title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: Each virion contains one molecule of linear, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA, 18,959 to 18,961 nucleotides in length. The 3′ terminus is not polyadenylated and the 5′ end is not capped. This viral genome codes for seven structural proteins and one non-structural protein. The gene order is 3′ – leader – NP – VP35 – VP40 – GP/sGP – VP30 – VP24 – L – trailer – 5′; with the leader and trailer being non-transcribed regions, which carry important signals to control transcription, replication, and packaging of the viral genomes into new virions. Sections of the NP, VP35 and the L genes from filoviruses have been identified as endogenous in the genomes of several groups of small mammals.<ref name="cite journal|doi= 10.7717/peerj.556"></ref>


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: It was found that 472 nucleotides from the 3' end and 731 nucleotides from the 5' end are sufficient for replication of a viral "minigenome", though not sufficient for infection. Virus sequencing from 78 patients with confirmed Ebola virus disease, representing more than 70% of cases diagnosed in Sierra Leone from late May to mid-June 2014, provided evidence that the 2014 outbreak was no longer being fed by new contacts with its natural reservoir. Using third-generation sequencing technology, investigators were able to sequence samples as quickly as 48 hours. Like other RNA viruses, Ebola virus mutates rapidly, both within a person during the progression of disease and in the reservoir among the local human population. The observed mutation rate of 2.0 x 10 substitutions per site per year is as fast as that of seasonal influenza.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: There are two candidates for host cell entry proteins. The first is a cholesterol transporter protein, the host-encoded Niemann–Pick C1 (NPC1), which appears to be essential for entry of Ebola virions into the host cell and for its ultimate replication. In one study, mice with one copy of the NPC1 gene removed showed an 80 percent survival rate fifteen days after exposure to mouse-adapted Ebola virus, while only 10 percent of unmodified mice survived this long. In another study, small molecules were shown to inhibit Ebola virus infection by preventing viral envelope glycoprotein (GP) from binding to NPC1. Hence, NPC1 was shown to be critical to entry of this filovirus, because it mediates infection by binding directly to viral GP.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: When cells from Niemann–Pick Type C individuals lacking this transporter were exposed to Ebola virus in the laboratory, the cells survived and appeared impervious to the virus, further indicating that Ebola relies on NPC1 to enter cells; mutations in the NPC1 gene in humans were conjectured as a possible mode to make some individuals resistant to this deadly viral disease. The same studies described similar results regarding NPC1's role in virus entry for Marburg virus, a related filovirus. A further study has also presented evidence that NPC1 is the critical receptor mediating Ebola infection via its direct binding to the viral GP, and that it is the second "lysosomal" domain of NPC1 that mediates this binding.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: The second candidate is TIM-1 (a.k.a. HAVCR1). TIM-1 was shown to bind to the receptor binding domain of the EBOV glycoprotein, to increase the receptivity of Vero cells. Silencing its effect with siRNA prevented infection of Vero cells. TIM1 is expressed in tissues known to be seriously impacted by EBOV lysis (trachea, cornea, and conjunctiva). A monoclonal antibody against the IgV domain of TIM-1, ARD5, blocked EBOV binding and infection. Together, these studies suggest NPC1 and TIM-1 may be potential therapeutic targets for an Ebola anti-viral drug and as a basis for a rapid field diagnostic assay.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: Being acellular, viruses such as Ebola do not replicate through any type of cell division; rather, they use a combination of host- and virally encoded enzymes, alongside host cell structures, to produce multiple copies of themselves. These then self-assemble into viral macromolecular structures in the host cell. The virus completes a set of steps when infecting each individual cell. The virus begins its attack by attaching to host receptors through the glycoprotein (GP) surface peplomer and is endocytosed into macropinosomes in the host cell. To penetrate the cell, the viral membrane fuses with vesicle membrane, and the nucleocapsid is released into the cytoplasm. Encapsidated, negative-sense genomic ssRNA is used as a template for the synthesis (3'–5') of polyadenylated, monocistronic mRNAs and, using the host cell's ribosomes, tRNA molecules, etc., the mRNA is translated into individual viral proteins.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: These viral proteins are processed: a glycoprotein precursor (GP0) is cleaved to GP1 and GP2, which are then heavily glycosylated using cellular enzymes and substrates. These two molecules assemble, first into heterodimers, and then into trimers to give the surface peplomers. Secreted glycoprotein (sGP) precursor is cleaved to sGP and delta peptide, both of which are released from the cell. As viral protein levels rise, a switch occurs from translation to replication. Using the negative-sense genomic RNA as a template, a complementary +ssRNA is synthesized; this is then used as a template for the synthesis of new genomic (-)ssRNA, which is rapidly encapsidated. The newly formed nucleocapsids and envelope proteins associate at the host cell's plasma membrane; budding occurs, destroying the cell.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: Ebola virus is a zoonotic pathogen. Intermediary hosts have been reported to be "various species of fruit bats ... throughout central and sub-Saharan Africa". Evidence of infection in bats has been detected through molecular and serologic means. However, ebolaviruses have not been isolated in bats. End hosts are humans and great apes, infected through bat contact or through other end hosts. Pigs in the Philippines have been reported to be infected with Reston virus, so other interim or amplifying hosts may exist. Ebola virus outbreaks tend to occur when temperatures are lower and humidity is higher than usual for Africa. Even after a person recovers from the acute phase of the disease, Ebola virus survives for months in certain organs such as the eyes and testes.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: Zaire ebolavirus is one of the four ebolaviruses known to cause disease in humans. It has the highest case-fatality rate of these ebolaviruses, averaging 83 percent since the first outbreaks in 1976, although a fatality rate of up to 90 percent was recorded in one outbreak in the Republic of the Congo between December 2002 and April 2003. There have also been more outbreaks of Zaire ebolavirus than of any other ebolavirus. The first outbreak occurred on 26 August 1976 in Yambuku. The first recorded case was Mabalo Lokela, a 44‑year-old schoolteacher. The symptoms resembled malaria, and subsequent patients received quinine. Transmission has been attributed to reuse of unsterilized needles and close personal contact, body fluids and places where the person has touched. During the 1976 Ebola outbreak in Zaire, Ngoy Mushola travelled from Bumba to Yambuku, where he recorded the first clinical description of the disease in his daily log:


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: "The illness is characterized with a high temperature of about 39°C, hematemesis, diarrhea with blood, retrosternal abdominal pain, prostration with "heavy" articulations, and rapid evolution death after a mean of three days."


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: Since the first recorded clinical description of the disease during 1976 in Zaire, the recent Ebola outbreak that started in March 2014, in addition, reached epidemic proportions and has killed more than 8000 people as of January 2015. This outbreak was centered in West Africa, an area that had not previously been affected by the disease. The toll was particularly grave in three countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. A few cases were also reported in countries outside of West Africa, all related to international travelers who were exposed in the most affected regions and later showed symptoms of Ebola fever after reaching their destinations.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: The severity of the disease in humans varies widely, from rapid fatality to mild illness or even asymptomatic response. Studies of outbreaks in the late twentieth century failed to find a correlation between the disease severity and the genetic nature of the virus. Hence the variability in the severity of illness was suspected to correlate with genetic differences in the victims. This has been difficult to study in animal models that respond to the virus with hemorrhagic fever in a similar manner as humans, because typical mouse models do not so respond, and the required large numbers of appropriate test subjects are not easily available. In late October 2014, a publication reported a study of the response to a mouse-adapted strain of Zaire ebolavirus presented by a genetically diverse population of mice that was bred to have a range of responses to the virus that includes fatality from hemorrhagic fever.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: In December 2016, a study found the VSV-EBOV vaccine to be 70–100% effective against the Zaire ebola virus (not the Sudan ebolavirus), making it the first vaccine against the disease. VSV-EBOV was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December 2019.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: Ebola virus was first identified as a possible new "strain" of Marburg virus in 1976. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) identifies Ebola virus as species "Zaire ebolavirus", which is part of the genus "Ebolavirus", family "Filoviridae", order "Mononegavirales". The name "Ebola virus" is derived from the Ebola River—a river that was at first thought to be in close proximity to the area in Democratic Republic of Congo, previously called Zaire, where the 1976 Zaire Ebola virus outbreak occurred—and the taxonomic suffix "virus".


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: In 1998, the virus name was changed to "Zaire Ebola virus" and in 2002 to species "Zaire ebolavirus". However, most scientific articles continued to refer to "Ebola virus" or used the terms "Ebola virus" and ""Zaire ebolavirus"" in parallel. Consequently, in 2010, a group of researchers recommended that the name "Ebola virus" be adopted for a subclassification within the species "Zaire ebolavirus", with the corresponding abbreviation EBOV. Previous abbreviations for the virus were EBOV-Z (for "Ebola virus Zaire") and ZEBOV (for "Zaire Ebola virus" or ""Zaire ebolavirus""). In 2011, the ICTV explicitly rejected a proposal (2010.010bV) to recognize this name, as ICTV does not designate names for subtypes, variants, strains, or other subspecies level groupings. At present, ICTV does not officially recognize "Ebola virus" as a taxonomic rank, but rather continues to use and recommend only the species designation "Zaire ebolavirus". The prototype Ebola virus, variant Mayinga (EBOV/May), was named for Mayinga N'Seka, a nurse who died during the 1976 Zaire outbreak.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: The name "Zaire ebolavirus" is derived from "Zaire" and the taxonomic suffix "ebolavirus" (which denotes an ebolavirus species and refers to the Ebola River). According to the rules for taxon naming established by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), the name "Zaire ebolavirus" is always to be capitalized, italicized, and to be preceded by the word "species". The names of its members (Zaire ebolaviruses) are to be capitalized, are not italicized, and used without articles.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: "Zaire ebolavirus" diverged from its ancestors between 1960 and 1976. The genetic diversity of "Ebolavirus" remained constant before 1900. Then, around the 1960s, most likely due to climate change or human activities, the genetic diversity of the virus dropped rapidly and most lineages became extinct. As the number of susceptible hosts declines, so does the effective population size and its genetic diversity. This genetic bottleneck effect has implications for the species' ability to cause Ebola virus disease in human hosts.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: A recombination event between "Zaire ebolavirus" lineages likely took place between 1996 and 2001 in wild apes giving rise to recombinant progeny viruses. These recombinant viruses appear to have been responsible for a series of outbreaks among humans in Central Africa in 2001–2003.


title: Zaire ebolavirus

text: "Zaire ebolavirus" – Makona variant caused the 2014 West Africa outbreak. The outbreak was characterized by the longest instance of human-to-human transmission of the viral species. Pressures to adapt to the human host were seen at this time, however, no phenotypic changes in the virus (such as increased transmission, increased immune evasion by the virus) were seen.


title: Dave Krusen

text: David Karl Krusen (born March 10, 1966) is an American musician who is best known for being the first drummer for the American rock band Pearl Jam, and for his work on the band's debut album, "Ten". Krusen was also a member of the bands Hovercraft and Unified Theory, and was previously the drummer for Candlebox from 1997–1999 and 2015–2017.


title: Dave Krusen

text: Krusen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pearl Jam on April 7, 2017, and being the only former member of the band to be inducted.


title: Dave Krusen

text: Krusen was born in Tacoma, Washington and grew up in the town of Gig Harbor along with his two brothers and sister. He was into Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry when he was young, and later got into The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Police, and Neil Young. Krusen began playing locally in the Seattle area in 1979 while he was in high school. His first band, Outrigger, was formed with his friends from high school. Throughout the 1980s, Krusen had several stints playing with Seattle area musical acts, including Boibs, Agent Boy, Gary Williams, Tramps of Panic, Liar's Club, Hard Time, and WarmDrive.


title: Dave Krusen

text: Krusen was recruited in 1990 by bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard to be the drummer for Pearl Jam. Krusen was asked to join Pearl Jam after auditioning with the band. Krusen was the first full-time drummer for Pearl Jam, replacing Matt Cameron. Cameron was unable to fully commit to Pearl Jam due to playing full-time in Soundgarden. Krusen played with Pearl Jam through to the completion of the band's debut album, "Ten" in 1991. After the recording sessions for "Ten" were completed, Krusen left Pearl Jam in May 1991 and checked himself into rehabilitation. According to Krusen, he was suffering from personal problems at the time, including alcoholism. Krusen said, "It was a great experience. I felt from the beginning of that band that it was something special," and added, "They had to let me go. I couldn't stop drinking, and it was causing problems. They gave me many chances, but I couldn't get it together." Vocalist Eddie Vedder said, "Krusen was a real hero...He was going through a lot, but he had something really special." Krusen was replaced by Matt Chamberlain.


title: Dave Krusen

text: On May 16, 2022, at the Fresno, CA show of Gigaton Tour, Krusen played with Pearl Jam for the second time since leaving the band (the first being Pearl Jam’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction), after Matt Cameron tested positive for COVID-19.


title: Dave Krusen

text: In the mid-1990s, Krusen joined Beth Liebling and Ryan Shinn in the band Hovercraft under the stage name "Karl 3‒30". Krusen replaced previous drummer Eddie Vedder. With a more technically proficient drummer, the band was now free to play beyond the lo-fidelity noise experiments of its debut release, and play proper shows with structured improvisation and avant experimentalism. While as a member of Hovercraft, Krusen toured with the band and recorded the album "Akathisia" (1997).


title: Dave Krusen

text: In 1994 Krusen co-founded Diamond Star Halo with former Candlebox bass player Aaron Seravo. The two were introduced by a mutual friend and discovered they had exactly the same vision for a band. The band was completed by Singer Bo Bligh and bassist Steve Martin the band released their first record in 1995 tilted "In The Rough" on Regal Recordings. The album was produced by Cristopher Thorne of Blind Melon and Kevin Martin of Candlebox & was mixed by Kelly Grey. The band enjoyed moderate success but not to the level of their former bands Candlebox and Pearl Jam.


title: Dave Krusen

text: After much conflict centering on singer Bo Bligh's drug addictions the band dissolved. There was a later version of the band reformed by Seravo in 2000. Aaron Seravo died of cancer January 9, 2011, surrounded by friends and loved ones, at Stanford University Hospital. Steve Martin died very early in 2011 as well (committing suicide) a few days before Seravo's passing.


title: Dave Krusen

text: Krusen was the second drummer for Candlebox, replacing previous drummer Scott Mercado. Krusen joined in 1997 and recorded the album "Happy Pills" (1998) while as a member of the band. Krusen left the band in 1999 and was replaced by Shannon Larkin of Ugly Kid Joe. Krusen completed eight tracks on the Candlebox record, "Into the Sun", which was released in July 2008 and nine tracks on the latest Candlebox record, "Love Stories & Other Musings", which was released in April 2012. As of 2015 he has rejoined the band.


title: Dave Krusen

text: Krusen played drums with the band Unified Theory on its self-titled album, issued in August 2000. The band was made up of two ex-Blind Melon members (bassist Brad Smith and guitarist Christopher Thorn) and newcomer Chris Shinn on vocals/guitar. Unified Theory began to form in early 1998. After the first plan to carry on Blind Melon with a new singer didn't work out, Smith and Thorn decided to start a new band and came across vocalist Chris Shinn after moving to Los Angeles. Krusen was already friends with Thorn and Smith. While working on tracks for a second album, delays set the band back, and Krusen grew somewhat frustrated and left. This eventually led to Unified Theory's break-up.


title: Dave Krusen

text: Krusen played drums with The Hung White Ponies which also included Rick Rosas on bass, Ryan Kralik on guitar and vocals and Michael G. Ronstadt on Cello. Formed in 2011 by Ryan Kralik, the band released the album "No Agenda" in 2011 along with a cover single of CSNY's Neil Young penned classic protest tune "Ohio" which also featured Iraq War vet Josh Hisle. In 2012 the concept audio/film album CRAZYTOWN A Visual Music Album was released as both an audio album and a feature film, winning multiple awards in both music and film categories. In 2013, after a west-coast tour, the band released the live concert CD/DVD "The Hung White Ponies Live at the High Dive" which documented one of the tours Seattle, WA concerts. Krusen is credited as co-producer on many of the Hung White Ponies releases.


title: Dave Krusen

text: After leaving Pearl Jam, Krusen teamed up with former Son of Man vocalist Tal Goettling, bass player Matt McClinton, and guitarist Tim Bethune to form the short-lived but highly acclaimed Purple Decade. The band recorded two demo tapes before imploding under the pressures of the Seattle and Los Angeles music scenes. In 2004, Krusen performed with musician Shawn Snyder as part of his backing band. He was a part of a Seattle, Washington-based band called Novatone which released the album "Time Can't Wait" in 2005. He was Cheyenne Kimball's drummer from 2005 to 2007 and played on her debut album, "The Day Has Come" (2006). He is currently working on a blues/noise-groove, avant-garde record and performing live and in the studio with various artists including Martyr Reef, Toy Robot, George Stanford, Lowlight, Jesse Cole, Foster Timms, Matthias Sturm, La La Birdtime, Dave Giles, Shelby, Carolyna Loveless, Chris Robinson, Puppies and Kittens and John Pringle. He is now touring with Ida Maria and recording her third album due out in 2012.


title: Mura Masa

text: Alexander Crossan (born 5 April 1996), also known by the stage name Mura Masa, is a Guernsey-born electronic music producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Crossan is best known for his song "Lovesick", which reached number one on the Spotify Viral charts in the United Kingdom and the United States.


title: Mura Masa

text: Crossan's self-titled debut album was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album and Best Recording Package at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, making him the first artist to be nominated as both a musician and creative director for the same album. His remix of Haim's "Walking Away" won Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Mura Masa

text: Crossan was born and raised in Guernsey. After playing guitar, bass, drums and singing in local punk, hardcore, deathcore and gospel bands, Crossan started self-producing at the age of 15, "searching for samples on YouTube and other corners of the internet". He entered the electronic music scene after learning about Hudson Mohawke and streamed music via YouTube, where he discovered James Blake, Cashmere Cat and SBTRKT. Crossan's influences, including Gorillaz and the Smiths, inspired him to write music and learn to play different instruments. At 16, Crossan started to make electronic songs using Ableton Live, and uploaded them to SoundCloud the following year under the alias Mura Masa, taken from Japanese swordsmith Muramasa Sengo. He adopted the alias as he grew up with Japanese anime and Nintendo games, which led to his interest in the myth of Muramasa. His early work incorporated elements of hip hop music, East Asian music (such as Shakuhachi flutes and thumb pianos), and glitchy electronica.


title: Mura Masa

text: At 17, Crossan uploaded his first tracks, remixes and bootlegs to SoundCloud. The track "Lotus Eater" was picked up by BBC Radio 1 with Zane Lowe, Annie Mac, Huw Stephens and Phil Taggart all playing the song on their shows. After leaving Guernsey to study English literature at University of Sussex in Brighton, Crossan began playing his music live, with sold-out shows at the Green Door Store in Brighton and Electrowerkz in London. Crossan started his career by posting a mixtape called "Soundtrack to a Death" to SoundCloud in 2014. The mixtape was subsequently distributed globally by German label Jakarta Records.


title: Mura Masa

text: Crossan signed to his own label Anchor Point Records in 2015, in partnership with Polydor Records and Interscope Records who distribute in the UK and in North America respectively. As well as Mura Masa records, the label has released music by Dublin artist Bonzai and post-music duo Jadu Heart.


title: Mura Masa

text: In April 2015, he released his debut EP "Someday Somewhere", with lead track "Firefly" being chosen for the In New Music We Trust playlist at BBC Radio 1. Released via Anchor Point, the EP featured UK vocalists Nao, Denai Moore and Jay Prince. The track "Lovesick" from the EP reached number 1 on the Spotify viral charts in the UK and USA. On 27 April 2015 he broadcast a 60-minute mix on the BBC Radio 1 show Diplo and Friends Alex was long-listed for the 'BBC Sound of... 2016' in December 2015, and placed 5th overall in the shortlist in January 2016.


title: Mura Masa

text: On 15 March 2016, he unveiled the second single "What If I Go?" from his upcoming album. On 30 September 2016, he released his collaborative single titled "Love$ick" featuring American rapper ASAP Rocky via Anchor Point and Downtown/Interscope Records. The song is a newer version of Masa's 2015 single "Lovesick Fuck". Crossan said he arranged a meeting to discuss the collaboration with Rocky when he happened to be in London for several days. An official music video for the song was published on 3 November 2016 by Mura Masa's VEVO channel on YouTube.


title: Mura Masa

text: Crossan co-wrote the track "First Things First" on Stormzy's "Gang Signs & Prayer", which entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1 on 3 March 2017. The track also entered the singles chart at number 25. On 17 March 2017, he released "1 Night", a collaboration with Charli XCX. Speaking about the collaboration, he said "I think I just had that beat lying around for a while and we sent it to a couple of people. Then Charli just did her thing".


title: Mura Masa

text: Crossan released his self-titled debut studio album, "Mura Masa" on 14 July 2017. It was released on 14 July 2017 by Polydor, Interscope, Downtown and Anchor Point Records. The album was produced and recorded from 2014 to 2016, and has guest features by A. K. Paul, ASAP Rocky, Bonzai, Charli XCX, Christine and the Queens, Damon Albarn, Desiigner, Jamie Lidell, NAO and Tom Tripp. Upon release, it received positive reviews by critics, and debuted at number 19 on the UK Albums Chart and at 192 on the US "Billboard" 200. The album received nominations for Best Dance/Electronic Album and Best Recording Package at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Mura Masa

text: In June, Crossan worked with Nile Rodgers-organised collective Chic on the band's comeback album, "It's About Time". He featured alongside Cosha and Vic Mensa on the comeback single "Till the World Falls", which was released on 22 June 2018. Before that, 12 June 2018, the band also premiered another song from the album "Boogie All Night", which features Crossan, alongside working affiliate Nao. Crossan's remix of Haim's "Walking Away" won Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on 10 February 2019.


title: D.Va

text: D.Va is a fictional player character developed by Blizzard Entertainment for their "Overwatch" franchise. She was introduced at launch in their 2016 first-person hero shooter video game of the same name and again appeared in its 2022 sequel, "Overwatch 2". She features in the franchise's related animations and literary media. Outside of "Overwatch", D.Va also appears as a playable character in the crossover multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game "Heroes of the Storm" and as a gameplay announcer in "". In English-language media, D.Va is voiced by Charlet Chung.


title: D.Va

text: In "Overwatch" lore, D.Va is a pro-eSports gamer named Hana Song (Revised Romanization: "Song Ha-na") () from Busan, South Korea. Within the "Overwatch" narrative, the Korean government's Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army (MEKA) recruits D.Va and other gamers to help quell an uprising by robotic Omnics, using their video-game-playing skills to control weaponized mech suits. Within the game, D.Va is a tank character who can deal a stream of damage and, for a short time, neutralize incoming attacks. If her suit is destroyed, she can eject from it and survive long enough to call in a new suit. Her ultimate ability allows her to self-detonate her suit, dealing heavy enough damage to all enemies in her line of sight to eliminate most characters.


title: D.Va

text: D.Va has been well received by critics and players, particularly among "Overwatch"s female and LGBT fanbase.


title: D.Va

text: D.Va, along with Genji and Mei, was announced in October 2015 at BlizzCon; she was one of the final heroes to be introduced into "Overwatch" prior to its official release. Voice actor Charlet Chung provides the character's English- and Korean-language voices. D.Va is designed as a tank character who uses a highly mobile pink mech suit in battle, and acts as a "skirmisher".


title: D.Va

text: One of "Overwatch"s initial character concepts was a hero who piloted a mech; the designers ultimately decided that the pilot could eject if their suit sustained critical damage and fight outside without protection. The game's assistant art director Arnold Tsang was inspired by mecha anime and manga for D.Va's look. The designers initially based the mech's stickers and artwork on a cat theme, but later changed it to a rabbit because they thought its short-range booster rockets made it look as though it was bunny hopping.


title: D.Va

text: Soon after the game's release, D.Va was noted for having a low damage output; the game's principal designer Geoff Goodman said; "D.Va's damage is definitely on the lower side, much like Winston's. They are this way for a similar reason: They are both very mobile and hard to kill." Because she lacked a shield, D.Va was also noted to take more damage than other tank characters when facing multiple opponents. Goodman attributed this and her low damage output to the game's character balancing, stating; "every character in the game has strengths and weaknesses, it's part of what makes the teamplay work well".


title: D.Va

text: According to Goodman, early in her development, D.Va was able to deal more damage but her damage output was lowered because "she would fly into someone's face, destroy them, and fly away. There was little that person could do because [of] her mobility." Despite agreeing with feedback calling D.Va under-powered, Goodman said improvements to the character "are unlikely to take the shape of increasing her damage output significantly", adding "the goal is that she should be a viable aggressive initiation tank, much like Winston can be". The discussion of buffing D.Va coincided with a discussion on nerfing the character McCree, who had been noted to eliminate tank characters too quickly; game director Jeff Kaplan said D.Va's buffs would take longer to develop and implement than the changes to McCree. Kaplan also said the development team would be exploring improvements to her damage output and survivability but would "probably pick one direction or the other". The character's ultimate ability was eventually buffed; the cost and explosion delay were reduced and the possibility for the activating player to be killed by their own ultimate ability was removed. Her "Defense Matrix" ability was changed to be toggled on and off at will with a resource meter rather than being a single-use ability with a cooldown.


title: D.Va

text: In August 2017, in response to their observations of the meta-game, Blizzard planned to introduce changes to D.Va to be tested in the Public Test Realm (PTR) server and evaluated before full release. Namely, the developers found that D.Va was being used more frequently to absorb damage through her Defense Matrix and was not being played offensively. The revamped skill kit would increase the rate of energy depletion of the Defense Matrix, effectively reducing its use time by half, but would allow her to use her main weapon while boosting. The update also added a new Micro Missiles ability that launches a number of small missiles that do damage in a small area on impact. Kaplan said that the overall goal of D.Va's ability retooling was to "reduce her reliance on Defense Matrix and make her more fun to play," and stressed the changes were not meant to nerf D.Va overall. These changes were added for all players in a September 2017 patch.


title: D.Va

text: Blizzard considers D.Va the most difficult character that they must develop around when adding new game modes or other features; as described by assistant director Aaron Keller, "she breaks everything" due to having two different forms for which they must account.


title: D.Va

text: D.Va possesses a tank role in "Overwatch"; "PC Gamer" has described D.Va as an "offtank" character, which typically allows players "more freedom to play [aggressively]" compared to other tank characters. She is suited in her mech which is equipped with twin Fusion Cannons that do not need reloading. The Fusion Cannons deal substantial damage at close range, but consequentially slow her mobility. D.Va also comes equipped with Boosters and a Defense Matrix; the Boosters quickly move her in the direction that the player's reticle is facing, potentially allowing for short periods of flight, and additionally lightly damaging and knocking back enemies that come in contact with her while boosting. D.Va's Defense Matrix absorbs incoming enemy projectiles heading toward her. She can also fire a volley of Micro-Missiles that have a small area of splash damage upon impact.


title: D.Va

text: Once her mech suit runs out of hitpoints (HP), D.Va ejects out of it, equipped with only a Light Gun. Though more vulnerable while outside the mech, she is a considerably smaller and more maneuverable target in this state. D.Va can also eject out of her mech suit as part of her Self Destruct ultimate ability, which causes her mech suit to explode and deal massive area of effect damage shortly after ejection. Once the mech explodes, D.Va can use her second ultimate ability, Call Mech, which simply allows her to resuit into her mech. This can be done immediately after using the Self Destruct ability, but otherwise has a cooldown period that can be sped up by damaging opponents while on foot.


title: D.Va

text: In "Overwatch" lore, D.Va is Hana Song, a 19-year-old former professional gamer going by her gamertag "D.Va". D.Va was known for becoming the No. 1 ranked "StarCraft II" player in the world at age 16 and maintaining an undefeated record prior to her retirement from gaming in order to defend her homeland. During the in-universe Omnic Crisis event, an omnic monster rose from the East China Sea, destroying coastal cities including those in South Korea and its neighbors. The South Korean government developed the Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army (MEKA), a mobile armored drone unit to combat the omnic monster, although each battle resulted in a stalemate. The omnic continued to adapt to the MEKA's drone networks, turning them against the Koreans. The South Korean government struggled with finding pilots for new mechs, eventually turned to the country's professional gamers, thought to have necessary reflexes and instincts to effectively operate the mech suits' advanced weaponry. Based in Busan, D.Va was one of the pro gamers drafted by South Korea's government. Known for being fearless in combat against the omnics, she would develop a global following as she began live streaming her combat encounters. Within MEKA, D.Va is supported by Dae-hyun, a mechanic and D.Va's childhood friend, and takes orders from Myung, the MEKA's commanding officer.


title: D.Va

text: D.Va's origin story is the focus of the animated short "Shooting Star", released in August 2018. Its release coincided with a new control map based on Busan. The short shows the origin of D.Va's Self-Destruct ability, being forced to use it to fend off a wave of attacking Omnics to protect Busan.


title: D.Va

text: In May 2017, as part of the version 2.0 update, D.Va was added to the roster of playable heroes for the Blizzard's crossover multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game "Heroes of the Storm." Additionally, those who played "Heroes of the Storm" during the game's version 2.0 launch event, dubbed "Nexus Challenge 2.0", received cosmetics for D.Va's character in "Overwatch". D.Va made her first appearance for "Heroes of the Storm" in the "Hanamura Showdown", a non-canon cinematic trailer for the "Heroes" 2.0 update, in April 2017. She was the fifth "Overwatch" character added to that game.


title: D.Va

text: As "Overwatch" lore heralds her as a world champion "StarCraft II" player, D.Va was added as a gameplay announcer for "", originally as part of a gift bundle, including announcer and player portrait features for attendees of BlizzCon 2016.


title: D.Va

text: D.Va has been positively received by both video game journalists and the game's community, topping numerous fan popularity polls. "Tech Insider"s Steve Kovach called D.Va his favorite character. "Kotaku" Kirk Hamilton positively received the buff she received in July 2016, writing that it "transformed her into the high-flying terror I've always wanted her to be." Joseph Knoop of "The Daily Dot" ranked D.Va as the best character in "Overwatch", writing "'Nerf this.' Never before have two words encapsulated so much spirit, energy, and drive to win at all costs," and calling her "an icon." Referencing D.Va's exemplification of a "softer feminism", Knoop added "There's a reason she's far and away the most cosplayed "Overwatch" character, and it's not just the simplicity of her jumpsuit. When you hear the hum of an imploding mech flying through the air, it's not just a gameplay mechanic. It's a signal that great change is on the way for all lady gamers." Citing her Defensive Matrix ability, "devastating combination of mobility and damage", and the ease of learning her gameplay, "Den of Geek" ranked her as the best tank character upon the release of "Overwatch 2".


title: D.Va

text: A popular meme of the character, dubbed "Gremlin D.Va", features fan art of the character in which a chibi version of her is portrayed indulging in gamer stereotypes, such as eating Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew. An August 2016 "Overwatch" patch included a new emote for D.Va in which she sits in her mech playing a shoot 'em up game while eating chips and drinking a soft drink, alluding to the meme. Lead hero designer Geoff Goodman stated, "we love Gremlin D.Va," when speaking on Blizzard's favorite fan interpretation of characters. Katherine Cross of "Gamasutra" noted that many versions of the meme were "queer [and] aimed at the game's LGBT fanbase".


title: D.Va

text: In South Korea, D.Va has been used as a representative of the National D.Va Association, later renamed as FAMERZ, a group of South Korean "Overwatch" players that support women's and LGBTQ rights which was formed to protest against former South Korean President Park Geun-hye. The group uses D.Va-related logos as demonstration material, with some appearing during international coverage of the 2017 Women's March in January 2017.


title: D.Va

text: FAMERZ have, however, criticized some of the character's cosmetic skins, such as "Academy", based on a Japanese school uniform, and "Black Cat", based on gothic lolita fashion, saying that they sexualize and project too much male desire onto a character that otherwise represented Korean women well. The group also expressed concern that the skins' Japanese inspiration caused her to be conflated with women from other Asian countries, reinforcing misogynist and racist attitudes. D.Va's "Officer" skin received backlash from fans in the Black Lives Matter movement, who saw it as a symbol of police brutality, though others noted that the uniform was South Korean rather than American.


title: Sociology of education

text: The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. It is mostly concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of higher, further, adult, and continuing education.


title: Sociology of education

text: Education is seen as a fundamentally optimistic human endeavour characterised by aspirations for progress and betterment. It is understood by many to be a means of overcoming handicaps, achieving greater equality, and acquiring wealth and social status. Education is perceived as a place where children can develop according to their unique needs and potential. Not only can children develop, but young and older adults too. Social interactions between people through education is always causing further development no matter what age they are. It is also perceived as one of the best means of achieving greater social equality. Many would say that the purpose of education should be to develop every individual to their full potential, and give them a chance to achieve as much in life as their natural abilities allow (meritocracy). Few would argue that any education system accomplishes this goal perfectly. Some take a particularly critical view, arguing that the education system is designed with the intention of causing the social reproduction of inequality.


title: Sociology of education

text: Systematic sociology of education began with the work of Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) on moral education as a basis for organic solidarity, and with studies by Max Weber (1864–1920) on the Chinese literati as an instrument of political control. After World War II, however, the subject received renewed interest around the world: from technological functionalism in the US, egalitarian reform of opportunity in Europe, and human-capital theory in economics. These all implied that, with industrialization, the need for a technologically skilled labour force undermines class distinctions and other ascriptive systems of stratification, and that education promotes social mobility. However, statistical and field research across numerous societies showed a persistent link between an individual's social class and achievement, and suggested that education could only achieve limited social mobility. Sociological studies showed how schooling patterns reflected, rather than challenged, class stratification and racial and sexual discrimination. After the general collapse of functionalism from the late 1960s onwards, the idea of education as an unmitigated good was even more profoundly challenged. Neo-Marxists argued that school education simply produced a docile labour force essential to late-capitalist class relations.


title: Sociology of education

text: The sociology of education contains a number of theories. Some of the main theories are presented below.


title: Sociology of education

text: The Political Arithmetic tradition within the sociology of education began with Hogben (1938) and denotes a tradition of politically critical quantitative research dealing with social inequalities, especially those generated by social stratification (Heath 2000). Important works in this tradition have been (Glass 1954), (Floud, et al. 1956) and (Halsey, et al. 1980). All of these works were concerned with the way in which school structures were implicated in social class inequalities in Britain. More recent work in this tradition has broadened its focus to include gender, ethnic differentials and international differences. While researchers in this tradition have engaged with sociological theories such as Rational Choice Theory and Cultural Reproduction Theory, the political arithmetic tradition has tended to remain rather sceptical of 'grand theory' and very much concerned with empirical evidence and social policy. The political arithmetic tradition was attacked by the 'New Sociology of Education' of the 1970s which rejected quantitative research methods. This heralded a period of methodological division within the sociology of education. However, the political arithmetic tradition, while rooted in quantitative methods, has increasingly engaged with mixed methods approaches.


title: Sociology of education

text: Structural functionalists believe that society leans towards social equilibrium and social order. They see society like a human body, in which institutions such as education are like important organs that keep the society/body healthy and well.


title: Sociology of education

text: Social reality is structured and differentiated and provides social science with its subject matter. This explains why individuals act as role incumbents and perform specific tasks on a regular basis as manifested at the level of observable event. The relation between teacher and student lies at heart of the realist conception of social structure. The internal relation between roles, distinct from the individual people who fill them and whom they casually affect. The relation between teacher and student is closely internal because each could not exist without each other. Functionalists view education as one of the more important social institutions in society. They emphasize that education contributes to two types of functions: manifest functions, which are the intended and visible functions of education; and latent functions, which are hidden and unintended functions.


title: Sociology of education

text: There are several major manifest functions associated with education. The first is socialization. The French sociologist, Émile Durkheim, established the academic discipline of sociology, characterized schools as, "socialization agencies that teach children how to get along with others and prepare them for adult economic roles" (Durkheim 1898). Socialization involves learning the rules and norms of the society as a whole. One of the roles of schools is to teach students conformity to law and respect for authority. Education is also an important tool used by students towards upward mobility. Higher learning institutions are viewed as vehicles for moving students closer to their careers that will help them become successful.


title: Sociology of education

text: Education also fulfills latent functions. Much goes on in school that has little to do with formal education. The educational setting introduces students to social networks that might last for years and can help people find jobs after their schooling is completed. Another latent function is the ability to work with others in small groups, a skill that is transferable to a workplace that might not be learned in a home school setting.


title: Sociology of education

text: Social health means the same as social order, and is guaranteed when nearly everyone accepts the general moral values of their society. Hence structural functionalists believe the aim of key institutions, such as education, is to socialize children and teenagers. Socialization is the process by which the new generation learns the knowledge, attitudes and values that they will need as productive citizens. Education's primary role is to convey basic knowledge and skills to future generations. Although this aim is stated in the formal curriculum, it is mainly achieved through the hidden curriculum, a subtler, but nonetheless powerful, indoctrination of the norms and values of the wider society. Students learn these values because their behavior at school is regulated (Durkheim in ) until they gradually internalize and accept them.


title: Sociology of education

text: Additionally, education is an important tool in the transmission of core values. The core values in education reflect on the economic and political systems that originally fueled education. One of the most important core value that is transmitted through the education system is individualism, the principle of being independent and self-reliant. From a very early age children learn that society seeks out and praises the best individuals. Connected to individualism, self-esteem is also developed through educational curriculum. Self-esteem is the ability to have confidence in one’s own decisions, therefore, having individualism allows for a growth in self-esteem that cannot be created without. Compared to Japanese students for example, curriculum in Japan is focused on social esteem (focusing on bringing honor to a group) rather than self-esteem.


title: Sociology of education

text: Education must also perform another function: As various jobs become vacant, they must be filled with the appropriate people. Therefore, the other purpose of education is to sort and rank individuals for placement in the labor market [Munro, 1997]. Those with high achievement will be trained for the most important jobs and in reward, be given the highest incomes. Those who achieve the least, will be given the least demanding (intellectually at any rate, if not physically) jobs, and hence the least income.


title: Sociology of education

text: According to Sennet and Cobb however, "to believe that ability alone decides who is rewarded is to be deceived". Meighan agrees, stating that large numbers of capable students from working-class backgrounds fail to achieve satisfactory standards in school and therefore fail to obtain the status they deserve. Jacob believes this is because the middle class cultural experiences that are provided at school may be contrary to the experiences working-class children receive at home. In other words, working class children are not adequately prepared to cope at school. They are therefore "cooled out" from school with the least qualifications, hence they get the least desirable jobs, and so remain working class. Sargent confirms this cycle, arguing that schooling supports continuity, which in turn supports social order. Talcott Parsons believed that this process, whereby some students were identified and labelled educational failures, "was a necessary activity which one part of the social system, education, performed for the whole". Yet the structural functionalist perspective maintains that this social order, this continuity, is what most people desire. this is one of the most critical thing in sociology


title: Sociology of education

text: The perspective of conflict theory, contrary to the structural functionalist perspective, believes that society is full of vying social groups with different aspirations, different access to life chances and gain different social rewards. The conflict theory sees the purpose of education as a way to maintain social inequality and a way to preserve the power of those who dominate society. Relations in society, in this view, are mainly based on exploitation, oppression, domination and subordination. Many teachers assume that students will have particular middle class experiences at home, and for some children this assumption isn't necessarily true. Some children are expected to help their parents after school and carry considerable domestic responsibilities in their often single-parent home. The demands of this domestic labour often make it difficult for them to find time to do all their homework and thus affects their academic performance.


title: Sociology of education

text: Where teachers have softened the formality of regular study and integrated student's preferred working methods into the curriculum, they noted that particular students displayed strengths they had not been aware of before. However few teachers deviate from the traditional curriculum, and the curriculum conveys what constitutes knowledge as determined by the state - and those in power [Young in ]. This knowledge isn't very meaningful to many of the students, who see it as pointless. Wilson & Wyn state that the students realise there is little or no direct link between the subjects they are doing and their perceived future in the labour market. Anti-school values displayed by these children are often derived from their consciousness of their real interests. Sargent believes that for working-class students, striving to succeed and absorbing the school's middle class values, are accepting their inferior social position as much as if they were determined to fail. Fitzgerald states that "irrespective of their academic ability or desire to learn, students from poor families have relatively little chance of securing success". On the other hand, for middle and especially upper-class children, maintaining their superior position in society requires little effort. The federal government subsidises 'independent' private schools enabling the rich to obtain 'good education' by paying for it. With this 'good education', rich children perform better, achieve higher and obtain greater rewards. In this way, the continuation of privilege and wealth for the elite is made possible "in continuum".


title: Sociology of education

text: Conflict theorists believe this social reproduction continues to occur because the whole education system is overlain with ideology provided by the dominant group. In effect, they perpetuate the myth that education is available to all to provide a means of achieving wealth and status. Anyone who fails to achieve this goal, according to the myth, has only themselves to blame. Wright agrees, stating that "the effect of the myth is to…stop them from seeing that their personal troubles are part of major social issues". The duplicity is so successful that many parents endure appalling jobs for many years, believing that this sacrifice will enable their children to have opportunities in life that they did not have themselves. Conflict theorists believe that the educational system is maintaining the status quo by dulling the lower classes into being obedient workers. These people who are poor and disadvantaged are victims of a societal confidence trick. They have been encouraged to believe that a major goal of schooling is to strengthen equality while, in reality, schools reflect society's intention to maintain the previous unequal distribution of status and power [Fitzgerald, cited in ].


title: Sociology of education

text: Conflict theorists point to several key factors to defend their position. First, conflict theorists look at property tax. Typically, the areas of affluent districts have more money, so they can afford to pay teachers higher salaries, purchase new technology, and attract better teachers. Students in these districts are typically white, which means a majority of minority students in the United States do not receive any of these advantages and are less likely to go to college. This connects to the conflict theorist viewpoint that the educational system is simply a perpetuator of the status quo.


title: Sociology of education

text: Additionally, conflict theorists including Bowles and Gintis argued that schools directly reproduce social and economic inequalities embedded in the capitalist economy. They believed that this conflict played out in classrooms where students were marked by larger and highly stratified economic structure. Whether or not current leaders in sociology agreed with Bowles and Gintis, they all undeniably came to operate in fields guided by these ideas.


title: Sociology of education

text: This perspective has been criticised as deterministic and pessimistic, while there is some evidence for social mobility among disadvantaged students.


title: Sociology of education

text: It should be recognised however that it is a model, an aspect of reality which is an important part of the picture.


title: Sociology of education

text: This theory of social reproduction has been significantly theorised by Pierre Bourdieu who aimed at analyzing social class inequalities in education. However Bourdieu as a social theorist has always been concerned with the dichotomy between the objective and subjective, or to put it another way, between structure and agency. Bourdieu has therefore built his theoretical framework around the important concepts of habitus, field and cultural capital. These concepts are based on the idea that objective structures determine individuals' chances, through the mechanism of the habitus, where individuals internalise these structures. However, the habitus is also formed by, for example, an individual's position in various fields, their family and their everyday experiences. Therefore, one's class position does not determine one's life chances, although it does play an important part, alongside other factors.


title: Sociology of education

text: Bourdieu used the idea of cultural capital to explore the differences in outcomes for students from different classes in the French educational system. He explored the tension between the conservative reproduction and the innovative production of knowledge and experience. He found that this tension is intensified by considerations of which particular cultural past and present is to be conserved and reproduced in schools. Bourdieu argues that it is the culture of the dominant groups, and therefore their cultural capital, which is embodied in schools, and that this leads to social reproduction.


title: Sociology of education

text: James Coleman also focused a lot on the themes of social reproduction and inequality. Coleman inspired many of the current leaders of sociology of education, but his work also led to a heightened focus on empiricism.


title: Sociology of education

text: The cultural capital of the dominant group, in the form of practices and relation to culture, is assumed by the school to be the natural and only proper type of cultural capital and is therefore legitimated. It demands "uniformly of all its students that they should have what it does not give" [Bourdieu]. This legitimate cultural capital allows students who possess it to gain educational capital in the form of qualifications. Those lower-class students are therefore disadvantaged. To gain qualifications they must acquire legitimate cultural capital, by exchanging their own (usually working-class) cultural capital. This exchange is not a straightforward one, due to the class ethos of the lower-class students. Class ethos is described as the particular dispositions towards, and subjective expectations of, school and culture. It is in part determined by the objective chances of that class. This means that not only do children find success harder in school due to the fact that they must learn a new way of 'being', or relating to the world, and especially, a new way of relating to and using language, but they must also act against their instincts and expectations. The subjective expectations influenced by the objective structures found in the school, perpetuate social reproduction by encouraging less-privileged students to eliminate themselves from the system, so that fewer and fewer are to be found as one journeys through the levels of the system. The process of social reproduction is neither perfect nor complete, but still, only a small number of less-privileged students achieve success. For the majority of these students who do succeed at school, they have had to internalise the values of the dominant classes and use them as their own, to the detriment of their original habitus and cultural values.


title: Sociology of education

text: Therefore, Bourdieu's perspective reveals how objective structures play an important role in determining individual achievement in school, but allows for the exercise of an individual's agency to overcome these barriers, although this choice is not without its penalties.


title: Sociology of education

text: Drawing on Bourdieu's ideas, Fuller (2009) adds to the theoretical understanding of structure and agency by considering how young people shape their educational identity and how this identity is often the result of messages reflected at them, for example, through grades, setting and gendered expectations. Social location is considered important but its role is complex. Her work considered the importance of understanding the ways that individuals identify within an academic discourse, a discourse that typically situates young people dichotomously; as those who will achieve and those that will not. Understanding the importance of areas such as self-efficacy, confidence and resilience in shaping educational identity at the level of agent and subsequently, educational attainment and aspirations, has been central to her most recent work.


title: Sociology of education

text: r, R., Mahar, C., & Wilkes, C., (eds) (1990) "An Introduction to the Work of Pierre Bourdieu: the practice of theory", Macmillan Press, London


title: Richard Dillane

text: Richard Dillane (born 1964) is a British actor. He appears in a lead role of the Netflix series "Young Wallander", based on the character Kurt Wallander created by novelist Henning Mankell. He played British intelligence agent Peter Nicholls in Ben Affleck's Oscar-winning 2012 political thriller "Argo", and Merv Humphreys, husband of Margaret Humphreys (played by Emily Watson) in Jim Loach's fact-based movie "Oranges and Sunshine".


title: Richard Dillane

text: He was Wernher von Braun in the BBC television docudrama "Space Race", Nero in Howard Brenton's play "Paul" at the National Theatre of Great Britain and appeared several times as Stephen Maturin in the BBC radio adaptations of the Patrick O'Brian "Aubrey–Maturin" novels and Peter Guillam in three John le Carré adaptations.


title: Richard Dillane

text: Dillane's other film work includes "The Dark Knight" (as Acting Commissioner), "Mindscape" with Mark Strong, "The Dinosaur Project", "The Edge of Love", "The Jacket", "Tristan & Isolde" and as Cole Porter's last lover Bill Wrather (a composite character) in Irwin Winkler's biopic "De-Lovely", which starred Kevin Kline.


title: Richard Dillane

text: Recent television work includes "Giri/Haji", "The Last Kingdom", "Peaky Blinders", "Counterpart", "Outlander", "The Last Post", and "Star Wars: Andor".


title: Richard Dillane

text: In 2015, he played Duke of Suffolk in the BBC TV series "Wolf Hall" , and in 2016 he appeared in the lead role of DCI Michael Waite in a double episode of the BBC TV series "Silent Witness".


title: Richard Dillane

text: Prior to this, he played the captain of the shape-changing justice robot Teselecta in two episodes of "Doctor Who" ("Let's Kill Hitler" and "The Wedding of River Song"), rogue spy John Richardson in "Spooks", Australian conman Graham Poole in "Hustle", photographer and old flame Miles Brodie in "Cold Feet", posh drug addict Theodore Platt in the first episode of "Lewis" and the relationship counsellor Ben in "Men Behaving Badly" as well as regular characters Sean Anderson in "Casualty" and Australian sergeant Brad Connor in the award-winning ITV series "Soldier Soldier".


title: Richard Dillane

text: On stage, Dillane has performed at the National Theatre of Great Britain in London and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. In 2000, he was the 1st Duke of Suffolk in the Olivier Award-winning Michael Boyd productions of Henry VI parts 1, 2 and 3 in Stratford, London and Michigan. At 24, he played Hamlet in Perth, Australia, directed by Ray Omodei.


title: Richard Dillane

text: He grew up near London with his brother Stephen (also an actor), took a philosophy degree at Manchester University and lived in Australia for ten years, working in Perth, Sydney and Hobart as an actor and director, before returning to the UK.


title: Richard Dillane

text: His essay 'Making Sense of "To be, or not to be"', about Hamlet's soliloquy, was published in "Shakespeare and Montaigne".


title: Richard Dillane

text: He is married to Scottish actress Jayne McKenna, known for her leading role in the 2017 Take That musical "The Band". They have three children.


title: Fatal Affair

text: Fatal Affair is a 2020 American psychological thriller film directed by Peter Sullivan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rasheeda Garner. It stars Nia Long, Omar Epps, Stephen Bishop, and KJ Smith.


title: Fatal Affair

text: Ellie Warren is a successful attorney living with her husband Marcus who is recovering after a horrible car accident. They have just moved into a new house on the coast from the city of San Francisco now that their daughter Brittany has left for college. Ellie meets her firm's new tech consultant, David Hammond, who both first met each other in college. David is in anger management therapy following an incident with a woman named Deborah. Ellie and David initially meet for drinks, but the situation turns sexual as they go to the bathroom of a club, although Ellie resists. Afterwards, David stalks her via phone calls, texts, viewings of her house from a distance, breaking into her home, hacking into her home security system, sending her a package, and dating Ellie's friend Courtney. This is all despite Ellie's warnings to stay away from her and her family.


title: Fatal Affair

text: Ellie learns from another one of her former college classmates that David murdered his ex-wife Deborah and her new boyfriend a few months after the divorce. Ellie sends Courtney an e-mail with information about Deborah's murder and how David likely committed it, but David deletes it. Ellie is horrified to see him golfing with Marcus. She convinces the concierge at David's building to let her into his apartment, where she finds pictures of Deborah and of herself taken from afar on his computer. As Ellie calls Courtney about the pictures, David gets to Courtney’s place and attacks her. She is found bleeding from the head by Ellie and taken to the hospital. With the police now looking for David, he tries to pull a trick on the public by making them think he committed suicide; he sets a homeless man on fire with a suicide note. The police find all the evidence in his home, including a confession for his ex-wife’s murder.


title: Fatal Affair

text: One night, Ellie gets a message from her assistant (presumably from David) to sign some documents. Ellie stops by her office and finds her assistant murdered on the floor. Ellie rushes home and calls the police, before she finds David alive and knocks him unconscious with a vase. She encounters the corpse of Brittany's boyfriend Scott, and finds Marcus and Brittany tied up. She frees them as the police arrive, but David kills a cop. As Brittany gets into her car and drives away, a fight ensues between Marcus, David, and Ellie, which ends with David falling to his death on a beach cliffside. A few months later, Marcus and Ellie send Brittany back to school, and their house is for sale.


title: Fatal Affair

text: In October 2019, "Deadline" reported that Netflix had partnered with Hybrid Films with Peter Sullivan directing the film project. Nia Long, Omar Epps and Stephen Bishop were attached to star in the film, with Sullivan and Rasheeda Garner writing the script. Long, Barry Barnholtz, Brian Nolan and Jeffrey Schenck would serve as producers on the film. In November 2019, it was announced KJ Smith had joined the cast of the film. Principal photography for the film took place on location in Los Angeles, California in 2019.


title: Fatal Affair

text: The film was released on July 16, 2020 by Netflix. It was the top-streamed film on the site in its debut weekend, then placed sixth the following weekend.


title: Fatal Affair

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of and an average rating of , based on reviews. The website's critics consensus reads: "As basic as its title, "Fatal Affair" gets lost between 'so bad it's good' and 'barely there.'" On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 34 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: Fatal Affair

text: Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a "C−" and wrote: "Too chaste to be a "Fatal Attraction" ripoff and far too dull to approach the hammy charms of "Obsessed" the greatest assets of Peter Sullivan's "Fatal Affair" are stars Nia Long and Omar Epps. They keep this from looking and feeling like a limp Lifetime movie knockoff."


title: Republican Fascist Party

text: The Republican Fascist Party (, PFR) was a political party in Italy led by Benito Mussolini during the German occupation of Central and Northern Italy and was the sole legal and ruling party of the Italian Social Republic. It was founded as the successor to the National Fascist Party while incorporating anti-monarchism, as they considered King Victor Emmanuel III to be a traitor after his signing of the surrender to the Allies.


title: Republican Fascist Party

text: After the Nazi-engineered Gran Sasso raid liberated Mussolini, the National Fascist Party (PNF) was revived on 13 September 1943 as the Republican Fascist Party (PFR) and as the single party of the Northern and Nazi-protected Italian Social Republic, informally known as the Salò Republic. Its secretary was Alessandro Pavolini.


title: Republican Fascist Party

text: Due to the strong control of the Germans, the power of the party in the context of the Republic of Salò was always very limited. In order to obviate this inherent weakness, the party tried to obtain the support of the few strata of the population who still sympathized with fascism. In the provinces under the control of the Germans it was organized into three entities called Administrative, Assistance and Political. The Assistance, also called the National Fascist Assistance Body, was formed in early October 1943. In the minds of the party leaders, the Assistance was to be a continuation of the powerful cadres of militants and volunteers of the former National Fascist Party.


title: Republican Fascist Party

text: The PFR did not outlast Mussolini's execution and the disappearance of the Salò state in April 1945. However, it inspired the creation of the Italian Social Movement (MSI) and the MSI has been seen as the successor to the PFR and the PNF. The MSI was formed by former Fascist leaders and veterans of the National Republican Army of the Salò republic. The party tried to modernise and revise fascist doctrine into a more moderate and sophisticated direction.


title: Republican Fascist Party

text: PFR sought to reconnect the new party with the pre-1922 early radical fascism. This move attracted parts of the fascist 'Old Guard', who had been sidelined after Mussolini had come to power in 1922. The new party was, however, internally divided with different internal tendencies vying for Mussolini's support. And whilst the PFR revived some of the early revolutionary fascist discourse, it did not return to the anti-clerical positions of the early fascist movement.


title: Jane Turner

text: Jane Turner (born 1 December 1960) is an Australian actress, comedian and Logie Award-winning comedy series creator and screnwriter.


title: Jane Turner

text: Turner, although best known as a comedy performer, made her acting debut in the internationally renowned TV cult drama series "Prisoner" in a 15 episode guest role.


title: Jane Turner

text: She is notable for numerous comedy roles including the sketch comedy programs "The D-Generation", "Fast Forward", "Full Frontal", "Big Girl's Blouse" and "Something Stupid".


title: Jane Turner

text: On "Fast Forward" Turner (Svetta) recorded a song with cast member Peter Moon (comedian) (Victor), called "Don't Do Your Soviet Bloc".


title: Jane Turner

text: In the 2000s Turner has received accolades for her performance in "Kath & Kim", an ABC (later Seven Network) comedy series which she created, wrote, produced and starred in with her longtime friend and collaborator, Gina Riley. "Kath & Kim" became the most successful ABC syndicated show in Australian television history. Turner plays Kath Day Knight, one of the leading roles in the show and an occasional recurring character, Prue, a shop keeper at the Fountain Gate Shopping Centre.


title: Jane Turner

text: Turner reprised the role in the 2005 telemovie. "Da Kath & Kim Code" and the 2012 feature film "Kath & Kimderella"


title: Jane Turner

text: Turner made her West End theatrical debut in the Australian hit play Holding the Man at London's Trafalgar Studios in April 2010.


title: Jane Turner

text: Turner attended Sacré Cœur School in Glen Iris, Melbourne, and later studied law at Monash University. Turner graduated from Monash with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1988. She is married to lawyer John Denton and they have 3 children including model Anna Denton.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: A Visit from St. Nicholas, more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas and Twas the Night Before Christmas from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously under the title Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas in 1823 and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who claimed authorship in 1837.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: The poem has been called "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American" and is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today. It has had a massive effect on the history of Christmas gift-giving. Before the poem gained wide popularity, American ideas had varied considerably about Saint Nicholas and other Christmastide visitors. "A Visit from St. Nicholas" eventually was set to music and has been recorded by many artists.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: On the night of Christmas Eve, a family is settling down to sleep when the father is disturbed by noises on their lawn. Looking out the window, he sees Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas) in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. After landing his sleigh on the roof, Santa enters the house by sliding down the chimney. He carries a sack of toys, and the father watches his visitor deliver presents and fill the stockings hanging by the fireplace, and laughs to himself. They share a conspiratorial moment before Santa bounds up the chimney again. As he flies away, Santa calls out "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: The authorship of "A Visit" is credited to Clement Clarke Moore who is said to have composed it on a snowy winter's day during a shopping trip on a sleigh. His inspiration for the character of Saint Nicholas was a local Dutch handyman as well as the historic Saint Nicholas. Moore originated many of the features that are still associated with Santa Claus today while borrowing other aspects, such as the use of reindeer. The poem was first published anonymously in the Troy, New York "Sentinel" on 23 December 1823, having been sent there by a friend of Moore, and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached. It was first attributed in print to Moore in 1837. Moore himself acknowledged authorship when he included it in his own book of poems in 1844. By then, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged his authorship. Moore had a reputation as an erudite professor and had not wished at first to be connected with the unscholarly verse. He included it in the anthology at the insistence of his children, for whom he had originally written the piece.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: Moore's conception of Saint Nicholas was borrowed from his friend Washington Irving, but Moore portrayed his "jolly old elf" as arriving on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. At the time that Moore wrote the poem, Christmas Day was overtaking New Year's Day as the preferred genteel family holiday of the season, but some Protestants viewed Christmas as the result of "Catholic ignorance and deception" and still had reservations. By having Saint Nicholas arrive the night before, Moore "deftly shifted the focus away from Christmas Day with its still-problematic religious associations". As a result, "New Yorkers embraced Moore's child-centered version of Christmas as if they had been doing it all their lives."


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: In "An American Anthology, 1787–1900", editor Edmund Clarence Stedman reprinted the Moore version of the poem, including the Dutch spelling of “Donder” and German spelling of "Blitzen" that he adopted, rather than the version from 1823 "Dunder and Blixem" that is more similar to the old Dutch “Donder en Blixem” that translates to "Thunder and Lightning".


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: Moore's connection with the poem has been questioned by Professor Donald Foster, who used textual content analysis and external evidence to argue that Moore could not have been the author. Foster believes that Major Henry Livingston Jr., a New Yorker with Dutch and Scottish roots, should be considered the chief candidate for authorship, a view long espoused by the Livingston family. Livingston was distantly related to Moore's wife. Foster's claim, however, has been countered by document dealer and historian Seth Kaller, who once owned one of Moore's original manuscripts of the poem. Kaller has offered a point-by-point rebuttal of both Foster's linguistic analysis and external findings, buttressed by the work of autograph expert James Lowe and Dr. Joe Nickell, author of "Pen, Ink and Evidence."


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: On January 20, 1829, Troy editor Orville L. Holley alluded to the author of the Christmas poem, using terms that accurately described Moore as a native and current resident of New York City, and as "a gentleman of "more" merit as a scholar and a writer than many of more noisy pretensions". In December 1833, a diary entry by Francis P. Lee, a student at General Theological Seminary when Moore taught there, referred to a holiday figure of St. Nicholas as being "robed in fur, and dressed according to the description of Prof. Moore in his poem". Four poems including "A Visit from St. Nicholas" appeared under Moore's name in "The New-York Book of Poetry", edited by Charles Fenno Hoffman (New York: George Dearborn, 1837). The Christmas poem appears on pp. 217–19, credited to "Clement C. Moore". Moore stated in a letter to the editor of the New York American (published on March 1, 1844) that he "gave the publisher" of "The New-York Book of Poetry" "several pieces, among which was the 'Visit from St. Nicholas.'" Admitting that he wrote it "not for publication, but to amuse my children," Moore claimed the Christmas poem in this 1844 letter as his "literary property, however small the intrinsic value of that property may be". "A Visit from St. Nicholas" appears on pp. 124–27 in Moore's volume of collected Poems (New York: Bartlett and Welford, 1844). Before 1844, the poem was included in two 1840 anthologies: attributed to "Clement C. Moore" in Selections from The American Poets, edited by William Cullen Bryant (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1840), pp. 285–86; and to "C. C. Moore" in the first volume of "The Poets of America", edited by John Keese (New York: S. Colman, 1840), pp. 102–04. The New-York Historical Society has a later manuscript of the poem in Moore's handwriting, forwarded by T. W. C. Moore along with a cover letter dated March 15, 1862 giving circumstances of the poem's original composition and transmission after a personal "interview" with Clement C. Moore.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: After "A Visit from St. Nicholas" appeared under Moore's name in the 1837 "New-York Book of Poetry", newspaper printings of the poem often credited Moore as the author. For example, the poem is credited to "Professor Moore" in the 25 December 1837 "Pennsylvania Inquirer and Daily Courier". Although Moore did not authorize the earliest publication of the poem in the Troy "Sentinel", he had close ties to Troy through the Protestant Episcopal Church that could explain how it got there. Harriet Butler of Troy, New York (daughter of the Rev. David Butler) who allegedly showed the poem to "Sentinel" editor Orville L. Holley, was a family friend of Moore's and possibly a distant relative. A letter to Moore from the publisher Norman Tuttle states, "I understand from Mr. Holley that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this city". The reported involvement of two women, Harriet Butler and Sarah Sackett, as intermediaries is consistent with the 1862 account of the poem's earliest transmission in which T. W. C. Moore describes two stages of copying, first "by a relative of Dr Moores in her Album" and second, "by a friend of hers, from Troy". Moore preferred to be known for his more scholarly works, but allowed the poem to be included in his anthology in 1844 at the request of his children. By that time, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged his authorship. Livingston family lore gives credit to their forebear rather than Moore, but there is no proof that Livingston himself ever claimed authorship, nor has any record ever been found of any printing of the poem with Livingston's name attached to it, despite more than 40 years of searches.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: Advocates for Livingston's authorship argue that Moore "tried at first to disavow" the poem. They also posit that Moore falsely claimed to have translated a book. Document dealer and historian Seth Kaller has challenged both claims. Kaller examined the book in question, "A Complete Treatise on Merinos and Other Sheep", as well as many letters signed by Moore, and found that the "signature" was not penned by Moore, and thus provides no evidence that Moore made any plagiaristic claim. Kaller's findings were confirmed by autograph expert James Lowe, by Dr. Joe Nickell, the author of "Pen, Ink & Evidence," and by others. According to Kaller, Moore's name was likely written on the book by a New-York Historical Society cataloger to indicate that it had been a gift from Moore to the Society.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: Livingston also wrote poetry primarily using an anapaestic metrical scheme, and it is claimed that some of the phraseology of "A Visit" is consistent with other poems by Livingston, and that Livingston's poetry is more optimistic than Moore's poetry published in his own name. But Stephen Nissenbaum argues in his "Battle for Christmas" that the poem could have been a social satire of the Victorianization of Christmas. Furthermore, Kaller claims that Foster cherry-picked only the poems that fit his thesis and that many of Moore's unpublished works have a tenor, phraseology, and meter similar to "A Visit". Moore had even written a letter titled "From Saint Nicholas" that may have predated 1823.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: Foster also contends that Moore hated tobacco and would, therefore, never have depicted Saint Nicholas with a pipe. However, Kaller notes, the source of evidence for Moore's supposed disapproval of tobacco is "The Wine Drinker", another poem by him. In actuality, that verse contradicts such a claim. Moore's "The Wine Drinker" criticizes self-righteous, hypocritical advocates of temperance who secretly indulge in the substances which they publicly oppose, and supports the social use of tobacco in moderation (as well as wine, and even opium, which was more acceptable in his day than it is now).


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: MacDonald P. Jackson, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, has spent his entire academic career analyzing authorship attribution. He has written a book titled "Who Wrote "The Night Before Christmas"?: Analyzing the Clement Clarke Moore Vs. Henry Livingston Question", published in 2016, in which he evaluates the opposing arguments and, for the first time, uses the author-attribution techniques of modern computational stylistics to examine the long-standing controversy. Jackson employs a range of tests and introduces a new one, statistical analysis of phonemes; he concludes that Livingston is the true author of the classic work.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: Parts of the poem have been set to music numerous times, including a bowdlerized version (that omitted several verses such as "The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow ... etc.". and rewrote and replaced many others such as "the prancing and pawing of each little hoof" with "the clattering noise of each galloping hoof"), by the American composer Ken Darby (1909-1992), whose version was recorded by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians three separate times; in 1942, 1955, and 1963. The latter 1963 stereo recording for Capitol Records became the most familiar of the poem's musical adaptations. Christmas song-writing specialist Johnny Marks also composed a short version in 1952, titled "The Night Before Christmas Song", which has been recorded multiple times, and was used in the soundtrack for the 1964 TV special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", sung by Burl Ives. It was also arranged for choir by Lee Kjelson and Margaret Shelley Vance. The poem was also set to music by British child composer Alma Deutscher (b. 2005). In 1953, Perry Como recorded a recitation of the poem for RCA Victor with background music arranged and conducted by Mitchell Ayres. Louis Armstrong recited the poem in a March 1971 recording made only four months before his death. It was recorded at his home in Corona, Queens and released as 45rpm by Continental Records.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: The first completely musical rendition, that used the text of the poem in its entirety without material additions or alterations, was the cantata "A Visit from St. Nicholas" composed by Lucian W. Dressel in 1992 and first performed by the Webster University Orchestra, SATB Soloists, and Chorus. More recent performances of the cantata have been performed by regional orchestras and choruses in Missouri, Illinois and Colorado.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: Four hand-written copies of the poem are known to exist and three are in museums, including the New-York Historical Society library. The fourth copy, written out and signed by Clement Clarke Moore as a gift to a friend in 1860, was sold by one private collector to another in December 2006. It was purchased for $280,000 by an unnamed "chief executive officer of a media company" who resides in New York City, according to Dallas, Texas-based Heritage Auctions which brokered the private sale.


title: A Visit from St. Nicholas

text: The poem is read or recited in numerous Christmas films, including "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (1989), "The Santa Clause" (1994), "Reindeer Games" (2000), and "Falling For Christmas" (2016). It also inspired the 2001 film "'Twas the Night" and two television specials called "Twas the Night Before Christmas" made in 1974 and 1977 respectively.


title: Quiz (TV series)

text: Quiz is a British drama television serial by James Graham, based on Graham's play of the same name commissioned by William Village and the book "Bad Show: the Quiz, the Cough, the Millionaire Major" by Bob Woffinden and James Plaskett. It is directed by Stephen Frearsand consists of three hour-long episodes. The series focuses on Charles Ingram, a former army major in the Royal Engineers, and how he unexpectedly won the


title: Quiz (TV series)

text: £1,000,000 jackpot on the quiz show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" in 2001, followed by a criminal trial in which he and his wife were convicted of cheating their way to success.


title: Quiz (TV series)

text: The series received positive reviews from critics. Released during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns worldwide, "Quiz" received a large audience — similar to the Netflix documentary "Tiger King" — with the first episode being seen live by an average audience of 5.3 million in the UK. While the show was still airing, Charles Ingram's Wikipedia article was one of the most viewed on the site.


title: Quiz (TV series)

text: In 2001, at the height of the public obsession with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", a British army major named Charles Ingram and his wife, Diana, apparently swindled the British game show. The morning after Ingram bumbled his way to a million pounds, broadcaster ITV and production company Celador realized something had been amiss: a series of coughs by the Ingrams' alleged accomplice, Tecwen Whittock, may have led Ingram to the answers. It was a massive scandal, resulting in a court case that found all three guilty.


title: Quiz (TV series)

text: The scenes in the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" studio were filmed in a set constructed at Wimbledon Studios. Scenes were also filmed outside Southwark Crown Court and inside a former court building in Hammersmith.


title: Quiz (TV series)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 95% "Certified Fresh" approval rating based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 7.57/10. The website's consensus reads, "With clever writing, a slick production, and a pitch perfect Michael Sheen, "Quiz" crafts a captivating snapshot of a wild scandal that will keep viewers on their toes."


title: Sam Browne belt

text: The Sam Browne is a leather belt with a supporting strap that passes over the right shoulder, worn by military and police officers. It is named after Sir Samuel J. Browne (1824–1901), the British Indian Army general who invented it.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: General Sir Samuel James Browne was a 19th-century British Indian Army officer who had lost his left arm to a sword cut during the Sepoy Rebellion; this made it difficult for him to draw his sword, because the left hand was typically used to steady the scabbard while the right drew out the sword.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: Browne came up with the idea of wearing a second belt that went over his right shoulder to hold the scabbard steady. This would hook into a waist belt with D-rings for attaching accessories. It also securely carried a pistol in a flap-holster on his right hip and included a binocular case with a neck-strap. Other officers began wearing a similar rig and eventually, it became part of the standard uniform. During the Boer War, it was copied by other troops and eventually became standard issue.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: Infantry officers wore a variant that used two suspender-like straps instead of the cross-belt. It was supposedly invented in 1878 by Lieutenant Basil Templer Graham-Montgomery, of the 60th Rifles, while serving in India.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: Due to its former use as equipment for carrying a sword, it was traditionally only worn by those to whom a sword would historically have been issued, namely commissioned officers and warrant officers.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: In the Finnish Army (as well as in Finnish Air Force) the Sam Browne belt, officially known as a "command belt" or "officer belt", has been used by officers and senior NCOs as well as officer cadets when wearing service, dress or parade uniforms. Currently it is mainly used by high-ranking officers during parades and other ceremonies, as it is only worn with dress uniform M58 and service uniform M83; while most Army and Air Force personnel, excluding cadets studying in the National Defence College as well as soldiers on ceremonial duties, use the camouflage uniform M05 as their service uniform, and the use of the "command belt" with any camouflage uniform except M62 (already phased out of service) is strictly forbidden.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: The Sam Browne belt featured prominently in many uniforms used by the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, again in imitation of earlier European uniforms. It was popular with Adolf Hitler and other leading Nazi officials.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: The Irish Citizen Army, Irish Volunteers and Irish Republican Army (IRA) made extensive use of Sam Browne belts during the Irish revolutionary period (1916–23). This included women serving with the Irish Citizen Army, among them Constance Markievicz. The folk song "The Broad Black Brimmer" also mentions the Sam Browne belt. They were later used by the Garda Síochána and the National Army.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: In the 20th century it was a mainstay in the British Army officers' corps, being adopted service-wide in 1900 during the Second Boer War after limited use in India, and later becoming popular with military forces throughout the Commonwealth.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: After World War II the Sam Browne belt saw a decline in use in the Commonwealth. It was dropped from the standard officer's uniform in 1943 and replaced by the cloth 1937 pattern and 1944 Pattern webbing gear. However, officers and warrant officers class 1 of the British Army and Royal Marines still wear it in service (No.2) dress and in non-ceremonial versions of No.1 dress.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: It was phased out by the Canadian military beginning with the unification of the armed services in 1968.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: In Australia, all officers and warrant officers class 1 are entitled to wear the belt in ceremonial dress. Within the corps of the Australian Army there is some variation, with members of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps, Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps and Australian Army Aviation Corps wearing black Sam Browne belts.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: During World War I, the Sam Browne Belt was approved by General Pershing, commander of the AEF, for wear by American officers as a rank distinction. However, the Army as a whole did not immediately approve its use. MPs were positioned at stateside docks and confiscated them from returning officers. The United States Army mandated the Sam Browne belt for overseas soldiers in 1918 under the name "Liberty belt" and for all service members in 1921, this time under the internationally accepted name "Sam Browne belt". It was a standard part of the uniform between World War I and World War II. It was limited in use in 1940 when the Army abandoned sabers and replaced with a cloth waistbelt that was sewn to the officer's jacket.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: During World War I the Marine Corps adopted a brown leather Sam Browne Belt. It was later changed to black, the official color of Navy and Marine Corps leather gear. It is worn as part of the dress Blue A & B, Blue-white dress, and service A uniform by sword-bearing commissioned and warrant officers.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: After the First World War, Sam Browne belts "become almost universal among American police". The belts led to the slang terms "Harness Bull" or "Harness Cop" for a uniformed police officer. The utility belts worn today by American police usually lack the cross-strap and the attachments for them. The belt fastens in the same way, with the bar of the buckle engaging a pair of hooks and the end of the belt retained by a post and keeper loop. They are also frequently fully lined, as opposed to the old-style half-linings, to support equipment the length of the belt.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: The Sam Browne belt is largely obsolete (except in dress uniforms) in police and security use due to risk of strangulation by potential opponents. It has sometimes been referred to as a "Suicide Belt" by personnel. It had enjoyed some popularity with civilian police agencies worldwide and was probably most widely worn in this context during the 1940s and 1950s. This use has gradually faded out due to field safety concerns.


title: Sam Browne belt

text: Despite these safety concerns New Jersey State Police Troopers always wear their sidearm on a full Sam Browne belt. The full Sam Browne belt was adopted by for New Jersey State Police use by New Jersey State Police Col. Norman Schwarzkopf Sr., as the belt gave the wearer a proper "brace" (known by General of the Armies John Pershing as the "West Point Brace)".


title: Sam Browne belt

text: It is part of the ceremonial dress uniform of many agencies, most notably the Red Serge worn by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. RCMP NCOs and other ranks wear a thin cross-belt over the left shoulder to support the pistol worn on the right side. Non-commissioned members who are left-handed wear the same cross strap over the right shoulder to support the pistol worn on the left side. RCMP commissioned officers wear a wider cross strap over the right shoulder due to the need to support a sword when wearing the red serge ceremonial uniform. This difference of wearing different cross straps over different shoulders for commissioned and non-commissioned members is maintained when wearing the stripped Sam Browne belt (no pistol or sword).


title: Sam Browne belt

text: During the interwar period, the belt became fashionable among some American and European women. Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady of the United States at the time, openly spoke out against the practice. In the United States, the belts also became a symbol of civilian authority by "everybody from bus drivers to volunteer schoolboy traffic cops". The belt's use by American junior safety patrol members is archetypal. The belts are a popular safety device among cyclists for increasing their visibility, and a bright orange version is often worn by school crossing guards in junior safety patrols. The Sam Browne belt has been proposed as a solution to occupational safety and health concerns about injury due to the weight of equipment on police officers' belts. However, others have expressed concern that the vertical design of the belt could enable others to gain physical control of law enforcement officers in an altercation.


title: Mineko Iwasaki

text: , birthname , is a Japanese businesswoman, author and former geisha. Iwasaki was the most famous geisha in Japan until her sudden retirement at the age of 29. Known for her performances for celebrity and royalty during her geisha life, Iwasaki was the heir apparent () to her geisha house () while she was just a young apprentice.


title: Mineko Iwasaki

text: American author Arthur Golden interviewed her for background information when writing his 1997 book, "Memoirs of a Geisha". Iwasaki later regretted interviewing for Golden, having cited a breach of confidentiality and later sued and settled out of court with Golden for the parallelism between his book and her life. In 2002 she released her own autobiography (titled "Geisha of Gion" in the UK and "Geisha: A Life" in the US).


title: Mineko Iwasaki

text: Born as Masako Tanaka, she left home at the age of four to begin studying traditional Japanese dance at the Iwasaki (geisha house) in the Gion district of Kyoto. She was legally adopted by the 's owner, Madame Oima, and began using their family name of Iwasaki.


title: Mineko Iwasaki

text: Iwasaki became a (apprentice geisha) at the age of 15, and was chosen as the house's , or heir. Iwasaki also received the name "Mineko", as prescribed by a Japanese fortune-teller. By age 16, she had earned a reputation as Japan's most popular and graduated to geisha status on her 21st birthday.


title: Mineko Iwasaki

text: According to her autobiography, Iwasaki worked herself to her physical and mental limits, developing at one point a near-fatal kidney condition from which she eventually recovered. Iwasaki entertained numerous celebrities and foreign dignitaries, including the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. Iwasaki's fame also made her the subject of jealousy and gossip, and she was sometimes faced with sexual harassment and assault.


title: Mineko Iwasaki

text: After the death of one of her most significant mentors in 1980, Iwasaki became increasingly frustrated with the tradition-bound world of the geisha community, especially inadequacies in the education system. Iwasaki unexpectedly retired at the height of her career, at the age of 29. She hoped that her decision would shock Gion into reform; however, even after over 70 other high ranking geisha followed her into early retirement, nothing was changed. In her autobiography, Iwasaki speculated that the profession could be doomed if the industry failed to adapt to changing economic and social circumstances. She transitioned to a career in art after marrying artist Jin'ichirō Satō in 1982. They had a child, born in 1983.


title: Mineko Iwasaki

text: Iwasaki was one of several geisha interviewed by author Arthur Golden while researching for his novel "Memoirs of a Geisha". According to Iwasaki, she agreed to speak with Golden on the condition that her involvement would be kept confidential, but Golden revealed her identity by mentioning her name in the book's acknowledgments as well as several national interviews. After "Memoirs" was published, Iwasaki received criticism and even death threats for violating the traditional, unspoken code of silence within the geisha profession.