text: Haplogroup U is a sub-haplogroup of macrohaplogroup R. The distribution of haplogroup U is a mirror image of that for haplogroup M: the former has not been described so far among eastern Asians but is frequent in European populations as well as among South Asians. South Asian U lineages differ substantially from those in Europe and their coalescence to a common ancestor also dates back to about 50,000 years.


title: Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia

text: The major South Asian Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups are H, J2, L, R1a1, R2, which are commonly found among other West-Eurasian populations, such as Middle Easterners or Europeans. Their geographical origins are listed as follows, according to the latest scholarship:


text: Haplogroup H (Y-DNA) is found at a high frequency in South Asia and is considered to represent the major indigenous paternal lineage. H is today rarely found outside of South Asia, but is common among South Asian-descended populations, such as the Romanis, particularly the H-M82 subgroup. H was also found in some ancient samples of Europe and is still found today at a low frequency in certain southeastern Europeans and Arabs of the Levant. Haplogroup H is frequently found among populations of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and the Maldives. All three branches of Haplogroup H (Y-DNA) are found in South Asia.


text: Haplogroup H is believed to have arisen in South Asia between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago. Its probable site of introduction is South Asia, since it is concentrated there. It seems to represent the main Y-Chromosome haplogroup of the paleolithic inhabitants of South Asia and Europe respectively. Some individuals in South Asia have also been shown to belong to the much rarer subclade H3 (Z5857). Haplogroup H is by no means restricted to specific populations. For example, H is possessed by about 28.8% of Indo-Aryan castes. and in tribals about 25–35%.


text: Haplogroup J2 has been present in South Asia mostly as J2a-M410 and J2b-M102, since neolithic times (9500 YBP). J2 clades attain peak frequencies in the North-West and South India and is found at 19% within South Indian castes, 11% in North Indian castes and 12% in Pakistan. In South India, the presence of J2 is higher among middle castes at 21%, followed by upper castes at 18.6% and lower castes at 14%. Among caste groups, the highest frequency of J2-M172 is observed among Tamil Vellalars of South India, at 38.7%. J2 is present in tribals too and has a frequency of 11% in Austro-Asiatic tribals. Among the Austro-Asiatic tribals, the predominant J2 occurs in the Lodha (35%). J2 is also present in the South Indian hill tribe Toda at 38.46%, in the Andh tribe of Telangana at 35.19% and in the Kol tribe of Uttar Pradesh at a frequency of 33.34%. Haplogroup J-P209 was found to be more common in India's Shia Muslims, of which 28.7% belong to haplogroup J, with 13.7% in J-M410, 10.6% in J-M267 and 4.4% in J2b.


text: In Pakistan, the highest frequencies of J2-M172 were observed among the Parsis at 38.89%, the Dravidian-speaking Brahuis at 28.18% and the Makrani Balochs at 24%. It also occurs at 18.18% in Makrani Siddis and at 3% in Karnataka Siddis.


text: J2-M172 is found at an overall frequency of 10.3% among the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka. In Maldives, 20.6% of Maldivian population were found to be haplogroup J2 positive.


text: According to Dr. Spencer Wells, L-M20 originated in the Pamir Knot region in Tajikistan and migrated into Pakistan and India ca. 30,000 years ago. However, most other studies have proposed a South Asian origin for L-M20 and associated its expansion with the Indus valley (~7,000 YBP). There are three subbranches of haplogroup L: L1-M76 (L1a1), L2-M317 (L1b) and L3-M357 (L1a2), found at varying levels in South Asia.


text: Haplogroup L shows time of neolithic expansion. The clade is present in the Indian population at an overall frequency of ca. 7–15%. Haplogroup L has a higher frequency among south Indian castes (ca. 17–19%) and reaches 68% in some castes in Karnataka but is somewhat rarer in northern Indian castes (ca. 5–6%). The presence of haplogroup L is quite rare among tribal groups (ca. 5,6–7%), however 14.6% has been observed among the Chenchus.


text: Among regional and social groups, moderate to high frequencies have been observed in Konkanastha Brahmins (18.6%), Punjabis (12.1%), Gujaratis (10.4%), Lambadis (17.1%), and Jats (36.8%).


text: In Pakistan, L1-M76 and L3-M357 subclades of L-M20 reach overall frequencies of 5.1% and 6.8%, respectively.


text: Haplogroup L3 (M357) is found frequently among Burusho (approx. 12%) and Pashtuns (approx. 7%). Its highest frequency can be found in south western Balochistan province along the Makran coast (28%) to Indus River delta. L3a (PK3) is found in approximately 23% of Nuristani in northwest Pakistan.


text: In one study, 16% of the Sinhalese were found to be Haplogroup L-M20 positive. In another study 18% were found to belong to L1.


text: In South Asia, R1a1 has been observed often with high frequency in a number of demographic groups, as well as with highest STR diversity which lead some to see it as the locus of origin.


text: While R1a originated ca. 22,000 to 25,000 years ago, its subclade M417 (R1a1a1) diversified ca. 5,800 years ago. The distribution of M417-subclades R1-Z282 (including R1-Z280) in Central and Eastern Europe and R1-Z93 in Asia suggests that R1a1a diversified within the Eurasian Steppes or the Middle East and Caucasus region. The place of origin of these subclades plays a role in the debate about the origins of Indo-Europeans.


text: In India, a high percentage of this haplogroup is observed in West Bengal Brahmins (72%) to the east, Gujarat Lohanas (60%) to the west, Khatris (67%) in the north, and Iyengar Brahmins (31%) in the south. It has also been found in several South Indian Dravidian-speaking tribals including the Kotas (41%) of Tamil Nadu, Chenchu (26%) and Valmikis of Andhra Pradesh as well as the Yadav and Kallar of Tamil Nadu suggesting that M17 is widespread in these southern Indians tribes. Besides these, studies show high percentages in regionally diverse groups such as Manipuris (50%) to the extreme northeast and in among Punjabis (47%) to the extreme northwest.


text: In Pakistan, it is found at 71% among the Mohanna of Sindh Province to the south and 46% among the Baltis of Gilgit-Baltistan to the north.


text: 23% of the Sinhalese people out of a sample of 87 subjects were found to be R1a1a (R-SRY1532) positive according to a 2003 research.


text: In South Asia, the frequency of R2 and R2a lineage is around 10–15% in India and Sri Lanka and 7–8% in Pakistan. At least 90% of R-M124 individuals are located in South Asia. It is also reported in Caucasus and Central Asia at a lower frequency. A genetic study by Mondal et al. in 2017 concluded that Haplogroup R2 originated in northern India and was already present before the Steppe migration.


text: Among regional groups, it is found among West Bengalis (23%), New Delhi Hindus (20%), Punjabis (5%) and Gujaratis (3%). Among tribal groups, Karmalis of West Bengal showed highest at 100% followed by Lodhas (43%) to the east, while Bhil of Gujarat in the west were at 18%, Tharus of the north showed it at 17%, the Chenchu and Pallan of the south were at 20% and 14% respectively. Among caste groups, high percentages are shown by Jaunpur Kshatriyas (87%), Kamma (73%), Bihar Yadav (50%), Khandayat (46%)and Kallar (44%).


text: It is also significantly high in many Brahmin groups including Punjabi Brahmins (25%), Bengali Brahmins (22%), Konkanastha Brahmins (20%), Chaturvedis (32%), Bhargavas (32%), Kashmiri Pandits (14%) and Lingayat Brahmins (30%).


text: North Indian Muslims have a frequency of 19% (Sunni) and 13% (Shia), while Dawoodi Bohra Muslim in the western state of Gujarat have a frequency of 16% and Mappila Muslims of southern India have a frequency of 5%.


text: The R2 haplogroup is found in 14% of the Burusho people. Among the Hunza people it is found at 18% while the Parsis show it at 20%.


text: In Nepal, R2 percentages range from 2% to 26% within different groups under various studies. Newars show a significantly high frequency of 26% while people of Kathmandu show it at 10%.


text: Haplogroup O1 (O-F265) and O2 (O-M122), the primary branches of Haplogroup O-M175 are very common among the Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burmese speaking populations of South Asia respectively.


text: Haplogroup O-M95, a subclade of O1-F265, is mainly restricted in Austroasiatic-speaking groups in South Asia. According to Kumar "et al" 2007, M95 averages at 55% in Munda and 41% of Khasi-Khmuic speakers of from Northeast India, while Reddy et al. 2007 found an average frequency 53% among Mundari and 31% among Khasi speakers. Zhang et al. 2015, found a higher average of 67.53% and 74,00% among Munda and Khasi-speaking groups respectively. Abundant in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (averaging ~45%), it is fixed (100%) in some populations like Shompen, Onge and Nicobarese. A migration of O-M95 from Southeast Asia into India has been suggested with an expansion time of 5.2 ± 0.6 KYA in Northeast India.


text: Haplogroup O2-M122 is primarily found among the males of Tibeto-Burmese ancestry in the Himalayas and Northeast India. Haplogroup O-M122, believed to have originated in Southern China shows very high percentages. It is found at 86.6% among Tamangs of Nepal, with similarly high frequencies, 75% to 85%, among the northeastern Indian Tibeto-Burman groups, including Adi, Naga, Apatani, Nyishi, Kachari and Rabha. In Northeast India, Baric speakers display a high frequency and homogeneity of O-M134, indicating a population bottleneck effect that occurred during a westward and then southward migration of the founding population of Tibeto-Burmans during its branching from the parental population. It has a significant presence among the Khasis (29%), despite being generally absent in other Austroasiatics of India, and it shows up at 55% among neighbouring Garos, a Tibeto-Burman group.


text: The , divides the population of South Asia into four ethnolinguistic (not genetic) groups: Indo-European, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic. The molecular anthropology studies use three different type of markers: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation which is maternally inherited and highly polymorphic, Y Chromosome variation which involves uniparental transmission along the male lines, and Autosomal DNA variation.


text: Most of the studies based on mtDNA variation have reported genetic unity of South Asian populations across language, caste and tribal groups. It is likely that haplogroup M was brought to Asia from East Africa along the southern route by earliest migration wave 78,000 years ago.


text: According to Kivisild et al. (1999), "Minor overlaps with lineages described in other Eurasian populations clearly demonstrate that recent immigrations have had very little impact on the innate structure of the maternal gene pool of South Asians. Despite the variations found within India, these populations stem from a limited number of founder lineages. These lineages were most likely introduced to South Asia during the Middle Palaeolithic, before the peopling of Europe 48,000 years ago and perhaps the Old World in general." Basu et al. (2003) also emphasises underlying unity of female lineages in India.


text: Conclusions based on Y Chromosome variation have been more varied than those based on mtDNA variation. While Kivisild et al. proposes an ancient and shared genetic heritage of male lineages in South Asia, Bamshad et al. (2001) suggests an affinity between South Asian male lineages and modern west Eurasians proportionate to upper-caste rank and places upper-caste populations of southern Indian states closer to East Europeans.


text: Basu et al. (2003) concludes that Austro–Asiatic tribal populations entered India first from the Northwest corridor and much later some of them through Northeastern corridor. Whereas, Kumar et al. (2007) analysed 25 South Asian Austro-Asiatic tribes and found a strong paternal genetic link among the sub-linguistic groups of the South Asian Austro-Asiatic populations. Mukherjee et al. (2001) places Pakistanis and North Indians between west Asian and Central Asian populations, whereas Cordaux et al. (2004) argues that the Indian caste populations are closer to Central Asian populations. Sahoo et al. (2006) and Sengupta et al. (2006) suggest that Indian caste populations have not been subject to any recent admixtures. Sanghamitra Sahoo concludes his study with:


text: Closest-neighbor analysis done by Mondal et al. in 2017 concluded that Indian Y-lineages are close to southern European populations and the time of divergence between the two predated Steppe migration:


text: Results of studies based upon autosomal DNA variation have also been varied. In a major study (2009) using over 500,000 biallelic autosomal markers, Reich hypothesized that the modern South Asian population was the result of admixture between two genetically divergent ancestral populations dating from the post-Holocene era. These two "reconstructed" ancient populations he termed "Ancestral South Indians" (ASI) and "Ancestral North Indians" (ANI). According to Reich: "ANI ancestry is significantly higher in Indo-European than Dravidian speakers, suggesting that the ancestral ASI may have spoken a Dravidian language before mixing with the ANI." While the ANI is genetically close to Middle Easterners, Central Asians and Europeans, the ASI is not closely related to groups outside of the subcontinent. As no "ASI" ancient DNA is available, the indigenous Andamanese Onge are used as an (imperfect) proxy of ASI (according to Reich et al., the Andamanese, though distinct from them, are the closest living population to the ASI). According to Reich et al., both ANI and ASI ancestry are found all over the subcontinent (in both northern and southern India) in varying proportions, and that "ANI ancestry ranges from 39-71% in India, and is higher in traditionally upper caste and Indo-European speakers."


text: Moorjani et al. 2013 state that the ASI, though not closely related to any living group, are "related (distantly) to indigenous Andaman Islanders." Moorjani et al. however suggest possible gene flow into the Andamanese from a population related to the ASI, causing the modeled relationship. The study concluded that "almost all groups speaking Indo-European or Dravidian languages lie along a gradient of varying relatedness to West-Eurasians in PCA (referred to as "Indian cline")".


text: A 2013 study by Chaubey using the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), shows that the genome of Andamanese people (Onge) is closer to those of other Oceanic Negrito groups than to that of South Asians.


text: According to Basu et al. 2016, further analysis revealed that the genomic structure of mainland Indian populations is best explained by contributions from four ancestral components. In addition to the ANI and ASI, Basu et al. (2016) identified two East Asian ancestral components in mainland India that are major for the Austro-Asiatic-speaking tribals and the Tibeto-Burman speakers, which they denoted as AAA (for "Ancestral Austro-Asiatic") and ATB (for "Ancestral Tibeto-Burman") respectively. The study also infers that the populations of the Andaman Islands archipelago form a distinct ancestry, which "was found to be coancestral to Oceanic populations" but more distant from South Asians.


text: The cline of admixture between the ANI and ASI lineages is dated to the period of c. 4.2–1.9 kya by Moorjani et al. (2013), corresponding to the Indian Bronze Age, and associated by the authors with the process of deurbanisation of the Indus Valley civilization and the population shift to the Gangetic system in the incipient Indian Iron Age. Basu et al. (2003) suggests that "Dravidian speakers were possibly widespread throughout India before the arrival of the Indo-European-speaking nomads" and that "formation of populations by fission that resulted in founder and drift effects have left their imprints on the genetic structures of contemporary populations". The geneticist PP Majumder (2010) has recently argued that the findings of Reich et al. (2009) are in remarkable concordance with previous research using mtDNA and Y-DNA:


text: Chaubey et al. 2015 detected a distinctive East Asian ancestral component, mainly restricted to specific populations in the foothills of Himalaya and northeastern part of India. Highest frequency of the component is observed among the Tibeto-Burmese speaking groups of northeast India and was also detected in Andamanese populations at 32%, with substantial presence also among Austroasiatic speakers. It is found to be largely absent in Indo-European and Dravidian speakers, except in some specific ethnic groups living in the Himalayan foothills and central-south India. The researchers however suggested that the East Asian ancestry (represented by the Han) measured in the studied Andamanese groups may actually reflect the capture of the affinity of the Andamanese with Melanesians and Malaysian Negritos (rather than true East Asian admixture), as a previous study by Chaubey et al. suggested "a deep common ancestry" between Andamanese, Melanesians and other Negrito groups, and an affinity between Southeast Asian Negritos and Melanesians (as well as the Andamanese) with East Asians.


text: Lazaridis et al. (2016) notes "The demographic impact of steppe related populations on South Asia was substantial, as the Mala, a south Indian Dalit population with minimal ANI (Ancestral North Indian) along the 'Indian Cline' of such ancestry is inferred to have ~ 18% steppe-related ancestry, while the Kalash of Pakistan are inferred to have ~ 50%, similar to present-day northern Europeans." The study estimated (6.5–50.2%) steppe-related admixture in South Asians. Lazaridis et al. further notes that "A useful direction of future research is a more comprehensive sampling of ancient DNA from steppe populations, as well as populations of central Asia (east of Iran and south of the steppe), which may reveal more proximate sources of the ANI than the ones considered here, and of South Asia to determine the trajectory of population change in the area directly.


text: Pathak et al. 2018 concluded that the Indo-European speakers of the Gangetic Plains and the Dravidian speakers have significant Yamnaya Early-Middle Bronze Age (Steppe_EMBA) ancestry but no Middle-Late Bronze Age Steppe (Steppe_MLBA) ancestry. On the other hand, the "North-Western Indian and Pakistani" populations (PNWI) showed significant Steppe_MLBA ancestry along with Yamnaya (Steppe_EMBA) ancestry. The study also noted that ancient South Asian samples had significantly higher Steppe_MLBA than Steppe_EMBA (or Yamnaya). The study also suggested that the Rors could be used as a proxy for the ANI.


text: David Reich in his 2018 book "Who We Are and How We Got Here" states that the 2016 analyses found the ASI to have significant amounts of an ancestry component deriving from Iranian farmers (about 25% of their ancestry), with the remaining 75% of their ancestry deriving from native South Asian hunter-gatherers. He adds that ASI were unlikely the local hunter-gatherers of South Asia as previously established, but a population responsible for spreading agriculture throughout South Asia. In the case of the ANI, the Iranian farmer ancestry is 50%, with the rest being from steppe groups related to the Yamnaya.


text: , similarly, conclude that ANI and ASI were formed in the 2nd millennium BCE. They were preceded by a mixture of AASI (ancient ancestral south Indian, i.e. hunter-gatherers sharing a distant root with the Andamanese, Australian Aboriginals, and East Asians); and Iranian agriculturalists who arrived in India ca. 4700–3000 BCE, and "must have reached the Indus Valley by the 4th millennium BCE". According to Narasimhan et al., this mixed population, which probably was native to the Indus Valley Civilisation, "contributed in large proportions to both the ANI and ASI", which took shape during the 2nd millennium BCE. ANI formed out of a mixture of ""Indus Periphery"-related groups" and migrants from the steppe, while ASI was formed out of ""Indus Periphery"-related groups" who moved south and mixed further with local hunter-gatherers. The ancestry of the ASI population is suggested to have averaged about 73% from the AASI and 27% from Iranian-related farmers. Narasimhan et al. observe that samples from the Indus periphery group are always mixes of the same two proximal sources of AASI and Iranian agriculturalist-related ancestry; with "one of the Indus Periphery individuals having ~42% AASI ancestry and the other two individuals having ~14-18% AASI ancestry" (with the remainder of their ancestry being from the Iranian agriculturalist-related population). The authors propose that the AASI indigenous hunter-gatherers represent a divergent branch that split off around the same time that East Asian, Onge (Andamanese) and Australian Aboriginal ancestors separated from each other. It inferred, "essentially all the ancestry of present-day eastern and southern Asians (prior to West Eurasian-related admixture in southern Asians) derives from a single eastward spread, which gave rise in a short span of time to the lineages leading to AASI, East Asians, Onge, and Australians."


text: A genetic study by Yelmen et al. (2019) argue that the native South Asian genetic component is rather distinct from the Andamanese, and that the Andamanese are thus an imperfect proxy. This component (when represented by the Andamanese Onge) was not detected in the northern Indian Gujarati, and thus it is suggested that the South Indian tribal Paniya people (a group of predominantly ASI ancestry) would serve as a better proxy than the Andamanese (Onge) for the "native South Asian" component in modern South Asians, as the Paniya are directly derived from the natives of South Asia (rather than distantly related to them as the Onge are).


text: Two genetic studies analysing remains from the Indus Valley civilisation (of parts of Bronze Age Northwest India and East Pakistan), found them to have a mixture of ancestry, both from native South Asian hunter-gatherers sharing a distant root with the Andamanese, and from a group related to Iranian farmers. The samples analyzed by Shinde derived about 50-98% of their genome fom Iranian-related peoples and from 2-50% from native South Asian hunter-gatherers. The samples analyzed by Narasimhan et al. had 45–82% of Iranian farmer-related ancestry and 11–50% of South Asian hunter-gatherer origin. The analysed samples of both studies have little to none of the "Steppe ancestry" component associated with later Indo-European migrations into India. The authors found that the respective amounts of those ancestries varied significantly between individuals, and concluded that more samples are needed to get the full picture of Indian population history.


text: Yang 2022 summarized that the indigenous South Asian (AASI) lineage gave rise to two groups, the proper AASI within South Asia, and the Andamanese peoples. Both populations are closer to each other than to any other population, while ultimately having trifurcated from an "eastern population" which gave also rise to Australasians (AA lineage) and East/Southeast Asians (ESEA lineage). According to her, the ""Comparison with ancient individuals from South Asia showed that all present-day Indians have a mixture of ancestry related to the AASI lineage, basal Iranian ancestry, and Steppe ancestry. Northern and southern Indians are both associated with Indus Periphery ancestry observed in populations near and in the Indus Valley older than 4,000 years. Southern Indian populations possess additional ancestry related to the AASI lineage beyond that found in the ancient Indus Valley individuals, which suggests that ancient individuals representing the AASI lineage, who have yet to be sampled, likely lived in southern India. Northern Indians show genetic patterns similar to those found in ancient populations near the Indus Valley younger than 4,000 years; all show admixture with populations associated with Steppe ancestry. These patterns illustrate that in South Asia, the formation of ancestries associated with northern and southern Indians likely post-dated 4,000 years ago, where northern Indian populations associated with the Indus Periphery cline mixed with populations of Steppe ancestry and southern Indian populations in the Indus Periphery cline primarily mixed with populations of the AASI lineage. Just as in other regions of Asia, admixture played a key role in the formation of present-day Indian populations"".


text: Studies by Watkins et al. (2005) and Kivisild et al. (2003) based on autosomal markers conclude that Indian caste and tribal populations have a common ancestry. Reddy et al. (2005) found fairly uniform allele frequency distributions across caste groups of southern Andhra Pradesh, but significantly larger genetic distance between caste groups and tribes indicating genetic isolation of the tribes and castes.


text: Viswanathan et al. (2004) in a study on genetic structure and affinities among tribal populations of southern India concludes, ""Genetic differentiation was high and genetic distances were not significantly correlated with geographic distances. Genetic drift therefore probably played a significant role in shaping the patterns of genetic variation observed in southern Indian tribal populations." Otherwise, analyses of population relationships showed that all Indian and South Asian populations are still similar to one another, regardless of phenotypic characteristics, and do not show any particular affinities to Africans. We conclude that the phenotypic similarities of some Indian groups to Africans "do not" reflect a close relationship between these groups, but are better explained by "convergence"."


text: A 2011 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics indicates that Indian ancestral components are the result of a more complex demographic history than was previously thought. According to the researchers, South Asia harbours two major ancestral components, one of which is spread at comparable frequency and genetic diversity in populations of Central Asia, West Asia and Europe; the other component is more restricted to South Asia. However, if one were to rule out the possibility of a large-scale Indo-Aryan migration, these findings suggest that the genetic affinities of both Indian ancestral components are the result of multiple gene flows over the course of thousands of years.


text: Narasimhan et al. 2019 found Austroasiatic-speaking Munda tribals could not be modeled simply as mixture of ASI, AASI, or ANI ancestry unlike other South Asians but required additional ancestry component from Southeast Asia. They were modeled as mixture of 64% AASI, and 36% East Asian-related ancestry, samplified by the Nicobarese, thus the ancestry profile of the Mundas provides an independent line of ancestry from Southeast Asia around the 3rd millennium BCE. Lipson et al. 2018 found similar admixture results in regard to Munda tribals stating ""we obtained a good fit with three ancestry components: one western Eurasian, one deep eastern Eurasian (interpreted as an indigenous South Asian lineage), and one from the Austroasiatic clade"". Lipson et al. 2018 further found that the Austroasiatic source clad (proportion 35%) in Munda tribals was inferred to be closest to Mlabri. Singh et al. 2020 similarly found Austroasiatic speakers in South Asia fall out of the South Asian cline due to their Southeast Asian genetic affinity.


title: Agnostic theism

text: Agnostic theism, agnostotheism, or agnostitheism is the philosophical view that encompasses both theism and agnosticism. An agnostic theist believes in the existence of one or more gods, but regards the basis of this proposition as "unknown or inherently unknowable". The agnostic theist may also or alternatively be agnostic regarding the properties of the god or gods that they believe in.


title: Agnostic theism

text: There are numerous beliefs that can be included in agnostic theism, such as fideism, the doctrine that knowledge depends on faith or revelation; not all agnostic theists are fideists. Since agnosticism is in the philosophical rather than religious sense an epistemological position on knowledge regarding the divine and does not forbid belief in the existence of one or more deities, it is considered to be compatible with both atheistic and theistic positions.


title: Agnostic theism

text: The classical philosophical understanding of knowledge is that knowledge is justified true belief. The founder of logotherapy, Viktor Frankl, may have well exemplified this definition. Seidner expands upon this example and stresses Frankl's characterization of "unconscious". Agnostic theism could be interpreted as an admission that it is not possible to justify one's belief in a god sufficiently for it to be considered known. This may be because they consider faith a requirement of their religion, or because of the influence of plausible-seeming scientific or philosophical criticism.


title: Agnostic theism

text: Christian agnostics practice a distinct form of agnosticism that applies only to the attributes of the Christian god. They hold that it is difficult or impossible to be sure of anything beyond the basic tenets of the Christian faith. They believe that the Christian god exists, that Jesus has a special relationship with him and is in some way divine, and that God might perhaps be worshipped. This belief system has deep roots in Judaism and the early days of the Christian Church.


title: Polyether ether ketone

text: Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) is a colourless organic thermoplastic polymer in the polyaryletherketone (PAEK) family, used in engineering applications. The polymer was first developed in November 1978, later being introduced to the market by Victrex PLC, then Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in the early 1980s.


title: Polyether ether ketone

text: PEEK polymers are obtained by step-growth polymerization by the dialkylation of bisphenolate salts. Typical is the reaction of 4,4'-difluorobenzophenone with the disodium salt of hydroquinone, which is generated in situ by deprotonation with sodium carbonate. The reaction is conducted around 300 °C in polar aprotic solvents - such as diphenyl sulfone.


title: Polyether ether ketone

text: PEEK is a semicrystalline thermoplastic with excellent mechanical and chemical resistance properties that are retained to high temperatures. The processing conditions used to mould PEEK can influence the crystallinity and hence the mechanical properties. Its Young's modulus is 3.6 GPa and its tensile strength is 90 to 100 MPa. PEEK has a glass transition temperature of around 143 °C (289 °F) and melts around 343 °C (662 °F). Some grades have a useful operating temperature of up to 250 °C (482 °F). The thermal conductivity increases nearly linearly with temperature between room temperature and solidus temperature. It is highly resistant to thermal degradation, as well as to attack by both organic and aqueous environments. It is attacked by halogens and strong Brønsted and Lewis acids, as well as some halogenated compounds and aliphatic hydrocarbons at high temperatures. It is soluble in concentrated sulfuric acid at room temperature, although dissolution can take a very long time unless the polymer is in a form with a high surface-area-to-volume ratio, such as a fine powder or thin film. It has high resistance to biodegradation.


title: Polyether ether ketone

text: PEEK is used to fabricate items for demanding applications, including bearings, piston parts, pumps, high-performance liquid chromatography columns, compressor plate valves, and electrical cable insulation. It is one of the few plastics compatible with ultra-high vacuum applications, which makes it suitable for aerospace, automotive, and chemical industries. PEEK is used in medical implants, for example in creating a partial replacement skull in neurosurgical applications.


title: Polyether ether ketone

text: PEEK is used in spinal fusion devices and reinforcing rods. It is radiolucent, but it is hydrophobic causing it to not fully fuse with bone. PEEK seals and manifolds are commonly used in fluid applications. PEEK also performs well in high temperature applications (up to 500 °F/260 °C). Because of this and its low thermal conductivity, it is also used in fused filament fabrication (FFF) printing to thermally separate the hot end from the cold end.


title: Polyether ether ketone

text: PEEK melts at a relatively high temperature (343 °C / 649.4 °F) compared to most other thermoplastics. In the range of its melting temperature it can be processed using injection moulding or extrusion methods. It is technically feasible to process granular PEEK into filament form and 3D printing parts from the filament material using fused deposition modeling – FDM (or fused filament fabrication – FFF) technology. PEEK filaments have been demonstrated for producing medical devices up to class IIa. With this new filament, it is possible to use the FFF method for different medical applications like dentures.


title: Polyether ether ketone

text: In its solid state PEEK is readily machinable, for example, by CNC milling machines and is commonly used to produce high-quality plastic parts that are thermostable and both electrically and thermally insulating. Filled grades of PEEK can also be CNC machined, but special care must be taken to properly manage stresses in the material.


title: Polyether ether ketone

text: PEEK is a high-performance polymer, but its high price, due to its complex production process, restricts its use to only the most demanding applications.


title: Polyether ether ketone

text: PEEK is not traditionally a shape-memory polymer; however, recent advances in processing have allowed shape-memory behaviour in PEEK with mechanical activation. This technology has expanded to applications in orthopaedic surgery.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: The British Rail Class 47 or Brush Type 4 is a class of diesel-electric locomotive that was developed in the 1960s by Brush Traction. A total of 512 Class 47s were built at Brush's Falcon Works in Loughborough and at British Railways' Crewe Works between 1962 and 1968, which made them the most numerous class of British mainline diesel locomotive.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: They were fitted with the Sulzer 12LDA28C twin-bank twelve-cylinder unit producing though this was later derated to to improve reliabilityand have been used on both passenger and freight trains on Britain's railways for over 55 years. Despite the introduction of more modern types of traction, a significant number are still in use, both on the mainline and on heritage railways.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: As of December 2021, 78 locomotives still exist as Class 47s, including 31 which have been preserved. 33 further locomotives were converted to Class 57s between 1998 and 2004.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: The Class 47 history begins in the early 1960s with the stated aim of the British Transport Commission (BTC) to remove steam locomotives from British Rail by a target date of 1968. It therefore required a large build of Type 4 but with an axle load of no more than . The BTC was not convinced that the future of diesel traction lay down the hydraulic transmission path of the Western Region, and concentrated on diesel-electric designs.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Initially, the BTC invited tenders to build 100 locomotives to the new specification. The following responses were received:


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Of these bids, the BRCW/AEI/Sulzer bid was the preferred option, but before the prototypes could be assessed, the need to build a large number of locomotives quickly was deemed paramount, and the BTC decided on a new approach: it decided to cancel the final order of twenty Class 46 locomotives and invite bids for twenty locomotives of the new Type 4 specification using the Brush electrical equipment intended for the cancelled order. Brush won the contract.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: This initial build of 20 locomotives (Nos. D1500 to D1519) were mechanically different from the remainder of the type, using Westinghouse-supplied brake systems, and would be withdrawn earlier than the rest of the class which used Metcalfe-Oerlikon brakes.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Based on the success of these initial 20 locomotives an order for 270 was made, which was later revised upwards a number of times to reach the final total of 512. 310 locomotives were constructed by Brush in Loughborough, and the remaining 202 at BR's Crewe Works. Five locomotives, Nos. D1702 to D1706, were fitted with a Sulzer V12 12LVA24 power unit and classified as Class 48s; the experiment was not deemed a success, and they were later converted to standard 47s.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: The first 500 locomotives were numbered sequentially from D1500 to D1999, with the remaining twelve being numbered from D1100 to D1111. The locomotives went to work on passenger and freight duties on all regions of British Rail. Large numbers went to replace steam locomotives, especially on express passenger duties.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: The locomotives, bar a batch of 81 built for freight duties, were all fitted with steam heating boilers for train heat duties. The initial batch of twenty, plus D1960 and D1961, were also fitted with electric train heating (ETH). With this type of heating becoming standard, a further large number of locomotives were later fitted with this equipment.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: In the mid 1960s, it was decided to de-rate the engine output of the fleet from to , significantly improving reliability by reducing stresses on the power plant, whilst not causing a noticeable reduction in performance.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: In the early 1970s, the fleet was renumbered into the 47xxx series to conform with the computerised TOPS systems. This enabled a number of easily recognisable sub-classes to be created, depending on the differing equipment fitted. The original series were based on train heating capability and were as follows;


title: British Rail Class 47

text: However, this numbering system was later disrupted as locomotives were fitted with extra equipment and were renumbered into other sub-classes. For an overview of the renumbering see the List of British Rail Class 47 locomotives. This section summarises the main sub-classes that were created.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Originally numbered D1520–1781, D1837–74, D1901–59, D1962–99 and D1100 (later given TOPS numbers from 47001 to 47298), these locomotives were the "basic" Class 47 with steam heating equipment fitted. In the 1970s and 1980s, with steam heating of trains gradually being phased out, all locomotives fitted with the equipment gradually had their steam heating boilers removed. Some were fitted with ETH and became 47/4s, whilst the others remained with no train heating capability and were therefore used mainly on freight work. In the 1990s, the class designation 47/2 was applied to some class 47/0s and class 47/3s after they were fitted with multiple working equipment. The locomotives involved also had their vacuum braking systems removed or isolated, leaving them air braked only. This was mainly a paper exercise, however, and the locomotives were not renumbered; in this article they are included in Class 47/0.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Originally numbered D1782–1836 and D1875–1900 (later given TOPS numbers from 47301 to 47381), this sub-class was originally built with no train heating equipment and therefore remained as freight locomotives almost exclusively for their working lives. They were all fitted with slow speed control for working MGR coal trains (as were a number of Class 47/0s). However, during the summer months when train heat was not required, 47/3s could regularly be found hauling the extra trains that the holiday season brought. The sub-type remained stable until withdrawals started, although an "extra" 47/3, 47300, was created in 1992 when 47468 had its train heating equipment removed and was renumbered. This was a direct replacement for collision damaged 47343. Also, 47364 was renumbered to 47981 in 1993 for use on RTC test trains.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: The designation for standard locomotives fitted with ETH and therefore used for passenger, mail and parcels use. The original batch of twenty locomotives (D1500–D1519) were built with dual steam and electric train heating, the electric heating being tapped from the locomotive's DC generator. However, no more were constructed in this way until 1967 when the final two Brush-built locomotives, D1960 and D1961, were fitted with a new type of electric heat system using an AC alternator. Approximately 112 more locomotives had been fitted with this system by the time TOPS renumbering occurred (some of which retained the steam heat facility following ETH fitment whilst others had it removed at that time), and shortly afterwards the sub-class had settled down to 154 locomotives, numbered 47401–47547 and 47549–47555. Later, further Class 47/0s were converted to Class 47/4s and renumbered into the series from 47556 onwards, which eventually reached 47665.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: After being severely damaged in a derailment near Peterborough in 1974, locomotive 47046 was selected to be a testbed for the projected Class 56, and was fitted with a 16-cylinder Ruston 16RK3CT engine rated at for assessment purposes. To identify it as unique, it was renumbered 47601 (at the time the number range for Class 47s only extended as far as 47555). Later, in 1979, it was used again for the Class 58 project, fitted with a 12-cylinder Ruston engine (this time of ), and renumbered 47901. It continued with this non-standard engine fitted until its withdrawal in 1990.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: In the late 1970s, BR authorities identified a need to replace the ageing trains operating the Glasgow to Edinburgh shuttle services, in order to increase speed and reliability. The trains were operated by pairs of Class 27s, one at each end of this train. It was decided to convert twelve 47/4s to operate the service in push-pull mode. The locomotives would be known as Class 47/7 and would be fitted with TDM push-pull equipment and long-range fuel tanks, and be maintained to operate at . The conversions began in 1979 and the service was operated completely by them from 1980. In 1985, the push-pull service spread to Glasgow-Aberdeen services, and a further four locomotives were converted. The sub-class therefore comprised 47701 to 47716, though a further locomotive, 47717, was converted in 1988 after the fire-damaged 47713 was withdrawn.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: In the 1990s, further 47/4s were converted with long-range fuel tanks and equipment to allow them to work with a type of rolling stock known as propelling control vehicles-PCV, which utilised RCH (Railway Clearing House) cables to allow the PCV driver to signal to the driver on the locomotive to apply power and operate the brakes - neither these locomotives or the PCVs were equipped with TDM push-pull equipment. They were also numbered into the 47/7 series, from 47721 onwards. With dwindling passenger work for them, a number of 47/8s, already fitted with the extra fuel tanks, were also renumbered into this series.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Two locomotives, 47798 "Prince William" and 47799 "Prince Henry", were dedicated for use on the Royal Train, and were designated as Class 47/7c. The two locomotives were replaced by a pair of Class 67 locomotives in 2004, and were subsequently withdrawn for preservation.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: The last of the original 47/4 conversions, from 47650 to 47665, were fitted with extra fuel tanks, giving them an extended range. Four earlier Class 47/4s were also converted. In 1989 it was decided to make these locomotives easily recognisable and so they were renumbered into their own series from 47801 to 47820. At the same time, further locomotives were fitted with extra fuel tanks and renumbered; the series eventually reached 47854. After the privatisation of British Rail, the locomotives in the 47/8 number range were mainly used by Virgin CrossCountry on cross-country work until the introduction of Class 220 "Voyager" trains. These duties have kept them maintained in serviceable condition, allowing them to remain operational longer than the majority of their classmates. As a consequence most of them received relatively recent overhauls. The locomotives in this number range are officially Class 47/4s under the TOPS system.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: By 1986, only five of the original 512 locomotives had been withdrawn from service, all because of serious accident damage. However, with work for the class declining due to the introduction of new rolling stock and spare parts becoming difficult to source, some inroads started being made.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: The first locomotives to be targeted were the non-standard pilot batch of 20, now numbered 47 401-47 420. Three locomotives were withdrawn as life-expired in February 1986 and the remainder of the batch that had not recently been overhauled followed in the next two years. All 20 were withdrawn by 1992.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Meanwhile, BR drew up a 'hit-list' of locomotives for early withdrawal, mainly including those with non-standard electrical equipment, known as "series parallel" locomotives. In the outset, withdrawals were slow, mainly due to the surplus of spare parts and new flows of freight traffic which required extra locomotives; only 61 locomotives had been withdrawn by the end of 1992. However, with the introduction of new locomotives, the rate of withdrawal quickly rose, with 86 more 47s reaching the end of their lives in the next three years. With most of the non-standard locomotives withdrawn, the reduction of the fleet again proceeded more slowly. The privatisation of British Rail also produced new independent rail companies needing available traction until they could order new locomotives. From 1996 to 2006, an average of around fifteen locomotives per year were taken out of service.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: During the decline in passenger work a number of locomotives were painted in "celebrity" colours, depicting various liveries that the type had carried during its history. This continued a tradition of painting 47s in unusual liveries, which dates back to 1977, when Stratford depot in East London painted two locomotives with huge Union Flags to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: In 2020, after over 57 years of front line passenger and freight operations: 34 locomotives are fitted with the required systems in order to be mainline registered (excluding preserved examples), 24 locomotives are currently operational on the National network and the balance are stored. One locomotive has been exported to Hungary. The following is a list of companies currently operating Class 47s:


title: British Rail Class 47

text: West Coast Railways is primarily a charter train operator and expanded its fleet by overhauling withdrawn locomotives. Its ten locomotives currently operational are 47237, 47245, 47746, 47772, 47802, 47804, 47826, 47832, 47851 and 47854. Nos. 47270, 47760 and 47786 are undergoing long term repairs; 47787, which has been out of traffic since 2010, is being rebuilt to replace 47500.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Vintage Trains own 47773 as a preserved locomotive, maintained to mainline standards based at Tyseley. This locomotive is in BR Green livery.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Rail Operations Group is a spot hire company; with 47812, 47813 and 47815 currently operational. ROG also own 47848 which is undergoing maintenance at Barrow Hill, whilst 47843 and 47847 are being used as spares donors at Leicester depot.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Locomotive Services Limited is primarily a Charter Train operator and owns the former Crewe Diesel Depot. They operate 47501, 47593, 47614, 47805, 47810, 47828. Nos. 47811 and 47816 are spares donors at Crewe, whilst 47841 has been taken to the at Margate and is essentially preserved.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: GB Railfreight operates a small fleet of three locomotives. These are 47727, 47739 and 47749, which are used on stock transfers. These locomotives were formerly with Colas Rail, for duties hauling its track maintenance trains and occasional steel traffic, and had been hired to GBRf prior to transferring.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Mainline registered locomotives as of November 2020. This table does not include preserved locomotives which are mainline certified, and may thus appear on the mainline; these are 47270, 47580, 47773 and 47798. West Coast Railways is currently the largest operator of the type.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Thirty-three locomotives were rebuilt with EMD engines and re-classified as Class 57s. Freightliner took 12, Virgin Trains 16 and First Great Western five. Today these are owned by Direct Rail Services (17), Great Western Railway (4), Rail Operations Group (4), and West Coast Railways (8, including the prototype passenger engine 57 601).


title: British Rail Class 47

text: In 1976, 47155 was moved to West Thurrock power station for use as a stationary generator while problems with one of the plant's auxiliary generators were investigated. The locomotive was removed from its bogies and mounted on a heavy timber frame.


title: British Rail Class 47

text: Between 1963 and 1966, ten locomotives similar to the British Rail Class 47 were supplied to Ferrocarriles de Cuba (Cuban National Railways). Although built by Brush, they were publicly stated to be supplied by Clayton Equipment Company.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: Politically Incorrect was an American late-night, half-hour political talk show hosted by Bill Maher that aired from July 25, 1993, to July 5, 2002. It premiered on Comedy Central in July 1993 and aired for three seasons until November 5, 1996; amid its success on Comedy Central, ABC expressed interest in bringing the show to the network to shore up its late-night lineup, moving there on January 5, 1997.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: On September 17, 2001, Maher criticized United States foreign policy on the show and argued that the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks, although terrible people, were not cowards. What "was" cowardly, he argued, was America's relationship with the rest of the world. The comments were widely condemned, and while Maher later apologized and clarified the meaning behind his comments, major advertisers stopped advertising with the show. As a result, the show was canceled in 2002.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: The show first originated from New York City, but soon moved to Los Angeles. The New York episodes were shot at the CBS Broadcast Center and the Los Angeles episodes at CBS Television City, where it remained even after its move to ABC.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: The first episode featured comedian Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern co-host Robin Quivers, Republican Party strategist Ed Rollins, and comedian Larry Miller. Frequent guests included Dave Matthews, Arianna Huffington, Michael McKean, Ann Coulter, Carrot Top, and Christine O'Donnell.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: The show began with a brief topical monologue from Maher. Then Maher introduces the guests individually, promoting their current projects. Four guests appear, usually a mix of individuals from show business, popular culture, pundits, political consultants, and occasionally regular people in the news, discussing topics in the news selected by Maher. Maher described the program as ""The McLaughlin Group" on acid."


title: Politically Incorrect

text: On rare occasions, Maher would interview a single guest. The show was pioneering in mixing political figures and entertainers. Maher tried to air all points of view, especially controversial ones. Guests could be both aggravating and insightful, with the conversation similar to a cocktail party with quick-witted guests.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: The show's writers included Al Franken, Arianna Huffington, Kevin Bleyer, Scott Carter, and Chris Kelly.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: On September 11, 2001, conservative political commentator Barbara Olson was on her way to Los Angeles to appear as a guest on "Politically Incorrect", when the airplane she was on was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: In the aftermath of the attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush said that the terrorists responsible were cowards. During the September 17, 2001 episode, one of Maher's guests, Dinesh D'Souza, said “These are warriors. And we have to realize that the principles of our way of life are in conflict with people in the world. And so—I mean, I’m all for understanding the sociological causes of this, but we should not blame the victim. Americans shouldn’t blame themselves because other people want to bomb them.” Maher agreed, and replied: "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, [it's] not cowardly." Similar comments were made by others in other media.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: Advertisers withdrew their support, and some ABC affiliates stopped airing the show temporarily. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer denounced Maher, warning that "people have to watch what they say and watch what they do." Maher apologized, and explained that he had been criticizing U.S. military policy, not American soldiers.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: The show was canceled the following June, which Maher and many others saw as a result of the controversy, although ABC denied that the controversy was a factor and said the program was canceled due to declining ratings. Maher said that the show struggled for advertisers in its final months. There were subsequently comments in various media on the irony that a show called "Politically Incorrect" was canceled because its host had made a supposedly politically incorrect comment.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: Maher rebounded with an hour-long weekly program on HBO called "Real Time with Bill Maher" premiering on February 21, 2003, which follows a similar format.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: The show won a 2000 Emmy Award for "Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video for a Series." In addition, it was nominated for seventeen other awards, including: "Outstanding Variety"; "Outstanding Music or Comedy Series" (every year from 1995 to 2002); and "Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program" in 1997. The show also won two CableACE Awards in 1995 and 1996 for Talk Show Series and was nominated for a third in 1997. It was also nominated for two Writers Guild of America awards for best Comedy/Variety series in 2001 and 2002.


title: Politically Incorrect

text: Maher released a book in 1997, "Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? The Best of Politically Incorrect", which featured questions asked on the show, comments Maher made and guest answers. In 2003 an audiobook "POLITICAL INCORRECTIONS: The Best Opening Monologues from Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" was released, which featured opening monologues from the show accompanied by explanations of the current affairs that were being discussed in the media at that time.


title: Garbage (album)

text: Garbage is the debut studio album by American rock band Garbage. It was released on August 15, 1995, by Almo Sounds. The album was met with critical acclaim upon its release, being viewed by some as an innovative recording for its time. It reached number 20 on the US "Billboard" 200 and number six on the UK Albums Chart, while charting inside the top 20 and receiving multi-platinum certifications in several territories. The album's success was helped by the band promoting it on a year-long tour, including playing on the European festival circuit and supporting the Smashing Pumpkins throughout 1996, as well as by a run of increasingly successful singles culminating with "Stupid Girl", which received Grammy Award nominations for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group in 1997.


title: Garbage (album)

text: In October 2015, the album was reissued to mark its 20th anniversary, featuring remastered tracks from the original analog tapes, as well as remixes and previously unreleased alternate versions of songs from the album.


title: Garbage (album)

text: In 1983, Butch Vig and Steve Marker founded Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, and Vig's production work brought him to the attention of Sub Pop. Vig's old band Spooner reunited in 1990 and released another record, but disbanded in 1993 as Vig's and Marker's careers as producers gained strength. In 1994, as Vig became "kind of burned out on doing really long records", he got together with Duke Erikson and Marker, and they started producing remixes for acts such as U2, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and House of Pain, featuring different instrumentation and often highlighting new guitar hooks and bass grooves. The experience inspired the three men to form a band, in which they "wanted to take that remix sensibility and somehow translate it into all of the possibilities of a band setup." An early comment that their work sounded "like garbage" inspired the band's name.


title: Garbage (album)

text: Shirley Manson had been performing with the Edinburgh-based rock band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie since 1984. In 1993, several of the members, including Manson, formed the side project Angelfish. Their only studio album, the self-titled "Angelfish", was as commercially unsuccessful as preceding albums by Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, selling only 10,000 copies.


title: Garbage (album)

text: Initial sessions with Vig on vocals and the members' past work with all-male groups led to the band's desire for a woman on lead. Marker was watching "120 Minutes" when he saw the one-time airing of the music video for Angelfish's "Suffocate Me". He showed the video to Erikson and Vig while their manager, Shannon O'Shea, tracked Manson down. When Manson was contacted, she didn't know who Vig was and was urged to check the credits on Nirvana's album "Nevermind", which Vig had produced. On April 8, 1994, Manson met Erikson, Marker and Vig for the first time in London. Later that evening Vig was informed of Kurt Cobain's suicide. Garbage was put on hold as Angelfish was touring North America in support of Live. Erikson, Marker and Vig attended the Metro Chicago date, and Manson was invited to Madison to audition for the band. The audition did not go well, but Manson socialized with the men while there and they found they had a similar taste in music. Angelfish disbanded at the end of the Live tour. Manson called O'Shea and asked to audition again, feeling that "it would work out".


title: Garbage (album)

text: In her return to Smart Studios, Manson began to work on skeletal versions of the songs "Queer", "Vow" and "Stupid Girl". While looking for a record deal for the album, Garbage sent out demo tapes with no bio, to avoid a bidding war over Vig's production history. Garbage signed with Mushroom Records UK worldwide and to Jerry Moss's label Almo Sounds for North America. Manson's contribution was licensed to both Mushroom and Almo by her label Radioactive Records.


title: Garbage (album)

text: Garbage continued to work on the album throughout the start of 1995, delayed by Vig's work producing Soul Asylum's "Let Your Dim Light Shine" album and the songs being "piecemealed together in the studio". Vig described the composing process as a "dysfunctional democracy" where someone would bring a loop or a sample, which was followed by jam sessions in which the band members would "find one bar that's kind of cool, load that into our samplers, jam on top of that, [and] Shirley will ad-lib", with the process continuing until the song was finished, often with "all of the original ideas gone, and the song had somehow mutated into something completely different." Among the songs that were completely reworked, "As Heaven Is Wide" went from "a big rock track" to a techno-style song with Tom Jones-inspired beats, only keeping Erikson's fuzz bass and Manson's vocals from the original recording. Given Vig "got bored spending so many years recording really fast, straightforward punk records", the band "didn't want to approach the Garbage record from the angle of a band playing live", making their songs out of samples that would be processed and reworked in a Wall of Sound process "to create something that sounded fresh."


title: Garbage (album)

text: A major part of the work involved Manson rewriting the song lyrics, which Vig said the band attempted to "write from a woman's perspective and I think, initially, some of them were a little pretentious. But as soon as Shirley came on board she simplified the lyrics so that they were a lot more subtle and worked better as songs." Manson detailed that regarding the previous song sketches, "some of the ideas for lyrics I found unsuitable, and others I liked and worked on with them. I always went to bat for what I believed in." She added that because "the lyrics take a while to work on" bandmates would give suggestions and she included the ones that fancied her.


title: Garbage (album)

text: When Garbage began to collate the material for career retrospective "Absolute Garbage" in 2007, the "Garbage" analog masters could not be found. Vig and audio engineer Billy Bush were able to track down an archived, but rather incomplete and damaged, set of 16-bit 44.1 kHz safety DAT mixes. Despite the condition of the backups, mastering engineer Emily Lazar at The Lodge in New York City was able to reverse-engineer the missing songs from the damaged archive. Lazar used some alternate versions of the songs when completing the final master. Her assistant, Joe LaPorta, mastered and edited the remixes for the special edition.


title: Garbage (album)

text: "Garbage" has a sound that "tr[ied] to incorporate different styles and genres, throw it all into a big melting pot and see what would happen", according to Vig. Vig explained that as in his opinion "the most exciting bands are those who incorporate all those elements of punk, funk, techno, hip hop, etc." Garbage would attempt to do the same and "take those influences and make them work in the context of a pop song." The band went overboard with experimentation, with Erikson adding that throughout they liked to include "sounds that we found accidentally, like Steve's sample of a tape deck backing up, or the bit in 'Stupid Girl' that was initially a mistake, but when we slowed it down, actually fit the timbre and pace of the song and became the hook."


title: Garbage (album)

text: The lyrics on the record were described by the band members as "a collaborative psycho-therapy session wherein personal demons of various sizes and importance are exorcised, vilified, taken revenge upon and laid to rest." Vig said they tried to deal with "dark themes that I think a lot of people can relate to in some way or another", which included voyeurism, hedonism, perversion, obsession and "the art of self-destruction." Manson stated that even though she put together most of the songs, "everybody has ideas that come to the table and I just use what I fancy. When we're working on something, the lyrics take a while to work on and [they] come to me and say 'I've had these ideas, use them if you want' and if there's something I like, I'll stick it in with my own, or vice-versa. Some people come in going 'I've got this great title for a song' and I might use that." Manson remarked that while the content was "a lot more poppy" than most of her previous work, the songs invoked the dark side of her nature, as "sometimes I'm a bit wee creepy, and that definitely comes out in the music." She also declared that music "unlocks sensations and feelings that you keep inside, that society doesn't allow you to show", saying that the gist of a mean-spirited song like "Vow" is very real despite "none of us hav[ing] ever really acted on those feelings". Vig added that the band was eager to exploit the contrast between words and music: "The initial idea was to make this a dark lyric with a shiny, happy, pop sensibility. You could be singing this really catchy line and realize the lyrics were totally wacked."


title: Garbage (album)

text: In May 2017, Manson revealed during an interview with Yahoo! that the song "Fix Me Now" was originally titled "Chris Cornell", because she was obsessed with the lead singer of Soundgarden. A demo version of the song features Manson singing Cornell's name.


title: Garbage (album)

text: Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic stated that the album "has all the trappings of alternative rock—off-kilter arrangements, occasional bursts of noise, a female singer with a thin, airy voice, but it comes off as pop" because of Vig's "glossy production". Erlewine characterized the sound of the record as "slick and professional", full of "well-crafted pop songs", including "trashy alternative pop gems" like "Queer" and "Vow". "The A.V. Club"s Stephen Thompson described the album as "a prototypically '90s record full of pumped-up, electronically enhanced, sample-laden pop-rock songs." "Newsweek" remarked that the album "has an impressive swirl of acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and swanky pop hooks that actually push alternative rock in a new direction." About.com's Tim Grierson stated that the album "was steeped in alt-rock, but hits like 'Only Happy It Rains' had a dance element to them that distinguished the band from many of their angst-rock peers." Grierson further categorized the album as "dance-rock" and "techno-rock".


title: Garbage (album)

text: Gil Kaufman of "Addicted to Noise" described the album as a "surprisingly non-guitar rock mix of ambient noise, shifting trip-hop beats, grinding jungle rhythms and an ocean-size chunk of buzzing noise that, somehow, gels and rises above the din thanks to catchy hooks and killer song construction." "Metro Weekly" characterized the album as "a heavy mix of electronic pop and guitar rock with samples, electronica and trip-hop beats thrown into the mix." "Billboard" noted that "acting on the premise that more is more, foursome Garbage thrashes out power pop with enough skill and passion to rate among the cream of the alternative crop. First single 'Queer' is a modern rock success, and other cuts—especially 'Only Happy When It Rains', 'Stupid Girl', and 'Supervixen'—are capable of keeping interests high. Proof that success can come from the oddest combinations."


title: Garbage (album)

text: Vig stated that the band had no initial plans to tour as "not going on the road would really free us up to record tons of stuff". As the band members realized "that if we were going to have a successful record we'd have to go out on tour and promote it", and enjoyed playing live to record the "Vow" video, they decided to perform to audiences as well. To perform the complex and layered tracks live, the band hired Los Angeles bass player Daniel Shulman for the tour, and figured out ways to trigger samples on stage, such as having Marker play a keyboard along with his guitar.


title: Garbage (album)

text: On February 24, 1996, Garbage set off on a 17-date headline tour of North America. Garbage then supported Smashing Pumpkins on their North American arena tour from June 25, although the tour was cut short after the death of Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin on July 12. Garbage returned to Europe on August 3 promoting "Garbage" with a month of shows around the festival circuit. Garbage then headed south to Asia and Australia to promote the album, beginning with shows in Singapore on September 28 and ending in Osaka, Japan, on October 18. Garbage returned to the US to give "Garbage" a final push by rejoining the Smashing Pumpkins' rescheduled tour, beginning on October 23.


title: Garbage (album)

text: "Garbage" was acclaimed by contemporary critics. In "Entertainment Weekly", Steven Mirkin said the band's songwriting was just as exceptional as Vig's guitar and drum sounds, highlighting the "menacing sexuality, sonic playfulness, inventive guitar treatments, and cool vocals by Shirley Manson". Gil Kaufman from "Addicted to Noise" found the record's sound "akin to a Jackson Pollock painting, thick layers upon layers of sound that have been stripped down, torn apart, pasted together and then stripped again, until the result is a dizzying soundscape that reveals fresh nuances upon repeated listening". He added that the music's mix of ambience, rhythms, and noise "gels and rises above the din thanks to catchy hooks and killer song construction." Sharon O'Connell of "Melody Maker" hailed it as the closest to "perfection as a pop/rock record" as can be, while Emma Morgan of "NME" called it "a reminder of how sweet angst can be in the hands of talented players". "Garbage" was voted the 19th best album of 1995 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by "The Village Voice". The newspaper's Robert Christgau gave the album a three-star honorable mention. He named "Queer" and "Supervixen" as its highlights while writing "if Whale is Tricky without a dark side, Garbage is Whale without Tricky and depressed about it". Keith Harris wrote in "The Rolling Stone Album Guide" that the record's electronic guitar hooks and Manson's "pop-star-as-one-night-stand" persona were seductive but had a "tawdry disposability". On the other hand, writing in "The Michigan Daily", Heather Phares was very mixed. Although she was favourable of the singles "Vow" and "Queer", the latter of which had "a sinister sex appeal that redeems it somewhat from the cheesiness of the rest of the album." She felt that the band mostly sound "angsty and jaded for no good reason," and concluded that while it's not "total junk, it's no prize either."


title: Garbage (album)

text: In 1997, "Garbage" was named the 71st greatest album of all time by "The Guardian", which polled a number of renowned critics, artists, and radio DJs worldwide. It was later included in the musical reference book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". According to "Los Angeles Times" critic Mikael Wood, the record's techno-minded sound and Manson's alluring persona complemented and countered the contemporary post-grunge music Vig had helped pioneer after producing Nirvana's 1991 album "Nevermind". "Sound on Sound" journalist Sam Inglis argued that the musical techniques used on "Garbage" were radical at the time and influenced subsequent popular music, "uniting distorted guitars and cool female vocals with production that owed as much to Public Enemy as Led Zeppelin". In Jancee Dunn's opinion, the album always sounded "very forward-thinking, intelligent" and current, even when heard more than a decade later.


title: Garbage (album)

text: "Garbage" debuted at number 29 on the Top Heatseekers chart dated September 2, 1995, before peaking at number two on March 9, 1996. In the issue dated September 30, 1995, the album entered the "Billboard" 200 at number 193, and reached its peak position of number 20 on August 10, 1996. The album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 24, 1999, and by August 2008, it had sold 2.4 million copies in the United States. In Canada, the album reached number 15 on "The Record"s chart and number 25 on "RPM"s chart, was certified double platinum by Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), denoting shipments in excess of 200,000 units.


title: Garbage (album)

text: "Garbage" debuted at number 12 on the UK Albums Chart in October 1995 with 9,409 copies sold in its first week, eventually peaking at number six in April 1996. The album was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on October 16, 1998, and had sold 701,757 copies in the United Kingdom as of May 2012. The album saw modest success across continental Europe, reaching number 16 in France, number 19 in Sweden, number 23 in Finland, number 30 in Norway and number 55 in Germany. In Oceania, it charted at number four in Australia and number one in New Zealand, earning double platinum certifications in both countries. As of August 2015, "Garbage" had sold over four million copies worldwide.


title: Beenie Man

text: Anthony Moses Davis (born 22 August 1973), better known by his stage name Beenie Man, is a Jamaican Dancehall deejay.


title: Beenie Man

text: Davis was born in the Waterhouse district of Kingston in 1973. He was involved in the music industry from a young age, started toasting at the age of five, and was encouraged by his uncle Sydney Knowles, who played drums for Jimmy Cliff. He won the Tastee Talent contest in 1981, and Radio DJ Barry G introduced him to local sound system operators, who helped to establish the popularity of the young deejay, who became known as Beenie Man. He recorded his debut single, "Too Fancy", with record producer Henry "Junjo" Lawes in 1981, with Lawes also including him on the 1983 album "Junjo Presents Two Big Sounds" alongside established stars such as Dillinger, Fathead, and Ringo. His debut album, "The Invincible Beenie Man: The Ten Year Old DJ Wonder" was produced by Bunny Lee and released in 1983, his first hit single following the same year with the Winston Holness-produced "Over the Sea". In 1984 Beenie Man recorded some material with Barrington Levy (released ten years later), but his music career was put on hold while he finished school, and spent time travelling to the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada.


title: Beenie Man

text: Beenie Man continued performing and honed his craft beside the then dominant Dancehall figures including Ninjaman, Admiral Bailey and Shabba Ranks. He found his artistic home at the Shocking Vibes studio where he continued to record singles with only moderate success in the early 1990s. His career gained momentum after a performance at the Reggae Sunsplash festival in 1992, and a rivalry with Bounty Killer began the following year after Beenie Man was accused of stealing Bounty Killer's style and catch phrases. The rivalry was captured on the 1994 album "Guns Out", with the two artists settling the feud with a soundclash. Beenie Man had his first number one single in Jamaica in 1993 with "Matie" (Produced by Ephraim Barrett, Donovan and Dave Mills on the Shelly Power Records label) and he won the DJ of the Year Award the same year, the first of eight consecutive awards.


title: Beenie Man

text: Partially as a result of prodding from his producers, Sly and Robbie, with whom he recorded cover versions of Bob Marley's "Crazy Baldhead" and "No Woman No Cry" in 1994, the latter a Jamaican chart-topper, Beenie Man converted to the Rastafari movement, as did several of his contemporaries at the time, although in 2005 he stated "I have not converted. I was baptised an Ethiopian Orthodox and at the age of 10 I became a Judah Coptic." In 1994, he was signed by Island Records and released the critically acclaimed album "Blessed", which established his reputation internationally. In 1995 he toured the UK and joined up again with Barrington Levy to record an updated jungle version of Levy's "Under Mi Sensi".


title: Beenie Man

text: In 1995, Beenie Man collaborated with Dennis Brown and Triston Palma to release "Three Against War" and Mad Cobra and Lieutenant Stitchie on "Mad Cobra Meets Lt. Stitchie & Beenie Man". He also collaborated with Lady Saw on "Healing", Sanchez on "Refugee", and Michael Prophet on "Gun 'n' Bass", further establishing his reputation. He took another step up the ladder in 1996, releasing the seminal "Maestro", produced by Patrick Roberts and shot him to UK fame. During the period from the mid to late 1990s, Beenie Man dominated the Jamaican charts to the extent that he perhaps had a good claim to the crown of "Dancehall King", a title only bestowed previously on Yellowman in the early 1980s.


title: Beenie Man

text: Beenie Man's first real break into the United States came in 1997. He heard an instrumental rhythm by an unknown producer named Jeremy Harding, and demanded to add his voice to the rhythm. So this was the birth of his first international hit; he recorded "Who Am I" and the single quickly went Gold. It opened the doors for the world to see a new reggae star in the pages of Newsweek and other major media outlets. The same year, Beenie Man topped the Jamaican singles chart with seven different singles.


title: Beenie Man

text: In 1998, Beenie Man headlined Reggae Sunsplash and signed to Virgin Records to release albums in the United States. His first American offering was "The Doctor" (1998). During the late 1990s, Beenie Man began his conquest of America with the hits, "Romie", "Who Am I", and "Girls Dem Sugar", which featured American R&B singer, Mýa. During this time he received an impressive number of international music awards including a MOBO Award for Best International Reggae Act in 1998, while remaining at the top of the local charts. In 2000, Beenie Man released "Art & Life", which featured Arturo Sandoval and Wyclef Jean (The Fugees), for which received a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. In the same year he co-produced (with Wyclef Jean) the debut album by actor Steven Seagal. Beenie Man, like many dancehall artists, is outspoken on a number of social issues, as exemplified by songs such as "Steve Biko" and "Murderer".


title: Beenie Man

text: In 2002, he had a sizeable hit with a duet with Janet Jackson called "Feel It Boy", but his biggest break in America came in early 2004 with the release of a remix of "Dude", featuring guest vocals by fellow Jamaican Ms. Thing as well as rhymes by Shawnna. He thus cemented his fan base on both sides of the Atlantic.


title: Beenie Man

text: He had hits in the UK in 1998 with "Who am I" (#10), in 2003 with "Street Life" (#13) and "Feel It Boy" (UK #9), a duet with Janet Jackson, and in 2004 with "Dude" (#7) and "King of the Dancehall" (#14). Also in 2004, The Associated Press observed that Beenie Man had "become a name-brand artist worldwide" and called him "king of the dancehall reggae scene".


title: Beenie Man

text: He was also a judge for the 6th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.


title: Beenie Man

text: In October 2010, Beenie Man came out with the EP "I'm Drinking Rum and Red Bull", which included four songs, "Im drinking Rum and Red Bull", "I'm Okay", and two versions of "Stack and Pile". He later released the full album on 28 February 2011. "Im Drinking Rum and Red Bull" features Future Fambo.


title: Beenie Man

text: In April 2009, Beenie Man signed with Brookland Entertainment, a new record label formed by Eric Nicks and The Trackmasters, in preparation to release his new album "The Legend Returns", the music video for the release of his new single "Gimme Gimme" being shot in Canada on 18 April 2009. The song "Let's Go" was released on the "Overproof Riddim" compilation album in 2011.


title: Beenie Man

text: In 2014, Beenie Man and long-term rival Bounty Killer put aside their differences and recorded a single together, "Legendary". The two performed a well-received Verzuz battle together on Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine on 23 May 2020. Around that time, Vibe described them as "two of the most legendary icons in dancehall."


title: Beenie Man

text: Beenie Man married Michelle "D'Angel" Downer on 22 August 2006. In June 2007, Beenie Man separated from his wife. In March 2010, they released a duet single entitled "You Are My First", although at the time they were separated.


title: Beenie Man

text: The lyrics to some of his songs have been criticised for inciting the murder of homosexuals. He was removed from the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards after protests by gay-rights activists. That same year, Beenie Man was stopped by police at Heathrow Airport in London, after the cancellation of a concert in the United Kingdom. He then issued an apology for the lyrics through his record company. In 2005, gay rights group OutRage! suspended their opposition to Beenie Man after he agreed not to play songs featuring homophobic lyrics, and he performed in London that year. The following year, he claimed his lyrics were anti-paedophilia, not against consensual homosexual relationships.


title: Beenie Man

text: In 2007, it was reported that Beenie Man, along with several other artists, had signed the Reggae Compassionate Act, an agreement to cease performances of anti-gay material. He later denied that he had signed the act.


title: Beenie Man

text: As of 2010, protests have continued to cause cancellations of his concerts in some countries, including New Zealand, Belgium and the Netherlands.


title: Beenie Man

text: In 2012, Beenie Man apologized to the gay community for his earlier homophobic lyrics: "Let me make this clear and straight. I have nothing against no one. I respect each and every human being, regardless of which race or creed, regardless of which religious belief you believe in, and regardless of which sexual preference you are, including gays and lesbian people. I respect all human...Please I am begging you do not have me up for some songs I wrote a long time ago. I love each and every one and am just begging each and everyone to do the same." In other interviews, however, he was quoted making statements such as "I never apologized" and "I told them to leave us alone, to try to understand where we are coming from." In 2015 prior to coming to New Zealand for a concert, GayNZ.com news site asked Beenie Man about the homophobic lyrics in his earlier songs. He hung up the telephone without answering.


title: Beenie Man

text: In 2006, veteran deejay Yellowman publicly chastised Beenie Man for his hit "King of the Dancehall". Known as "King Yellowman" since the 1980s, the deejay took exception to Beenie Man proclaiming himself "king", as well as comments Beenie made regarding his appearance. Regarding the title of "king", Yellowman stated: "Him trying to make people feel like him was here before me, but him never deh here before me, because dem planning to do dem official crowning them claim say is an official crowning but dem a use some a di media as some of them organisation ...". Beenie Man made comments later that year in German-based Riddim Magazine, comparing Bounty Killer to Yellowman in appearance: "Bounty Killer is a great artiste and he's ugly, too. He's got a rough thing about him, Jamaicans like that from the Shabba Rankin' days and the King Stitt days and the Yellowman days. They like ugly people." Yellowman responded, "Him can diss me all him like, but him caan diss the Jamaican public. What kinda ting that him say inna "Riddim" magazine? If me ugly, him pretty, me know say me wear shirt, him wear blouse, me wear pants, him wear skirt."


title: Beenie Man

text: On 1 January 2021, Beenie Man was charged for breaches of the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA) and the Noise Abatement Act after he held an event in Jamaica in violation of measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: James Last

text: James Last (, ; born Hans Last; 17 April 1929 – 9 June 2015), also known as Hansi, was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra. Initially a jazz bassist (Last won the award for "best bassist" in Germany in each of the years 1950–1952), his trademark "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom, with 65 of his albums reaching the charts in the UK alone. His composition "Happy Heart" became an international success in interpretations by Andy Williams and Petula Clark.


title: James Last

text: Last is reported to have sold an estimated 200 million albums worldwide in his lifetime (figures vary widely, for example "British Hit Singles & Albums" (2006) reports 100 million at that time), of which 80 million were sold by 1973 - and won numerous awards including 200 gold and 14 platinum discs in Germany, the International MIDEM Prize at MIDEM in 1969, and West Germany's highest civilian award, the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) in 1978. His album "This Is James Last" remained a UK best-seller for 48 weeks, and his song "Games That Lovers Play" has been covered over a hundred times. Last undertook his final tour months before his death at age 86, upon discovering in September 2014 that an illness (the exact illness was never disclosed) had worsened. His final UK performance was his 90th at London's Royal Albert Hall, more than any other performer except Eric Clapton.


title: James Last

text: Last's trademark sound employed big band arrangements of well-known tunes with a jaunty dance beat, often heavy on bass and brass. Despite at times being derided by critics and purists as the "king of elevator music" or "acoustic porridge", his style and music were popular in numerous countries and cultures, including Japan, South Korea, the former Soviet Union, the US and UK, and his native Germany, where it became "the archetypal soundtrack of any German cellar bar party", and made him the "most commercially successful bandleader" of the second half of the 20th century. Last's composition Jägerlatein is also widely celebrated in Ireland as "The Sound of Summer" due to use as the theme tune to "The Sunday Game", a live sporting show which follows GAA hurling and Gaelic football All Ireland Championships since 1979.


title: James Last

text: Last was born to Louis and Martha Last in Bremen, Germany. He was the younger brother of Robert Last and Werner Last (aka Kai Warner). His father was an official at the postal and public works department of the city of Bremen and Last grew up in the suburb of Sebaldsbrück. He began studying the piano at age 10, although he could play simple tunes such as the folk song "Hänschen klein" when he was 9. His first music teacher felt he lacked any musical talent. Last started playing more actively with his second tutor and switched to the double bass as a teenager. His home city of Bremen was bombed heavily during World War II, and he ran messages to air defence command posts during the raids. He entered the Bückeburg Military Music School of the German Wehrmacht at the age of 14 and learned to play bass, piano and tuba.


title: James Last

text: After the end of the war, he joined 's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra. In 1948 he became the leader of the Last-Becker Ensemble, which performed for seven years. He was voted as the best bassist in the country in a German jazz poll for 1950, 1951 and 1952. When the Last-Becker Ensemble disbanded, he became the in-house arranger for Polydor Records, as well as a number of European radio stations. During the next decade he helped arrange hits for artists such as Helmut Zacharias, Freddy Quinn, Lolita, Alfred Hause and Caterina Valente.


title: James Last

text: Last first released albums in the U.S. under the titles "The American Patrol" on Warner Bros. Records around 1964. He also released a series of nine albums in a series called "Classics Up To Date" which served up arrangements of classical melodies with strings, rhythm and wordless chorus from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s. Last's 1965 album, "Non Stop Dancing," was a recording of brief renditions of popular songs, all tied together by an insistent dance beat and crowd noises. It was a hit and helped make him a major European star. Over the next four decades, Last released over 190 records, including several more volumes of "Non Stop Dancing". On these records, he varied his formula by adding different songs from different countries and genres, as well as guest performers like Richard Clayderman and Astrud Gilberto.


title: James Last

text: He also had his own successful television series throughout the 1970s with guests including ABBA and Lynsey de Paul which was screened across Europe. Last's trademark sound employed big band arrangements of well-known tunes with a jaunty dance beat, often heavy on bass and brass.


title: James Last

text: Though his concerts and albums were consistently successful, especially in the UK, where he had 52 hit albums between 1967 and 1986, which made him second only to Elvis Presley in charting records, he had relatively few hit singles. In the UK, his only chart singles were "The Seduction", a cover version of the theme from "American Gigolo" (1980) composed by Giorgio Moroder, and "Biscaya" from the album "Biscaya". His single "Mornings at Seven" became a familiar tune in Britain after the BBC used it as the theme music for an ice skating program. It was released on 7" vinyl in 1968 and has been included on "By Request" and "Eighty Not Out".


title: James Last

text: In the US, where "The Seduction" became a Top 40 hit, peaking at No. 28 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and No. 22 on the Adult Contemporary chart in May 1980. Last was somewhat more successful on the singles charts. In 2003, his song "Einsamer Hirte" (The Lonely Shepherd) which features the pan flute of Gheorghe Zamfir appeared on the soundtrack of the Quentin Tarantino movie "Kill Bill Volume 1".


title: James Last

text: He won numerous popular and professional awards, including "Billboard" magazine's Star of the Year trophy in 1976, and was honoured for lifetime achievement with the German ECHO prize in 1994. His song "Music from Across the Way" (recorded by Andy Williams in 1972) is a melody with a classical feeling and was a worldwide hit; it was the only other Last single apart from "The Seduction" to reach the U.S. Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 84 (and No. 18 on the Adult Contemporary chart) in late 1971. (His only other U.S. chart single was a double-sided entry featuring remakes of the Village Stompers' "Washington Square" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary", which reached No. 22 on the Adult Contemporary chart in early 1971).


title: James Last

text: Last was awarded the Carl Alan Award by Princess Margaret for being the leader of the most popular dance band of 1981. In Canada, he had three hits on the "RPM" Top Singles charts ("El Cóndor Pasa" at No. 46, "Music from Across the Way" at No. 28, "The Seduction" at No. 32) and four on the Adult Contemporary/MOR charts ("Music from..." at No. 2, "Heart of Gold" at No. 17, "The Seduction" at No. 36, "Reach for a Star" at No. 20).


title: James Last

text: Songs composed by Last which achieved success in the US include "Happy Heart" and "Music from Across the Way", both recorded by Andy Williams, "Games That Lovers Play", recorded by Eddie Fisher, and "Fool", recorded by Elvis Presley. By the time of his farewell tour in the spring of 2015, Last was reported to have sold well over 100 million albums.


title: James Last

text: His signature piece was "Orange Blossom Special". He played this at almost every concert. He encouraged the band to have fun with it and sometimes the band members would go into the audience and make a conga line with duck head umbrellas. It was always a popular piece at his concerts.


title: James Last

text: In February 2015, after almost 50 years on tour, James Last announced that he was finally bidding adieu to the stage. The last concert of his Non Stop Music James Last in Concert 2015 farewell tour took place in Lanxess Arena in Cologne on 26 April 2015.


title: James Last

text: Last married his first wife, Waltraud, in 1955; they had two children, Ronald and Caterina. After 42 years of marriage, Waltraud died in 1997. Two years later, Last married Christine Grundner from Bavaria. Last and Christine divided their time between homes in Florida and Hamburg. He gave much credit to Christine and son Ronald for help with his music.


title: James Last

text: Despite being the "most commercially successful bandleader" of the second half of the 20th century, Last's extravagant spending and "incompetent" financial advice led him at one stage to the "brink of ruin." James Last did not make as big a fortune as his immense record sales would suggest. He fell victim to a number of investment fraudsters, starting with his tax advisor. He bought oil rigs, wineries and cotton fields in the US as depreciation assets. When he wanted to visit his wineries in 1985, it turned out that none of the projects existed. As a result, the tax breaks ceased and there were large additional claims. Last was barely prevented from selling his publishing rights. He took out a loan from the Hamburger Sparkasse and was not financially debt-free again until shortly before his 70th birthday.


title: James Last

text: In September 2014 Last learned that a "life threatening" illness had worsened (the exact details were never disclosed), and in early 2015 he announced his retirement from touring would take place following a final "goodbye tour", which commenced in Germany and ended in London. Last died less than three months later, on 9 June 2015 in Florida at the age of 86.


title: James Last

text: Writing in "The Independent", Spencer Leigh suggested that Last's Non-Stop Dancing albums "paved the way for disco and dance mixes". Asked if he minded being labelled the "King of Corn", Last reportedly replied "No, because it is true."


title: The Physician (2013 film)

text: The Physician () is a 2013 German historical drama film based on the novel of the same name by Noah Gordon. The film, co-written and directed by Philipp Stölzl, focuses on an orphan from an 11th-century English town whose mother died of side sickness. The boy vows to study medicine and decides to travel to Persia.


title: The Physician (2013 film)

text: The film stars Tom Payne, Ben Kingsley (as physician Ibn Sina), Stellan Skarsgård, Olivier Martinez, and Emma Rigby in lead roles.


title: The Physician (2013 film)

text: In Medieval Europe, the Church is fighting against 'black magic'. The medical knowledge of Greek physicians like Hippocrates and Galen had been lost to the medicine of medieval Europe. In 11th-century England, travelling barber surgeons attempted to supply medical care to the ordinary population, often at the risk of the Church persecuting them for witchcraft.


title: The Physician (2013 film)

text: Robert Cole has an extraordinary gift, where he can sense when someone left untreated has a terminal illness. He notices this for the first time when he feels it as a little boy when his sick mother is dying of side sickness, a disease of which he was unaware. The young orphan joins an itinerant barber-surgeon who calls himself Barber. Barber teaches him the basics of medieval medicine, with services such as cupping therapy, bloodletting, and dental extraction. Even as an apprentice Rob recognizes the limitations of these simple practices. When Barber suffers from a cataract, Rob consults a Medicus for him. This Jewish doctor completely heals Barber of his cataracts. He learns a little bit of Jewish culture. He speaks with two children, Jesse and Benjamin. There, Rob sees for the first time a world map, and learns of the famous Ibn Sina, who teaches medicine in distant Kakuyid Persia. So he decides to train there to become a physician. During the Islamic Golden Age, the medicine in the medieval Islamic world is far more advanced than in Europe. The doctor, scientist and philosopher Ibn Sina teaches in Isfahan, the most important school for aspiring practitioners in the world at that time.


title: The Physician (2013 film)

text: Rob is told Christians are forbidden to enter Muslim lands while Jews are tolerated. Upon arriving in Egypt, Rob therefore circumcises himself and calls himself Jesse ben Benjamin, pretending to be a Jew (Rob is, in fact, a Christian). In a caravan he meets Rebecca who reads to him from a book about Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor. The caravan experiences a sandstorm, so Rob almost dies. When, after arriving to Isfahan, he asks for admission to the hospital and school of Ibn Sina, where he is rejected and thrown out and beaten by guards. Lying in the street with a cut and a concussion he is found by the Guardian, so then he is taken in as a patient.


title: The Physician (2013 film)

text: In a bimaristan (hospital) and madrasa (college), he is treated by Ibn Sina and admitted as a student to learn the basics of scientific medicine as well as other sciences and philosophy (including Aristotelian and Islamic philosophy). Rob learns to perform a medical history and medical examination including pulse diagnosis, the leech treatment, the use of opium, including the analgesic effect, and surgical procedures. After the Shah refuses a peace treaty with the Seljuks, the Seljuks send a man infected with the Black Death to deliberately infect the city. Thousands begin to die after being cared for by Ibn Sina and his students. Only by Rob's discovery and rapid application of basic hygienic principles, the plague is overcome. Rob suggests that oriental rat fleas may be the carriers of the Black Death, and with rat poison the pest may be suppressed. Rob is reunited with Rebecca, who has come down with the plague, and is able to bond with her since her husband temporarily abandons the city, leaving her to become sick. Rob nurses her back to health, Rebecca makes a full recovery, and she and Rob become romantically involved and engage in extramarital sex right before Rebecca must return to her husband, who has returned to the city. Rebecca is impregnated as a result, and her husband eventually discovers this, which leads to her being sentenced to death by stoning.


title: The Physician (2013 film)

text: The Christian, Jewish and Islamic religions influence the evaluation of medical science, and a conflict is sparked by the ethical assessment of the autopsy on the human body. As a Zoroastrian dies of side sickness, Rob learns from him that Zoroastrianism does not prohibit an adherent from undergoing autopsy after death. Rob secretly performs an autopsy on his body to deepen his knowledge of anatomy and to discover the inflamed vermiform appendix. When the mullahs discover what he has done, both Rob and Ibn Sina are being sentenced to death for necromancy. Rebecca is about to be stoned for adultery, when the Shah is apparently stricken with side sickness. Rob and Ibn Sina are freed so that Rob will perform an appendectomy, using anesthesia, on the Shah. Before beginning the surgery, Rob arranges for Rebecca to be rescued from her impending execution.