title: Muslim conquest of the Levant

text: The new rulers divided Syria into four districts ("junds"): Jund Dimashq (Damascus), Jund Hims, Jund al-Urdunn (Jordan), and Jund Filastin (Palestine) (to which a fifth, Jund Qinnasrin, was later added) and the Arab garrisons were kept apart in camps, and life went on much as before for the local population. The Muslims tolerated the Jews and Christians; indeed, Nestorian and Jacobite Christians were treated better under the Muslims than under the Byzantines. The taxes instituted were the "kharaj", which landowners and peasants paid according to the productivity of their fields, and the "jizya", paid by non-Muslims in return for state protection and exemption from military service. The Byzantine civil service was retained until a new system could be instituted; therefore, Greek remained the administrative language in the new Muslim territories for over 50 years after the conquests.


title: Muslim conquest of the Levant

text: When the first civil war broke out in the Muslim empire as a result of the murder of Uthman and the nomination of Ali as caliph, the Rashidun Caliphate was succeeded by the Umayyad dynasty, with Syria as its core and Damascus its capital for the next century to come.


title: Mimi Chakraborty

text: Mimi Chakraborty (born 11 February 1989) is an Indian actress, singer and politician. She is known for her work in Bengali cinema and television. Her debut film was Bapi Bari Jaa in which she played the female lead, Dola.


title: Mimi Chakraborty

text: She was listed as the most desirable woman in the "Calcutta Times" list of Most Desirable Women 2016 and 2020.


title: Mimi Chakraborty

text: In 2019, she joined politics and contested from Jadavpur Loksabha Constituency in 2019 Indian general election as a Trinamool Congress candidate. She is a Member of Parliament in the 17th Lok Sabha from Jadavpur constituency.


title: Mimi Chakraborty

text: Chakraborty was born on 11 February 1989. She hails from Jalpaiguri, a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. She spent her childhood in Arunachal Pradesh in Deomali, a town in Tirap district, but later moved back to her ancestral home in Jalpaiguri City with her family. She was educated in Holy Child School, Jalpaiguri and later at St. James' School, Binnaguri. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2011 from Asutosh College in Kolkata. Her parents live in Siliguri.


title: Mimi Chakraborty

text: Mimi Chakraborty was a model before starting her acting career. She participated in Femina Miss India. Her acting debut was with "Champion".


title: Mimi Chakraborty

text: Her second project was a TV serial "Gaaner Oparey", produced by Ideas Creations. It aired on Star Jalsha from 28 June 2010 to 16 April 2011. Ideas Creations, the production house of Prosenjit Chatterjee together with Star Jalsha launched the mega-serial "Gaaner Oparey" to pay tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on the 150th anniversary of his birth. The likes of Rituparno Ghosh (who was initial scriptwriter of Gaaner Oparey), Debojyoti Mishra (music director), and other noted personalities from the film industry were involved with the project.


title: Mimi Chakraborty

text: "Gaaner Oparey", was the musical journey between two artists, Bohemian Gora and traditional Pupe and their love and in the whole process reinventing Tagore's "music". The story revolved around a girl called Pupe from an orthodox Tagore-worshipping family and Gora, an extremely talented but care-free lad, who keeps on experimenting with Rabindra Sangeet. This TV show marks the beginning of a year-long celebration of 150th birth anniversary of Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore.


title: Mimi Chakraborty

text: Chakraborty portrayed the role of Pupe, a very talented singer, belonging to an orthodox Tagore worshipping family, who used to sing Rabindra Sangeet in traditional form in concurrence with her family values. She was brilliant in all the emotions and made Pupe iconic.


title: Mimi Chakraborty

text: Chakraborty's film debut was in "Bapi Bari Jaa" in which she played the female lead, Dola. The film was produced by Prosenjit Chatterjee production house, Ideas Creations. The film was also the silver-screen debut of Arjun Chakrabarty (better known as Gora, the male protagonist from "Gaaner Opaarey") who played the role of Bapi, the male lead.


title: Mimi Chakraborty

text: Chakraborty has been a part of Fame Fashion and Creative Excellence (FFACE) in different ways. In 2014, she unveiled the Edition 1 of the FFACE Calendar at Tantra, Park Hotel Kolkata. The same year she was a part of the conceptual greeting card produced by FFACE as the FFACE of DURGA promoting women empowerment.


title: Akan language

text: Akan () is a Central Tano language and the principal native language of the Akan people of Ghana, spoken over much of the southern half of Ghana. About 80% of Ghana's population can speak Akan, and about 44% of Ghanaians are native speakers. It is also spoken in parts of Côte d'Ivoire.


title: Akan language

text: Four dialects have been developed as literary standards with distinct orthographies: Asante, Akuapem, Bono (collectively known as Twi), and Fante; which, despite being mutually intelligible, were inaccessible in written form to speakers of the other standards until the Akan Orthography Committee (AOC)'s development of a common Akan orthography in 1978, based mainly on Akuapem Twi. This unified orthography is used as the medium of instruction in primary school by speakers of several other Central Tano languages, such as Akyem, Anyi, Sehwi, Fante, Ahanta, and the Guan languages. The Akan Orthography Committee has worked on the creation of a standard orthography.


title: Akan language

text: With the Atlantic slave trade, the language was introduced to the Caribbean and South America, notably in Suriname, spoken by the Ndyuka, and in Jamaica, spoken by the Jamaican Maroons, also known as the Coromantee. The cultures of the descendants of escaped slaves in the interior of Suriname and the Maroons in Jamaica still retain influences from this language, including the Akan naming practice of naming children after the day of the week on which they are born, e.g. Akwasi/Kwasi for a boy or Akosua for a girl born on a Sunday. In Jamaica and Suriname, the "Anansi" spider stories are still well-known.


title: Akan language

text: In history, the Akans who live in Ghana migrated in successive waves between the 11th and 18th centuries. Others inhabit the eastern part of Ivory Coast and parts of Togo. They migrated from the north to occupy the forest and coastal areas in the south in the 13th century. The Akans have a strong oral history tradition of their past and they're also known in the art history world for symbolic artifacts of wood, metal and terracotta. Their cultural ideas are expressed in stories and proverbs and also in designs such as symbols used in carvings and on clothes. The cultural and historic nature of the Akans in Ghana makes it an area of research for various disciplines such as folklore, literary studies, linguistics, anthropology and history.


title: Akan language

text: Akan is a dialect continuum that includes Twi, Fante, and Wasa. Ethnologue, whose classification is based on studies of mutual intelligibility and lexical similarity from a multitude of sources, classifies the varieties of Akan as dialects of the overarching Akan language, which belongs to the Central Tano language family. Glottolog makes basically the same analysis, with the exception that the Akan dialect continuum is labeled "Akanic".


title: Akan language

text: According to work done by P. K. Agbedor, Fante, Twi (Bono, Asante and Akuapem), Sefwi, Wassa, Asen, Akwamu, and Kwahu belong to Cluster 1 of the speech forms of Ghana, defined as in Ethnologue by the level of mutual intelligibility. Cluster 1 may better be termed r-Akan, which do not have /l/ as a phoneme, while l-Akan refers to the Akan cluster comprising Nzema, Baoulé, Anyin and other dialects spoken mainly in the Ivory Coast, which have /l/ in place of /r/.


title: Akan language

text: Before front vowels, all Asante consonants are palatalized (or labio-palatalized), and the stops are to some extent affricated. The allophones of are quite complex. In the table below, palatalized allophones which involve more than minor phonetic palatalization are specified, in the context of the vowel . These sounds do occur before other vowels, such as , though in most cases not commonly.


title: Akan language

text: In Asante, followed by a vowel is pronounced , but in Akuapem it remains . The sequence is pronounced .


title: Akan language

text: A word final can be heard as a glottal stop . There is also a nasalization of and of as and , when occurring before nasal vowels.


title: Akan language

text: The transcriptions in the tables below are in the order /phonemic/, <nowiki>[</nowiki>phonetic<nowiki>]</nowiki>. Note that orthographic is ambiguous; in textbooks, = may be distinguished from with a diacritic: '. Likewise, velar () may be transcribed '. Orthographic is palatalized .


title: Akan language

text: The Akan dialects have fourteen to fifteen vowels: four to five "tense" vowels (advanced tongue root, or +ATR), five "lax" vowels (retracted tongue root, or -ATR), which are adequately but not completely represented by the seven-vowel orthography, and five nasal vowels, which are not represented at all. All fourteen were distinguished in the Gold Coast alphabet of the colonial era. An ATR distinction in orthographic "a" is only found in some subdialects of Fante, but not in the literary form; in Asante and Akuapem there are harmonic allophones of , but neither is ATR. The two vowels written "e" ( and ) and "o" ( and ) are often not distinguished in pronunciation.


title: Akan language

text: Akan has three phonemic tones, "high" (/H/), "mid" (/M/), and "low" (/L/). Initial syllable may only be "high" or "low".


title: Akan language

text: The phonetic pitch of the three tones depends on their environment, often being lowered after other tones, producing a steady decline known as tone terracing.


title: Akan language

text: /H/ tones have the same pitch as a preceding /H/ or /M/ tone within the same tonic phrase, whereas /M/ tones have a lower pitch. That is, the sequences /HH/ and /MH/ have a level pitch, whereas the sequences /HM/ and /MM/ have a falling pitch. /H/ is lowered (downstepped) after a /L/.


title: Akan language

text: /L/ is the default tone, which emerges in situations such as reduplicated prefixes. It is always at bottom of the speaker's pitch range, except in the sequence /HLH/, in which case it is raised in pitch but the final /H/ is still lowered. Thus /HMH/ and /HLH/ are pronounced with distinct but very similar pitches.


title: Akan language

text: After the first "prominent" syllable of a clause, usually the first high tone, there is a downstep. This syllable is usually stressed.


title: Akan language

text: Akan forms some plural nouns by adding the prefixes 'm' or 'n' to the original word and removing the first sound of the noun. Example include nouns like "abofra" (child), which forms its plural by removing the 'ab' from the word and adding 'mm' to form its plural: "mmofra" (children). Same goes for "aboa" (animal) to "mmoa" (animals), "abusua" (family) to "mmusua" (families), "abirekyie" (goat) to "mmirekyie" (goats) etc. in the Twi dialect.


title: Akan language

text: The nouns which use the 'n' prefix include; "adaka" (box) to "nnaka" (boxes), "adanko" (rabbit) to "nnanko" (rabbits), "aduro" (medicine) to "nnuro" (medicines), "atare" (dress) to "ntare" (dresses), "odwan" (sheep) to "nnwan" (sheep plural), "aduane" (food) to "nnuane" (food plural), "kraman" (dog) to "nkraman" (dogs), "kanea" (light) to "nkanea" (lights), "safoa" (key) to "nsafoa" (keys).


title: Akan language

text: Akan can create plural nouns by adding the suffix "nom" to the original word. Examples include; "agya" (father) to "agyanom" (fathers), "nana" (grandparent/grandchild) to "nananom" (grandparents/grandchildren), "nua" (sibling) to "nuanom" (siblings), "yere" (wife) to "yerenom" (wives).


title: Akan language

text: Some Akan nouns are the same in both singular and plural. Nouns such as "nkyene" (salt), "ani" (eye), "sika" (money) e.t.c are written the same in both singular and plural.


title: Akan language

text: The Akan language has a rich literature in proverbs, folktales, and traditional drama, as well as a new literature in dramas, short stories, and novels. This literature began to be documented in written form in the late 1800s. Later, Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia collected a number of proverbs and folktales, including "Funeral Dirges of the Akan People" (1969), "Folk Songs of Ghana" (1963), and "Akan Poetry" (1958). Some of the important authors in the language are A. A. Opoku (dramatist), E. J. Osew (dramatist), K. E. Owusu (novelist), and R. A. Tabi (dramatist and novelist). The Bureau of Ghana Languages has been unable to continue printing novels in the language, and the following are out of print: "Obreguo, Okrabiri, Afrakoma, Obeede, Fia Tsatsala, "and "Ku Di Fo Nanawu".


title: Akan language

text: In 1978 the AOC established a common orthography for all of Akan, which is used as the medium of instruction in primary school. The Akan language is recognized for literacy, from at least the lower primary level (primary 1–3).


title: Akan language

text: The Akan language is studied at several major universities in the United States, including Ohio University, Ohio State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard University, Boston University, Indiana University, University of Michigan, and The University of Florida. Akan has been a regular African language of study in the annual Summer Cooperative African Languages Institute (SCALI) program. The Akan language is studied in these universities as a bachelor or masters program.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The Seattle Storm is an American professional basketball team based in Seattle, Washington. The Storm competes in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was founded by Ginger Ackerley and her husband Barry ahead of the 2000 season. The team is currently owned by Force 10 Hoops LLC, which is composed of three Seattle businesswomen: Dawn Trudeau, Lisa Brummel, and Ginny Gilder.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The Storm have qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in sixteen of its twenty-one years in Seattle. The franchise has been home to many high-quality players such as former UConn stars Sue Bird, Swin Cash, and Breanna Stewart; 2004 Finals MVP Betty Lennox; and Australian power forward Lauren Jackson, a three-time league MVP. The Storm are four-time WNBA Champions, with victories in 2004, 2010, 2018, and 2020. They are one of two teams who have never lost a WNBA Finals, the defunct Houston Comets being the other.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The team cultivates a fan-friendly, family environment at home games by having an all-kid dance squad, which leads young fans in a conga line on the court during time-outs, to the music of "C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)" by the Quad City DJ's. Named for the rainy weather of Seattle, the team uses many weather-related icons: the team mascot is Doppler, a maroon-furred creature with a cup anemometer on its head; the theme song for Storm home games is AC/DC's "Thunderstruck"; and its newsletter is called "Stormwatch".


title: Seattle Storm

text: The Storm were the sister team of the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA prior to February 28, 2008, when the team was sold to Force 10 Hoops LLC.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The Storm's predecessor was the Seattle Reign, a charter member of the American Basketball League (ABL), operating from 1996 through December 1998, when the league folded. Luckier than most localities that had an ABL team, Seattle was quickly awarded a WNBA franchise and began to play less than two years later.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The Seattle Storm would tip off their first season (the 2000 WNBA season) in typical expansion fashion. Coached by Lin Dunn and led by guard Edna Campbell and Czech center Kamila Vodichkova, the team finished with a 6–26 record. The low record, however, allowed the Storm to draft a 19-year-old Australian standout Lauren Jackson. Though Seattle did not make the playoffs in the 2001 season, Jackson's impressive rookie performance provided a solid foundation for the franchise to build on.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In the 2002 draft, the Storm drafted UConn star Sue Bird, filling the Storm's gap at the point guard position. With Bird's playmaking ability and Jackson's scoring and rebounding, the team made the playoffs for the first time in 2002 but were swept by the Los Angeles Sparks.


title: Seattle Storm

text: Coach Anne Donovan was hired for the 2003 campaign. In Donovan's first year, Jackson would win the WNBA Most Valuable Player Award, but the team had a disappointing season (with Bird injured for much of the year), and the Storm missed the playoffs.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The 2004 Storm posted a then franchise-best 20–14 record. In the playoffs, the Storm made quick work of the Minnesota Lynx, sweeping them in the first round. The Storm then squared off against an up-and-coming Sacramento Monarchs team in the West Finals. The Storm would emerge victorious, winning the series 2–1. In the WNBA Finals, the Storm would finish off the season as champions, defeating the Connecticut Sun 2 games to 1. Betty Lennox was named MVP of the Finals. The win made Anne Donovan the first female head coach in WNBA history to win the WNBA Championship.


title: Seattle Storm

text: Key players from the Storm's championship season were not on the team in 2005. Vodichkova, Tully Bevilaqua, and Sheri Sam moved on to other teams. Also, the pre-season injury of Australian star and new acquisition Jessica Bibby hampered the team's 2005 season. While they matched their 2004 record and made the playoffs, the Storm's title defense was stopped in the first round by the Houston Comets, 2 games to 1.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In 2006, the Storm would finish 18–16, good enough to make the playoffs. The Storm put up a good fight in the first round against the Sparks but would fall short 2–1. In 2007, the Storm would finish .500 (17–17), good enough to make the playoffs in a weak Western Conference. The Storm would be quickly swept out of the playoffs by the Phoenix Mercury.


title: Seattle Storm

text: On November 30, 2007, Anne Donovan resigned as head coach, and was replaced by Brian Agler on January 9, 2008.


title: Seattle Storm

text: Although most of Seattle's major sports teams endured poor seasons during 2008, the Storm would be the only standout team in Seattle that year, posting a franchise-best 22–12 record and finishing with a 16–1 record at home, also a franchise-best. But the No. 2 seeded Storm lost to the #3 Los Angeles Sparks in the first round of the playoffs in three games and ended Seattle's season at 23–14 overall.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In 2009, the Storm were 20–14 and finished second in the Western Conference for the second straight year. In the playoffs, the Storm again lost to the #3 Los Angeles Sparks in 3 games, which ended their season in the first round for the fifth consecutive season.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In the 2010 season, the Storm was almost unstoppable with a record-tying 28 wins and 6 losses in the regular season, including a perfect 17–0 at KeyArena. This was the most home wins in the history of the WNBA.


title: Seattle Storm

text: Along the way, Lauren Jackson was named WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week five times, and Western Conference Player of the Month three times, on her way to being named WNBA MVP for the third time. Agler was also named Coach of the Year.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In the playoffs, the Storm dramatically reversed their fortunes from the previous five seasons. They started with a sweep of the Sparks, the team that previously knocked them out of the playoffs every time they met. Then they swept Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury in the conference finals, and the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA Finals. With two league championships, the Storm became Seattle's most successful pro sports team by that measure.


title: Seattle Storm

text: With the same lineup as the previous year, the Storm had much expectation for the 2011 WNBA season. But right in the second round a two-year home invincibility was broken by the Minnesota Lynx, who even left the Storm scoreless for the first seven minutes. Injuries hit multiple players, especially Lauren Jackson, who had to undergo hip surgery and missed most of the season. The regular starting five resumed play only in the last five games, but Sue Bird and Swin Cash kept the Storm competitive, finishing second in the WNBA with 21 wins and 13 losses. On the playoffs, a Mercury buzzer beater at the KeyArena eliminated the Storm in round 1.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In 2012, with Jackson absent for the early season training with the Australia national team and injuries to most of the team, including Bird, only Camille Little and Katie Smith played on all the games of the regular season. Upon her return, Jackson missed some games due to a hamstring injury but reached 6,000 points on her WNBA career playing against the San Antonio Silver Stars. The 16-18 record put the Storm fourth in the West, facing the Lynx, who posted the league's best record during the regular season, in the playoffs. While the Storm managed to force a game 3 by winning in the KeyArena at double overtime, a last-second attempt by Jackson went off the rim and the Lynx took the series-winning by just one point, 73-72.


title: Seattle Storm

text: After losing in the first round of the 2013 playoffs to the Lynx following a .500 regular season, the Storm missed the playoffs in 2014. This was the first time the Storm missed the playoffs since 2003.


title: Seattle Storm

text: Following seven-year head coach & GM Brian Agler's hiring in Los Angeles, the Storm elevated President Alisha Valavanis to President & GM, and two weeks later, hired Jenny Boucek as the fourth head coach in franchise history. Valavanis and Boucek promptly got to work, trading Shekinna Stricklen and Camille Little to the Connecticut Sun for the #3 and #15 2015 WNBA draft picks, along with Renee Montgomery. Storm free agent Tanisha Wright signed with the New York Liberty, and a month later, Valavanis shipped the #15 pick to the Mystics for Quanitra Hollingsworth and the #20 pick in the 2015 WNBA Draft. Valavanis also signed Australian forward Abby Bishop that month.


title: Seattle Storm

text: Fast forward to April 2015, the month of the WNBA Draft, where Seattle now held the #1, #3, #20 and #26 picks. Days before the draft, Notre Dame guard Jewell Loyd and Minnesota center Amanda Zahui B. shook up the draft order, both forgoing NCAA eligibility and declaring for the WNBA Draft. On April 16, 2015, Seattle drafted Jewell Loyd #1, UCONN sharpshooter Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis #3, Vicky McIntyre #20 and Nneka Enemkpali #26 in the 2015 WNBA Draft. In the 2015 WNBA season, despite missing out on the playoffs with a 10-24 record, the number-one drafted Jewell Loyd would win the Rookie of the Year Award.


title: Seattle Storm

text: After having the worst record in the WNBA, the Storm ended up with the first overall pick again using it to select Breanna Stewart from the University of Connecticut. In the 2016 WNBA season, Stewart immediately emerged as one of the young rising stars in the league, winning Rookie of the Year, averaged an impressive 18.9 ppg and broke the record for most defensive rebounds in a regular season. Loyd would statistically improve, averaging 16.5 ppg, birthing a new, young dynamic tandem as the "Next Great Storm Duo" after Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson. This would lead the Storm back into playoff contention as they finished as the 6th seed with a 16-18 record under the league's new playoff format, but would lose to the Atlanta Dream in the first round elimination game.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In the 2017 season, both Loyd and Stewart continued to get better and lead the Storm into playoff contention. Loyd averaged 17.7 ppg and Stewart 19.9 ppg. Stewart would become an all-star for the first time in her career and was one of two all-stars representing the Storm in the 2017 WNBA All-Star Game along with Sue Bird. The Storm finished as the 8th seed with a 15-19 record but would lose yet again in the first round elimination game by the Phoenix Mercury.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In the 2018 season, the Storm would elevate from a mediocre playoff team to a title contender. In the offseason, they made some slight changes to the roster. They traded for Natasha Howard and drafted Jordin Canada. Bird, Loyd, and Stewart were all voted into the 2018 WNBA All-Star Game, creating a "big three" on the Storm's roster. Bird also broke records in 2018 by becoming the franchise leader in scoring and the league's all-time regular-season assists leader. With Bird's leadership and the continued development of Loyd and Stewart, the Storm finished 26-8 with the number 1 seed headed into the WNBA Playoffs. They would receive a double-bye to the semi-finals. Stewart who averaged 20.0 ppg and 8.8 RPG won the 2018 Most Valuable Player award. They faced the Phoenix Mercury in the semi-finals where Stewart averaged 24.0 ppg and Loyd added 11.0 ppg. They would defeat the Mercury in a hard-fought five-game series, advancing to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2010. In the Finals, the Storm would sweep their opponent, the Washington Mystics, winning their first championship in eight years, Stewart was named Finals MVP.


title: Seattle Storm

text: Even before the season started, 2019 was a year defined by health issues for the Storm. On April 15, Stewart ruptured her Achilles tendon playing in a Euroleague game for Dynamo Kursk when she collided with Brittney Griner, putting her out for the entire 2019 season. Four days later, head coach Dan Hughes was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his colon; he had it removed in May and missed the entire season, with assistant Gary Kloppenburg taking over in an interim role Later that month, after the Storm finished their preseason schedule, it was announced that Bird would have to undergo knee surgery, sidelining her too for the year.


title: Seattle Storm

text: With Bird out, Canada stepped into the starting point guard role, finishing 2019 third in the WNBA in assists per game (5.5) and second in steals per game (2.3). Meanwhile, without Stewart and with Loyd missing seven games with an injury of her own, Howard became the focal point of the Seattle offense, scoring a career-high 18.1 points per game. The shorthanded Storm finished the season 18-16, earning the No. 6 seed in the 2019 WNBA playoffs. Seattle won its first-round matchup against the Minnesota Lynx, 84-74, and then lost in the second round to the Los Angeles Sparks, 92-69.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The 2020 WNBA season was atypical, played entirely inside Bradenton, Florida's IMG Academy, dubbed the "wubble," the WNBA's version of the NBA's Bubble. The Storm entered the wubble with Bird and Stewart back, but without head coach Dan Hughes, whose cancer diagnosis made him a health risk. Bird missed several games with a left knee bone bruise, but came back for the playoffs, in which the Storm didn't lose a single game. The Storm closed out the top-ranked Las Vegas Aces in three games en route to their fourth championship, with Stewart again named Finals MVP. The Storm remained at Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett for the 2021 season with limited capacity due to COVID guidelines.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The Storm moved to their new home at Climate Pledge Arena for the 2022 season and played their regular season game there on May 6, 2022. Sue Bird announced that she would retire at the end of the season and drew a franchise record crowd of 18,100 spectators for her last regular season game.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The Storm's name was chosen because of Seattle's reputation as a rainy city, as well as the aggressive nature implicit in the name. Though the team conducted an exhaustive trademark search for options, Storm was always their preferred choice. The name had once been trademarked by an amateur soccer club, FC Seattle Storm, in the mid-1980s, but by 2000 it was free for the WNBA to take ownership. The team had planned a formal announcement, along with a presentation of the logo and official team colors, at a January 2000 gala event for the inaugural season ticket holders. However, a Miami newspaper revealed the name two weeks early while announcing all four of that season's expansion franchises.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The original logo featured a rounded, stylized silhouette of the Space Needle, an iconic Seattle landmark, set against the backdrop of a green storm cloud. In dynamic font and fashion, the team name stretches in an angled rise from left to right. Pointed jags meant to evoke lightning bolts streak through the team name from right to left. A basketball orbits the Space Needle through the cloud.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In January 2016, the team revealed a branding update that eliminated the use of red. The team logos retained the same overall design, but used the simplified color scheme.


title: Seattle Storm

text: An alternate logo, which placed the S from the Storm wordmark on a green oval, was used on the team's jerseys on and off until 2020 in place of the more complicated primary mark.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In March 2021, the team released an entirely new logo and updated color scheme. The Space Needle, depicted in a new, more minimalist style, is interlinked with the ribs of a basketball and incorporates a small lightning bolt into the tower. The logo has a pointed shape, meant to evoke Mount Rainier. A sleeker modern font and the new color scheme of dark green, yellow, and bright green are used.


title: Seattle Storm

text: Like several early WNBA teams, the Storm was owned by their NBA counterpart, the Seattle SuperSonics, and closely related to the team. Taking their cue from the Sonics' team colors at the time, known colloquially as the "wine and pine" era of the team, the Storm's original team colors were pine green, maroon red, bronze, and white. When a new ownership group led by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz purchased the Sonics and Storm in 2001, the NBA club returned to the traditional green-and-golden yellow color scheme that the team had used for its first 28 years of existence. The Storm, however, retained their colors as a way to uniquely market the team. Following another change of ownership in 2006, the team was then sold to Force 10 Hoops LLC in 2008 when the Oklahoma City interests that owned the Sonics announced intentions to relocate the NBA club to Oklahoma City as the Thunder. Force 10 also retained the original colors.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The January 2016 branding update changed the official team colors. Adopting a scheme similar to their former NBA brother team, the updated colors were thunder green, a less saturated shade than before, and lightning yellow. White and thunder gray featured as accent colors.


title: Seattle Storm

text: The new 2021 design keeps the 2016–2020 colors of lightning yellow and dark thunder green, and replaces gray with the bright bolt green.


title: Seattle Storm

text: Following disagreements between the Basketball Club of Seattle (the former owners of the Sonics and Storm) and the city of Seattle concerning the need to renovate the KeyArena, the Seattle SuperSonics and the Seattle Storm were sold to an Oklahoma City group led by Clay Bennett on July 18, 2006. Bennett made it clear that the Sonics and Storm would move to Oklahoma City at some point after the 2007–08 NBA season, unless an arena for the Sonics was approved by Seattle leaders before October 31, 2007. During this period of uncertainty, the Storm announced that they would play their 2008 WNBA season in Seattle at KeyArena.


title: Seattle Storm

text: On January 8, 2008, Bennett sold the team to a Seattle group of women called Force 10 Hoops, LLC. The sale was given unanimous approval from the WNBA Board of Governors on February 28, 2008. This kept the team in Seattle and disconnected it from the Sonics. The Sonics moved to Oklahoma City in July, during the WNBA season.


title: Seattle Storm

text: On April 21, 2010, the Storm and the WNBA announced a sponsor agreement with Bing, a search engine from Microsoft, to place the company's logo on their jerseys for the 2010 season. The Bing sponsorship ended after the 2013 season, and the Storm played without a sponsor for two seasons, before signing a new uniform deal with Swedish Medical Center for the 2016 season.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In June 2011, President of the United States Barack Obama invited the 2010 WNBA champion Seattle Storm to the White House. He stated that the franchise provided a good example for young girls with big dreams. He praised the Storm for the community service they perform and stated that being champions did not end when they step off the court. The Storm presented the President with a championship ring.


title: Seattle Storm

text: With Climate Pledge Arena to be closed during its renovation into a venue suitable for the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League, the Storm were forced to seek a temporary venue for their 2019 season. After considering two suburban venues, ShoWare Center in Kent and Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, the team announced in August 2018 that its primary home in 2019 would be in the city of Seattle at the University of Washington's Alaska Airlines Arena. While the arena will become the Storm's primary home during the renovation, there was no guarantee of its availability for Storm playoff games, and some home games might be played at other venues in the region, such as Tacoma Dome. Since Washington's arena lacks air conditioning, and the WNBA requires that all games be played in air-conditioned venues, portable air conditioning units will be used during Storm games. The team later announced that five of its 17 regular-season home games in 2019, including the home opener, would be at Angel of the Winds Arena. The 2020 season saw the Storm play their games in Bradenton, FL.


title: Seattle Storm

text: In 2022, Amazon Prime Video announced a landmark new deal with the Seattle Storm, becoming the official streaming service of the Storm, and one of the first streamers to hold local broadcast rights with a WNBA team. Approximately 30 Storm games will be available to Prime Video customers throughout Washington state.


title: Seattle Storm

text: Currently, most Storm home games are broadcast on Amazon Prime. Broadcasters for the Storm games are Dick Fain and Elise Woodward.


title: Seattle Storm

text: All games are broadcast to the WNBA LiveAccess game feeds on the league website. Furthermore, some Storm games are broadcast nationally on ESPN, ESPN2, CBS, CBS Sports Network and ABC. The WNBA has reached an eight-year agreement with ESPN, which will pay rights fees to the Storm, as well as other teams in the league.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an air-cooled, gasoline-fuelled, boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron cylinders, cast aluminum alloy cylinder heads and pistons, magnesium-alloy crankcase, and forged steel crankshaft and connecting rods.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: There are two distinct families/variations of the aircooled engine namely Type 1 and Type 4. The Type 3 engine is a variation of the Type 1 engine with pancake cooling arrangement.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: Variations of the engine were produced by Volkswagen plants worldwide from 1936 until 2006 for use in Volkswagen's own vehicles, notably the Type 1 (Beetle), Type 2 (bus, transporter), Type 3, and Type 4. Additionally, the engines were widely used in industrial, light aircraft and kit car applications.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: The 1.2-litre engine is called "Typ 122" and has a displacement of . As industrial engine, its rated power is at 3000 min without a governor, the highest torque at 2000 min. With a governor set to 8% accuracy, the rated power is at 3000 min, the highest torque is at 2000 min. For other applications, the power and torque output may vary, e.g. On the Beetle produced at 3900 rpm and of torque at 2400 rpm.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: Beginning in 1987, Dunn-Right Incorporated of Anderson, South Carolina has made a kit to perform the conversion of a VW engine to a compressor.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: Volkswagen AG has officially offered these air-cooled boxer engines for use in industrial applications since 1950, lately under its Volkswagen Industrial Motor brand. Available in , , , , and outputs, from displacements of to , these Industrial air-cooled engines were officially discontinued in 1991.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: The air-cooled opposed four-cylinder Beetle engines have been used for other purposes as well. Limbach Flugmotoren has since 1970 produced more than 6000 certified aircraft engines based on the Beetle engine. Sauer has since 1987 produced certified engines for small airplanes and motorgliders, and is now also producing engines for the ultralight community in Europe.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: Especially interesting is its use as an experimental aircraft engine. This type of VW engine deployment started separately in Europe and in the US. In Europe this started in France straight after the Second World War using the engine in the Volkswagen Kübelwagen that were abandoned by the thousands in the country side and peaked with the JPX engine. In the US this started in the 1960s when VW Beetle started to show up there. A number of companies still produce aero engines that are Volkswagen Beetle engine derivatives: Limbach, Sauer, Hapi, Revmaster, Great Plains Type 1 Front Drive, Hummel, the AeroConversions AeroVee Engine, and others. Kit planes or plans built experimental aircraft were specifically designed to utilize these engines. The VW air-cooled engine does not require an expensive and often complex gear reduction unit to utilize a propeller at efficient cruise RPM. With its relative low cost and parts availability, many experimental aircraft are designed around the VW engines.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: Formula V Air Racing uses aircraft designed to get maximum performance out of a VW powered aircraft resulting in race speeds above 160 mph.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: For aircraft use, a number of experimenters, who were seeking a small, two-cylinder, four-stroke engine, began cutting Type 1 VW engine blocks in half, creating a two-cylinder, horizontally opposed engine. The resulting engine produces . Plans and kits have been made available for these conversions.


title: Volkswagen air-cooled engine

text: One such conversion is the "Carr Twin", designed by Dave Carr, introduced in January 1975, in the Experimental Aircraft Association's "Sport Aviation" magazine. The design won the John Livingston Award for its outstanding contribution to low cost flying and also was awarded the Stan Dzik Memorial Award for outstanding design.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Matthew Joseph Korklan (born March 19, 1983), better known by the ring name Matt Sydal, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW).


title: Matt Sydal

text: Prior to signing with AEW, Sydal wrestled in WWE as Evan Bourne, and was a one-time WWE Tag Team Champion, with Kofi Kingston. Sydal is also known for his time in Impact Wrestling where he is a former Impact Grand Champion and Impact X Division Champion, and in Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a former ROH World Tag Team Champion. He has also wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion and a one-time NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Korklan has also wrestled on the independent circuit, for promotions including NWA Midwest, IWA-Mid South, winning both singles and tag team championships. He also wrestled for the short-lived Wrestling Society X . Beginning in 2005, he wrestled for Dragon Gate in Japan, and won the Open the Brave Gate Championship in early 2007.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Korklan is known for his high flying but hybrid "lucha libre" and "puroresu" styles of wrestling and was named the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter"s Best Flying Wrestler in 2008.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Korklan was on his high school wrestling team, he did Taekwondo when he was younger as well. While a senior in high school, Korklan began training with the St. Louis, Missouri-based Gateway Championship Wrestling (GCW) promotion. After three months of training, Korklan began wrestling for GCW in October 2000, becoming the first person under the age of 18 to receive a wrestler's license in Missouri. Prior to this, Korklan had briefly wrestled as Lance Sydal in the backyard wrestling promotion, Saint Peters Wrestling Organization.


title: Matt Sydal

text: In 2003, Korklan (now known as Matt, forgoing a surname) formed a stable in GCW, known as Operation: Shamrock. In addition, Korklan and fellow stable member Billy McNeil formed a tag team. Operation: Shamrock maintained a feud with the villainous Ministry of Hate faction, led by Nikki Strychnine.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Korklan debuted in Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South (IWA Mid-South) in November 2003, combining two of his old ring names into a new one, Matt Sydal. He won his first championship, the IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship, on January 17, 2004, by defeating J.C. Bailey. Sydal lost the title to Delirious on June 26, 2004. Sydal joined NWA Midwest that same year. On July 30, he defeated Justin Kage for the NWA Midwest X Division Championship, which he lost to Delirious after holding it for nearly a year. Sydal teamed with Daizee Haze in an intergender tag team match against Delirious and MsChif, of which the male wrestler on the winning team would become champion. Haze pinned MsChif to win the title for Sydal. Sydal lost the title to Jaysin Strife roughly four months later before leaving the promotion.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal wrestled several top independent stars during his time as a regular in IWA. He lost three matches to A.J. Styles during a short-lived feud. He also faced CM Punk, Chris Sabin and Nate Webb. On September 24, 2005, Sydal won the fifth Ted Petty Invitational tournament, defeating El Generico, Tyler Black, and Sabin to reach the final match, where he defeated Kevin Steen and Arik Cannon.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal wrestled on Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA)'s first monthly pay-per-view event, Victory Road. He participated in a twenty-man X Division Gauntlet for the Gold match. Sydal was a candidate in an online poll to determine who would meet Christopher Daniels for the TNA X Division Championship at Sacrifice, but was not chosen.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal (along with his valet, Daizee Haze) debuted in Ring of Honor at "Reborn: Stage One" on April 23, 2004, defeating his nemesis, Delirious. Following a brief feud with Trent Acid, Sydal teamed with Fast Eddie Vegas as The Air Devils, a name chosen by ROH fans. They only teamed once, on February 25, 2005, at "3rd Anniversary: Part 2", defeating The Ring Crew Express. After the match, Vegas turned on Sydal and joined the heel stable, The Embassy. On August 12, Sydal and Haze joined Austin Aries, Roderick Strong and Jack Evans in Generation Next, a stable in the midst of a feud with The Embassy. In late 2005, Haze turned on Sydal, leaving him and Generation Next and joining The Embassy. Generation Next fought The Embassy in several multi-man tag matches, culminating in a Steel Cage Warfare match on December 3, which Generation Next won.


title: Matt Sydal

text: After wrestling A.J. Styles at "Hell Freezes Over", the two teamed to unsuccessfully challenge Sydal's Generation Next stablemates, Austin Aries and Roderick Strong, for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Sydal also teamed with Samoa Joe and Jack Evans to chase the title. Sydal went to the finals of the 2006 Survival of the Fittest tournament, before losing to Delirious. Sydal and Delirious renewed their rivalry in ROH, wrestling several matches in mid-2006.


title: Matt Sydal

text: After several matches against each other in 2006, Sydal teamed with Christopher Daniels in another attempt to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship. They feuded with the champions, The Kings of Wrestling, before winning the championship at "Dethroned". Sydal and Daniels successfully defended the title against CIMA and Shingo, and former champions Austin Aries and Roderick Strong, before losing it to The Briscoe Brothers at the "Fifth Year Festival: Chicago". During their title reign, Sydal developed a cocky, heelish attitude. After unsuccessful attempts (with Claudio Castagnoli) to regain the title, Sydal joined Larry Sweeney's heel stable Sweet n' Sour Inc. (which also included Chris Hero, Sara Del Rey and Tank Toland). At Man Up, Sydal wrestled his final match for ROH, losing to long-time rival Delirious.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal began touring Japan with Dragon Gate in May 2006. There, he aligned with CIMA, Don Fuji, and Jack Evans to form the stable New Blood Generation International. He also became a part of CIMA's Typhoon stable. At Wrestlejam, Sydal teamed with Generation Next stablemate Roderick Strong to win the $10,000 Tag Team Challenge.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On February 12, 2007, Sydal won the Dragon Gate Open the Brave Gate Championship from Masato Yoshino, becoming the first gaijin to hold the championship. He held it for just over a month, successfully defending it against Yoshino in Hyogo and against Austin Aries at Ring of Honor's "Fifth Year Festival: Dayton". He dropped the title to Genki Horiguchi on March 25.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal was a part of the short-lived MTV promotion, Wrestling Society X, where he competed as a heel against Jack Evans, Scorpio Sky and the Human Tornado. He began a feud with Syxx-Pac over Sydal's valet and on-screen girlfriend Lizzy Valentine, but WSX folded before they ever had a match.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Following the expiration of his WSX contract and the close of the promotion, Korklan signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Sydal debuted in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) at its October 10, 2007 TV taping, defeating Jamin Olivencia. In December, Sydal defeated Mike Kruel to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship. On February 7, 2008, WWE announced it had ended its affiliation with OVW. As a result, Sydal lost the OVW Heavyweight Championship to Jay Bradley.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal joined WWE's new developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling, debuting on March 22, 2008, and defeating TJ Wilson. He was then called up to WWE's main roster.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal made his debut for the ECW brand on June 3, 2008, as a face character. He lost a match by countout to Shelton Benjamin, after he was thrown at guest commentator Kofi Kingston. The following week on "ECW", he was renamed as Evan Bourne, and teamed with Kofi Kingston to defeat Benjamin and Mike Knox. In the following weeks, Bourne defeated Matt Striker, Nunzio, and Chavo Guerrero Jr., using the shooting star press as his finishing maneuver.


title: Matt Sydal

text: At Cyber Sunday in October, WWE fans chose Bourne to face Matt Hardy for the ECW Championship. He was pinned after Hardy performed a Twist of Fate on him. Two days later, during a six-man tag match on "ECW", Bourne landed a dive from the ring on his right ankle, dislocating it and tearing his deltoid ligament. Surgery was not necessary, but Bourne was not medically cleared to return to the ring until March 17. On December 8, he won the "Best Finishing Maneuver" Slammy award for his shooting star press.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On June 29, Bourne was traded to the Raw brand, and made his debut that night as the first of three wrestlers in a Gauntlet match against WWE Champion Randy Orton. On the November 2 episode of "Raw", Bourne lost a United States Championship match to The Miz. On the December 29 episode of "ECW", he defeated Mike Knox in an "ECW Homecoming" match to qualify for the "Homecoming Battle Royal", which would decide the opponent for ECW Champion Christian at the Royal Rumble.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Bourne lost a non-title match to WWE Champion Sheamus on the January 4, 2010, episode of "Raw". The following week on "ECW", he competed in the "Homecoming Battle Royal" but was the first man eliminated. On the March 8 episode of "Raw", he defeated William Regal to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXVI, which was won by Jack Swagger.


title: Matt Sydal

text: The May 31, 2010 episode of "Raw" opened with Bourne being assaulted by Edge, after Bourne proposed Edge put his spot in the WWE Championship match at Fatal 4-Way on the line in a match. Later in the show, John Cena chose Bourne to replace his scheduled tag team partner, Randy Orton (who was earlier "injured" by Edge), in a match against Edge and Sheamus. Bourne pinned Sheamus to earn the victory for his team. Two weeks later, Bourne defeated Chris Jericho by disqualification. Jericho had threatened the referee and attacked Bourne while he was in the ropes. At Fatal 4-Way, he pinned Jericho in a rematch. The following night on "Raw", Jericho challenged Bourne to a third match, stating he would leave WWE if he lost; Jericho pinned Bourne to win the match and stay with the company. On the July 5 "Raw", Bourne teamed with Randy Orton to defeat Jericho and Edge. Bourne competed in the Money in the Bank ladder match at Money in the Bank on July 18, but lost.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On September 19, at Night of Champions, Bourne teamed with Mark Henry in the Tag Team Turmoil match for the WWE Tag Team Championship. They were the final team eliminated, by Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes. On the October 11 "Raw", he lost a match (to decide who would be on Team Raw at Bragging Rights) to CM Punk, and was subsequently assaulted. This assault was the storyline reason to remove Bourne from television. In reality, he had shoulder surgery.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Bourne returned on the February 28, 2011 episode of "Raw", defeating Sheamus after Sheamus was attacked by Triple H before the match. On May 23, he began feuding with Jack Swagger, with the two trading victories on several episodes of "Raw". Bourne then defeated Swagger at WWE Capitol Punishment to end the feud.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On the August 22, 2011, episode of "Raw", Bourne won his first championship in WWE. He and Kofi Kingston defeated David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty for the WWE Tag Team Championship. On the August 29 "Raw", the team was named Air Boom and made their first title defense, defeating Otunga and McGillicutty in a rematch. At Night of Champions, Air Boom retained the title against The Miz and R-Truth when The Miz was disqualified for attacking the referee. At both Hell in a Cell and Vengeance, Air Boom retained the title against Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On November 1, WWE announced it had suspended Korklan for 30 days for his first violation of the company's wellness policy. Bourne returned to television on December 5. On December 18, at , Air Boom retained the Tag Team Championship by defeating Primo & Epico. On January 15, 2012, Air Boom lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to Primo and Epico at a house show. The following night on "Raw", Air Boom was awarded a rematch, but failed to regain the championship. The following day on January 17, Korklan was suspended for 60 days for his second failure of a wellness test.


title: Matt Sydal

text: In March 2012, Korklan was involved in a motorcycle accident which broke his foot in four places and dislocated it in five. After a year-long absence, Bourne returned on March 28, 2013, at a NXT live event, defeating Sami Zayn. The following year, on June 12, WWE announced that Korklan had been released from his contract, without him reappearing on television.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal made his return to Ring of Honor on September 27, 2014, losing to A.J. Styles at the "Ring of Honor Wrestling" television tapings. In November, he was part of the 2014 Survival of the Fittest tournament, won by Adam Cole. He unsuccessfully challenged Jay Lethal for the ROH World Television Championship at Final Battle 2014. At Supercard of Honor IX Sydal defeated Moose, Tommaso Ciampa, Caprice Coleman, Cedric Alexander, and Andrew Everett in a Six-man mayhem match. On August 21, 2015, Sydal defeated New Japan Pro-Wrestling's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kushida in a non-title match, after which Kushida accepted his challenge for a title match. At Survival of the Fittest Sydal was defeated by A. C. H. in 5 match in the Best of 5 Series. The next night Sydal was defeated by A.J. Styles. At Final Battle Sydal teamed with Alex Shelley and A. C. H. and defeated The Addiction and Chris Sabin in a Six-man tag team match. On February 6, Sydal scored an impressive victory over former ROH World Champion Adam Cole. At ROH 14th Anniversary Show Sydal teamed with Kushida and A. C. H. as they were defeated by The Elite (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. At Global Wars (2016) Sydal teamed with Kushida and The Motor City Machine Guns as they was defeated by Bullet Club (The Young Bucks, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) in an eight-man tag team match. At War Of The Worlds, Sydal was defeated by Hiroshi Tanahashi.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On April 15, 2017, Sydal made his return saving Frankie Kazarian from Marty Scurll and Hangman Page. On May 12, during the third night of the War of the Worlds tour, Sydal was unsuccessful at winning the ROH World Television Championship against Marty Scurll. The match marked Sydal's final appearance for ROH.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal made his PWG debut at PWG Battle Of Los Angeles 2014 Night 2 by Chris Hero in the First Round of the Battle Of Los Angeles, Then Sydal was then defeated by Kenny Omega on Night 2. At PWG Black Cole Sun Sydal would team with Chris Sabin as they defeated The Young Bucks. At PWG From Out Of Nowhere Sydal was defeated by this tag team partners Ricochet. At PWG Don't Sweat The Technique Sydal and Chris Sabin defeated The Monster Mafia (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander). At PWG Battle Of Los Angeles 2015 – Night 1 Sydal defeated Fenix in the First Round of the Battle Of Los Angeles, The next night Sydal was defeated by Will Ospreay in the Second round. At PWG All Star Weekend 11 – Night 1 Sydal was unsuccessfully at winning the PWG World Championship against Roderick Strong, The night Sydal was defeated by Trevor Lee. At PWG All Star Weekend 12 – Night 1 Sydal teamed with Ricochet as they were unsuccessfully against The Young Bucks for the PWG World Tag Team Championship.


title: Matt Sydal

text: At PWG Battle Of Los Angeles 2016 – Night 2 Sydal teamed with Ricochet and Will Ospreay as they defeated Adam Cole and The Young Bucks, The match was given a 5 star by Dave Meltzer. At PWG Mystery Vortex IV Sydal defeated Pete Dunne. On March 18, 2017 Sydal and Ricochet was involved in a triple threat tag team for the PWG Tag Team Championship which was won by Penta el 0M & Rey Fenix. On June 16, at Man On The Silver Mountain, Sydal was defeated by Sami Callihan. Sydal entered the 2017 Battle Of Los Angeles being eliminated in the first round by Penta El Zero M. The next day he and Ricochet were defeated by The Leaders Of The New School(Zack Sabre Jr. & Marty Scurll). On night two of PWG All Star Weekend 13, Sydal was defeated by Trent? in a three-way match also including Rey Horus.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal became active in the UK scene in 2014, most notably in Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro), feuding with Will Ospreay. On July 20, 2014, he made his in-ring return to Dragon Gate, tagging with Cima to take on Ricochet and Masato Yoshino. They came up short in the bout, when Cima tapped out to Yoshino. After another year away from Dragon Gate, Sydal made a surprise return to the promotion on June 28, 2015. On July 20, Sydal and Ricochet unsuccessfully challenged Naruki Doi and Yamato for the Open the Twin Gate Championship.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On February 7, 2015, Sydal debuted For Family Wrestling Entertainment (FWE), unsuccessfully challenging Paul London for the FWE Tri-Borough Championship. On October 3, 2015, at a show in South Korea, Sydal briefly held the PWF Lord Of The World Championship, defeating Namsuk Kim, before being defeated in an immediate rematch. This was his first singles championship since leaving WWE.


title: Matt Sydal

text: In March 2018, Sydal competed in Westside Xtreme Wrestling's 16 Carat Gold 2018 Tournament. He lost in the first round to Lucky Kidd. Sydal competed for the Border City Wrestling Heavyweight Title in a fatal four-way that included Cody Deaner, Johnny Impact and Kongo Kong. This took place at the October 6, 2018


title: Matt Sydal

text: BCW/Impact Wrestling event BCW 25th Anniversary. At All American Wrestling's event AAW Unstoppable 2018 on November 24, 2018, Sydal teamed with Colt Cabana in a losing effort against David Starr and Eddie Kingston. Sydal would then face Marty Scurll at CWA Christmas Showdown 2018 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.


title: Matt Sydal

text: In November 2018, Sydal took some time off to have surgery to repair torn cartilage in his knee with an estimated recovery time of six months. At the same time, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that Sydal was no longer signed to Impact Wrestling as of January 1, 2019, and that there was interest from WWE and All Elite Wrestling to sign Sydal. In April 2019, Sydal won the IPWA Heavyweight Championship in a match against Gery Roif at Israeli Pro Wrestling Association's Passover Bash. His next appearance for a major promotion would be at RevPro's Epic Encounter 2019 in May, where he would defeat A-Kid. He has since defended the title against local wrestler Yuval Goldshmit and WWE Hall of Famer "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On August 8, 2014, Sydal made his debut for Evolve, defeating Johnny Gargano. The following night, Sydal unsuccessfully challenged Ricochet for the Open the Freedom Gate Championship in the main-event of Evolve 32.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On September 23, 2015, Sydal made his debut for NJPW at Destruction in Okayaka, teaming with Hiroshi Tanahashi in a tag team match, where they defeated Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga. During the same event, the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega nominated Sydal as the first challenger for his title. On October 12, at King of Pro-Wrestling, Sydal unsuccessfully challenged Omega for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. On October 24, Sydal and Ricochet entered the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, defeating Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida) in their first round match. On November 1, Sydal and Ricochet defeated The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) to advance to the finals of the tournament. On November 7, at Power Struggle, Sydal and Ricochet defeated Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) in the finals to win the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Tournament. On January 4, 2016, at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome, Sydal and Ricochet took part in a four-way match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, but were defeated by The Young Bucks. On February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, Sydal and Ricochet defeated The Young Bucks and reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) in a three-way match to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. They lost the title to Roppongi Vice on April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016, before regaining the title on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2016. Later in the month, Sydal entered the 2016 Best of the Super Juniors. He finished the tournament with five wins and two losses, tied with Ryusuke Taguchi, but failed to advance to the finals due to losing to Taguchi in their head-to-head match. On June 19 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall, Sydal and Ricochet lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to The Young Bucks in a four-way elimination match, also involving reDRagon and Roppongi Vice.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On July 3, Sydal and Ricochet teamed up with Satoshi Kojima to defeat The Elite for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. On July 20, Sydal, representing ROH, entered the 2016 Super J-Cup, defeating Kaientai Dojo's Kaji Tomato in his first round match. On August 21, Sydal defeated Will Ospreay in the second round of the tournament, before being eliminated in the semifinals by Pro Wrestling Noah's Yoshinobu Kanemaru. On September 25, Sydal, Ricochet and Kojima were stripped of the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship due to Sydal failing to make a scheduled title defense at Destruction in Kobe. Sydal missed two shows over three days, officially due to "travel issues". It was later revealed that he had actually been arrested upon entering the country (see below). He was replaced at Destruction in Kobe by David Finlay, who afterwards also took his spot as Ricochet's regular tag team partner. Sydal's profile has since been removed from NJPW official site.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Sydal made his return to Impact Wrestling on the April 27, 2017 "Impact Wrestling" TV taping, defeating Trevor Lee in his first match. On the May 4 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sydal defeated Eddie Edwards and after the match they shook hands. On the May 11 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sydal competed in a fatal four-way match which was won by Andrew Everett. On the June 22 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sydal won The Sony SIX Way X-Division Elimination Match. On the June 29 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sydal and Sonjay Dutt defeated Low-Ki and Trevor Lee.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On the July 6 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sydal defeated Braxton Sutter. On the July 20 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sydal defeated El Hijo del Fantasma and Low Ki in a 3-way dance. On the August 10 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sydal, Alberto El Patrón and Sonjay Dutt lost a six-man tag team match to Lashley, Low-Ki and Trevor Lee. On Augustv 17 at Destination X, Sydal defeated Lashley. On the September 7 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sydal was defeated by Eli Drake in a match for the GFW IMPACT World Heavyweight title.


title: Matt Sydal

text: At Bound for Glory, Sydal competed in a Six-way lucha rules match for the Impact X Division Championship but failed to win the title. On November 10, 2017, Sydal defeated Ethan Carter III to win the Impact Grand Championship. On March 8, 2018, Sydal defeated Taiji Ishimori to win the Impact X Division Championship in a match that Sydal's Grand Championship was also on the line, thus becoming a dual champion. On March 15, it was revealed that Josh Matthews was his “spirit guide” thus allying himself with Matthews and turning him heel. On March 29, Sydal lost the Impact Grand Championship to Austin Aries in a match that Aries’ Impact World Championship was also on the line. On April 12 episode of Impact, he attacked Petey Williams during Williams’ match with Matthews causing a disqualification loss for Matthews. At Impact Wrestling Redemption, Sydal defeated Petey Williams to retain the Impact X Division Championship.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On the April 26 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sydal successfully defended his Impact X Division Championship against Brian Cage by count out. However, Sydal would end up losing the title to Cage at Slammiversary XVI in July. He would lose a rematch for the title at the following episode of "Impact Wrestling".


title: Matt Sydal

text: Following his loss he attempted to recruit Rich Swann to be his partner, however Swann denied him. This resulted in a feud between the two. Sydal would beat Swann in their first encounter due to interference from the debuting Ethan Page. Sydal would go on to form a team with Page based around following Sydal's teachings of "seeing through your third eye." Their team would lose to Rich Swann and his surprise partner NWA National Champion Willie Mack at Bound for Glory. On the November 1 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Sydal and Page lost a Tag Team Championship match against The Latin American Xchange. Sydal later lost a X-Division championship qualifying match to Page. Korklan left Impact when his contract expired on January 1, 2019.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On October 25, 2019, it was announced that Sydal would return to Evolve under his WWE ring name "Evan Bourne". Despite speculation, he denied that he would be returning to WWE. On November 9, Sydal was defeated by Leon Ruff due to count out in his return match after Sydal suffered an injury during the match. He returned the next month unsuccessfully challenging A. R. Fox and Leon Ruff for the Evolve Tag Team Championship alongside Andrew Everett.


title: Matt Sydal

text: At All Out, Sydal was a surprise entrant in the Casino Battle Royale drawing in as the Joker. During the match, Sydal botched his Shooting Star Press finishing move as he slipped on the ropes and landed on his head (kayfabe caused by Michael Nakazawa oiling up the turnbuckle). Despite this, he was able to continue the match and was eventually eliminated by Eddie Kingston. On the September 22 episode of Late Night Dynamite, Sydal faced Shawn Spears in the main event where he was defeated. On the October 6 episode of "AEW Dark", Sydal picked up his first victory in AEW when he defeated Michael Nakazawa. On the November 11, 2020 episode of "AEW Dynamite", Sydal, who had been on a four match winning streak, fought Brian Cage in a FTW title match, losing for the first time in five matches. On November 17, 2020, after months of appearing at AEW shows despite not being under contract with the company, AEW confirmed that Sydal was now officially signed with the company.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Image Entertainment, Inc. released a DVD titled "Before They Were Stars: Matt Sydal: Bourne Is Born" on January 20, 2009, which features every match from Wrestling Society X Korklan participated in as well as various promos and a music video.


title: Matt Sydal

text: Korklan appeared in WWE video games WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 (as DLC), WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010, Smackdown vs RAW 2011 and WWE '12 .


title: Matt Sydal

text: Both of Korklan's parents are school teachers. He has a younger brother Mike, who wrestles under the name "Mike Sydal" in addition to his older brother Daniel who does not wrestle. He attended Parkway West High School near St. Louis. In 2001, Korklan enrolled at the University of Missouri, studying marketing, as he was unsure whether he could earn a living from wrestling. He continued to wrestle, attending college three days a week, while wrestling mid-week and on weekends. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2005, and began working as a sales and marketing vice president for a small mailbox company in St. Louis, although he continued to wrestle.


title: Matt Sydal

text: On September 23, 2016, Korklan was arrested at the Kansai International Airport under suspicion of marijuana smuggling. According to local authorities, Korklan had 2.12 grams of liquid marijuana hidden within an electronic cigarette. Korklan was convicted in Osaka on October 13. On December 1, it was reported that Korklan had pled guilty to the charges and accepted three years of probation as his sentence. After a verdict the following week, Korklan was released from prison and returned to the United States on December 12.


title: Ananya Birla

text: Ananyashree Birla (; born 17 July 1994) is an Indian singer, songwriter and entrepreneur. Since her debut single in 2016, Birla has reached more than 350 million combined streams and collaborated with artists including Sean Kingston, Afrojack, and Mood Melodies. Birla is the first Indian artist with an English language single to go platinum in India; five of her singles have achieved platinum or double platinum status.


title: Ananya Birla

text: In 2020, Birla became the first Indian to sign with Maverick Management in Los Angeles and released “Let There Be Love” and “Everybody's Lost” becoming the first Indian artiste to be featured on American national top 40 pop radio show, "Sirius XM Hits."


title: Ananya Birla

text: Birla is the founder of Svatantra Microfin, a company that provides microfinance to women in rural India. She is also the founder of Ikai Asai and cofounder of Mpower. Birla has received awards for her work and entrepreneurship, including the ET Panache Trendsetters of 2016 award for Young Business Person and was listed as one of GQs Most Influential Indians of 2018.


title: Ananya Birla

text: In 2020, she launched the Ananya Birla Foundation to support: mental health, equality, education, financial inclusion, climate change and humanitarian relief efforts. She is the daughter of Kumar Mangalam Birla, an Indian industrialist and the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group and sister to Indian cricketer Aryaman Birla (see Birla family)


title: Ananya Birla

text: Ananyashree Birla developed an interest in music at an early age, learning to play the santoor at the age of eleven. She studied economics and management at the University of Oxford for her bachelor's degree, but dropped out without completing her degree.


title: Ananya Birla

text: While at university, Birla started singing and playing the guitar at pubs and clubs. She also began writing her own music. Her debut single, "Livin’ the Life", was co-written, and produced, by JimBeanz (who previously collaborated with Nelly Furtado, Cheryl Tweedy and Demi Lovato) and was recorded and produced at a studio in Philadelphia. A remix by Dutch DJ Afrojack of "Livin’ the Life" makes Birla the first Indian artiste to get a worldwide release through PM:AM Recordings and hit over 14 million views on YouTube as of June 2017. Her songs have been topping the music charts in 2019.


title: Ananya Birla

text: She released her next single "Meant to be" in July 2017 which was subsequently certified Platinum as per the Indian Music Industry (IMI) recognised criteria for certifications. This makes Birla the first Indian artiste with an English single to go platinum. In January 2017, she supported Coldplay at the Global Citizen Festival.


title: Ananya Birla

text: She released her single "Hold On" on 1 March 2018. On 7 June 2018, she released her fourth single "Circles". On 17 January 2019, she released her 5th single and 1st song of 2019 "Better", which was viewed 4 million times on YouTube within 2 days of its release.


title: Ananya Birla

text: She released her debut EP "Fingerprint" in May 2019, via UMG and Island Records UK. It included "Blackout" featuring Vector and Wurld, which was one of the first collaborations between major artists from India and Nigeria.


title: Ananya Birla

text: In September 2019, she released ‘Day Goes By’ with Sean Kingston, who she met when they toured in India together. The song marked one of the first major pop collaborations between a US and Indian artist. The video has been viewed over 10 million times on YouTube.


title: Ananya Birla

text: In 2020 she signed with Maverick Management in Los Angeles. Later that year, she released “Let There Be Love” and “Everybody's Lost” becoming the first Indian artiste to be featured on an American national top 40 pop radio show, "Sirius XM Hits."


title: Ananya Birla

text: She has performed at some of the biggest music events in Asia including Global Citizen, Oktoberfest, and Sunburn, Asia's biggest electronic music festival, and has toured with Wiz Khalifa.


title: Ananya Birla

text: Birla's "Hindustani Way" is the official CHEER SONG for the Indian Olympic at the 2021 Olympics, composed by A. R. Rahman.


title: Ananya Birla

text: Birla founded Svatantra Microfin Private Limited at the age of 17. The organisation makes small loans to women entrepreneurs based in rural India. Under her leadership, Svatantra won the Gold Award for Best Start-Up (Skoch Financial Inclusion and Deepening Awards, 2014), Spirituality @ Work: Sach Bharat Samman (Sach Bharat Confluence 2015) and has maintained a quality loan portfolio, offering one of the lowest interest rates in the country.


title: Ananya Birla

text: In 2016, Birla became the founder and CEO of Ikai Asai, an inventory-based global luxury e-Commerce platform. The same year, "Forbes" named her one of Asia's Women to Watch.


title: Ananya Birla

text: While in England, Birla became aware of a student helpline that helped young people suffering from anxiety and depression. After university, she returned to India and, along with her mother, set up a mental health initiative called MPower aiming to stamp out the stigma towards people with mental illness across India. MPower is also responsible for opening a treatment centre for children suffering from mental health conditions.


title: Ananya Birla

text: In 2020, in response the COVID-19 pandemic, Mpower tied up with the Government of Maharashtra and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to launch a 24x7 free helpline. 45 thousand people had called within 2 months of the launch.


title: Ananya Birla

text: She is an ambassador for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the United States’ largest grassroots mental health organisation dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.


title: Ananya Birla

text: She launched the Ananya Birla Foundation in 2020 with a COVID-19 relief project that involved providing menstruation kits, PPE kits and protective equipment to women and hospitals across Maharashtra. The Foundation also worked in providing essentials to migrant workers during the pandemic.


title: Ananya Birla

text: Ananya Birla is the eldest child of the sixth richest Indian – Kumar Mangalam Birla (Chairman of Aditya Birla Group) and Neerja Birla and the sixth generation scion of the Birla family. Birla family's place of origin is Pilani, Rajasthan.


title: Bankable star

text: In the film industry, a bankable star is an actor (movie star) "capable of guaranteeing box-office success simply by showing up in a movie." The bankability of an actor includes their films' box office track record, professional demeanor, and other factors. Hiring a bankable star helps a film company to secure investment, distribution, and garner media attention. Some bankable stars have so much star power that even films without a strong concept or "hook", such as a star vehicle film, is feasible to make.


title: Bankable star

text: Media consultant Blake Harris states that a bankable star is one of the "3 minimum ingredients to any film package," the other two being a successful director and a script or a strong story idea. The involvement of a bankable star in a film gives investors confidence that they will achieve a return on their investments by ensuring that the film is widely distributed and that at least some people will pay to see it (that it will "open").


title: Bankable star

text: Harris adds that obtaining a bankable star for a package is not easy because of the dearth of such stars. He states that at any point in time there are no more than "a dozen or so" stars whose mere involvement will ensure that a film will be made.


title: Bankable star

text: Analyst Alex Epstein states that bankable stars or, more generally, "bankable elements" are how "hookless" films (films without a compelling concept that makes people interested in them in their own right) get made. He gives "Dances with Wolves" as an example of a movie: the involvement of Kevin Costner as the bankable star guaranteed that the movie was made. Writer Melissa Robbie concurs, stating that some movies are high-concept (they have what Epstein terms "hooks"), but others are simply star vehicles for bankable stars.


title: Bankable star

text: "The Hollywood Reporter" has published several results of polls for Hollywood's top ten most bankable stars, the most recent three being one in 1999, one in 2002 and the last one in 2006.


title: Bankable star

text: The 2002 survey polled "114 executives at both major studios and independent companies, financiers and various industry players from around the world." Voters were asked which stars "did the most to attract financing to a film, ensure its global distribution, and deliver that hugely important opening weekend based on the strength of their good name."


title: Bankable star

text: James Ulmer has compared his list of bankable stars, "The Ulmer Scale", to a stock market index. His criteria for ranking is based on the name of a star alone being able to get people to movie theaters in the United States as well as the rest of the world. In an August 2010 interview Ulmer described the international movie market as "unfortunately ... pretty sexist"; how a woman's name alone cannot sell a movie, and how female stars are only bankable when cast with a male star or in ensemble movies.


title: Bankable star

text: These are the top 10 lists of the most bankable stars, with their scores, as published by "The Hollywood Reporter".


title: Bankable star

text: The list was created by veteran entertainment journalist James Ulmer, who developed a 100-point method to quantify a star's value to a film production, in terms of getting a movie financed and the cameras rolling. "The Ulmer Scale" also takes into account an actor's history (box office successes vs. failures), versatility, professional demeanor, and ability and willingness to travel and promote movies.


title: Nicholas Rowe (actor)

text: Nicholas James Sebastian Rowe (born 22 November 1966) is a British actor. At the start of his career he appeared as the lead in the 1985 film "Young Sherlock Holmes".


title: Nicholas Rowe (actor)

text: Rowe was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to English parents Alison, a singer, and Andrew Rowe, a Conservative Party Member of Parliament and editor. He received his formal education at Eton College, where he acted in school productions, and subsequently received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Hispanic studies from the University of Bristol.


title: Nicholas Rowe (actor)

text: Rowe has appeared in a variety of films, television dramas and plays. He played Sherlock Holmes in Barry Levinson's film "Young Sherlock Holmes", having read for the part while still at school. He returned to the role of Sherlock Holmes 30 years later in the 2015 film "Mr. Holmes", in which he played the part in a film that the "real" Mr. Holmes, now a 93-year-old (played by Ian McKellen) goes to see at a theatre.


title: Nicholas Rowe (actor)

text: Rowe was the partner of Lou Gish for six years until her death from cancer in February 2006. Rowe is married with a daughter (born 2009).


title: Retriever

text: A retriever is a type of gun dog that retrieves game for a hunter. Generally gun dogs are divided into three major classifications: retrievers, flushing spaniels, and pointing breeds. Retrievers were bred primarily to retrieve birds or other prey and return them to the hunter without damage; retrievers are distinguished in that nonslip retrieval is their primary function. As a result, retriever breeds are bred for soft mouths and a great willingness to please, learn, and obey. A soft mouth refers to the willingness of the dog to carry game in its mouth without biting into it. "Hard mouth" is a serious fault in a hunting dog and is very difficult to correct. A hard-mouthed dog renders game unpresentable or at worst inedible.


title: Retriever

text: The retriever's willingness to please, patient nature and trainability have made breeds such as the Labrador retriever and Golden retriever popular as a disability assistance dog. The outstanding reputation of the retriever has landed both the Labrador and the Golden retriever among the top 10 best dogs for children and families around the world.


title: Retriever

text: Although most individual retrievers have the raw capacity to be trained to perform as a gun dog, a significant amount of thought and effort is given to breeding in specific desired traits into dogs from field bred lines that greatly enhance the training process. When breeding retrievers for field work, extensive consideration is given to:


title: Ed Kowalczyk

text: Edward Joel Kowalczyk (; born July 16, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, musician and a founding member of the band Live. After leaving Live in 2009, he launched a solo career. His first album, "Alive", was released worldwide in June and July 2010. He rejoined Live in December 2016.


title: Ed Kowalczyk

text: Kowalczyk was born to a family of Polish descent. He grew up in York, Pennsylvania and attended William Penn Senior High School in the York City School District, where he met the other three members of what would become Live. His father was a teacher at the local Northeastern High School.


title: Ed Kowalczyk

text: Ed Kowalczyk was the lead singer, lyricist, and main songwriter for the band Live from its formation until 2009, then rejoined the band in December 2016. In 2009, he left the band and the other three members issued a statement detailing what they felt were inappropriate actions by Kowalczyk in regards to contract and salary negotiations. Kowalczyk was sued by the band, seeking damages and an injunction against using the name "Live". Ed rejoined the band in December 2016 after months of rumors.


title: Ed Kowalczyk

text: Following his departure from Live, Kowalczyk recorded his first solo album, "Alive", which was released in 2010. In 2012, he recorded "The Garden" and in 2013 "The Flood and the Mercy". In 2014-2016 he embarked on an extensive tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Throwing Copper", playing acoustic concerts across the U.S., Europe and Australia.


title: Ed Kowalczyk

text: Kowalczyk has worked with musicians Stuart Davis and Glen Ballard and singers Anouk, Neneh Cherry, Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, Red Wanting Blue, and Shelby Lynne. He featured on the song "Evolution Revolution Love," from the 2001 Tricky album "Blowback". He collaborated with Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth (ex-Talking Heads, then performing as The Heads) on the song "Indie Hair" from their 1996 album "No Talking, Just Head".


title: Ed Kowalczyk

text: He appeared in the David Fincher film "Fight Club" as a waiter who serves the characters of Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, his only film acting credit to date.


title: Ed Kowalczyk

text: Kowalczyk performed John Lennon's "Imagine" with Slash in 2003 at "Peace on the Beach," a rally to protest the coming War in Iraq. In 2008, he appeared in a video with will.i.am from The Black Eyed Peas, John Legend, Scarlett Johansson, and Nick Cannon, supporting U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama and appeared at campaign rallies for Obama with will.i.am.


title: Ed Kowalczyk

text: Kowalczyk is a member of Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and has worked with them on awareness campaigns.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: Development began after the release of "Sonic & Knuckles" in 1994, although the concept originated in 1992, during the development of "Sonic the Hedgehog 2". Development was led by Sonic Team veterans Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Takashi Iizuka. Naka began the project with the idea of flight, and Ohshima designed Nights as an androgynous character that resembles an angel that could fly like a bird. The team conducted research on dreaming and REM sleep, and was influenced by the works and theories of psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. An analogue controller, the Saturn 3D controller, was designed alongside the game and included with some retail copies.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: "Nights into Dreams" received acclaim for its graphics, gameplay, soundtrack, and atmosphere. It has appeared on several lists of the greatest games of all time. A shorter Christmas-themed version, Christmas Nights, was released in December 1996. "Nights into Dreams" was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2008 in Japan and a high-definition version was released worldwide for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows in 2012. A sequel, "", was released for the Wii in 2007.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: "Nights into Dreams" is split into seven levels, referred to as "Dreams". The levels are distributed between the two teenage characters: three are unique to Claris, three to Elliot, and each play through an identical final seventh level, "Twin Seeds". Initially, only Claris' "Spring Valley" and Elliot's "Splash Garden" levels are available, and successful completion of one of these unlocks the next level in that character's path. Previously completed stages may be revisited to improve the player's high scores; a grade between A and F is given to the player upon completion, but a "C" grade (or better) in all the selected character's levels must be achieved to unlock the relevant "Twin Seeds" stage for that character. Points are accumulated depending on how fast the player completes a level, and extra points are awarded when the player flies through rings.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: Each level is split up into four "Mares" set in Nightopia and a boss fight which takes place in Nightmare. In each level, players initially control Claris or Elliot, who immediately have their Ideyas (spherical objects that contain emotions) of hope, wisdom, intelligence and purity stolen from them by Wizeman's minions, leaving behind only their Ideya of courage. The goal of each Mare is to recover one of the stolen Ideya by collecting 20 blue chips and delivering them to the cage holding the Ideyas, which overloads and releases the orb it holds. If the player walks around the landscape for too long, they are pursued by a sentient alarm clock which awakens the character and ends the level if it comes into contact with the player. The majority of the gameplay centres on flying sequences, which are triggered by walking into the Ideya Palace near the start of each level so that the character merges with the imprisoned Nights. Once the flying sequence is initiated, the time limit begins.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: In the flying sections, the player controls Nights' flight along a predetermined route through each Mare, resembling that of a 2D platformer. The player has only a limited period of time available before Nights falls to the ground and transforms back into Claris or Elliot, and each collision with an enemy subtracts five seconds from the time remaining. The player's time is replenished each time they return an Ideya to the Ideya Palace. While flying, Nights can use a "Drill Dash" to travel faster, as well as defeat certain reverie enemies scattered throughout the level. Grabbing onto certain enemies causes Nights to spin around, which launches both Nights and the enemy in the direction the boost was initiated. Various acrobatic manoeuvres can be performed, including the "Paraloop", whereby flying around in a complete circle and connecting the trail of stars left in Nights' wake causes any items within the loop to be attracted towards Nights. The game features a combo system known as "Linking", whereby actions such as collecting items and flying through rings are worth more points when performed in quick succession. Power-ups may be gained by flying through several predetermined rings, indicated by a bonus barrel. The power-ups include a speed boost, point multiplier and an air pocket.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: The player receives a grade based on their score at the end of each Mare, and an overall grade for the level after clearing all four Mares. Nights is then transported to Nightmare for a boss fight against one of Wizeman's "Level Two" Nightmarens. Each boss fight has a time limit, and the game ends if the player runs out of time during the battle. Upon winning the boss fight, the player is awarded a score multiplier based on how quickly the boss was defeated, which is then applied to the score earned in the Nightopia section to produce the player's final score for that Dream. The game also features a multiplayer mode, which allows two players to battle each other by using a splitscreen. One player controls Nights, whereas the other controls Reala. The winner is determined by the first player to defeat the other, which is accomplished by hitting or paralooping the other player three times.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: The game features an artificial life system known as "A-Life", which involves entities called Nightopians and keeps track of their moods. It is possible to have them mate with other Nightopians, which creates hybrids known as "Superpians". The more the game is played, the more inhabitants appear, and environmental features and aesthetics change. The A-Life system features an evolving music engine, allowing tempo, pitch, and melody to alter depending on the state of Nightopians within the level. The feature runs from the Sega Saturn's internal clock, which alters features in the A-Life system depending on the time.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: Every night, all human dreams are played out in Nightopia and Nightmare, the two parts of the dream world. In Nightopia, distinct aspects of dreamers' personalities are represented by luminous coloured spheres known as "Ideya". The evil ruler of Nightmare, Wizeman the Wicked, is stealing this dream energy from sleeping visitors in order to gather power and take control of Nightopia and eventually the real world. To achieve this, he creates five beings called "Nightmaren": jester-like, flight-capable beings, which include Jackle, Clawz, Gulpo, Gillwing and Puffy as well as many minor maren. He also creates two "Level One" Nightmaren: Nights and Reala. However, Nights rebels against Wizeman's plans, and is punished by being imprisoned inside an Ideya palace, a container for dreamers' Ideya.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: One day, Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair, two teenagers from the city of Twin Seeds, go through failures. Elliot, a basketball player, is challenged by a group of older students and suffers a humiliating defeat on the court. Claris, a singer, is overcome by stage fright when auditioning for judges, which causes her to lose all hopes of getting the role. When they go to sleep that night, both Elliot and Claris suffer nightmares that replay the events. They escape into Nightopia and find that they both possess the rare Red Ideya of Courage, the only type that Wizeman cannot steal. Elliot and Claris release Nights, who tells them about dreams and Wizeman and his plans; the three begin a journey to stop Wizeman and restore peace to Nightopia. When they defeat Wizeman and Reala, peace is returned to Nightopia and the world of Nightmare is suppressed.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: The next day, in Twin Seeds, a centenary ceremony begins. Elliot walks through the parade and has a vision of Nights looking at him through a billboard. Realizing that Claris is performing in a hall, Elliot runs through the crowd and sees Claris on stage in front of a large audience, singing well. The two look at each other and transition to Nightopia.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: "Nights" was developed by Sonic Team, the Sega development division that had created the "Sonic the Hedgehog" games for Genesis. The "Nights" concept originated during the development of "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" in 1992, but development did not begin until after the release of "Sonic & Knuckles" in late 1994. Programming began in April 1995 and total development spanned six months. Yuji Naka was lead programmer and producer, while Naoto Ohshima and Takashi Iizuka were director and lead designer, respectively. Naka and Ohshima felt they had spent enough time with the "Sonic" franchise and were eager to work on new concepts. According to Naka, the initial development team consisted of seven people, and grew to 20 as programmers arrived.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: "Sonic" creator and project director Ohshima created the character of Nights based on his inspirations from travelling Europe and western Asia. He came to the conclusion that the character should resemble an angel and fly like a bird. Naka originally intended to make "Nights into Dreams" a slow-paced game, but as development progressed the gameplay pace gradually increased, in similar vein to "Sonic" games. The initial concept envisioned the flying character in a rendered 2D sprite art, with side-scrolling features similar to "Sonic the Hedgehog". The team were hesitant to switch from 2D to 3D, as Naka was sceptical that appealing characters could be created with polygons, in contrast to traditional pixel sprites, which the designers found "more expressive". According to Iizuka, the design and story took two years to finalise. The difficulty was designed with the intent that young and inexperienced players would be able to complete the game, while more experienced players would be compelled by the replay value.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: "Nights" was developed using Silicon Graphics workstations for graphical designs and Sega Saturn emulators running on Hewlett-Packard machines for programming. There were problems during early stages of development because of a lack of games to use as reference; the team had to redesign the Spring Valley level numerous times and build "everything from scratch". The team used the Sega Graphics Library operating system, said by many developers to make programming for the Saturn dramatically easier, only sparingly, instead creating the game almost entirely with custom libraries. Because the Sonic Team offices did not include soundproof studios, team members recorded sound effects at night. According to Naka, every phrase in the game has a meaning; for example, "abayo" is Japanese slang for "goodbye". The team felt that the global market would be less resistant to a game featuring full 3D CGI cut scenes than 2D anime. Norihiro Nishiyama, the designer of the in-game movies, felt that the 3D cutscenes were a good method to show the different concepts of dreaming and waking up. Naka said that the movies incorporate realism to make it more difficult for the player to disambiguate the boundary between dreams and reality.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: The development took longer than expected because of the team's inexperience with Saturn hardware and uncertainty about using the full 560 megabyte space on the CD-ROM. The team initially thought that the game would consume around 100 megabytes of data, and at one point considered releasing it on two separate discs. Iizuka said that the most difficult part of development was finding a way of handling the "contradiction" of using 2D sidescroller controls in a fully 3D game. Naka limited the flying mechanic to "invisible 2D tracks" because early beta testing revealed that the game was too difficult to play in full 3D. The standard Saturn gamepad was found to be insufficient to control Nights in flight, so the team developed the Saturn analog controller. It took about six months to develop, and the team went through many ideas for alternate controllers, including one shaped like a Nights doll.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: Iizuka said "Nights" was inspired by anime and Cirque du Soleil's "Mystère" theatrical performance. The team researched dream sequences and REM sleep, including the works of psychoanalysts Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Holtz. Iizuka studied dreams and theories about them, such as Jung's theories of dream archetypes. Naka said that Nights reflected Jung's analytical "shadow" theory, whereas Claris and Elliot were inspired by Jung's animus and anima.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: "Nights into Dreams" was introduced alongside an optional gamepad, the Saturn 3D controller, included with some copies of the game. It features an analogue stick and analogue triggers designed for "Nights" to make movement easier. Sonic Team noted the successful twinning of the Nintendo 64 controller with "Super Mario 64" (1996), and realised that the default Saturn controller was better suited to arcade games than "Nights into Dreams". During development, the director Steven Spielberg visited the Sonic Team studio and became the first person outside the team to play the game. Naka asked him to use an experimental version of the Saturn 3D controller, and it was jokingly referred to as the "Spielberg controller" throughout development.


title: Nights into Dreams

text: Because the Nights character was testing very young in focus groups, Sega used a nighttime scene for the cover art to create a more mature look. "Nights" was marketed with a budget of $10 million, which included television and print advertisements in the United States. In the US, it was advertised with the slogan "Prepare to fly".


title: Nights into Dreams

text: , or Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams..., is a short Christmas-themed version of "Nights into Dreams" released in December 1996. Iizuka stated that "Christmas Nights" was created to increase Saturn sales. Development began in July 1996 and took three to four months, according to Naka. Designer Takao Miyoshi recalled working "in the peak of summer ... holed up at the office listening to 'Jingle Bells'".


title: Nights into Dreams

text: In Japan, "Christmas Nights" was included as part of a Christmas Sega Saturn bundle and distributed free to Saturn owners who covered the shipping cost. Elsewhere, it was given away with the purchase of Saturn games such as "Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition" (1996) or issues of "Sega Saturn Magazine" and "Next Generation Magazine". In the United Kingdom, "Christmas Nights" was not included with "Sega Saturn Magazine" until December 1997.