title: Suicide in South Korea

text: In 1997 and 1998, the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit South Korea. During and after the economic recession of 1998, South Korea experienced a sharp economic recession of −6.9% and a surge of unemployment rate of 7.0%. A study has shown that this economic downfall had a strong correlation with an increase in suicide rates. Increase in unemployment and higher divorce rate during the economic downturn lead to clinical depression, which is a common factor that leads to suicide. Moreover, according to Durkheim, economic downfall disturbs the social standing of an individual, meaning that the individual's demands and expectations can no longer be met. Thus, a person who cannot readjust to the deprived social order caused by economic downfall is more likely to die by suicide.


title: Suicide in South Korea

text: Analyzing the suicides up to 2003, Park and Lester note that unemployment is a major factor of high suicide rate. In South Korea, it has been the traditional duty of children to take care of their parents. However, as "cultural tradition of filial obligation is not congruent with the increasingly competitive, specialized labor market of the modern era", the elderly are sacrificing themselves by suicide so as to lessen the burden on their children.


title: Suicide in South Korea

text: In South Korea, every student is obligated to take the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). On this day, underclassmen gather and cheer on their seniors as they enter the school to take their exam. The government has also mandated to forbid planes from flying during this time to make sure there are no distractions to these students.


title: Suicide in South Korea

text: Education in South Korea is extremely competitive, making it difficult to get into an esteemed university. A South Korean student's school year lasts from March to February. The year divides into two semesters: one from March until July, and another from August to February. The average South Korean high school student also spends roughly 16 hours a day on school and school-related activities. They attend after school programs called "hagwons" and there are over 100,000 of them throughout South Korea, making them a 20 billion dollar industry. Again, this is because of the competitiveness of acceptance into a good university. Most South Korean test scores are also graded on a curve, leading to more competition. Since 2012, students in South Korea go to school from Monday to Friday. Before 2005, South Korean students went to school every day from Monday to Saturday.


title: Suicide in South Korea

text: Although South Korean education consistently ranks near the top in international academic assessments such as PISA, the enormous stress and pressure on its students is considered by many to constitute child abuse. It has been blamed for high suicide rates in South Korea among those aged 10–19. Studies have shown that 46% of high school students in Seoul, South Korea are depressed due to academic stress, which leads to suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. South Korea's competitive educational system and the stressful academic environment, plus the social expectations requiring students to excel in academics have negatively affected the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of the students.


title: Suicide in South Korea

text: In South Korea, mental illness is taboo, even within a family. Over 90% of suicide victims could be diagnosed with a mental disorder, but only 15% of them received proper treatment. Over two million people suffer with depression annually in South Korea, but only 15,000 choose to receive regular treatment. Because mental illnesses are looked down upon in Korean society, families often discourage those with mental illnesses from seeking treatment. Since there is such a strong negative stigma on the treatment of mental illnesses, many symptoms go unnoticed and can lead to many irrational decisions including suicide. Additionally, alcohol is often used to self-medicate, and a significant percentage of attempted suicides occur while drunk.


title: Suicide in South Korea

text: As the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea continued, many men in their 50s and women in their 20s struggled, which led some to commit suicide.


title: Suicide in South Korea

text: South Korea has implemented the Strategies to Prevent Suicide (STOPS), a project whose "initiatives aimed at increasing public awareness, improving media reporting of suicide, screening for persons at high risk of suicide, restricting access to means, and improving treatment of suicidally depressed patients". All of these methods strive to increase public awareness and governmental support for suicide prevention. Currently, South Korea and other countries that have implemented this initiative are in the process of evaluating how much influence this initiative has on the suicide rate. The education ministry created a smartphone app to check students' social media posts, messages and web searches for words related to suicide.


title: Suicide in South Korea

text: Because the media coverage and portrayal of suicide influence the suicide rate, the government has "promulgated national guidelines for reporting on suicide in print media". The national guideline helps the media coverage to focus more on warning signs and possibilities of treatment, rather than factors that lead to the suicide.


title: Suicide in South Korea

text: Another method that South Korea has implemented is educating gatekeepers. The gatekeeper education primarily consists of knowledge of suicide and dealing with suicidal individuals, and this education is provided to teachers, social workers, volunteers and youth leaders. The South Korean government educates gatekeepers within the at-risk communities, such as female elders or low-income families. To maximize the effect of gatekeepers, the government has also implemented evaluation programs to report the results.


title: Suicide in South Korea

text: Physical measures are also taken to prevent suicide. The government has reduced "access to lethal means of self-harm". As mentioned above in the methods, the government has reduced access to poisoning agents, monoxide from charcoal, and finally train platforms. This helps to decrease the impulsive suicidal behavior.


title: Democide

text: Democide is a term coined by American political scientist Rudolph Rummel to describe "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command." According to Rummel, this definition covers a wide range of deaths, including forced labor and concentration camp victims, extrajudicial summary killings, and mass deaths due to governmental acts of criminal omission and neglect, such as in deliberate famines like the Holodomor, as well as killings by "de facto" governments, i.e. killings during a civil war. This definition covers any murder of any number of persons by any government.


title: Democide

text: Rummel created "democide" as an extended term to include forms of government murder not covered by "genocide". According to Rummel, democide surpassed war as the leading cause of non-natural death in the 20th century.


title: Democide

text: Democide is the murder of any person or people by their government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder. Democide is not necessarily the elimination of entire cultural groups but rather groups within the country that the government feels need to be eradicated for political reasons and due to claimed future threats.


title: Democide

text: According to Rummel, genocide has three different meanings. The ordinary meaning is murder by government of people due to their national, ethnic, racial or religious group membership. The legal meaning of genocide refers to the international treaty on genocide, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This also includes nonlethal acts that in the end eliminate or greatly hinder the group. Looking back on history, one can see the different variations of democides that have occurred, but it still consists of acts of killing or mass murder. The generalized meaning of genocide is similar to the ordinary meaning but also includes government killings of political opponents or otherwise intentional murder. In order to avoid confusion over which meaning is intended, Rummel created "democide" for this third meaning.


title: Democide

text: First, however, I should clarify the term democide. It means for governments what murder means for an individual under municipal law. It is the premeditated killing of a person in cold blood, or causing the death of a person through reckless and wanton disregard for their life. Thus, a government incarcerating people in a prison under such deadly conditions that they die in a few years is murder by the state—democide—as would parents letting a child die from malnutrition and exposure be murder. So would government forced labor that kills a person within months or a couple of years be murder. So would government created famines that then are ignored or knowingly aggravated by government action be murder of those who starve to death. And obviously, extrajudicial executions, death by torture, government massacres, and all genocidal killing be murder. However, judicial executions for crimes that internationally would be considered capital offenses, such as for murder or treason (as long as it is clear that these are not fabricated for the purpose of executing the accused, as in communist show trials), are not democide. Nor is democide the killing of enemy soldiers in combat or of armed rebels, nor of noncombatants as a result of military action against military targets.


title: Democide

text: In his work and research, Rummel distinguished between colonial, democratic, and authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. He defined totalitarianism as follows:


title: Democide

text: There is much confusion about what is meant by totalitarian in the literature, including the denial that such systems even exist. I define a totalitarian state as one with a system of government that is unlimited constitutionally or by countervailing powers in society (such as by a church, rural gentry, labor unions, or regional powers); is not held responsible to the public by periodic secret and competitive elections; and employs its unlimited power to control all aspects of society, including the family, religion, education, business, private property, and social relationships. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union was thus totalitarian, as was Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Hitler's Germany, and U Ne Win's Burma. Totalitarianism is then a political ideology for which a totalitarian government is the agency for realizing its ends. Thus, totalitarianism characterizes such ideologies as state socialism (as in Burma), Marxism-Leninism as in former East Germany, and Nazism. Even revolutionary Moslem Iran since the overthrow of the Shah in 1978–79 has been totalitarian—here totalitarianism was married to Moslem fundamentalism. In short, totalitarianism is the ideology of absolute power. State socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism, and Moslem fundamentalism have been some of its recent raiments. Totalitarian governments have been its agency. The state, with its international legal sovereignty and independence, has been its base. As will be pointed out, mortacracy is the result.


title: Democide

text: In his estimates, Rudolph Rummel relied mostly on historical accounts, an approach that rarely provides accuracy compared with contemporary academic opinion. In the case of Mexican democide, Rummel wrote that while "these figures amount to little more than informed guesses", he thought "there is enough evidence to at least indict these authoritarian regimes for megamurder." According to Rummel, his research showed that the death toll from democide is far greater than the death toll from war. After studying over 8,000 reports of government-caused deaths, Rummel estimated that there have been 262 million victims of democide in the last century. According to his figures, six times as many people have died from the actions of people working for governments than have died in battle. One of his main findings was that democracies have much less democide than authoritarian regimes. Rummel argued that there is a relation between political power and democide. Political mass murder grows increasingly common as political power becomes unconstrained. At the other end of the scale, where power is diffuse, checked, and balanced, political violence is a rarity. According to Rummel, "[t]he more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major reason for promoting freedom." Rummel argued that "concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth."


title: Democide

text: Rummel's estimates, especially about Communist democide, typically included a wide range and cannot be considered determinative. Rummel calculated nearly 43 million deaths due to democide inside and outside the Soviet Union during Stalin's regime. This is much higher than an often quoted figure in the popular press of 20 million, or a 2010s scholarly figure of 9 million. Rummel responded that the 20 million estimate is based on a figure from Robert Conquest's "The Great Terror" and that Conquest's qualifier "almost certainly too low" is usually forgotten. For Rummell, Conquest's calculations excluded camp deaths before 1936 and after 1950, executions (1939–1953), the forced population transfer in the Soviet Union (1939–1953), the deportation within the Soviet Union of minorities (1941–1944), and those the Soviet Red Army and Cheka (the secret police) executed throughout Eastern Europe after their conquest during the 1944–1945 period. Moreover, the Holodomor that killed 5 million in 1932–1934 (according to Rummel) is also not included. According to Rummel, forced labor, executions, and concentration camps were responsible for over one million deaths in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from 1948 to 1987. After decades of research in the state archives, most scholars say that Stalin's regime killed between 6 and 9 million, which is considerably less than originally thought, while Nazi Germany killed at least 11 million, which is in line with previous estimates.


title: Democide

text: The concept of democide has been applied by Rummel to Communist regimes. In 1987, Rudolph Rummel's book "Death by Government" Rummel estimated that 148 million were killed by Communist governments from 1917 to 1987. The list of Communist countries with more than 1 million estimated victims included China at 76,702,000 (1949–1987), the Soviet Union at 61,911,000 (1917–1987), Democratic Kampuchea (1975–1979) at 2,035,000, Vietnam (1945–1987) at 1,670,000, Poland (1945–1987) at 1,585,000, North Korea (1948–1987) at 1,563,000, and Yugoslavia (1945–1987) at 1,072,000.


title: Democide

text: In 1993, Rummel wrote: "Even were we to have total access to all communist archives we still would not be able to calculate precisely how many the communists murdered. Consider that even in spite of the archival statistics and detailed reports of survivors, the best experts still disagree by over 40 percent on the total number of Jews killed by the Nazis. We cannot expect near this accuracy for the victims of communism. We can, however, get a probable order of magnitude and a relative approximation of these deaths within a most likely range." In 1994, Rummel updated his estimates for Communist regimes at about 110 million people, foreign and domestic, killed by Communist democide from 1900 to 1987. Due to additional information about Mao Zedong's culpability in the Great Chinese Famine according to "", a 2005 book authored by Jon Halliday and Jung Chang, Rummel revised upward his total for Communist democide to about 148 million, using their estimate of 38 million famine deaths.


title: Democide

text: Rummel's figures for Communist governments have been criticized for the methodology which he used to arrive at them, and they have also been criticized for being higher than the figures which have been given by most scholars.


title: Democide

text: Estimates by Rummel for fascist or right-wing authoritarian regimes include Nazi Germany at 20,946,000 (1933–1945), Nationalist China (1925–1949) and later Taiwan (1949–1987) at 10,214,000, and Empire of Japan at 5,964,000 (1900–1945). Estimates for other regime-types include the Ottoman Empire at 1,883,000 (Greek genocide), Pakistan at 1,503,000 (1971 Bangladesh genocide), Porfiriato at somewhere between 600,000 and 3,000,000 and closer to 1,417,000 (1900–1920), and the Russian Empire at 1,066,000 (1900–1917).


title: Democide

text: Democide in Communist and Nationalist China, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union are characterized by Rummel as deka-megamurderers (128,168,000), while those in Cambodia, Japan, Pakistan, Poland, Turkey, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia are characterized as the lesser megamurderers (19,178,000), and cases in Mexico, North Korea, and feudal Russia are characterized as suspected megamurderers (4,145,000). Rummel wrote that "even though the Nazis hardly matched the democide of the Soviets and Communist Chinese", they "proportionally killed more".


title: Democide

text: In response to David Stannard's figures about what he terms "the American Holocaust", Rummel estimated that over the centuries of European colonization about 2 million to 15 million American indigenous people were victims of democide, excluding military battles and unintentional deaths in Rummel's definition. Rummel wrote that "[e]ven if these figures are remotely true, then this still make this subjugation of the Americas one of the bloodier, centuries long, democides in world history." Rummel stated that his estimate for those killed by colonialism is 50,000,000 persons in the 20th century; this was revised upwards from his initial estimate of 815,000 dead.


title: Democide

text: While democratic regimes are considered by Rummel to be the least likely to commit democide and engage in wars per the democratic peace theory, Rummel wrote that "democracies themselves are responsible for some of this democide. Detailed estimates have yet to be made, but preliminarily work suggests that some 2,000,000 foreigners have been killed in cold blood by democracies." Foreign policy and secret services of democratic regimes "may also carry on subversive activities in other states, support deadly coups, and actually encourage or support rebel or military forces that are involved in democidal activities. Such was done, for example, by the American CIA in the 1952 coup against Iran Prime Minister Mossadeq and the 1973 coup against Chile's democratically elected President Allende by General Pinochet. Then there was the secret support given the military in El Salvador and Guatemala although they were slaughtering thousands of presumed communist supporters, and that of the Contras in their war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua in spite of their atrocities. Particularly reprehensible was the covert support given to the Generals in Indonesia as they murdered hundreds of thousands of communists and others after the alleged attempted communist coup in 1965, and the continued secret support given to General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan of Pakistan even as he was involved in murdering over a million Bengalis in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)."


title: Democide

text: According to Rummel, examples of democratic democide would include "those killed in indiscriminate or civilian targeted city bombing, as of Germany and Japan in World War II. It would include the large scale massacres of Filipinos during the bloody American colonization of the Philippines at the beginning of this century, deaths in British concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer War, civilian deaths due to starvation during the British blockade of Germany in and after World War I, the rape and murder of helpless Chinese in and around Peking in 1900, the atrocities committed by Americans in Vietnam, the murder of helpless Algerians during the Algerian War by the French, and the unnatural deaths of German prisoners of war in French and American POW camps after World War II."


title: Remo (film)

text: Remo is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Bakkiyaraj Kannan, in his directorial debut and produced by R. D. Raja under 24AM Studios. The film stars Sivakarthikeyan and Keerthy Suresh, while Sathish, Rajendran, Aadukalam Naren, Anson Paul, K. S. Ravikumar, Saranya Ponvannan and Sri Divya portray supporting roles. The cinematography was handled by P. C. Sreeram, and editing work was done by Ruben. Sound designer Resul Pookutty, was also a part of the film. The soundtrack album and background score has been composed by Anirudh Ravichander, and the soundtrack received positive response, upon release. The film follows an aspiring actor who decides to don as a female nurse, to test his acting skills and also to win the hearts of his lady love, who is a doctor by profession.


title: Remo (film)

text: "Remo" is the first film produced by R. D. Raja, who earlier worked as a creative producer for Sivakarthikeyan, in his films "Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam", "Maan Karate", "Kaaki Sattai" and "Rajinimurugan". The film was initially scheduled to release on 14 March 2015, but was briefly delayed due to the script completion, and finalising the cast and crew. The project was started, with the announcement of technical crew on 1 July 2015. Principal photography of this film took place on 25 October 2015 in Chennai, and continued till 2 August 2016. Filming was held in Chennai, Vizag and Pondicherry. The film's title "Remo" was announced in February 2016.


title: Remo (film)

text: The film had a worldwide theatrical release on 7 October 2016, coinciding with the occasion of Dusshera festival. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and audience, praising Sivakarthikeyan's performance in the role of a female nurse, and the efforts he took for donning the make over, background score, soundtrack, cinematography and comedy However, the film faced criticism for glorifying stalking and the way in which Keerthy Suresh's character was written for the film. It became a commercial success grossing above crore, amidst the budget of crore. The film received three nominations at the 64th Filmfare Awards South, and five nominations at the 6th South Indian International Movie Awards, with two wins, and Sivakarthikeyan receiving the SIIMA Award for Best Actor. It was remade in Odia as "Sister Sridevi" (2017).


title: Remo (film)

text: Siva aka S.K is a theatre actor whose only aim is to become a superstar like Rajinikanth. However, his inability to act in romantic scenes hinders his path to the dream, and is even rejected by director K. S. Ravikumar during the audition for his new film "Avvai Shanmugi 2". He comes across Kavya, who is a doctor, and instantly falls in love with her. He goes to her house to propose his love, only to find out that she is engaged to a doctor named Vishwanath alias Vishwa. Siva, though deeply saddened at this development, decides to woo Kavya anyway and somehow break her engagement with Vishwa. He disguises himself as a woman nurse, going by the name of "Remo" (short for "Regina Motwani", a combination of the names of actresses Regina Cassandra and Hansika Motwani), and takes up a job in the same hospital where Kavya works.


title: Remo (film)

text: Ensuring that Kavya never finds out his true identity, Siva as Remo establishes a close friendship with her but is unable to convince her to end her engagement with Vishwa, no matter how many times he (As Remo) brings the subject up. Undeterred, he organises a massive surprise on her birthday and proposes to her as Siva. Kavya, who has been charmed by the surprise and fallen in love with Siva, is in a dilemma as she is unable to decide between Vishwa and Siva. Siva takes advantage of her dilemma and juggles the roles of both Siva and Remo with the aim of breaking her engagement, all the while hiding his dual identity from her. Eventually, Kavya gives in and admits her feelings to Siva, but, to the shock of both her and Siva, Vishwa has decided to prepone their marriage to the very next day because he had caught her sharing a romantic moment with Siva. Kavya decides to end her engagement and leave her house to be with Siva. While Kavya pours out her feelings to Siva (who is disguised as Remo), Vishwa arrives with some goons to forcibly take her away. Siva, still in his Remo guise, thrashes Vishwa and his goons, but at the same moment, he is forced to rush to the hospital to attend to a terminally-ill orphan named Nancy , with whom he had established a close bond. On Nancy's cajoling (Siva as Remo has earlier promised her that he would "change himself" to a man as a "magic trick"), Siva removes his Remo disguise, exposing his identity to Kavya. Betrayed and hurt, Kavya berates Siva for cheating her and ending her engagement and warns him never to go behind her again. Despite Siva's repeated pleas, Kavya refuses to budge and Siva sadly walks away.


title: Remo (film)

text: A few months later, Kavya's new friend (an old man) sits next to her on the bus. Kavya tells her latest problem to him: Siva is still attracted to her and constantly calls her, despite her having changed her number 46 times. However, she also admits that she still loves Siva and is only avoiding him as she wants to punish him for cheating her earlier. At this juncture, she accidentally finds out that the old man is none other than Siva in disguise. After scolding Siva for cheating her yet again, she softens and asks him to marry her, to which he happily agrees.


title: Remo (film)

text: The film ends with Siva finally achieving his dream: acting along with his best friend Vallikanth in a movie which seems to be his life story named 'Remo Nee Kadhalan', directed by K. S. Ravikumar, in which actress Sri Divya plays the role of Kavya as Dr. Divya.


title: Remo (film)

text: R. D. Raja, who worked as a production consultant for movies "Boss Engira Baskaran", "Enthiran" and "Jilla", turned into a creative producer for P. Madan under the banner Escape Artists Motion Pictures. The company had produced "Maan Karate" and "Kakki Sattai" which stars Sivakarthikeyan in the lead role. During the post-production works of the latter in early February 2015, Sivakarthikeyan announced that he would work on a film, which will be produced by R. D. Raja under the banner 24AM Studios and directed by newcomer Bakkiyaraj Kannan. Kannan worked as an associate director for Atlee Kumar for the film "Raja Rani" (2013).


title: Remo (film)

text: The film was launched on 15 March 2015, but was briefly delayed to allow Bakkiyaraj Kannan to complete the script and finalise the cast and crew. Anirudh Ravichander who had composed for his earlier films, too joined as the composer in late June 2015. The project started on 1 July 2015, with the announcement of technical crew, which includes veteran cinematographer P. C. Sreeram, Academy award-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty, film editor Ruben, art director T. Muthuraj, stunt choreographer Anal Arasu, dance choreographer Raju Sundaram, Chennai-based costume designers Nalini Sriram, Anu Parthasarathy, Chaitanya Rao, Sean Foot from Weta Workshop, VFX Supervisor R. C. Kamalakannan as the crew members.


title: Remo (film)

text: Sivakarthikeyan reported in the media to be sporting a female look for certain scenes. The film's title was rumoured to be "Nurse Akka", while the makers officially announced the title as "Remo", on 17 February 2016, coinciding with the actor's birthday, which was inspired from Vikram's character in "Anniyan" (2005) directed by S. Shankar.


title: Remo (film)

text: Shruti Hassan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Amy Jackson were signed on to portray the lead female role, but they turned down the offer, due to schedule conflicts. In October 2015, Keerthy Suresh was finalised as the heroine, collaborating with the actor for the second time after "Rajinimurugan" (2016). Sathish and Rajendran were signed in as the comedians for the film. Saranya Ponvannan was chosen to play the role of Sivakarthikeyan's mother in the film. The supporting cast of the film includes Yogi Babu, Arunraja Kamaraj, Aadukalam Naren, Mayilsamy and Anson Paul, where the latter playing the villain role. In late June 2016, director K. S. Ravikumar and actress Sri Divya signed in to make a special appearance in the film.


title: Remo (film)

text: Sivakarthikeyan was spotted in three different looks, a youngster, woman, old man in the film. Sean Foot of Weta Workshop, who was a part in Vikram's "I" (2015), was revealed to be on board for make-up and special effects. It was also known that Sivakarthikeyan, will feature as a nurse in 60% of the film. He also dubbed in female voice, for his role as a nurse in the film, with the assistance of sound designer Resul Pookutty. Pookutty also claimed in the success meet, that composer A. R. Rahman offered technical support for his work, claiming that it was a "challenging experience".


title: Remo (film)

text: The film's principal photography commenced on 25 October 2015 with a photo shoot organised by Venket Ram. The film's introduction song was thereafter shot during November 2015 in the newly opened Chennai Metro and was choreographed by Raju Sundaram. After filming many portions which took place extensively in Chennai, the team moved to Vizag, in March 2016, for a new schedule. The last schedule of the film was commenced in May 2016, amidst post-production works. The film's shooting was wrapped up on 2 August 2016, and Sivakarthikeyan moved for his next film's shooting, which was directed by Mohan Raja.


title: Remo (film)

text: Sivakarthikeyan's lady getup in the film, gets inspired from Kamal Hassan's "Avvai Shanmughi" (1996). The Times of India, referred the film as a rejig of all other films – "Tootsie" (1982), "Minnale" (2001) and the actor's own "Maan Karate" (2014).


title: Remo (film)

text: In an interview with Galatta, about the promotions for his upcoming film "Velaikkaran" (2017), Sivakarthikeyan explains that the director Bakkiyaraj Kannan, inspired this from "Alaippayuthey" (2000), which was a classic film, in which the character Karthik (played by Madhavan in this film), stalks his love Sakthi (Shalini) and then falls in love. So Sivakarthikeyan, told that "If one woos his lover, by donning a lady getup, then it is a comedy film." Says Sivakarthikeyan.


title: Remo (film)

text: The soundtrack and background score of the film were composed by Anirudh Ravichander, in which he collaborates with Sivakarthikeyan for the fifth time. The album features seven songs, and a bonus track with lyrics were written by Vignesh Shivan, Vivek, Ku. Karthik, Inno Genga and L. H. Harish Raam. The audio rights were acquired by Sony Music India. Before the album being released, four songs, "Remo Nee Kadhalan", "Senjitaley", "Sirikkadhey" and "Come Closer" (a reprised version of "Sirikkadhey"), were released as singles on 23 June, 1 July, 18 and 26 August. The entire album was launched on 5 September 2016, by composer A. R. Rahman, and it was made available to download on the internet. Post-release, a bonus track "Veshangalil Poiyillai" was released on 16 October, coinciding with the composer's birthday.


title: Remo (film)

text: The film was scheduled for its worldwide theatrical release on 7 October 2016, coinciding with the Dusshera holidays, and also clashing with "Rekka" and "Devi", which were slated to release on the same day. On 27 September, the film was censored with a U certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification, making eligible for exemption of state government's thirty-percent entertainment tax as well. The advance bookings of the film were started on 5 October 2016, in Tamil Nadu, with most of the theatres in Chennai, started its bookings on 4 October. The film also released in US and UK with more than 60 screens. An audio descriptive featuring Sivakarthikeyan, was premiered at Sathyam cinemas in Chennai. The dubbed Telugu version of the film, which was bagged by Dil Raju, scheduled to release on 4 November. But the film released worldwide on 25 November 2016. The film was released on 9 October 2016, in Japan, at the New Minato Aeon Mall in Nagoya region and the ticket sales were around 2000, thus becoming the first Tamil film to release in this region. The film was not released in Karnataka owing to the Kaveri River water dispute.


title: Remo (film)

text: The first look and the motion poster for the film was supposed to be released at a grand launch event, held on 9 June 2016, but it was pushed to 23 June, to avoid clash with the audio launch event of Rajinikanth-starrer "Kabali", which was held on the same day. The event was held on 23 June 2016, at Chennai, where producer A. V. M. Saravanan, director Shankar and many more celebrities marking their presence, at the event, along with the film's cast and crew, and director Shankar launched the first look of the film. It features Sivakarthikeyan, as a youngster and a nurse in the film. The making video of the film was released on 2 July 2016, at the 5th South Indian International Movie Awards event held at Singapore, which shows Sivakarthikeyan's extreme makeover as a female nurse.


title: Remo (film)

text: The film's producer R. D. Raja, announced that the business of the film will commence on 2 August 2016, making it the first time in the history of Tamil cinema that a production house is opening trading on a film by announcing a date, in which the Tamil Nadu theatrical rights of the film were sold to . The Kerala rights of the film was sold to Shibu Thameens under the Thameens Films banner. AGS Entertainment acquired the distribution rights of the film in the Chengalpet region. The Chennai city theatrical rights were sold to Jazz Cinemas. Prime Media acquired the distribution rights in the United States.


title: Remo (film)

text: The theatrical trailer of the film released on 19 September 2016. It received overwhelming response from fans, and crossed 3.7 million views, with 61,000 likes, becoming the most viewed Tamil trailer of the year, after "Kabali", "Theri" and "Iru Mugan". As a part of the film's promotion, the makers placed many "cupid" statues (an animation figure, which has a major role in the film), across various malls and theatres, to attract kids and adults. The Telugu rights of the film were acquired by Dil Raju. The first look of the film's Telugu version was happened in Hyderabad on 21 October 2016.


title: Remo (film)

text: On 12 October 2016, at the success meet of the film, Sivakarthikeyan became emotional, and cried on stage. He revealed that, when the film was ready for release, there were quite a few obstacles planted by people who wanted to ensure it didn't release. He faced a similar agony when his "Rajini Murugan", saw a delayed release.


title: Remo (film)

text: P. L. Thenappan, the general secretary of Tamil Nadu Producers Council, has told a website that K. E. Gnanavelraja of Studio Green, Madan of Escape Artists and Vendhar Movies Madhan have filed formal complaints accusing the actor of taking advance amounts to act in their films, but failing to fulfil his commitments. Gnanavel Raja has an agreement copy of their deal, while the other two do not have the same. On the other hand, Sivakarthikeyan has admitted to have taken the advance amount from Gnanavel Raja, but there is no mention of the other two. Actors Simbu and Vishal, extended support to Sivakarthikeyan about the issue.


title: Remo (film)

text: Upon release, the film irked criticism for glorifying stalking. Chennai based PhD scholar Iswarya V, started the online petition against glorification of stalking in Tamil films by their "Calling Out Stalking" campaign, as an aftermath of the Swathi murder case, in the same year of June, created a nationwide uproar; she points that "Tamil films routinely promote stalking, as romantic, but doesn't know that these are also responsible for crimes against women." The campaign had publicly advocated to boycott the film, because of the glorification of stalking, in which Sivakarthikeyan, stalks Keerthy Suresh, by dressing in drag.


title: Remo (film)

text: The film was subjected to criticism upon release, after many film critics gave harshly critical response because of the theme and the film's subject, which many of them found as regressive and old-fashioned. Apart from stalking, the weak characterisation of the film's lead actress Keerthy Suresh (where her character had similarities to the typical loosu ponnu trope in mainstream cinema), were also noted by critics. Ananda Vikatan, a popular tamil magazine gave 36 marks to the film, with a bottomline stating that "the film is detrimental to the Tamil cinema and society".


title: Remo (film)

text: Followed by the controversial issue, Sivakarthikeyan in March 2018, later announced that his future films will not have drinking or stalking scenes. In an interview with "Deccan Chronicle", he stated:


title: Remo (film)

text: Baradwaj Rangan of "The Hindu" wrote "Remo is less about convincing us that a man can become a woman than reminding us Sivakarthikeyan has become a star." M. Suganth of "The Times of India", rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, and reviewed "The film is a rejig of elements that we have seen in other films earlier." "Behindwoods" rated the film 2.75 out of 5 stars, and reviewed that "Remo will certainly appeal to its target audience, and Sivakarthikeyan is charming enough to carry the whole film on his shoulders. It's a cute romantic comedy which is enjoyable and vibrant." while criticising the screenplay, further added "A wafer thin story is the biggest negative in Remo. Performances, technicalities, and promotions have managed to camouflage this weak link in the movie effectively. But if only more care was taken in the story and screenplay department, the film would have emerged as a better product." "Sify" rated the film 2.75 out of 5, with a statement ""Remo" is a watchable romantic comedy which is both funny and flashy." "Studioflicks" rated the film 3 out of 5, stating "Remo is a feel good movie with a regular Rom-Com pattern but manages to keep the audiences engrossed with beautiful visuals and technical elegance along with screen presence of Sivakarthikeyan."


title: Remo (film)

text: S. Saraswathi of the "Rediff" rated 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated "Sivakarthikeyan does make a pretty picture as a girl, but other than that debutant director Bakkiyaraj Kannan's "Remo" has nothing new to offer." "The Indian Express" rated the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, with a verdict "When you walk into a Sivakarthikeyan film, especially one like Remo, you can’t expect logic; you can’t expect to be bowled over by a great script and you definitely can’t expect to like everything you see in the film. it’s disappointing that so much effort has gone into everything but the script, making Remo entertaining but not charming enough". S. Srivatsan of "India Today" rated the film 1.5 out of 5 and stated that "Remo itself seems to be a spoof of any of actor-filmmaker Bhagyaraj's films. In all, Remo gives an all-new dimension to stalking. As its lead actor puts it, there's no problem in stalking as long as 'your love is pure'. Not sure what common people would make out of it." Sreedhar Pillai of "Firstpost" reviewed it as "On the whole "Remo" is entertaining, provided you leave your brain behind, like the cliche goes. See it for Sivakarthikeyan, the one-man entertainer, who provides some of the craziest moments in the film." Top10Cinema gave a rating of 2.5 out of 5, stating "Remo despites having some drawbacks would definitely impress the family audiences, specifically for this festive season of long holidays." and gave a verdict "Time-worn love story packaged with Sivakarthikeyan’s dedication and technical brilliance".


title: Remo (film)

text: Hindustan Times rated the film 2 out of 5, stating that "A done-to-death plot can’t save this film despite some impressive performances by Keerthy Suresh and Sivakarthikeyan." Silverscreen reviewed that "With a film like "Remo", the audience knows that brains and sensibilities need to be left behind at home. But it takes a lot more than that to scrape this empty and misogynistic barrel for any kernels of enjoyment." Anupama Subramanian of Deccan Chronicle, rated 2 out of 5, stating "Remo', turns out to be a marketing effort that targets young males with very stereotypical behaviors that are generally found in other films. The sort of young desperado who comes across a woman and decides that she is his fit and henceforth determines to pursue her wherever she goes. And, this despite the woman not reciprocating the said approaches. There’s another word reserved for such conduct: stalking, or perhaps, harassment. This in short is a Bakkiyaraj Kannan’s 'Remo' feel like: a complete mismatch of tongue-in-cheek and subject matter."


title: Remo (film)

text: The film which released along with "Rekka" and "Devi", made a good opening grossing crores on the first day, becoming the third highest opener after "Kabali" and "Theri". All the three films have slowed down the business of "", which crossed the 2 crore mark in Chennai. On the opening weekend the film grossed crores. By the end of the first week, the film grossed crores. Within 10 days, the film earned at the worldwide box office. In Chennai, the film collected in the opening weekend, in the first week and , in the second week. Totaling up to , "Remo", stands at third place crossing the 6-crore mark, followed by other profitable ventures "Thani Oruvan" and "Vedalam".


title: Remo (film)

text: However, the film's box office performance was slightly affected by the Diwali releases, as well as the 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation. Nevertheless, the extensive promotional campaign, helped to gain profits. The film collected in Tamil Nadu, in Kerala, in Karnataka, and in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with , in other parts of India, the overall box-office collection accounts to , and collected in overseas. The film collected . A commercial success, it was listed as the third highest-grossing film at the Chennai box office, and also listed in the top five profitable ventures of the year.


title: Remo (film)

text: The Satellite Rights of the film were bagged by Jaya TV. Later in 2020, the Satellite Rights were sold to Star Vijay. The Digital Rights were acquired by Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar respectively.


title: Remo (film)

text: Following the controversy of the portrayal of stalking in the film, YouTuber Dudemachi Varun inspired Sivakarthikeyan's Regina Motwani character about the discussion of stalking in Tamil films, through "The Dudemachi Show". Another YouTube channel "Put Chutney", used some of its references from the film, for an awareness video about workplace harassment, which featured Venkatesh Harinathan, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli and Vinodhini Vaidyanathan. Three women police officers raised an awareness about misogyny in Tamil films, put a footage of a particular scene from the film, for an example.


title: Remo (film)

text: On 19 October 2016, Rajinikanth who watched the special screening of the film, praised Sivakarthikeyan for his effort. In the end of 2016, the film was featured in the most searched word in Google, across Tamil Nadu, one of the few Indian films to feature in this list.


title: Remo (film)

text: A Chennai-based startup company led by Sakthivel Panneerselvam and team, recreated a huge set based on a scene where Sivakarthikeyan proposes Keerthy Suresh, for wedding purposes. Sakthivel stated that "Once we recreated an entire set based on the film for a client. He wanted to propose to his long-time partner and they loved the film. So we arranged for everything, from fire crackers to the elaborate fairy lights. The in-house team of 5 along with our freelancers meticulously planned and designed the sets and the results were fabulous." This scene was parodied in the spoof film "Tamizh Padam 2.0" (2018).


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: Perfect is a 1985 American romantic drama film directed by James Bridges and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was written by Aaron Latham and James Bridges and is based on a series of articles that appeared in "Rolling Stone" magazine in the late 1970s, chronicling the popularity of Los Angeles health clubs among single people. Its story follows journalist Adam Lawrence, who is assigned to interview a successful entrepreneur accused of dealing drugs. He is then assigned to cover a second story and decides to do an exposé on fitness clubs, where he meets an aerobics instructor named Jessie Wilson, who does not have a great deal of trust in journalists. It stars John Travolta, Jamie Lee Curtis, Anne De Salvo, Marilu Henner, Laraine Newman, Matthew Reed, and Jann Wenner.


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: The film was produced by Delphi III and Pluperfect and was released on June 7, 1985. It grossed $4.2 million during its opening weekend and $12.9 million worldwide, against a budget of $20 million.


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: "Rolling Stone" reporter Adam Lawrence (John Travolta) is sent from New York to Los Angeles to write an article about a businessman arrested for dealing drugs. During his stay in L.A., Adam sees a chance to collect material for another story about how "Fitness clubs are the singles bars of the '80s". He visits "The Sport Connection," a popular gym where he meets workout instructor Jessie Wilson (Jamie Lee Curtis) and asks her for an interview. Because of a previous bad experience with the press when she was a competitive swimmer, Jessie declines.


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: Adam joins the fitness club and soon coaxes other club members to tell him about the gym and its impact on their love lives. Some, such as fun-loving Linda and Sally, are all too candid about their experiences with the opposite sex. Although she doesn't agree to be a part of his story, a romance does ultimately develop between Jessie and Adam, resulting in a moral dilemma; as a journalist he has lost his objective point of view.


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: Jessie comes to trust him. Less cynical than before, Adam makes a determined effort to show Jessie that not all journalists are out for the cheap sensation. He writes an in-depth, fair-minded analysis of fitness clubs as a singles meeting scene. But it is deemed unacceptable by his boss, Rolling Stone's editor in chief Mark Roth (Jann Wenner).


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: Adam's article is turned over to others for editing, using material supplied by his colleague Frankie, a photographer. She finds an old magazine article featuring embarrassing details about a romance involving Jessie. Adam travels to Morocco for another assignment, unaware of the changes being made in his story; he finds out too late to stop it. This has devastating impact on Jessie, as well as on others like Sally and Linda, described as "the most used piece of equipment in the gym."


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: Adam tries to explain the whole situation to Jessie, but can't. Meanwhile, he must attend a trial at which he's supposed to testify. As a reporter, using rights granted by the First Amendment, he decides not to comply with a judge who orders Adam to hand over tapes from the businessman's interview. Adam is jailed for contempt of court.


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: Jessie can see that Adam is a man of his word and believes him that he did not write the article the way it appeared in "Rolling Stone".


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" wrote that the film "is too superficially knowing to be a camp classic, but it's an unintentionally hilarious mixture of muddled moralizing and all-too-contemporary self-promotion," and noted that "Rolling Stone receives more reverent treatment in 'Perfect' than The Washington Post received in 'All the President's Men.'" "Variety" wrote, "Set in the world of journalism, pic is guilty of the sins it condemns — superficiality, manipulation and smugness. On any level, 'Perfect' is an embarrassment and unlikely to satisfy any audience." Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "What's missing is any real development of a relationship between Travolta and Curtis. Yes, she bawls him out a couple of times about his journalism techniques, but all is forgotten in the film's happy-go-lucky ending that also cheaps out what has gone on before." Sheila Benson of the "Los Angeles Times" stated of the film that "any claim its makers, producer-director James Bridges and co-writer Aaron Latham, have to seriousness dissolves as the film becomes more voyeuristic and manipulative than the profession it indicts," adding that "Travolta performs with no edge to his character whatsoever, and the direction further confuses things by never letting us understand whether he's generally unprincipled or just a regular guy who from time to time does lousy things." Paul Attanasio of "The Washington Post" called the film "a trashy movie about women jumping up and down in leotards, but it's also more (and less) than that, a look at the wages of the free press. Despite a number of fine performances, a few good hoots and more daunting bodies, it's far from perfect. It touts the First Amendment like a corny romance from the '40s—stars and stripes in spandex." Paul Willistein of "The Morning Call" wrote, "'Perfect' isn't perfect, but it at least tries to inject some serious themes into a movie that is essentially summer fluff."


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: "Perfect" was nominated for three Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Actor (John Travolta), Worst Supporting Actress (Marilu Henner) and Worst Screenplay. The movie was nominated for a Stinkers Bad Movie Awards for Worst Picture. As of May 2022, it holds a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on sixteen reviews. In a 1994 interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine, Quentin Tarantino called the movie "greatly underappreciated."


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book "The Official Razzie Movie Guide" as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made. On October 16, 2015, the film was covered on the podcast for bad movies "How Did This Get Made?"


title: Perfect (1985 film)

text: The soundtrack to "Perfect" was initially released in 1985 as a 12" vinyl record, and later re-released on CD.


title: The PTL Club

text: The PTL Club, also known as The Jim and Tammy Show, was a Christian television program that was first hosted by evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, running from 1974 to 1989. The program was later known as PTL Today and as Heritage Today. During its final years, "The PTL Club", which adopted a talk show format, was the flagship television program of the Bakkers' PTL Satellite Network.


title: The PTL Club

text: Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker had been in the ministry with the Assemblies of God denomination since the early 1960s prior to joining Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), then based in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1965. The Bakkers launched a children's show called "Come On Over" where the couple entertained viewers with songs, stories, and puppets. In 1966, Jim Bakker became the host of "The 700 Club", a religious talk program that evolved from a telethon. "The 700 Club" would become the flagship program of CBN, which expanded from its original Hampton Roads station to include outlets in Atlanta and Dallas–Fort Worth by 1973.


title: The PTL Club

text: Beginning in 1972, the Bakker-hosted "700 Club" was launched in a dozen test markets, including then-independent station WRET-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina. However, the Bakkers departed CBN in 1973 and relocated to Southern California for a brief period, where they assisted Paul and Jan Crouch in launching Trinity Broadcasting Network before starting their own television ministry in North Carolina. When WRET-TV dropped "The 700 Club" in 1974, the station's then-owner Ted Turner approached Bakker about buying two hours a day on the outlet, which Bakker accepted. Bakker opted to call the show "The PTL Club", and "The 700 Club" moved to then-ABC affiliate WCCB in Charlotte.


title: The PTL Club

text: "The PTL Club" was launched in a small studio at WRET-TV in November 1974; the show expanded to a few other stations early the next year, such as WGGS-TV in Greenville, South Carolina; WHMB-TV in Indianapolis; WHCT in Hartford, Connecticut; and KHOF-TV in the Los Angeles area, among a few others. The show launched nationally in the fall of 1975, with two editions offered: one was the full two-hour edition, which tended to air on Christian stations and smaller independent stations, and the other was a one-hour edition which tended to air on stronger independent stations, as well as network affiliates.


title: The PTL Club

text: By 1976, the Bakkers moved their studio to the site of a former furniture store in Charlotte. With "The PTL Club" program as its centerpiece, the Bakkers and their staff built what became known as the PTL Television Network, broadcasting worldwide. In a "Tonight Show"-type format, the program featured many well-known ministers and Christian recording artists. In the beginning, Henry "Uncle Henry" Harrison, who had worked with Bakker at CBN, was Bakker's co-host and sidekick (much like Ed McMahon to Johnny Carson), and when Tammy Faye took over as co-host, Harrison became the announcer.


title: The PTL Club

text: The program was later broadcast from Bakker's Heritage Village ministry headquarters and complex on Park Road in Charlotte, and then moved to studios constructed at the ministry's new 2500-acre mixed-use family theme park and resort in Fort Mill, South Carolina, known as Heritage USA. Bakker's conspicuous consumption and prosperity gospel preaching led critics to claim that PTL stood for "Pass The Loot".


title: The PTL Club

text: As time went on and as more stations had additional programming commitments by 1980, many opted to only run an hour of the "PTL Club". In the fall of 1981, the show was cut to an hour, at which length it remained until its cancellation.


title: The PTL Club

text: Due to his involvement in highly publicized financial and sexual scandals, Jim Bakker resigned on March 19, 1987. He turned all ministry assets over to Lynchburg, Virginia–based pastor and broadcaster Jerry Falwell, who became CEO of the parent organization, Heritage Village Church and Missionary Fellowship, Inc. and assumed control of Heritage USA, the cable network, and of its flagship program. Falwell's involvement was deemed newsworthy, as the PTL ministries were a part of the Assemblies of God denomination and Falwell was a Southern Baptist. Ministry supporters questioned Falwell's intentions and attributed his interest solely to maintaining control of the lucrative cable-television empire owned by PTL to broadcast his own ministry programming.


title: The PTL Club

text: One commentator noted that "Bakker arranged for Falwell to take over PTL in March in an effort to avoid what he called a 'hostile takeover' of the television ministry by people threatening to expose a sexual encounter he admitted to having seven years earlier with church secretary Jessica Hahn." According to Hahn, on the afternoon of December 6, 1980, when she was a 21-year-old church secretary, Bakker and another preacher, John Wesley Fletcher drugged and raped her for "about 15 minutes". Hahn stated she overheard Bakker say afterward to another PTL staffer, "Did you get her too?"


title: The PTL Club

text: A federal grand jury indicted Bakker for diverting millions of dollars of church funds to personal use. Much of the nation watched the court case to see the outcome of the $165 million in donations.


title: The PTL Club

text: "The PTL Club" continued as a television program for a considerable time after this, first with Falwell as its host and PTL personality Doug Oldham as co-host. Falwell later brought in Christian singer Gary McSpadden as the show's co-host, along with PTL musical talent Ron Aldridge. The show was renamed "PTL Today", then—in an effort to distance the show from the PTL name—"Heritage Today". Aldridge continued as co-host alongside another PTL singer, Brenda Davis, after Falwell suddenly resigned from the now-bankrupt PTL ministry. McSpadden and Oldham subsequently left the show out of support for Falwell's decision to resign his position with the ministry.


title: The PTL Club

text: With Falwell's resignation, Sam Johnson, a member of the PTL ministry team, assumed leadership and incorporated a new entity known as Heritage Ministries to run the television program and associated ministry functions. As Heritage USA and PTL assets were now tied up in bankruptcy reorganization, the new ministry and the television program had to move from their longtime Heritage USA broadcast studios to newly bought property on Nations Ford Road in Charlotte that was named Heritage Place.


title: The PTL Club

text: In 1989, evangelist Morris Cerullo purchased the network out of bankruptcy. it operates as INSP from broadcast facilities in Charlotte, with headquarters in nearby Indian Land, South Carolina.


title: The PTL Club

text: On August 23, 1991, after the second and final day of his re-sentencing hearing, the court reduced Bakker's original 45-year sentence to 18 years, five of which he actually served before being released.


title: The PTL Club

text: In February 2009, Atlanta, Georgia investment-banker Ben Dyer announced his intention to auction off over 15,000 hours of videotaped episodes of "The PTL Club" on March 27, 2009. A friend of Jim Bakker's purchased the programs. The master library of PTL programming has been returned to Jim Bakker and the old tapes are being digitally remastered and restored. Restored programs are being run on the new PTL Television Network on Roku and online at the PTL Television Network's website.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Electromagnetic interference (EMI), also called radio-frequency interference (RFI) when in the radio frequency spectrum, is a disturbance generated by an external source that affects an electrical circuit by electromagnetic induction, electrostatic coupling, or conduction. The disturbance may degrade the performance of the circuit or even stop it from functioning. In the case of a data path, these effects can range from an increase in error rate to a total loss of the data. Both man-made and natural sources generate changing electrical currents and voltages that can cause EMI: ignition systems, cellular network of mobile phones, lightning, solar flares, and auroras (northern/southern lights). EMI frequently affects AM radios. It can also affect mobile phones, FM radios, and televisions, as well as observations for radio astronomy and atmospheric science.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Since the earliest days of radio communications, the negative effects of interference from both intentional and unintentional transmissions have been felt and the need to manage the radio frequency spectrum became apparent.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: In 1933, a meeting of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in Paris recommended the International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) be set up to deal with the emerging problem of EMI. CISPR subsequently produced technical publications covering measurement and test techniques and recommended emission and immunity limits. These have evolved over the decades and form the basis of much of the world's EMC regulations today.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: In 1979, legal limits were imposed on electromagnetic emissions from all digital equipment by the FCC in the US in response to the increased number of digital systems that were interfering with wired and radio communications. Test methods and limits were based on CISPR publications, although similar limits were already enforced in parts of Europe.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: In the mid 1980s, the European Union member states adopted a number of "new approach" directives with the intention of standardizing technical requirements for products so that they do not become a barrier to trade within the EC. One of these was the EMC Directive (89/336/EC) and it applies to all equipment placed on the market or taken into service. Its scope covers all apparatus "liable to cause electromagnetic disturbance or the performance of which is liable to be affected by such disturbance".


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: This was the first time there was a legal requirement on immunity, as well as emissions on apparatus intended for the general population. Although there may be additional costs involved for some products to give them a known level of immunity, it increases their perceived quality as they are able to co-exist with apparatus in the active EM environment of modern times and with fewer problems.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Many countries now have similar requirements for products to meet some level of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) regulation.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Conducted electromagnetic interference is caused by the physical contact of the conductors as opposed to radiated EMI, which is caused by induction (without physical contact of the conductors). Electromagnetic disturbances in the EM field of a conductor will no longer be confined to the surface of the conductor and will radiate away from it. This persists in all conductors and mutual inductance between two radiated electromagnetic fields will result in EMI.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Interference with the meaning of "electromagnetic interference", also "radio-frequency interference" ("EMI" or "RFI") is according to "Article 1.166" of the International Telecommunication Unions (ITU) Radio Regulations (RR) defined as "The effect of unwanted energy due to one or a combination of emissions, radiations, or inductions upon reception in a radiocommunication system, manifested by any performance degradation, misinterpretation, or loss of information which could be extracted in the absence of such unwanted energy".


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: This is also a definition used by the frequency administration to provide frequency assignments and assignment of frequency channels to radio stations or systems, as well as to analyze electromagnetic compatibility between radiocommunication services.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Conducted EMI is caused by the physical contact of the conductors as opposed to radiated EMI which is caused by induction (without physical contact of the conductors).


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Interference tends to be more troublesome with older radio technologies such as analogue amplitude modulation, which have no way of distinguishing unwanted in-band signals from the intended signal, and the omnidirectional antennas used with broadcast systems. Newer radio systems incorporate several improvements that enhance the selectivity. In digital radio systems, such as Wi-Fi, error-correction techniques can be used. Spread-spectrum and frequency-hopping techniques can be used with both analogue and digital signalling to improve resistance to interference. A highly directional receiver, such as a parabolic antenna or a diversity receiver, can be used to select one signal in space to the exclusion of others.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: The most extreme example of digital spread-spectrum signalling to date is ultra-wideband (UWB), which proposes the use of large sections of the radio spectrum at low amplitudes to transmit high-bandwidth digital data. UWB, if used exclusively, would enable very efficient use of the spectrum, but users of non-UWB technology are not yet prepared to share the spectrum with the new system because of the interference it would cause to their receivers (the regulatory implications of UWB are discussed in the ultra-wideband article).


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: In the United States, the 1982 Public Law 97-259 allowed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the susceptibility of consumer electronic equipment.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Potential sources of RFI and EMI include: various types of transmitters, doorbell transformers, toaster ovens, electric blankets, ultrasonic pest control devices, electric bug zappers, heating pads, and touch controlled lamps. Multiple CRT computer monitors or televisions sitting too close to one another can sometimes cause a "shimmy" effect in each other, due to the electromagnetic nature of their picture tubes, especially when one of their de-gaussing coils is activated.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Electromagnetic interference at 2.4 GHz may be caused by 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n wireless devices, Bluetooth devices, baby monitors and cordless telephones, video senders, and microwave ovens.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Switching loads (inductive, capacitive, and resistive), such as electric motors, transformers, heaters, lamps, ballast, power supplies, etc., all cause electromagnetic interference especially at currents above 2 A. The usual method used for suppressing EMI is by connecting a snubber network, a resistor in series with a capacitor, across a pair of contacts. While this may offer modest EMI reduction at very low currents, snubbers do not work at currents over 2 A with electromechanical contacts.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Another method for suppressing EMI is the use of ferrite core noise suppressors (or ferrite beads), which are inexpensive and which clip on to the power lead of the offending device or the compromised device.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Switched-mode power supplies can be a source of EMI, but have become less of a problem as design techniques have improved, such as integrated power factor correction.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Most countries have legal requirements that mandate electromagnetic compatibility: electronic and electrical hardware must still work correctly when subjected to certain amounts of EMI, and should not emit EMI, which could interfere with other equipment (such as radios).


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Radio frequency signal quality has declined throughout the 21st century by roughly one decibel per year as the spectrum becomes increasingly crowded. This has inflicted a Red Queen's race on the mobile phone industry as companies have been forced to put up more cellular towers (at new frequencies) that then cause more interference thereby requiring more investment by the providers and frequent upgrades of mobile phones to match.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: The International Special Committee for Radio Interference or CISPR (French acronym for "Comité International Spécial des Perturbations Radioélectriques"), which is a committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) sets international standards for radiated and conducted electromagnetic interference. These are civilian standards for domestic, commercial, industrial and automotive sectors. These standards form the basis of other national or regional standards, most notably the European Norms (EN) written by CENELEC (European committee for electrotechnical standardisation). US organizations include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the US Military (MILSTD).


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Integrated circuits are often a source of EMI, but they must usually couple their energy to larger objects such as heatsinks, circuit board planes and cables to radiate significantly.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: On integrated circuits, important means of reducing EMI are: the use of bypass or decoupling capacitors on each active device (connected across the power supply, as close to the device as possible), rise time control of high-speed signals using series resistors, and IC power supply pin filtering. Shielding is usually a last resort after other techniques have failed, because of the added expense of shielding components such as conductive gaskets.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: The efficiency of the radiation depends on the height above the ground plane or power plane (at RF, one is as good as the other) and the length of the conductor in relation to the wavelength of the signal component (fundamental frequency, harmonic or transient such as overshoot, undershoot or ringing). At lower frequencies, such as 133 MHz, radiation is almost exclusively via I/O cables; RF noise gets onto the power planes and is coupled to the line drivers via the VCC and GND pins. The RF is then coupled to the cable through the line driver as common-mode noise. Since the noise is common-mode, shielding has very little effect, even with differential pairs. The RF energy is capacitively coupled from the signal pair to the shield and the shield itself does the radiating. One cure for this is to use a braid-breaker or choke to reduce the common-mode signal.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: At higher frequencies, usually above 500 MHz, traces get electrically longer and higher above the plane. Two techniques are used at these frequencies: wave shaping with series resistors and embedding the traces between the two planes. If all these measures still leave too much EMI, shielding such as RF gaskets and copper or conductive tape can be used. Most digital equipment is designed with metal or conductive-coated plastic cases.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Any unshielded semiconductor (e.g. an integrated circuit) will tend to act as a detector for those radio signals commonly found in the domestic environment (e.g. mobile phones). Such a detector can demodulate the high frequency mobile phone carrier (e.g., GSM850 and GSM1900, GSM900 and GSM1800) and produce low-frequency (e.g., 217 Hz) demodulated signals. This demodulation manifests itself as unwanted audible buzz in audio appliances such as microphone amplifier, speaker amplifier, car radio, telephones etc. Adding onboard EMI filters or special layout techniques can help in bypassing EMI or improving RF immunity.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Some ICs are designed (e.g., LMV831-LMV834, MAX9724) to have integrated RF filters or a special design that helps reduce any demodulation of high-frequency carrier.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Designers often need to carry out special tests for RF immunity of parts to be used in a system. These tests are often done in an anechoic chamber with a controlled RF environment where the test vectors produce a RF field similar to that produced in an actual environment.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Interference in radio astronomy, where it is commonly referred to as radio-frequency interference (RFI), is any source of transmission that is within the observed frequency band other than the celestial sources themselves. Because transmitters on and around the Earth can be many times stronger than the astronomical signal of interest, RFI is a major concern for performing radio astronomy. Natural sources of interference, such as lightning and the Sun, are also often referred to as RFI.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Some of the frequency bands that are very important for radio astronomy, such as the 21-cm HI line at 1420 MHz, are protected by regulation. However, modern radio-astronomical observatories such as VLA, LOFAR, and ALMA have a very large bandwidth over which they can observe. Because of the limited spectral space at radio frequencies, these frequency bands cannot be completely allocated to radio astronomy; for example, redshifted images of the 21-cm line from the reionization epoch can overlap with the FM broadcast band (88–108 MHz), and therefore radio telescopes need to deal with RFI in this bandwidth.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Techniques to deal with RFI range from filters in hardware to advanced algorithms in software. One way to deal with strong transmitters is to filter out the frequency of the source completely. This is for example the case for the LOFAR observatory, which filters out the FM radio stations between 90 and 110 MHz. It is important to remove such strong sources of interference as soon as possible, because they might "saturate" the highly sensitive receivers (amplifiers and analog-to-digital converters), which means that the received signal is stronger than the receiver can handle. However, filtering out a frequency band implies that these frequencies can never be observed with the instrument.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: A common technique to deal with RFI within the observed frequency bandwidth, is to employ RFI detection in software. Such software can find samples in time, frequency or time-frequency space that are contaminated by an interfering source. These samples are subsequently ignored in further analysis of the observed data. This process is often referred to as "data flagging". Because most transmitters have a small bandwidth and are not continuously present such as lightning or citizens' band (CB) radio devices, most of the data remains available for the astronomical analysis. However, data flagging can not solve issues with continuous broad-band transmitters, such as windmills, digital video or digital audio transmitters.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Another way to manage RFI is to establish a radio quiet zone (RQZ). RQZ is a well-defined area surrounding receivers that has special regulations to reduce RFI in favor of radio astronomy observations within the zone. The regulations may include special management of spectrum and power flux or power flux-density limitations. The controls within the zone may cover elements other than radio transmitters or radio devices. These include aircraft controls and control of unintentional radiators such as industrial, scientific and medical devices, vehicles, and power lines. The first RQZ for radio astronomy is United States National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ), established in 1958.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Prior to the introduction of Wi-Fi, one of the biggest applications of 5 GHz band is the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar. The decision to use 5 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi was finalized in World Radiocommunication Conference in 2003; however, meteorological community was not involved in the process. The subsequent lax implementation and misconfiguration of DFS had caused significant disruption in weather radar operations in a number of countries around the world. In Hungary, the weather radar system was declared non-operational for more than a month. Due to the severity of interference, South African weather services ended up abandoning C band operation, switching their radar network to S band.


title: Electromagnetic interference

text: Transmissions on adjacent bands to those used by passive remote sensing, such as weather satellites, have caused interference, sometimes significant. There is concern that adoption of insufficiently regulated 5G could produce major interference issues. Significant interference can significantly impair numerical weather prediction performance and incur substantially negative economic and public safety impacts. These concerns led US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in February 2019 to urge the FCC to cancel proposed spectrum auctioning, which was rejected.


title: Shilpa Shinde

text: Shilpa Shinde (born 28 August 1977) is an Indian television actress. She is known for playing Angoori Tiwari in &TV's "Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hai!". In 2017, she participated in "Bigg Boss 11" and emerged as the winner by public votes.


title: Shilpa Shinde

text: Shinde was born on 28 August 1977 into a Maharashtrian family. Her father, Dr. Satyadeo Shinde, was the judge of a High Court while her mother Geeta Satyadeo Shinde is a homemaker. She has two elder sisters and a younger brother. Shinde was a psychology student, but failed to obtain her bachelor's degree. Her father wanted her to study law, but she was not interested in studying the subject.


title: Shilpa Shinde

text: Shinde met actor Romit Raj on the set of TV show "Maayka" (2007–2009). The two started dating each other soon afterwards. They got engaged in 2009 however both called it off later.


title: Shilpa Shinde

text: Shinde went into depression when her father died in 2013 of Alzheimer’s disease. Her father did not want her to take up acting as a profession. Shinde said, "He never wanted me to get into acting but when I insisted he did give me a year’s time and I became an actress. I was there with him day and night in the last couple of months and now he is gone."


title: Shilpa Shinde

text: Shinde made her television debut in 1999. She came into the spotlight for her role in the serial "Bhabhi" (2002–08). She next starred in the serial "Kabhi Aaye Na Judaai" (2001–03) and later played the role of Chitra in "Sanjeevani" (2002). In 2002 in the same year she played the lead role in "Amrapali" (2002). Later, she continued to play another role in the show "Miss India" (2004). In January 2004, Shinde played the parallel lead as Meher in DD National's show "Meher – Kahani Haq Aur Haqeeqat Ki" until January 2006. She later was seen in Star Plus show "Hatim". In 2005, Shilpa played a role in Zee TV's "Rabba Ishq Na Hove" as Juhi until 2006. She then was seen in "Betiyaan Apni Yaa Paraaya Dhan" as Veera, "Hari Mirchi Lal Mirchi", and "Waaris" as Gayatri.


title: Shilpa Shinde

text: Shinde's breakthrough role was Koyal Narayan in SAB TV's sitcom "Chidiya Ghar" opposite Paresh Ganatra. Shinde quit the show in March 2013 due to problems in her personal life and was replaced by Shubhangi Atre, who played the part for a year. Atre had to leave the show when Shinde decided to return in June 2014 but in September of the same year, Shinde decided to quit again. She said, "I was promised a lot of things and told that the character will have an interesting graph. However, the producer has failed to keep his promise. Since I wasn't too happy with my track, I decided to quit the show." Shinde was permanently replaced by "Baal Veer" actress Aditi Sajwan.


title: Shilpa Shinde

text: In January 2015, it was reported that Shinde had been approached to play the lead role in &TV's new sitcom "Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai!". She was initially cast to play a glamorous neighbour Anita Mishra (eventually played by Saumya Tandon) but had to play the simple housewife, Angoori Tiwari, when actress Rashami Desai, who had been cast to play Angoori, opted out due to personal reasons. Shinde became a household name with her portrayal of Angoori Bhabhi in "Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai!", but she quit in March 2016 after having several issues with the makers and accusing them of mentally torturing her. Shinde again was replaced by Shubhangi Atre in April 2016, who had also replaced her in "Chidiya Ghar" in 2014. Atre cited this fact as a mere coincidence.


title: Shilpa Shinde

text: In October 2017, Shinde participated in the reality show "Bigg Boss 11". One of her fellow contestants on the show was Vikas Gupta, the programming head of &TV, who was said to have played a major role in her ouster from Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai. Shinde emerged as the winner in January 2018.


title: Shilpa Shinde

text: In 2020, she appeared on "Gangs of Filmistan" and later quit by alleging that she wasn't given enough screentime and that the actors were made to work till midnight which was against the COVID-19 protocols. In December 2020, Shinde portrayed the role of Queen Meerawati in the web series "Paurashpur". It also starred Annu Kapoor, Milind Soman, Shaheer Sheikh and Flora Saini.


title: Shilpa Shinde

text: In August 2022, it was confirmed that Shinde is participating in "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 10" thus making her comeback to Hindi TV industry after 4 years. She was eliminated in Week 7, finishing at 12th place.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: Summerland is a 2020 British drama film written and directed by Jessica Swale, starring Gemma Arterton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Lucas Bond, Dixie Egerickx, Siân Phillips, Penelope Wilton and Tom Courtenay.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: Arterton plays as a reclusive writer who is forced to take in a young boy entrusted to her care during the Battle of Britain in 1940, and later, during the early days of the London Blitz. It was released in the United Kingdom on 31 July 2020 by Lionsgate.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: In 1940 Alice Lamb, who is working on her typewriter, lives in a cottage by the seaside in Kent. She has lived in the village since before the start of WWII, during which time she tolerated the harassment by local children who thought she was a witch because she was a loner.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: As part of the war effort, the brusque and reclusive writer is entrusted with the care of a young boy, Frank, who has been evacuated from London where it is unsafe. Alice had not volunteered to be a host and does not want to care for him as she fears it will interfere with her work researching mythology and folklore, but reluctantly agrees to let him stay believing that he has nowhere else to go and she will be able to be rid of him in a week.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: As she begins to accept Frank's presence, she recalls her relationship with Vera, a fellow student at university who wanted to be a novelist and with whom she fell in love. Vera breaks Alice's heart when she decides to end their relationship not because it was considered taboo, but because she has a strong desire to be a mother and it would not be possible with Alice.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: Alice and Frank start to bond after he takes an interest in her scholarly work and she explains Fata Morgana mirages to him. She tells him about The Summerland, the pagan idea of the afterlife that existed all around them. However, at the end of their week together she is still willing to let him be transferred to another home. Alice changes her mind and decides to keep Frank with her after learning that moving him to a new family will require his moving to another village and school.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: The day before Frank's birthday Alice is informed that his father has been killed in battle and she must break the news to him. As she was devastated by the similar loss of her own father, Alice decides to delay telling Frank. While preparing a permanent room for him to stay in, she finds photographs of Frank and his parents in his scrapbook and is shocked to discover that his mother is Vera. At the same time, during an argument with a school friend, Frank finds out that his father had died. Hurt and angry because Alice had not told him, Frank runs away to be with his mother in London. Alice goes after him, and the two arrive in time to find his home destroyed and in flames after a bombing. Alice and Frank spend the night in an air raid shelter and head back to Kent the following morning.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: While driving back to Kent, Frank yells at Alice to stop, jumps out and runs to the sea. Alice follows him onto the rocks, pleading with him that it isn't safe and to come back. Frank shouts at her that she knew about his father’s death and didn’t tell him. Distraught, Alice tells him that she wanted to but didn’t know how to and apologises. Frank says that he saw his father in Summerland. When he turns round, he slips and falls backwards into the water. He flails under the water until Alice swims out to where he is and manages to rescue him. After helping him get out, both of them gasp and cough up water profusely.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: The next morning, Alice brings Frank breakfast which he initially refuses. Alice reveals how she lost her own father years earlier, that she struggled to come to terms with it. She then shows him the room she prepared for him, comforting him when he becomes upset looking through some family photos.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: When they return home a few days later, they find Vera waiting for them. She had not been home at the time of the bomb attacks. Vera confesses to having engineered the selection of Alice as the host for Frank because she knew that if anything were to happen to her, Alice would take care of him.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: Back in the present time, Alice is finalizing her manuscript and is interrupted by Vera. The two reunited and had since been living together. Alice and Vera are walking on the beach and are joined by an adult Frank who has come to visit his two mothers. Frank reads the dedication in Alice's manuscript, and it is dedicated to him.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: It was announced in April 2017 that Gemma Arterton had been cast in playwright Jessica Swale's directorial debut, with Swale also writing the screenplay. In May 2018, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Penelope Wilton and Tom Courtenay were added to the cast.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: Production was underway by September 2018, with filming locations throughout East Sussex in the towns of Seaford & Brighton as well as in the county of Kent. During October 2018, locations in Kent included the Chatham Historic Dockyard and Anchor Wharf, with shots of Dover Castle in Dover. The Sail and Colour Loft exterior, Church Lane, and Ropery exterior of the Dockyard doubled as East London streets during the Blitz; the Captain's House on Officer's Terrace was featured as a bombed-out house; and the cellars of the Fitted Rigging House on the Wharf doubled as an air raid shelter. Production wrapped in the last week of October.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: Embankment Films sold the United Kingdom distribution rights to Lionsgate UK on 31 October 2018. IFC Films acquired United States rights on 20 April 2020.


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has rating based on reviews from critics, and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus states: "In "Summerland", the living is a little too easy to raise dramatic stakes -- but Gemma Arterton's performance adds some much-needed extra heat." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted score of 56 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Summerland (2020 film)

text: "Summerland" was released on DVD in Region 2 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment on 12 October 2020. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD in Region A/1 by IFC Films on 17 November 2020.


title: + (album)

text: + (pronounced "plus") is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released on 9 September 2011 by Asylum Records and Atlantic Records. The album is considered Sheeran's commercial breakthrough. He previously released five EPs independently. Jake Gosling and Sheeran produced the majority of the album, with additional production by American hip hop producer No I.D.


title: + (album)

text: Media interest surrounding "+" was heightened by its two preceding singles—"The A Team" and "You Need Me, I Don't Need You"—which peaked at numbers three and four on the UK Singles Chart, respectively. "Lego House" was released on 11 November 2011 as the album's third single and matched the chart success of its predecessors, peaking at number five in the UK. Three additional singles—"Drunk", "Small Bump", and "Give Me Love"—were released throughout the year, all charting within the top 25 of the UK Singles Chart. Worldwide, the album has sold more than 4 million copies.


title: + (album)

text: The album was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. Upon release, "+" debuted atop of the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales exceeding 102,000 copies. The album performed well on the US "Billboard" 200, peaking at number five, selling 42,000 copies. The album was the highest debut for a British artist's first studio album in the US since Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" in 2009. "+" is the ninth best-selling album of the 2010s in the United Kingdom.


title: + (album)

text: After completing school at age 16, Sheeran spent his student grant on rail tickets. Moving from place to place, he performed at open-mic nights across the United Kingdom, where he would sleep on his friends' sofas spending time self-releasing homemade EPs and albums. After spending four years performing in the British live scene, Sheeran met singer Jamie Foxx in Los Angeles, and Foxx liked Sheeran enough to "put [Sheeran] on the path to success".


title: + (album)

text: In early 2010, Sheeran was having what he described as a "rough time" in the UK, and he spontaneously left for Los Angeles to spend a month "to see what could happen". After performing a gig in the city, he was approached by Foxx's contact, who produced open-mic nights endorsed by Foxx. She invited him to perform, which he agreed to, and after the performance he was contacted by Foxx's manager, who then asked him to perform on Foxx's radio show. After performing on the radio show, Foxx gave Sheeran his number offering studio time free of charge. Sheeran took the opportunity to record several tracks in the studio and attended several parties with Foxx, describing the time as "surreal". In addition, Sheeran's appearances on YouTube also garnered success when he uploaded a performance of track "You Need Me, I Don't Need You", which garnered over half a million views, making him "one of the most talked about UK acts".


title: + (album)

text: Following this, Sheeran signed to Atlantic Records and was signed to Elton John's management team called Rocket, which Sheeran discussed, saying: "Elton walked in and said, 'Where's Ed Sheeran?' I was like, 'F-ing hell! He knows my name!' It's surreal, growing up listening to his music and now he is one of the people who sings my praises and helps my career and rings me up and actually has an interest in me". Sheeran started performing with the acoustic guitar aged 11 and his love for the instrument was what "got [him] into music and singing". His musical inspirations from an early age surfaced from The Beatles and Bob Dylan, but he noted Damien Rice as a larger influence on his music whom he met after an intimate performance in Dublin. Throughout the production of +, Sheeran knew "how [he] wanted every single song to sound", and because of this they only took around one day each to record, with the final product featuring "the same sound", which he described as an achievement.


title: + (album)

text: "+" is influenced by rapper Eminem, hip-hop inspired duo Nizlopi and recording artist Damien Rice. Sheeran performs throughout the record with a small acoustic guitar, with "no band" and "no beats". "The Daily Telegraph" found that the lyricism is based around subjects he cares about in his own life, performing with a "soft toned, flexible voice" with a hip-hop theme. The record features "chipper" beats with staccato guitar riffs throughout. It differs between genres, with tracks such as "Grade 8" showing R&B influences, garnering comparisons to Bruno Mars, while the album also features folk-hop inspired tracks such as "Drunk", a "self-pitying, doomed attempt to resurrect a lost relationship". Lyricism also derives from Sheeran's own "self-doubt" heard in tracks such as "Wake Me Up" and "Kiss Me", which has been compared to musician Van Morrison. The record also visits a "darker side" on tracks such as "The City", which depicts homeless street-life and features Sheeran beat-boxing. The album concludes with the track "Give Me Love" and the Scottish folk song "The Parting Glass" as a bonus track.


title: + (album)

text: "+" received mixed to favourable reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 67, based on 9 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Andy Gill of "The Independent" gave the album four stars out of five, finding that Sheeran was right to follow his own "instincts" and not conform to mainstream pop music, saying: "if he had followed the advice to tone down the crackhead portrait of 'The A Team', Sheeran might have wound up with a respectable, if predictable, career as a mainstream folkie singer-songwriter rocking the outer reaches of Radio Two" but found his "nimble hip-hop delivery rides a slick R&B groove" and his "blue-collar sensibilities cut through" after not attending schools such as the Brits school. Alex Petridis of "The Guardian" gave the album three out of five stars, writing that, "at its worst, "+" is a pretty winsome business"; Petridis found the lyricism of tracks such as "Wake Me Up" weak, but stated that, "apart from his teen appeal, Sheeran's strength is his melodic ability, a way with a really strong, radio-friendly tune, as on 'The City' or 'Grade 8. However, Petridis concluded his review by stating: "You can't help wishing he'd put said ability to slightly more edgy use, but then again, he still might: at least there's evidence that Ed Sheeran might still be around when the screaming girls grow up and calm down." Jon O'Brien of AllMusic found that Sheeran failed to "capitalize on his unique selling point", stating: "Indeed, the unexpected hugely popular response to lead single 'The A Team', an achingly tender tale of a heroin-addicted prostitute (think a socially aware James Blunt) seems to have thrown him off course, as rather than pursue the more urban direction that set him apart from his contemporaries, the majority of Plus' 12 tracks feel like self-conscious attempts to replicate its sound".


title: + (album)

text: Natalie Shaw of BBC Music gave the album a mixed response, calling "+" at times "precocious" and "self-referencing", with the track "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" being listed as an example of this. However, in contrast, she found "Drunk" to be sweet, considered "Grade 8" a standout track, and positively commented on the chorus of track "The City". In conclusion, Shaw stated: ""+" will give Sheeran's rabid fanbase a lot to love, but it'll also make him an easy target for critics hungry for new directions in pop, as it fails to really gel the man's loves of folk and rap. If he ditches his bottom-of-a-Tube-escalator ballads (see 'Kiss Me') and stops trying to show off, Sheeran could well become a thrilling proposition over an entire long-player, rather than just in all-too-brief moments of magic." John Lewis of newspaper "Metro" gave the album a mixed review. He stating that Sheeran "is at his best when he combines both worlds. Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, his lovelorn ballads will suddenly lurch into verbose, rhythmically complex rhymes that display all the verbal dexterity of a grime MC". However, Lewis also found that Sheeran failed to maintain the success throughout, performing "gloopy" and "anonymous" ballads. Emily Mackay of "NME" gave the album four out of ten marks, questioning his authenticity as a musician. She wrote: "He's got the touches of 'urban' styling with flimsy hip-hop rhythms and Plan B-lite veering between half-arsed rapping and boyband emoting. He's got the 'issues' songs (the Dido-ish, maudlin 'Drunk', the omnipresent saccharine horror of the drugs/homelessness/prostitution triple-whammy of 'The A-Team')". She concluded her review by noting that "There's little here that moves on from the kind of trip-hop balladeers that abounded in the late '90s".


title: + (album)

text: In the United Kingdom, midweek sales reports showed that "+" was set to top the UK Albums Chart, although Digital Spy reported that it still faced competition from Laura Marling's album "A Creature I Don't Know". For the week of 18 September 2011, "+" debuted atop the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 102,000 copies. After the album topped the chart, Sheeran wrote on his Twitter account "No. 1 album and 2 songs in the top 20! mental! Thank you all so much!", and then added "Here's my THANK YOU for getting my album to #1! Hope you enjoy it", including a link to download a free EP. The EP featured three tracks: "Fire Alarms", "She" and a remix of single "You Need Me, I Don't Need You". By the end of 2011, the album had been certified Triple Platinum, indicating sales of over 900,000 copies. As of June 2015, the album has sold 1,958,000 copies in the UK, making it the sixth-best-selling album of the 2010s and the 44th-best-selling album of the 21st century. It is also one of the longest-charting albums in UK chart history, with over 200 weeks on the UK Albums Chart.


title: + (album)

text: In Australia, the album debuted at number 41 on the ARIA Albums Chart for the week commencing 31 October 2011, peaking at number one on 13 August 2012. The album has been certified Triple Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). By January 2013, the album had spent 65 consecutive weeks on the ARIA Albums Chart and was still in the Top 5. It reached the top 10 in 6 non-consecutive years, in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018, including a placement at No. 6 in its 222nd charting week in March 2018. In New Zealand, the album debuted at number 34 and ultimately topped the chart 54 weeks later. "+" debuted at number five on the "Billboard" 200 in the United States, selling 42,000 units in its first week. As of March 2017, "+" has sold 1.21 million copies in the United States.


title: + (album)

text: Ed Sheeran announced in May 2011 a 21 date UK & Ireland tour where he played songs from the newly released album.<ref name="Ed Sheeran / October 2011 UK Tour"></ref> Sheeran then went on to add further dates for the start of 2012 and it was confirmed he would be playing his largest gig yet at Brixton Academy.<ref name="Ed Sheeran / January 2012 UK Tour"></ref> Ed Sheeran would be touring the US for the first time in early 2012 by supporting Snow Patrol on their Fallen Empires Tour. It was announced that Sheeran would be touring Australia and New Zealand for the first time in the July and August 2012.<ref name="Ed Sheeran Australian Tour July/August 2012"></ref> Sheeran then announced in January that he would be doing his first headline tour of the US and his largest headline shows to date in the UK. Before supporting Taylor Swift on her The Red Tour, Sheeran embarked on an 18 date tour across the US