title: Kaskade

text: In 1995, Raddon began DJing his first monthly Monday night party at a basement venue called Club Manhattan. He used this additional income to purchase studio essentials. In May 2000, Raddon moved to San Francisco with his wife where he got a job working as an A&R assistant to John Elkins at Om Records, a house and electronic label. To Raddon's benefit, San Francisco was an emerging site of a new deep house movement. While at OM records he continued DJing and producing music. Soon after, Raddon created his alter ego, Kaskade, which his wife worried would remind people of the dish detergent. He took his stage name from a nature book when he saw a picture of a waterfall and a co-worker agreed "cascade" was a good choice, but he then changed the spelling. He did not take his name from the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest as fans sometimes cite.


title: Kaskade

text: After mixing the third volume in the Sounds of Om series, Ryan was offered a three-album deal for Kaskade. He kicked off the deal with a full-length house debut, It's You It's Me. Garnering critical acclaim, spawning several singles, and receiving a prestigious Dance Star nomination for Best New Artist, the release put Kaskade squarely on the dance music world's radar. Concentrating on his DJing skills, Kaskade started to experiment and develop his own sound.


title: Kaskade

text: Kaskade released his first single "What I Say" on the label in 2001. "In the Moment" saw Kaskade's first top 10 single with "Steppin' Out" reaching No. 5 on Billboard Magazine's Hot Dance Club Play chart and No. 6 on Dance Radio Airplay. The fourth single to be released from the album, "Everything", reached No. 1 on Billboard Magazine's Hot Dance Club Play.


title: Kaskade

text: Kaskade's fourth solo album "Love Mysterious" was released in September 2006. The first single from the album, "Be Still", reached No. 4 on "Billboard Magazine"'s Hot Dance Club Play. The single features vocalist Sunsun, and includes remixes by Jay-J and Robbie Rivera. Follow up single "Stars Align" hit number No. 8 on "Billboard Magazine" Hot Dance Airplay chart and just missed the top ten, No. 11, on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. His fourth single released from "Love Mysterious", "Sorry", was his third consecutive top ten hit on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay Chart, at No. 9. Dirty South provided a remix for "Sorry". The remix was nominated for a 2008 Grammy for Best Remixed Recording.


title: Kaskade

text: Kaskade worked with Canadian electronic musician deadmau5 to produce tracks on Strobelite Seduction, including the first single (released as an EP) "Move for Me". The single became his fifth top ten hit on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay Chart, reaching the number one position in its September 6, 2008 issue. It also gave Kaskade his first number one single on this chart. The dance single has become a crossover hit, managing to reach number 71 on the Canadian Hot 100 as of February 14, 2009. "I Remember", another collaboration with deadmau5, became his first UK hit, peaking inside the top 15 on the UK Singles Chart. The video-clip which accompanied "I Remember" was filmed in Manchester, England. The single became his second chart topper on the Billboard dance chart. The follow-up single, "Angel on My Shoulder" with Tamra Keenan, also found success on the dance chart, placing at number 5 on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay Chart. His song "Step One Two" was the last single from the album, being released late in 2008.


title: Kaskade

text: In 2010, he added another number one Billboard Hot Dance Airplay track to his credit with "Dynasty", featuring Haley Gibby on vocals.


title: Kaskade

text: In March 2012, Kaskade headlined at Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Florida, coming on before Armin van Buuren Sunday night.


title: Kaskade

text: In April 2012, Kaskade took to Indio, California to play two weekends at Coachella Valley Music Festival. In June 2012, the American House producer was one of the headlining acts at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, Nevada. That same month, he started the "Freaks of Nature" summer tour in support of his released album Fire & Ice.


title: Kaskade

text: In December 2013, Kaskade was nominated for two Grammy Awards: the song "Atmosphere" for Best Dance Recording and the album "Atmosphere" for Best Dance/Electronica Album.


title: Kaskade

text: In 2014, Kaskade was listed as the No. 8 highest paid DJ in the world according to Forbes, earning $17 million.


title: Kaskade

text: In 2015, he was a guest star on BYUtv's Studio C. Additionally in 2015, he headlined Coachella alongside Drake for two weekends and, over the course of the two weekends, pulled in the two largest crowds the festival had ever seen.


title: Kaskade

text: On September 25, 2015, Kaskade released his album "Automatic" featuring collaborations with CID, Galantis, John Dahlbäck and Two Nations.


title: Kaskade

text: In 2022, Kaskade and Deadmau5 announced a collaboration project named Kx5, marking the fourth time the producers have worked together. The first single from the project, "Escape", was released on March 11.


title: Kaskade

text: On May 30, 2010, Kaskade became a resident DJ for daytime pool parties at the Encore Beach Club in Las Vegas, NV. The parties were entitled "Kaskade Sundays".


title: Kaskade

text: Raddon is married and has three children. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: Deep Blue Sea 3 is a 2020 American science fiction natural horror film starring Tania Raymonde. When Dr. Emma Collins and her team are on Little Happy Island studying the effect of climate change on great white sharks who come to the nearby nursery every year to give birth, their peaceful life is disrupted when a "scientific" team shows up looking for three bull sharks. It is the third and final installment of the "Deep Blue Sea" film series, and a direct sequel to "Deep Blue Sea 2".


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: Dr. Emma Collins continues the work of her deceased father on the protection of Great White Sharks on an artificial island near South Africa named Little Happy. Her team includes Spinnaker (nicknamed "Spinn"), Miya, and Eugene Shaw, Emma's father's best friend and brother figure. Also living on Little Happy are Emma's friends Nandi and her brother Bahari. Bella, a bull shark who was responsible for the chaos in the past years, is found dead, having been killed after getting stuck in fishing lines, discovered by Dr. Richard Lowell and his team on their boat, the Thasos. They go to Little Happy to find the three last pups of Bella are now adults, and are the only survivors from the latter.


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: Richard is revealed to be Emma's ex-boyfriend. When Richard and his team dive to chase the bull sharks, Emma goes with them and discovers three White Sharks devoured by the bull sharks. Soon after, Brown (a member of Richard's team) is found dead, having been sliced in half by the bull sharks. With Emma's help, one of the biggest bull sharks is sedated and captured but Richard is injured.


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: Later, Bahari goes fishing but is attacked and devoured by one of the two remaining bulls. Nandi later discovers his severed arm. After the loss of her friend, Emma confronts Richard. He reveals to her that these bull sharks are more intelligent, telling the events of the first two movies. He says that with the beacon which was attached to their mother, he can attract her offspring as they know that their mother is dead. He concludes in saying that if these sharks reproduce, it will be a catastrophe. Lucas, leader of the mercenaries of Genotic Labs, overthrows Richard's command and decides to kill everyone and flee with the captured shark. They place a mine to blow everything up, unaware that Emma and her team is spying on them with an underwater drone.


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: Emma confronts Richard again, accusing him of planning to murder them. Lucas, having overheard their conversation, attacks them and Emma's team, causing massive damage to nearby structures on the island with explosives. During the battle, Emma escapes, but Richard is captured by Schill and Earls, Lucas's men, and brought to the Thasos.


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: After choosing Emma's side, Richard is killed by one of the sharks as he jumps from the boat to join her. Earls is killed by a bull shark while he fights with Shaw. Meanwhile, Spinn is killed by a bull shark and Miya is presumed to suffer the same fate. Emma deactivates the mine but is attacked by Schill, who has been instructed by Lucas to kill her. She is saved by Sally, the Great White Shark, "friend" of Emma since her arrival on Little Happy, who devours Schill. Emma places the mine on the Thasos and when Lucas explodes it, his boat sinks which frees the captured shark.


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: Shaw sacrifices himself to kill two of the three bull sharks with explosive darts. Lucas, having survived the recent explosion, attacks Emma, but is killed by her and Nandi. Emma then kills the last bull shark by luring it into the garbage compactor.


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: Nandi and Emma flee, leaving Little Happy destroyed, with Sally addressing a goodbye to Emma before disappearing into the ocean. While Nandi and Emma navigate, they found a wardrobe and Miya is revealed alive, having hidden inside it. Reunited, the three friends go back to civilization.


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: The film was released on July 28, 2020 on Digital HD by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 25.


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of .


title: Deep Blue Sea 3

text: Meagan Navarro of "Bloody Disgusting" expressed that while the film cannot be considered good by conventional standards, it was nonetheless enjoyable.


title: XOXO (film)

text: xoxo is a 2016 American drama film directed by Christopher Louie and starring Sarah Hyland, Graham Phillips, Brett DelBuono, Hayley Kiyoko, Colin Woodell, Ryan Hansen, Ione Skye, and Chris D'Elia. It is based on a story by Louie and is written by Dylan Meyer. It was produced by Joe Russell, Christopher Louie, Daniel Shafer and Max Leitman and released on August 26, 2016, by Netflix.


title: XOXO (film)

text: The lives of six strangers collide during a frenetic night of romance and dream chasing when a young DJ is given a chance to perform at a festival.


title: XOXO (film)

text: In July 2015, it was announced Sarah Hyland, Chris D'Elia, and Graham Phillips, had joined the cast of the film, with Dylan Meyer writing the screenplay, while Netflix will produce and distribute the film. That same month, Hayley Kiyoko and Colin Woodell joined the cast of the film, while Christopher Louie wrote the story and directed the film. In June 2016, Pete Tong


title: XOXO (film)

text: Sarah Hyland and Graham Phillips have confirmed that "XOXO" was filmed in multiple music festivals and raves around Los Angeles.


title: XOXO (film)

text: "XOXO" was made available through Netflix on August 26, 2016. It ran for one week at the Laemmle Royal theater in Los Angeles August 24 through August 31.


title: XOXO (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 5.81/10. Nick Murray opined in "The Village Voice" that the film "may be as predictable as an EDM song, but it too offers pleasures to those willing to give themselves over to its rhythms."


title: Terry Reid

text: Terrance James Reid (born 13 November 1949) is an English rock vocalist and guitarist. He has performed with high-profile musicians, as a supporting act, session musician, and sideman.


title: Terry Reid

text: Reid was born in Paxton Park Maternity Home, Little Paxton, St Neots, Huntingdonshire, England. He lived in the village of Bluntisham and attended St Ivo School, St Ives. After leaving school at the age of fifteen, Reid joined Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers after being spotted by the band's drummer, Peter Jay. At the time, Reid was playing for a local band, The Redbeats, who regularly performed at the River Club in St Ives.


title: Terry Reid

text: His public profile was enhanced in 1966 when The Jaywalkers were named as a supporting act for the Rolling Stones during their 23-show British Tour from September to October 1966. At the concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Graham Nash of The Hollies became friends with Reid and suggested The Jaywalkers sign up with UK Columbia Records—an EMI label—to record with producer John Burgess. Their first single, the soul-inspired "The Hand Don't Fit the Glove" was a minor hit in 1967, but by then The Jaywalkers had decided to disband.


title: Terry Reid

text: Reid came to the attention of producer Mickie Most, who became his manager and who was in partnership with Peter Grant at the time. His first single with Most, "Better By Far", became a radio favourite, but the album, "Bang Bang, You're Terry Reid", was not a commercial success. With accompanying musicians Peter Solley on organ and Keith Webb on drums, a 1968 tour of the United States with Cream did much to gain Reid a loyal following. His final performance of the tour at the Miami Pop Festival garnered positive reviews from the music press.


title: Terry Reid

text: The song "Without Expression", from "Bang Bang, You're Terry Reid", written by Reid at age 14, was recorded by The Hollies in 1968 as "A Man With No Expression", by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in 1969 as "Horses Through a Rainstorm", by REO Speedwagon in 1973 as "Without Expression (Don't Be the Man)", and by John Mellencamp on his greatest hits album "", again with the parenthetical "Don't Be the Man", with Nash singing lead on the first two. "Horses Through a Rainstorm" was slated to appear on "Déjà Vu" before being replaced at the last minute by Stephen Stills's "Carry On". Both versions were not released until years later.


title: Terry Reid

text: Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page, managed by Peter Grant, became interested in Reid's work, and when The Yardbirds disbanded, Page wanted Reid to fill the vocalist spot for his proposed new group, the New Yardbirds, which was to become Led Zeppelin. Reid had already committed to go on the road for two tours with the Rolling Stones and another with Cream (as an opening act on the 1968 US Tour). Reid suggested to Page that if he were compensated for the gig fees he would lose and if Page would call Keith Richards to explain why Reid had to pull out of the US tours, Reid would try some things out with Page. It never happened and Reid told Page to consider a young Birmingham-based singer, Robert Plant, instead, having previously seen Plant's Band of Joy as a support act at one of his concerts. Reid also suggested Page check out their drummer John Bonham. Reid also rejected an offer from Ritchie Blackmore to replace the departing Rod Evans in Deep Purple.


title: Terry Reid

text: In 1969, Reid supported British tours, notably Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac. Reid, Solley and Webb toured the United States again when he opened for the Rolling Stones on their 1969 American Tour. He did not appear at the infamous Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Music Festival.


title: Terry Reid

text: In December 1969, Reid had a falling out with producer Mickie Most, who wanted Reid to become a balladeer and strictly follow Most's own formula. Before this, Reid had toured extensively in major venues in the US, including two tours with the Rolling Stones and another with Cream (he also performed at Mick and Bianca Jagger's wedding in Saint-Tropez in 1971).


title: Terry Reid

text: Unable to record or release his music, Reid concentrated on live work, mostly in the US whilst awaiting the outcome of litigation with Most, making only sporadic UK performances during that period. In 1970, he returned briefly to England to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival with bass player Lee Miles (a former member of Ike & Tina Turner's band whom Reid met while touring the US with the Stones), David Lindley and Tim Davis. During this period he also took part in the second Atlanta International Pop Festival, and was filmed performing at Glastonbury in 1971. That same year, Reid was signed by Ahmet Ertegun to Atlantic Records, with his band consisting of David Lindley, Lee Miles and Alan White; they began recording in the UK and later switched to the US. White left to join Yes and Lindley left to tour with Jackson Browne. However, Lee Miles remained and was Reid's trusty sidekick for many years to come. Other musicians on the album, titled "River", included Conrad Isidore on drums and Willie Bobo on percussion. Produced by Reid, engineered by Tom Dowd, and mixed by Eddie Offord this third album was released in 1973 and received favourable reviews, but failed commercially. The remainder of the material from those extensive sessions was released in 2016 as "The Other Side of The River."


title: Terry Reid

text: Over the next decade, Reid switched to different labels in search of a winning formula. "Seed of Memory" was released by ABC Records in 1976, and produced by Graham Nash (ABC filed for bankruptcy the week the album was released), and "Rogue Waves" was produced by Chris Kimsey for Capitol Records in 1979. Reid retired his solo career in 1981 to concentrate on session work, appearing on albums by Don Henley, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt. In 1991, Reid returned with producer Trevor Horn for the WEA album "The Driver". The album featured a cover version "Gimme Some Lovin'" which also appeared on the soundtrack for the Tom Cruise movie "Days of Thunder" by Tony Scott. In the 1990s, he also toured the US and Hong Kong with Mick Taylor. "Rich Kid Blues" was the eponymous song on an album released by Marianne Faithfull, produced by Mike Leander in 1984 but unreleased for 14 years. Reid and friends put together an informal group in March 1993, calling themselves The Flew. Members included Reid, Joe Walsh, Nicky Hopkins, Rick Rosas, and Phil Jones. They played one show at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. This was Nicky Hopkins' last public performance before his passing.


title: Terry Reid

text: In late 2002, Reid returned to the UK with longtime bass player Lee Miles for three shows at the [WOMAD] festival near Reading, his first live appearance in years. In 2005 he returned for a UK tour with London shows at The 100 Club and Ronnie Scott's. One venue billed him as 'The Man with a Hell of a Story To Tell'. This began a run of regular visits by Reid, who has toured the UK every year since. For appearances at festivals and his London shows, Reid uses a full band and venues have included The Jazz Cafe, The Borderline, The 100 Club, Dingwalls, The Half Moon and notably an invite to return to Ronnie Scott's in 2009 for a week long residency as part of their 50th anniversary (one of only 6 non-jazz acts to do so). This became Reid's favourite venue and he had residencies there for several years after. In 2012, his album "Live in London" featured an entire set from one of these gigs at Ronnie Scott's, and was released with no remixes or overdubs. Reid's UK band regularly attracts the best UK session players (Ash Soan - drums, BJ Cole - pedal steel, Dzal Martin -guitar, Mark Smith - bass, David Tench - piano). Between 2002 and 2012, Reid appeared at the Glastonbury Festival several times and many other festivals: The Isle of Wight, The Secret Garden (twice), The Rhythm Festival (twice), and All Tomorrows Parties. Also during this period, EMI produced the "Superlungs" box set of his first two albums and all his sessions for them recorded between 1966 and 1970. Also "Seed of Memory" and "River" became available on CD and a new live album, "Alive" was released by Sanctuary Records, having previously been available from Reid himself, who made 200 copies to sell at WOMAD 2002. Around this time Reid began a residency at The Joint in Los Angeles, this became "Big Monday' and ran for four years, with many of his friends dropping by when they were in town including Robert Plant, Keith Richards, Bobby Womack, Roger Daltrey, and Eric Burdon.


title: Terry Reid

text: His song "Dean" from the "River" album was used in the feature film "The Criminal" produced 1999 and released in 2001. Reid became good friends with the film's producer Chris Johnson who also become Reid's business advisor and persuaded Reid to return live work in the US in early 2000's and arranging UK tours, recruiting players for his band, arranging collaborations with other artists, organising back catalogue releases, licensing his songs for films and even an acting role. In 2003 Johnson placed three of Reid's songs, "Seed of Memory", "To Be Treated Rite", and "Brave Awakening" in the movie "The Devil's Rejects" directed by Rob Zombie. Also his song "Faith To Arise" was in the 2003 film "Wonderland" and in the 2017 film "Win It All". In 2009, his song 'Be Yourself", which he wrote for Graham Nash's "Songs For Beginners", appeared in the Jason Reitman film "Up in the Air" (2009). In the 2005 Bill Paxton movie "The Greatest Game Ever Played", Reid played a golf caddy.


title: Terry Reid

text: In July/August 2007, Reid returned for another six-week UK tour being backed by The Cosmic American Derelicts, a band out of northern New Jersey and southern New York, and their guitar player Eddie Rainey became a member of Reid's band for three or so years. On 26 June 2009, Reid appeared with Rainey at Great Yarmouth club, The Residence, where Reid was reunited with Peter Jay for the first time in over 15 years.


title: Terry Reid

text: Reid is popular with newer artists as a collaborator; the pairing of Shine (a French trip-hop act) and Reid led to him spending a week in Paris to record several tracks as guest vocalist. They played a one-off at the Pigalle Club in London on 26 August 2009. "Shine featuring Terry Reid" was released as an EP in November 2009. Reid was in San Francisco lending his voice to the track "Listen" by DJ Shadow as one of a few bonus tracks added to his best of album. Another collaboration has yet to see the light of day: "All God's Children Need Dancing Shoes" with Alabama 3 after they shared a stage at the Rhythm Festival.


title: Terry Reid

text: Reid is acknowledged by Robert Plant as the outstanding voice of his generation and an influence on Led Zeppelin's early material and is credited by Jimmy Page for connecting him to Robert Plant. Reid's early song "Rich Kid Blues" was covered on an album by Marianne Faithfull in 1984. The UK artist Rumer recorded "Brave Awakening" on her "Boys Don't Cry" 2012 album and appeared at his London shows at the Jazz Cafe and Half Moon. Cheap Trick recorded Reid's "Speak Now" for their 1977 debut album. The Raconteurs with Jack White also recorded a version of Reid's "Rich Kid Blues" for their second album "Consolers of the Lonely" in 2008. The American rock group The Split Squad recorded a cover of Reid's "Tinker Taylor" for their debut album, "Now Hear This...", released in 2014. Joe Perry's album "Sweetzerland Manifesto", released in 2018, features three tracks co-written and sung by Reid. In 2020, a recording of Chris Cornell covering Reid's "To Be Treated Rite" was released on his posthumous album "No One Sings Like You Anymore, Vol. 1, which also included a cover of Stay with Me Baby based off of Reid's own version."


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: Shock and Awe is a 2017 American drama film starring and directed by Rob Reiner and written by Joey Hartstone. The film also stars Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, James Marsden, Milla Jovovich, and Jessica Biel, and follows a group of journalists at Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau who investigate the rationale behind the Bush Administration's then-impending 2003 invasion of Iraq. The film had its world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival on September 30, 2017. It was released through DirecTV Cinema on June 14, 2018, before having a limited release in theaters on July 13, 2018, by Vertical Entertainment.


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: Journalists investigate the assertions by the Bush Administration concerning Saddam Hussein's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction as a reason for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: Knight Ridder Washington reporters Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay received the Raymond Clapper Memorial award from the Senate Press Gallery on February 5, 2004, for their coverage of the questionable intelligence used to justify war with Iraq.


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: On July 12, 2016, Woody Harrelson was set as one of the leads of the film, reteaming with Reiner after "LBJ". On July 13, 2016, James Marsden was added as well. The film features an interview with Dick Cheney on "Meet the Press".


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: Principal photography on the film began in Louisiana on October 5, 2016. In October 2016, Alec Baldwin left the cast, reportedly due to financial timing. In November 2016, filming also took place in Washington, D.C.


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: Walcott has said he believed the film to be essentially "word-for-word" accurate. At one point in the film, Walcott gives an inspiring speech to the newsroom, but the original script had a screenwriter's version. On the day of shooting, Strobel said to Reiner that he should use Walcott's original words; Reiner had Walcott write down his exact speech, and Reiner then performed and filmed the scene.


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: The film had its world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival on September 30, 2017. Shortly after, Vertical Entertainment and DirecTV Cinema acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released through DirecTV on June 14, 2018, before beginning a limited release in 100 theaters on July 13, 2018.


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: "Shock and Awe" grossed $77,980 in the United States and Canada and $104,435 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $182,415, plus $2.6 million with home video sales.


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 30% based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 4.70/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Shock and Awe" has a worthy story to tell and some fine actors trying to bring it to life; unfortunately, the end results are still as derivative as they are dramatically inert." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: Writing for "Rolling Stone", David Fear gave the film 2/5 stars, saying, "It's an important story to remember right now, assuming you can remember anything after being beaten over the head with talking points for 90 minutes. But at its best, "Shock and Awe" still feels like it strains to be "Spotlight"-lite and comes up lacking. The title is a misnomer." Kerry Lengel of "The Arizona Republic" gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, writing, "It's trite and mechanistic in its attempts to build pathos while also making its arguments, from the opening scene featuring a soldier paralyzed by an IED to the absolute low point, a date between Marsden's reporter and his pretty next-door neighbor, played by Jessica Biel."


title: Shock and Awe (film)

text: Deborah Young of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "The reporting team at Knight Ridder Newspapers has been called 'the only ones who got it right' about Saddam Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction that sparked the 2003 Iraq war. Based on a true story, Rob Reiner's "Shock and Awe" gives much-deserved credit to their far-sighted (if generally unheeded) news coverage, but the message tends to melt into a paint-by-numbers screenplay that pushes too many genre buttons to be thoroughly exciting."


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: The Picture of Dorian Gray is a 1945 American horror-drama film based on Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel of the same name. Released in June 1945 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film was directed by Albert Lewin, and stars George Sanders as Lord Henry Wotton and Hurd Hatfield as Dorian Gray. Shot primarily in black-and-white, the film features four colour inserts in three-strip Technicolor of Dorian's portrait; these are a special effect, the first two inserts picturing a youthful Dorian and the second two a degenerate one.


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: While posing for a painting by his friend Basil Hallward, handsome young aristocrat Dorian Gray meets Hallward's friend Lord Henry Wotton. Wotton persuades Gray the only worthwhile life is dedicated to pleasure, because "what the gods give they quickly take away." Contemplating this, Gray wishes his portrait could age instead of him. He makes this wish in the presence of an Egyptian cat statue with supposed magical powers.


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: After callously breaking off his engagement to tavern singer Sibyl Vane, Gray finds the portrait has begun to change and wonders if his wish may have come true. He has the portrait locked away in his old schoolroom and disguises its location by firing servants who moved the painting, while Gray becomes more dedicated to a sinful and heartless life.


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: Years later, Dorian is 40 but still looks 22. London society is awestruck at his unchanging appearance. The portrait has remained locked away, with Gray holding the only key. Over the years, the portrait of the young, handsome, Dorian Gray has warped into a hideous, demon-like creature reflecting his many sins. When Hallward sees his painting, Gray murders his friend and seals his body in the school room next to the portrait, then blackmails his friend, Allen Campbell, to dispose of Hallward's body. Campbell, distraught at his role in destroying Hallward's corpse, commits suicide.


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: Gray starts a romance with Hallward's niece, Gladys. James Vane, Sibyl's brother, follows Gray to his country estate to achieve revenge for Sibyl's death and is shot by accident during a hunting party.


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: Gray despairs at his impact on others and realises he can spare Gladys from misfortune by leaving her. After sending Gladys a letter breaking their engagement, Gray confronts his portrait and sees a subtle improvement. He stabs the portrait in the heart, seeking to end the spell, but cries out as if he has also been stabbed. His friends, realizing what has happened, burst into the schoolroom to discover Gray dead next to the portrait, his deformed body now reflecting his sins in physical form. The portrait, by contrast, once more shows Dorian Gray as a young, innocent man.


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: Changes to the original include the romance between Gladys and David and “some censorship restrictions that kept Dorian's unspeakable acts offscreen.” In the book, the picture alters in response to Dorian's "good deed", but the alteration is ugly, reflecting his cynicism and self-serving motivation. He stabs the painting to destroy his conscience and eliminate the evidence. In the film, he reads a faint change in the painting as a sign of hope, yet stabs the painting as if he can undo his past. As he is transformed off-screen, he prays for forgiveness.


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: Two paintings of the character Dorian Gray were used in the film. The painting titled "Picture of Dorian Gray" used at the end of the film was painted on commission during the making of the film in 1943-1944 by Ivan Le Lorraine Albright, an American artist who was well known as a painter of the macabre. Created specifically for use in the film, it is now part of the art collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Albright painted and altered the picture while the movie was being made to allow it to represent the development of Dorian's character.


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: The portrait of Dorian Gray seen in the beginning of the film was painted by Henrique Medina, and is titled "Portrait of Hurd Hatfield as Dorian Gray". It was originally sold at an MGM auction in 1970 when the contents of the studio were sold at a series of auctions lasting several months. It was then sold in a Butterfield and Butterfield Entertainment Memorabilia auction in 1997 for $17,250, and in 2015 it was sold at Christie's, New York, for $149,000 and is believed to be in a private collection.


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: The first piano piece played by Dorian to Sibyl is Frédéric Chopin's "Prelude No 24 in D minor". Played later in the Blue Gate Field house is Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata".


title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)

text: According to MGM records, the film earned $1,399,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1,576,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $26,000.


title: Kurmanji

text: Kurmanji (, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northern dialect of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the Caucasus and Khorasan regions. It is the most widely spoken form of Kurdish.


title: Kurmanji

text: The earliest textual record of Kurmanji Kurdish dates back to approximately the 16th century and many prominent Kurdish poets like Ehmedê Xanî (1650–1707) wrote in this dialect. Kurmanji Kurdish is also the common and ceremonial dialect of Yazidis. Their sacred book "Mishefa Reş" and all prayers are written and spoken in Kurmanji.


title: Kurmanji

text: Phonological features in Kurmanji include the distinction between aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops and the presence of facultative phonemes. For example, Kurmanji Kurdish distinguishes between aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops, which can be aspirated in all positions. Thus contrasts with , with , with , and the affricate with .


title: Kurmanji

text: Kurmanji forms a dialect continuum of great variability. Loosely, six subdialect areas can be distinguished:


title: Kurmanji

text: Among some Yazidis, the glossonym Ezdîkî is used for Kurmanji to differentiate themselves from Kurds. While Ezdîkî is no different from Kurmanji, some attempt to prove that Ezdîkî is an independent language, including claims that it is a Semitic language. This has been criticized as not being based on scientific evidence and lacking scientific consensus.


title: Kurmanji

text: On January 25, 2002, Armenia ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and placed Kurdish under state protection. However, because of the divided Yazidi community in Armenia and after strong criticism from parts of the community, the authorities chose to ratify the charter by mentioning both "Kurdish" and "Yezidi" as two separate languages. This resulted in the term Êzdîkî being used by some researchers when delving into the question of minority languages in Armenia, since most Kurdish-speakers in Armenia are Yazidis. As a consequence of this move, Armenian universities offer language courses in both Kurmanji and Êzdîkî as two different dialects.


title: Kurmanji

text: During the end of the Ottoman era, Assyrians in Tur Abdin shifted from speaking their traditional Turoyo language to either Kurmanji or Arabic. Kurdophone Armenians also exist and there were prior to the Armenian genocide around 110 Kurmanji-speaking Armenian villages in Beşiri and Silvan.


title: Alisan Porter

text: Alisan Leigh Porter (born June 20, 1981) is an American pop, rock & country singer, actress, and dancer. As a child, Porter made acting appearances in "Parenthood", "Stella" and "I Love You to Death". Her breakout role came in 1991, when she played the lead in the film "Curly Sue" opposite Jim Belushi.


title: Alisan Porter

text: As an adult, Porter pursued roles in musical theatre, including a run in "" and as an original cast member of the Broadway revival of "A Chorus Line". A solo album followed in 2009. In 2016, she auditioned for NBC's "The Voice", earning a spot on Team Christina. In May of that same year, Porter was named the winner of season 10.


title: Alisan Porter

text: Born to Jewish parents in Worcester, Massachusetts, Porter is the great-granddaughter of prominent Worcester rabbi Joseph Klein. Her grandmother ran the Charlotte Klein Dance Center. Porter's father, Ric Porter, was co-founder, lead singer, and songwriter of the Worcester-based band Zonkaraz. Her mother, Laura Klein, also taught dance, coaching Diane and Elaine Klimaszewski, who appeared on "Star Search" in 1987 in the junior dance category before they became known as the Coors Light Twins. While in Los Angeles for the twins' appearance on "Star Search", the show's producer heard Porter singing in the hotel lobby and booked her to appear on the next episode. Porter has been singing and performing since age three; at age five, she became the youngest "Star Search" participant ever to win the competition. That same year, she also appeared on Pee Wee's Playhouse as one of the playhouse gang in Season 2.


title: Alisan Porter

text: Porter acted in several films as a child; she became known for playing the title role in the 1991 movie "Curly Sue" opposite Jim Belushi. On television, she played the youngest daughter of Lynn Redgrave on the short-lived ABC sitcom "Chicken Soup" in 1989. The following year, she was slated to be a new regular cast member on "Perfect Strangers", but her character was dropped after only one episode.


title: Alisan Porter

text: Porter continued acting at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut, where she joined a theater group and participated in various shows. While a freshman, Porter portrayed Anita in "West Side Story", and as a senior played the lead in "Cinderella". After Porter won "The Voice" in 2016, her former high school drama teacher said she was not surprised by the result. "She blew everybody away" with her performance in "West Side Story", and "really seemed to get the best out of everybody else. Her energy rubbed off on everybody. She inspired others."


title: Alisan Porter

text: When she was 18 years old, Porter moved to New York to audition for Broadway shows. She was cast as Urleen in the show "Footloose". Following her move to Los Angeles, Porter starred as Miriam in "" at the Kodak Theatre alongside Val Kilmer, Adam Lambert and Broadway star Lauren Kennedy. "Variety" rated her performance of the song "Light of a New Day" as "superb".


title: Alisan Porter

text: In 2003, the band The Raz was formed, with Porter as the vocalist and main songwriter. The Raz split up in 2004. In March 2005, she announced the birth of her new band, The Alisan Porter Project. During 2006, she performed in the revival of "A Chorus Line" as Bebe Benzenheimer at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in New York City. On October 9, 2009, her independent debut album "Alisan Porter" was released.


title: Alisan Porter

text: Porter sang the National Anthem at the "2016 A Capitol Fourth" special on July 3 at the U.S. Capitol West Lawn in Washington, D.C. The special was broadcast on PBS. She also sang the anthem prior to the nationally televised Sunday Night Football game in Oakland, CA on November 6, 2016.


title: Alisan Porter

text: In 2017, Porter, alongside Matt McAndrew, Mary Sarah, Chris Mann, Matthew Schuler, Michael Sanchez and Chloe Kohanski headlined the new Las Vegas show called The Voice: Neon Dreams.


title: Alisan Porter

text: On February 29, 2016, she became a contestant on season 10 of "The Voice" and sang "Blue Bayou" for her blind audition performance. All four coachesChristina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, and Pharrell Williamsturned their chairs for her and she chose Aguilera as her coach. In the battle rounds, Porter was up against Lacy Mandigo with the song "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & the Papas as a rock version. In the knockout rounds, Porter beat Daniel Passino. Porter went on to sing through the live shows, advancing via public vote every week up to the finals, where she performed her original song "Down That Road". On May 24, 2016, Porter was crowned the season 10 winner of "The Voice". She also helped make "The Voice US" history as the first artist to win the show with a female coach, giving Aguilera her first win as a coach.


title: Alisan Porter

text: Porter has openly discussed her battles with alcoholism and drug addiction. She says she has been sober since October 28, 2007.


title: Alisan Porter

text: Since December 2008, Porter is a contributing columnist for "movmnt" magazine. Porter created a closed Facebook page for mothers called Lil' Mamas and then, in 2012, a related blog website of the same name that she runs with her business partner, Celia Behar.


title: Alisan Porter

text: On March 10, 2012, Porter married Brian Autenrieth, a fruit exporter and former child soap opera actor, in California. The couple have two children: son Mason Blaise (b. July 17, 2012) and daughter Aria Sage Autenrieth (b. May 8, 2014). On December 18, 2017, Porter announced on Twitter that the couple had separated in March. She said, "In a sad and honest note Brian and I ended our relationship in March. We remain close friends and are committed to always doing our best for our amazing kids."


title: Alisan Porter

text: Porter appears on the 2006 Revival Cast Recording of A Chorus Line, portraying Bebe Benzenheimer, whom she also portrayed on Broadway.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Bethel Church is an American non-denominational neo-charismatic megachurch in Redding, California with over 11,000 members. The church was established in 1952, and is currently led by Bill Johnson. Bethel has its own music labels, Bethel Music and Jesus Culture ministries, which have gained popularity for contemporary worship music. The church runs the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry with over 2,000 students annually. Senior church leaders have been supporters of socially conservative politics.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Bethel Church focuses on miracles. It teaches that all miracles described in the Bible can be performed by believers today and happen regularly, including faith healing of everything from curing cancer to regrowing limbs, raising the dead, speaking in tongues, casting out demons and prophecy. Services may have congregants laughing uncontrollably, lying on the floor, shaking, staggering, screaming, and dancing, which they teach are signs of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Leaders claim to have witnessed angels appearing and "balls of electricity" that throw people into the air.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: One of the most well-known phenomena is a cloud of what is claimed to be gold dust or gold glitter that has been seen falling from the roof of the auditorium. The church has uploaded videos to its YouTube channel, calling it a "glory cloud".


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Many, like Gary Hal Graff, feel that the Bethel-produced book "The Physics of Heaven" is out of line with the teachings of scripture. One Bethel leader (Kris Vallotton) says it is "a foretaste of things to come". The book also states, "It wasn't that I wanted to become a New Ager. I just wanted to find out if maybe they had discovered some truths the churches hadn't."


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Senior pastor Bill Johnson is referred to as an apostle by his followers. Some, including sociology professor Brad Christerson at Biola University and Richard Flory, a sociologist at the University of Southern California, have identified the church and Johnson as part of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), or Independent Network Charismatic Christianity. The NAR is an evangelical movement that seeks to take over "seven mountains of culture", including business, government, and media, to prompt the return of Jesus. Bill Johnson himself, however, said in an interview with "Christianity Today" that the church has no official ties with the movement, and that he is "not completely clear on what it is."


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Robert Doherty began the church in 1952, and the congregation was an affiliate of the Assemblies of God beginning in 1954.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In 1984, Raymond Larson became the senior pastor, and during his 11-year tenure, Bethel Church grew to over 2200 members. This dramatic growth led to the purchase and construction of a new facility with more than of space in the new church building.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: One year prior to joining Bethel in 1995, Johnson visited the revival meetings of the Toronto Blessing where he made the promise to God that he would make "the outpouring of the Holy Spirit" the sole purpose of his existence, a focus which he brought to Bethel Church. The church lost 1,000 members over Johnson's vision after he joined, but has since seen considerable growth.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In February 1996, the congregation invited Bill Johnson from Weaverville, California, to lead the church. Johnson, the son of former pastor Earl Johnson, only had one stipulation before he was voted in: that the message would always be about revival, with an emphasis on God's supernatural presence, which the leadership unanimously approved.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In November 2005, the membership of Bethel Church voted unanimously to withdraw the church's affiliation with the Assemblies of God, and become a non-denominational church. However, the Assemblies of God's bylaws required Bethel to invite the leadership of the Northern California-Nevada District to speak to the congregation.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: On January 15, 2006, Bethel's membership voted to rescind the withdrawal and invited the district leadership to Redding. The district leadership met with the congregation on January 17, but the result was a near-unanimous vote to withdraw. In a letter, Johnson points out that this action was "...not a reaction to conflict but a response to a call... we feel called to create a network that helps other networks thrive – to be one of many ongoing catalysts in this continuing revival. Our call feels unique enough theologically and practically from the call on the Assemblies of God that this change is appropriate."


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In 2015, Bethel Church issued a press release regarding the Colorado Springs Tragedy in which 3 people including the shooter died. The shooter's father is Thomas Harpham who attended Bethel Church at the time.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Bethel Church gained national press coverage in December 2019 over a campaign to pray for the resurrection of a worship leader's deceased two-year-old daughter. The mother, Kalley Heiligenthal, a recording artist with Bethel Music and worship leader at the church, posted to Instagram asking for her large social media following to pray that her daughter Olive Alayne would be raised from the dead. This spawned a global hashtag with thousands of posts. The church hosted a prayer service for the cause, where the young adult pastor at Bethel led a prayer. In a public statement, the church said that physical resurrection was possible in modern times, and in a video addressing critics, senior pastor Bill Johnson said that there was a biblical precedent for this belief, and that Jesus commanded his disciples to raise the dead. The prayer efforts concluded six days after the passing, when the church put out a press release that the family would transition towards a memorial service. During the prayer efforts, a GoFundMe page was set up that raised over $74,500 by January 2020. Two researchers, Arlene Sánchez-Walsh, professor of religious studies at Azusa Pacific University, and Richard Flory, senior director of research at the University of Southern California, were quoted saying that these events were more common among African charismatics and Pentecostals, than their American counterparts, with Sánchez-Walsh saying she was surprised by it.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, Bethel Church closed the healing rooms and moved healing operations of 700 people online. The church also suspended faith healings at hospitals. The church's official position was to follow the recommendations of health officials, and that "wisdom, modern medicine, and faith are meant to work together", but the church simultaneously upheld belief in God's ability to heal supernaturally. Some in the church community held differing views. Kevin Dedmon, a longtime teacher of the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry stated that "there is no way this thing can live in the presence of God", and "we declare no fear and we declare healing in Jesus' name." Later in the year, Chuck Parry, the director of Bethel's healing rooms claimed that numerous people were healed from COVID-19 through the church's remote Zoom calls, alongside other claimed miracles, such as healing cancer, blindness, and waking people up from comas. By October 2020, Shasta County had the highest COVID-19 case rate in California and Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding asked its entire 1,600-person student body to self-quarantine as the number of coronavirus cases among students and staff rose to 137 since classes started a month previously.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In October 2020, Bethel's senior leader Beni Johnson was criticized after posting a video in which she mocked wearing masks while shopping on the California coast, saying "If you'll do the scientific research, these masks are worthless and they're people's security blankets. We won't be shopping and giving them any money because you have to wear a stupid freaking mask that doesn't work". When asked about the video, Shasta Community Health Center CEO Dean Germano said it was disconcerting to see leaders disavowing masks. Beni Johnson later apologized for "the insensitivity and making light of this pandemic" while maintaining that she still questions the importance of a mask, but that she wears one when the situation requires it.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Bethel Church has set up ministries in conjunction to the needs of its growing congregation within Redding, California. These ministries span a range of different sections for public service, internal structure, and even products and brands. One of the more well known of these ministries is Bethel Music due to the popularity of its music domestically and worldwide.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In the fall of 1998, Bethel Church began Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, under the direction of Kris Vallotton, Bethel's senior associate pastor. The school trains its students in the supernatural and miracles, such as faith healing, in order that they may become revivalists. The normal program is one academic year and students have the opportunity to return for a second and third year. Approximately 15% of the students stay for the full three years. The school was founded with 36 students, and has grown to more than 2,400 students from over 70 countries in 2019. They are an unaccredited program and do not offer a degree or credits but a certificate. The school has gotten the nickname "Christian Hogwarts" among students because of its focus on the supernatural.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: BSSM now has more than 10,000 alumni. In 2016–17, an extensive survey on alumni was carried out by Eido Research by alumni of the program. From a representative sample from all years of graduation since 1999, the survey found that 97% of graduates are still "confident in their faith", and that 90% attend a church service at least monthly. Likewise, graduates reported seeing at least 35,000 salvations since 1999, and 50,000 physical healings over the previous year. The report also showed that BSSM graduates have a divorce rate that is four times lower than the American Christian average.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: The school's claims of prophetic and miraculous abilities came under scrutiny when the predicted resurrection of "Baby Olive," the daughter of their worship leader, did not come to pass, and the prediction that Donald Trump would win reelection and be in office eight straight years did not occur. The school also made questionable claims that the gold dust from the golden street in Heaven, the shekinah glory of God, and angel feathers, appear in services.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: As a part of the student's education, they get assignments, such as to find strangers in Redding to heal. News articles report that students seek out people in wheelchairs and crutches to pray for in grocery stores and parking lots. Reportedly, the students are banned from prophesying to tourists around the Sundial Bridge after incidents and they have similarly been kicked out of local stores. Another regular practice is "treasure hunts", where they believe God gives them clues that match people they are to find and attempt to heal or prophesy to.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In 2008 a man fell down a cliff in Redding after drinking with a group at the top. The two others that were with him, including one student at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, believed he was dead and tried to find him for six hours in order to raise him back to life, rather than calling 9-1-1. The man survived, but was paralyzed from the fall, and later unsuccessfully sued the student in the group. The incident is often brought up as a criticism of the church's teachings, which includes that believers may raise people from the dead with prayer.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: The school garnered criticism for a practice among some students termed "grave soaking" or "grave sucking", where they would lie on the graves of deceased revivalists in the belief that they would absorb the deceased's anointing from God. The school would visit such graves for inspiration and prayer, and there the practice developed among students from an interpretation of the Biblical story of the prophet Elisha. In the Bible, a dead man was put in the grave of Elisha, and when the man's corpse touched the dead bones of Elisha, he was revived. This was interpreted to mean that the same power, or anointing, laid in the graves of later revivalists, and thus the students sought it by laying on their graves. The leadership of the church never endorsed the practice, but did not immediately shut it down. In an interview, one of its leaders, Banning Liebscher, stated that Bill Johnson and the rest of the leadership responded in this way because Johnson "doesn't want to shut down those that are really seeking and those that are really trying to press in for more of God". At the same time, Liebscher said it was possible that revivalist's graves had the same anointing, but called the practice "weird". He further stated that he believed the criticism the church got over this, and other practices such as students attempting to walk through walls, actually stemmed from disagreements on charismatic theology.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Some critics allege that Bethel leaders, including senior pastor Beni Johnson, have in fact practiced and promoted grave soaking. Beni Johnson posted photos to Twitter and Instagram of herself laying atop of or hugging the graves of Christians such as C.S. Lewis. The posts were later removed. Among these critics are The Gospel Coalition and Baptist apologetics blog Pulpit & Pen.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Bethel Music is an American record label and publishing company associated with Bethel Church, led by Bill Johnson's son Brian Johnson. Its music was among the most played contemporary worship music in American churches in 2019 and its albums have reached the "Billboard" 200 multiple times. Bethel Music has many songs with tens of millions of views on YouTube, and two with over 100 million views as of 2019. The live performances of its songs are characterized by extended duration with much repetition and emotion.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Bethel Church is responsible for the formation of the Jesus Culture youth outreach ministry. Jesus Culture Ministry hosts conferences and operates a record label, Jesus Culture Music, to share its message and spread worship. They remain committed to Bethel Church, but were sent out by Bethel in 2012 to plant a church in Sacramento, California.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: The CHANGED Movement was started by Bethel pastors Elizabeth Woning and Ken Williams in 2019 for people who "once identified as LGBTQ+ and through encounters with the love of Jesus, have experienced His freedom in their lives" and is led by the Equipped to Love ministry at Bethel. Both Woning and Williams used to identify as homosexual. Woning claims she changed after 18 months when "the Lord was able to displace my sense of belonging as a lesbian with my sense of belonging as a daughter of God". Williams credits his change to undergoing five years of weekly therapy which he claims resolved his same-sex attraction as well as addiction to masturbation and pornography.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Bethel does not financially support the CHANGED Movement but does pay the salaries of the pastors, promote it, and house them in the offices of another one of Bethel's ministries. In August 2019, they received attention when Bethel promoted CHANGED through a series of Instagram posts, which was criticized by The Trevor Project and Q Christian Fellowship, among others. As a response to this criticism, Bethel Church said that "The message of CHANGED has never been ‘All Must Change’" and "For those of you who feel fulfilled and happy as you are, we love you!"


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: CHANGED uses the term "once gay", and some have noted similarities with the ex-gay movement. CHANGED's slogan is "Changed Is Possible", whereas the now-defunct Exodus International had the slogan "Change is possible". The Bethel pastors behind CHANGED do not use the term "conversion therapy", although they have spoken against legislation that would restrict or ban conversion therapy, such as the Equality Act.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In June 2021, CHANGED participated in Freedom March in Washington DC, an event for "formerly LGBT-identifying people who share testimonies of how Jesus transformed their lives" which was attended by around 200 people. On that occasion CHANGED Movement spoke with congressional staffers about their concerns with the pending legislation (Equality Act).


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Redding is a small city in northern California with about 90,000 residents. Bethel has grown to over 10 percent of the Redding population and with this growth, the church's influence in the city has increased, with a mixed reception. The church has brought in many young people for the school that clean the streets and do pro bono work. Many of the students have stayed afterwards and some have started businesses. When the civic auditorium was about to close for financial reasons in 2011, the church started leasing it and put in $1 million for repairs, and now use it for the church's Supernatural school on weekdays, while still letting it host the usual events on weekends. Bethel donated $500,000 to the city of Redding's police in April 2017, and later led a campaign to raise $740,000 to fund the salary of four police officers. In 2018, a direct flight from Redding to Los Angeles was opened, and Bethel Church used its business relationship with the airline as leverage and committed $450,000 to a revenue guarantee fund needed to operate the line.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: However, some Redding residents are worried by the influence Bethel church has on the city. One of their main worries is the belief held by Bethel, the Seven Mountains Mandate, that Christians must influence seven "mountains", including government, media, business and education, in order for Jesus to return to earth. One such alleged instance of influence was the donation to the police force. The offer to donate caused controversy as some in the community thought the church was trying to pay off the city for future building permits, an assertion Pastor Kris Vallotton refuted at a city council meeting. The city ultimately voted to receive the donation. Seven months after receiving the donation, Redding City Council unanimously approved a $96 million new Bethel campus, despite dozens of formally submitted citizen concerns. The city councilperson who is a member of Bethel recused herself from voting. Another instance was when they advertised a seminar for public and private school teachers that mentioned "God wants to come to your school with His presence, His peace and His strategies". A group connected to the church later opened a public charter school, which, according to a teacher job ad, has a "Kingdom culture and all Bethel-connected board of directors and principal".


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In 2016, senior pastor Bill Johnson outlined why he voted for Donald Trump in a Facebook post, where he criticized abortion, open borders, the welfare system, same-sex marriage, socialism, political correctness, and globalization, all as contrary to God's will. His wife and senior pastor, Beni Johnson, has also supported Trump.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: The church continued to be supportive of Trump during his presidency. Bethel Music leaders Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, and Sean Feucht were among the worship leaders who visited Trump in the Oval Office, where they prayed for him and sang worship music.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: During the impeachment process of Trump, senior associate leader Kris Vallotton prophesied during a sermon, 10 days before the impeachment started, that God would end the process, stating "the Lord is gonna step into the impeachment process. I mean I know it's gonna happen". He went on to say that he believed God would give Trump another term. But according to Vallotton, this was "not about politics", rather it was a prophetic word. He claimed to have prophesied that Obama would win and that he on a biblical basis loved and prayed for Obama as he said Christians are called to do for their leaders.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: Bethel leaders Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, and Kris Vallotton were among the signers of the letter from evangelical leaders critical of "Christianity Today's" editorial that called for Trump to be removed from office.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In 2018, the church publicly opposed three bills in the California state legislature that would have restricted conversion therapy. The church, whose position is that "same-sex sexual behavior is unhealthful", believed the bills would restrict their ministry. Their opposition included a released statement, letters to legislators and encouragement of congregants to contact legislators through a sermon titled "What Would Jesus Do in a PC World?" by Kris Vallotton and tweets, also by Vallotton, that specifically addressed those that had "come out of homosexuality". Vallotton later retracted his sermon, but stood by his opposition.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In April 2021 Bethel's senior associate leader - Kris Vallotton - spoke against the Equality Act with Elizabeth Woning, the co-founder of the CHANGED Movement, encouraging people to contact their senators and voice their opposition to the bill.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: In September 2019, Bethel worship leader Sean Feucht announced he was running for Congress as a Republican on a socially conservative platform. His announcement video featured a Bethel Music song with the lyrics "We won't stop singing until the whole world looks like heaven". He placed third in the March 3, 2020, non-partisan primary behind Democrat John Garamendi and Republican Tamika Hamilton.


title: Bethel Church (Redding, California)

text: There have been many articles written about Bethel and its ministry, including in "Christianity Today", Buzzfeed News, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, the "Redding Record Searchlight", and "Charisma" magazine. The church and Bill Johnson have been featured in video segments by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The Kaprun disaster was a fire that occurred in an ascending train in the tunnel of the Gletscherbahn Kaprun2 funicular in Kaprun, Austria, on 11 November 2000. The disaster killed 155 people (150 on the ascending train, two on the descending train and three in the mountain station). There were 12 survivors. Most of the victims were skiers on their way to the Kitzsteinhorn glaciers. The fire was traced to an electric fan heater that overheated and caught fire, severing a number of plastic pipes carrying flammable hydraulic fluid.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The Gletscherbahn Kaprun 2 was a funicular railway running from Kaprun to the Kitzsteinhorn, opened in 1974. In 1993, it was modernized, giving the trains a sleek, futuristic look, also making them the pride of Austria's ski resorts. This railway had the unusual track gauge of and a length of , with of track inside a tunnel. The train climbed and descended the tunnel at , inclined at 30 degrees (for a grade of about 58%). There were two carriages on a single track, with a section allowing them to pass each other halfway. One carried passengers up the mountain while its twin simultaneously descended. The tunnel terminated at the main reception centre, called the Alpincenter, where a powerful motorized winch system pulled the wagons. There were neither engines, fuel tanks, nor drivers, only low-voltage electrical systems, hydraulic tanks used for the brake system and an attendant who operated the hydraulic doors.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Each train had four passenger compartments and a cab at front and rear for the attendant, who switched back and forth as they travelled up and down. It could carry up to 180 passengers.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: On 11 November 2000, 161 passengers and one conductor boarded the funicular train for an early morning trip to the slopes. Before the passenger train left the lower terminus shortly after 9:00a.m., the electric fan heater in the unattended cabin at the lower end of the train caught fire, officially due to a design flaw that caused the unit to overheat. The resulting fire severed plastic pipes carrying flammable hydraulic fluid from the brake system, fueling the fire rapidly whilst resulting in the loss of fluid pressure which caused the train to halt unexpectedly into the tunnel (this was a standard safety feature). Several minutes later, the train conductor, who was in the control cabin at the upper end of the train (as the train was ascending), realized that a fire had broken out, reported it to the control centre, and attempted to open the hydraulically-operated doors, but the system pressure loss prevented them from operating. The train conductor then lost contact with the control centre, because the fire had burned through a 16kV power cable running alongside the length of the track, causing a total blackout throughout the entire ski resort.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The passengers, by this stage aware of the fire and unable to exit through the doors, attempted to break the shatter-resistant acrylic windows in order to escape. Twelve people from the rear of the train, who successfully broke a window with a ski pole, followed the advice of another escapee who had been a volunteer firefighter for 20 years, and escaped downwards past the fire and below the smoke, to safety.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Many of the still-trapped occupants had by now lost consciousness due to toxic fumes. Eventually, the conductor managed to unlock the doors manually, with those passengers still conscious spilling out into the tunnel and fleeing upwards and away from the fire. The tunnel acted like a giant chimney, sucking oxygen in from the bottom and rapidly sent the poisonous smoke, heat and the fire itself billowing upwards. All the passengers ascending on foot, as well as the train conductor, were asphyxiated by the smoke and then burned by the raging fire.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The toxic smoke quickly reached the halted second train killing the conductor and sole passenger heading downward, before arriving at the Alpine Centre located at the top end of the track away. Two employees of the Alpine Centre who first noticed the smoke, alerted employees and customers before escaping through an emergency exit, leaving the doors open and increasing the tunnel's chimney effect through increased air flow, further intensifying the fire. The centre filled with smoke quickly and all but four people escaped from the centre. Firefighters arriving at the centre managed to save one of the four, while the other three died of asphyxiation.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: In the subsequent criminal trial in Salzburg, 16 accused were charged, including the management of Gletscherbahnen Kaprun AG.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The indictment was based on § 170 StGB, causing a conflagration through negligence and § 177 StGB, negligent public risk. Below the 16 accused persons are listed and the related reasons for their acquittals including quotations from the judgment itself as well as some votes against the judgement which came from German prosecution some years after the trial in Austria:


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Three employees of Gletscherbahnen Kaprun AG were accused. Specifically the technical director, the main manager and the manager. According to the indictment, when the wagon bodies were rebuilt in 1993/94 they had failed to ensure their safe construction and equipment in accordance with the state of the art. The acquittal was based, among other things, on the legal standards of the time, which related to the fire protection safety standards for funicular railways. In relation to these Austrian legal norms, the judgment stated: "A review of the same showed that the relevant norms did not exist here and therefore claims (...) could not be derived from this legal material". It was noted: "The fire trigger was a design, production and material defect in the fan heater housing and no dirt residues or oil leaks".


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Years later, the German public prosecutor's office in Heilbronn contradicted this judgement in their own investigation report, in which it was stated that the space heater had no design errors. Instead, it had been modified to be illegally installed into the funicular against its intended use as a home appliance. Six years after the fire in Kaprun, the German authority was able to prove both the presence of dirt and hydraulic oil in the identical fan heater from the undamaged second train. This finding of evidence was based not only on material examinations but also on original photos from the Austrian authority. In the earlier Salzburg trial the fan heater had not been examined inside on the explicit instructions of the judge at the time.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Two managing directors of the Austrian Swoboda Karosserie- und Stahlbau GesmbH (Carvatech since 2005) were accused, whose employees disassembled simple household fan heaters of the Fakir Hobby TLB brand instead of suitable Domo fan heaters and installed them in an improper in-house design in the valley-side drivers' cabs. According to the acquittal, the managing directors themselves were not at fault, because they had given their purchasing department clear instructions to purchase a device that was "officially approved". In this case specifically a Domo fan heater, the same one that the Swoboda company had already legally built into the Salzburg fortress funicular railway back then. When ordering, one of the managing directors enclosed the associated instructions for use, so that the purchasing department would order the right device again. After the staff of the Swoboda purchasing department discovered that Domo fan heaters were not available at the time, they ordered simple devices for private households as an alternative, namely Fakir Hobby TLB fan heaters. According to the acquittal, the Swoboda management itself had no knowledge that other unsuitable devices had been purchased by the purchasing staff. According to the judgment, a foreman of the Swoboda company, who picked up the devices ordered from the Höller-Eisen company in Gmunden, did not notice that the purchasing department had actually purchased unsuitable devices and handed them over for installation trusting that the order was correct. This is also why the electrical workshop of the Swoboda company later handed over manuals for the Domo fan heater to the Gletscherbahnen Kaprun AG. These manuals for the correct Domo devices were included in advance with the documents for the glacier railways and also for the Siemens company, which later also participated in the construction of the train. The responsible personnel at Swoboda assumed from the outset that the correct equipment would be installed in the train at the time of delivery. Even Gletscherbahnen Kaprun AG had correctly requested "4 fan heaters like Salzburg fortress railway" from Swoboda in their order, that is, approved and suitable devices. In the written judgment regarding the now wrongly installed fan heater, it was stated that "the radiator was provided with all the appropriate security stickers". "The evidence procedure also revealed that the wrong operating instructions were given to Gletscherbahnen Kaprun AG, namely the manual of a Domo fan heater." And "(...) that Siemens AG (...) also had a data sheet about the Domo fan heater" However, the fact that the user manual of the Fakir devices generally expressly referred to the fact that the device should not be opened for safety reasons and that security stickers etc. would become invalid was not mentioned in the judgment. The fact that the fan heater was opened by Swoboda, rebuilt and built into the lift in two separate parts was not mentioned in the judgment. The fact that the overheating protection was bypassed was also concealed. The judge Seiss was confronted with this fact by the TV station ATV in 2020 and stated that he did not know anything about a possible conversion of the device, which is why it was not mentioned in the judgment. For the original order of the Domo fan heater by the management of Swoboda, the following is again noted in the judgement: "(...) as it was used in an officially approved manner in the Salzburg funicular railway at that time".


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The German VDE, which certified the fan heaters for domestic use, determined after the judgment that the modification of the heater by Swoboda invalidated its certification and that the method of installation was prohibited no matter what the fan was used for.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Three employees of the German Mannesmann-Rexroth AG (Bosch Rexroth AG since 2001) were accused. They installed flammable oil-carrying hydraulic lines in both trains directly behind and above the positions of the valley side heaters. Although published images from Austrian authority show hydraulic oil in the radiant heater of the "glacier dragon" train that has been preserved, the opposite was stated in the judgment. In the photos there would only be red-colored condensation, caused by a reflection. The discovery of the hydraulic oil was officially withdrawn in court by two people who were explicitly interviewed, but was confirmed by one of the two witnesses after the trial, as well as by the dismissed chief assessor Anton Muhr, who still rejects the view of the court. Contrary to practice, the oil was not sampled in the first process. The verdict finally stated: "As already generally stated, the fire of November 11, 2000 was not a leak in the hydraulic system, no hydraulic oil leaked (...)". The three defendants of Mannesmann-Rexroth AG were acquitted on the following grounds: "It is expressly stated that when the cables were laid by the three accused hydraulic technicians, the fan heater was no longer installed. (...) It cannot be determined when it was reinstalled after the work was completed. (...) It can no longer be determined who removed these fan heaters before the piping work began."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: This means that in the judgment it is assumed that the technicians did not know that a fan heater would be installed near the pipes they laid and that the opposite, i.e. that the fitters were aware of it, could not be proven.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Three officials from the Ministry of Transport were accused, who had issued the railway operating license. These were again acquitted on the grounds that the Fakir fan heaters would have been suitable, since they would have valid security stickers, and that the danger of fire on funicular railways would not have been known: "Regarding the officials of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (...) With regard to the materials used, as well as the technology and safety devices and the fan heater, reference should be made to the statements already made (...) Even in the railroad building permit procedure, the authority had no indications, incidents or concerns that funicular railways could be dangerous in terms of fire protection (...)".


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Two inspectors from the TÜV were accused, who approved the train and did not complain about existing defects. These shortcomings mainly related to statements by the expert Anton Muhr. The latter criticized a timber shoring that was not registered with the TÜV, which was installed by employees of the Gletscherbahnen Kaprun AG in the desk near the fan heaters and was stuffed with rock wool. According to the expert Muhr, this rock wool was sucked in by the fan heaters. Here it is said in the acquittal: "(...) that it was not possible to determine when the wood shoring was sealed with the rock wool in the evidence procedure, so it could not be said that at the time of the inspection by the TÜV employees the wool would already have existed. (...) The court assumes that (...) concerning the time of installation (...) the installation was made before the inspection done by the TÜV. (...) a conspicuity of the timber shoring was not given (...) "and further it says" that the timber shoring has no actual connection with the development or spread of fire. "In relation to the hydraulic lines on the rear wall of the fan heater it was said: "With regard to the laying of the hydraulic lines on the rear wall of the fan heater, it is (...) assumed that the hydraulic system (...) is a complex assembly, so that (...) this system was not up for a review at this time."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Two technicians and a builder who were involved in the installation of a fire door at the exit station of the mountain station were accused. After successful closure at the moment of the power failure at the mountain station, an attempt was made to manually open the door by the operations manager who did not close it afterwards, allowing smoke to enter from the tunnel, which cost the lives of several people in the mountain station. The three suspects were a technician who had installed the door, a test technician who had carried out the official inspection of the door, and a builder who had inspected the system again in September 2000. However, the persons mentioned were not found at fault, since the door worked as prescribed and in the event of a fire it should not have been opened by hand or left open afterwards. Quotation: "(...) whereby the question of single or multiple closing was seen by the court in such a way that closing the door once is sufficient, which (...) derives from the wording of the Ö-Norm (...)".


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Nearly one year after the fire, the official inquiry determined the cause was the failure, overheating and ignition of one of the fan heaters installed in the conductor's compartments that were not designed for use in a moving vehicle, much less a train. The ignition was caused when a design fault caused the unit to overheat, which in turn caused the plastic mount for the heating element to break off, causing the element to jam against its plastic casing and catch fire. A slow leak of highly flammable hydraulic oil was ignited by the burning, melting heater, which in turn melted the plastic fluid lines, further feeding the flames and also resulting in the hydraulic pressure loss which caused the train to stop and the doors to fail.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The structural flaws of the funicular trains, especially the lack of safety mechanisms, were found to have played a role in the tragedy. Each funicular unit had its fire extinguishers out of the passengers' reach in the sealed attendants' compartments. No smoke detectors were installed. There was no cellphone reception within the tunnels, which meant passengers had no method of contacting the attendant. Professor Joseph Nejez, a funicular train expert, said the designers throughout the years had a perception that a fire could not occur since no fire had occurred in a funicular cabin prior to the Kaprun disaster. The train complied with area safety codes, which did not address the systems installed on the train during its 1993 upgrade. The onboard electric power, hydraulic braking systems, and fan heaters intended for use in homes instead of trains increased the likelihood of fire.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The Salzburg judgment still causes incomprehension among many people today. "It cannot be, that 155 people die and nobody is to blame," is a common refrain. Lawyers on the other hand argue, that guilt presupposes that people acted wilfully or negligently. If they failed to see that their behaviour was wrong, they are not to blame. According to the verdict, no misconduct could be proven in the Salzburg trial, including negligence. Accordingly, the judge of the Salzburg proceedings justified the acquittal.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: After the main litigation in Austria, the Gletscherbahnen Kaprun AG sued Fakir, the manufacturer of the Hobby TLB fan heater in 2005. The technical manager, the former commercial manager, two former managers as well as the owner and the manager of the company F + P Thermoplast (later Simm Kunststofftechnik) were charged. The accusation was based on the suspicion "[...] of negligent homicide in 155 cases in connection with the fire disaster on November 11, 2000 at the Kitzsteinhorn in Kaprun/Austria". The Salzburg public prosecutor's office thereupon sent a request for legal assistance to the public prosecutor's office in Heilbronn, "because the company headquarters of the Fakir company is in Vaihingen / Enz", as the report says.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The results of the investigation by the Heilbronn public prosecutor finally concluded, that there was "no indication of any criminal behaviour on the part of the accused" at Fakir.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: One of the most important arguments put forward by the Salzburg court was that the device would be suitable in terms of test marks, since the funicular was not a vehicle in general according to Austrian law at that time. Also the device would have a test mark from the VDE (Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies) which is one of the largest technical and scientific associations in Europe. VDE embraces science, standardization work and product testing and certification under one roof. However, the German investigators stated that, regardless of the place of use, a completely new VDE approval would have been required simply by converting the device with modified switches, dismantling and assembling it without groove and tongue connected to a metal plate, etc. besides the now secondary argument, that the device was only tested and approved for use in living spaces.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The expert Anton Muhr already recognized that in addition to the VDE, approval from the TÜV would also have been necessary. Because there was a draught in the driver's cab on the valley side, a wooden sheeting was subsequently installed there by the operator, which was stuffed with rock wool. According to expert Muhr, this rock wool was sucked in by the fan heater. In 2010 he said in a broadcast on ORF regarding the conversion of the driver's desk: "That was the big problem. This subsequent heating conversion that should have been approved. One should have indicated, that a change had been made. The TÜV would have recognized this source of danger and stopped the whole thing."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The Salzburg Regional Court had expressly stated in the previous main trial that the device had the corresponding test marks from VDE and GS. The "Geprüfte Sicherheit" ("Tested Safety") or GS mark is a voluntary certification mark for technical equipment. It indicates that the equipment meets German and, if available, European safety requirements for such devices, and could only be installed in the railway because of this elementary fact, otherwise not. In the report, the investigators from the Heilbronn public prosecutor kept the Salzburg court's own words in mind "(...) that only a fan heater with a certification mark was allowed to be installed". A representative of the VDE stated expressly for the report: "The device had been structurally changed, so the approval of the mark expires." The report sums up: "The fan heater Hobby TLB should not have been installed in the funicular because the test marks that were assigned as a living space heater were no longer valid".


title: Kaprun disaster

text: A central argument, which was repeatedly used against the manufacturer Fakir, was that the four fan heaters, two of them for the driver's cabs on the valley side and two for the driver's cabs on the mountain side, had been delivered without manuals, which meant that nobody could have suspected that the devices were unsuitable. This claim was unequivocally refuted in the report.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The court in Salzburg only stated that the railway's designer or supplier, Swoboda, did not deliver any manuals to the Gletscherbahnen: "According to the court's findings, the Gletscherbahnen did not have any operating instructions for the Fakir Hobby TLB device." Swoboda had however, ordered the four fan heaters from a wholesaler named Hoeller. The state police department in Stuttgart expressly states that the delivery regulations of the devices from Fakir to dealers such as the Hoeller company are: "After the final assembly and technical inspection of the assembled devices, they are packed, provided with guarantee documents and operating instructions and finally sealed. This seal is intended to document to the future buyer that the packaging has not been opened since final assembly at the factory." It follows that Fakir had delivered these four individual devices to the wholesaler in their original packaging and sealed with manuals. There is no indication in the Salzburg judgment, that Fakir had delivered the devices without manuals. The Salzburg judgment was somewhat vague: "It could no longer be clarified whether these devices, the fan heaters, were originally packaged by the Hoeller company and sent to the Swoboda company and whether an operating manual was attached." This raises the suspicion that Swoboda disposed of the instructions after the devices were installed and did not hand them over to the Gletscherbahnen. In addition, the packaging bore a "red [...] label", stating that the devices were only suitable for "residential purposes". "This is clearly visible from three sides of the packaging," the investigators from the Heilbronn public prosecutor's office stated.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: In response to the argument that the responsibility lies only with the company Swoboda, the investigators of the Heilbronn public prosecutor hold the Gletscherbahn over: "[...] [T] he Gletscherbahn Kaprun AG could have ensured that the unsuitable device was replaced. None of this happened, although the Gletscherbahn had its own electricians, i.e. specialists." The devices in the driver's cabs on the mountain side however were at least replaced by the Gletscherbahnen in the spring of 2000, before the accident. It is noted that "the originally installed Hobby TLB fan heaters have been replaced by Stiebel Eltron fan heaters." Incidentally, the new devices on the mountain side were no longer built into the desk, but hung in their original state on the side facing the driver.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The regional court in Salzburg found in the trial that "the plastic housing of the fan heater started to burn, did not go out itself and continued to burn. This means that the properties of the fan heater specified in the VDE test reports with regard to fire safety were not met." The result of the investigators from the Heilbronn public prosecutor is different. They found that only with the first application for approval at the VDE in 1991 "the front part of the Hobby TLB housing would not have passed the needle flame test", but this was corrected by a different plastic: "On April 23, 1992 the flammability test was repeated and passed". The investigators of the Heilbronn public prosecutor's office state: "The fan heater Hobby TLB was therefore flame retardant according to the VDE guidelines and in this sense intrinsically safe." Furthermore, it is stated: "The German Plastics Institute has determined in its report, that the plastic used for the rear housing part corresponds to the highest fire protection class for such plastics."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Another important argument against Fakir was always that "The choice of the injection point for this fan heater [...] should have constituted a real and serious production fault, but also a design fault [...]", as the Salzburg judgment says. Regarding the expert Maurer, who claims to have found out this error, the investigators of the Heilbronn public prosecutor's office stated in advance: "During the investigations it emerged that the expert Maurer is not an expert on plastic issues. As such, he was never registered in the Austrian list of court experts."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: During the preparation of his report for the court, the expert Maurer discovered damage to the "mounting dome" of the fan heater from the counter-train, which he also photographed. Maurer noted, for example, that the fastening screws of the heater star had broken out of the rear wall of the fan.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Based on the condition of the device, the expert Maurer concluded that there must have been a design flaw which caused the damage to the device. What does not fit together with these observations made by the expert in 2002, however, is the fact that the damage to the device during the securing in Kaprun was not comprehensible for his colleagues. It is recorded as follows: "Dipl.-lng. (graduate engineer) Bind stated during his interrogation on October 4, 2006 in Vienna, that he had not noticed any damage that day, especially in the area of the mounting dome. He could not understand the pictures in the Maurer report." It is also stated: "According to the statements of the experts Muhr and Lange, who owned the fan heater in March 2001, the fan heater was intact. Mrs. StA (public prosecutor) Danninger-Soriat also confirmed that the fan heater was still undamaged at the on-site visit during the trial in Linz in July 2002."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Evidence of the undamaged fan heater was already available from the KTZ (forensics) in Vienna, but, as with expert Anton Muhr, they did not release the images as expert Maurer needed them. Almost two years had passed between the securing of the device and the inspection by the expert.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The expert Maurer assumed that he had received the fan heater from the train in its original condition, but this was not the case. The surveyor Geishofer, like many other investigators and other surveyors, had the fan heater temporarily in their possession. The device was badly affected by this change of ownership. The expert Geishofer found, among other things, with regard to the often-examined device from the train: "The rotary knobs - on and off switch, temperature regulator - were missing" and further "the motorized heating element unit was loose in the housing." One heating element fixation was already "torn in a star shape" and the second one "no longer available". He also stated: "The heating element itself was mechanically deformed in a number of places", and in particular: "The torn fixation of the heating element was also initially attributed to damage that could have occurred in the course of transport or the disassembly and inspection."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: When handing over the device, the appraiser Geishofer did not inform the appraiser Maurer that, to his own knowledge, the damage was not caused by the heater itself. The expert Maurer neither had photos of the original condition nor did he know that the device was originally undamaged. Probably because of this, he concluded that it must have been a constructional fault. But it were just several retrospective damages.


title: Kaprun disaster

text: After elaborating these connections, the investigators from the Heilbronn public prosecutor's office stated: "Based on these findings, the result of Maurer's report must be questioned, because he assumed false assumptions. He was of the opinion that the fastening dome broke while it was still installed in the train, which was demonstrably not the case."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The investigators of the Heilbronn public prosecutor noted: "This shows that the experts and forensic technicians involved in the proceedings did not work together, communicated and exchanged in the close manner required for such proceedings."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: Finally, reference is made to the specially arranged investigation by the German Plastics Institute in Darmstadt (DKI), which, in addition to various methods, also examined the housing of the fan heater using "X-ray computed tomography and polarized transmitted light microscopy" and came to the conclusion that "with regard to manufacture of the plastic housing no production errors are recognizable and that the housing parts correspond to the then and today's state of the art, both in terms of the plastic used and the construction."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: In order to ensure that Fakir was not hiding anything with regard to production errors, a search warrant was issued by the Heilbronn public prosecutor, and the entire company building was searched. The result of the search of the relevant files was: "An evaluation of these files did not reveal any findings that were relevant for the investigation [...]." With reference to the Maurer report, the LPD (state police headquarters) Stuttgart stated: "There were also no documents whatsoever found regarding the formation of binding seams in the area of the mounting dome."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: The LPD Stuttgart finally stated that "the questions listed in the search warrant" to Fakir were answered in writing by the latter and concluded: "This letter did not result in any further investigations either."


title: Kaprun disaster

text: It was also argued in the judgment that the funicular was not actually a vehicle under Austrian law at that time, which means that the installation of a fan heater for the living room, such as that made by the manufacturer Fakir, was legitimate. In the operating instructions it was specifically pointed out that the device was unsuitable for vehicles. As already stated above, however, from the point of view of the investigators of the Heilbronn public prosecutor's office, the question of the concept of the vehicle as such is becoming obsolete, since the modification of the device alone would invalidate its VDE approval. Because even in the opinion of the Salzburg judgment itself, the device would generally no longer have been suitable for installation without a valid test mark. However, the VDE was not consulted in the trial at that time. The court declared the certification marks valid. The investigators of the Heilbronn public prosecutor allow themselves a quite ironic reference to German law with reference to the discussion about the legal concept of a vehicle in Austria: "The view of the court in Salzburg, that the trains of the Gletscherbahn Kaprun AG are not vehicles, may be due to special definitions common in Austria. According to the usual definitions in Germany, the trains of the Gletscherbahn Kaprun AG were clearly vehicles." However, this statement should not be understood as if the investigators from the Heilbronn public prosecutor wanted to put German law over Austrian law. Even before the accident in Kaprun, there was an EU cableway directive in which, with reference to funiculars, it was clearly and repeatedly referred to vehicles (unlike in Austrian law at the time, according to which a funicular was not a vehicle in the traditional sense). In the directive from the year 2000 one reads among other things about "vehicles of funicular railways". However, as stated in the judgment, the violation of this guideline, which was admitted by the court, does not represent any criminal liability in the respective EU member state. The non-binding nature of EU provisions or guidelines in the member states of the EU was decided from European Court of Justice itself.