title: Hall-effect thruster

text: The solar electric propulsion system of the European Space Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft used a Snecma PPS-1350-G Hall thruster. SMART-1 was a technology demonstration mission that orbited the Moon. This use of the PPS-1350-G, starting on September 28, 2003, was the first use of a Hall thruster outside geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO). Like most Hall thruster propulsion systems used in commercial applications, the Hall thruster on SMART-1 could be throttled over a range of power, specific impulse, and thrust. It has a discharge power range of 0.46–1.19 kW, a specific impulse of 1,100–1,600 s and thrust of 30–70 mN.


title: Hall-effect thruster

text: Many small satellites of the SpaceX Starlink cluster use krypton-fueled Hall thrusters for position-keeping and deorbiting.


title: Hall-effect thruster

text: Tiangong space station is fitted with Hall-effect thrusters. Tianhe core module is propelled by both chemical thrusters and four ion thrusters, which are used to adjust and maintain the station's orbit. The development of the Hall-effect thrusters is considered a sensitive topic in China, with scientists "working to improve the technology without attracting attention". Hall-effect thrusters are created with crewed mission safety in mind with effort to prevent erosion and damage caused by the accelerated ion particles. A magnetic field and specially designed ceramic shield was created to repel damaging particles and maintain integrity of the thrusters. According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the ion drive used on Tiangong has burned continuously for 8,240 hours without a glitch, indicating their suitability for the Chinese space station's designated 15-year lifespan. This is the world's first Hall thruster on a human-rated mission.


title: Hall-effect thruster

text: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) granted exclusive commercial licensing to Apollo Fusion, led by Mike Cassidy, for its Magnetically Shielded Miniature (MaSMi) Hall thruster technology. In January 2021, Apollo Fusion announced they had secured a contract with York Space Systems for an order of its latest iteration named the "Apollo Constellation Engine".


title: Hall-effect thruster

text: The NASA mission to the asteroid Psyche will utilize xenon gas Hall thrusters. The electricity will come from the craft's 75 square meter solar panels.


title: Hall-effect thruster

text: NASA's first Hall thrusters on a human-rated mission will be a combination of 6 kW Hall thrusters provided by Busek and NASA Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS) Hall thrusters. They will serve as the primary propulsion on Maxar's Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) for the Lunar Gateway under NASA's Artemis program. The high specific impulse of Hall thrusters will allow for efficient orbit raising and station keep for the Lunar Gateway's polar near-rectilinear halo orbit.


title: Hall-effect thruster

text: The highest power Hall-effect thruster in development (as of 2021) is the University of Michigan's 100 kW X3 Nested Channel Hall Thruster. The thruster is approximately 80 cm in diameter and weighs 230 kg, and has demonstrated a thrust of 5.4 N.


title: Hall-effect thruster

text: Other high power thrusters include NASA's 40 kW Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS), meant to propel large-scale science missions and cargo transportation in deep space.


title: Capsule hotel

text: Capsule hotel (), also known in the Western world as a pod hotel, is a type of hotel developed in Japan that features many small bed-sized rooms known as capsules. Capsule hotels provide cheap, basic overnight accommodation for guests who do not require or who cannot afford larger, more expensive rooms offered by more conventional hotels.


title: Capsule hotel

text: The first capsule hotel in the world opened in 1979 and was the Capsule Inn Osaka, located in the Umeda district of Osaka, Japan and designed by Kisho Kurokawa. From there, it spread to other cities within Japan. Since then, the concept has further spread to various other territories, including Belgium, China, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Poland and Canada.


title: Capsule hotel

text: The guest room is a chamber roughly the length and width of a single bed, with sufficient height for a hotel guest to crawl in and sit up on the bed. The chamber walls may be made of wood, metal or any rigid material, but are often fibreglass or plastic. Amenities within the room generally include a small television, air conditioning, an electronic console, and power sockets. The capsules are stacked side-by-side, two units high, with steps or ladders providing access to the second level rooms, similar to bunk beds. The open end of the capsule can be closed with a curtain or a solid door for privacy, but can be locked from the inside only.


title: Capsule hotel

text: Like a hostel, many amenities are communally shared, including toilets, showers, wireless internet, and dining rooms. In Japan, a capsule hotel may have a communal bath and sauna. Some hotels also provide restaurants, snack bars or bars (or at least vending machines), pools, and other entertainment facilities. There may be a lounge with upholstered chairs for relaxing, along with newspapers and reading material.


title: Capsule hotel

text: Capsule hotels vary in size, from 50 or so capsules to 700, and primarily cater to men. Some capsule hotels offer separate sections for male and female guests, or even separate floors and elevators. Clothes and shoes are exchanged for a "yukata" and slippers on entry, and a towel and bathrobe may also be provided. Luggage and valuables are usually stored in lockers or—if available—in-room safes. Guests are asked not to smoke or eat in the capsules.


title: Capsule hotel

text: The benefit of these hotels are their convenience and low price, usually around ¥2000–4000 (USD –) a night.


title: Capsule hotel

text: In Japan, capsule hotels have been stereotypically used by Japanese salarymen who may be too drunk to return home safely, have missed the last train of the day to make a return trip home due to working late hours, or are too embarrassed to face their spouses. During the Japanese Recession, some unemployed or underemployed workers who had become homeless during the crisis temporarily rented capsules by the month. As of 2010, these customers made up 30% of visitors at the Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 in Tokyo.


title: Capsule hotel

text: Due to the arrangement of capsules, "Web Urbanist" has compared the beds in capsule hotels to corpse drawers in a morgue. In addition, because of the small interior space, "Forbes" advised that claustrophobic guests should not use capsule hotels.


title: Capsule hotel

text: Some hotels may not provide air conditioning in the capsules, leading to poor air flow, especially with the privacy curtain or door shut; furthermore, due to the close proximity of guests, pods with thin plastic walls easily transmit sounds made by other guests bumping into the walls.


title: Capsule hotel

text: Because some capsule hotels are designed for single-night stays, guests intending to stay for more than one day must check out and back in again every day.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon () is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Abbas Mustan. The film garnered controversy over keeping names on Hindus gods. Stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma made his Bollywood debut with this movie, as did actress Sai Lokur and supporting actress Jamie Lever. Other cast members include Arbaaz Khan, Manjari Fadnis, Simran Kaur Mundi, Elli Avram, Varun Sharma, Supriya Pathak, Sharat Saxena, Manoj Joshi and Sharad Sankla. Kapil Sharma was to have previously appeared in Yash Raj's film "Bank Chor", but he opted out of it. The music is composed by Tanishk Bagchi, Dr Zeus, Javed Mohsin and Amjad Nadim. The film was served with legal notice citing similarities to a Kannada film, "Nimbehuli" produced by Subhash Ghai.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: This film starts with a voiceover of the explanation of marriage and how it has changed people's lives. Then, Kumar Shiv Ram Kishan's life is introduced. It has been shown how Kumar accidentally marries three different women – Juhi, Anjali and Simran – to prevent them from committing suicide. Without letting them know about each other, he makes excuses to spend one night with each wife. On the advice of his friend, Karan, he buys three flats on different floors of the same building for his wives, and Kumar and Karan experience unlikely situations as a result.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: Kumar also has a girlfriend, Deepika, who he wants to marry, and Deepika's father accepts Kumar as his son-in-law. One evening before Karva Chauth, Deepika's father sees Kumar with his three wives, one at a time, but Kumar passes it off as an April Fool trick played by the women. Deepika's father again suspects Kumar when he sees Kumar's photo and believes him to be engaged to a female employee. Deepika and Kumar decide to marry in court to avoid tensions. However, another complication arises as Kumar's estranged parents reconcile, realize they each know their son to have a different wife, then learn he's to marry Deepika.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: Karan and Deepika wait a long time at the courthouse; when Kumar does arrive, he sees his three wives – who have become good friends with Deepika – and has to hide. Karan tells Deepika and the wives that the groom went to the hospital to help a friend, and to postpone the wedding by two days. The wives leave and Kumar comes out saying it's okay and they can marry, stopping Deepika when she tries to call her friends. He suggests going to a temple to marry and sends Karan to bring what they will need.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: Deepika's father brings Kumar and Deepika to his office and confronts his employee. The woman denies that Kumar is her fiancé, and Deepika's father realizes the photo had been left by his daughter. Deepika's father decides to fire his employee for making him doubt his future son-in-law, but Kumar saves her job and Deepika's father decides to celebrate the wedding.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: Everyone arrives on the day of the wedding, all made to wear wedding clothes so that they can't recognize Kumar or each other. However, Anjali's brother Tiger Bhai is in search of a guy and makes everyone put down their "pagri" (turbans, with veils concealing their faces). Kumar hesitates when it is his turn, but Tiger's men bring the guy and Kumar is spared.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: The wedding ceremony continues. By chance, Kumar's face passes in front of a fire and he is exposed. Kumar explains that he didn't break the heart of his three wives – that they forcefully made him marry, without listening to him or asking if he was married, that he couldn't leave them to commit suicide, and confesses his deep regret at breaking the heart of his true love, Deepika. Everyone cries and Kumar's mother hugs him tightly while Deepika's father asks Deepika to make her choice. In the end, all four wives are shown accepting each other, with only Tiger left in confusion.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: The film began production in the first week of November 2014. The film was produced by Ratan Jain, Ganesh Jain and Abbas–Mustan under their banner Venus Records & Tapes Pvt Ltd in association with Abbas Mustan Films Production Pvt Ltd.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: The background score is composed by Salil Amrute. The full audio album was released on 4 September 2015 by Zee Music Company. Most of the songs were choreographed by Ahmed Khan.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: The soundtrack for "Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon" was composed by Dr Zeus, Tanishk Bagchi, Javed–Mohsin and Amjad–Nadeem, with lyrics written by Shabbir Ahmed, Arafat Mehmood, Raj Ranjodh, Mavi Singh and Bhinda Bawakhe.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: "Bollywood Hungama" gave the film three stars out of five, citing the film as a perfect vehicle for Sharma's transition from television, the directors' successful transition from action to comedy, and the screenplay and dialogues as "extremely engaging" while calling the music a letdown.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: Rohit Bhatnagar of "Deccan Chronicle" wrote that Varun Sharma's portrayal of Karan was comical, but the screenplay was "dismal", the music was "ear piercing" and the dance numbers were "sleazy", with Kapil Sharma's dancing described as "stiff".


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: Martin D'Souza of "Glamsham" wrote, "it is Kapil's comic timing and assurance of turning a nondescript scene into something humongously hilarious is what tilts the scales in favour of this film.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: Renuka Vyavahare of "The Times of India" gave the movie 2 out of 5 stars, saying, "The girls look pretty and the samandar song is beautiful but if you want to see the film solely for Kapil's brand of humour, you get babaji ka thullu."


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: Subhash K. Jha of "SKJ Bollywood News" gave the movie 3 out of 5 stars, saying, "Off and on Abbas Mustan's purported comedy will remind you of the Govinda comedies directed by David Dhawan and Anees Bazmi's Sandwich. To his credit Kapil carries off the lighter moments with elan."


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: The film collected net on its opening day and became the highest first-day grosser for a newcomer, beating the previous record-holder, "Student of the Year".


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: On its second day the film collected . The film collected on its third day taking the first weekend total to net.


title: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

text: The film collected in India and grossed around at international markets in its first week taking its worldwide gross total to .


title: Welrod

text: The Welrod is a British bolt action, magazine fed, suppressed pistol devised during the Second World War by Major Hugh Reeves at the Inter-Services Research Bureau (later Station IX). Station IX, being based near Welwyn Garden City, gave the Welrod its unusual name, being derived from "Wel" from "Welwyn Garden City" (a prefix used by covert equipment designed by Station IX) and "rod", gangland slang for gun, as a way to obscure its purpose.


title: Welrod

text: Designed for use by irregular forces and resistance groups, the Welrod is an extremely quiet gun thanks to its integrated suppressor. Approximately 2,800 were made in wartime and perhaps 14,000 in total when post-war examples are included.


title: Welrod

text: The name "Welrod" comes from the custom of naming all clandestine equipment devised at Station IX in Welwyn Garden City starting with "Wel", e.g., "Welbike", "Welman". A document produced towards the end of the war ensured that the right people were properly credited for their inventions at Station IX. This document reveals that the inventor of the Welrod was Major Hugh Reeves. He was also responsible for other important designs, including the sleeve gun, which was similar to the Welrod, though single shot and made to conceal up a sleeve.


title: Welrod

text: The Welrod was used primarily by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) but was also used by the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and Resistance forces.


title: Welrod

text: The Welrod was a "sanitised" weapon, meaning that it had no markings indicating its manufacturer or country of origin; it was marked only with a serial number and some inscrutable symbols and letters. The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) confirmed that they manufactured some Welrod pistols but that they put no markings at all on them, so it is likely that any markings were added by the British military after delivery.


title: Welrod

text: The original model was the Welrod Mk II, chambered for .32 ACP. This was the primary model. Due to poor field results, the Welrod Mk I was subsequently developed using 9×19mm Parabellum rounds.


title: Welrod

text: The Welrod takes the form of a cylinder, about long. The rear section of the cylinder contains the bolt, the middle section, the vented (16–20 ports) barrel and expansion chamber for the barrel and the front section, the baffles (rubber) and wipes of the suppressor. There is a knurled knob at the rear that serves as the bolt handle, which unlocks when rotated 90 degrees. The magazine is also the grip and can be removed for ease of hiding. The exclusion of a pistol grip was apparently done to help conceal the weapon's purpose and in some groups it was called a "bicycle pump" due to its innocuous look with the magazine/grip removed.


title: Welrod

text: The Welrod is provided with sights marked with luminescent paint for use in low light conditions. The Mk I manual states: "It is accurate up to in daylight or on a fairly light night but is most effective when fired in contact with the target". The muzzle end of the gun is ground slightly concave to minimise noise during a contact shot; this may have also improved grip against the target, decreasing the chance of missing.


title: Welrod

text: The ported barrel of the Welrod serves two purposes, it releases the powder gases gradually into the rear of the suppressor, reducing the sound of firing and it reduces the velocity of the bullet to subsonic speeds (especially important in the 9 mm version since the standard 9 mm loading is supersonic). The metal baffles and rubber wipes that follow the barrel serve to further slow the gases of firing, releasing them over a longer period of time and avoiding the sharp explosion that occurs when high pressure powder gases are suddenly released to the atmosphere.


title: Welrod

text: The Welrod uses a bolt-action design because it is simple, reliable and quiet. The bolt-action has only the noise of the firing pin hitting the primer, and the bolt can be cycled quietly. Magazines of six and eight rounds were produced.


title: Welrod

text: The pistol is manually operated using a rotary bolt, locking with two lugs. Loading is performed with a pull/push action using the round knurled knob to the rear of the weapon. The trigger is single stage with a simple safety at the back of the magazine housing. The detachable single stack magazine contains six or eight rounds (depending on calibre) and serves as a pistol grip with the bottom part enclosed by the plastic cover.


title: Welrod

text: In 2002, Small Arms Review tested the Welrod (in .32 ACP) and found a 34-decibel noise reduction compared to a control pistol with a same length (3.25 inch) barrel for a final 122.8 decibel value. Earlier sound measurements did not meet the standards in place in 2002. According to Small Arms Review, the lower earlier measurements were ‘Undoubtedly […] a function of the available measuring equipment (including excessive meter rise time)’. A fully refurbished Welrod sounds quieter than a CO pellet pistol, with Philip H. Dater calling it ‘Hollywood quiet’. The Welrod's sound is almost imperceptible at 15 feet in a quiet environment and it would be inaudible to the operator in a noisy environment were the muzzle in contact with the target.


title: Welrod

text: There was a plan in 1943 to drop Welrods into German-occupied territories for the mass assassination of "Schutzstaffel" (SS) and Gestapo officers and soldiers within a one-month period by resistance units. This plan was possibly delayed or called off in the aftermath of Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by Czech resistance forces. In the wake of his assassination, an estimated 13,000 civilians were arrested and interrogated, 5,000 civilians murdered in German reprisal killings and the villages of Lidice and Ležáky destroyed.


title: Welrod

text: The Welrod was used in Denmark during the war as well as being dropped in several other countries and is reported to have been used during the 1982 Falklands War, throughout The Troubles in Northern Ireland and during operation Desert Storm by British Special Forces. Welrod guns were also found in weapons caches from Operation Gladio. The Welrod was also used by US Army Special Forces soldiers assigned to Detachment 'A' Berlin during the Cold War and by MACVSOG


title: Dave Goldberg

text: David Bruce Goldberg (October 2, 1967 – May 1, 2015) was an American management consultant and businessman. He was the founder of LAUNCH Media and the CEO of SurveyMonkey. He was married to Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.


title: Dave Goldberg

text: Goldberg was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 2, 1967 and grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His mother, Paula Goldberg, is co-founder and executive director of the Pacer Center, and his father, Melvin Bert "Mel" Goldberg (1942–1998), was associate dean and professor at the William Mitchell College of Law. He interned at the Minneapolis "Star Tribune" newspaper while in high school. He graduated from Blake School in Minneapolis in 1985, and graduated "magna cum laude" from Harvard University in 1989, majoring in history and government. Goldberg was an enthusiastic Minnesota Vikings fan throughout his life.


title: Dave Goldberg

text: Goldberg worked for Bain & Company for two years after graduating from college. He had planned to attend law school but instead joined Capitol Records, where he served as director of marketing strategy and new business development. He founded LAUNCH Media in 1994, and led it through its acquisition by Yahoo Inc. in 2001. He quit Yahoo in 2007 and joined Benchmark Capital. He then joined SurveyMonkey in 2009.


title: Dave Goldberg

text: In 2004, Goldberg married Sheryl Sandberg. The couple had two children and lived in Menlo Park, California. Prior to his death, he and Sandberg were active philanthropists, signing The Giving Pledge.


title: Dave Goldberg

text: On May 1, 2015, Goldberg died suddenly while vacationing with Sandberg at a private beach-front villa near the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in Punta Mita, Mexico; he was pronounced dead at a hospital in Nuevo Vallarta. Goldberg's death was initially attributed to falling off a treadmill while exercising at a gym and suffering head trauma and blood loss. Sandberg has subsequently said that her husband's death was due to an arrhythmia caused by undiagnosed coronary artery disease, and not due to falling from a treadmill.


title: Dave Goldberg

text: Goldberg's brother, Robert, described his family's "incredible shock and sadness," in an online post asking well-wishers to post photos and memories to his Facebook profile page. "In lieu of donations, we want to celebrate his life in a manner that respects the family's privacy as they cope with this tragic, life-changing event," Robert Goldberg wrote. Tributes to Goldberg were posted to social media across the Silicon Valley community. A spokesperson for Facebook said its executives were "heartbroken by this news." Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, said in a post that Goldberg was "an amazing person and I am glad I got to know him." "One of the truly great people on the planet, Dave was of almost unimaginably remarkable character," said Dick Costolo, Twitter's chief executive. "One of kindest and most generous friends I've known," said Jeff Weiner, chief executive of LinkedIn.


title: Dave Goldberg

text: Professional poker player Phil Hellmuth, who was a friend, donated his historic 14th World Series of Poker bracelet to Goldberg's family.


title: Dave Goldberg

text: A memorial service for Goldberg was held at Stanford Memorial Auditorium on the Stanford University campus on May 5, 2015. The 90-minute service was attended by many members of what "Fortune" described as "the elite of Silicon Valley," as well as U2 frontman Bono, who performed his song "One," and actor Ben Affleck. Affleck had worked with Goldberg when he served on the Board of Directors of a company he co-founded called Live Planet and the two had also worked together on The Eastern Congo Initiative, for which Goldberg helped Affleck raise funds.


title: Dave Goldberg

text: Sheryl Sandberg, Goldberg's wife, wrote a Facebook post with an essay commemorating Goldberg 30 days after his death (sheloshim period), talking about her own struggle overcoming the grief of his death and the support that her loved ones had given her in this difficult time. The post was liked by more than 900,000 people, shared 400,000 times, and received over 70,000 comments. It was also discussed in "Business Insider" and "The New York Times".


title: Kings (game)

text: Kings (also known as king's cup, donut, circle of death or ring of fire) is a drinking game that uses playing cards. The player must drink and dispense drinks based on cards drawn. Each card has a rule that is predetermined before the game starts. Often groups establish house rules with their own variation of rules.


title: Kings (game)

text: In this game, a deck of cards is shuffled and dealt into a circle around either an empty cup or a full drink of choice. Each card value is assigned an action, which must be performed by the relevant players upon it being drawn. Players then take turns to draw cards and participate in the relevant activity.


title: Kings (game)

text: This game is highly open ended and all of the cards can signify any mini-game, the rules and the card assignments are normally confirmed at the start of the game. Depending on house rules, the game either ends when the last rule card has been pulled or the king's cup has been consumed. In variations where cards are placed on top of the king's cup, the game is over when the cards fall off, with the player responsible for knocking them off having to consume the king's cup.


title: Kings (game)

text: It is also common for the players to make up and agree on a set of rules every time the game is played. Some common assignments for card values include:


title: Kings (game)

text: In the "Ring of Fire" version of the game, a can of beer (or other alcoholic beverage) is placed in the center of the ring of cards. Players "discard" cards by sliding them under the beer tab. The player who pops the beer tab must drink the whole can. That signals the end of the round, and another can is placed in the middle to continue the game.


title: Kings (game)

text: If by drawing a card a player creates a gap in the circle of cards, they must finish their own drink.


title: Kings (game)

text: Like almost all other drinking games, Kings has endless variations of rules, and individual drinking groups usually have their own set of card effects. There will be similar rules, but there will most likely always be some that some players have never encountered before. Some games specify that playing a certain card allows that player to make up a new rule which lasts for the remainder of the game.


title: Kings (game)

text: A major variation in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or Canada is that the contents of the King's Cup are drunk by the player who breaks the circle of cards (known as the Ring of Fire in the UK).


title: Kings (game)

text: A popular variation in Australia is the Smoko or Toilet Card replacing Give Two Take Two. In this version, a player needs to possess a Smoko Card to leave the table to smoke or use the toilet. A player can have multiple copies of the card and they can be traded, typically under conditions such as; the recipient must refill drinks on demand, crawl for the rest of the game, talk in a funny voice, etc.


title: Kings (game)

text: When drinking from bottles of beer, the discard can be placed on top of the beer with two corners of each card hanging off the edge. As this continues, it will begin to resemble a mushroom. Similar to the game Jenga, if the mushroom collapses, the person who last placed their card or was attempting to do so must drink the entire bottle. If all cards are successfully discarded without the mushroom collapsing, the last person to discard drinks the bottle, and others finish their drinks.


title: Kings (game)

text: In Belgium the game is known as "Circle of Destruction" or "Hardcore Kings". In the beginning a pint is placed in the middle of the circle and everyone has to pour some of their drink in it, from now on this drink is referred to as "Witch's Brew".


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: Unlike his short film "Voices of a Distant Star", which was largely made by Shinkai on his own, "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" is a full-scale production, as reflected by its better animation quality and longer running time. It has been broadcast across Japan by the anime satellite television network Animax. It was licensed for North American release by ADV Films and is now licensed by GKIDS.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: After the Separation of Japan in 1945, the northern island of Hokkaidō (or Ezo, as it is called in the anime) is occupied by the "Union" (referring to the Soviet Union). In 1974, the Union begins the construction of a strange tower on Hokkaido designed by a scientist named Ekusun Tsukinoe. The anime follows the story of three friends living in Aomori, in northern Japan: two boys, Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa, both child prodigies; and one girl, Sayuri Sawatari. In 1996, the three are in ninth grade, their last year of middle school, and they are fascinated by the Hokkaido Tower visible across the Tsugaru Strait to the north. Sayuri becomes close friends with the two boys.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: The boys find a crashed Maritime Self-Defense Force drone aircraft and work on rebuilding the plane with the support of Mr. Okabe, their boss at a military plant. The three teenagers promise to one day fly to Hokkaido to visit the Tower. However, before they can do this, Sayuri mysteriously disappears during the summer.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: Three years later, Takuya and Hiroki have stopped working on the plane, having taken different paths after the grief they suffered at Sayuri's disappearance. Takuya is working as a physicist at an Alliance scientific facility sponsored by the United States' National Security Agency, researching parallel universes alongside Ms. Maki Kasahara under the supervision of Professor Tomizawa. They know that the Hokkaido Tower, which began operating in 1996, replaces matter around it with matter from other universes, but they do not yet know why it does this for only a 2-km radius. Takuya becomes involved with the Uilta Liberation Front after he learns that Mr. Okabe is its leader; his factory workers are the other agents of the organization. Okabe signs Takuya on for an excursion to Ezo with Uilta.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: Sayuri is revealed to have been hospitalized over the past three years, having developed an extreme form of narcolepsy; she has been sleeping continuously for most of the three years. Her mind is trapped in an unpopulated parallel universe, where she is all alone. Tomizawa has discovered that she is somehow connected to the Union's research into parallel universes and the Hokkaido Tower's ability to change the surrounding land into alternate possibilities, but Tomizawa keeps this information, as well as her whereabouts, secret from Takuya initially. Tomizawa is secretly working with the Uilta Liberation Front and lets Mr. Okabe know about Sayuri, while Mr. Okabe reveals that the Uilta Liberation Front plans to bomb the Hokkaido Tower to incite war against the Union, hoping that this will lead to the reunification of Japan.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: Takuya finally learns of the most likely scenario through his coworker – that Sayuri was used by her grandfather, a Union physicist, to channel all of the Tower's unstable dimension-creating energy somewhere other than Earth, the implication of him not having done so likely having resulted in the dimension creating chain reactions around the tower to continue growing in area until it enveloped the whole world. Saddened, he goes back to the old warehouse where he and Hiroki were working on the plane, only to find Hiroki, who wants Takuya to help him complete the plane to save Sayuri. He coldly points a gun at Hiroki and has him choose between Sayuri and the World without waiting for an answer – walking away in pain.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: With Okabe's guidance, Takuya locks up his coworker and takes Sayuri away from the NSA compound – Takuya and Hiroki finally come back together to work on the plane. Takuya helps to finish the final programming of the plane, as they plan, using the cover of the soon coming declaration of war against Ezo, to fly to the tower and destroy it before its rays affect everything on Earth, which in turn will save Sayuri.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: The plane only seats two, so Takuya allows Hiroki to pilot the plane and fulfill their childhood promise. Hiroki manages to fly the plane across the strait to the Tower carrying Sayuri and a missile provided by the Uilta Liberation Front. When Sayuri finally awakens while the plane circles the Tower, the Tower activates and immediately begins to transform the surrounding area; the area under transformation grows to encompass much of Hokkaido. In the last few minutes of her coma, Sayuri realizes that when she awakes she will lose all her memories of her dreams of the past 3 years, and thus upon waking she weeps because, unknowingly, she lost the memory of her love for Hiroki. Flying back, Hiroki fires the missile, destroying the Tower and stopping the matter transformation. The film ends with Hiroki vowing to Sayuri that they will start their relationship anew.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: The film includes several references to other literary works and themes, such as separation and dreams. The poem read by Sayuri in class is from the poem collection by well-known Japanese writer Kenji Miyazawa (1896–1933). It was written on the occasion of the premature death of his sister, Toshi Miyazawa (1898–1922). Furthermore, during the summer sequence in the film, Sayuri is seen reading a novel titled by Morishita Sakae. Although the author is fictional, a book of the same name exists by a similarly named poet, Hoshio Sakae.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: A reference to the director's previous work is made when Takuya and Hiroki meet at the station. They see a cat which Takuya calls Chobi, the name of the cat from "She and Her Cat".


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" was also serialized as a manga in "Monthly Afternoon". It began in February 2006 and ended in August 2006, with eight chapters. The story is by Makoto Shinkai and the art is by Mizu Sahara.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" has been novelised by Arata Kanoh. There is an English translation by Taylor Engel.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: The film was adapted into a stage play directed by Yuko Naito, with a script by Shigeki Motoiki and music by Masato Komata. It had seven performances from April 20–24, 2018 at Tokyo International Forum Hall C in Tokyo, and two performances on May 2, 2018 at NHK Osaka Hall in Osaka.


title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days

text: The cast included Yudai Tatsumi, Shô Takada, Momoka Ito, Kazuyuki Matsuzawa, Wataru Kozuki, Atsuko Asano.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: Yong Jun-hyung (Hangul: 용준형; born Yong Jae-soon on December 19, 1989), commonly known as Junhyung, is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. Junhyung rose to fame as a member of South Korean boy band Highlight (formerly known as Beast), formed in 2009. He departed from Highlight in 2019, amidst the controversy of admitting to watch illegal videos, although the police stated that Junhyung was only considered as a witness at that point in time in the Burning Sun scandal.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: As a solo artist, he released one extended play, "Flower" (2013), and one full-length album, "Goodbye 20's" (2018). His also starred in the Korean dramas "Monstar" (2013) and "Coffee, Do Me a Favor" (2018)"."


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: Junhyung was born in Seoul, South Korea. He changed his birth name Yong Jae-soon () to his current name when he was in 6th grade. In 2007, he joined the boy band Xing, which included Kevin Woo (ex-U-KISS). Junhyung was known by the stage name Poppin' Dragon while in Xing.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: Junhyung debuted under Cube Entertainment as a member of the boy band Beast in 2009. The group released their first extended play "Beast Is the B2ST" on October 14, 2009. The group released a total of eight extended plays and three studio albums.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: In 2016, Beast left Cube Entertainment, and formed their own label, Around Us Entertainment. The group debuted under the new name of Highlight. As Highlight, they released two extended plays." "


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: In 2010, Junhyung was featured as a rapper in songs by other artists, including Hyuna's debut single "Change," the Asian remix of Amerie's "Heard 'em All," and G.NA's single "I'll Back Off So You Can Live Better." In 2011, Junhyung was featured on the songs "Heartsore Story" by Wheesung, "A Bitter Day" by Hyuna, "Be Quiet" by Kim Wan-sun, and "Don't Act Countrified" by ALi.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: Junhyung released his first solo single, "Living Without You," on February 3, 2012. The song reached #8 on the Gaon Digital Chart. That summer, he made a cameo appearance on the sitcom "Salamander Guru and The Shadows." Later that year, Junhyung produced fellow Beast member Yang Yo-seob's debut solo EP, "The First Collage", and was featured on the lead single, "Caffeine."


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: In February 2013, Junhyung released the single "You Got Some Nerve" with LE of EXID and Feeldog of Big Star. The song reached #13 on the Gaon Digital Chart. Starting in May, Junhyung starred in the Korean drama "Monstar", alongside Ha Yeon-soo and Kang Ha-neul. The series aired on Mnet and wrapped up in August. Junhyung won Best New Actor at the 2013 Korean Drama Awards for his depiction of a teen idol in the series.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: Junhyung released his debut solo EP, "Flower," on December 13, 2013. The EP debuted at #4 on the Gaon Album Chart, and the title track "Flower" peaked at #23 on the Gaon Digital Chart.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: In 2015, Junhyung starred in the Cube Entertainment online reality series, "Yong Jun-hyung's Good Life," alongside his songwriting and music production partner Kim Tae-joo. From 2016 to 2017, he co-hosted the third season of the variety show "Hitmaker" alongside comedian Jeong Hyeong-don. In 2017, Junhyung was also a cast member on the first season of the variety show "It's Dangerous Beyond the Blankets." He returned to the show for the second season in 2018.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: Junhyung released his first solo full-length album, "Goodbye 20's", on May 9, 2018. The album debuted at #2 on the Gaon Album Chart. That year, he also starred in the Korean drama, "Coffee, Do Me a Favor", which is based on the webtoon of the same name.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: He quietly enlisted for his mandatory military service on April 2, 2019 as an active duty soldier. On September 25, 2020, it was announced that Junhyung had suffered a knee injury, and he would complete the rest of his service as a public service worker. He was discharged on February 26, 2021.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: On September 27, 2022, it was announced that Junhyung would be releasing a new album in the near future, which would be his first solo comeback in four years and also his first since his departure from Around Us Entertainment. On October 11, he announced his first EP "Loner", set to release on October 30, under his independent label Black Made.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: In October 2022 it was confirmed that Yong will hold his solo concert 'LONER's ROOM' at Yes24 Live Hall in Seoul on November 4 and 5, and will make a comeback with his new EP album "Loner" on October 30. However, the label announced the postponement of the album due to the national mourning period following the Seoul Halloween crowd crush incident on the 29th.And his solo concert was postponed as well.Yong has confirmed the release schedule for the new album on November 10.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: On March 11, 2019, Jun-hyung was accused of being a part of the group chatroom with Jung Joon-young where Jung shared hidden camera footage and sexually explicit images. On March 12, it was revealed that Jun-hyung's part in the group chat was actually edited in, and it has been confirmed that Jung and Jun-hyung had a one-on-one chat room with each other, but Jun-hyung was not a part of the group chatroom where the hidden camera footage and photos were shared. On March 14, Jun-hyung announced he was leaving Highlight, after he admitted to watching an illegal video sent to him by Jung, who is under investigation for secretly filming women during sex; a part of the Burning Sun scandal. The police stated that he is being considered only as a witness at this point in time.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: On April 2, Around Us Entertainment announced Jun's military enlistment through an official statement. He completed his military service in February 2021.


title: Yong Jun-hyung

text: On March 7, 2022, Yong donated 10 million won to the Hope Bridge Disaster Relief Association to help the victims of the massive wildfire that started in Uljin, Gyeongbuk and has spread to Samcheok, Gangwon.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: China–Pakistan relations (; ) refer to the bilateral ties between the People's Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Formal relations were established in 1950, when the Dominion of Pakistan was among the first countries to sever diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) in favour of recognizing the sovereign legitimacy of the People's Republic over mainland China. Since then, both countries have placed considerable importance on the maintenance of a "special relationship" between them, and their regular exchanges of high-level visits have culminated in the establishment of various cooperative measures. China has provided economic, technical, and military assistance to Pakistan; both sides regard each other as close strategic allies.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Bilateral relations have evolved from China's initial policy of neutrality to an extensive partnership driven primarily by Pakistan's strategic importance. The two countries formally resolved all of their boundary disputes with the Sino-Pakistani Agreement of 1963, and Chinese military assistance to Pakistan began in 1966; a strategic alliance was formed in 1972, and economic cooperation had begun in earnest by 1979. Consequently, China has become Pakistan's largest supplier of armaments and third-largest trading partner overall. More recently, China has moved forward with an agreement to cooperate in improving the Pakistani civil nuclear power sector.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Maintaining close relations with China is also a central part of Pakistan's foreign policy. In 1986, Pakistani president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq visited China to improve diplomatic relations, and Pakistan was one of only two countries (alongside Cuba) to offer crucial support to China in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. On the military front, the People's Liberation Army and the Pakistan Armed Forces share a notably close relationship; China has supported Pakistan's position on the Kashmir conflict, while Pakistan has supported China's position on the Xinjiang controversy, the Tibetan sovereignty debate, and the political status of Taiwan. Military cooperation between the two sides has continued to increase significantly, with joint projects producing armaments ranging from fighter jets to guided missile frigates.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Both countries have generally pursued a bilateral policy that focuses on strengthen their alliance in all areas. While serving as China's main bridge to the Muslim world, Pakistan has also played an important role in closing the communication gap between China and the United States—namely through the 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China. Recent rankings have described Pakistan as the country that is most under Chinese political influence. According to a 2014 poll by the BBC World Service, over 75% of Pakistanis view China's influence positively, with less than 15% expressing a negative view. Chinese citizens have been reported in similar polls as holding the third-most positive opinion of Pakistan's influence in the world, behind only Indonesia as well as Pakistan itself. In March 2022, a poll coordinated by Palacký University Olomouc found that 73% of Chinese citizens held favourable views of Pakistan, placing it behind only Russia in that regard.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Pakistan has a long and strong relationship with China. The long-standing ties between the two countries have been mutually beneficial. A close identity of views and mutual interests remain the centre-point of bilateral ties. Since the 1962 Sino-Indian War, Pakistan has supported China on most issues of importance to the latter, especially those related to Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Tibet and other sensitive issues such as human rights.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: The Chinese leadership has acknowledged Pakistan's steadfast support on key issues. Pakistan helped China in reestablishing formal ties with the West, where they helped make possible the 1972 Nixon visit to China. Pakistan has collaborated with China in extensive military and economic projects, seeing both as counterweights to an Indian-Western alliance. Pakistan has also served as a conduit for China's influence in the Muslim world.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: China also has a consistent record of supporting Pakistan in regional issues. Pakistan's military depends heavily on Chinese armaments, and joint projects of both economic and militaristic importance are ongoing. China has supplied blueprints to support Pakistan's nuclear program.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Amin argues that the basis of the Sino-Pak entente from its beginning has been "a mutual need to pool together resources to contain perceived Indian aspirations to hegemony over South Asia". He continues: "Both China and Pakistan regard the entente as necessary to maintain a balance of power in the subcontinent favourable to themselves against an India that is believed by both Chinese and Pakistani strategists to be an expansionist power that occupies land regarded as properly belonging to Beijing and Islamabad respectively, and that is intent on expanding further".


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Buddhist monks from the area of what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan were involved in the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to Han dynasty China. The Han dynasty's Protectorate of the Western Regions bordered the Kushan Empire. Faxian travelled in what is now modern-day Pakistan.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: During World War II, the Hui Muslim imam Da Pusheng () toured the Middle East and South Asia to confront Japanese propagandists in Muslim countries and denounce their invasion to the Islamic world. Misinformation on the war was spread in the Islamic Middle Eastern nations by Japanese agents. In response, at the World Islamic Congress in Hejaz, Imam Du openly confronted fake Muslim Japanese agents and exposed them as non-Muslims. Japan's history of imperialism was explained by Du to his fellow Muslims. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the future founder of Pakistan, met with Imam Du. The Chinese Muslim's anti-Japanese war effort received a pledge of support from Jinnah. The Hindu leaders Tagore and Gandhi and Muslim Jinnah both discussed the war with the Chinese Muslim delegation under Ma Fuliang while in Turkey President İsmet İnönü also met the delegation. Gandhi and Jinnah met with the Hui Ma Fuliang and his delegation as they denounced Japan.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Diplomatic relations between Pakistan and China were established on 21 May 1951, shortly after the Republic of China lost power in the Mainland in 1949. While initially ambivalent towards the idea of a Communist country on its borders, Pakistan hoped that China would serve as a counterweight to Indian influence. India had recognised China a year before, and Indian Prime Minister Nehru also hoped for closer relations with the Chinese. In 1956, Pakistani Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai signing the Treaty of Friendship Between China and Pakistan, marking closer bilateral ties. Zhou Enlai was statesman who established relations with Pakistan. From there, the relations between the two countries moved from strength to strength.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: With escalating border tensions leading to the 1962 Sino-Indian war, China and Pakistan aligned with each other in a joint effort to counter India and the Soviet Union as both have border disputes with India. One year after China's border war with India, Pakistan and China signed the Sino-Pakistan Agreement. The agreement resulted in China and Pakistan each withdrawing from about 1,900 square kilometres (750 square miles) of territory, and a boundary on the basis of the 1899 British Note to China as modified by Lord Curzon in 1905.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Since then, an informal alliance that initially began as mutual opposition towards India has grown into a lasting relationship that has benefited both nations on the diplomatic, economic and military frontiers. Along with diplomatic support, Pakistan served as a conduit for China to open up to the West. China has in turn provided extensive economic aid and political support to Pakistan.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Since the two sides established their "all-weather diplomatic relations", there have been frequent exchanges between the two countries' leadership and peoples. For example, former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai received warm welcomes in all of his four visits to Pakistan. When Zhou died in 1976, then-Pakistani Ambassador to China rushed to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs at 8 in the morning without appointment. Upon arriving at the ministry, the ambassador cried due to his grief in front of Chinese diplomats. In 2004, a road in Pakistani capital Islamabad leading to the Diplomatic Enclave was named "Zhou Enlai Road". It is the first road in Pakistan that is named after foreign leaders. On 27 May 1976, then Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong, aged 83, received his last foreign guest Pakistani president Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto despite his critical illness, 105 days before his death.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: On 22 May 2013, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's airplane was escorted by six JF-17 Thunder jets, jointly developed by the two countries, as it entered Pakistani airspace. The premier was also received by both Pakistani president and prime minister upon his arrival at the airport. On 20 April 2015, Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Pakistan as his first foreign visit of the year, also the first by a Chinese president in 9 years. Before his arrival, he published an article praising the friendship on Pakistani newspapers like "Daily Jang". The Chinese president compared visiting Pakistan with visiting his brother's home. Like previous visit by Premier Li, the airplane was escorted by 8 JF-17 Thunder jets. Xi was given a grand welcome upon his arrival at Noor Khan airbase, a 21-gun salute and guard of honour was presented to him.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Pakistan's military initially depended almost entirely on American armaments and aid, which was increased during the covert U.S. support of Islamic militants in the Soviet–Afghan War. The U.S. under President Richard Nixon supported Pakistan in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. However, the period following the Soviet withdrawal and the dissolution of the Soviet Union led indirectly to the increasing realignment of the U.S. with the previously pro-Soviet India. The Pressler Amendment in 1990 suspended all American military assistance and any new economic aid amidst concerns that Pakistan was attempting to develop a nuclear weapon. Given the support that Pakistan had given them during the War in Afghanistan, many Pakistanis saw this as a betrayal that sold out Pakistani interests in favour of India. This belief was further strengthened as India had developed a nuclear weapon without significant American opposition, and Pakistan felt obligated to do the same. Consequently, the primarily geopolitical alliance between Pakistan and China has since 1990 branched out into military and economic cooperation, due to Pakistan's belief that the U.S. influence and support in the region should be counterbalanced by the Chinese.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: With the U.S.-led War in Afghanistan, there is a general sentiment in Pakistan to adopt a foreign policy which favours China over the United States. Washington has been accused deserting Pakistan in favour of a policy that favours stronger relations with India, while Pakistan sees China as a more reliable ally over the long term.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Since the September 11 attacks, Pakistan has increased the scope of Chinese influence and support by agreeing to a number of military projects, combined with extensive economic support and investment from the Chinese.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: In February 2022, Prime Minister Imran Khan's presence at opening ceremony of 2022 Winter Olympics, Beijing declared support Pakistan on Kashmir conflict, Khan also expressed his commitment to the One-China Policy.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: After 3 Chinese citizens killed in the University of Karachi bombing, Pakistani president Arif Alvi, PM Shehbaz Sharif, foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto and PTI leader Imran Khan made the remarks during a visit to the Chinese embassy where they expressed condolences to the Chinese side over the deaths of the teachers, and strongly condemned the attack.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: In July 2019, Pakistan was one of 50 countries that backed China's policies in Xinjiang, signing a joint letter to the UNHRC commending China's "remarkable achievements in the field of human rights", claiming "Now safety and security has returned to Xinjiang and the fundamental human rights of people of all ethnic groups there are safeguarded.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: In November 2019, Pakistan was one of 54 countries that signed a joint statement supporting China's Xinjiang policies.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: In June 2020, Pakistan was one of 53 countries that backed the Hong Kong national security law at the United Nations.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: There are strong military ties between China and Pakistan. This alliance between two neighbouring East-South Asian nations is significant geopolitically. The strong military ties primarily aim to counter regional Indian and American influence, and was also to repel Soviet influence in the area. In recent years this relationship has strengthened through ongoing military projects and agreements between Pakistan and China.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Pakistan is China's biggest arms buyer, counting for nearly 47% of Chinese arms exports. Since 1962, China has been a steady source of military equipment to the Pakistani Army, helping establish ammunition factories, providing technological assistance and modernising existing facilities.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Most recently, the Chinese Chengdu J-10B fighter was compared to its closest American counterpart, the Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 52/60, the most advanced F-16, for orders on either aircraft for the Pakistan Air Force, resulting in the wins of the Chinese Chengdu J-10B. Accordingly, the Chengdu J-10C had more advanced technology such as its radar and OLS targeting system, and its new generation stealthy features, such as its DSI intake gave it an edge over the Lockheed Martin F-16.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: China and Pakistan are involved in several projects to enhance military and weaponry systems, which include the joint development of the JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft, K-8 Karakorum advance training aircraft, a tailor-made training aircraft for the Pakistan Air Force based on the Chinese domestic Hongdu L-15, space technology, AWACS systems, Al-Khalid tanks, which China granted license production and tailor-made modifications based on the initial Chinese Type 90 and/or MBT-2000. The Chinese has designed tailor-made advanced weapons for Pakistan, making it a strong military power in the South Asian region. The armies have a schedule for organising joint military exercises.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: China is the largest investor in Pakistan's Gwadar Deep Sea Port, which is strategically located at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz. It is viewed warily by both the U.S. and India as a possible launchpad for the Chinese Navy, giving them the ability to launch submarines and warships in the Indian Ocean. China has recently pledged to invest nearly 43 billion US dollars.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: In 2008, Pakistan had purchased military equipment from China for an improved quality of defence arsenal and force to fight the constant attack from foreign militants. This relationship still continues nine years later when Pakistan Army imported Chinese-built Low to Medium Altitude Air Defence System (LOMADS) LY-80 for its air defence system.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: In the past, China has played a major role in the development of Pakistan's nuclear infrastructure, especially when increasingly stringent export controls in Western countries made it difficult for Pakistan to acquire plutonium and uranium enriching equipment from elsewhere such as the Chinese help in building the Khushab reactor, which plays a key role in Pakistan's production of plutonium. A subsidiary of the China National Nuclear Corporation contributed in Pakistan's efforts to expand its uranium enrichment capabilities by providing 5,000 custom made ring magnets, which are a key component of the bearings that facilitate the high-speed rotation of centrifuges. China has also provided technical and material support in the completion of the Chashma Nuclear Power Complex and plutonium reprocessing facility, which was built in the mid-1990s.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: On 26 January 2015, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a conclusion of a two-day visit of Raheel Sharif to Beijing called Pakistan China's "irreplaceable, all-weather friend". Sharif also met Yu Zhengsheng, Meng Jianzhu and Xu Qiliang. On 19 April 2015, China concluded sale of eight conventional submarines worth $5bn, the biggest arms sale by China in its history. The vessels are supplied by the China Shipbuilding Trading Company, and financed to Pakistan at a low interest rate. Pakistan and China also conducted joint maritime exersise dubbed as "Sea Guardian 2" in July, 2022.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: China, Pakistan and Afghanistan have coordinated to increase regional stability. Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that China intends to use Xinjiang as a base of economic development for the region, increasing security and facilitating trade.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: China's leadership appreciated Pakistan's fight against terrorism with a special mention of eliminating al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Turkistan Islamic Party (Chinese called East Turkistan Islamic Movement, ETIM), added the ISPR statement. Baloch terrorist especially Majeed Brigade, a faction of the Baloch liberation Army (BLA), launched many attacks on the Chinese interest in Pakistan, China Supports Pakistan's Counterterrorism Plan.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Pakistan has been one of China's major trade partners. According to China's custom statistics the bilateral trade volume for the calendar year 2017 crossed the US$20 billion mark for the first time. In 2017 China's exports to Pakistan grew by 5.9% to reach $18.25 billion whereas Pakistan's exports to China fell by 4.1% to $1.83 billion.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Economic trade between Pakistan and China has been recently increasing, and a free trade agreement has been signed. Military and technological transactions continue to dominate the economic relationship between the two nations, and China has pledged to increase their investment in Pakistan's economy and infrastructure. As in seventy years the People's Republic of China moved to the center of the world stage, became the world's largest economy (by purchasing power parity rating) in 2014, it has also helped Pakistan by bringing in more of its expertise and investment. The Chinese economic boom has not only helped Pakistan in a way but also ushered new era of development in the country especially after signing of multi-billion CPEC agreement.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: On 26 April 2014, "China Mobile" announced $1 billion of investment in Pakistan in telecommunication infrastructure and training of its officials within a period of three years. The announcement came a day after China Mobile subsidy Zong emerged as the highest bidder in the 3G auction, claiming a 10 MHz 3G-band licence, qualifying for the 4G licence.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: On 22 April 2015, according to "China Daily", China released its first overseas investment project under the Belt and Road Initiative for developing a hydropower station near Jhelum.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: The CPEC will connect Pakistan with China and the Central Asian countries with highway connecting Kashgar to Khunjerab and Gwadar. Gwadar Port in southern Pakistan will serve as the trade nerve centre for China, as most of its trade especially that of oil will be done through the port, which is operated by the China Overseas Port Holding Company, a state-owned Chinese company. Currently, sixty per cent of China's oil must be transported by ship from the Persian Gulf to the only commercial port in China, Shanghai, a distance of more than 16,000 kilometres. The journey takes two to three months, during which time the ships are vulnerable to pirates, bad weather, political rivals and other risks. Using Gwadar Port instead would reduce the distance and possibly the cost.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: The plan seeks to build on a market presence already established by Chinese enterprises, Haier in household appliances, ChinaMobile and Huawei in telecommunications and China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) in mining and minerals. In other cases, such as textiles and garments, cement and building materials, fertiliser and agricultural technologies (among others) it calls for building the infrastructure and a supporting policy environment to facilitate fresh entry. According to the plan, a key element in this is the creation of industrial parks, or special economic zones, would be done with the provision of water, perfect infrastructure, sufficient supply of energy and the capacity of self-service power.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: But the main thrust of the plan actually lies in agriculture, contrary to the image of CPEC as a massive industrial and transport undertaking, involving power plants and highways. The plan acquires its greatest specificity, and lays out the largest number of projects and plans for their facilitation, in agriculture. For agriculture, the plan outlines an engagement that runs from one end of the supply chain all the way to the other. From provision of seeds and other inputs, like fertiliser, credit and pesticides, Chinese enterprises will also operate their own farms, processing facilities for fruits and vegetables and grain. Logistics companies will operate a large storage and transportation system for agrarian produce, as stated by the plan in "Dawn".


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: The other common investment is expected in information and technology, a full system of monitoring and surveillance will be built in cities from Peshawar to Karachi, with 24-hour video recordings on roads and busy marketplaces for law and order. A national fibre-optic backbone will be built for the country not only for internet traffic, but also terrestrial distribution of broadcast TV, which will cooperate with Chinese media in the "dissemination of Chinese cultures".


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: The support that China and Pakistan give each other is considered significant in global diplomacy, and has been compared to Israel–United States relations and Russia–Serbia relations. When confronted by US officials about Beijing's uncompromising support for Pakistan, Chinese General Xiong Guangkai famously said, "Pakistan is China's Israel." Andrew Small, the author of "The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia's New Geopolitics", characterizes this remark as "part explanation, part sarcastic jibe, delivered by (China's) military intelligence chief after one too many meetings with US counterparts on the subject."


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: According to a Pew survey of Pakistani public opinion in 2010, 84 per cent of respondents said they had a favourable view of China and 16 per cent had a favourable view of the United States. Similarly, the Chinese state-run media has portrayed Pakistan in a favourable light in regional issues. In 2013, this figure increased to 90% of Pakistanis having a favourable view of China.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: Pakistan and China have long praised the close ties the two countries have with each other. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf referred to China as Pakistan's "time-tested and all-weather friend", while in return Chinese leader Hu Jintao has referred to Pakistan as "a good friend and partner". Some observers have noted these statements as occurring after Pakistani relations with the United States or India have become strained, such as after Osama Bin Laden was killed by American forces without Pakistan's prior permission.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: In July 2013 the Pew Research Center, as part of their Global Attitudes Project, declared Pakistan to have the most positive view of China in the world. According to the research, 81% of Pakistanis responded favourably to China. On the other hand, only 11% of Pakistanis had a favourable view of the United States, the lowest in the world.


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: A common quotation referring to China-Pakistan Friendship is, "A Friendship Higher than Himalayas, deeper than ocean, sweeter than honey, and stronger than steel."


title: China–Pakistan relations

text: The author of "" concludes the book by connecting the bilateral relationship to broader themes in Chinese foreign policy. According to the author, on the one hand, Pakistan is both a Chinese pawn (against India) and platform for power projection, but there are limits to this approach. For instance, as Small notes, "Beijing's counterterrorism strategy has been essentially parasitic on the United States being a more important target for transnational militant groups than China. It's unclear how long that can last."


title: Fire whirl

text: A fire whirl or fire devil (sometimes referred to as a fire tornado) is a whirlwind induced by a fire and often (at least partially) composed of flame or ash. These start with a whirl of wind, often made visible by smoke, and may occur when intense rising heat and turbulent wind conditions combine to form whirling eddies of air. These eddies can contract a tornado-like vortex that sucks in debris and combustible gases.


title: Fire whirl

text: The phenomenon is sometimes labeled a fire tornado, firenado, fire swirl, or fire twister, but these terms usually refer to a separate phenomenon where a fire has such intensity that it generates an actual tornado. Fire whirls are not usually classifiable as tornadoes as the vortex in most cases does not extend from the surface to cloud base. Also, even in such cases, those fire whirls very rarely are classic tornadoes, as their vorticity derives from surface winds and heat-induced lifting, rather than from a tornadic mesocyclone aloft.


title: Fire whirl

text: The phenomenon was first verified in the 2003 Canberra bushfires and has since been verified in the 2018 Carr Fire in California and 2020 Loyalton Fire in California and Nevada.


title: Fire whirl

text: A fire whirl consists of a burning core and a rotating pocket of air. A fire whirl can reach up to . Fire whirls become frequent when a wildfire, or especially firestorm, creates its own wind, which can spawn large vortices. Even bonfires often have whirls on a smaller scale and tiny fire whirls have been generated by very small fires in laboratories.


title: Fire whirl

text: Most of the largest fire whirls are spawned from wildfires. They form when a warm updraft and convergence from the wildfire are present. They are usually tall, a few meters (several feet) wide, and last only a few minutes. Some, however, can be more than tall, contain wind speeds over , and persist for more than 20 minutes.


title: Fire whirl

text: Fire whirls can uproot trees that are tall or more. These can also aid the 'spotting' ability of wildfires to propagate and start new fires as they lift burning materials such as tree bark. These burning embers can be blown away from the fire-ground by the stronger winds aloft.


title: Fire whirl

text: Fire whirls can be common within the vicinity of a plume during a volcanic eruption. These range from small to large and form from a variety of mechanisms, including those akin to typical fire whirl processes, but can result in Cumulonimbus flammagenitus (cloud) spawning landspouts and waterspouts or even to develop mesocyclone-like updraft rotation of the plume itself and/or of the cumulonimbi, which can spawn tornadoes similar to those in supercells. Pyrocumulonimbi generated by large fires on rare occasion also develops in a similar way.


title: Fire whirl

text: There is evidence suggesting that the fire whirl in the Hifukusho-ato area, during the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, was of type 3. Other mechanism and fire whirl dynamics may exist. A broader classification of fire whirls suggested by Forman A. Williams includes five different categories:


title: Fire whirl

text: The meteorological community views some fire-induced phenomena as atmospheric phenomena. Using the "pyro-" prefix, fire-induced clouds are called pyrocumulus and pyrocumulonimbus. Larger fire vortices are similarly being viewed. Based on vortex scale, the classification terms of "pyronado", ""pyrotornado"", and ""pyromesocyclone"" have been proposed.


title: Fire whirl

text: During the 1871 Peshtigo fire, the community of Williamsonville, Wisconsin, was burned by a fire whirl; the area where Williamsonville once stood is now Tornado Memorial County Park.


title: Fire whirl

text: An extreme example of a fire whirl is the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake in Japan, which ignited a large city-sized firestorm which in turn produced a gigantic fire whirl that killed 38,000 people in fifteen minutes in the Hifukusho-Ato region of Tokyo.


title: Fire whirl

text: Numerous large fire whirls (some tornadic) that developed after lightning struck an oil storage facility near San Luis Obispo, California, on 7 April 1926, produced significant structural damage well away from the fire, killing two. Many whirlwinds were produced by the four-day-long firestorm coincident with conditions that produced severe thunderstorms, in which the larger fire whirls carried debris away.


title: Fire whirl

text: Fire whirls were produced in the conflagrations and firestorms triggered by firebombings of European and Japanese cities during World War II and by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fire whirls associated with the bombing of Hamburg, particularly those of 27–28 July 1943, were studied.


title: Fire whirl

text: Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in 1978–1979, fire whirls ranging from the transient and very small to intense, long-lived tornado-like vortices capable of causing significant damage were spawned by fires generated from the 1000 MW Météotron, a series of large oil wells located in the Lannemezan plain of France used for testing atmospheric motions and thermodynamics.


title: Fire whirl

text: During the 2003 Canberra bushfires in Canberra, Australia, a violent fire whirl was documented. It was calculated to have horizontal winds of and vertical air speed of , causing the flashover of in 0.04 seconds. It was the first known fire whirl in Australia to have EF3 wind speeds on the Enhanced Fujita scale.


title: Fire whirl

text: A fire whirl, of reportedly uncommon size for New Zealand wildfires, formed on day three of the 2017 Port Hills fires in Christchurch. Pilots estimated the fire column to be high.


title: Fire whirl

text: Residents in the city of Redding, California, while evacuating the area from the massive Carr Fire in late July 2018, reported seeing pyrocumulonimbus clouds and tornado-like behaviour from the firestorm, resulting in uprooted trees, cars, structures and other wind related damages in addition to the fire itself. As of August 2, 2018, a preliminary damage survey, led by the National Weather Service (NWS) in Sacramento, California, rated the July 26th fire whirl as an EF3 tornado with winds in excess of .


title: Fire whirl

text: On August 15, 2020, for the first time in its history, the U.S. National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for a pyrocumulonimbus created by a wildfire near Loyalton, California capable of producing a fire tornado.


title: Fire whirl

text: In controlled small-scale experiments, fire whirls are found to transition to a mode of combustion called blue whirls. The name "blue whirl" was coined because the soot production is negligible, leading to the disappearance of the yellow color typical of a fire whirl. Blue whirls are partially premixed flames that reside elevated in the recirculation region of the vortex-breakdown bubble. The flame length and burning rate of a blue whirl are smaller than those of a fire whirl.


title: Sam Spruell

text: Sam Spruell (born 1 January 1977) is a British actor. He is best known for playing villainous roles in film and television including Oleg Malankov in "Taken 3", Finn in "Snow White and the Huntsman" and Swarm in "Doctor Who: Flux". He also appeared in a small role as a military contractor in the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture winner "The Hurt Locker".


title: Sam Spruell

text: His film credits include "The Hurt Locker" (2008), "Defiance" (2008), "" (2007), "London to Brighton" (2006), "To Kill a King" (2003) and "" (2002). Spruell played hit man Jack "The Hat" McVitie in the 2015 film "Legend", which told the story of the Kray twins.


title: Sam Spruell

text: His television roles include the recurring cameo of Jason Belling in "Spooks" (2007 in Episode 6.9 and 2004 in "Project Friendly Fire") and the recurring role of Wilkes in "P.O.W." (2003).


title: Sam Spruell

text: In 2012, Spruell had a starring role in the film "Snow White & the Huntsman", playing the brother to the Evil Queen played by Charlize Theron.


title: Sam Spruell

text: In March 2013 he appeared in one of the lead roles in the BBC One thriller drama series "Mayday". He appeared in the television adaptation of "The Last Ship" later in the year. In 2015, Spruell played Oleg Malankov, the secondary villain in "Taken 3". He also played Owen Lynch in the drama series "Luther" in episode 1.2. He appeared as the character Swarm in the thirteenth series of "Doctor Who".


title: Black Knight (film)

text: Black Knight is a 2001 American fantasy adventure buddy comedy film directed by Gil Junger and starring Martin Lawrence. In addition to Lawrence, "Black Knight" had a supporting cast of Marsha Thomason, Tom Wilkinson, Vincent Regan, and Kevin Conway. In the film, Lawrence plays Jamal, a theme park employee who is transported through time to medieval England. The film was shot at various locations in North Carolina, mainly Wilmington and Carolina Beach. "Black Knight" was theatrically released on November 21, 2001 to negative reviews and grossed $39.9 million against a production budget of $50 million.


title: Black Knight (film)

text: Jamal Walker is an everyday slacker with a job at a theme park called Medieval World, which is about to receive big competition from another theme park, Castle World. While cleaning a moat surrounding the park, he finds a medallion, and when he tries to retrieve it, he gets sucked into the past. He awakens in 1328 in England, where he is first met by a drunkard named Knolte. He finds a castle that he thinks is Castle World, so he decides to check it out. The tenants of the castle believe him to be a French Moor, from Normandy, because he tells them he is from Florence and Normandie, a famous intersection in South Central Los Angeles.


title: Black Knight (film)

text: Jamal is soon taken in by the reigning king, King Leo. He is assumed to be a messenger from Normandy whom the king believes to be bringing news of an alliance between England and Normandy. Although at first Jamal thinks that all the people around him are just actors in a theme park, he changes his mind when he witnesses a beheading. He gives his name as Jamal "Sky" Walker after his high school basketball nickname, and, after gaining trust from the king by accidentally preventing his assassination, Jamal is made a lord and head of security.


title: Black Knight (film)

text: While all of this is going on, Jamal learns from Victoria, a chambermaid, about the ruthless way the king came to power by overthrowing the former queen. Jamal, believing the situation to be beyond his control, states to Victoria that "He is not the guy you're looking for." After a brief debate with Victoria who states that he wears the medallion and this deems him to be a man of honor, Victoria becomes frustrated with Jamal's refusal to intervene and leaves, believing Jamal to be a coward. Later that night, the daughter of the king, Princess Regina (who is infatuated with Jamal) sneaks into Jamal's bedroom. Jamal, believing the princess to be Victoria, sleeps with Regina. When the real Norman messenger arrives, seeking the Princess Regina's hand in marriage on behalf of his liege, Jamal is exposed as a fraud. The actions of the previous night have rendered an alliance with Normandy impossible, infuriating the king. Jamal is thrown straight into the dungeon and arraigned for execution with the two assassins from the previous attempt on Leo's life.


title: Black Knight (film)

text: In the dungeon, the two failed assassins tell the tale of the Black Knight. It is stated that the Knight could not be bought or bribed, but would only fight for justice. It was told that he was swallowed whole by a fierce dragon, but with a sword of gold, he cut himself from the belly of the beast and he himself could breathe the fire of the dragon.


title: Black Knight (film)

text: The two rebels and Jamal are brought forth for execution. As a last resort and fearing his life, Jamal poses himself as a sorcerer and attempts to scare the superstitious onlookers to make his escape. As the executioner begins to choke on an apple, the crowd believes Jamal to have cast a spell of death upon him. In the commotion, Jamal saves the executioner using the Heimlich Manoeuvre. Using this distraction and flaming arrows fired from outside the walls, Jamal escapes the castle with the aid of Victoria and finally Knolte on horseback. Jamal also learns that Knolte was really a knight of the former queen who was disgraced when she lost her throne. Through their help and his own realization of the situation, Jamal soon understands he must help overthrow King Leo and help restore the queen to her throne.


title: Black Knight (film)

text: With some effort, Jamal manages to convince the decimated rebels and townsfolk to band together to overthrow the king. Using modern-day tactics used in American football and pro wrestling, he gives the peasants the means to fight the armed and armored king's guards. Out of gratitude for helping him find his honor again, Knolte teaches some basic sword-fighting manoeuvres to Jamal, and also tells him that he has an idea that may give them an advantage in the upcoming battle.


title: Black Knight (film)

text: The next day, Knolte and the rebels storm the castle, only to find themselves quickly surrounded by guards and Leo's bodyguard, Percival. Seemingly outmatched by armor, archers and cavalry, the rebels are pushed back. The tide turns briefly when the legendary Black Knight charges in, breathing fire and scattering the guards, but the plan goes awry when he falls from his horse and is revealed to be Jamal in disguise. Using their newfound skills, the peasants succeed in overpowering the guards, but Knolte is severely wounded by a longbow shot from Percival, who takes Victoria hostage. King Leo becomes scared as his troops are being defeated, and asks Percival for safety. Percival, who already sees Leo as pathetic and weak as a leader, kills him and throws him in the moat. Charging to the rescue, Jamal surprises Percival with his fighting skills, rescuing Victoria. However, after waking from being knocked out by Jamal, Percival is then shot dead by Knolte before he could administer a killing blow to Jamal. Jubilation surrounds the rebels when they realize victory is theirs.


title: Black Knight (film)

text: After the queen's reign is restored, Jamal is knighted by her. During the dubbing, he awakes back at Medieval World surrounded by his co-workers and a medical team, who saved him from drowning in the moat, implying that Jamal's entire adventure was a dream. Jamal's whole attitude changes from his experience, and he helps his boss to make Medieval World better so that Castle World will not run them out of business. Later on, Jamal takes a walk around the new Medieval World and meets a woman named Nicole who looks just like Victoria. They talk a little and he asks her out to lunch. Unfortunately, Jamal forgets to get Nicole's number, and when he tries to catch up to her, he accidentally falls back into the moat, waking up in the Colosseum of Ancient Rome, where he is about to be devoured by lions.


title: Black Knight (film)

text: The film opened at #4 at the U.S. box office on its opening weekend with $11.2 million. "Black Knight" grossed $39.9 million worldwide against a $50 million budget, making it a box office bomb.


title: Black Knight (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 14% based on 98 reviews, with an average rating of 3.52/10. The site's consensus states, ""Black Knight" feels like a lazily constructed movie, filled with lame gags and constant mugging from Lawrence." The film has also drawn attention from scholars. Addressing it as one of the few contemporary films that cast African American characters in medieval settings, Laurie A. Finke and Martin B. Shichtman noted that the film provided commentary on early 21st-century race relations in the United States, noting that despite his triumphs in the medieval setting, by the end, Jamal "continues to live in white America, which requires hybridity, not dominance, from African American men. He may be a better man for his excellent medieval adventure, but he is still black, poor, underemployed, and living in the hood.”


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: "Fame" is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was released on his 1975 album "Young Americans" and was later issued as the album's second single by RCA Records in July 1975. Written by Bowie, Carlos Alomar and John Lennon, it was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City in January 1975. It is a funk rock song that represents Bowie's dissatisfaction with the troubles of fame and stardom.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: The song was a major commercial success in North America, becoming Bowie's first number 1 single on both the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and the Canadian Singles Chart. The song was one of the most successful singles of the year, ranking at number 7 on the "Billboard" Year-End Hot 100. However, it was less successful in Europe, reaching number 17 in the UK Singles Chart.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: In 1990, Bowie remixed the song under the title "Fame '90" to coincide with his Sound+Vision Tour. "Fame" has since appeared on many compilation albums, and was remastered in 2016 as part of the "Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976)" box set.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: The song is one of four of Bowie's songs to be included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: With the release of his 1972 album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", Bowie achieved stardom. On that album, Bowie presented his aspirations to become famous in "Star", which also encapsulated the fantasies of "every adolescent dreamer miming into a hairbrush in a suburban bedroom", on top of Bowie's own frustration with not having fulfilled his potential. By the beginning of 1975, "fame" meant a couple of different things to Bowie. It meant not only his stardom, but also impending lawsuits that were the result of the ending of Bowie's relationship with his manager Tony Defries. It also meant an expensive musical theatre project concocted by Defries, titled "Fame", that was financed through MainMan, a company that was built around Bowie's fame; the show was an examination of Marilyn Monroe that closed after one night on Broadway and after already flopping off-Broadway. The failure of "Fame" almost ruined MainMan and was traumatic on Bowie and Defries' relationship.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: Bowie would later describe "Fame" as "nasty, angry", and fully admitted that it was written "with a degree of malice" aimed at MainMan. This is supported by biographer Peter Doggett, who writes: "every time in "Fame" that Bowie snapped back with a cynical retort about its pitfalls, he had [Defries] and [Defries's] epic folly in mind," and noted the lyric "bully for you, chilly for me" as the striking example. In 1990, Bowie recalled the song as his "least favourite track on the album" and reflected: "I'd had very upsetting management problems and a lot of that was built into the song. I've left all that behind me, now... I think fame itself is not a rewarding thing. The most you can say is that it gets you a seat in restaurants."


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: With the "Young Americans" sessions mostly concluded by late 1974, the material was delayed while Bowie extricated himself from Defries. Sources differ on how "Fame" came to be in the studio, but both Doggett and Nicholas Pegg write that it was the product of "happy" accidents. By late 1974, Bowie was staying in New York City, where he met John Lennon during his period of estrangement. Shortly after Lennon reunited with his wife Yoko Ono, the pair jammed together, leading to a one-day session at Electric Lady Studios in January 1975. There, Carlos Alomar had developed a guitar riff for Bowie's cover of "Footstompin'" by the Flairs, which Bowie thought was "a waste" to give to a cover. Lennon, who was in the studio with them, came up with the hook when he started to sing "aim" over the riff, which Bowie turned into "Fame" and thereafter, according to Marc Spitz, wrote the rest of the lyrics to the song with Lennon. However, according to Doggett, Lennon made the "briefest lyrical contributions" that was "enough" to give him co-writing credit. Bowie later said that Lennon was the "energy" and the "inspiration" for "Fame", and that's why he received a co-writing credit. Lennon stated in a 1980 interview: "We took some Stevie Wonder middle eight and did it backwards, you know, and we made a record out of it!"


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: After the group solidified the riff, they emerged with something that was in the hand of "black American music" at the start of 1975: a "cousin" of "Hollywood Swinging" by Kool & the Gang, "The Payback" by James Brown, and "Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)" by B. T. Express. (Later in 1975, Brown released the song "Hot (I Need to Be Loved, Loved, Loved)," whose main riff was borrowed directly from "Fame.") Doggett writes that other potential influences were the 1972 song "Jungle Walk" by the Rascals and the 1974 songs "Pick Up the Pieces" by the Average White Band and "Brighter Day" by Keith Christmas, a friend of Bowie's. Overall, Doggett believes "Fame" resembled "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" by Sly and the Family Stone which, like "Fame", is in the funk style with "viciously pointed" lyrics.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: "Fame" is a funk rock song that represents Bowie's (and Lennon's) dissatisfaction with the troubles of fame and stardom, including "money-grabbing managers, mindless adulation, unwanted entourages and the hollow vacuity of the limousine lifestyle". Lennon's voice is heard interjecting the falsetto "Fame" throughout the song. Doggett found it "striking" that the falsetto expanded three octaves, from "Yoko Ono soprano" to "Johnny Cash basso profundo". Along with "Fame", Bowie worked with Lennon again when he decided to record a cover of Lennon's Beatles song "Across the Universe"; Lennon played rhythm guitar on the cover. According to Spitz, "Fame" and "Across the Universe" were both last-minute additions to "Young Americans". Although "Young Americans" was mostly co-produced by Tony Visconti, he was not present at the sessions for "Fame"; instead, both songs were co-produced by engineer Harry Maslin. In the song, Bowie sings "What you need, you have to borrow" with, according to Spitz, the same "venom" that Jimi Hendrix sang, "Businessmen they drink my wine," on his cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower".


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: "Fame" was released on 7 March 1975 as the final track on Bowie's ninth studio album "Young Americans". It was subsequently released by RCA Records (as PB 10320) as the second single to the album on 25 July 1975 with fellow album track "Right" as the B-side.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: "Fame" became Bowie's first song to top the "Billboard" Hot 100, displacing "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell during the week of 20 September 1975. For the week of 27 September 1975, "Fame" dropped to number two behind John Denver's "I'm Sorry" for a week, before returning to the top spot for one final week, ultimately being replaced at number one by Neil Sedaka's "Bad Blood". Bowie would later claim that he had "absolutely no idea" that the song would do so well as a single, saying "I wouldn't know how to pick a single if it hit me in the face." Despite "Fame" being Bowie's then biggest success on the American charts, the song only reached number 17 in the UK Singles Chart.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: "Cash Box" said that "with a scintillating rhythm track and chicken-guitar courtesy of Mr. Lennon, David's versatile voice blends with John's to produce an ethereal dancer with some r&b psychedelia thrown in." Dave Thompson of AllMusic calls the track "a hard-funking dance storm whose lyrics -- a hostile riposte on the personal cost of success -- utterly belie the upbeat tempo and feel of the song." Following Bowie's death in 2016, "Rolling Stone" listed it as one of Bowie's 30 essential songs. In 2018, the writers of "NME", in their list of Bowie's 41 greatest songs, ranked "Fame" at number 21. In 2016, "Ultimate Classic Rock" placed the single at number 25 in a list ranking every Bowie single from worst to best.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: "Fame" was used as the soundtrack of an animated music video of the same title, directed by Richard Jefferies and Mark Kirkland while students at California Institute of the Arts. The film, released in 1975, went on to win the Student Academy Award for animation and aired on NBC's "The Midnight Special".


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: The song is one of four Bowie songs to be included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: A live performance recorded on 23 March 1976 was included on "Live Nassau Coliseum '76", which was released as part of the 2010 reissues of the "Station to Station" album, on the 2016 collection "Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976)", and as a stand-alone album in 2017. Performances from the 1978 Isolar II tour have been released on "Stage" (1978) and "Welcome to the Blackout" (2018). A live performance from the Serious Moonlight Tour, filmed on 12 September 1983, was included on the concert DVD "Serious Moonlight" (1984) and on the live album "Serious Moonlight (Live '83)", which was part of the 2018 box set "Loving the Alien (1983–1988)" and was released separately the following year. Live versions recorded during Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider Tour (in Sydney, Australia and Montreal, Canada) were released as part of the "Glass Spider" concert DVD/CD package. A July 1997 performance at the Phoenix Festival was released in 2021 on "Look at the Moon! (Live Phoenix Festival 97)". Bowie's 25 June 2000 performance of the song at the Glastonbury Festival was released in 2018 on "Glastonbury 2000". An updated version recorded live by Bowie on 27 June 2000 was released on "BBC Radio Theatre, London, 27 June 2000", a bonus disc accompanying the first release of "Bowie at the Beeb" in 2000. A November 2003 live performance from the A Reality Tour is featured on the "A Reality Tour" DVD, released in 2004, as well as the "A Reality Tour" album, released in 2010.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: "Fame" was released as the B-side of the US release of "Beauty and the Beast" in January 1978. It appears on several compilations, including: "Changesonebowie" (1976); "Bowie: The Singles 1969–1993" (1993); "The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979" (1998); "Best of Bowie" (2002); "The Platinum Collection" (2006); "Nothing Has Changed" (2014); and "Legacy (The Very Best of David Bowie)" (2016). The 7" single version appeared on "The Best of Bowie" (1980) as well as on "" (1998). "Re:Call 2", part of the "Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976)" compilation released in 2016, included an attempted reconstruction of the single edit, which has been criticised as inaccurate.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: A remixed version of "Fame" was released by EMI in 1990 to coincide with the Sound+Vision Tour, the release of the "Changesbowie" compilation, and the "Pretty Woman" soundtrack. Bowie wanted to remix a successful American single for the tour and album release; of the two options ("Let's Dance" and "Fame"), "Let's Dance" was simply too recent. Bowie liked the choice: "It covers a lot of ground, Fame; it stands up really well in time. It still sounds potent. It's quite a nasty, angry little song. I quite like that." The "Gass Mix" was subsequently included on the "Pretty Woman" soundtrack.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: Regarding the remix, Spitz states: "The best thing you can say about "Fame '90" is that it's much better than the Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86" but far inferior to George Michael's "Freedom! '90". "Ultimate Classic Rock" called it a "now happily forgotten" remix and placed it at number 104 in a list ranking every Bowie single from worst to best.


title: Fame (David Bowie song)

text: Film director Gus Van Sant directed the promotional video for this version, which featured clips from many of Bowie’s previous videos. In the music video, Bowie also performs a dance with Louise Lecavalier, one of the main dancers of the Québécois contemporary dance troupe La La La Human Steps (whom Bowie would collaborate with on the "Sound + Vision" tour). The US version of the video replaces some of Bowie's music videos for scenes from the movie "Pretty Woman".


title: Ultra (Depeche Mode album)

text: Ultra is the ninth studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 14 April 1997 by Mute Records. It was the band's first album following the departure of Alan Wilder, who had become disillusioned with life in the band. Wilder's departure and lead singer Dave Gahan's drug problems, which culminated in a near-fatal overdose, had caused speculation that Depeche Mode was finished. "Ultra" was the first album the band recorded as a trio since "A Broken Frame" (1982); it was also their first where the band members were not involved with production, with these duties being handled by Tim Simenon of Bomb the Bass fame. Though not directly supported by a full-length tour, it was promoted via a brief series of concerts promoted as Ultra Parties.


title: Ultra (Depeche Mode album)

text: The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and at number five on the US "Billboard" 200. By April 2006, it had sold 584,000 copies in the United States. In 1999, Ned Raggett ranked the album at number 50 on his list of the "Top 136 or So Albums of the Nineties". That same year, the annual Ultra Music Festival in Miami was named after the album by its co-founder Russell Faibisch, and acknowledging its influence on the Polish rock scene, "Tylko Rock" ranked it at number 71 on its list of the "100 Albums That Shook Polish Rock".


title: Ultra (Depeche Mode album)

text: Lyrically, much of the album was inspired by the turmoil the band had faced throughout the 1990s. Martin Gore said that the opening track "Barrel of a Gun" is about realising that you do not have to fit someone else's view of the world. The demo version is similar in feel to the final version, although it was recreated from scratch. The drum pattern was cut up from a loop and re-sequenced, as Gore did not want to use an unedited drum loop, but also felt that loops can provide an "immediate atmosphere".