing printers, label printers, MFCs, garment printers, Music sequencer, manufacturing/machine tools, and Joysound karaokes in the 1960s.


title: Brother Industries

text: Brother sponsored Manchester City Football Club from 1987 until 1999, which is one of the longest unbroken sponsorship deals of any English football club.


title: Brother Industries

text: Brother launched their first integrated, pan European advertising campaign in Autumn 2010 for their A3 printer range. Titled ‘141%’, referring to the ratio between paper sizes A3 and A4.


title: Brother Industries

text: In 2019 Brother's UK subsidiary became co-sponsor of the , with the team's name officially becoming "Vitus Pro Cycling Team, Powered By Brother UK".


title: Match fixing

text: In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, including receiving bribes from bookmakers or sports bettors, and blackmail. Competitors may also intentionally perform poorly to gain a future advantage, such as a better draft pick or to face an easier opponent in a later round of competition. A player might also play poorly to rig a handicap system.


title: Match fixing

text: Match fixing, when motivated by gambling, requires contacts (and normally money transfers) between gamblers, players, team officials, and/or referees. These contacts and transfers can sometimes be discovered, and lead to prosecution by the law or the sports league(s). In contrast, losing for future advantage is internal to the team and very difficult to prove. Often, substitutions made by a coach designed to deliberately increase the team's chances of losing (such as having key players sit out, using minimal or phantom injuries as an excuse), rather than ordering the players actually on the field to intentionally underperform, are cited as the main factor in cases where this has been alleged.


title: Match fixing

text: Match fixing includes point shaving and spot-fixing, which center on smaller events within a match that can be wagered upon, but which are unlikely to prove decisive in determining the final result of the game. According to Sportradar, a company that monitors the integrity of sports events on behalf of sports federations, as many as one percent of the matches they monitor show suspicious betting patterns that may be indicative of match fixing.


title: Match fixing

text: Other names for match fixing include "game fixing", "race fixing", or more generally "sports fixing". Games that are deliberately lost are sometimes called "thrown games", especially when a team has nothing to play for (either having already qualified for the next stage of competition or in the process of being eliminated.) In contrast, when a team intentionally loses a game, or does not score as high as it can, to obtain a perceived future competitive advantage, the team is often said to have "tanked" the game instead of having thrown it. In sports where a handicap or ranking system exists and is capable of being abused (including sports such as racing, grappling and golf), tanking is known as "sandbagging". Hustling, where a player disguises his abilities until he can play for large amounts of money, is a common practice in many cue sports, such as nine-ball pool.


title: Match fixing

text: Some major motivations behind match fixing are gambling and future team advantage. According to investigative journalist Declan Hill it has also been linked to corruption, violence and tax avoidance. In Eastern Europe, organized crime is linked to illegal gambling and score fixing. In Russia, people have disappeared or been murdered after acting against bribery in sports.


title: Match fixing

text: There may be financial gain through agreements with gamblers. The Black Sox Scandal of 1919, in which several members of the MLB’s Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to fix that year’s World Series for monetary gain.


title: Match fixing

text: One of the best-known examples of gambling-related race fixing (in motorsports) is the 1933 Tripoli Grand Prix, in which the winning number of the lottery was determined by the number of the race-winning car. One ticket holder held the number belonging to Achille Varzi, contacted him and agreed to share the winning should he win. Varzi contacted other drivers who agreed to share the money if they deliberately lost. Despite a poor start, Varzi won the race after his opponents deliberately underperformed throughout the race.


title: Match fixing

text: Many sports have tournaments where the result of one round determines their opponent in the next round. As a result, by losing a match, a team can face an easier opponent in the next round, making them more likely to win.


title: Match fixing

text: The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the only one of the four major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada in which home advantage in the playoffs is based strictly on regular-season record without regard to seeding. The top six teams earn an automatic playoff berth, while the seventh through tenth teams compete for the last two seeds in a “play-in tournament”.


title: Match fixing

text: In the Canadian Football League, since the introduction of the "cross-over rule", Western teams have been occasionally accused of tanking near the end of the season in situations where a loss would cause them to finish fourth place in their division and where such a finish was still good enough to secure a berth in the league's East Division playoffs. In recent years, the East has often been viewed to be a weaker division than the West; however, if any Western team has actually attempted such a strategy, it has not paid significant dividends for them in view of the fact that, up to and including the 2014 season, Western cross-over teams have only won a single Eastern playoff game, and have never advanced to the Grey Cup championship game from the Eastern bracket.


title: Match fixing

text: A more recent example of possible tanking occurred in the ice hockey competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics. In Pool B, Sweden was to face Slovakia in the last pool match for both teams. Sweden coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson publicly contemplated tanking against Slovakia, knowing that if his team won, their quarterfinal opponent would either be Canada, the 2002 gold medalists, or the Czech Republic, 1998 gold medalists. Gustafsson would tell Swedish television "One is cholera, the other the plague." Sweden lost the match 3–0; the most obvious sign of tanking was when Sweden had a five-on-three powerplay with five NHL stars – Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin, Daniel Alfredsson, Nicklas Lidström, and Fredrik Modin – on the ice, and failed to put a shot on goal. ("Sports Illustrated" writer Michael Farber would say about this particular powerplay, "If the Swedes had passed the puck any more, their next opponent would have been the Washington Generals.") If he was seeking to tank, Gustafsson got his wish; Sweden would face a much less formidable quarterfinal opponent in Switzerland. Canada would lose to Russia in a quarterfinal in the opposite bracket, while Sweden went on to win the gold medal, defeating the Czechs in the semifinals.


title: Match fixing

text: The 1998 Tiger Cup – an international football tournament contested by countries in Southeast Asia – saw an example of two teams trying to lose a match. The tournament was hosted by Vietnam, with the eight countries competing split into two groups of four. The top two in each group advanced to the semi-finals with the winners playing the runners-up of the other group. In the first group, Singapore finished on top with Vietnam finishing second; this meant that the winners of the second group would have to travel to Hanoi to play the host nation in the national stadium on their national day, while the runners-up would face Singapore in Ho Chi Minh City where the final group match was taking place. As the two teams involved – Thailand and Indonesia – had both already qualified for the semi-finals, it was in both teams' interest to lose the match and finish in second place. As the game progressed, neither side seemed particularly concerned with scoring, while the defending was lackadaisical. As the match entered stoppage time, Indonesian defender Mursyid Effendi scored an own goal, overcoming the efforts of several Thai players and the goalkeeper to stop him. Both teams were fined $40,000, and Effendi was banned from international football for life.


title: Match fixing

text: In the final month of the 2010 Major League Baseball season, the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays were in a tight race for the American League East division title and by the final week, both teams had already clinched at least the wild card. The Yankees went 3–7 over the final 10 games, losing their regular-season finale, while the Rays went 5–5 and won theirs, giving the Rays the AL East title by one game and the Yankees the AL wild card berth. Winning the division would have given New York an ALDS matchup against the Texas Rangers, who at the time had star pitcher Cliff Lee; the Yankees instead defeated the Minnesota Twins, a team they historically have had more postseason success against. Allegations of the Yankees purposefully settling for the wild card, presumably to avoid facing Texas in the ALDS, began to surface after the Yankees defeated the Twins. Additional allegations came up in 2012, when Yankees general manager Brian Cashman commented in response to a possible playoff expansion that his team had “conceded the division” and that winning it meant “nothing more than a T-shirt and a hat”. In 2012, Major League Baseball added a second wild card in each league, with the two wild cards playing a single-elimination game in order to give more importance to winning the division. In 2022, the postseason was further expanded, adding a third wild card and making the round a best-of-three series.


title: Match fixing

text: Tanking can also happen in high-school level sports. For example, In February 2015, two girls' basketball teams representing Nashville-area Riverdale and Smyrna High Schools were found to be tanking during a consolation match of their district tournament. The winner of the game would enter the same side of the regional tournament bracket as defending state champion Blackman High School (ranked as one of the country's top 10 teams by some national publications), setting up a potential match in the regional semifinals. The loser would thus avoid Blackman until the regional final, a game whose participants would both advance to the sectional tournament (one step short of the state tournament). During the game both teams pulled their starters early, missed shots on purpose, intentionally turned over the ball and deliberately committed fouls. The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, which governs high school sports in the state, ejected both teams from the postseason, fined the two schools (Riverdale $1,000 and Smyrna $500), and placed both teams on probation through the 2015–16 school year.


title: Match fixing

text: On the other hand, the practice of coaches on a playoff-bound team deliberately benching a team's best players for some or all of the final match(es) of the regular season is often defended as a common sense measure to avoid unnecessarily risking injuries and fatigue to the team's star players.


title: Match fixing

text: Some argue that a coach should not only have the right to select a starting lineup for a match that gives the team the best chances of winning titles in the long should this be a different lineup than the one that gives the team the best chances of winning the game at but that doing so is the smartest course of action.


title: Match fixing

text: For example, during Euro 2004 the Czech Republic rested nearly all of its starters from the first two group matches for the final group match against Germany. Since the Czechs had already clinched first place in the group, this move was seen to have the potential to allow Germany a better chance to get the win they needed to advance at the expense of the winner of the Netherlands–Latvia game. As it happened, the Czechs' decision to field a "weaker" side did not matter since the Czechs won the match anyway to eliminate the Germans.


title: Match fixing

text: Most top-level sports leagues in North America and Australia hold drafts to allocate young players to the league's teams. The order in which teams select players is often the inverse of their standings in the previous season. As a result, a team may have a significant incentive to tank games to secure a higher pick in the league's next draft, and a number of leagues have changed their draft rules to remove (or at least limit) potential incentives to tank.


title: Match fixing

text: From 1966 to 1984, the NBA used a coin flip between the teams with the worst records in each of the league's two conferences to determine the recipient of the top pick. In the , several teams were accused of deliberately losing games in an attempt to gain a top position in the 1984 draft, which would eventually produce four Hall of Fame players. As a result of this, the NBA established a draft lottery in advance of the 1985 draft, involving all teams that did not make the playoffs in the previous season. This lottery system prevented teams from receiving fixed draft positions based on record place, which the league hoped would discourage them from deliberately losing.


title: Match fixing

text: Even though the lottery in place through the 2018 draft gave the team with the worst record only the same chance at the top pick as the 2nd and 3rd worst teams (with that team guaranteed no worse than the fourth pick), there was still perceived incentive for a team to tank. Responding to these perceived incentives, the NBA further tweaked its lottery rules shortly before the start of the 2017–18 season. Effective with the 2019 draft, the teams with the three worst records have equal odds of landing the #1 pick (barring one of these teams also owning another lottery team's pick), and the top four picks are allocated in the lottery instead of the top three. This limits but does not eliminate the incentive to tank, particularly when there is at least one exceptional prospect.


title: Match fixing

text: The Australian Football League, the main competition of Australian rules football, has used a system of priority draft picks since 1993, with poorly performing teams receiving extra selections at or near the start of the draft. Prior to 2012, a team automatically received a priority pick if its win–loss record met pre-defined eligibility criteria. However, that system led to accusations of tanking by several clubs—most notably by Melbourne in 2009 (the club was found not guilty, but the head coach and general manager were found guilty on related charges). Since 2012, priority picks are awarded at the discretion of the AFL Commission, the governing body of both the AFL and the overall sport.


title: Match fixing

text: Until the 2014–15 NHL season, the National Hockey League assured the last place team of at least the second position in its entry draft, with the first overall pick being subject to a draft lottery among the five worst teams. As NHL drafts typically include only one NHL-ready prospect, if any at all, in any given year (most others must continue developing in junior ice hockey or the minor leagues for several years before reaching the NHL), this rudimentary lottery has historically been enough of a deterrent to avoid deliberate tanking. However, in 2014–15, two elite prospects widely considered to be “generational talents,” Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, were projected to enter the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, thus ensuring the last place team at least one of the two prospects. This was most prominent with the Buffalo Sabres, whose fans openly rooted against their team in the hopes they would clinch last place in the league for much of the season (the Sabres themselves denied they were tanking and openly criticized their fans for suggesting the notion). Beginning in 2015–16, the top three picks in the draft will be subject to lottery, with all fourteen teams that did not qualify for the playoffs eligible to win the picks.


title: Match fixing

text: NFL teams have been accused of tanking games to obtain a more favorable schedule the following season; this was especially true between 1977 and 1993, when a team finishing last in a five-team division would get to play four of its eight non-division matches the next season against other last-place teams.


title: Match fixing

text: In the current scheduling formula which has been in place since 2002 and slightly amended in 2021, only three games in a team's schedule are dependent on a team's placement the previous season. The remaining eight non-division games are the same for all teams in a division.


title: Match fixing

text: In addition to the match fixing that is committed by players, coaches and/or team officials, it is not unheard of to have results manipulated by corrupt referees. Since 2004, separate scandals have erupted in prominent sports leagues in Portugal, Germany (Bundesliga scandal), Brazil (Brazilian football match-fixing scandal) and the United States (see Tim Donaghy scandal), all of which concerned referees who fixed matches for gamblers. Many sports writers have speculated that in leagues with high player salaries, it is far more likely for a referee to become corrupt since their pay in such competitions is usually much less than that of the players.


title: Match fixing

text: On December 2, 1896, former Old West lawman Wyatt Earp refereed the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey boxing match, promoted as the Heavyweight Championship of the World. Earp was chosen as referee by the National Athletic Association the afternoon of the match after both managers refused to agree on a choice. In the eighth round of a fight dominated by Fitzsimmons, Sharkey suddenly went down, clutching his groin, yelling foul. Referee Earp conferred with both corners for a few seconds before he disqualified Fitzsimmons for a foul that virtually no one saw. Fitzsimmons went to court to attempt to stop Sharkey from taking the purse, but failed when the court ruled that the match was illegal and it had no jurisdiction.


title: Match fixing

text: Eight years later, Dr. B. Brookes Lee was arrested in Portland, Oregon. He had been accused of treating Sharkey to make it appear that he had been fouled by Fitzsimmons. Lee said, "I fixed Sharkey up to look as if he had been fouled. How? Well, that is something I do not care to reveal, but I will assert that it was done—that is enough. There is no doubt that Fitzsimmons was entitled to the decision and did not foul Sharkey. I got $1,000 for my part in the affair."


title: Match fixing

text: Match fixing does not necessarily involve deliberately losing a match. Occasionally, teams have been accused of deliberately playing to a draw or a fixed score where this ensures some mutual benefit (e.g. both teams advancing to the next stage of a competition.) One of the earliest examples of this sort of match fixing in the modern era occurred in 1898 when Stoke City and Burnley intentionally drew in that year's final "test match" so as to ensure they were both in the First Division the next season. In response, the Football League expanded the divisions to 18 teams that year, thus permitting the intended victims of the fix (Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers) to remain in the First Division. The "test match" system was abandoned and replaced with automatic relegation.


title: Match fixing

text: A more recent example occurred in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, West Germany played Austria in the last match of group B. A West German victory by 1 or 2 goals would result in both teams advancing; any less and Germany was out; any more and Austria was out (and replaced by Algeria, who had just beaten Chile). West Germany attacked hard and scored after 10 minutes. Afterwards, the players then proceeded to just kick the ball around aimlessly for the remainder of the match. Algerian supporters were so angered that they waved banknotes at the players, while a German fan burned his German flag in disgust. By the second half, the ARD commentator refused any further comment on the game, while the Austrian television commentator advised viewers to switch off their sets. As a result, FIFA changed its tournament scheduling for subsequent World Cups so that the final pair of matches in each group are played simultaneously.


title: Match fixing

text: Another example took place on the next-to-last weekend of the 1992–93 Serie A season. Milan entered their match with Brescia needing only a point to secure the title ahead of crosstown rivals Inter, while Brescia believed a point would be enough for them to avoid relegation. In a 2004 retrospective on the "dodgiest games" in football history, two British journalists said about the match, "For over 80 minutes, the two teams engaged in a shameful game of cat-and-mouse, in which the cat appeared to have fallen asleep and the mouse was on tranquilisers." Milan scored in the 82nd minute, but Brescia "mysteriously found themselves with a huge overlap" and equalised two minutes later. The 1–1 draw gave Milan their title, but in the end did not help Brescia; other results went against them and they suffered the drop.


title: Match fixing

text: In knockout competitions where the rules require drawn matches to be replayed, teams have sometimes been accused of intentionally playing one or more draws so as to ensure replays. In this case, the motive is usually financial since the ensuing replay(s) would typically be expected to generate additional revenue for the participating teams. One notorious example of this particular type of alleged fix was the 1909 Scottish Cup Final, which sparked a riot after being played twice to a draw.


title: Match fixing

text: A team may deliberately lose a match, giving a victory to the opposing team that damages a third-party rival. An example of this occurred in Sevilla, Spain, during the 1999–2000 La Liga. Sevilla FC were in last place and were already officially relegated. In their thirty-fifth match of the season (out of 38), Sevilla faced Real Oviedo of Asturias, which was itself fighting to avoid relegation. An Oviedo victory would put Sevilla's fierce cross-town rival, Real Betis, in the relegation zone. Sevilla performed poorly, while their fans showed support for Oviedo and expressed concern for missed scoring chances by the Asturian side. Oviedo defeated Sevilla 3–2, contributing to the eventual relegation of Betis. Twelve years later, former Sevilla goalkeeper Frode Olsen admitted the team had lost intentionally in order to relegate Betis.


title: Match fixing

text: Similarly, a National Football League (NFL) team has also been accused of throwing its final regular-season game in an attempt to keep a rival out of the playoffs. An alleged example of this was when the San Francisco 49ers, who had clinched a playoff berth, lost their regular-season finale in 1988 to the Los Angeles Rams, thereby knocking the New York Giants (who had defeated the 49ers in the playoffs in both 1985 and 1986, moreover injuring 49ers quarterback Joe Montana in the latter) out of the postseason on tiebreakers; after the game, Giants quarterback Phil Simms angrily accused the 49ers of "laying down like dogs."


title: Match fixing

text: In addition to the aforementioned incidents of alleged fixing of drawn matches to ensure replays, mutual fixes have sometimes been alleged in "best of X" knockout series where draws are either not possible or very uncommon. Early versions of baseball's World Series were a common target of such allegations. Because the players received a percentage of the gate receipts for postseason games (a privilege they did not enjoy in the regular season), there was a perception that the players had an incentive to fix an equal number of early games in favor of each team so as to ensure the series would run the maximum number of games (or very close thereto).


title: Match fixing

text: Partly as an effort to avoid this sort of controversy, early World Series sometimes saw all scheduled games played even if the Series winner was already determined. That did not prove satisfactory since few fans were willing to pay to watch lame duck contests. Eventually, following the controversy at the


title: Match fixing

text: conclusion of the 1904 season in which the New York Giants boycotted the World Series in part because of dissatisfaction with the financial arrangements surrounding the Series, Major League Baseball agreed to a number of reforms proposed by Giants owner John T. Brush. Among other things, the so-called "Brush Rules" stipulated that the players would only receive a share of ticket revenue from the first four games, thus eliminating any financial incentive for the players to deliberately prolong the World Series.


title: Match fixing

text: On several occasions, creative use of tie-breaking rules have allegedly led teams to play less than their best.


title: Match fixing

text: An example occurred in the 2004 European Football Championship. Unlike FIFA, UEFA takes the result of the game between the two tied teams (or in a three-way tie, the overall records of the games played with the teams in question only) into consideration before overall goal difference when ranking teams level on points. A situation arose in Group C where Sweden and Denmark played to a 2–2 draw, which was a sufficiently high scoreline to eliminate Italy (which had lower-scoring draws with the Swedes and Danes) regardless of Italy's result with already-eliminated Bulgaria. Although Italy beat Bulgaria by only one goal to finish level with Sweden and Denmark on five points and would hypothetically have been eliminated using the FIFA tie-breaker too, some Italian fans bitterly contended that the FIFA tie-breaker would have motivated their team to play harder and deterred their Scandinavian rivals from, in their view, at the very least half-heartedly playing out the match after the score became 2–2. The same situation happened to Italy in 2012, leading to many pre-game complaints from Italy, who many commentators suggested were right to be concerned because of their own extensive experience in this area. However, Spain-Croatia ended in a 1–0 win for Spain, and the Italians went through.


title: Match fixing

text: The FIFA tie-breaker, or any goal-differential scheme, can cause problems, too. There have been incidents (especially in basketball) where players on a favored team have won the game but deliberately ensured the quoted point spread was not covered (see point shaving). Conversely, there are cases where a team not only lost (which might be honest) but lost by some large amount, perhaps to ensure a point spread was covered, or to grant some non-gambling related favor to the victor. Perhaps the most famous alleged example was the match between Argentina and Peru in the 1978 FIFA World Cup. Argentina needed a four-goal victory over Peru in order to advance over Brazil, a large margin at this level of competition, yet Argentina won 6–0. Much was made over possible political collusion, that the Peruvian goalkeeper was born in Argentina, and that Peru was dependent on Argentinian grain shipments, but nothing was ever proven.


title: Match fixing

text: Although the Denmark–Sweden game above led to calls for UEFA to adopt FIFA's tiebreaking formula for future tournaments, it is not clear if this solves the problem; the Argentina-Peru game shows a possible abuse of the FIFA tie-breaker. Proponents of the UEFA tie-breaker argue that it reduces the value of "blow-outs", whether these be the result of a much stronger team "running up the score" or an already-eliminated side allowing an unusually large number of goals. Perhaps the most infamous incident occurred in December 1983 when Spain, needing to win by eleven goals to qualify for the Euro 1984 ahead of the Netherlands, defeated Malta by a score of 12–1 on the strength of "nine" second half goals. Especially in international football, such lopsided results are seen as unsavoury, even if they are honest. If anything, these incidents serves as evidence that the FIFA tie-breaker can cause incentives to perpetrate a fix in some circumstances, the UEFA tie-breaker in others.


title: Match fixing

text: Tie-breaking rules played the central role in one of cricket's more notorious matches. In a 1979 match in England's now-defunct Benson & Hedges Cup, a one-day league, Worcestershire hosted Somerset in the final group match for both sides. Going into that match, Somerset led their group with three wins from three matches, but would end in a three-way tie for the top spot if they lost to Worcestershire and Glamorgan defeated the then-winless Minor Counties South. In that event, the tie-breaker would be bowling strike rate. The Somerset players calculated that a large enough loss could see them miss the quarter-finals. Accordingly, Somerset captain Brian Rose determined that if Somerset batted first and declared their innings closed after one over, they would protect their strike rate advantage, assuring advancement to the quarter-finals. When Somerset won the toss, Rose implemented the plan, batting in the first partnership and declaring at the close of the first over after Somerset scored only one run on a no-ball. Worcestershire won during their second over. Rose's strategy, although not against the letter of the rules, was condemned by media and cricket officials, and the Test and County Cricket Board (predecessor to the current England and Wales Cricket Board) voted to expel Somerset from that season's competition.


title: Match fixing

text: A player can concede with the understanding that the opponent will share the prize equally with him or her. Depending on the game, this can lead to disqualification.


title: Match fixing

text: On occasion, teams tank games as a protest against actions in earlier games. The most lopsided professional football match in history, AS Adema 149–0 SO l'Emyrne, was a result of SO l'Emyrne intentionally losing the game in protest against the referee's action in a previous game.


title: Match fixing

text: Bookmakers in the early 21st century accept bets on a far wider range of sports-related propositions than ever before. Thus, a gambling-motivated fix might not necessarily involve any direct attempt to influence the outright result, especially in team sports in which such a fix would require the co-operation (and prerequisitely the knowledge) of many people and/or perhaps would be more likely to arouse suspicion. Fixing the result of a more-particular proposition might be seen as less likely to be noticed. For example, the disgraced former National Basketball Association referee Tim Donaghy has been alleged to have perpetrated some of his fixes by calling games in such a manner as to ensure more points than expected were scored by both teams, thus affecting "over-under" bets on the games whilst also ensuring that Donaghy at least did not look to be outright biased. Also, bets are increasingly being taken on individual performances in team sporting events, which, in turn, has seen the rise of a phenomenon known as spot fixing although it is now unlikely that enough is bet on average players to allow someone to place a substantial wager on them without being noticed.


title: Match fixing

text: One such attempt was described by retired footballer Matthew Le Tissier, who in 2009 admitted that while he was playing with Southampton FC back in 1995, he tried (and failed) to kick the ball out of play right after the kick-off of a Premier League match against Wimbledon FC so that a group of associates would collect on a wager made on an early throw-in.


title: Match fixing

text: Similarly, in 2010, Pakistani cricket players were accused of committing specific no-ball penalties for the benefit of gamblers. The scandal centred on three Pakistani players accepting bribes from a bookmaker, Mazhar Majeed, during the Lord's test match against England. Following investigations by the News of the World and Scotland Yard, on 1 November 2011, Majeed, Pakistan's captain, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were found guilty of conspiracy to cheat at gambling and to accept corrupt payments.


title: Match fixing

text: As a result, all three of the players were banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC): Butt for ten years, Asif for seven and Amir for five. On 3 November 2011, jail terms were handed down of 30 months for Butt, one year for Asif, six months for Amir and two years eight months for Majeed.


title: Match fixing

text: Whenever any serious motivation for teams to manipulate results becomes apparent to the general public, there can be a corresponding effect on betting markets as honest gamblers speculate in good faith as to the chance such a fix might be attempted. Some bettors might choose to avoid wagering on such a fixture while others will be motivated to wager on it, or alter the bet they would otherwise place. Such actions will invariably affect odds and point spreads even if there is no contact whatsoever between teams and the relevant gambling interests. The rise of betting exchanges has allowed such speculation to play out in real time.


title: Match fixing

text: Evidence of match fixing has been found throughout recorded history, and the history of match fixing is closely related to the history of illegal gambling.


title: Match fixing

text: The ancient Olympic Games were almost constantly dealing with allegations of athletes accepting bribes to lose a competition and city-states which often tried to manipulate the outcome with large amounts of money. These activities went on despite the oath each athlete took to protect the integrity of the events and the severe punishment sometimes inflicted on those who were caught. Chariot racing was also dogged by race fixing throughout its history.


title: Match fixing

text: By the end of the 19th century gambling was illegal in most jurisdictions, but that did not stop its widespread practice. Boxing soon became rife with fighters "taking a dive", likely due to boxing being a sport involving individual competitors, which makes its matches much easier to fix without getting caught. Baseball also became plagued by match fixing despite efforts by the National League to stop gambling at its games. Matters finally came to a head in 1919 when eight members of the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series (see Black Sox Scandal). In an effort to restore confidence, Major League Baseball established the office of the Commissioner of Baseball, and one of Kenesaw Mountain Landis's first acts was to ban all involved players for life.


title: Match fixing

text: MLB Rule 21 prohibits players from participating in any form of betting on baseball games, and a lifetime ban for betting on a player's own games. A poster with Rule 21 must be posted on all professional baseball clubhouses.


title: Match fixing

text: In the 1990s, match fixing in Asia was especially common. In Malaysia, authorities suggested that 70% of football matches were being manipulated, and corruption scandals in China resulted in gamblers choosing to bet on overseas matches.


title: Match fixing

text: is a Japanese word meaning a cheating activity which is committed at places where a match, fight, game, competition, or other contest, is held, where the winner and loser are decided in advance by agreement of the competitors or related people. It is believed that the word "Yaocho" came from the name ("Chobei") of the owner of a vegetable stand ("yaoya") during the Meiji period. Created from the first syllable of "Yaoya" and "chobei", the word "yaocho" was created for a nickname of Chobei. Chobei had a friend called "Isenoumi Godayu" (7th Isenoumi stablemaster) with whom he played the game Igo, who had once been a sumo wrestler "Kashiwado Sogoro" (former "shikona": "Kyonosato") and now was a ""toshiyori"" (a stablemaster of sumo). Although Chobei was a better Igo player than Isenoumi, he sometimes lost games on purpose to please Isenoumi so that Isenoumi would continue to buy merchandise from his shop. Afterward, once people knew of his cheating, they started to use "yaocho" as a word meaning any decision to win/lose a match in advance by negotiation etc. with the expectation of secondary profit, even though the match seems to be held seriously and fairly.


title: Match fixing

text: Economists using statistical analysis have shown very strong evidence of bout fixing in sumo wrestling. Most of the motive for match fixing is helping each other's ranking to keep their salary higher, according to Keisuke Itai. For example, wrestlers in "jūryō" (the second tier) desperately try to avoid finishing the tournament with a losing record (7–8 or worse) and exchange or buy the match result, or their salary would be nothing, 0 yen, with the participation wage of 150,000 yen every two months if they finish the tournament with a losing record, and their ranking would go down to "makushita" (third level) and only participate in seven matches, the lesser ranking from "jūryō" in which one can earn 1,036,000 yen monthly with some prizes and a full 15-match tournament.


title: Match fixing

text: The sumo association appears to make a distinction between "yaocho" (the payment of money to secure a result) and "koi-ni-yatta mukiryoku zumo" (the deliberate performance of underpowered sumo in which an opponent simply lays a match down without exchange of money). The intricacies of Japanese culture, which include subordination of individual gain to the greater good and knowing how to read a situation without the exchange of words (I know my opponent's score, he needs help, and I should automatically give it to him) mean that the latter is almost readily accepted in the sumo world and is also nearly impossible to prove.


title: Match fixing

text: Some of the most notorious instances of match fixing have been observed in international cricket. In 2000 the Delhi police intercepted a conversation between a blacklisted bookie and the South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje in which they learnt that Cronje accepted money to throw matches. A court of inquiry was set up and Cronje admitted to throwing matches. He was immediately banned from all cricket. He also named Saleem Malik (Pakistan), Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja (India) as fellow match fixers. Jadeja was banned for 4 years. Although Cronje was a kingpin of betting, following untimely death in 2002 most of his fixing partners escaped law enforcement agencies. Earlier in 1998, Australian players Mark Waugh and Shane Warne were fined for revealing information about the 'weather' to a bookmaker.


title: Match fixing

text: The fourth Test of Pakistan's summer 2010 cricket tour of England contained several incidents of spot fixing, involving members of Pakistan team deliberately bowling no-balls at specific points to facilitate betting through bookmakers. Following investigation, three Pakistani players were banned from cricket and sentenced to prison terms. Similarly, in Indian Premier League in 2013, S. Sreesanth and two other players were banned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for alleged match fixing. Sreesanth's ban was briefly lifted, but the Kerala High Court upheld the ban in 2017.


title: Match fixing

text: In July 2017, ex-Sri Lanka cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga alleged that the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final match between India and Sri Lanka had been fixed. The investigation was dropped by Sri Lankan authorities and the International Cricket Council in 2020 due to a lack of evidence.


title: Match fixing

text: In July 2022, it was reported that local authorities had shut down an operation in Gujarat, India, that had been running a fictitious, kayfabe version of the Indian Premier League in an attempt to scam Russian sports betters. The matches took place on a field with floodlights, with players dressed in replica jerseys of real IPL teams; based on bets received on a Telegram channel, umpires instructed the players and "referees" to perform specific plays and calls. Broadcasts of the "matches" were streamed on YouTube, and utilized artificial crowd noise , a sound-alike of cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, and camera angles that never showed clear shots of the pitch, players, or deliveries. The participating players were paid 400 rupees per-game, and the operation was estimated to have scammed punters out of 300,000 rupees before it was shut down by police. The actual 2022 Indian Premier League had already concluded at the end of May.


title: Match fixing

text: In 2006 the European football powerhouse Juventus F.C. drew a match against minnows Rimini in a fixed encounter. Following investigation, Juventus Manager Luciano Moggi, Italian Football President Franco Carraro and Vice-president Innocenzo Mazzini had to resign In 2010 several Korean footballers were punished by FIFA with a lifelong ban from all sports for fixing several matches in the Korean League Cup. During the subsequent investigation, many top Korean players were also found to be involved in match fixing after the initial discovery.


title: Match fixing

text: In professional wrestling, most matches have predetermined results; however, as it is an open secret that professional wrestling is staged, it is not considered match fixing.


title: Match fixing

text: Up until the 1920s, professional wrestling was considered a legitimate sport. This did not endure as professional wrestling became identified with modern theatrics or "admitted fakery", moving away from actual competition. The "worked", known as "kayfabe" nature of wrestling led critics to deem it an illegitimate sport, particularly in comparison to boxing, amateur wrestling, and, more recently, mixed martial arts.


title: Match fixing

text: Many individuals began to doubt the legitimacy of wrestling after the retirement of Frank Gotch in 1913. As wrestling's popularity was diving around the same time that Major League Baseball had its own legitimacy issues, wrestling started to take on a more worked approach while still appearing as a legitimate sport, beginning with the Gold Dust Trio of the 1920s. Even after the formation of the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948, wrestling continued to have legitimacy issues.


title: Match fixing

text: Nevertheless, wrestling was still regulated by state athletic commissions in the United States well into the 1980s, until Vince McMahon, owner of the World Wrestling Federation, convinced the state of New Jersey in 1989 that wrestling was considered a form of entertainment (or "sports entertainment", as McMahon used) rather than as a legitimate sport, and that it should not be regulated by state athletic commissions. The move was seen as more of a relief to those who had questioned wrestling's legitimacy, since at least one major company (in this case, the WWF) was now publicly willing to admit that wrestling was staged; however, the move did anger many wrestling purists.


title: Match fixing

text: Due to the lingering legitimacy issues that surrounded wrestling from the 1910s until the 1980s, gambling was generally not allowed on wrestling matches while it was still considered a legitimate sport. Despite wrestling having openly acknowledged that the results are predetermined for years, since the late 2000s gambling has increased on wrestling events, though the maximum bets are kept low due to the matches being predetermined. By contrast, when the WWF co-founded an American football league with NBC known as the XFL (which played for a single season in 2001), the league had to emphasize that its games were not staged in this manner (despite drawing upon wrestling, and in particular the WWF's "Attitude Era", in its overall image and presentation), and specifically promoted the willingness of Las Vegas bookmakers to take wagers on the games as evidence of its legitimacy.


title: Match fixing

text: In the 1950s, the producers of several televised quiz shows in the United States were found to have engaged in match fixing, as part of an effort to boost viewer interest and ratings. Geritol, the sponsor of the new quiz show "Twenty-One", showed concerns over the poor performance of its early contestants—which they felt were causing the show to trail behind its main competitor, "The $64,000 Question". At the time, the majority of television programs were effectively controlled by their single sponsors, with broadcasters only providing studios and airtime. Geritol demanded that Barry & Enright Productions make changes to the show, which included the outright choreography of contestants around pre-determined outcomes.


title: Match fixing

text: The most infamous example of this strategy came when champion Herbert Stempel was to be replaced by Charles Van Doren—a Columbia University English teacher whom the producers felt would be more popular with viewers. On "Twenty-One", winners of matches received $500 for every point within their margin of victory, but this pot increased by $500 after every tie game. To build anticipation for the episode where Van Doren would defeat Stempel, the first episode of their match was played to three tie games; this meant that the next game would be played for $2,000 per-point. After one more tie game, Stempel threw the match to Van Doren by answering specific questions incorrectly. Among them, he incorrectly guessed that "On the Waterfront" was the winner of the Best Picture award at the 28th Academy Awards. The correct answer was "Marty", which was also one of Stempel's favorite films.


title: Match fixing

text: The cancellation of the competing quiz "Dotto" under similar allegations prompted a U.S. government investigation into both it and "Twenty-One". The investigation similarly revealed that Revlon—the sponsor of "The $64,000 Question"—had instructed the show's producers to balance its questions more favorably towards contestants they felt would be more popular among viewers (although it stopped short of outright rigging games to the same extent as "Twenty-One"). The scandal resulted in regulations being implemented to prohibit the rigging of game shows and other contests by broadcasters.


title: Match fixing

text: Match fixing controversies have also emerged in Esports, including in particular "", "Dota 2", "League of Legends", "Overwatch", "Paladins", "StarCraft". Major scandals have included those of the iBuyPower and NetcodeGuides.com "Counter-Strike" teams, where it was found that the iBuyPower team had received around $10,000 worth of items via skin gambling—the practice of wagering "CS:GO" weapon skins in a similar manner to sports betting, based on real-world market values—after they threw matches in a major tournament. South Korean "StarCraft II" player Life was also convicted of having partaken in match fixing.


title: Match fixing

text: By monitoring the pre-match betting markets it is sometimes possible to detect planned match fixing. It is also possible to detect on-going match manipulation by looking at the in-game betting markets. Several federations have employed services that provide such systems for detecting match manipulation. Prior to the 2016 MLB season, Major League Baseball (MLB) hired Genius Sports, a sports technology company specialising in integrity, to monitor the betting patterns on all of their games.


title: Match fixing

text: In addition, several federations run integrity tours where players and officials participate in educational workshops on how match fixing work and how they are prevented.


title: Magdalene (album)

text: Magdalene (stylised in all caps) is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter FKA Twigs. It was released on 8 November 2019 by Young Turks. It is her first project since her EP "M3LL155X" (2015), and first full-length record since "LP1" (2014). The album features a sole guest appearance from American rapper Future. FKA Twigs produced the album herself, with a wide range of co-producers including Nicolás Jaar, Koreless, Daniel Lopatin, Skrillex, Benny Blanco, Michael Uzowuru and Noah Goldstein, who also served as executive producer alongside Twigs.


title: Magdalene (album)

text: The singles "Cellophane", "Holy Terrain", "Home with You", and "Sad Day" were released on 24 April, 9 September, 7 October, and 4 November, respectively. The album was supported by the Magdalene Tour.


title: Magdalene (album)

text: On 9 September 2019, FKA Twigs announced that her second studio album "Magdalene" would be released on 25 October; the album preorder and track listing were made available the same day. The album cover was designed by English artist Matthew Stone.


title: Magdalene (album)

text: Barnett wrote in a press release announcing her second studio album: The album was inspired by her 2017 breakup with actor Robert Pattinson.


title: Magdalene (album)

text: On "Magdalene", twigs crafts electronic art pop, fusing it with "lurid" modern dance and "carnal" soul music. However, it is also described as "[defying] both genre and classification". This embrace of "adventurous" experimentation echoes musicians like Björk and Kate Bush. It features elements of pop, avant-garde, R&B, trap, hip hop, trip hop, alt-pop, punk rock, industrial, opera, chamber pop, and Bulgarian folk.


title: Magdalene (album)

text: The lead single "Cellophane" was released on 24 April 2019. The second single "Holy Terrain" featuring American rapper Future was released on 9 September. "Home with You" was released on 7 October after the album's release date was pushed from 25 October to 8 November. "Sad Day" was released on 4 November.


title: Magdalene (album)

text: "Magdalene" was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 88, based on 28 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.5 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.


title: Magdalene (album)

text: Heather Phares of AllMusic gave a positive review, stating "At once more delicate and more concentrated than any of her previous work, "Magdalene" is a testament to the strength and skill it takes to make music this fragile and revealing. Like the dancer she is, Barnett pushes through pain in pursuit of beauty and truth, and the leaps she makes are breathtaking". Alexandra Pollard of "The Independent" said, "The follow-up to 2014's "LP1" is the sound of a woman teetering on the brink of collapse, gathering herself, and then erupting into a kind of defiance". "Magdalene" was named "Album of the Week" by "The Line of Best Fit", and reviewer Jack Bray called it the "fullest and most developed work from FKA Twigs to date", writing that Barnett "comprehensively opens herself up to consider the traumas of her past. It is an unsparing, anguished release in which we see an artist laid bare and tapping into a more natural and resonant version of her sound and self". Reviewing the album for "NME", El Hunt stated: "Tahliah Barnett's been to tabloid hell and back and experienced gruelling ill-health, all of which is explored on her huge, panoramic second album." "The Daily Telegraph"s Neil McCormick wrote, ""Magdalene" is a magnificently twisted sci-fi torch album, an enthralling account of love, loss, heartbreak and recovery. It is erotic and neurotic, confounding and revelatory, summoning the spirits of such iconoclastic talents as David Bowie, Kate Bush and Björk while affirming its own unique personality". "Exclaim!" critic Ryan B. Patrick said, "The intent, execution and expression is pure. But the ominous feel of the entire project overwhelms, in parts, with a forlorn sense of distance and dread – which appears to be the point – yet its subsuming sense of femininity, sexuality, free will and determinism paradoxically draws us in".


title: Magdalene (album)

text: Josh Gray from "Clash" enjoyed the album, saying, "Almost every track on "Magdalene" is built upwards from a simple piano line, hammering home the impression of someone delicately yet decisively knitting themselves back together after coming undone". Emily Mackay of "The Observer" saying ""Magdalene" is a much starker, more emotionally direct album than 2014's "LP1", most noticeably in twigs's voice, which moves with sleek power from delicate operatic acrobatics to muscular intimacy. It's also bracingly frank". "Pitchfork" awarded "Magdalene" the distinction of "Best New Music", with Julianne Escobedo Shepherd describing it as "her best album so far", saying that it "is as introspective as anything she's written, but more obviously centers her voice as a conduit for plain emotion". In a mixed review, "The Guardian"s Alexis Petridis stated: "Sometimes the results are stunning ... Sometimes, however, the songs are weirdly stifling."


title: John Hodgman

text: John Kellogg Hodgman (born June 3, 1971) is an American author, actor, and humorist. In addition to his published written works, such as "The Areas of My Expertise", "More Information Than You Require", and "That Is All", he is known for his personification of a PC in contrast to Justin Long's personification of a Mac in Apple's "Get a Mac" advertising campaign, and for his work as a contributor on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart".


title: John Hodgman

text: His writings have been published in "One Story" (to which he contributed the debut story "Villanova"), "The Paris Review", "McSweeney's Quarterly Concern", "Wired" and "The New York Times Magazine", for which he is editor of the humor section. He contributes to "This American Life", and CBC Radio One’s "Wiretap". His first book and accompanying audio narration, "The Areas of My Expertise", a satirical tongue-in-cheek almanac that contains almost no factual information, was published in 2005. His second book, "More Information Than You Require", went on sale October 21, 2008. His third book, "That Is All", went on sale November 1, 2011. "Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches", a collection of "real life wanderings" about Hodgman's life experiences (especially in Western Massachusetts and coastal Maine) was published on October 24, 2017. "Vacationland" was a finalist for the 2018 Thurber Prize for American Humor. His most recent book, "Medallion Status" was released on October 17, 2019.


title: John Hodgman

text: Hodgman was the headline speaker at the 2009 Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C.


title: John Hodgman

text: Hodgman was born and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of Eileen (née Callahan), a nurse and educator, and John Francis Hodgman, the President and CEO of the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation and a professor at Tufts University. He attended the Heath School and Brookline High School, where he edited the underground magazine "Samizdat", named for the grassroots dissident publishing movement produced under the Soviet Bloc. During his last year of high school, he hosted the weekly "Radio Consuelo" show on freeform station WMFO in Medford.