title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: The Broncos had a chance to cut into the Patriots' lead on their first possession of the second half, however, placekicker Brandon McManus missed wide-right on a 47-yard field goal attempt. Each team proceeded to trade punts on their next two offensive possessions, until Brady connected with wide receiver Brandon Bolden on a 63-yard touchdown pass at the beginning of the fourth quarter to give the Patriots a 21–7 lead. The Broncos' offense went three-and-out, and were forced to punt. However, Patriots' return specialist Chris Harper muffed the punt, which was recovered by Shaquil Barrett at the Patriots' 36-yard line, giving the Broncos new life. Four plays later, the Broncos pulled to within a one-touchdown deficit, with a 15-yard touchdown run by running back C. J. Anderson. The Broncos' defense forced a punt on the Patriots' next possession, which was aided by an offensive holding penalty on guard Tre' Jackson that nullified a 51-yard pass completion from Brady to wide receiver Keshawn Martin on a third-and-long play. The Broncos then marched down the field, but had to settle for a 21-yard field goal by McManus to pull to within 21–17 with 6:12 remaining in the fourth quarter. The two teams traded punts on their next possessions, and with 2:39 remaining and no timeouts, the Broncos forced a Patriots' punt. The Broncos marched down the field and were facing a 2nd-and-goal from the Patriots' 7-yard line, when Osweiler was sacked for an eight-yard loss. However, the sack was nullified by a defensive holding penalty on Patriots' safety Patrick Chung. On the very next play, the Broncos grabbed their first lead of the game, when Osweiler connected with wide receiver Andre Caldwell on a 4-yard touchdown with 1:15 remaining in the fourth quarter.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: The Patriots were not done yet, as Brady engineered a 5-play, 51-yard drive, which culminated with placekicker Stephen Gostkowski kicking a game-tying 47-yard field goal as time expired, sending the game to overtime. The Patriots won the overtime coin toss, but their offense went three-and-out. Following a Patriots' punt, the Broncos started their first overtime drive at their own 43-yard line, and three plays later, Anderson scampered down the sideline for a game-winning 48-yard touchdown run.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Coming off their overtime win over the Patriots, the Broncos traveled to Qualcomm Stadium for their first of two matches with their AFC West division rivals, the San Diego Chargers. On the Broncos' opening drive, quarterback Brock Osweiler connected with wide receiver Demaryius Thomas on a 3-yard touchdown pass. The Chargers had a chance to get on the scoreboard midway through the first quarter, but placekicker Josh Lambo missed wide-right on a 48-yard field goal attempt. Toward the end of the first quarter, the Broncos added to the lead, when linebacker Danny Trevathan intercepted an errant pass by Chargers' quarterback Philip Rivers and returned it for a 25-yard touchdown. After forcing a Chargers' punt early in the second quarter, the Broncos marched down the field with a long drive that chewed up seven minutes, but had to settle for a 23-yard field goal by placekicker Brandon McManus that increased their lead to 17–0. The Chargers got on the scoreboard just after the two-minute warning, with a 51-yard field goal by Lambo, which would be the final scoring play of the game by either team. In the third quarter, the Broncos' defense recovered two forced fumbles, while on offense, McManus missed wide right on a 52-yard field goal attempt and Osweiler threw an interception deep in Chargers' territory. In the fourth quarter, the Broncos' offense punted on all of their possessions (save the final kneel down), while their defense did not allow the Chargers' offense to advance past their own 47-yard line.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Coming off their win over the Chargers, the Broncos returned home for an AFC West rematch against the Oakland Raiders. In the first half, the Broncos' defense held the Raiders' offense to –12 net yards of offense, and the Broncos' offense dominated the time of possession by a nearly 3–1 margin, but had to settle for four field goals by placekicker Brandon McManus – from 41 and 35 yards in the first quarter, and 29 and 20 yards in the second quarter. The latter field goal occurred after wide receiver Demaryius Thomas dropped a crucial pass in the end zone from quarterback Brock Osweiler with only four seconds before halftime.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: The Raiders got on the scoreboard on the initial possession of the second half, with quarterback Derek Carr connecting with wide receiver Seth Roberts on an 11-yard touchdown pass. Later in the third quarter, the Broncos were backed up to their own 2-yard line following a Raiders' punt, and three plays later, the Raiders pulled to within 12–9, when defensive end Khalil Mack forced a fumble off Osweiler in the end zone for a safety. The Broncos' forced another Raiders' punt, however, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Emmanuel Sanders muffed a punt deep in Broncos' territory, and the Raiders capitalized three plays later, with Carr throwing a 16-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mychal Rivera (with an unsuccessful two-point conversion attempt). The Broncos drove down the field on their next offensive possession, but McManus missed on a 49-yard field goal attempt that hit the left upright. After each team traded punts, the Raiders were attempting to add to their lead, but placekicker Sebastian Janikowski missed wide left on a 43-yard field goal attempt with 5:27 remaining in the game. The Broncos were facing a 4th-and-5 at their own 38-yard line with 3:50 remaining in the game, but tight end Vernon Davis dropped a pass from Osweiler that would have been a first down. The Broncos' defense forced the Raiders to go three-and-out, while being forced to use two of their remaining three team timeouts. With 2:35 remaining, the Broncos had one last possession, but on the sixth play, another dropped 4th-down pass – this one by Thomas – sealed the Raiders' win.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Hoping to rebound from their loss to the Raiders, the Broncos traveled to Heinz Field to face the Pittsburgh Steelers. On the Broncos' first offensive possession, running back Ronnie Hillman committed a fumble deep in their own territory, and the Steelers capitalized two plays later, with a 2-yard touchdown run by running back DeAngelo Williams. The Broncos reeled off 20 unanswered points, with quarterback Brock Osweiler throwing a pair of touchdown passes – an 18-yarder to wide receiver Demaryius Thomas and a 61-yarder to wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, followed in the second quarter by Osweiler scrambling for a 7-yard touchdown. The latter score came after the Broncos' defense intercepted Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, and also had a missed extra-point attempt by placekicker Brandon McManus. The Steelers then marched down the field, but had to settle for a 24-yard field goal by placekicker Chris Boswell. The Broncos then increased their lead to 27–10, with Osweiler connecting with Thomas on a 6-yard touchdown pass at the 2-minute warning. However, it would be the Broncos' final scoring play of the game, as the offense was shut out in the second half for the third consecutive week. The Steelers pulled to within 27–13, with Boswell kicking a 41-yard field goal just before halftime.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Midway through the third quarter, Roethlisberger connected with wide receiver Antonio Brown on a 9-yard touchdown. Later in the third quarter, Broncos' return specialist Jordan Norwood returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown; however, the touchdown was nullified by an illegal substitution penalty. Following a Broncos' three-and-out, the Steelers tied the game early in the fourth quarter, with Roethlisberger throwing a 9-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Markus Wheaton. Each team proceeded to trade punt on their next two possessions, and with just over five minutes remaining, Osweiler was intercepted by Steelers' linebacker Ryan Shazier at the Broncos' 37-yard line, and three plays later, the Steelers re-claimed the lead, with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Brown. The Broncos then marched down to the Steelers' 36-yard line with 2:17 remaining, but turned the football over on downs. Just before the two-minute warning, the Steelers were attempting to run out the clock, however, Roethlisberger chose to pass the football, and was intercepted by linebacker Brandon Marshall just before the two-minute warning, giving the Broncos one last possession. However, Osweiler threw four straight incompletions, and the Steelers ran out the clock.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Hoping to avoid their first three-game losing streak since 2011, the Broncos played host to the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football. The Bengals dominated the first half time of possession by more than a 2–1 margin. The Bengals took the opening possession of the game and marched down the field, with quarterback A. J. McCarron, playing in place of the injured Andy Dalton, throwing a 5-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver A. J. Green in the corner of the end zone. The Bengals later added to their lead in the second quarter, with wide receiver Mohamed Sanu rushing for a 6-yard touchdown, in a "wildcat" formation. The Bengals were threatening to add to their lead just before the two-minute warning, but placekicker Mike Nugent missed wide right on a 45-yard field goal attempt. The Broncos then marched down the field, but had to settle for a 23-yard field goal by placekicker Brandon McManus just before halftime.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: The Broncos took the initial possession of the second half, and pulled to within 14–10, with quarterback Brock Osweiler connecting with wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders on an 8-yard touchdown pass, which was the only scoring play of the third quarter. After having trouble stopping the Bengals' offense in the first half, the Broncos' defense forced the Bengals to punt on their first four possessions of the second half. The Broncos grabbed a 17–14 lead early in the fourth quarter, with running back C. J. Anderson scampering down the sideline for a 39-yard touchdown. A 52-yard field goal by Nugent helped the Bengals tie the game at 17–17 with 6:51 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Broncos had reached the Bengals' 27-yard line on the next possession, and were attempting a game-winning drive, but Bengals' defensive end Michael Johnson forced a fumble off Anderson, which was recovered by safety Reggie Nelson. However, the Broncos' defense forced a Bengals' punt, and the Broncos' offense began their next drive at their own 20-yard line with 1:40 remaining. However, McManus badly missed wide left on a potential game-winning 45-yard field goal attempt as time expired, sending the game to overtime.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: The Broncos won the overtime coin toss, and took a 20–17 lead on their initial possession, with a 37-yard field goal by McManus. The drive was aided by a 15-yard personal foul penalty on Bengals' linebacker Vontaze Burfict for a late hit out-of-bounds. The Bengals started their first offensive possession of overtime at their own 33-yard line, and on their first play, McCarron attempted a pass that was incomplete, as his arm was hit by Broncos' linebacker Von Miller. Broncos' head coach Gary Kubiak called a timeout, thinking the play should have been ruled as a game-ending fumble, however, the initial ruling was upheld by instant replay. On the very next play, McCarron fumbled the snap, which was recovered by Broncos' linebacker DeMarcus Ware to end the game and send the Broncos to the postseason for the fifth consecutive season.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: This was the third game of the season that the Broncos won after trailing 14–0 – the other two were and .


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: The Broncos regular-season finale was an AFC West divisional rematch against the San Diego Chargers. On the second play of the game, quarterback Brock Osweiler completed a pass to Demaryius Thomas for a 72-yard touchdown pass. The Chargers scored on their first offensive possession, with a 50-yard field goal by placekicker Josh Lambo. The Broncos' offense turned the football over on four of their next five possessions, including two fumbles and two interceptions. Lambo added a 42-yard field goal later in the second quarter to pull the Chargers to within 7–6. On the Broncos first possession of the second half, C. J. Anderson fumbled the ball for the second consecutive game, leading to quarterback Philip Rivers completing a pass to tight end Antonio Gates for a 13-yard touchdown. On the Broncos' next offensive possession, Peyton Manning took over for Osweiler at quarterback – Manning's first time playing since Week 10 – and the Broncos re-claimed the lead with a 1-yard touchdown run by Anderson. The Broncos then added to their lead early in the fourth quarter, with a 48-yard field goal by placekicker Brandon McManus. However, the Chargers grabbed a 20–17 lead on their next offensive play, with Rivers throwing an 80-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Tyrell Williams. A 35-yard field goal by McManus tied the game at 20–20 with 9:48 remaining in the game. After the two teams proceeded to traded punts, Rivers was intercepted by Broncos' safety Shiloh Keo, and the Broncos immediately capitalized, with running back Ronnie Hillman rushing for a 23-yard touchdown to give the Broncos a 27–20 lead with 4:50 remaining in the game. The Chargers' offense attempted a rally, and advanced to as far as the Broncos' 40-yard line, but turned the football over on downs just after the two-minute warning. The Broncos ran out the clock.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: With the win, coupled with the New England Patriots' loss to the Miami Dolphins earlier in the day, the Broncos clinched the AFC's No. 1 seed – the Broncos, Patriots and Bengals finished tied for the AFC's best record at 12–4, however, the Broncos claimed the No. 1 seed based on head-to-head sweep.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Following a first-round bye, the Broncos began their run in the 2015–16 NFL playoffs at home by hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Divisional round, in the eighth playoff meeting between the two teams. The Broncos' first drive of the game started at the Steelers' 30-yard line, following a 42-yard punt return by Omar Bolden, but the Broncos were forced to settle on a 28-yard field goal by placekicker Brandon McManus. The Steelers drove to the Broncos' 32-yard line on their next possession and chose to convert a 4th-and-1 instead of attempting a field goal in high winds, but Broncos' cornerback Aqib Talib broke up a long pass from Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to wide receiver Markus Wheaton at the goal line. Later in the first quarter, McManus added a 41-yard field goal to give the Broncos a 6–0 lead. The Steelers then drove 80 yards in five plays, and grabbed the lead, with running back Fitzgerald Toussaint rushing for a 1-yard touchdown, then added to their lead early in the second quarter, with a 43-yard field goal by placekicker Chris Boswell. McManus made a 51-yard field goal as time expired in the first half to narrow the Steelers' lead to 10–9. The Broncos' offense converted only one third down out of eight attempts in the first half.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Boswell made a 28-yard field goal on the Steelers' first possession of the second half to extend to a 13–9 lead. After the two teams exchanged punts, McManus kicked his fourth field goal of the game – from 41 yards out. Following an exchange of punts, the Steelers, with a one-point lead, drove 41 yards to the Broncos' 34-yard line in three plays. On the fourth play, Broncos' cornerback Bradley Roby forced a fumble off Toussaint, which was recovered by linebacker DeMarcus Ware with 9:52 remaining in the game. The Broncos then drove 65 yards in 13 plays that consumed 6:48 off the clock, and re-claimed the lead, with running back C. J. Anderson marching for a 1-yard touchdown, coupled with quarterback Peyton Manning throwing a quick pass to wide receiver Demaryius Thomas for a two-point conversion. The Steelers were attempting a rally, but the Broncos' defense tightened, and a Ware sack of Roethlisberger on fourth down just after the two-minute warning gave the Broncos the football at the Steelers' 30-yard line. Three plays later, after forcing the Steelers to burn two of their three remaining timeouts, the Broncos added to their lead, with McManus' fifth field goal of the game – a 45-yarder with 57 seconds remaining. The Steelers then advanced to the Broncos' 29-yard line, following a defensive pass interference penalty on Ward and two passes from Roethlisberger to Bryant totaling 29 yards. With only 19 seconds remaining, a 47-yard field goal by Boswell pulled the Steelers to within 23–16. However, the Steelers' ensuing onside kick attempt was unsuccessful.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Coming off their Divisional playoff win over the Steelers, the Broncos hosted the No. 2 seed New England Patriots in the AFC Championship. The Broncos claimed the lead on their first possession, with quarterback Peyton Manning throwing a 21-yard touchdown pass to tight end Owen Daniels. The Broncos' defense forced the Patriots' offense to punt on their first three possessions. Later in the first quarter, Manning threw a pass that was intended for running back Ronnie Hillman, but after a Patriots' challenge, the play was ruled a backwards pass and fumble, which was recovered by Patriots' linebacker Jonathan Freeny. The Patriots capitalized two plays later, with running back Steven Jackson rushing for a 1-yard touchdown. However, placekicker Stephen Gostkowski missed wide right on the extra-point attempt. Early in the second quarter, Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady was intercepted by Broncos' linebacker Von Miller deep in Patriots' territory. Three plays later, Manning threw another touchdown pass to Daniels – from 12 yards out, in what was the final touchdown pass of Manning's career – regular season or postseason. The Patriots cut into the Broncos' lead midway through the second quarter, with Gostkowski making a 46-yard field goal. The Broncos extended their lead to 17–9 just before halftime, with a 52-yard field goal by placekicker Brandon McManus.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: A 38-yard field goal by Gostkowski was the only scoring play of the third quarter. The Broncos' offense went three-and-out on two of their three possessions of the third quarter. To begin the fourth quarter, the Broncos marched to the Patriots' 13-yard line, keyed by a 30-yard run by running back C. J. Anderson, but Manning overthrew wide receiver Jordan Norwood in the end zone on a third-down passing play. The Broncos had to settle on a 31-yard field goal by McManus to extend to a 20–12 lead with 10:06 remaining in the game. The Patriots marched down the field, and were facing a 4th-and-1 at the Broncos' 16-yard line with 6:06 remaining. However, instead of kicking a field goal, Brady threw a short pass to wide receiver Julian Edelman, who was tackled for 1-yard loss by cornerback Chris Harris, Jr. The Broncos were forced to punt on their next possession, and the Patriots once again drove deep into Broncos' territory, facing a 4th-and-6 with 2:25 remaining. However, the Patriots' turned the football over on downs once again, with Brady throwing an incomplete pass in the back of the end zone that was intended for tight end Rob Gronkowski, who was triple-covered by the Broncos' secondary.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: The Broncos' offense forced the Patriots to burn two of their three team timeouts prior to two-minute warning, but went three-and-out, giving the football back to the Patriots. The Patriots started their final offensive possession at midfield with 1:52 remaining. After Brady threw three consecutive incompletions, he connected with Gronkowski on a 40-yard pass on a 4th-and-10 play to keep the drive alive. With 17 seconds remaining, the Patriots were facing a 4th-and-goal at the Broncos' 4-yard line, and Brady found Gronkowski in the back of the end zone for a touchdown to narrow the Broncos' lead to 20–18. However, Broncos' cornerback Bradley Roby intercepted Brady on the potential game-tying two-point conversion attempt. The Patriots' ensuing onside kick attempt was unsuccessful, sealing the win for the Broncos.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: With the win, the Broncos advanced to their eighth Super Bowl in team history. This was also the final meeting in the rivalry between legendary quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Tom Brady – regular season or postseason. Brady owned an 11–6 record vs. Manning, including the postseason, where Manning held a 3-2 edge (3–1 in AFC title games).


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Placekicker Brandon McManus gave the Broncos the lead on the first possession of the game, with a 34-yard field goal. Following an exchange of punts, Broncos' linebacker Von Miller forced a fumble off Panthers' quarterback Cam Newton, which was recovered by defensive end Malik Jackson in the end zone, giving the Broncos a 10–0 lead. Following another exchange of punts, the Panthers got on the scoreboard early in the second quarter, with running back Jonathan Stewart diving for a 1-yard touchdown. Following miscommunication by the Panthers' defensive special teams, Broncos' return specialist Jordan Norwood returned a punt to the Panthers' 14-yard line. However, the Broncos were forced to settle for a 33-yard field goal by McManus.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: The Panthers took the opening possession of the second half, and drove to the Broncos' 26-yard line. However, placekicker Graham Gano missed on a 44-yard field goal attempt that hit the right upright. During the Panthers' drive, Miller broke up a pass from Newton to wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery that would have given the Panthers a first-and-goal. McManus added a 30-yard field goal to extend the Broncos' lead. Early in the fourth quarter, Panthers' defensive end Kony Ealy forced a strip sack and fumble recovery off Broncos' quarterback Peyton Manning near midfield, but were forced to settle on a 39-yard field goal by Gano to narrow the Broncos' lead to 16–10. With 4:51 remaining, Miller then forced yet another strip sack and fumble off Newton, ending the Panthers' drive, with safety T. J. Ward recovering the football at the Panthers' 4-yard line. Following a defensive holding penalty on Panthers' cornerback Josh Norman on a third-and-goal, the Broncos added to their lead, with running back C. J. Anderson rushing for a 2-yard touchdown, coupled with Manning completing a pass to wide receiver Bennie Fowler for a two-point conversion with 3:13 remaining. The Panthers had two more offensive possessions, but the Broncos' defense stood their ground, preventing a first down on both drives to win their third Super Bowl.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Peyton Manning's two-point conversion pass to Bennie Fowler late in the fourth quarter was the final pass completion of Manning's 18-year NFL career, and this was Manning's final NFL game, as he retired on March 7, 2016.


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Numerous individual, franchise and league records and milestones were either tied, reached or broken during the season:


title: 2015 Denver Broncos season

text: Four Broncos were selected to the 2016 Pro Bowl: Cornerbacks Chris Harris, Jr. and Aqib Talib, and linebackers Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware. Linebacker Brandon Marshall, wide receiver Demaryius Thomas, guard Louis Vasquez and safety T. J. Ward were named as reserves. However, due to participation in Super Bowl 50, none of them participated in the Pro Bowl. Harris and Miller were also voted to the All-Pro Team – Miller was named to the First team, while Harris was named to the Second Team.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Zabriskie Point is a 1970 American drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, and Rod Taylor. It was widely noted at the time for its setting in the counterculture of the United States. Some of the film's scenes were shot on location at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley. The film was an overwhelming commercial failure, and was panned by most critics upon release. Its critical standing has increased, however, in the decades since. It has to some extent achieved cult status and is noted for its cinematography, use of music, and direction.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: In a room at a university campus in 1970, white and black students argue about an impending student strike. Mark (Mark Frechette) leaves the meeting after saying he is "willing to die, but not of boredom" for the cause, which draws criticism from the young white radicals. Following a mass arrest at the campus protest, Mark visits a police station hoping to bail his roommate out of jail. He is told to wait but goes to the lock-up area, asks further about bail for his roommate, is rebuffed, calls out to the arrested students and faculty and is arrested. He gives his name as Karl Marx, which a duty officer types as "Carl Marx". After he is released from jail, Mark and another friend buy firearms from a Los Angeles gun shop, saying they need them for "self-defense" to "protect our women."


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: In a downtown Los Angeles office building, successful real estate executive Lee Allen (Rod Taylor) reviews a television commercial for Sunny Dunes, a new resort-like real estate development in the desert. Instead of actors or models, the slickly produced commercial features casually dressed, smiling mannequins. In the next scene Allen talks with his associate (G.D. Spradlin) about the greater Los Angeles area's very rapid growth as the two drive through crowded streets.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Mark goes to a bloody campus confrontation between students and police. Some students are tear-gassed and at least one is shot. As Mark reaches for a gun in his boot, a Los Angeles policeman is seen being fatally shot, although it is unclear by whom. Mark flees the campus and rides a city bus to suburban Hawthorne, California where, after failing to buy a sandwich on credit from a local blue-collar delicatessen, he walks to Hawthorne Municipal Airport, steals a small Cessna 210 aircraft and flies into the desert.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Meanwhile, Daria (Daria Halprin), "a sweet, pot-smoking post-teenybopper of decent inclinations,” is driving across the desert towards Phoenix in a 1950s-era Buick automobile to meet Lee, her boss, who may or may not also be her lover. Along the way Daria is searching for a man who works with "emotionally disturbed" children from Los Angeles. She finds the young boys near a roadhouse in the Mojave desert, but they tease, taunt, and grab at her, boldly asking for "a piece of ass,” to which she asks in reply, "Are you sure you'd know what to do with it?"


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Daria flees in her car. While filling its radiator with water, she is spied from the air by Mark, who buzzes her car and then flies only 15 feet over her as she lies face down in the sand. He throws a T-shirt out of the window of the aircraft for her to pick up. Daria goes from upset to curious and smiling during this sequence.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: They later meet at the desert shack of an old man, where Mark asks her for a lift so he can buy gasoline for the aircraft. The two then wander to Zabriskie Point, where they make love. As they begin, other unidentified young naked people are shown playing sexually on the ground, their wild games sending up thick clouds of white dust from the desert floor.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Later, a California highway patrolman suspiciously questions Daria. Hidden behind a portable toilet meant for tourists, Mark takes aim at the policeman, but Daria stands between the two of them to block this, apparently saving the policeman's life before he drives away. Daria asks Mark if he was the one who killed the cop in Los Angeles. He states that he wanted to, but someone else shot the officer first and that he "never got off a shot".


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Returning to the stolen aircraft, they paint it with politically charged slogans and psychedelic colors. Daria pleads with Mark to travel with her and leave the aircraft, but Mark is intent on returning and taking the risks that it involves. He flies back to Los Angeles and lands the plane at the airport in Hawthorne. The police (along with some radio and television reporters) are waiting for him, and patrol cars chase the aircraft down the runway. Instead of stopping, Mark tries to turn the taxiing aircraft around across the grass and is shot dead by one of the policemen.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Daria learns about Mark's death on the car radio. She drives to Lee's lavish desert home, "a desert Berchtesgaden" set high on a rock outcropping near Phoenix, Arizona, where she sees three affluent women sunning themselves and chatting by the swimming pool. She grieves for Mark by drenching herself in the house's architectural waterfall. Lee is deeply immersed in a business meeting having to do with the complex and financially risky Sunny Dunes development. Taking a break, he spots Daria in the house and happily greets her. She goes downstairs alone and finds the guest room that has been set aside for her, but after briefly opening the door, she shuts it again.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Seeing a young Native American housekeeper in the hallway, Daria leaves silently. She drives off, but stops to get out of the car and look back at the house, her own imagination seeing it repeatedly blown apart in billows of orange flame and household items.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: While in the United States for the 1966 premiere of his film "Blowup", which had been a surprising box-office hit, Antonioni saw a short newspaper article about a young man who had stolen an aircraft and was killed when he tried to return it in Phoenix, Arizona. Antonioni took this as a thread, with which he could tie together the plot of his next film. After writing many drafts, he hired playwright Sam Shepard to write the script. Shepard, Antonioni, Italian filmmaker Franco Rossetti, Antonioni's frequent collaborator screenwriter Tonino Guerra and Clare Peploe (later to become the wife of Bernardo Bertolucci), worked on the screenplay.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: The lead roles went to two non-professional actors, Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin. Most of the supporting roles were played by a professional cast, including, notably, Rod Taylor, along with G. D. Spradlin, in one of his early feature film roles, following many appearances on U.S. national television. Paul Fix, a friend and acting coach of John Wayne who had appeared in many of Wayne's films, played the owner of a roadhouse in the Mojave desert. Kathleen Cleaver, a member of the Black Panthers and wife of Eldridge Cleaver, appeared in the documentary-like student meeting scene at the opening of the film.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Shooting began in July 1968 in Los Angeles, much of it on location in the wider southern downtown area. Exteriors of the art deco Richfield Tower were shown in a few scenes shot shortly before its demolition in November of that year. Various college campus scenes, excluding the scene of the student meeting, were filmed on location at Contra Costa Community College in San Pablo, California. The production then moved to location shooting at Carefree, Arizona, near Phoenix and from there to Death Valley. The production rented a mansion in Carefree and built a replica of it on the lot of Southwestern Studio in Carefree for the special effect of blowing it up. Location shooting also took place in the Mojave Desert.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Early film industry publicity reports said Antonioni would gather 10,000 extras in the desert for the filming of the lovemaking scene, but this never happened. The scene was filmed with dust-covered and highly choreographed actors from The Open Theatre. The United States Department of Justice investigated whether this violated the Mann Act, which forbade the taking of women across state lines for sexual purposes; however, no sex was filmed and no state lines were crossed, given that Death Valley is in California. State officials in Sacramento were also ready to charge Antonioni with "immoral conduct, prostitution or debauchery" if he staged an actual orgy. FBI officials investigated the film because of Antonioni's political views, and officials in Oakland, California, accused the director of staging a real riot for a scene early in the film.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: During filming, Antonioni was quoted as criticizing the U.S. film industry for financially wasteful production practices, which he found "almost immoral" compared to the more thrifty approach of Italian studios.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: The soundtrack to "Zabriskie Point" included music from Pink Floyd, The Youngbloods, Kaleidoscope, Jerry Garcia, Patti Page, Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, and John Fahey. Roy Orbison wrote and sang the theme song, over the credits, called "So Young (Love Theme From "Zabriskie Point")".


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Richard Wright of Pink Floyd wrote a song called "The Violent Sequence" for inclusion in the film. Antonioni rejected the song because it was too subdued and instead synchronized a re-recording of the band's "Careful with That Axe, Eugene", retitled "Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up", with the film's violent ending scene. Roger Waters states in "Classic Albums – Pink Floyd – Making The Dark Side Of The Moon" that while he loved the song, Antonioni said it was "too sad" and that it reminded him of church. Eventually it was reworked into a new song known as "Us and Them", which was released on their album "The Dark Side of the Moon" in 1973. "The Violent Sequence" remained unreleased until it was included on a 2011 boxed set of "Dark Side of the Moon", where it was named "Us and them (Richard Wright Demo)".


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Other discarded pieces recorded for the film, by Pink Floyd, were released on a bonus disc with the 1997 CD re-release of the soundtrack album, along with pieces by Jerry Garcia.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: John Fahey was flown to Rome to record some music for the film, but it was not used. The accounts of Fahey and others differ. However, a portion of his "Dance of Death" was used in the film. Antonioni visited The Doors while they were recording their album "L.A. Woman" and thought about putting them in the soundtrack. The Doors recorded the song "L'America" for "Zabriskie Point", but it was not used.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Mark Frechette was living at Mel Lyman's intentional community at Fort Hill, Boston, at the time he made this film. He and Lyman hoped that the soundtrack would include some of the Americana type music Lyman had recorded with Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band. Frechette left copies of Lyman's newspaper "Avatar" around the studio and took time to play tapes of the band for the director and explain Lyman's work. When Antonioni seemed oblivious to the perceived importance of Lyman's music, Frechette quit the film, but returned six days later.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Following prolonged publicity and controversy in North America throughout its production, "Zabriskie Point" had its premiere at Walter Reade's Coronet Theatre in New York City on February 5, 1970, almost four years after Antonioni began pre-production and over a year and a half after shooting began, before being generally released on February 9, 1970.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: Despite the explicit language and sexual content, the film received an R rating rather than an X, in a shift in the MPAA's policy.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: The film was panned by most critics and other published commentators of all political stripes, as were the performances of Frechette and Halprin. "The New York Times" reviewer Vincent Canby called "Zabriskie Point" "a noble artistic impulse short-circuited in a foreign land." Roger Ebert echoed Canby, writing: "The director who made Monica Vitti seem so incredibly alone is incapable, in "Zabriskie Point," of making his young characters seem even slightly together. Their voices are empty; they have no resonance as human beings. They don't play to each other, but to vague narcissistic conceptions of themselves. They wouldn't even meet were it not for a preposterous Hollywood coincidence."


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: The counterculture audience MGM hoped to draw largely ignored the film during its brief theatrical run and taken altogether the outcome was a notorious box-office bomb. Production expenses were at least $7 million and only $900,000 was made in the domestic release. The film was listed in the 1978 book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time". It has been described as "the worst film ever made by a director of genius" but it "is still absolutely watchable because of the magic of Antonioni's eye". Over 20 years after the film's release, "Rolling Stone" editor David Fricke wrote that ""Zabriskie Point" was one of the most extraordinary disasters in modern cinematic history." It was the only film Antonioni directed in the United States, where in 1994 he was given the Honorary Academy Award "in recognition of his place as one of the cinema's master visual stylists."


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: With early 21st-century screenings of pristine wide-screen prints and a later DVD release, "Zabriskie Point" at last garnered some critical praise, mostly for the stark beauty of its cinematography and innovative use of music in the soundtrack, but opinions about the film were still mixed. Director Stéphane Sednaoui referenced the film in his video for "Today" by The Smashing Pumpkins, where an ice-cream salesman steals his employer's ice-cream van, escapes to the desert, and colourfully paints the van while couples kiss in the desert. In 1998, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the "Chicago Reader" included the film in his unranked list of the best American films not included on the AFI Top 100.


title: Zabriskie Point (film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 67% approval rating based on 30 reviews from film critics, with an average rating of 6.5/10.


title: Trustpilot

text: Trustpilot Group plc, is a Danish consumer business operating a review website founded in Denmark in 2007 which hosts reviews of businesses worldwide. Nearly 1 million new reviews are posted each month. The site offers freemium services to businesses. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, but has been criticised for the publication of fake reviews, and allowing companies to remove negative reviews.


title: Trustpilot

text: Trustpilot was founded by the company’s current CEO, Peter Holten Mühlmann, in Denmark in 2007. He started the company when his parents started shopping online. At the time, he was studying at Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences and would later leave university to pursue Trustpilot.


title: Trustpilot

text: After raising $3 million in early venture funding from 2008 to 2010, Trustpilot received an initial capital injection from SEED Capital Denmark and Northzone in November 2011. One year later, Index Ventures, SEED Capital Denmark and Northzone invested $13 million in Series B funding in Trustpilot, which the company used for international growth.


title: Trustpilot

text: In 2013, Trustpilot opened offices in New York and London. In the same year, the company was named Danish Startup of the Year at Next Web’s European Startup Awards. In 2014, Draper Esprit (formerly known as DFJ Esprit) invested $25 million in Trustpilot, along with support from the existing investors. According to VentureBeat, the Series C funding round would help Trustpilot “bring its online retail reviews service to the U.S.” At the end of 2014, Trustpilot employed 325 people and 400,000 new reviews were posted each month. According to Website Magazine, “Trustpilot soared in 2014,” and experienced “record growth with an 80 percent year-over-year increase in revenue.


title: Trustpilot

text: In May 2015, Trustpilot received $73.5 million in Series D funding. The investment was led by Vitruvian Partners, with contributions from all existing investors. In March, 2015, Google announced it was launching product ratings in Germany, the UK and France. In order to do this, “Google is aggregating data in Europe from different sources” including third party aggregators like Trustpilot.


title: Trustpilot

text: In February 2021, a private individual, Philip Waymouth, was ordered to pay £25,000 in libel damages after posting a negative review on TrustPilot's website. He had said in the post that Summerfield Browne of London was "another scam solicitor". The court found that Waymouth had not filed a complaint with the firm before posting. He said that he suggested that if Summerfield Browne refunded their fee, he would delete the post, but he said they did not respond.


title: Trustpilot

text: In March 2021, Trustpilot listed on the London Stock Exchange. The founders stated that London’s stock market looked more attractive after a government-backed review called for an overhaul of the U.K. listings regime.


title: Trustpilot

text: Anyone can post a review on Trustpilot. User account creation requires an email address or Facebook account. The company lets businesses collect and respond to reviews for free and offers specialized marketing and analytics features in their paid plans. It generates income from subscribing companies who use its software to be reviewed by customers and gain business acumen from reviews. Trustpilot has a licensing agreement with Google, allowing Trustpilot reviews to be listed as Google Seller Ratings, or “Google Stars.” It employs about 700 people and roughly new reviews are posted each month. It has published 50 million reviews about more than brands


title: Trustpilot

text: Trustpilot operates a freemium business model and earns most of its revenue from companies that subscribe to its services.


title: Trustpilot

text: There are independent investigations that suggest that review websites such as Trustpilot may have fake reviews. There is controversy about the legitimacy of some of Trustpilot's and other consumer review websites' reviews and the way that it deals with complaints about them, although Trustpilot claims that it strives to only include genuine reviews. Trustpilot allows businesses to pay them to access its marketing services and use Trustpilot technology to filter reviews—normally selecting only favourable posts—that customers place on their own Web site or other places. This may violate certain laws or regulations. Trustpilot published fake reviews for Bizzyloans; it deleted them after they were brought to light by KwikChex, an online investigations company. Fake reviewers often steal the identities of real people to falsely build up reviewed companies' reputations. Trustpilot denies that it permits any known fraudulent reviews on its site.


title: Trustpilot

text: On 14 September 2017, Trustpilot issued an open letter clarifying its review policy following allegations concerning the 'validity of reviews of [online estate agent] Purplebricks by customers'.


title: Trustpilot

text: On 22 March 2019, "The Times" reported that estate agents Purplebricks and Foxtons are "gaming" Trustpilot feedback by paying it to help gain better scores. In August 2016 five reviews of Foxtons were published on Trustpilot, with an average score of 2.2 stars out of five. The following month there were 467 reviews, 90% of them awarding five stars.


title: Trustpilot

text: On 6 February 2020 industry publication Property Industry Eye reported that Trustpilot was looking into reviews of estate agents ‘at large’ after claims from property review website allAgents that 70% of their reviews could be fake.


title: Trustpilot

text: In May 2020, an episode of "Joe Lycett's Got Your Back" ran an experiment in which a fake company was created on Trustpilot, demonstrating the various ways of manipulating reviews on the site. Trustpilot published an online response, noting the value of the show's experiment in highlighting fraud on the site, and promising to implement changes to tackle the problem better.


title: Trustpilot

text: Trustpilot reserves the right to remove reviews without any notice according to their policy. It insists that it always makes a bona fide effort to obey the law and its published policies to ensure that only authentic reviews remain on the website.


title: Trustpilot

text: Companies are allowed to respond publicly to reviews, or report a review as invalid if they believe it violates Trustpilot's user guidelines or they have no record of the reviewer as a customer. When a company reports a review, it is automatically replaced with a message indicating that it is being assessed. If the reviewer does not provide the requested information to Trustpilot (e.g. proof of purchase) within seven days, Trustpilot removes the review.


title: Trustpilot

text: Trustpilot may take "some time" to investigate a reported review, so even if after investigation the review is reinstated, if more reviews have been submitted to the company's satisfaction in the meantime, the reinstated review will be substantially less prominent than when it was first posted.


title: Trustpilot

text: Proof of purchase is not required to post a new review. There is little incentive for a company to report positive reviews, even if not from customers, as invalid; companies will tend to report only unfavourable invalid reviews, which is likely to skew reviews in favour of the company.


title: Trustpilot

text: Users of Trustpilot's Facebook plugin (for their Pro subscribers, paying $599 per month) have the option to display only reviews giving a certain score: "Choose the number of reviews that you want to display from the drop-down menu, then select the rating that the displayed reviews will have".


title: Trustpilot

text: Paying Trustpilot subscribers using the "Trustbox" feature (which allows a website to show embedded Trustpilot reviews) can ensure only reviews with a minimum star rating will be displayed: there is a setting that "Displays the star ratings that you select, for example, all 3-, 4-, and 5-star reviews".


title: Trustpilot

text: Trustpilot concedes "[by using Trustboxes] you don't show consumers the full, accurate picture of all your customers' opinions".


title: Trustpilot

text: Trustpilot's own Plans & Pricing page shows the Trustbox in action, displaying reviews of their own platform, configured to display 4- and 5-star reviews only, beneath the slogan "Trustpilot is a universal symbol of trust".


title: Trustpilot

text: In 2020, according to Trustpilot's first transparency report, it harboured more than 2 million fake reviews on its platform, all of which ultimately had to be removed.


title: Michael Kopech

text: Michael Talbert Kopech (born April 30, 1996) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2018. Kopech bats and throws right-handed.


title: Michael Kopech

text: Kopech attended Mount Pleasant High School in Mount Pleasant, Texas. While in high school, he developed a baseball rivalry and eventual friendship with Patrick Mahomes He committed to attend the University of Arizona. Kopech posted a 3–0 win–loss record and a 0.44 earned run average (ERA) in 11 games for Mount Pleasant, striking out 129 batters and giving up just 18 walks in 64 innings pitched, while earning 2014 Perfect Game First-Team All-American honors.


title: Michael Kopech

text: Kopech was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the first round, with the 33rd overall selection, of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft. He received a $1.6 million signing bonus from Boston. Kopech started his professional career with the rookie-level Gulf Coast League Red Sox in their 2014 season. He posted a 0–1 record and a 4.61 ERA in eight starts, which included 16 strikeouts and nine walks in innings pitched.


title: Michael Kopech

text: In 2015, Kopech pitched for the Greenville Drive of the Class A South Atlantic League (SAL), where he was 4–5 with a 2.63 ERA in 15 games. He struck out 70 batters and walked 27, in 65 innings, while earning a selection to the SAL All-Star Game. On July 16, he was suspended without pay for 50 games after testing positive for Oxilofrine, which is a banned substance under the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. In the 2016 spring training, Kopech broke his right hand during an altercation involving a roommate. He returned to action in the season-opener for the Lowell Spinners of the Class A-Short Season New York-Penn League, and was promoted to the Salem Red Sox of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League. In his first five starts at Salem, Kopech yielded only three earned runs in 29 innings with at least seven strikeouts in every game. In total, Kopech made 11 starts, going 4–1 with a 2.25 ERA across 52 innings. During that stretch, he struck out 82 hitters, the most for a pitcher in MiLB for the month of August. He posted a 2.08 ERA and gave only 29 walks, striking out double-digit batters in four of his last six starts, including a career-high 11 twice. After his solid pitching effort, Kopech was named the Carolina League Player of the Month for August. The award came along with his selection as the league's Pitcher of the Week for August 22–28. He carried a 0.93 ERA into his final start of the season before a tough outing against the Winston-Salem Dash on August 31. Overall, he collected 86 strikeouts in innings during the two stints (13.7 SO/9, 38% of batters faced), along with a 4–1 record and a 2.08 ERA.


title: Michael Kopech

text: According to "Baseball America", Kopech threw one of the fastest pitches in professional baseball history against the Wilmington Blue Rocks on July 13, 2016. Kopech sat at in the game, and touched and beyond on a regular basis, until a pitch was double checked by different radar guns in the Salem ballpark. In an offseason workout on January 17, 2017, throwing from flat ground with run-up, Kopech threw a pitch that was unofficially clocked at with a ball.


title: Michael Kopech

text: On December 6, 2016, the Red Sox traded Kopech, Yoan Moncada, Luis Alexander Basabe, and Victor Diaz to the Chicago White Sox for Chris Sale. In 2017, Kopech was named the starter for the North Division in the Southern League All-Star Game after he went 4–3 with a 2.93 ERA over innings and a league best 80 strikeouts in his first 11 starts for the Double-A Birmingham Barons. He was later named to the U.S. team of the 2017 All-Star Futures Game, striking out White Sox teammate Yoan Moncada of the World team. On August 18, 2017, the White Sox promoted Kopech to the Triple-A Charlotte Knights after he posted a 2.87 ERA over innings in 22 starts with 155 strikeouts. Over his final five starts in Birmingham, Kopech allowed two earned runs and accumulated 49 strikeouts.


title: Michael Kopech

text: The White Sox promoted Kopech to the major leagues on August 21, and he made his debut that day. His outing lasted only two innings because of rain. He struck out four batters and did not allow any runs. On his second pitch of the game he gave up his first hit, a single, to Joe Mauer. At the time of his debut, he was considered the 13th best prospect in all of MLB. Kopech underwent Tommy John surgery on September 18, putting him out for the rest of the 2018 season plus all of 2019 as well. On July 10, 2020, Kopech announced he would be sitting out the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Michael Kopech

text: Kopech began the 2021 season as a member of the White Sox' pitching staff. On April 2, Kopech made his 2021 debut against the Los Angeles Angels coming out of the bullpen going two innings striking out three and walking one and got the win. He made his first start in Game 2 of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox going three innings, only giving up one run and striking out four batters. On May 26, Kopech threw a pitch and then slipped and fell off the mound and was limping into the dugout. He was placed on the 10-day IL with a strained left hamstring on May 31. Kopech was activated off the IL on June 30. Overall in 2021, Kopech appeared in 44 games while starting in four of them with a record of 4–3 with an ERA of 3.50 in innings while striking out 103 batters. In game 3 of the 2021 ALDS against the Houston Astros, Kopech picked up his first career postseason win coming in the second inning for relief of White Sox starter Dylan Cease. Kopech went innings giving up four hits, three runs (including a home run), one walk, and struck out five batters leading the White Sox to a 12–6 victory.


title: Michael Kopech

text: In 2022, Kopech made his way to the starting role. During the season, Kopech was on and off the injured list. In a game against the Kansas City Royals, Kopech felt soreness in his left knee before the first pitch but tried to pitch anyway. He ended up leaving the game after facing four batters in the first inning and was placed on the IL with a left knee strain. Kopech made two more starts before he was placed on the IL again on September 17 with right shoulder inflammation and was shut down for the season.


title: Michael Kopech

text: Overall in 2022, Kopech made 25 starts posting a 5–9 record with a 3.54 ERA in innings with 105 strikeouts and 57 walks. He led the major leagues in highest walk percentage, at 11.5%.


title: Michael Kopech

text: In 2019, Kopech announced his engagement to Canadian actress Vanessa Morgan. Kopech and Morgan married in January 2020, but Kopech filed for divorce shortly thereafter in June 2020. Morgan gave birth to their son in January 2021. In May 2022, Kopech was placed on paternity leave to be present for the birth of his second child with his new girlfriend


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The first season of the American television drama series "Mad Men" premiered on July 19, 2007 and ended on October 18, 2007. It consisted of thirteen episodes, each running approximately 47 minutes. AMC broadcast the first season on Thursdays at 10:00 pm in the United States. Actors Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Bryan Batt, Michael Gladis, Aaron Staton, and Rich Sommer receive main cast billing.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Season one takes place between March and November 1960. It introduces the fictional advertising agency Sterling Cooper. The season begins with the new secretary, Peggy Olson, starting her first day with the firm. As the season unfolds, the mysterious backstory of enigmatic ad man Don Draper is revealed as is the growing confidence and success of Peggy Olson.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The first season was highly commended for its excellence in writing, acting, and art design, as well as for its faithfulness to the era it depicted. It was acknowledged with numerous honors from industry awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, the Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Series, and a Peabody Award.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The first season opens in March 1960, as genius advertising executive Donald "Don" Draper meets Peggy Olson, his new secretary. They both work at the small but prestigious agency Sterling Cooper. Though Don is welcoming towards her, Peggy is subject to passive-aggressive hostility from office manager Joan Holloway and sexual harassment from her male colleagues. Junior accounts manager Pete Campbell, who is about to get married, takes a liking to Peggy and the two have sex the night of his bachelor party. Don, meanwhile, has trouble balancing his life as he cheats on his wife, Betty Draper, with a beatnik artist named Midge Daniels. Roger Sterling, the acerbic son of one of Sterling Cooper's founding partners, cheats on his wife, Mona, with Joan, of whom he is enamored.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Sterling Cooper begins working for the 1960 Richard Nixon presidential campaign, gratis and unbidden, as they believe Nixon's success against John F. Kennedy will benefit their business. They are also working to reassure their largest client, Lucky Strike, whose account is the firm's bread and butter, in the face of resurgent medical research demonstrating smoking is harmful and related lawsuits and impending legislation harmful to the tobacco industry.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Betty begins seeing a psychiatrist after her numb and shaking hands cause her to crash the family car. Don, initially resistant to the idea of psychotherapy, allows Betty to seek help. Behind Betty's back, Don has Betty's doctor report back to Don what Betty says in treatment. Meanwhile, Don begins a flirtatious relationship with Rachel Menken, the Jewish owner of a department store who seeks marketing help at Sterling Cooper.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Don also has to deal with the arrival of his younger brother, Adam Whitman, who refers to Don as "Dick Whitman". Don gives Adam $5,000 and tells him to make a new life for himself, as Don did, and to never contact Don again.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Flashbacks to Don's childhood as "Dick Whitman", during the Great Depression, depict Dick's relationships with his unloving, pious stepmother, who calls him a "whore-child", and abusive father Archibald Whitman, who cheats a hobo out of promised payment for performing chores. Dick had grown friendly with the vagrant, and the incident further degrades his image of his father. Additionally, the vagrant teaches young Dick the hobo code, which communicates important messages via simple visual symbols. Don finds a weathered hobo sign indicating Don's father is a dishonest man.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Peggy begins writing copy after ad man Freddy Rumsen recognizes her talent. She is soon given control of her own account, creating a campaign for a weight loss machine. Peggy's work on the weight loss machine coincides with her own weight gain.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Roger suffers two heart attacks, drastically changing his outlook on life, and prompting Lucky Strike's owner, Lee Garner, Sr., to warn Bert Cooper that keeping Lucky Strike's account requires Sterling Cooper to do something to "show Don Sterling Cooper appreciates him". Bert then offers Don a partnership, with a 12% share of the business (without Don having to pay a partnership fee). Don accepts, provided he's not required to sign a contract; an amused Bert agrees, and acknowledges Don's attitude calls back to Ayn Rand's philosophy, as expressed in the book Bert had earlier urged Don to read: "Atlas Shrugged".


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Don's first order of business is to appoint a new head of accounts (to lighten Roger's load as partner and rainmaker), and Don begins interviewing external candidates (to Pete's chagrin). The most promising candidate proves to be Herman "Duck" Phillips, who "landed American Airlines", but is looking for a job after alcoholism and an extramarital affair ended his career at Y&R's London office.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: After the partners leave for the day, the Sterling Cooper ad men throw a raucous party the night of the 1960 presidential election, but see their client and preferred choice, Nixon, defeated by Kennedy.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Further flashbacks revolve around Dick Whitman's origin story in the Korean War, in which he is put under the command of a Lieutenant Donald Draper, who is soon to be sent home. After an attack, an accidental explosion kills Draper and injures Whitman. Whitman switches dog tags with his lieutenant and assumes Draper's identity as a way to escape the war. The Army has "Draper" take Whitman's body back to Whitman's family. The coffin is dropped off by train, and Whitman does not exit to greet his family, but a young Adam sees Whitman standing inside the train. Adam's parents dismiss his entreaties that, "I see Dick on the train". A female train passenger notices Whitman's look of grief and tells him to "forget that boy in the box". Whitman then turns his back on his family and begins his new life as "Donald Draper".


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Pete, who has demonstrated a propensity to snoop, expresses the belief that he should be promoted to head of accounts and throws his hat in the ring. He has also revealed his jealousy about Peggy and Don's success and sits at Don's desk after the two have left for the day. The mailroom boy mistakes Pete for Don and delivers a package from Adam Whitman filled with Dick Whitman's dog tags and childhood photographs. (Adam posted the package immediately before hanging himself in his hotel room).


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Pete confronts Don with the information that he knows "Don"'s real name is Dick Whitman and attempts to blackmail him for a promotion. Don neutralizes the threat by telling Bert, "I've pulled the trigger on hiring Duck Phillips", which he knew would incite Pete to reveal Don's true identity to Bert. Pete tells Bert that Don is a deserter who isn't who he says he is, and Bert brushes it off with, "Who cares?" After Pete leaves the room, Bert gives Don the option to either fire Pete or keep a close eye on him, as "one never knows how loyalty is born".


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Peggy seeks medical care for severe stomach pain. The doctor quickly realizes Peggy's weight gain is a result of a pregnancy; she was impregnated by Pete Campbell. After the child is delivered, the nurse encourages Peggy to hold the baby, but Peggy refuses.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The season ends just before Thanksgiving 1960, as Betty and Don bicker over Don's lack of interest in attending Thanksgiving dinner with Betty's family. Don cites his workload as his reason to stay home. Soon afterwards, Betty discovers Don was receiving calls from her psychiatrist, who was reporting on her sessions to Don. Don also learns that his brother Adam has hanged himself.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Don subsequently makes a new campaign presentation for the Kodak Carousel that revolves around the "power of nostalgia".


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: During a train ride, Don has a vision of returning home to announce he will be joining the family for Thanksgiving. Instead, Don returns home to find the house dark and empty. He sits alone at the bottom of the staircase as the season closes.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The pilot episode was shot at Silvercup Studios and various locations around New York City; subsequent episodes have been filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios. It is available in high definition for showing on AMC-HD and on video-on-demand services available from various cable affiliates. The writers, including Weiner, amassed volumes of research on the period in which "Mad Men" takes place so as to make most aspects of the series—including detailed set designs, costume design, and props—historically accurate, producing an authentic visual style that garnered critical praise. Each episode has a budget of $2–2.5 million, though the pilot episode's budget was over $3 million. On the scenes featuring smoking, Weiner stated: "Doing this show without smoking would've been a joke. It would've been sanitary and it would've been phony." Since the actors cannot, by California law, smoke tobacco cigarettes in their workplace, they instead smoke herbal cigarettes.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: In addition to having created the series, Matthew Weiner is the showrunner, head writer, and an executive producer; he contributes to each episode—writing or co-writing the scripts, casting various roles, and approving costume and set designs. He is notorious for being selective about all aspects of the series, and promotes a high level of secrecy around production details.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Along with Matthew Weiner, the writing staff of the first season consisted of co-executive producer Tom Palmer, who wrote two episodes; producer Lisa Albert, who wrote two episodes; producers and writing team Andre and Maria Jacquemetton, who wrote three episodes; writer's assistant Robin Veith, who wrote two episodes; and freelance writers Bridget Bedard and Chris Provenzano, who each wrote two episodes. Other producers included co-producer Blake McCormick, producer Todd London, and co-executive producer Scott Hornbacher. Primary directors of the first season were Tim Hunter, who directed four episodes, and Alan Taylor, who directed three including the pilot episode. The remaining episodes were directed by Ed Bianchi, Lesli Linka Glatter, Andrew Bernstein, series cinematographer Phil Abraham, Paul Feig, and series creator Matthew Weiner, who directs each season finale.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The premiere episode, which aired at 10:00 p.m. on July 19, 2007, was rated higher than any other AMC original series at the time, and attained a 1.4 household rating (1.2 million households). The season averaged 900,000 viewers.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The first season of "Mad Men" received generally favorable reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 87% of 30 critics have given the season a positive review. The site's consensus is: "Oozing evocative early 1960s ambiance, "Mad Men" is a sly, subversive look at the American workplace that radiates class, wit, and an undercurrent of disaffection." On Metacritic, the first season scored 77 out of 100 based on 32 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Tim Goodman of "The Hollywood Reporter" said each episode "unfolded like a small movie", calling it "one of the best character studies anyone has put on television in some time – an adult drama of introspection and the inconvenience of modernity in a man's world." Robert Bianco of "USA Today" said the show "hopes to come to grips with both what was lost and what has been gained since generation gaps, sexual revolutions, racial divides and Vietnam blasted the '60s apart" and called it a "smart, complex drama". "The New York Times" called it "both a drama and a comedy and all the better for it, a series that breaks new ground by luxuriating in the not-so-distant past." DVD Talk writer Adam Tyner described the season as "virtually flawless", praising the depth with which each of the characters has been written. Andrew Johnson praised the initial episode in "Time Out New York" stating: "Inspired by cynical Eisenhower-era comedies of manners ("Sweet Smell of Success", "The Apartment") and the stories of John Cheever, frequent "Sopranos" writer Matthew Weiner's "Mad Men" is a scathing chronicle of the ad industry’s boozy midcentury heyday, and one of the freshest series to hit basic cable in years."


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: "Variety"s reaction to the first season was more mixed, commenting that "as a serialized drama, the program's situations aren't especially stirring, even with its solid, perfectly outfitted cast. The sheer atmosphere, however, proves intoxicating." Tom Shales of "The Washington Post" wrote a negative review, stating that "the stories unfold in a dry, drab way and the pacing is desultory. Series directors are fond of long pauses that serve no purpose other than to give the impression that an actor forgot his next line."


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The first season of "Mad Men" was nominated for and won numerous industry awards, including fifteen Emmy nominations and six Emmy wins. At the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, "Mad Men" won Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (Matthew Weiner for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"). The series also won Creative Arts Emmys for Art Direction, Cinematography, Hairstyling, and Main Title Design.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The series also received nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Jon Hamm), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (John Slattery), Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Robert Morse), Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series (Alan Taylor), again for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes") and a second nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (Weiner and Robin Veith, for "The Wheel").


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: "Mad Men" won a Peabody Award for Outstanding Achievement in Television for the first season in 2007. AMC Executive Vice President Charles Collier called the award an "incredible honor". The first season was also honored by the American Film Institute as one of the ten greatest television achievements of 2007, called it brilliant for depicting "the discomfort that hides in the dark corners of nostalgia", and said "The show's extraordinary writing, characterizations and art direction neatly package a time filtered through the haze of cigarettes and sexism, but the message is for today — that those who sell a way of life are often mad for a world that is not their own."


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The series won Best Television Drama Series at the 65th Golden Globe Awards, while Jon Hamm won Best Actor – Television Series Drama. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" also won a Casting Society of America Artios Award for Outstanding Casting in a Television Pilot, Drama. Alan Taylor won a 2007 Directors Guild of America Award for Drama Series directing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes". The series also won 2007 Writers Guild Awards for Best Dramatic Series and Best New Series. Chris Provenzano for "The Hobo Code" was nominated for the Episode Drama award, but lost to "The Sopranos" episode, "The Second Coming".


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The first season was also honored by the Television Critics Association Awards, winning Program of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Drama, and Outstanding New Program of the Year. Jon Hamm was also nominated for Individual Achievement in Drama at the 24th TCA Awards.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: Jon Hamm and the cast "Mad Men" were also nominated at the 14th Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series but lost to James Gandolfini and the cast of "The Sopranos", respectively.


title: Mad Men (season 1)

text: The first season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on July 1, 2008. In addition to the thirteen episodes, the discs include 26 audio commentaries by cast and crew, and featurettes regarding the production of the series and mini-documentaries on media culture and the historical time in which the story is set. Featurettes include "Establishing "Mad Men"", "Advertising the American Dream", and "Scoring "Mad Men"". Also included is a music sampler for music from the show, a photo gallery, and a season two preview.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: COX-2 inhibitors are a type of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that directly targets cyclooxygenase-2, COX-2, an enzyme responsible for inflammation and pain. Targeting selectivity for COX-2 reduces the risk of peptic ulceration and is the main feature of celecoxib, rofecoxib, and other members of this drug class.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: After several COX-2-inhibiting drugs were approved for marketing, data from clinical trials revealed that COX-2 inhibitors caused a significant increase in heart attacks and strokes, with some drugs in the class having worse risks than others. Rofecoxib (sold under the brand name Vioxx) was taken off the market in 2004 because of these concerns, while celecoxib (sold under the brand name Celebrex) and traditional NSAIDs received boxed warnings on their labels. Many COX-2-specific inhibitors have been removed from the US market. As of December 2011, only Celebrex (generic name of celecoxib) is still available for purchase in the United States. In the European Union, celecoxib, parecoxib and etoricoxib has been approved for use by the European Medicines Agency.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is also a COX-2 inhibitor almost exclusively within the brain, and only minimally in the rest of the body although its not considered an NSAID since it has only minor anti-inflammatory activity.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Some COX-2 inhibitors are used in a single dose to treat pain after surgery. In this role Etoricoxib appears as good as, if not better than, other pain medications and, Celecoxib appears to be about as useful as ibuprofen.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: NSAIDs are often used in treatment of acute gout attacks. COX-2 inhibitors appear to work as well as nonselective NSAIDS, such as Aspirin. They have not been compared to other treatment options such as colchicine or glucocorticoids.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: COX-2 appears to be related to cancers and abnormal growths in the intestinal tract. Overexpression of COX-2 produces excess prostaglandins which have been shown to increase the possibility of colorectal cancer. COX inhibitors have been shown to reduce the occurrence of cancers and pre-cancerous growths. The National Cancer Institute has done some studies on COX-2 and cancer. . COX-2 can act as an anti-tumor enzyme, but only in specific cases. The FDA has approved Celebrex for treatment of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). COX-2 inhibitors are currently being studied in breast cancer and appear to be beneficial.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: COX-2 inhibitors have been found to be effective in suppressing inflammatory neurodegenerative pathways, with beneficial results in animal studies for major depressive disorder, as well as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. These need to be confirmed in human clinical trials. Current studies support an association of disorders such as these with chronic inflammation, which appears to decrease with the use of COX-2 inhibitors.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: The inhibition of COX-2 is paramount for the anti-inflammatory and analgesic function of the selective COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib. However, with regard to this drug's promise for the therapy of advanced cancers, it is unclear whether the inhibition of COX-2 plays a dominant role, and this has become a controversial and intensely researched issue. In recent years, several additional intracellular components (besides COX-2) were discovered that appear to be important for mediating the anticancer effects of celecoxib in the absence of COX-2. Moreover, a recent study with various malignant tumor cells showed that celecoxib could inhibit the growth of these cells, even though some of these cancer cells didn't even contain COX-2.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Additional support for the idea that other targets besides COX-2 are important for celecoxib's anticancer effects has come from studies with chemically modified versions of celecoxib. Several dozen analogs of celecoxib were generated with small alterations in their chemical structures. Some of these analogs retained COX-2 inhibitory activity, whereas many others didn't. However, when the ability of all these compounds to kill tumor cells in cell culture was investigated, it turned out that the antitumor potency did not at all depend on whether or not the respective compound could inhibit COX-2, showing that inhibition of COX-2 was not required for the anticancer effects. One of these compounds, 2,5-dimethyl-celecoxib, which entirely lacks the ability to inhibit COX-2, actually turned out to display stronger anticancer activity than celecoxib itself and this anticancer effect could also be verified in highly drug-resistant tumor cells and in various animal tumor models.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Analysis of clinical trial data revealed that there was a significant increase in the rate of vascular events with COX-2 inhibitors compared with placebo; "vascular events" are non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attack, non-fatal stroke, and death from a vascular event such as MI or stroke. These results led Merck to voluntarily withdraw (rofecoxib) from the market in September 2004 and to regulatory authorities imposing a boxed warning on the label of celecoxib. Traditional NSAIDs were also found to have cardiovascular risks, leading to similar boxed warnings.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: The cause of the cardiovascular problems became, and remains, a subject of intensive research. As of 2012 results have been converging on the hypothesis that the adverse cardiovascular effects are most likely due to inhibition of COX-2 in blood vessels, which leads to a decrease in the production of prostacyclin in them. Prostacyclin usually prevents platelet aggregation and vasoconstriction, so its inhibition can lead to excess clot formation and higher blood pressure.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: The COX-2 enzyme was discovered in 1988 by Daniel Simmons, a Brigham Young University researcher. The mouse COX-2 gene was cloned by UCLA scientist Harvey Herschman, a finding published in 1991.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: The basic research leading to the discovery of COX-2 inhibitors has been the subject of at least two lawsuits. Brigham Young University has sued Pfizer, alleging breach of contract from relations BYU had with the company at the time of Simmons's work. A settlement was reached in April 2012 in which Pfizer agreed to pay $450 million. The other litigation is based on United States Pat. No. 6,048,850 owned by University of Rochester, which claimed a method to treat pain without causing gastro-intestinal distress by selectively inhibiting COX-2. When the patent issued, the university sued Searle (later Pfizer) in a case called, "University of Rochester v. G.D. Searle & Co.", 358 F.3d 916 (Fed. Cir. 2004). The court ruled in favor of Searle in 2004, holding in essence that the university had claimed a method requiring, yet provided no written description of, a compound that could inhibit COX-2 and therefore the patent was invalid.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: In the course of the search for a specific inhibitor of the negative effects of prostaglandins that spared the positive effects, it was discovered that prostaglandins could indeed be separated into two general classes that could loosely be regarded as "good prostaglandins" and "bad prostaglandins", according to the structure of a particular enzyme involved in their biosynthesis, cyclooxygenase.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Prostaglandins whose synthesis involves the cyclooxygenase-I enzyme, or COX-1, are responsible for maintenance and protection of the gastrointestinal tract, while prostaglandins whose synthesis involves the cyclooxygenase-II enzyme, or COX-2, are responsible for inflammation and pain.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: The existing nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) differ in their relative specificities for COX-2 and COX-1; while aspirin and ibuprofen inhibit COX-2 and COX-1 enzymes, other NSAIDs appear to have partial COX-2 specificity, particularly meloxicam (Mobic). Aspirin is ≈170-fold more potent in inhibiting COX-1 than COX-2. Studies of meloxicam 7.5 mg per day for 23 days find a level of gastric injury similar to that of a placebo, and for meloxicam 15 mg per day a level of injury lower than that of other NSAIDs; however, in clinical practice meloxicam can still cause some ulcer complications.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Valdecoxib and rofecoxib were about 300 times more potent at inhibiting COX-2 than COX-1, but too toxic for the heart, suggesting the possibility of relief from pain and inflammation without gastrointestinal irritation, and promising to be a boon for those who had previously experienced adverse effects or had comorbidities that could lead to such complications. Celecoxib is approximately 30 times more potent at inhibiting COX-2 than COX-1, with etoricoxib being 106 times more potent.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Between 1996 and 2009, Scott Reuben purportedly conducted clinical research on the use of COX-2 inhibitors, often in combination with gabapentin or pregabalin, for the prevention and treatment of post-surgical pain, research which was found in 2009 to have been faked. Reuben pleaded guilty, paid fines and served six months in jail, and lost his medical license. A 2009 review of meta-articles used in evidence-based medicine found that while some reviews were no longer valid when the Reuben studies were removed, the conclusions in the majority of them remained unchanged. The review found that the key Reuben claims that needed to be re-examined were "the absence of detrimental effects of coxibs on bone healing after spine surgery, the beneficial long-term outcome after preemptive administration of coxibs including an allegedly decreased incidence of chronic pain after surgery, and the analgesic efficacy of ketorolac or clonidine when added to local anesthetics for intravenous regional anesthesia."


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Celebrex (and other brand names for celecoxib) was introduced in 1999 and rapidly became the most frequently prescribed new drug in the United States. By October 2000, its US sales exceeded 100 million prescriptions per year for $3 billion, and was still rising. Sales of Celebrex alone reached $3.1 billion in 2001. A Spanish study found that between January 2000 and June 2001, 7% of NSAID prescriptions and 29% of NSAID expenditures were for COX-2 inhibitors. Over the period of the study, COX-2 inhibitors rose from 10.03% of total NSAIDs prescribed by specialty physicians to 29.79%, and from 1.52% to 10.78% of NSAIDs prescribed by primary care physicians (98.23% of NSAIDs and 94.61% of COX-2 inhibitors were prescribed by primary care physicians). For specialty physicians, rofecoxib and celecoxib were third and fifth most frequently prescribed NSAIDs but first and second in cost, respectively; for primary-care physicians they were ninth and twelfth most frequently prescribed NSAIDs and first and fourth in cost.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Sales and marketing efforts were supported by two large trials, the Celecoxib Long-term Arthritis Safety Study (CLASS) in "JAMA", and the Vioxx Gastrointestinal Outcomes Research (VIGOR). The VIGOR trial was later proven to have been based on faulty data, and Vioxx was eventually withdrawn from the market.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: The VIGOR (Vioxx Gastrointestinal Outcomes Research) trial, "which was the making of Merck's drug rofecoxib (Vioxx)," was at the center of a dispute about the ethics of medical journals. In the VIGOR trial, over 8,000 patients were randomized to receive either naproxen or rofecoxib (Vioxx). Both studies concluded that COX-2 specific NSAIDs were associated with significantly fewer adverse gastrointestinal effects. In the CLASS trial which compared Celebrex 800 mg/day to ibuprofen 2400 mg/day and diclofenac 150 mg/day for osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis for six months, Celebrex was associated with significantly fewer upper gastrointestinal complications (0.44% vs. 1.27%, "p" = 0.04), with no significant difference in incidence of cardiovascular events in patients not taking aspirin for cardiovascular prophylaxis.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: The VIGOR trial results were published in 2000 in the "New England Journal of Medicine" Bombardier and his research team claimed that there was "an increase in myocardial infarction in the patients given rofecoxib (0.4%) compared with those given naproxen (0.1%)" and "patients given naproxen experienced 121 side effects compared with 56 in the patients taking rofecoxib," a "marvellous result for Merck" which "contributed to huge sales of rofecoxib." Merck's scientists incorrectly interpreted the finding as a protective effect of naproxen, telling the FDA that the difference in heart attacks "is primarily due to" this protective effect. In September 2001, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent a warning letter to the CEO of Merck, stating, "Your promotional campaign discounts the fact that in the VIGOR study, patients on Vioxx were observed to have a four to five fold increase in myocardial infarctions (MIs) compared to patients on the comparator nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), Naprosyn (naproxen)." This led to the introduction, in April 2002, of warnings on Vioxx labeling concerning the increased risk of cardiovascular events (heart attack and stroke). By 2005 "The New England Journal of Medicine" published an editorial accusing the Bombardier et al. of deliberately withholding data.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Claire Bombardier, a University of Toronto rheumatologist, had claimed that the VIGOR trial showed that Vioxx 50 mg/day had benefits over naproxen for rheumatoid arthritis, specifically that Vioxx reduced the risk of symptomatic ulcers and clinical upper gastrointestinal events (perforations, obstructions and bleeding) by 54%, to 1.4% from 3%, the risk of complicated upper gastrointestinal events (complicated perforations, obstructions and bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract) by 57%, and the risk of bleeding from anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract by 62%. An enormous marketing effort capitalized on these publications; Vioxx was the most heavily advertised prescription drug in 2000, and Celebrex the seventh, according to IMS Health.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: Small tumors of the sympathetic nervous system (neuroblastoma) appear to have abnormal levels of COX-2 expressed. These studies report that overexpression of the COX-2 enzyme has an adverse effect on the tumor suppressor, p53. p53 is an apoptosis transcription factor normally found in the cytosol. When cellular DNA is damaged beyond repair, p53 is transported to the nucleus where it promotes p53 mediated apoptosis. Two of the metabolites of COX-2, prostaglandin A2 (PGA2) and A1 (PGA1), when present in high quantities, bind to p53 in the cytosol and inhibit its ability to cross into the nucleus. This essentially sequesters p53 in the cytosol and prevents apoptosis. Coxibs such as Celebrex (celecoxib), by selectively inhibiting the overexpressed COX-2, allow p53 to work properly. Functional p53 allows DNA damaged neuroblastoma cells to commit suicide through apoptosis, halting tumor growth.


title: COX-2 inhibitor

text: COX-2 up-regulation has also been linked to the phosphorylation and activation of the E3 ubiquitin ligase HDM2, a protein that mediates p53 ligation and tagged destruction, through ubiquitination. The mechanism for this neuroblastoma HDM2 hyperactivity is unknown. Studies have shown that COX-2 inhibitors block the phosphorylation of HDM2 preventing its activation. In vitro, the use of COX-2 inhibitors lowers the level of active HDM2 found in neuroblastoma cells. The exact process of how COX-2 inhibitors block HDM2 phosphorylation is unknown, but this mediated reduction in active HDM2 concentration level restores the cellular p53 levels. After treatment with a COX-2 inhibitor, the restored p53 function allows DNA damaged neuroblastoma cells to commit suicide through apoptosis reducing the size of growth of the tumor.


title: Low Tier God

text: Dalauan Sparrow, also known online as Low Tier God, is an American gamer and YouTuber known primarily for his involvement in the "Street Fighter" fighting game community.


title: Low Tier God

text: In 2014, Sparrow engaged in a notable feud with another member of the fighting game community named Viscant. The feud, which began after a handful of matches led to the pair trash-talking each other online, eventually culminated in a grudge match hosted by Wednesday Night Fights, with Sparrow ultimately losing to Viscant.


title: Low Tier God

text: After Sparrow claimed that no "Super Smash Bros." player could defeat him in "Street Fighter V", he played against Jason "ANTi" Bates. Bates defeated Sparrow in the series, which included a perfect round.


title: Low Tier God

text: In April 2020, Sparrow made homophobic and transphobic comments about gamer Christina "CeroBlast" Tran during a livestream. Sparrow later pointed out racist comments made by Tran. Capcom then banned both players from their fighting game tournament events. After the incident, Vice Media and Polygon stated that Tran's racist comments received much less attention than Sparrow's transphobic comments. Tran was subsequently un-banned by Capcom for "showing remorse" for her inappropriate behavior, while Sparrow's ban remains in place.


title: Low Tier God

text: LowTierGod is widely known for being a rage-quitter, and often blacklists opponents that beat him in games to prevent matching up with them in the future.


title: Low Tier God

text: Low Tier God first appeared on television in April 2018 after being invited to be a contestant in . Produced by ELeague, the TBS series was a reality television show with contestants living together in a shared environment and competing against each other for a prize, similar in spirit to "Survivor" and "The Real World". The series was set in Atlanta, Georgia and featured Sparrow together with six other contestants. The five-part television series was seen as TBS's first attempt to foray into esports reality television. In the promotional material for the series, ELeague’s trailer showed Sparrow as a "clear villain" in the show, but after the show, fellow contestant Rob Burney said that they are now friends.


title: Better Off Alone

text: "Better Off Alone" is a song by Alice Deejay, the trance music project of Dutch producer DJ Jurgen in collaboration with Wessel van Diepen, Dennis van den Driesschen, Sebastiaan Molijn and Eelke Kalberg (Pronti & Kalmani). In 1997, the song was released as an instrumental by DJ Jurgen on Violent Records. Later releases of the track included vocals by Judith Pronk, who would later become an important part of the Alice Deejay project.


title: Better Off Alone

text: The song was later included on Alice Deejay's debut album "Who Needs Guitars Anyway?" (2000). The song is known for playing a key role in the development of the commercial trance sound, and has since been considered an electronic/trance music classic.


title: Better Off Alone

text: The song was initially an instrumental track composed in 1997 by Jürgen "DJ Jurgen" Rijkers, Sebastiaan "Pronti" Moljin, and Eelke "Kalmani" Kahlberg at the Violent Studios 4045 complex in Hilversum, Netherlands. Violent Music and Violent Studios owners Dennis "Danski" Van Der Driesschen and Wessel "Delmundo" van Diepen had previously offered studio space for Pronti and Kalmani next to their 4045 complex. Before the production of "Better Off Alone", Pronti and Kalmani had worked on composing music for the label's other project the Vengaboys.


title: Better Off Alone

text: In post-production of the instrumental, Sebastiaan Molijn stated he invented the lyric "Do you think you're better off alone?" after his romantic partner had left him. Molijn stated that "I started humming the vocal melody while the track was playing and we decided to add vocals. It made the emotion of the song as real as it gets." Judith Pronk later served as singer for the Alice Deejay compositions of the song. Pronti and Kalmani's official biography once stated that DJ Jurgen, "wanted to stay the underground DJ that he was, so the group Alice Deejay was formed." In 1999, the "Radio Edit" was produced.


title: Better Off Alone

text: Later in 1999, Sebastiaan Moljin and Eelke Kahlberg produced several remixes of the song which included the "Vocal Clubmix", "Pronti & Kalmani Vocal Remix", and the "Pronti & Kalmani Club Dub".


title: Better Off Alone

text: "Better Off Alone" is written in the key of G-sharp minor. The song is set in common time with a fast tempo of 137 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of E–Dm–Gm–F, and the vocals span from B to G.


title: Better Off Alone

text: With the turn of the century, "Better Off Alone" has been described as a turning point in the development of a commercialized techno sound. This sound is shared by related compositions such as "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65 that surfaced around the same time. Co-founder of Dash Berlin Jeffrey Sutorious stated, "It became such a huge chart hit around the world that many people categorised it as Euro Dance, when in fact it started out as vocal trance". Eelke Kalberg and Sebastiaan Molijn are Dash Berlin's other co-founders. "Entertainment Weekly" described the song as "techno-pop" while "Spin" described it as a "trance-fueled Eurodance".


title: Better Off Alone

text: The single was initially released as an instrumental single by DJ Jurgen in 1997 on Violent Music B.V.'s label Violent Records. Upon its release, there were only 500 vinyls pressed. After the single established credibility under DJ Jurgen's name, the vocal versions got re-released as "DJ Jurgen Presents Alice Deejay" as well as "Alice Deejay Featuring DJ Jurgen" in some countries. The vocal single later came to be of just Alice Deejay.


title: Better Off Alone

text: The track was released to dance clubs and became an international hit in clubs reaching number 2 on the "Billboard" club charts and a top ten club chart worldwide. The song then became a hit reaching number 2 in Canada, number 27 in the U.S. and number 2 in the UK. It went on to sell over 600,000 copies in the UK and become one of the country's best-selling singles of 1999, despite the radio edit not being on the commercial CD release. The song was in the top 100 best-selling singles in Australia for 2000 as compiled by the Australian Recording Industry Association.


title: Better Off Alone

text: "Better Off Alone" is notable for having two versions of its music video. The original music video was directed by Olaf van Gerwen through the studio Blood Simple – who at the time directed videos for Sebastian Molijn and Eelke Kalberg's other music project the Vengaboys. In the first version of the video, a man travels in a Jeep through the Moroccan desert. His car stalls and is forced to walk on foot. He discards his items along the way such as a watch, a map and some vodka. In parallel, a woman is sitting on a couch in a living room singing the lyrics to the song while the man sees her in the desert. The man gets lost in the desert while intercut scenes of him and his girlfriend in love are shown. He takes off his broken dog tag while screaming. Because the dog tag is already broken and the girl has the second part probably means he is already dead and she is missing him. The video ends on his dead body being covered by the desert sand. The second version was directed by "Cousin Mike" from the 1711 Production Group. The second video was shot in Miami for Republic and Universal. The second version is interspersed with desert scenes from the original, but with added scenes where Judith Pronk, Mila Levesque and Angelique Versnel are dancing in a room with Moroccan decor. Sometimes just Pronk alone, wearing a blue dress with a veil.


title: Better Off Alone

text: The song was initially received with passiveness by some critics. "Entertainment Weekly" gave the song a B rating, describing the song as having "catchy, throwaway results" with "barely there lyrics". "Daily Record" complimented its "great vocal and a pounding techno beat".


title: Better Off Alone

text: In retrospect the song garnered acclaim. "Vibe" magazine considering the song "a timeless track" in their "30 Dance Tracks from The '90s That Changed the Game". "Complex" magazine stated the song, "perfectly embodies the 1990s Eurodance/euro trance sound that took over clubs, and today we're hearing the big room house scene build upon what was started here" in their "10 Essential Eurodance Classics". Complex also stated that Sebastiaan Moljin and Eelke Kahlberg's production of trance music project Dash Berlin, is directly reflective of the song's influence on the modern day electronic music scene. In 2017, "BuzzFeed" listed the song at number 24 in their list of "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs Of the '90s". Dash Berlin honorarily included the song in their top 5 greatest trance classics. Critic George McCarthy has described the song as being 'full of life: displaying an extensive range of raw emotional vulnerabilities that are unmatched by any other modern dance track, is a banger'.


title: Better Off Alone

text: Meagan Garvey of MTV referenced the song as an example of "Eurodance Nostalgia" and that the cult status of the song is "mostly retroactive". Garvey stated that songs such as "Better Off Alone", "left you with an aching sensation, as if something had been left unsaid. The undercurrent of melancholy seemed more akin to mid-'90s tracks like La Bouche's "Where Do You Go" or Haddaway's "What Is Love," dance tracks built around unanswerable questions."


title: Better Off Alone

text: In 2007, New Jersey rock group Paulson released a rock cover of the song on their "Calling on You" EP.


title: Better Off Alone

text: In 2008, the main melody of the song was sampled by producer Johnny Juliano in "Say Yeah" by Wiz Khalifa, which added the Roland TR-808 as well as drum machine claps to the existing melody. Hip hop and trap producer AraabMuzik stated that sampling the song was initially what led him to sampling "trance and really upbeat dance music". The song was sampled by him in "South Beach" by 40 Cal featuring Duke Da God.


title: Better Off Alone

text: In 2011, Dutch DJ and producer Laidback Luke introduced an electro house remix of the song in the compilation "Cream Ibiza: Super You & Me", marketed as a 2011 "Summer anthem".


title: Better Off Alone

text: French producer David Guetta was authorized to use the main melody (or "hook") of the song. The main melody of the song was sampled in Guetta's 2013 song "Play Hard" featuring Ne-Yo and Akon. The recording was later included in the reboot album "Nothing but the Beat 2.0". Some sources have described this "heavy" sampling as an example of the "gray area in the world of music plagiarism". Despite the authorized use of the melody, some sources have stated that this poses the question of "How much sampling is too much sampling?".


title: Better Off Alone

text: Dutch DJ San Holo recorded a guitar version of the song, and published it on his Twitter feed on August 2, 2021.


title: Better Off Alone

text: In 2021, Trevor Daniel interpolated the chorus on his song "Alone". That same year, Farruko interpolated it on his song "El Incomprendido", from his album "La 167".