title: LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470

text: The crew comprised two pilots, three cabin attendants, and a technician. The captain, 49-year-old Herminio dos Santos Fernandes, had logged more than 9,000 flight hours in total (including 2,519 hours on the Embraer E190) while the first officer, 24-year-old Grácio Gregório Chimuquile, had accumulated about 1,400 hours of flying experience, with 101 of them on the Embraer E190.


title: LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470

text: The government of Mozambique announced it would declare a period of national mourning. Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva expressed condolence to victims' families. LAM Mozambique Airlines reported it was providing counselling and legal advice to families in both Mozambique and Angola and had set up an information hotline.


title: LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470

text: The pattern of debris indicated that the aircraft slid along the ground for several hundred metres (yards).


title: LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470

text: Both flight recorders – the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR) – were recovered from the crash site within four days of the crash and were subsequently sent to the United States' National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for readout.


title: LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470

text: On 21 December 2013, the Mozambican Civil Aviation Institute (, IACM) head João Abreu presented the preliminary investigation report, according to which Captain Herminio dos Santos Fernandes had a "clear intention" to crash the jet and manually changed its autopilot settings, making this a suicide by pilot. After the co-pilot left the cockpit, two minutes passed before the captain decided to lock the door, and a further minute passed before he initiated a descent. NTSB pilot psychologist Malcolm Brenner stated that during this period the captain was probably "thinking about life" and contemplating whether he could carry out such an action. The aircraft's intended altitude was reportedly changed three times from to , the latter being below ground level, and the speed was manually adjusted as well. The cockpit voice recorder captured several alarms going off during the descent, as well as repeated loud bangs on the door from the co-pilot, who was locked out of the cockpit. Contrary to regulations by Mozambique Airlines, no cabin crew member was deployed in the cockpit during the time of the co-pilot's absence.


title: LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470

text: Investigations of the aircraft's pilot revealed that Captain Fernandes had suffered a number of blows of fate prior to the accident. His son died in a suspected suicide in November 2012; Fernandes stayed away from the funeral. The one year anniversary of Fernandes' son's death occurred almost exactly on the date of the accident. His daughter was also in hospital for heart surgery at the time of the crash, and his divorce proceedings had been unresolved for over a decade.


title: LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470

text: Despite the conclusion of the IACM, the Mozambican Association of Air Operators (AMOPAR) disputed the preliminary report, explaining that the maneuvers of Captain Fernandes were from the manual of standard operating procedures issued by Embraer (the manufacturer of the crashed aircraft) about how to "act in emergency situation to avert disaster". According to the AMOPAR document, the Mozambican Government had not complied with the standards and recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) "about the disclosure, contents and procedures relating to the preliminary report of the investigation of the crash of flight TM 470."


title: LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470

text: On 15 April 2016 the DAAI released its final report finding that the inputs to the auto flight systems by the person believed to be the Captain, who remained alone on the flight deck when the person believed to be the co-pilot requested to go to the lavatory, caused the aircraft to depart from cruise flight, transition to a sustained controlled descent and subsequently crash.


title: LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470

text: According to experts interviewed in the TV series "Mayday", the LAM crash was not extensively covered by the media because the crash happened in a third world country. This meant that the airline industry failed to apply safety measures in time to avoid another similar incident, the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 in the French Alps in 2015, which was found to be a deliberate act by the co-pilot.


title: LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470

text: The accident is featured in the ninth episode of Season 20 of "Mayday," also known as "Air Crash Investigation." The episode is titled "Cockpit Killer".


title: NiceHash

text: NiceHash is a global cryptocurrency hash power broker and cryptocurrency exchange with an open marketplace that connects sellers of hashing power (cryptominers) with buyers of hashing power using the sharing economy approach. The company provides software for cryptocurrency mining. The company was founded in 2014 by two Slovenian university students, Marko Kobal and Matjaž Škorjanc.


title: NiceHash

text: The company is based in The British Virgin Islands and has offices in Maribor, Slovenia. NiceHash users are primarily video gamers who have powerful graphics cards (GPUs) suited to cryptocurrency mining. The company has over 2.5 million users in 190 countries worldwide as of November 2021.


title: NiceHash

text: NiceHash's original founder Matjaž Škorjanc was allegedly one of the creators of malware called Mariposa botnet and served four years and ten months in a Slovenian prison. On June 5, 2019, US law enforcement reopened a case in the operations of the Mariposa (Butterfly Bot, BFBOT) malware gang. In 2019, The FBI moved forward with new charges and arrest warrants against four suspects, including Matjaž Škorjanc. Matjaž was detained in prison in Germany in 2019. Due to international law agreements on double jeopardy, he was released in 2020. Matjaž provided the original concept for the company, but is not involved in its operation and the current CEO is Martin Škorjanc.


title: NiceHash

text: On December 6, 2017, approximately 4,700 Bitcoins (US$64 million at the time of the hack) were stolen from NiceHash allegedly by a spear phishing attack. Due to the open and transparent nature of the blockchain, the security breach received an influx of attention as the stolen sum and movement of bitcoins were visible to anyone on the internet.


title: NiceHash

text: On December 21, 2017, Marko Kobal resigned as the CEO of NiceHash. On that day, the company also re-opened their marketplace after the December 6th hack. NiceHash announced that they had hired cyber security and implemented new security protocols after the incident. NiceHash reimbursed affected users who made a claim by the deadline of December 16, 2020, and returned their Bitcoin funds in full.


title: NiceHash

text: On February 17, 2021, a North Korean hacker group (Lazarus) was indicted for the 2017 NiceHash attack.


title: NiceHash

text: NiceHash opened a cryptocurrency exchange in May 2019, where miners and other traders of cryptocurrencies trade their mined coins to other cryptocurrencies or exchange to fiat currency. The platform lists 64 coins and tokens, and 80 trading pairs.


title: NiceHash

text: In May 2022, NiceHash became the first provider of mining software to unlock Nvidia's LHR (Light Hash Rate).


title: NiceHash

text: NiceHash provides an open hash power marketplace where buyers can bid to purchase computer power to add to their mining pool or operations. In return for providing this service, NiceHash takes a percentage or fee from each group (buyers and sellers).


title: NiceHash

text: Sellers have to run NiceHash mining software and connect their mining hardware or just regular PCs or graphics cards to NiceHash stratum servers and to the buyer's order. Their hashing power is forwarded to the pool that the buyer has chosen for mining. For each valid share they submit, they get paid in bitcoin for the price that is determined by the current weighted average and refreshed each minute. This is all done automatically and the process does not require complex technical skills. The sellers are technically not 'miners' (although the computer hardware is mining) as they do not choose or control which algorithm their hardware operates on. They are renting out the hardware to be used for mining by other people (buyers) in a similar concept to cloud mining.


title: NiceHash

text: Buyers bid on the open marketplace for hash power on different mining algorithms, and direct it to their mining pool to increase their chances of finding a block reward. Much of the process of bidding is automated by trading bots.


title: Basketbol Süper Ligi

text: The Basketball Super League (; BSL), also known as the Türkiye Sigorta Basketbol Süper Ligi for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's professional basketball division of the Turkish basketball league system. It replaced the former Turkish Basketball Championship (1946–1966) to become the Turkish Basketball League (TBL) until 2015 when it adopted its current name while the TBL name became exclusive to the second-tier and third-tier divisions.


title: Basketbol Süper Ligi

text: The BSL is administrated by the Turkish Basketball Federation (TBF) and is contested by 16 teams, with the two lowest-placed teams relegated to the second-tier TBL and replaced by the top two teams of that division.


title: Basketbol Süper Ligi

text: Since the league's restructuring in 1966, 11 clubs have been crowned champions, with Anadolu Efes winning the title a record 15 times and Fenerbahçe 10 times. In recent years, Fenerbahçe dominated the league by winning 9 titles out of 15 from the 2006–07 season onward.


title: Basketbol Süper Ligi

text: According to official records, basketball was first played in Turkey in 1904 at Robert College. An American physical education teacher laid the foundations of the sport in the country. Seven years later, in 1911, Ahmet Robenson, a physical education teacher at Galatasaray High School, decided to introduce a new game to his students. Robenson, who also later became president of Galatasaray S.K., popularized the sport in Turkey.


title: Basketbol Süper Ligi

text: Until late 1966, local basketball competitions were held in major cities like Istanbul (which hosted the Istanbul League), Ankara, and İzmir. There was also the former Turkish Championship which existed from 1946 to 1967.


title: Basketbol Süper Ligi

text: The current Turkish top-tier level national league was founded in 1966, by the Turkish Basketball Federation, and began with the 1966–67 season, and it thus replaced those earlier competitions. The Turkish second-tier level league, the TBL (previously known as the TB2L), was also founded three years later in 1969, and since 2011, a third-tier level league TB2L, with the teams divided into two groups.


title: Basketbol Süper Ligi

text: There are 16 teams in the league, and they play against each other twice, under a league system format, once at their home and the other away. At the end of the season, the top eight teams are entitled to participate in the league's playoffs. The winners of the playoffs are crowned the Turkish champions. The two top teams of the Turkish Second League are promoted to the top level Basketbol Süper Ligi. The two lowest placed teams of the Süper Ligi are relegated.


title: Basketbol Süper Ligi

text: The winners of the former Turkish Basketball Championship (1946–1967) are not included, only the clubs winning the Basketbol Süper Ligi since its inception in 1966.


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: In psychology, logorrhea or logorrhoea (from Ancient Greek λόγος "logos" "word" and ῥέω "rheo" "to flow") is a communication disorder that causes excessive wordiness and repetitiveness, which can cause incoherency. Logorrhea is sometimes classified as a mental illness, though it is more commonly classified as a symptom of mental illness or brain injury. This ailment is often reported as a symptom of Wernicke's aphasia, where damage to the language processing center of the brain creates difficulty in self-centered speech.


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: Logorrhea is characterized by the constant need to talk. Occasionally, patients with logorrhea may produce speech with normal prosody and a slightly fast speech rate. Other related symptoms include the use of neologisms (new words without clear derivation, e.g. hipidomateous for hippopotamus), words that bear no apparent meaning, and, in some extreme cases, the creation of new words and morphosyntactic constructions. From the "stream of unchecked nonsense often under pressure and the lack of self-correction" that the patient may exhibit, and their circumlocution (the ability to talk around missing words) we may conclude that they are unaware of the grammatical errors they are making.


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: When a clinician said, "Tell me what you do with a comb", to a patient with mild Wernicke's aphasia (which produces the symptom of logorrhea), the patient responded:


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: "What do I do with a comb ... what I do with a comb. Well a comb is a utensil or some such thing that can be used for arranging and rearranging the hair on the head both by men and by women. One could also make music with it by putting a piece of paper behind and blowing through it. Sometimes it could be used in art – in sculpture, for example, to make a series of lines in soft clay. It's usually made of plastic and usually black, although it comes in other colors. It is carried in the pocket or until it's needed, when it is taken out and used, then put back in the pocket. Is that what you had in mind?"


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: In this case, the patient maintained proper grammar and did not exhibit any signs of neologisms. However, the patient did use an overabundance of speech in responding to the clinician, as most people would simply respond, "I use a comb to comb my hair."


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: In a more extreme version of logorrhea aphasia, a clinician asked a male patient, also with Wernicke's aphasia, what brought him to the hospital. The patient responded:


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: "Is this some of the work that we work as we did before? ... All right ... From when wine [why] I'm here. What's wrong with me because I ... was myself until the taenz took something about the time between me and my regular time in that time and they took the time in that time here and that's when the time took around here and saw me around in it's started with me no time and I bekan [began] work of nothing else that's the way the doctor find me that way..."


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: In this example, the patient's aphasia was much more severe. Not only was this a case of logorrhea, but this included neologisms (such as "taenz" for "stroke" and "regular time" for "regular bath") and a loss of proper sentence structure.


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: Logorrhea has been shown to be associated with traumatic brain injuries in the frontal lobe as well as with lesions in the thalamus and the ascending reticular inhibitory system and has been associated with aphasia. Logorrhea can also result from a variety of psychiatric and neurological disorders including tachypsychia, mania, hyperactivity, catatonia, ADHD and schizophrenia.


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: Logorrhea is often associated with Wernicke's and other aphasias. Aphasia refers to the neurological disruption of language that occurs as a consequence of brain dysfunction. A patient who truly has an aphasia cannot have been diagnosed with any other medical condition that may affect cognition. Logorrhea is a common symptom of Wernicke's aphasia, along with circumlocution, paraphasias, and neologisms. A patient with aphasia may present all of these symptoms at one time.


title: Logorrhea (psychology)

text: Excessive talking may be a symptom of an underlying illness and should be addressed by a medical provider if combined with hyperactivity or symptoms of mental illness, such as hallucinations. Treatment of logorrhea depends on its underlying disorder, if any. Antipsychotics are often used, and lithium is a common supplement given to manic patients. For patients with lesions of the brain, attempting to correct their errors may upset and anger the patients, since the language center of their brain may not be able to process that what they are saying is incorrect and wordy.


title: C'è la luna mezzo mare

text: "Luna mezz'o mare" (Moon amid the sea) is a comic Sicilian song with worldwide popularity, traditionally styled as a brisk tarantella. The song portrays a mother-daughter "coming of age" exchange consisting of various comic, and sometimes sexual, innuendos. It is frequently performed at Italian-American wedding receptions and other festive occasions. Hit versions have included "Oh! Ma-Ma! (The Butcher Boy)" by Rudy Vallée and "Lazy Mary (Luna Mezzo Mare)" by Lou Monte.


title: C'è la luna mezzo mare

text: Related music and lyrics appeared as early as 1835, in the art song "La Danza" (Tarantella Napoletana) by Gioachino Rossini and Carlo Pepoli. By 1871 in Italy, bawdier versions were circulating. In 1927, New York City's Italian Book Company arranged and recorded a version by Sicilian sailor Paolo Citorello (sometimes spelled Citarella), and an American court upheld their copyright in 1928.


title: C'è la luna mezzo mare

text: Since the first recording in 1927, the song has proliferated with different titles and lyrics, both in English and in several variants of Italian. Hit recordings in the United States have included "Oh! Ma-Ma!" by Rudy Vallée (1938, peaked at No. 8) and "Lazy Mary" by Lou Monte (1958, peaked at No. 12). Monte's version was initially banned from British broadcasts for undesirable innuendo, but has been played to a family-filled baseball stadium during the seventh-inning stretch at almost every New York Mets home game since the mid-1990s, as the result of a fan survey. The humorous lyrics center around a young woman wondering about marriage with various tradesmen (butcher, fisherman, fireman, etc.), ensuring the song's sustained popularity at Italian wedding receptions, including the opening scene of "The Godfather" (1972).. The song was also included in the 2010 videogame mafia II, as part of the ficticious radio station Empire Classic. In early 2022 the song was used as part of a popular TikTok trend where creators would use the song showing things in their home that just make sense while making a stereotypical Italian hand gesture to the beat of the song.


title: Panacea

text: In Greek mythology, Panacea (Greek "Πανάκεια", Panakeia), a goddess of universal remedy, was the daughter of Asclepius and Epione. Panacea and her four sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art:


title: Panacea

text: However, portrayals of the family were not always consistent; Panacea and her sisters each at times appear as Asclepius' wife instead.


title: Panacea

text: Panacea traditionally had a poultice or potion with which she healed the sick. This brought about the concept of the panacea in medicine, a substance with the alleged property of curing all diseases. The term "panacea" has also come into figurative use as meaning "something used to solve all problems".


title: Panacea

text: Ὄμνυμι Ἀπόλλωνα ἰητρὸν καὶ Ἀσκληπιὸν καὶ Ὑγείαν καὶ Πανάκειαν καὶ θεοὺς πάντας τε καὶ πάσας ἵστορας ποιεύμενος ἐπιτελέα ποιήσειν κατὰ δύναμιν καὶ κρίσιν ἐμὴν ὅρκον τόνδε καὶ ξυγγραφὴν τήνδε.


title: Panacea

text: I swear, calling upon Apollo the physician and Asclepius, Hygeia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses as witnesses, that I will fulfill this oath and this contract according to my ability and judgment.


title: Panacea

text: A river in Thrace/Moesia took its name from the goddess, and is still known in modern Bulgaria as the river Zlatna Panega ("Golden Panega", from Greek "panakeia").


title: Nasir (album)

text: Nasir is the twelfth studio album by American rapper Nas. It was released on June 15, 2018 through Mass Appeal Records and Def Jam Recordings. It succeeds Nas album "Life Is Good", released six years prior in 2012. The album features an appearance from Kanye West, who also produced the entirety of the album, as well as guest appearances from Puff Daddy, 070 Shake, Tony Williams, and The-Dream.


title: Nasir (album)

text: The album is executive produced by West, and is the fourth of five seven-track albums West produced in what has become known as the "Wyoming Sessions", with each album being released weekly. It follows the release of Pusha T's "Daytona", West's "Ye", and West's collaboration with Kid Cudi entitled "Kids See Ghosts", and precedes the release of Teyana Taylor's "K.T.S.E.". "Nasir" rose to No. 5 on the "Billboard 200" and No. 16 on the UK Albums chart.


title: Nasir (album)

text: American musician DJ Khaled's 2016 album "Major Key" featured a track titled "Nas Album Done" with Nas which announced the completion of his album. The same year, Kanye West expressed his wish to produce an album by Nas, seemingly promising Barack Obama that he would achieve this.


title: Nasir (album)

text: In May 2017, Nas' brother, Jungle, made a post on Instagram in a recording studio with the hashtag #NasAlbumAlmostDone.


title: Nasir (album)

text: In April 2018, Kanye West announced that he was producing Nas' new album with a release date of June 15, 2018. West later released an incomplete track listing of the five albums he was working on, revealing the Nas track "Everything". On June 12, West revealed a full tentative tracklist for the album, while the album title and cover art was revealed on June 14, a day before release.


title: Nasir (album)

text: A listening party for the album took place on June 14, 2018 in Queensbridge, New York City and was streamed via Mass Appeal's YouTube channel.


title: Nasir (album)

text: "Nasir" was met with generally mixed reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 58, based on 16 reviews.


title: Nasir (album)

text: For "The A.V. Club", Colin McGowan praised Kanye West's "lavishly triumphant production" on songs such as "White Label" and Nas' political awareness on "Cops Shot the Kid" but observed filler in the "empty empowerment" of "Everything" and the "late-90s jiggy rap" of "Bonjour"; he concluded that "Nasir" was a less-than-definitive experiment for the rapper. Elizabeth Aubrey of "NME" wrote: "Whilst stylistically "Nasir" may well have plenty of strong moments, its contradictions make it a difficult, problematic listen: it’s the silences on here which so often deafen." She praised West's production and the album's brevity, as well as Nas' lyrical maturity and social awareness, however noted that the political beliefs shared sometimes "ring hollow", being at odds with views shared by West. She also believed the rapper's male gaze of women conflicted with the album's underlying theme of equality, while failing to address allegations of abuse by Nas' ex-wife Kelis: "It's a deeply troubling conflict on an album that manages to be so successfully woke on one level and yet so blatantly archaic on another".


title: Nasir (album)

text: Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" praised West's production and Nas' tackling of social justice issues but also criticised Nas for not addressing domestic violence allegations, as well as for the "mercurial" nature of his lyrics stating "[Nas'] rhymes shifting from acute, powerful indictments of racism to stuff that makes no sense, or seems to be there purely for the purposes of provocation" and describing some of the themes as "conspiracy theories". In a review for "Rolling Stone", Paul Thompson described the album as "a frustrating listen, with glimpses of greatness". He wrote that ""Nasir" is among the weakest Nas albums, but there’s nothing spectacular about its failure", describing it as "unfocused and unclear", however noted that "there are interesting flashes elsewhere on the album", praising "Everything" and "Adam and Eve", as well as describing "Cops Shot the Kid" as "cogent". Online hip hop publication "HipHopDX" described the album as "imperfect fine art", concluding that "When you factor in all its dexterity, randomness and overall generality, it’s hard to truly believe "Nasir" was the album he had been cerebrally building these past six years." Robert Christgau gave the album a one-star honorable mention () in his capsule-review column for "Vice", singling out "Cops Shot the Kid" and "Everything" as highlights while crediting Nas for "bringing the knowledge, mixing in the sophistry, and dropping a laugh line he knows the boss [West] can't top: 'Everybody's saying my humility's infectious,' what a card".


title: Nasir (album)

text: Later Nas couldn't really explain why the album didn't resonate with audiences and critics. "I don’t know what went wrong," Nas began. “I like "Cop Shot the Kid,' I like 'Adam and Eve. I like the music in 'Simple Things.' It’s a short album. We just didn’t get enough time. I wish we’d worked on it more.“


title: Nasir (album)

text: "Nasir" debuted at number five on the US "Billboard" 200 with 77,000 album-equivalent units, of which 49,000 were pure album sales. It serves as Nas's twelfth top-ten album in the United States. The album dropped to the number 36 in its second week, earning an additional 14,000 album-equivalent units.


title: Jason Kander

text: Jason David Kander (born May 4, 1981) is an American attorney, author, veteran, and politician. A Democrat, he served as the 39th secretary of state of Missouri, from 2013 to 2017. He had previously served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 2009 to 2013. Before entering politics, he was an intelligence officer in the Army National Guard, achieving the rank of captain.


title: Jason Kander

text: He was the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate for Missouri in 2016, narrowly losing the election to Republican incumbent Roy Blunt. After the Senate election, Kander founded an organization called Let America Vote, a campaign dedicated to ending voter suppression. He declared as a candidate in the 2019 Kansas City mayoral election, but dropped out on October 2, 2018, after revealing that he suffered from PTSD and depression.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander serves as president of national expansion at VCP (Veterans Community Project), a non-profit organization serving homeless and at-risk veterans with tiny homes, wrap-around support services, and emergency assistance.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander was born on May 4, 1981 in Overland Park, Kansas, the son of Janet (née Secor), a juvenile probation officer, and Steve Kander, a police officer who later ran a small business. His father is Jewish, and Kander was brought up in a Jewish household that he describes as "Reform but not very observant." He was raised in Shawnee, Kansas with his younger brother, Jeff, and several troubled children that his parents fostered. He graduated from Bishop Miege High School in 1999, where he played baseball and was a member of the debate team.


title: Jason Kander

text: After the September 11 attacks, Kander enlisted in the Army National Guard. While earning his JD degree at Georgetown University Law Center in the capital; he earned his commission as a second lieutenant through the University's ROTC battalion.


title: Jason Kander

text: He completed law school in 2005, and volunteered for a tour in Afghanistan. There he served as an intelligence officer. While serving, his main responsibilities included investigating groups and individuals suspected of corruption, espionage, drug trafficking, and facilitating Al Qaeda and the Taliban.


title: Jason Kander

text: When he returned home, Kander took a position as an instructor at the Missouri Army National Guard's Officer Candidate School at Fort Leonard Wood. He taught 'leadership skills in combat' to hundreds of students. He also worked as an adjunct instructor in political science at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, and as an attorney at local law firms. In 2010, he was named one of ten finalists for the Army Reserve Association's Major General Strom Thurmond Outstanding Junior Officer of the Year Award. He was honorably discharged at the rank of captain in 2011.


title: Jason Kander

text: Heartland Democrats of America (HDA) was a political action committee founded in 2005 in Kansas City, Missouri by Kander and his wife, Diana. He served as the treasurer until 2007. HDA raised over one hundred thousand dollars from special interest groups and individuals in support of Democratic candidates and causes. Notable supporters included current and former state and city elected officials, along with national figures, such as Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman and former Virginia governor; George Lakoff, an author and professor at the University of California, Berkeley; John Halpin, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress; and Mark Talisman, an author, Democratic activist, and president of the Project Judaica Foundation.


title: Jason Kander

text: HDA's mission was to "recognize the need for Democrats to engage in, expand, and ultimately win the 'values debate.' HDA members understand that progress cannot wait for the next campaign season, because Democrats need to start changing minds now. HDA champions strong Democratic values in Missouri and throughout America's Heartland. The era of the apologetic Democrat in middle America is being laid to rest forever – replaced by a unifying values message worthy of the hard-working people of middle America." HDA was officially terminated in 2008.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 2008, representing the 44th district. He easily defeated two other Democrats in the primary election, and was unchallenged in the general election.


title: Jason Kander

text: Serving on the Budget Committee, Kander fought against no-bid contracts and worked to pass balanced budgets without raising taxes. He helped pass legislation strengthening Missouri's human trafficking laws, as well as a law that enabled authorities to prevent kidnappings during custody battles. In addition to his legislative duties, he was appointed in 2009 to serve on the Missouri Veterans Commission, which oversees all services for the state's veterans. In 2010, Kander worked with Republican colleague Tim Flook to pass the first major ethics reform bill in Missouri since 1991. Later that year, he ran for re-election to his seat and won 69.6% of the vote to defeat Republican Sally Miller.


title: Jason Kander

text: During his time in the Missouri House, Kander was the chief sponsor of 28 bills, none of which became law.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander announced his candidacy for the Missouri secretary of state after Robin Carnahan announced she would not seek reelection. He defeated MD Rabbi Alam in the primary election, winning the Democratic nomination.


title: Jason Kander

text: In the general election, Kander faced the speaker pro tempore of the Missouri House, Shane Schoeller. Schoeller ran on a platform of implementing stricter voter identification rules. By contrast, Kander opposed harsher voter identification rules, instead focusing on reforming the state's campaign finance laws.


title: Jason Kander

text: On November 6, 2012, Kander narrowly defeated Schoeller and was elected Missouri secretary of state. At 32 years old, he was the youngest statewide elected official in the nation at the time, as well as the first millennial.


title: Jason Kander

text: While in office, Kander made ethics reform one of his top priorities. He admitted this could be "an uphill battle' given that Missouri has had some of the weakest ethics laws in the country and Republicans had supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature. "I am realistic about the fact that it is not easy to get any legislative body to police itself. There is no interest group in Jefferson City called Big Ethics. I just remind legislators of both parties that this is something that the public expects of all of us," he said in 2014.


title: Jason Kander

text: On February 19, 2015, Kander entered the race to represent Missouri in the United States Senate against Roy Blunt, the Republican incumbent. He won the Democratic primary against three other candidates on August 2, 2016. During the campaign, he positioned himself as a Washington, D.C. outsider and touted his experience as an Army Intelligence officer. He accused Blunt of being well connected to DC lobbyists (Blunt's wife and three children are in fact lobbyists). Blunt in turn accused Kander of being too liberal.


title: Jason Kander

text: In September, Kander's campaign received national attention when it released an advertisement explaining his support for gun control measures. Titled "Background Checks", it showed him assembling an AR-15 rifle while blindfolded and then challenging Blunt to attempt the same thing. The advertisement quickly went viral, and as of November 2016, the original YouTube video had earned more than 1.3 million views. Initially, Kander was well behind in the race, but polls started to show a tightening in the fall. In response to this, Blunt campaign began attacking Kander for being a national co-chair for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.


title: Jason Kander

text: During the campaign, Kander received endorsements from Americans for Responsible Solutions, Daily Kos, the League of Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and the Sierra Club.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander was defeated by Blunt in the general election, receiving 46.4% of the vote to Blunt's 49.2%. In spite of the loss, Kander received the most votes of any Democrat running statewide in Missouri that year, outperforming Clinton, gubernatorial candidate Chris Koster, and other Democrats.


title: Jason Kander

text: On June 25, 2018, Kander announced that he was running for mayor of Kansas City in 2019 to replace incumbent Sly James, who was term limited.


title: Jason Kander

text: Prior to his announcement, Kander had been repeatedly mentioned as a possible contender for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Speculation about his presidential ambitions had been fueled by his frequent visits to the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire, and Kander had suggested he would consider exploring a bid after the 2018 midterm elections were finished. His campaign for mayor effectively put that speculation to rest. In January 2021, Kander confirmed via Twitter that he had been intending to run for president in 2020.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander dropped out of the mayoral race on October 2, 2018, citing the need to get treatment for symptoms of PTSD and depression. He also announced that he would be stepping away temporarily from his work with Let America Vote as he receives treatment.


title: Jason Kander

text: In November 2020, Kander was named as a potential candidate for Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Biden administration. Later in December, Denis McDonough was announced as the nominee.


title: Jason Kander

text: In 2017, Kander became a CNN contributor. He hosts the Wonder Media Network podcast "Majority 54 with Jason Kander & Ravi Gupta": he and his guests explore how Democrats can talk about divisive issues with people who voted for Donald Trump. In 2018, he published his first book, "Outside the Wire: 10 Lessons I've Learned in Everyday Courage", reflecting on the period of his time in the military, to when he launched his first political campaign. He also explores how the Democratic Party should proceed following the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In 2022, he published his memoir, "Invisible Storm: A Soldier's Memoir of Politics and PTSD", about his journey to post-traumatic growth. Both books were named New York Times Bestsellers.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander has also lent his support to other Democrats running for office, such as Jon Ossoff, Phil Murphy, Conor Lamb, Stacey Abrams, and Kyrsten Sinema.


title: Jason Kander

text: In 2017 Kander founded Let America Vote, a political action organization. Its mission is to end voter suppression and gerrymandering across the country. The group raised approximately $2.4 million in its first year. Notable members of its advisory board include human rights activist Martin Luther King III, actor Bradley Whitford, and former White House officials Josh Earnest, Jon Favreau, and Dan Pfeiffer. In his capacity as president of Let America Vote, Kander also serves as chairman of the DNC's Commission on Protecting American Democracy from the Trump Administration. Congresswoman Terri Sewell serves as vice chair.


title: Jason Kander

text: He considers overturning "Citizens United v. FEC" a political priority. In addition to helping pass ethics reform while a state representative, while serving as secretary of state, he forbade his office employees from taking any gifts from lobbyists.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander supports the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.


title: Jason Kander

text: For higher education, he supports capping interest rates on federal student loans and expanding Pell Grants to provide more aid to low-income students. He believes students who have graduated need to be able to refinance their loans at lower rates.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander supports tax breaks for the middle class and closing tax loopholes for corporations. He is in favor of increasing the federal minimum wage, and for ensuring equal pay for equal work. He is supportive of adding a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution.


title: Jason Kander

text: Ahead of the August 7, 2018 referendum on Proposition A to adopt right-to-work laws in Missouri, Kander campaigned in opposition to the proposition.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander is skeptical of the Iran nuclear deal. He is pro-Israel and has called on Congress to stop the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.


title: Jason Kander

text: In 2009, Kander voted against a bill that would have extended to renters the Castle Doctrine (a doctrine that allows a homeowner to use deadly force against a perceived intruder). The bill would have also lowered the age requirement for a concealed carry permit and would have removed a ban on carrying a gun on a college campus. The National Rifle Association gives Kander an "F" rating and spent nearly $1 million against him in 2016 (the most money against any candidate that year outside of Ohio).


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander supports improving the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He has proposed changing the 30-hour workweek used to define full-time employees, allowing cheaper plans for people who do not require medical care, and repealing the long-delayed Cadillac tax. He is in favor of a public health insurance option, but also supports single-payer healthcare. He believes states should take advantage of the Medicaid expansion the law provided.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander was critical of Republican senators who refused to meet with Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, citing it as an example of Washington dysfunction. He believes senators should meet with all Supreme Court nominees.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander supports the 2015 United States Supreme Court ruling in "Obergefell v. Hodges" that deemed the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. While a state legislator, he co-sponsored the Missouri Non-discrimination Act (MONA); the bill never became law. Regardless, as secretary of state, he implemented a non-discrimination policy for the office's hiring practices that would have conformed to MONA had it become law. He supports passing the federal Equality Act into law.


title: Jason Kander

text: On immigration policy, Kander is supportive of the bipartisan immigration bill of 2013 that passed the Senate but was never considered by the House. He is opposed to closing the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay but also voted against a measure to prevent Missouri from housing, transporting, or providing medical care to any prisoners suspected of terrorism.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership, believing it hurts working-class families and encourages sending jobs overseas. He is, however, in favor of modernizing the Cuban embargo to allow American farmers and ranchers to sell their goods into Cuba.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander is against privatizing Social Security. On Medicare, he believes the government should be using its marketplace clout to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. He also believes both programs can be strengthened by eliminating wasteful government spending in other sectors.


title: Jason Kander

text: On April 19, 2018, Kander was honored for his commitment to integrity in government with the James C. Kirkpatrick Excellence in Governance Award by the student government association at the University of Central Missouri. At the ceremony, he encouraged the audience to remain confident in the promise of America and to serve wherever they find the opportunity.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander married his high school sweetheart, entrepreneur and author Diana Kander (née Kagan) in 2003. Diana and her family emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1989. The couple has one son named True, who was born in September 2013, and one daughter named Bella, who was born in September 2020.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander is the grand-nephew of musical composer John Kander, whose best-known works include "Cabaret" and "Chicago". He is a distant relative of Lizzie Black Kander, author of "The Settlement Cookbook". He is an avid fan of the Kansas City Royals.


title: Jason Kander

text: Kander also plays centerfield for the Kansas City Hustlers of the National Men's Adult Baseball League.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: Tupelo Honey is the fifth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in October 1971 by Warner Bros. Records. Morrison had written all of the songs on the album in Woodstock, New York, before his move to Marin County, California, except for "You're My Woman", which he wrote during the recording sessions. Recording began at the beginning of the second quarter of 1971 at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco. Morrison moved to the Columbia Studios in May 1971 to complete the album.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The namesake for the album and its title track is a varietal honey produced from the flowers of the tupelo tree found in the Southeastern United States. The album features various musical genres, most prominently country, but also R&B, soul, folk-rock and blue-eyed soul. The lyrics echo the domestic bliss portrayed on the album cover; they largely describe and celebrate the rural surroundings of Woodstock and Morrison's family life with then-wife Janet "Planet" Rigsbee.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: "Tupelo Honey" received most of its success in America; it charted at number 27 on the "Billboard" charts and in 1977 it was certified gold by the RIAA. It failed to reach any of the European or other worldwide charts. The album yielded two hit singles, the hymn-like title track, and the R&B-flavored "Wild Night". The third released single, "(Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball", was less successful and did not enter the "Billboard" Hot 100. The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics at the time of its release, but Morrison's biographers were less favorable towards it in later years.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: Prior to the "Tupelo Honey" recording sessions, Morrison had recorded demo tracks in Woodstock for an upcoming country-and-western album. Some of the tracks planned for "Tupelo Honey" did appear on the album, but other more traditional country songs like "The Wild Side of Life", "Crying Time" and "Banks of the Ohio" were abandoned. Morrison decided to move from Woodstock when the lease on his house expired and the landlord wanted to move back in. He explained to Richard Williams in "Melody Maker" that the release of the documentary film "Woodstock" in 1970 had altered the quaint character of the community: "Everybody and his uncle started showing up at the bus station, and that was the complete opposite of what it was supposed to be." In April 1971, before he began recording on the planned album, Morrison and his family moved to Marin County, California, where his wife, Janet Planet, had family living close by. Morrison's guitarist at the time, John Platania, told biographer Steve Turner that Morrison "didn't want to leave, but Janet wanted to move out West. He was manipulated into going." The Morrisons' new home was in a rural setting situated on a hillside close to San Francisco amid redwood trees. With the move, Morrison abandoned the idea of a full country album and exchanged some of the intended material for songs he had written earlier.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: Morrison was under pressure by Warner Bros. Records to produce chart singles and two albums within a year. His previous album, "His Band and the Street Choir", had been released in November 1970. In an interview with journalist Sean O'Hagan in 1990, he described this period as being in contrast to the laid-back atmosphere pictured on the album cover: "When I went to the West Coast these people [the musicians he had been working with in Woodstock] weren't that available so I had to virtually put a completely new band together overnight to do ["Tupelo Honey"]. So it was a very tough period. I didn't want to change my band but if I wanted to get into the studio I had to ring up and get somebody. That was the predicament I was in."


title: Tupelo Honey

text: Due to the location of the recording sessions of "Tupelo Honey", having moved from New York to California, the only musicians from Morrison's previous band that could work with him were saxophonist Jack Schroer and his wife Ellen (who contributed backing vocals). However, two of the three percussionists on the album had recorded with him in the past; Connie Kay contributed drums to "Astral Weeks" and Gary Mallaber played drums and vibraphone on "Moondance". On this album, Kay played drum kit on four songs and new recruit Rick Shlosser was used for the remaining tracks, while Mallaber played percussion and vibraphone. Biographer Howard DeWitt was convinced that Morrison's music benefited from his move to California, as he comments that "the musical explosion in Marin County also added a great deal to Van's music. In particular, Ronnie Montrose's guitar work made "Tupelo Honey" a rock classic." Mark Jordan and John McFee made up the rest of the rhythm section. The remaining members of the horn section were Bruce Royston and "Boots" Houston on flutes and Luis Gasca on trumpet. The band was augmented by producer Ted Templeman, who contributed organ to the title track.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The first recording sessions took place in the spring of 1971 at the Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco and continued for three weeks. Only four of the songs recorded were chosen for "Tupelo Honey": "Wild Night"; "Moonshine Whiskey"; "I Wanna Roo You" and "Like a Cannonball". Rick Shlosser and John McFee played on these tracks, but were dropped from the second sessions. Engineer Stephen Barncard remembered that "We'd get the band rehearsed, then Ted Templeman would go to the hotel, pick up Van ... We did one or two takes, he'd go back to the hotel and the band would go on to the next tune."


title: Tupelo Honey

text: Morrison relocated in the late spring of 1971 to the Columbia Studios, San Francisco to record a second session of tracks for the album. This time Morrison rehearsed the songs before recording began, which helped the sessions run more smoothly. "You're My Woman" was recorded a few days after the other songs, with Rick Shlosser back playing drums.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The vocals on the album were always live after rehearsing each song five or six times, according to saxophonist and flautist "Boots" Houston, who further commented that when Morrison and the band went into the studio: "we would then just play a whole set straight through without repeating anything. We would have played maybe twenty songs and Van would go back and cut out the songs he didn't want. The only time we'd go back would be to overdub backing vocals or horns." Ted Templeman remarked that he had to go through three engineers during the recording of the album, due to Morrison's "ability as a musician, arranger and producer": "When he's got something together, he wants to put it down right away with no overdubbing ... I've had to change engineers who couldn't keep up with him."


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The rural setting in Marin County furnished the backdrop for the domestic bliss associated with the album, and the songs' lyrics contained harmonious references to the "good life at home". In an interview given to "New Spotlight" magazine at the time, Morrison's wife, Janet Planet, referred to Morrison's dislike of socializing at this time: "Really he is a recluse. He is quiet. We never go anywhere. We don't go to parties. We never go out. We have an incredibly quiet life and going on the road is the only excitement we have." Although Morrison said that the songs on the album "had been hanging around " and according to biographer Steve Turner they were written in Woodstock, musician Ronnie Montrose recalled that Morrison wrote one of the tunes, "You're My Woman", while sitting at the piano during the recording sessions in California.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The album opens with "Wild Night", a hybrid of R&B, soul and country music influences, which uses a moderate time signature and features the lead guitar playing of Ronnie Montrose. The song's intro was created, according to Montrose, when "One afternoon I was messing around with what is now the intro on the record, [Van] stopped me and ... said ' ... that thing you just played ... that's the intro, don't forget it. This guitar-driven intro in Clinton Heylin's opinion made it one of Morrison's most memorable singles. "Wild Night", which has been described by biographer Ken Brooks as "a great start to the album", was first recorded after the "Astral Weeks" sessions in Autumn 1968 and was re-recorded numerous times before its eventual release on "Tupelo Honey". Morrison recalled during an interview that the song was originally "a much slower number, but when we got to fooling around with it in the studio, we ended up doing it in a faster tempo."


title: Tupelo Honey

text: "(Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball" combines a moderately swung waltz with blue-eyed soul. The song boasts a cheery guitar riff accompanied by acoustic guitars and flutes. Lyrically the song praises nature as an easy solution to the stresses of life, referring possibly to both Woodstock and Marin.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: "Old Old Woodstock" is a tribute to Morrison's previous life in upstate New York. The theme of domestic bliss is encapsulated in this song, as it shows a strong sensitivity towards children and family life. Howard Dewitt comments that "It is a moving and compelling look at a satisfying period in Van's life." Musically the song contains the music genres jazz and folk. Janet Planet served as the inspiration for the song and also performed backing vocals on the recording.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: Jon Landau describes "Starting a New Life" as "both the simplest and lyrically the most significant cut on the album as Van spells out with perfect clarity the statement of "Tupelo Honey": it expresses his need to take stock of himself, to see how far he has come, to record the support of those who have helped him get there, and together with them to 'start a new life.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The last song that was recorded for the album was "You're My Woman". This slow, blues-influenced ballad was influenced by Janet Planet. As perhaps a last-minute decision Morrison added this song to the album in place of "Listen to the Lion", just before it was released. The recording of "Listen to the Lion" was released a year later on "Saint Dominic's Preview".


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The title song, "Tupelo Honey", is a classic love ballad in a vein established with "Crazy Love" from the album "Moondance". Both songs have the same melody and chord progression, and are in time. "Uncut" reviewer David Cavanagh wrote: "On an album where the vocals are exultant to say the least, this song sees Morrison use larynx, diaphragm, teeth and tongue to find new ways of enunciating the lines 'she's as sweet as Tupelo honey' and 'she's all right with me', seemingly in ever-increasing adoration." Bob Dylan (who performed the song with Morrison during a concert tour in the 1990s) once remarked that Tupelo Honey' has always existed and that Morrison was merely the vessel and the earthly vehicle for it". Greil Marcus called the song "a kind of odyssey" evoking Elvis Presley (whose hometown was Tupelo, Mississippi), and "the most gorgeous number on the album" that "was too good not to be true."


title: Tupelo Honey

text: "I Wanna Roo You (Scottish Derivative)" is a country-flavored waltz that prominently features John McFee's steel guitar and Ronnie Montrose's mandolin. The "Scottish Derivative" subtitle refers to the word "roo" featured in the song, which is a Scottish slang word for "woo".


title: Tupelo Honey

text: "When That Evening Sun Goes Down" is described by Erik Hage as a "hootenanny flavored" tune driven by "barrel-house honkey-tonk piano". Like "Wild Night", it was first recorded in Autumn 1968 and on various other recording sessions by Morrison before its release on "Tupelo Honey". An alternative take of the song was featured as the B-side of the "Wild Night" single.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The final song, "Moonshine Whiskey", has been compared musically to the likes of The Band, (earlier in 1971 Morrison had worked with The Band in Woodstock). The song fluctuates between a slow and fast a time throughout. During the coda it accelerates to an abrupt ending. "Moonshine Whiskey" combines country rock and soul in a song that Morrison once spoke of as having been written for "Janis Joplin or something." (Joplin lived in Woodstock around the same time as Morrison.) There is also a comic element to the song with Morrison imitating fish blowing bubbles.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The title of the album derives from the varietal honey produced from the flowers of the tupelo tree found predominantly in Florida.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The photos on the album were taken by Michael Maggid, a friend of Morrison's then wife Janet Planet, in the town of Fairfax. The original LP was released in a gatefold sleeve. The cover photograph showed Planet, riding bareback on a horse, with Morrison walking alongside. The gatefold and back cover photographs showed Morrison perched upon the fence of the horse's paddock, with his wife standing to his right and a black-and-white kitten on the fence to his left. This rural setting depicting a bygone era was in vogue on album covers at the time as rock artists moved from cities to rural communities. The Band, CSNY and Grateful Dead had similar themes on album covers in 1969 and 1970. Morrison later complained of the cover, explaining that, "The picture was taken at a stable and I didn't live there. We just went there and took the picture and split. A lot of people seem to think that album covers are your life or something."


title: Tupelo Honey

text: "Tupelo Honey" was first released on LP in October 1971 on Warner Bros. Records. The album reached number 27 on the "Billboard" 200, which was the highest position reached in the US by any of Morrison's albums at that point. However it failed to reach any of the charts across Europe. By the middle of 1974 "Tupelo Honey" had sold well over 350,000 copies (50,000 more than "Moondance"), and in 1977 it was certified gold by the RIAA.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: Three singles were released from the album. The first, "Wild Night", with a rare alternative take on "When That Evening Sun Goes Down" as the B-side, proved popular enough to reach number 28 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. The single fared slightly better in The Netherlands, peaking at number 24. "Tupelo Honey" reached number 47 on the US singles chart, with the B-side "Starting a New Life". "(Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball", with "Old Old Woodstock" as the B-side, was the third single from the album and only reached number 119, just outside the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: The album was reissued on CD in 1990 by Polydor Records. Another CD reissue was released in 1997 by Polydor and Mercury Records. The 29 January 2008 reissued and remastered version of the album, released on CD, contains an alternate extended (5:32) take of "Wild Night" and a reworked cover version of the traditional song "Down by the Riverside". It was also reissued on vinyl, but without the bonus tracks.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: "Tupelo Honey" was well received by critics upon the album's release. Jon Landau wrote in "Rolling Stone": "Tupelo Honey is in one sense but another example of the artist making increased use of the album as the unit of communication as opposed to merely the song or the cut. Everything on it is perfectly integrated." "ZigZag" magazine reviewer John Tobler, who also reviewed the album just after its release, gave the album high praise, saying "If all music were as good as this, there wouldn't be any reason to make any more, because this is the real thing." Critic Dave Marsh called it "the perfect album for Van: he does everything...so incredibly well. There isn't a bad cut on it, of that I'm really sure." Robert Christgau from "The Village Voice" voiced reservations in his praise of the album, writing that it was "almost as rich in cute tunes as The Shirelles' "Greatest Hits", but I worry that domestic bliss with Janet Planet has been softening Van's noodle more than the joy of cooking requires." "Tupelo Honey" was later ranked the fourth best album of the year in the Village Voice's first annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: Morrison's biographers were less impressed by the album. Johnny Rogan commented: ""Tupelo Honey" was no masterpiece but it was a considerable improvement upon "His Band and the Street Choir". At a time when the rock élite were seduced by the lovelorn laments and steel guitars of country rock, Morrison emerged with a work that offered a soulful romantic veneer without lapsing into banal sentimentality." Erik Hage held the opinion that by this time Morrison had become famous enough to be insulated from constructive criticism, resulting in some of the love songs to Janet Planet on the album containing: "obvious lyrical platitudes (truly some of his worst poetry since the revenge songs for Bang Records) and less-than-inspired arrangements."


title: Tupelo Honey

text: It was ranked number 944 from votes taken in the third edition of Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums" in 2000.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: In 2009, music journalist Erik Hage wrote that "Tupelo Honey" "has become one of Morrison's most likeable albums, but the very elements that make it appealing to many—the homey feeling, the personal odes to married life—also make it a complacent album for an artist who had been pushing forward and challenging boundaries for the past few years."


title: Tupelo Honey

text: Morrison was expected to tour to promote the album, but at this time he had developed a phobia about performing that was especially problematic when appearing before large audiences. John Platania was playing in concerts with Morrison and spoke of noticing his confidence ebbing away: "There were many times when he literally had to be coaxed on stage. His motto was 'The show does not have to go on'. He would create the choice of whether he would go on stage or not." Morrison announced before an impending performance at a larger venue that he was retiring from performing live. After regaining his confidence by making regular and informal performances at a small club near his home, he began to tour coast-to-coast again in 1972.


title: Tupelo Honey

text: Morrison said afterwards that he "wasn't very happy" with it. "It consisted of songs that were left over from before and that they'd finally gotten around to using. It wasn't really fresh. It was a whole bunch of songs that had been hanging around for a while. I was really trying to make a country and western album." He commented further that he seldom listened to it and had a bad taste in his mouth for both "His Band and the Street Choir" and "Tupelo Honey".


title: Ansha Sayed

text: Ansha Sayed is an Indian actress. She is best known for portraying Sub-Inspector Purvi in "C.I.D.". Her other notable roles include Leelavati on "Laagi Tujhse Lagan", Jenny in "Rang Badalti Odhani."


title: Ansha Sayed

text: Ansha Sayed has appeared in episodes of Aahat and Laagi Tujhse Lagan. She is known for her role as Sub-Inspector Purvi in "C.I.D.".


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: "Crazy" is a song written by the English singer Seal and British songwriter Guy Sigsworth. It was produced by Trevor Horn for Seal's debut album, "Seal" (1991) and became his first commercial hit. It reached the top five in the United Kingdom, while becoming his first top ten single in the United States. It has since been covered by several artists, including Alanis Morissette, whose version was released as a single from her 2005 compilation album, "The Collection".


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: Seal wrote "Crazy" in 1990 inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. In 2015, Seal said of the song's conception in 1990: "I felt the cycle had reached its apex. I felt the world changing and I felt profound things happening."


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: According to the song's producer Trevor Horn, "Crazy" was made over the course of two months: "Crazy wasn't an easy record to make, because we were aiming high."


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: The song's signature is a keyboard mantra that continually swells and swirls, driven by bass-heavy beats and wah-wah pedal guitars played by Simply Red guitarist Kenji Suzuki. Its floating, ambient stylings established a sound years before "The Politics of Dancing" by Paul Van Dyk or William Orbit's work with Madonna and All Saints. Orbit produced a remix of the track for the single release. Seal's vocals are deeply melodic and soulful, at times with a characteristic rasp, while at others soaring high above the backing track. In an interview with Q, Seal told:


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: I had no doubt about 'Crazy'. I always thought it was a potential No. 1—even though it never was! It's the first song I wrote on the guitar, and the first song where I said everything I wanted to say in a concise way. Before that my songs had been too long. But as soon as I wrote the hook, I knew it was a potential hit.


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: In the United Kingdom the song was released as the first single from the album "Seal" in November 1990 (see 1990 in music) and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart in January 1991 and is Seal's biggest solo hit there. The single sold over 200,000 copies, thus earning a BPI Silver certification. It won Seal a number of awards including the 1992 Ivor Novello award for songwriting.


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: The single was released in the United States in 1991, debuting at number eighty-three on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in mid-June; it peaked at number seven in late August and remained on the chart for nineteen weeks, until October. It reached the top five on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and the top twenty on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart. It was the most commercially successful single from "Seal" and was Seal's biggest hit in the US until "Kiss from a Rose", which reached number 1 in 1995. In August 2003 an acoustic version of "Crazy" charted at number four on "Billboard"'s Hot Digital Tracks chart.


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: Larry Flick from "Billboard" felt that the UK newcomer "comes on like a cross between Terence Trent D'Arby and Lenny Kravitz on this keyboard-driven funk'n'soul jam." The Daily Vault's Jason Warburg stated that it is "an obvious club track with its propulsive synthesizer melody and driving rhythm section. The Shaft guitar part closing out the bridge is a nice touch, too, demonstrating just how effectively Seal has grafted synthesized dance music onto its funk roots." Pan-European magazine "Music & Media" called it "adventurous techno-pop by this promising UK singer who sang on Adamski's recent hit single Killer. Produced by Trevor Horn, this classy, galloping mix of funk, soul and pop is currently riding high on the UK charts. Europe should be next." Bob Mack from "Spin" noted Seal's "stirring vocal that's being compared to Marvin Gaye" and added that "based on a '70s cop-show-type bass synth line, "Crazy" flows natch enough that you hum along on first listening." Siobhan O'Neill commented on the song in the 2010 book "10,001 Songs You Must Hear…", "Full of drug and dance scene references, "Crazy" blends soulful lyrics and husky vocals with Horn's trademark sweeping orchestration and a voguish electronic backing—a combination that, in the wake of this and Massive Attack, became the template for a whole strand of dance music."


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: The single's music video, directed by Big TV!, features multiple re-creations of Seal himself performing the song against a primarily white background. A female dancer appears just before the bridge of the song, and at the end Seal holds a dove while snow falls on him. The video received heavy rotation on MTV Europe.


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: The song is played during a party scene in the film "Naked in New York" (1993), is heard in a "Baywatch" episode, in the trailer for the film "The Basketball Diaries" (1995) and featured in a scene in "Clockers", released in 1995. It is also heard in the middle of "True Calling", the second episode of Season 6 of TV's "Cold Case". It was also used as a theme song for the ABC-TV series "Murder One," which was transmitted during the 1995–1996 television season. It is also heard in the film "Mystery Date". The song featured in the 1999 Robbie the Reindeer film "Hooves of Fire", where it is performed by a seal.


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: The hard rock band Talisman covered the song on their 1995 album "Life", and a version by power metal band Iron Savior is included as a bonus track on their 2002 album, "Condition Red".


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: Two cover versions were released in 2003: one by punk covers band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes on their 2003 album "Take a Break", and another by alternative metal band Mushroomhead as a hidden track on their 2003 album, "XIII". In 2004, the song was covered by Brooklyn Bounce.


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: French pop singer Tal covered this song for her debut album, "Le droit de rêver", in the deluxe edition released in 2012.


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: Alanis Morissette covered the song for a Gap advertisement in 2005, and a James Michael-produced remix of her version, which was originally produced by Morissette's longtime collaborator Glen Ballard, was released as a single from her greatest hits album, "The Collection" (2005). Her version is briefly heard over an establishing shot of Central Park in the 2006 film "The Devil Wears Prada". Morissette said of the cover, "it's poking fun not only at how I've been perceived but also at what I've accurately been perceived as." She called the main line in the song, "You're never going to survive/Unless you get a little crazy", "one of the simplest, yet most profound statements."


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: Released in the US in mid-October 2005 (see 2005 in music), Morissette's cover was less successful than Seal's original; it failed to chart on the Hot 100, instead debuting and peaking at number four on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart (which comprises the most popular songs yet to enter the Hot 100) in late November. It was another top ten hit for Morissette on the Adult Top 40 chart and was popular in nightclubs, becoming Morissette's second top ten Hot Dance Club Play hit after "Eight Easy Steps" (2004). It reached number twenty-nine in Canada and the top forty across much of Continental Europe, but in the United Kingdom it became Morissette's lowest peaking single, reaching sixty-five.


title: Crazy (Seal song)

text: The single's video was directed by Meiert Avis, who directed the video for Morissette's "Everything" (2004), and shot in Los Angeles, California in the week ending 24 September. In it Morissette is seen walking the streets at night, performing the song in a club and obsessively following a man (played by Chris William Martin) and his girlfriend. Eventually, Morissette confronts the man at a party. During a 22 October appearance on the UK television show "popworld", Morissette said the video's final shot, which is of a photo showing her and the woman close together, is supposed to reveal to the audience (who, before this point, are meant to believe the man is her ex-boyfriend) that she was actually following the woman.


title: Vought Model 1600

text: The Vought/General Dynamics Model 1600 series was a fighter aircraft proposal designed for the United States Navy's Navy Air Combat Fighter (NACF) program. The Model 1600 was a carrier-based derivative of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, but lost to the Northrop/McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet.


title: Vought Model 1600

text: Following the YF-16's victory over the Northrop YF-17 for the U.S. Air Force's ACF competition, General Dynamics decided a navalized variant could also best it in the Navy's Navy Air Combat Fighter (NACF) program. Having no carrier aircraft experience, GD teamed up with Vought (LTV Aerospace), which had designed the successful carrier-capable F-8 Crusader and A-7 Corsair II for the Navy; if selected, Vought would have produced the carrier version of the F-16.


title: Vought Model 1600

text: LTV created three concepts for the navalized F-16. The main proposal was the Model 1600, which was based on the Block 10 F-16. It featured structural strengthening, an arrestor hook, and a more robust undercarriage to accommodate the rigors of carrier launch and recovery operations. The Model 1600 employed the Pratt & Whitney F401, but two other powerplant choices were also explored. The Model 1601 had an improved Pratt & Whitney F100, while the Model 1602 used the General Electric F101. The aircraft was to be armed with AIM-7 Sparrow air-air missiles. Launch rails were to be added on the sides of the intakes for AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. However, the Navy preferred a twin-engine aircraft, among other reasons, and on 2 May 1975 it selected the Northrop-McDonnell Douglas YF-17-based Model 267 proposal, which became the F/A-18 Hornet.


title: Curiosity

text: Curiosity (from Latin "cūriōsitās", from "cūriōsus" "careful, diligent, curious", akin to "cura" "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans and other animals. Curiosity is heavily associated with all aspects of human development, in which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge and skill.


title: Curiosity

text: The term "curiosity" can also be used to denote the behavior or emotion of being curious, in regard to the desire to gain knowledge or information. Curiosity as a behavior and emotion is attributed over millennia as the driving force behind not only human development, but developments in science, language, and industry.


title: Curiosity

text: Curiosity can be seen as an innate quality of many different species. It is common to human beings at all ages from infancy through adulthood, and is easy to observe in many other animal species; these include apes, cats, and rodents. Early definitions cite curiosity as a motivated desire for information. This motivational desire has been said to stem from a passion or an appetite for knowledge, information, and understanding.


title: Curiosity

text: These traditional ideas of curiosity have recently expanded to look at the difference between perceptual curiosity as the innate exploratory behavior that is present in all animals and epistemic curiosity as the desire for knowledge that is specifically attributed to humans.


title: Curiosity

text: Daniel Berlyne recognized three major variables playing a role in evoking curiosity; namely, psychophysical variables, ecological variables, and collative variables. Psychophysical variables correspond to physical intensity, while ecological variables to motivational significance and task relevance. Collative variables are called “collative” because they involve a comparison between different stimuli or features, which may be actually perceived or which may be recalled from memory. Berlyne mentioned four collative variables; namely, novelty, complexity, uncertainty, and conflict. At the same time, he suggested that all collative variables probably involve conflict. Additionally, he considered three variables supplementary to novelty, namely change, surprisingness, and incongruity. Finally, curiosity may not only be aroused by the perception of some stimulus associated with the aforementioned variables ("specific exploration"), but also by a lack of stimulation, out of “boredom” ("diversive exploration").


title: Curiosity

text: Curiosity-driven behavior is often defined as behavior through which knowledge is gained, and should therefore encompass all behaviors that provide access to or increase sensory information. Berlyne divided curiosity-driven behavior into three categories; namely, orienting responses, locomotor exploration, and investigatory responses, or, investigatory manipulation. Previously, Berlyne had already suggested that curiosity also includes verbal activities, such as asking questions, and symbolic activities, consisting of internally fueled mental processes such as thinking ("epistemic exploration").


title: Curiosity

text: Like other desires and need states that take on an appetitive quality (e.g. food), curiosity is linked with exploratory behavior and experiences of reward. Curiosity can be described as positive emotions and acquiring knowledge; when one's curiosity has been aroused it is considered inherently rewarding and pleasurable. Discovering new information may also be rewarding because it can help reduce undesirable states of uncertainty rather than stimulating interest. Theories have arisen in attempts to further understand this need to rectify states of uncertainty and the desire to participate in pleasurable experiences of exploratory behaviors.


title: Curiosity

text: Curiosity-drive theory relates to the undesirable experiences of "uncertainty". The reduction of these unpleasant feelings, in turn, is rewarding. This theory suggests that people desire coherence and understanding in their thought processes. When this coherence is disrupted by something that is unfamiliar, uncertain, or ambiguous, it is curiosity-drive that attempts to gather information and knowledge of the unfamiliar to restore coherent thought processes. Through this theory, the general concept dictates that curiosity is developed strictly out of the desire to make sense of unfamiliar aspects of one's environment through interaction of exploratory behaviors. Once understanding of the unfamiliar has been achieved and coherence has been restored, these behaviors and desires will subside.


title: Curiosity

text: Subsets of curiosity-drive theory differ on whether curiosity is a primary or secondary drive and if this curiosity-drive is originated due to one's need to make sense of and regulate their environment or if it is caused by an external stimulus. Causes can range from basic needs that need to be satisfied (e.g. hunger, thirst) to needs in fear induced situations. Each of these subset theories state that whether the need is primary or secondary curiosity is developed from experiences that create a sensation of uncertainty or perceived unpleasantness. Curiosity then acts as a means in which to dispel this uncertainty. By exhibiting curious and exploratory behavior, one is able to gain knowledge of the unfamiliar and thus reduce the state of uncertainty or unpleasantness. This theory, however, does not address the idea that curiosity can often be displayed even in the absence of new or unfamiliar situations. This type of exploratory behavior is common in many species. Take the example of a human toddler who, if bored in his current situation devoid of arousing stimuli, will walk about until something interesting is found. The observation of curiosity even in the absence of novel stimuli pinpoints one of the major shortcomings in the curiosity-drive model.


title: Curiosity

text: Optimal-arousal theory developed out of the need to explain the desire for some to seek out opportunities to engage in exploratory behaviors without the presence of uncertain or ambiguous situations. Optimal-arousal theory attempts to explain this aspect of curiosity by suggesting that one can be motivated to maintain a pleasurable sense of arousal through these exploratory behaviors.


title: Curiosity

text: The concept of optimal-arousal of curiosity suggests that there is a tendency to maintain an optimal level of arousal. When a stimulus is encountered that is associated with complexity, uncertainty, conflict, or novelty, this will increase arousal, and exploratory behavior is employed to learn about that stimulus and thereby reduce arousal again. In contrast, if the environment is boring and lacks excitement, arousal is reduced and exploratory behavior will be engaged in order to increase information input and stimulation, and thereby increasing arousal again. This theory addresses both curiosity elicited by uncertain or unfamiliar situations and curiosity elicited in the absence of such situations.


title: Curiosity

text: Cognitive-consistency theories assume that "when two or more simultaneously active cognitive structures are logically inconsistent, arousal is increased, which activates processes with the expected consequence of increasing consistency and decreasing arousal." Similar to optimal-arousal theory, cognitive-consistency theory suggests that there is a tendency to maintain arousal at a preferred, or expected, level, but it also explicitly links the amount of arousal to the amount of experienced inconsistency between an expected situation and the actually perceived situation. When this inconsistency is small, exploratory behavior triggered by curiosity is employed to gather information with which expectancy can be updated through learning to match perception, thereby reducing inconsistency. This approach puts curiosity in a broader perspective, also involving aggression and fear. That is, if the inconsistency is larger, fear or aggressive behavior may be employed to alter the perception in order to make it match expectancy, depending on the size of the inconsistency as well as the specific context. Aggressive behavior is assumed to alter perception by forcefully manipulating it into matching the expected situation, while uninhibited fear results in fleeing, thereby removing the inconsistent stimulus from the perceptual field and resolving the inconsistency.


title: Curiosity

text: Taking into account the shortcomings of both curiosity-drive and optimal-arousal theories, attempts have been made to integrate neurobiological aspects of reward, wanting, and pleasure into a more comprehensive theory for curiosity. Research suggests that the act of wanting and desiring new information directly involves mesolimbic pathways of the brain that directly account for dopamine activation. The use of these pathways and dopamine activation may account for the assigning of value to new information and then interpreting as reward. This aspect of neurobiology can accompany curiosity-drive theory in motivating exploratory behavior.


title: Curiosity

text: Although the phenomenon of curiosity is widely regarded, its root causes are relatively unknown beyond theory. However, recent studies have provided some insight into the neurological mechanisms that make up what is known as the reward pathway which may impact characteristics associated with curiosity, such as learning, memory, and motivation. Due to the complex nature of curiosity, research that focuses on specific neural processes with these characteristics can help create a better understanding the phenomenon of curiosity as a whole. The following are characteristics of curiosity and their links to neural aspects that can be thought of as essential in creating exploratory behaviors.


title: Curiosity

text: The drive to learn new information or perform some action is often initiated by the anticipation of reward. In this way, the concepts of motivation and reward are naturally tied to the notion of curiosity.


title: Curiosity

text: This idea of reward is defined as the positive reinforcement of an action that encourages a particular behavior by using the emotional sensations of relief, pleasure, and satisfaction that correlate with happiness. Many areas in the brain are used to process reward and come together to form what is called the reward pathway. In this pathway many neurotransmitters play a role in the activation of the reward sensation, including dopamine, serotonin and opioid chemicals.


title: Curiosity

text: Dopamine is linked to the process of curiosity, as it is responsible for assigning and retaining reward values of information gained. Research suggests higher amounts of dopamine is released when the reward is unknown and the stimulus is unfamiliar, compared to activation of dopamine when stimulus is familiar.


title: Curiosity

text: The nucleus accumbens is a formation of neurons and is important in reward pathway activation. As previously mentioned, the reward pathway is an integral part in the induction of curiosity. The release of dopamine in investigating response to novel or exciting stimuli. The fast dopamine release observed during childhood and adolescence is important in development, as curiosity and exploratory behavior are the largest facilitators of learning during early years.


title: Curiosity

text: In addition, the sensation pleasure of "liking" can occur when opioids are released by nucleus accumbens. This helps someone evaluate the unfamiliar situation or environment and attach value to the novel object. These processes of both wanting and liking play a role in activating the reward system of the brain, and perhaps in the stimulation of curious or information-seeking tendencies as well.


title: Curiosity

text: The caudate nucleus, is a region of the brain that is highly responsive to dopamine. The caudate nucleus is another component of the reward pathway. Research has suggested that the role of the caudate nucleus is to anticipate the possibility and reward of exploratory behavior and gathered information, thus contributing to factors of curiosity.


title: Curiosity

text: Regions of the anterior cortices correspond to both conflict and arousal and, as such, seem to reinforce certain exploratory models of curiosity.


title: Curiosity

text: Cortisol is a chemical known for its role in stress regulation. However, cortisol may also be associated with curious or exploratory behavior. Findings in recent studies suggesting the role of cortisol with curiosity support the idea of optimal arousal theory. It is suggested the release of a small amount cortisol causing stress encourages curious behavior, while too much stress can initiate a "back away" response.


title: Curiosity

text: Attention is important to the understanding of curiosity because it directly correlates with one's abilities to selectively focus and concentrate on particular stimuli in the surrounding environment. As there are limited cognitive and sensory resources to understand and evaluate various stimuli, attention allows the brain to better focus on what it perceives to be the most important or relevant of these stimuli. Individuals tend to focus their energies on stimuli that are particularly stimulating or engaging. Indicating that the more attention a stimulus garners, the more frequent one's energy and focus will be directed towards that stimulus. This idea suggests an individual will focus their attention on new or unfamiliar stimuli in an effort to better understand or make sense of the unknown over the more familiar or repetitive stimuli, creating the idea that curiosity demands attention.


title: Curiosity

text: The striatum is a part of the brain which coordinates motivation with body movement. It would seem natural that the striatum plays a role in attention and reward anticipation, both of which are important in the provocation of curiosity.


title: Curiosity

text: The precuneus is a region of the brain that is involved in attention, episodic memory, and visuospatial processing. There has been a correlation found between the amount of grey matter in the precuneus and levels of curious and exploratory behaviors; suggesting that the precuneus density has an influence on levels of curiosity.


title: Curiosity

text: Memory plays an important role in the understanding of curiosity. If curiosity is the desire to seek out and understand unfamiliar or novel stimuli, one's memory is important in determining if the stimulus is indeed unfamiliar.


title: Curiosity

text: Memory is the process by which the brain can store and access information. In order to determine if the stimulus is novel, an individual must remember if the stimulus has been encountered before. Thus, memory plays an integral role in dictating the level of novelty or unfamiliarity, and the level of need for curiosity.


title: Curiosity

text: It can also be suggested that curiosity can affect memory. As previously mentioned, stimuli that are novel tend to capture more of our attention. Additionally, novel stimuli usually have a reward value associated with them, the anticipated reward of what learning that new information may bring. With stronger associations and more attention devoted to a stimulus, it is probable that the memory formed from that stimulus will be longer lasting and easier to recall, both of which facilitate better learning.


title: Curiosity

text: The hippocampus is important in memory formation and recall and therefore instrumental in determining the novelty of various stimuli. Research suggests the hippocampus is involved in generating the underlying motivation to explore for the purpose of learning.


title: Curiosity

text: The parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), the area of grey matter surrounding the hippocampus, has recently been implicated in the process of curiosity. This finding suggests that the PHG may be involved in the amplification of curiosity more so than the primary induction of curiosity.


title: Curiosity

text: The amygdala often is associated with emotional processing, particularly for the emotion of fear, as well as memory. It is suggested the amygdala is important in processing emotional reactions towards novel or unexpected stimuli and the induction of exploratory behavior. This implies a potential connection between curiosity levels and the amygdala. However, more research is needed on direct correlation.


title: Curiosity

text: Jean Piaget is considered to be the most influential child researcher. He argued that babies and children are constantly trying to make sense of their reality and that it contributed to their intellectual development. According to Piaget, children develop hypotheses, conduct experiments and then reassess their hypotheses depending on what they observe. Piaget was the first to closely document children's actions and interpret them as consistent, calculated effort to test and learn about their environment.


title: Curiosity

text: There is no universally accepted definition for curiosity in children. Most research on curiosity has been focused on adults and which typically used self-report measures are inappropriate and inapplicable for studying children. Curiosity is mostly thought of as attributable to a mature person and is characterized in young children as a fledgling feature of their outlook on the world.


title: Curiosity

text: Exploratory behaviour is commonly observed in children and is associated with their curiosity development. Several studies look at children's curiosity by simply observing their interaction with novel and familiar toys.


title: Curiosity

text: There has been evidence found of a relationship between the anxiety children might feel and their curiosity. One study found that object curiosity in 11-year-olds was negatively related to psychological maladjusted so children who exhibit more anxiety in classroom settings engaged in less curious behaviour. It has also been suggested that certain aspects of classroom learning is dependent on curiosity which can be affected by students' anxiety.


title: Curiosity

text: Other measures of childhood curiosity have used exploratory behaviour as a basis but differing on how which parts of this behaviour is best to focus on. Some studies have examined children's preference for complexity/the unknown as a basis for their curiosity measure; others have relied on novelty preference as their basis.


title: Curiosity

text: Researchers have also looked at the relationship between a child's reaction to surprise and curiosity. It has been suggested that children are further motivated to learn when dealing with uncertainty. It is argued that their reactions to not having their expectations met would fuel their curiosity more than the introduction of a novel or complex object would.


title: Curiosity

text: The trait of curiosity has been a subject of interest to philosophers. Curiosity has been recognised as an important intellectual (or ‘epistemic’) virtue, due to the role that it plays in motivating people to acquire knowledge and understanding of the world around them. It has also been suggested to be an important moral virtue, as curiosity can help humans find meaning in their lives and to cultivate a sense of care about others and things in the world.


title: Curiosity

text: Due to its importance, there are debates about the extent to which contemporary societies do an effective job of cultivating the right type of curiosity.


title: Curiosity

text: Some believe that children's curiosity becomes discouraged throughout the process of formal education: "Children are born scientists. From the first ball they send flying to the ant they watch carry a crumb, children use science's tools—enthusiasm, hypotheses, tests, conclusions—to uncover the world's mysteries. But somehow students seem to lose what once came naturally."


title: Curiosity

text: Sir Ken Robinson discusses a similar phenomenon in his TED Talk titled "Do schools kill creativity?" When curiosity in young people leads to knowledge-gathering it is widely seen as a positive.


title: Curiosity

text: Different neurodegenerative diseases or other psychological disorders can affect various characteristics of curiosity, for instance Alzheimer's disease's effects on memory or depression on motivation and reward. Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease that directly affects the capability and capacity for memory. Depression is a mood disorder that is characterized by a lack of interest in one's environment and feelings of sadness or hopelessness. A lack of curiosity for novel stimuli might also be used as a potential predictor for these and other illnesses.


title: Curiosity

text: Morbid curiosity exemplifies an aspect of curiosity that can be seen as focused on objects of death, violence, or any other event that may cause harm physically or emotionally.


title: Curiosity

text: The idea of morbid curiosity typically is described as having an addictive quality. This addictive aspect of the need to understand or make sense of topics that surround harm, violence or death can be attributed to the idea of one's need to relate unusual and often difficult circumstances to a primary emotion or experience of their own, described as meta-emotions.


title: Curiosity

text: Understanding these difficult circumstances dates back to Aristotle in his "Poetics", stating, "We enjoy and admire paintings of objects that in themselves would annoy or disgust us."


title: Curiosity

text: There are two distinct classifications of types of curiosity: state and trait curiosity. Both types determine whether curiosity comes from within or outside of a person. State curiosity is external such as wondering why things happen for the sake of just curiousness, for example, wondering why most stores open at 8 a.m. This type of curiosity tends to be the most relatable for people on a day-to-day basis since state curiosity relates to high levels of reward. On the other hand, trait curiosity relates to people who are interested in learning. Generally, it could be trying out a new sport or food, or traveling to a new unknown place. One can look at curiosity as the urge that draws people out of their comfort zones and fears as the agent that keeps them within those zones.


title: Curiosity

text: AI agents can exhibit curiosity through intrinsic motivation, this can be useful for improving the success of an AI agent at various tasks. In artificial intelligence, curiosity is typically defined quantitatively, as the uncertainty the agent has in predicting its own actions given its current state.


title: Curiosity

text: In 2019, a study trained AI agents to play video games, but they were rewarded only for curiosity. The agents reliably learned advantageous game behaviors based solely on the curiosity reward.


title: Swaminarayan Sampradaya

text: The Swaminarayan Sampradaya, also known as Swaminarayan Hinduism and Swaminarayan movement, is a Hindu Vaishnava sampradaya rooted in Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita, characterized by the worship of its charismatic founder Sahajanand Swami, better known as Swaminarayan (1781–1830), as an avatar of Krishna or as the highest manifestation of Purushottam, the supreme God. According to the tradition's lore, both the religious group and Sahajanand Swami became known as "Swaminarayan" after the Swaminarayan mantra, which is a compound of two Sanskrit words, swami ("master, lord") and Narayan (supreme God, Vishnu).


title: Swaminarayan Sampradaya

text: During his lifetime, Swaminarayan institutionalized his charisma and beliefs in various ways. He constructed six mandirs to facilitate followers' devotional worship of God, and encouraged the creation of a scriptural tradition"." In 1826, in a legal document titled the Lekh, Swaminarayan created two dioceses, the Laxmi Narayan Dev Gadi (Vadtal Gadi) and Nar Narayan Dev Gadi (Ahmedabad Gadi), with a hereditary leadership of acharyas and their wives, who were authorized to install statues of deities in temples and to initiate ascetics.


title: Swaminarayan Sampradaya

text: In Swaminarayan's soteriology the ultimate goal of life is to become "Brahmarūpa", attaining the form ("rūpa") of Aksharbrahman, in which the "jiva" is liberated from "maya" and "saṃsāra" (the cycle of births and deaths), and enjoys eternal bliss, offering "sādhya bhakti", continuous and pure devotion to God.


title: Swaminarayan Sampradaya

text: While related to Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita, for which he stated his affinity, and incorporating devotional elements of Vallabha's Pushtimarg, Sahajanand Swaminarayan gave his own specific interpretations of the classical Hindu texts. As in Vishishtadvaita, God and "jiva" are forever distinct, but a distinction is also made between Parabrahman (Purushottam, Narayana) and Aksharbrahman as two distinct eternal realities. This distinction is emphasized by BAPS-swamis as a defining characteristic, and referred to as Akshar-Purushottam Darshan to distinguish the "Swaminarayan Darshana", Swaminarayan's views or teachings, from other Vedanta-traditions.


title: Swaminarayan Sampradaya

text: In the 20th century, due to "different interpretations of authentic successorship," various denominations split-off from the dioceses. All groups regard Swaminarayan as God, but differ in their theology and the religious leadership they accept. The BAPS, split-off in 1907 from Vadtal Gadi, venerates "a lineage of "akṣaragurus", or living gurus, [which] has been retroactively traced back to Gunatitanand Swami."


title: Swaminarayan Sampradaya

text: Socially, Swaminarayan accepted caste-based discrimination within the religious community, but inspired followers to engage in humanitarian service activities, leading various denominations of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya to currently provide humanitarian service globally.


title: Swaminarayan Sampradaya

text: The Swaminarayan Sampradaya developed out of Ramanand Swami's Uddhav Sampraday, a Gujarat-based Sri Vaishnavism teacher rooted in Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita. It takes its name from Ramanand's successor, Sahajanand Swami, who was a charismatic leader and gained fame as Swaminarayan. The various branches of the Swaminarayan-tradition relate their origin to Sahajanand Swami, but an exact "modern historical account" of his life cannot be reconstructed, given the hagiographic nature of the stories preserved among his followers.


title: Swaminarayan Sampradaya

text: Sahajanand Swami was born on 3 April 1781 in the village of Chhapaiya in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India, and given the name Ghansyam. After his parents' death, he renounced his home at the age of 11 and traveled for 7 years as a child yogi around India, taking the name Neelkanth, before settling in the hermitage of Ramanand Swami, a Vaishnava religious leader in present-day Gujarat. Ramanand Swami initiated him as a Vaishnavite ascetic on 28 October 1800, giving him the name Sahajanand Swami. According to the Swaminarayan-tradition, Ramanand appointed Sahajanand to be his successor and the leader of the sampradaya in 1801, shortly before his death.