title: Big Gold Belt

text: By 2002, the WWF had been divided in what became known as the brand extension and the promotion along with its parent company were renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The roster was divided into two franchises or "WWE brands", split between Raw and SmackDown!. The WWE Undisputed Champion appeared on both shows and defended against challengers from both brands. After SummerSlam in August 2002, WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar announced that he had signed an exclusive contract with SmackDown, ignoring the claim to the title's number-one contendership by Raw's Triple H. Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff said that the WWE Undisputed Championship was thus disputed, and he awarded the World Heavyweight Championship, in the form of the Big Gold Belt, to Triple H. A new version of the belt, incorporating a WWE logo for copyright purposes, was introduced in March 2003.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: On December 15, 2013 at the pay-per-view, the title was unified with the WWE Championship when WWE Champion Randy Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion John Cena, and was officially retired. Afterwards, the Big Gold Belt was used in conjunction with the existing WWE Championship belt to represent the unified championship known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (the name has since reverted to the WWE Championship). However, much like how Chris Jericho carried both physical title belts as Undisputed WWF Champion, the title history for the World Heavyweight Championship was retired as this lineage follows that of WWE's original world title. On the August 18, 2014, episode of "Raw", a single, redesigned WWE Championship belt was presented to then-champion Brock Lesnar, and the Big Gold Belt was permanently retired.


title: Three's a Crowd

text: Three's a Crowd (also known as Three's Company, Too in the "Three's Company" syndication package) is an American sitcom television series produced as a spin-off continuation of "Three's Company" that aired on ABC from September 25, 1984 (only one week after the final episode of "Three's Company" was broadcast) until April 9, 1985, with reruns airing until September 10, 1985. It is loosely based on the British sitcom "Robin's Nest", which was itself a spin-off of "Man About the House", upon which "Three's Company" was based.


title: Three's a Crowd

text: In "Three's Company"'s final episodes, Vicky Bradford (Mary Cadorette) is introduced as a love interest of Jack Tripper (John Ritter), beginning with the episode titled "Cupid Works Overtime." In the following two-part episode, "Friends and Lovers", Jack proposes marriage, but Vicky, afraid of marriage after witnessing her parents' tumultuous relationship and bitter divorce, declines the offer. Vicky instead convinces Jack to move in with her in the vacant apartment above his restaurant. Vicky's wealthy father James Bradford (Robert Mandan) buys the building from Jack's former boss, Frank Angelino. James does not approve of Jack and he constantly tries to disrupt his and Vicky's relationship.


title: Three's a Crowd

text: Other characters include E.Z. Taylor (Alan Campbell), Jack's eccentric assistant at the bistro, and Claudia Bradford (Jessica Walter), Vicky's mother and James' ex-wife.


title: Three's a Crowd

text: "Three's Company" had been based on the sitcom "Man About the House", which aired on ITV in the United Kingdom from 1973 to 1976. When the series concluded, producers Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer devised two spin-offs. The first was "George and Mildred", which ran from 1976 to 1979 and starred Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as their George and Mildred Roper characters. The second spin-off was "Robin's Nest", which ran from 1977 to 1981 and featured Richard O'Sullivan as Robin Tripp (the basis of the Jack Tripper character), who runs the titular restaurant along with his live-in girlfriend and her antagonistic father.


title: Three's a Crowd

text: "Three's Company"'s producers were eager to capitalize on these spin-offs. In 1979, they had spun off "The Ropers", based on "George and Mildred", but the show ran for only one and a half seasons. Executive producers Ted Bergmann and Don Taffner attempted to adapt the "Robin's Nest" series, but without John Ritter. A pilot for a series called "Byrd's Nest" was written with the same premise as "Robin's Nest", with a young man living with his older girlfriend and her disapproving father, who owns the building in which they live. The series was planned as a spin-off from "Three's Company" and possibly a vehicle for Richard Kline, but ABC passed on the idea. As "Three's Company" entered its eighth season in September 1983, ratings took a dive in the face of stiff competition from the new NBC series "The A-Team", and ABC approved the development of a new series to be called "Three's a Crowd", starring Ritter.


title: Three's a Crowd

text: Development and casting of the new series occurred in secret as "Three's Company"s eighth season progressed. Ritter's cast members Richard Kline, Joyce DeWitt, Priscilla Barnes and Don Knotts were kept out of the loop. During a Christmas hiatus in late 1983, producers auditioned several female leads to play Jack's new love interest Vicky Bradford, and eventually decided upon Broadway actress Mary Cadorette. An embarrassing situation arose when DeWitt accidentally walked in on the auditions after visiting the studio to set up her dressing room at the end of the hiatus. Informed of the spin-off project and the looming cancellation of "Three's Company", DeWitt was upset by the secrecy but soon reconciled with Ritter. She and Barnes found it difficult to tape the rest of the season, as both actresses learned that their characters would conclude with the series finale. Kline and Knotts were offered recurring roles on "Three's a Crowd", but both declined the offer (Kline would make a guest appearance on the show in early 1985). Suzanne Somers reportedly lobbied to reprise her "Three's Company" character Chrissy Snow as Jack's love interest in the spin-off.


title: Three's a Crowd

text: In transitioning from "Three's Company" to "Three's a Crowd", series producers decided to follow the plot line of the British series. Season 8 of "Three's Company" drew to a close in a three-episode story arc. In the first of the three episodes, Janet meets wealthy art collector Phillip Dawson. In the second episode, she falls in love with him, while Jack meets and falls in love with stewardess Vicky Bradford. Her wealthy father, played by Robert Mandan, does not approve of the relationship. When first aired, the episode ended with the words "To be continued... next fall", and when rerun late in the summer, this was changed to "To be continued... next week." The last episode of "Three's Company" aired as an hour-long special that kicked off the 1984–85 fall television season and set up the premise for "Three's a Crowd". In the finale, Janet marries Phillip, Terri moves to Hawaii, while Jack and Vicky profess their love for one another, but Vicky, the child of a bitter divorce, turns down Jack's marriage proposal. They instead move in together in an apartment above Jack's bistro. In the last scene, Jack and Vicky are spending their first romantic evening together in the new apartment, only to have Mr. Bradford accidentally barge in on them, explaining that he has bought the building. The title card for "Three's Company" then appears over the screen with the word "COMPANY" zooming out, being replaced with "A CROWD".


title: Three's a Crowd

text: "Three's a Crowd" employed most of the same writers, producers, and staff from "Three's Company", but the new show's style was changed. While the Jack Tripper character was the lead role in "Three's Company", the show featured an ensemble cast of three with some other series regulars. However, the new show was centered around Jack. Vicky, her parents and E.Z. played supporting roles. The new show also employed more slapstick comedy for Ritter. The events and characters of the previous show were not mentioned, except in a late-season episode in which Larry Dallas appears.


title: Three's a Crowd

text: "Three's a Crowd" garnered moderate ratings, having to compete with "The A-Team" on NBC. When the 1984–85 television season finished, the show placed 39th out of 77 shows with a 14.5/22 rating/share. This put the show on the fence with ABC, as it had enough of an audience to warrant renewal but its ratings paled in comparison to those of "Three's Company"s and "The A-Team", which finished sixth for the season. The network would commit to only a half-season of 13 episodes to see how the series would place, and Ritter reportedly said that he would not return to the show unless a full season was ordered. Finally, ABC decided instead to pick up "Diff'rent Strokes", which had just been canceled by NBC.


title: Three's a Crowd

text: Daytime reruns aired on ABC from September 23, 1985 to January 3, 1986, followed by another prime-time run on USA Network. Some syndicated versions aired under the title "Three's Company, Too", using the theme song of "Three's Company".


title: Three's a Crowd

text: Six episodes of the series were aired on TV Land in September 2006, and four episodes were aired on WGN America in October 2008. The series began airing on digital broadcast network Antenna TV in June 2011 (as "Three's a Crowd" with its "Side by Side" theme song). The series is offered streaming in the U.S. as of July 2021 on Pluto TV and as of June 2022 on Tubi.


title: QSZ-92

text: The development of the QSZ-92 pistol began circa 1994 and it is now being adopted by the People's Liberation Army's forces. The export variants (9mm version) include the CF-98 (barrel life c. 8,000 rds) and the NP-42 (barrel life c. 10,000 rds). The latter is the basic version without provisions for suppressor etc. Both have so far found commercial export in Canada.


title: QSZ-92

text: On May 4, 2022, there were reports that the Hong Kong Police Force is considering the adoption of Chinese-made pistols, including the QSZ-92, to replace their revolvers as parts necessary to maintain them are running out. This is also being considered because of small arms export restrictions from Europe and North America after the National Security Law was implemented.


title: QSZ-92

text: The pistol operates with a recoil-operated, locked-breech and has a rotating barrel locking system, in which the barrel rotates on recoil to lock and unlock itself from the slide, and the front part of the frame under the barrel is shaped as an accessory rail to accept laser sights or flash lights. A unique feature of this pistol is the detachable steel frame that sits inside the polymer grip and contains the fire control group. Like many modern military pistols, the QSZ-92 has a double-action/single-action trigger with a combined safety/decocker.


title: QSZ-92

text: Its dual stack magazine holds either fifteen rounds of 9×19mm Parabellum ammunition (QSZ-92-9) or twenty proprietary 5.8×21mm Chinese-made armor-piercing rounds with bottle-necked case and pointed bullets (QSZ-92-5.8), closely resembling the Belgian 5.7×28mm format. Unlike most pistol magazines which narrow at the top for a consistent single-feed angle, the QSZ-92 has true double column staggered-feed in the same manner as many rifle magazines.


title: QSZ-92

text: The star engraving on the pistol grip indicates the ammo type. 9×19mm Parabellum version has the star, while military 5.8×21mm version does not. Export variants, which are chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum ammunition, have the star engraving.


title: QSZ-92

text: QSZ-92 is fitted with QUS-181 suppressor. The suppressor is mounted on the rail instead of the muzzle due to the rotating barrel design.


title: Female infanticide

text: Female infanticide is the deliberate killing of newborn female children. In countries with a history of female infanticide, the modern practice of gender-selective abortion is often discussed as a closely related issue. Female infanticide is a major cause of concern in several nations such as China, India and Pakistan. It has been argued that the low status in which women are viewed in patriarchal societies creates a bias against females.


title: Female infanticide

text: In 1978, anthropologist Laila Williamson, in a summary of data she had collated on how widespread infanticide was, found that infanticide had occurred on every continent and was carried out by groups ranging from hunter gatherers to highly developed societies, and that, rather than this practice being an exception, it has been commonplace. The practice has been well-documented among the indigenous peoples of Australia, Northern Alaska and South Asia, and Barbara Miller argues the practice to be "almost universal", even in the West. Miller contends that female infanticide is commonplace in regions where women are not employed in agriculture and regions in which dowries are the norm. In 1871 in "The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex", Charles Darwin wrote that the practice was commonplace among the aboriginal tribes of Australia. Female infanticide is also closely linked to a lack of education and high poverty rates, which explains why it is widely prevalent in locations such as India, Pakistan, and West Africa.


title: Female infanticide

text: A research by Pew Research Centre based on Indian government data estimated at least 9 million females "missing" in India in the period 2000-2019. In 1990, Amartya Sen writing in the "New York Review of Books" estimated that there were 100 million fewer women in Asia than would be expected, and that this number of "missing" women "tell[s] us, quietly, a terrible story of inequality and neglect leading to the excess mortality of women". Initially Sen's suggestion of gender bias was contested and it was suggested that hepatitis B was the cause of the alteration in the natural sex ratio. However it is now widely accepted that the numerical worldwide deficit in women is due to gender specific abortions, infanticide and neglect.


title: Female infanticide

text: China has a history of female infanticide spanning 2,000 years. With the arrival of Christian missionaries in the late sixteenth century, the missionaries discovered female infanticide was being practiced – newborns were seen thrown into rivers or onto rubbish piles. In the seventeenth century, Matteo Ricci documented that the practice occurred in several of China's provinces and that the primary reason for the practice was poverty.


title: Female infanticide

text: In 19th-century China, female infanticide was widespread. Readings from Qing texts show a prevalence of the term "nì nǚ" ("to drown girls"), and drowning was the common method used to kill female children. Other methods used were suffocation and starvation. Leaving a child exposed to the elements was another method of killing an infant: the child would be placed in a basket which was then placed in a tree. Buddhist nunneries created "baby towers" for people to leave a child; it is however unclear as to whether the child was being left for adoption or if it had already died and was being left for burial. In 1845 in the province of Jiangxi, a missionary wrote that these children survived for up to two days while exposed to the elements, and that those passing by would pay no attention.


title: Female infanticide

text: The majority of China's provinces practiced female infanticide during the 19th century. In 1878, French Jesuit missionary Gabriel Palatre collected documents from 13 provinces, and the Annales de la Sainte-Enfance (Annals of the Holy Childhood) also found evidence of infanticide in Shanxi and Sichuan. According to the information collected by Palatre, the practice was more widely spread in the southeastern provinces and in the Lower Yangzi River region.


title: Female infanticide

text: In China, the practice of female infanticide was not wholly condoned. Buddhism in particular was quite forceful in its condemnation of it. Buddhists wrote that the killing of young girls would bring bad karma; conversely, those who saved a young girl's life either through intervening or through presents of money or food would earn good karma, leading to a prosperous life, a long life and success for their sons. However the Buddhist belief in reincarnation meant that the death of an infant was not final, as the child would be reborn; this belief eased the guilt felt over female infanticide.


title: Female infanticide

text: The Confucian attitude towards female infanticide was conflicted. By placing value on age over youth, Confucian filial piety lessened the value of children. The Confucian emphasis on the family led to increasing dowries which in turn led to a girl being far more expensive to raise than a boy, causing families to feel they could not afford as many daughters. The Confucian custom of keeping the male within the family meant that the money spent on a daughter's upbringing along with the dowry would be lost when she married, and as such girls were called "money-losing merchandise". Conversely the Confucian belief of Ren led Confucian intellectuals to support the idea that female infanticide was wrong and that the practice would upset the balance between yin and yang.


title: Female infanticide

text: A white paper published by the Chinese government in 1980 stated that the practice of female infanticide was a "feudalistic evil". The state's official position on the practice is that it is a carryover from feudal times, and is not a result of the states one-child policy. Jing-Bao Nie argues however that it would be "inconceivable" to believe there is no link between the state's family planning policies and female infanticide.


title: Female infanticide

text: The dowry system in India is one given reason for female infanticide; over a time period spanning centuries it has become embedded within Indian culture. Although the state has taken steps to abolish the dowry system, the practice persists, and for poorer families in rural regions female infanticide and gender selective abortion is attributed to the fear of being unable to raise a suitable dowry and then being socially ostracized.


title: Female infanticide

text: In 1789 during British colonial rule in India the British discovered that female infanticide in Uttar Pradesh was openly acknowledged. A letter from a magistrate who was stationed in the North West of India during this period spoke of the fact that for several hundred years no daughter had ever been raised in the strongholds of the Rajahs of Mynpoorie. In 1845 however the ruler at that time did keep a daughter alive after a district collector named Unwin intervened. A review of scholarship has shown that the majority of female infanticides in India during the colonial period occurred for the most part in the North West, and that although not all groups carried out this practice, it was indeed widespread. In 1870, after an investigation by the colonial authorities the practice was made illegal, with the Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870.


title: Female infanticide

text: According to women's rights activist Donna Fernandes, some practices are so deeply embedded within Indian culture it is "almost impossible to do away with them", and she has said that India is undergoing a type of "female genocide". The United Nations has declared that India is the most deadly country for female children, and that in 2012 female children aged between 1 and 5 were 75 percent more likely to die as opposed to boys. The children's rights group CRY has estimated that of the 12 million females born yearly in India, 1 million will have died within their first year of life. During British rule, the practice of female infanticide in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu among the Kallars and the Todas was reported. More recently in June 1986 it was reported by "India Today" in a cover story "Born to Die" that female infanticide was still in practice in Usilampatti in southern Tamil Nadu. The practice was mostly prevalent among the dominant caste of the region, Kallars.


title: Female infanticide

text: Despite this practice being punishable according to Islamic law, there have been cases of female infanticide in Pakistan due to a few reasons, for example, children being born out of wedlock and then killed to avoid the stigma of illegitimacy. Pakistan is still a male-dominated nation and remains a patriarchal society. In addition, the boys in the family are given preferential treatment, receiving food and medical care before the girls do. Having a child out of wedlock in Pakistan is culturally taboo. When women give birth to their babies, they often kill them to escape the shame or persecution. However, the ratio of female babies being killed in these cases is much higher than the boys because boys are much more valued. Infanticide is illegal in Pakistan. However, people do not report these cases, making it impossible for police to investigate. According to "National Right to Live News", in 2017, only one case was actually reported, but 345 babies were found dead in Pakistan’s capital between January 2017 and Spring of 2018.


title: Female infanticide

text: Despite having a population of a mere 40,000, Liechtenstein tops the list of countries with the most skewed sex ratios with a rate of 126 newborn males for every 100 newborn females. There is considerable doubt as to whether this data is accurate since Liechtenstein considers abortion as a criminal offence and there is additionally a possibility of error in data collection due to the small population size. However, male preference in Liechtenstein is evident through statistics such as the fact that women earn approximately 16.5% less than their male counterparts, occupy only about 12% of the seats in parliament as of 2021, and were granted the right to vote as late as 1984. While Liechtenstein has committed to encouraging women empowerment and gender equality, there is a lack of laws equipped to dealing with female infanticide in particular.


title: Female infanticide

text: Eliminating females poses an issue, as this reduces the number of females that will be able to bear children. It also poses an issue with feelings of female worth, as families wanting to eradicate female babies teach the young girls in their society that they are inferior to the opposite sex, making it more likely that they face oppression and have reduced access to jobs. The dowry system has an effect on the families and poverty line, as some families struggle to pay a dowry while earning below the minimum wage.


title: Female infanticide

text: As of 2017 Pakistani women earn less than their male counterparts, earning under a hundred rupees a month, and are often unable to receive an education that would allow them to have better working hours and pay. Some are also restricted to only working within the home, while men are allowed to do the majority of crop work and herding.


title: Female infanticide

text: In many countries, female infanticide is associated with socio-economic struggles. A study done in India found three socio-economic reasons associated with female infanticide. The study found that economic utility indicates that boys are valued more than girls due to the fact that boys can work and bring in money to the household. Due to the sociocultural utility factor of female infanticide, for many cultures having a boy in the family is mandatory in order to carry out the legacy of the family line. There is also a religious factor in female infanticide. Many believe that men are the only ones that can provide, and sons are viewed as mandatory in order to kindle the funeral pyre of their late parents and to assist in the soul’s salvation.


title: Female infanticide

text: Non-Government Developmental Organizations (NGDOs) have gender awareness policies designed to prevent female discrimination all over the world. These NGDOs approach corporations in an attempt to educate those in the workforce on the pressing challenges women in society face. Other than increasing education regarding this issue, another noteworthy solution to female infanticide involves targeting the dowry system. Many societies oppose female children because of the heavy cost of dowry they would have to incur for a female. By reducing the financial burden on families, the eradication of the dowry system could therefore potentially reduce the apparent preference of male children as well as female infanticide rates.


title: Female infanticide

text: Another way of decreasing female infanticide rates is by providing families with incentives to give birth to females. India’s Girl Child Protection Scheme is one such scheme that encourages female births by providing families with financial support if they give birth to female children and additional support to those families whose children receive an education. This improves female literacy rates and increases female participation in the workforce, reducing female foeticide rates in underdeveloped countries.


title: Female infanticide

text: Implementing gender education within schools and the workplace will add to gender neutrality within society, increasing the value of women. Sympathizing with women's suffrage in countries limiting women’s rights will add to the battle in which women fight for freedoms in their home state. Building upon gender equality in education and teaching women strategies to cope with their situations will help them grow confidence and want to spread their knowledge and passions with their female children. The issue with female infanticide is that women devalue their own gender. When mothers give away their female children, it only adds to the lesser image of women. Having women respect themselves and their own children for who they are will increase the population, and it will increase the value of women. It may take a long time to implement these changes in society, but societal revision is a slow process. Education, value in life, and passion for gender are all aspects of decreasing female infanticide. Having locations to rid of a female child, such as "The Girl Child Protection Scheme", appears as a step toward change. This program only adds to the availability and opportunity for female infanticide. Instrumentalizing gender education and value of life will greatly inspire change in societies that participate in such process of termination.


title: Female infanticide

text: As a result of large high female infanticide rates in countries, the population is often skewed with a larger proportion of males. According to the United Nations, this surplus of men in society coincides with increasing rates of child abuse, domestic violence, and bride trafficking/kidnapping, presenting a grave threat to the security of women in the affected areas. This also increases the likelihood of women becoming victims of harmful sexually transmitted diseases, which further adversely affects their lives as well as population rates. Owing to these concerning issues, there is also a concerning boost in maternal mortality rates and an increase in mental health conditions among women in these locations.


title: Female infanticide

text: The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) wrote in their 2005 report, "Women in an Insecure World", that at a time when the number of casualties in war had fallen, a "secret genocide" was being carried out against women. According to DCAF the demographic shortfall of women who have died for gender related issues is in the same range as the 191 million estimated dead from all conflicts in the twentieth century. In 2012, the documentary "" was released, and in one interview, an Indian woman claimed she had killed eight of her daughters.


title: Mary Gross

text: Mary Martha Gross is an American voice actress, comedian, and actress known for her four-year stint on "Saturday Night Live" from 1981 to 1985. Her credits also include minor roles on "Animaniacs", "Boston Legal", "That's So Raven", "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch", and "Six Feet Under".


title: Mary Gross

text: Gross was born in Chicago the daughter of William Oscar Gross, a tool designer, and Virginia Ruth (née Cahill), a telephone operator. She is the younger sister of actor Michael Gross, who starred in the 1980s sitcom "Family Ties". The siblings were first cousins to actor Ron Masak.


title: Mary Gross

text: She is an alumna of the Second City comedy troupe. Before becoming part of the group she was a secretary with the American Dental Association.


title: Mary Gross

text: Gross joined "SNL" in 1981, during the show's 7th season following the show's disastrous sixth season, when the show was nearly canceled. She became co-anchor of "SNL's Weekend Update" segment (renamed SNL Newsbreak) during her first season. She and the rest of the cast left in 1985 following executive producer Dick Ebersol's departure from the show.


title: The Simpsons (season 8)

text: The eighth season of the American animated television series "The Simpsons" originally aired on the Fox network between October 27, 1996, and May 18, 1997, beginning with "Treehouse of Horror VII". The showrunners for the eighth production season were Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, while the season was produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. The aired season contained two episodes that were hold-over episodes from season seven, which Oakley and Weinstein also ran. It also contained two episodes for which Al Jean and Mike Reiss were the show runners.


title: The Simpsons (season 8)

text: The DVD box set was released in Region 1 on August 15, 2006, Region 2 on October 2, 2006, and Region 4 on September 27, 2006. The set was released in two different forms: a Maggie-shaped head to match the Homer and Marge shaped heads of the previous two sets and also a standard rectangular shaped box. Like the seventh season box set, both versions are available for sale separately.


title: The Simpsons (season 8)

text: Season eight received critical acclaim and won multiple awards, including two Emmy Awards: "Homer's Phobia" won for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or Less) in 1997, and Alf Clausen and Ken Keeler won for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics" with the song "We Put the Spring in Springfield" from the episode "Bart After Dark". Clausen also received an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Music Direction" for "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious". "Brother from Another Series" was nominated for the Emmy for "Sound Mixing For a Comedy Series or a Special". For "Homer's Phobia", Mike Anderson won the Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement: Directing in a TV Production, and the WAC Winner Best Director for Primetime Series at the 1998 World Animation Celebration. Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation awarded the episode the GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding TV – Individual Episode". On Rotten Tomatoes, the eighth season of "The Simpsons" has a 100% approval rating based on 7 critical reviews.


title: The Simpsons (season 8)

text: The DVD box set for season eight was released by 20th Century Fox in the United States and Canada on August 15, 2006, nine years after it had completed broadcast on television. As well as every episode from the season, the DVD release features bonus material including deleted scenes, Animatics, and commentaries for every episode. As with the previous season, the set was released in two different packagings: a "Collector's Edition" plastic packaging molded to look like Maggie's head, and a standard rectangular cardboard box featuring Maggie looking through a photo album while the rest of the Simpsons family are taking a picture. The menus continue the same format from the previous three seasons, and the overall theme is various characters posing for photographs.


title: Loonatics Unleashed

text: Loonatics Unleashed is an American superhero animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation that ran on Kids' WB for two seasons from 2005 to 2007 in the United States.


title: Loonatics Unleashed

text: The series was based/inspired on the "Looney Tunes" cartoon characters, with the series described by Warner Bros. as an "action-comedy". "Loonatics Unleashed" is meant to be a mixture of the "Looney Tunes" shorts' irreverent style of humor and a modern action animated series, with the characters designed in a more action cartoon-inspired style. Unlike previous "Looney Tunes"-related shows, "Loonatics Unleashed" has a darker tone and takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting. It follows multiple minor story arcs. The serial format was a great departure from the original source material.


title: Loonatics Unleashed

text: The initial concept designs were met with a huge wave of criticism among fans and there were petitions to have the designs changed. Sam Register, who became WB's executive vice president of creative affairs in 2008, considers the character designs "a reminder of what not to do".


title: Loonatics Unleashed

text: This serves as the final series of the "Looney Tunes" TV franchise to premiere in the 2000s decade. After "Loonatics Unleashed" ended, the franchise would go on hiatus until the release of "The Looney Tunes Show" on Cartoon Network, four years later.


title: Loonatics Unleashed

text: The events of "Loonatics Unleashed" occur in the year 2772, the year that a meteor strikes the city planet of Acmetropolis by crashing into one of its oceans, knocking it completely off its original axis. Instead of destroying the planet, the meteor crashes in a waterfront, releasing waves of supernatural energies causing some of the planet's citizens' genetic codes to be severely altered, granting them special abilities and strengths.


title: Loonatics Unleashed

text: A mysterious and powerful woman named Zadavia calls upon six teenagers of the affected residents to form a team of superheroes. She becomes their commander, dispatching them for the purpose of combating any and all threats to Acmetropolis and its citizens. The newly formed team is known as the Loonatics and reside on the 134th floor of a large tower. These characters are the descendants of the classic "Looney Tunes" characters, according to multiple press releases and official sources. Descendants of other "Looney Tunes" are unverified, though they can be inferred in certain situations.


title: Loonatics Unleashed

text: It is later revealed that Zadavia is in fact an alien and had used her powers to knock the meteor slightly off-course, preventing the total destruction of the planet. It is also revealed that a mysterious figure, later revealed to be Zadavia's older brother named Optimatus, caused the meteor to strike Acmetropolis in an attempt to destroy his sister.


title: Loonatics Unleashed

text: In the second season, the show takes on a lighter tone and many more descendants of other "Looney Tunes" characters are introduced, the majority of which only appear once in the series. The super villain characters from the previous season are rarely mentioned or rarely appear. Zadavia becomes a less mysterious figure and regularly participates with the Loonatics in their adventures. Two more aliens from Zadavia's home planet are also introduced, Deuce and Keyboard Man. In the season's finale, the Loonatics are temporarily joined by Sylth Vester and Optimatus is replaced by Deuce as the series arch-villain.


title: Loonatics Unleashed

text: The weapons and gear used by the Loonatics are usually made by Tech E. Coyote. They are referred to as "the toys" by Ace, despite Tech's insistence that they are "hand-crafted precision alloy instruments."


title: Loonatics Unleashed

text: The series received negative reception from fans of the original shorts. The Looney Tunes franchise went on a 4-year hiatus when the show ended.


title: Maria Schrader

text: Maria Schrader (born 27 September 1965) is a German actress, screenwriter, and director. She directed the award-winning 2007 film "Love Life" and the 2020 Netflix miniseries "Unorthodox", for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series. She also starred in the German international hit TV series "Deutschland 83" (2015), known for being the first German-language series broadcast on US television.


title: Maria Schrader

text: She is especially well known from the film "Aimée & Jaguar", as well as the acclaimed "Liebesleben" ("Love life") that she wrote, produced, and in which she acted. She has also written other films: "RobbyKallePaul"; "I Was on Mars"; "Stille Nacht" and "Meschugge". She co-directed "I Was on Mars" with Dani Levy, whom she dated until 1999.


title: Maria Schrader

text: Schrader played the part of Martin Rauch's aunt in "Deutschland 83" (2015), an 8 episode TV series, which was the first German-language TV series to be broadcast on US television. It also became popular in the UK, airing in early 2016 on Channel 4.


title: Maria Schrader

text: In 2020 Schrader directed the Netflix miniseries "Unorthodox", for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series.


title: Maria Schrader

text: Though Schrader's most popular roles as an actor are of the Jewish faith, and many of her films as a screenwriter and director include Jewish characters and revolve around Jewish struggles, Schrader herself is not Jewish.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: , also known as "A Cruel Angel's Thesis", is a J-pop song performed by Japanese singer Yoko Takahashi. Toshiyuki Ōmori and Hidetoshi Satō composed the song, while Neko Oikawa wrote the lyrics. It was written for the opening theme of the anime television series "Neon Genesis Evangelion", and was released as a double-A-sided single with "Fly Me to the Moon", the show's closing theme, on October 25, 1995. "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" was also included on the series' soundtrack releases and on Takahashi's albums.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: The song had a positive reception from music critics and audiences; it later became one of the most famous Japanese anisongs, songs specially created for anime series. Years after the show's first airing, "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" has remained a popular Japanese karaoke song, winning popularity polls and awards. On the Internet, along with its official video, the song gained further fame through covers and parodies, becoming one of the most famous theme songs in the history of animation.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: During the production of "Neon Genesis Evangelion", the show's director Hideaki Anno suggested using an existing piece of classical music as the series' opening theme. He first chose the Polovtsian Dances from the opera "Prince Igor" by Russian composer Aleksander Borodin. TV Tokyo rejected the proposal, judging such a piece unsuitable for the show; a classical composition from "Prince Igor" would have been, according to the producers, "unclear". "Neon Genesis Evangelion" production studio Gainax then contacted Hidetoshi Satō and Toshiyuki Ōmori to write an original piece in place of the soundtrack's main composer Shiro Sagisu. Although not officially credited, Toshimichi Ōtsuki, a member of King Records and the official producer of the animated series, coordinated production. The music was composed in the key of C minor, and during the demo stage Ōtsuki requested a melody with a "crispy notching style".


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: Singer Yoko Takahashi, who was already known for singing Japanese television themes, was contacted for the recording; at the time of the recording of "A Cruel Angel's Thesis", Takahashi had not seen the anime and was not given any information about it. Ōmori finished the arrangement, albeit roughly, and Takahashi established a temporary track by singing only the syllable "la" to the melody. Once the final lyrics were ready, Takahashi, then almost thirty years old, was asked to adopt a childlike tone of voice. When she received a demo of the base to rehearse with, Takahashi found the song difficult because of both Oikawa's chosen language register and the song's fast tempo. A male backing choir was originally planned but was later deleted by Anno to emphasize the concept of "motherhood" on the recording.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: Neko Oikawa was given the task of writing the lyrics; Ōtsuki instructed her to write something "philosophical" and to use complicated language. She focused on the key concepts of "mother", "boys and girls of fourteen" and "an adult woman". Oikawa, following the directives, completed the song in two hours, after having received few details of the anime and without having met Hidetoshi Satō. Oikawa and her manager watched the show's first two extant episodes and a document presenting the project. The author had in mind the figure of a mother who does not want her son to become an adult, and wrote ambiguous lyrics with an abundance of stylistic devices. The song begins with the voice of a woman who advises a young man to behave like an angel without mercy, encouraging him with the cry of . For the woman, the boy is still innocent and naive; he looks at her, smiles and says nothing, and she gently invites him to rest. The woman, reassuring him their meeting was chosen by fate, says; "On your back you have feathers that will carry you into the future".


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: For the title, Oikawa used the German word from philosophical terminology. Yahoo! Japan has noted the concept of "These" has been used, among others, by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher and exponent of German idealism. Oikawa also took inspiration from the manga , which was written by Moto Hagio and was being published at the time, and inserted the term , which usually refers to the angels of Christianity. An additional religious reference, the verse ("This is the Bible with which you will learn what freedom is"), was added to the lyrics. At first, she thought of ending the song with the motto ("become a weapon" or if written with kanji but the proposal was shelved under the advice of TV Tokyo, which requested a change to ""shin wa ni nare"" ("become a myth"). The ending with an imperative remained, keeping the idea of an adult addressing a young boy. According to Comic Book Resources's Devin Meenan, the lyrics could refer to Yui Ikari, mother of protagonist Shinji who protects him during the events of the series, or Misato Katsuragi, his superior who encourages him "to come out of his shell". Kotono Mitsuishi, Misato's Japanese voice actress, gave a similar interpretation; in an interview, Mitsuishi stated that the lyric "pierced" her heart, believing "that was Misato's voice".


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: An interlude chorus with the words and was also included in the song; the interlude's lyrics are not from an existing language and were created by arranger Toshiyuki Ōmori. The chorus was sung by Ōmori, Takahashi, and her brother Gō Takahashi.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: On October 25, 1995, "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" was released as a single in two versions: in the first one, with a cover price of , it was accompanied by a song by Takahashi entitled ; the second version, with a cover price of yen, includes "Fly Me to the Moon" performed by Claire Littley, the show's closing theme song. The second version was reissued on March 26, 2003, for the release of the Renewal Edition of "Neon Genesis Evangelion". "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" was also included on albums dedicated to the anime soundtracks, starting with "Neon Genesis Evangelion I", released on November 22, 1995; in the following "Neon Genesis Evangelion II", released on February 16, 1996, the shorter "TV Size Version", which was used for broadcast by TV Tokyo, was also included.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: The song was included in other releases, such as the special box set "The Day of Second Impact" (September 13, 2000), "" (December 4, 1998), "Refrain of Evangelion" (May 23, 2003), "Neon Genesis Evangelion Decade" (November 26, 2005), "A. T. EVA01 Reference" CD (December 21, 2007), "Shin Godzilla vs Evangelion Symphony" (December 27, 2017), "Evangelion Finally" (October 2020), and "Neon Genesis Evangelion Soundtrack 25th Anniversary Box", a box containing several versions of the theme song. The track was later included on unrelated compilations, such as the "Star Child Selection" (28 January 2000), various "Super Robot Tamashii" anthologies in various mixes, "pop'n music 12 Iroha AC CS pop'n music 10" (13 April 2005), "Kids Song★Hit Paradise!" (26 September 2008), "Brass Band Koushien 3" (27 February 2008), and "Nekoism 〜 Neko Oikawa Sakuhin-shū" (21 February 2018).


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" enjoyed long-lasting success and frequently appeared in popularity polls even decades after the first airing of "Evangelion". It is considered as one of the best and most iconic theme songs of the "otaku" subculture, finding renewed popularity with the release of the "Rebuild of Evangelion" theatrical tetralogy. In 1996 and 1997, after the first broadcast of "Neon Genesis Evangelion", "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" was elected best theme song of the moment in the Anime Grand Prix, an annual poll conducted by the magazine "Animage"; in the second year, it got more than twice as many votes as the second-placed song, "Give a Reason" by Megumi Hayashibara.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In a 2002 poll on the most-unforgettable songs in the history of Japanese animation, conducted by TV Asahi, the song was placed 55th; it later reached 18th place in the same channel's ranking of best anime songs produced during and after the 1990s. In 2016, the song was ranked top in a poll of the favorite anisongs of the 1990s by Anime News Network users and one of the best-ever anisongs in a poll of almost 7,000 people by "CD & DL Data" magazine. In 2018, Japanese website Anime Anime asked its users which cartoon soundtracks they would like as their national anthem; "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" took third place. The following year, it came second in a survey of the most-sung titles by the female audience on the website Merumo.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: Critics positively received "The Cruel Angel's Thesis". Axs.com's Terrance Pyror and Otaku Kart included the song in their lists of the best theme songs in the history of Japanese animation. Casey Baseel of Sora News and Ederlyn Peralta of Comic Book Resources described it as one of the most iconic anime songs. CBR's Eduardo Luquin praised its tone, writing, "'Cruel Angel's Thesis' is a hype train that starts the trippy trip to the destinations known as philosophy, religion, and teenage angst. Like a starting shot at the start of the race, it implores the watcher to go headlong into the show and try to take in everything "Evangelion" has to offer."


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: For Lauren Orsini of "Forbes" and Noah Black of Mcccagora.com, the song is "instantly" and "devastatingly catchy". Matt Fagaly of Crunchyroll and Tom Pinchuk of Geek & Sundry praised the contrast between the dark, pessimistic themes of its parent series and the song's lighthearted tone. This view was echoed by the Anime-Planet website, which said, "It's a great piece of music, which is quite rare for anime openings these days". Upon the anime's release on Netflix, the theme song was again analyzed and reviewed. David Levesley of "Gentlemen's Quarterly" described it as an "exceptional" song while Junichi Tsukagoshi of Animate Times called it "a holy chant that everyone knows". Italian writer Laura Mucci of Everyeye.it called it "a curious element of cultural folklore", "a kind of Japanese counterpart to [the Italian] Nel blu, dipinto di blu". CBR ranked "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" as the best theme song of the 1990s and the third-most beautiful of all time, and WatchMojo placed it as the second-catchiest theme song ever.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" has been described by website Sora News as an "unqualified hit" that transcended anime fandom, and by Crunchyroll's


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: Kara Dennison as "one of the most recognizable [themes] in anime history". According to Anime Maru, it also had a significant cultural impact, and its presence "has become a staple of otaku culture". Throughout the years, the song spawned memes and parody edits. Music anime douga (MAD) began to circulate on websites, with tribute video clips aimed at recreating the song's music and video; according to Comic Book Resources's Angelo Delos Trinos, it has been "endlessly covered and edited more so than anything from the actual anime. Even anime newcomers who have yet to watch anything from "Evangelion" are already familiar with its opening because of its undying online presence". Through the years, these parodies spread on the web and the music video continued to be homaged by Internet users through remixes, mash-ups, and covers.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In 2018, a Twitter user combined the song with a video clip of LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem"; the parody video went viral and "Party Rock Anthem" also became a meme with dozens of variations on several social media platforms. In August 2019, Italian football club S.S. Monopoli 1966 opened a vote for its fans to choose the team's cheering song to be sung when the team scored goals; "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" finished second to "7 Miliardi" by Massimo Pericolo. The following year, during the COVID-19 lockdown period, a video was uploaded with Italians singing from the balconies of their homes and edited with "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" in the background; the quarantine video also went viral.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" was used in "Evangelion"-inspired video games and "pachinko" machines. In August 1997, the Japanese magazine "June", specialized in homoerotic manga and anime (shonen-ai), issued a volume entitled , the title of which is taken from the first verse of the theme song. In 2014, Sony released a special DAT walkman about the series in homage to the one used by Shinji's character; included in the package was a card from the Japanese music store Mora that allowed customers to download the original version of "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" in Sony Stores in Ginza, Nagoya, and Osaka. The following year, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first airing of the anime, a musical road playing the song was built in Hakone, near which the series' fictional city Tokyo-3 is located; through jolts caused by grooves in the asphalt, a person driving at an optimal speed of could hear the song along a scenic route at Lake Ashi.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In 2018, Evastore, an official store entirely dedicated to the series, advertised the release of the single in a restored digital format and produced new merchandise such as t-shirts, posters, and metallic postcards. On May 5 of the same year, the piece was included in an official cross-over episode between "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and the animated series "Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion". On December 26, Takahashi performed "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" at the opening of an "izakaya" club dedicated to the series; a drink named "Zankoku na tenshi no these" was later released. In 2019, in conjunction with the anime's launch on Netflix, Japanese singer Toshi performed the song during a performance of the ice-skating show "Fantasy on Ice". American wrestler Dio Maddin, a fan of "Neon Genesis Evangelion", named one of his final moves "Cruel Angel's Thesis" after the song. In 2020, an "Evangelion"-themed event was held at the Tokyo Sky Tree, during which the video of the song was shown at the tower's observatory; the event ran until May of the following year. "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" was also used in an episode of "Seiyu's Life!" and homaged in other animated series, such as "Hayate the Combat Butler", and "Regular Show".


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In Japan, "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" gained popularity, remaining for years in the Oricon Karaoke Chart. The original version of the song was released as a single on October 25, 1995, and charted twenty-two times on the weekly Oricon charts, peaking at number twenty-seven. It was later re-released together with Claire's cover of "Fly Me to the Moon" and stayed on the chart for sixty-one weeks. In 1997, shortly after the end of the anime's first airing and the release of the movie "", "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" was awarded the gold and diamond record (named "Million" in Japan), while the edition with "Fly Me to the Moon" was certified platinum. The 2003 version stayed on the chart for nine weeks. A remix done in 2009 was also successful; in June and July of that year, "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" became the most popular anisong of the period, appeared for fourteen weeks on the Oricon charts, and reached number twenty-two. Sales of the various versions collectively sold more than one million copies.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In 2011, fifteen years after its debut, the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers honored the song by placing it first in the JASRAC Awards, a special ranking of the most-profitable royalty pieces in Japanese music, calculated among other things through digital sales, "pachinko", and karaoke. The song had already appeared on the charts in previous years: in 2008 it peaked at number seven, number eight in 2009, and number three in 2007. In May 2012, "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" was certified three-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan. Its popularity in karaoke and "pachinko" machines enriched writer Neko Oikawa, who in 2015 said she had earned more than in royalties from "A Cruel Angel's Thesis"; "pachinko" machines proved particularly lucrative, grossing at least per year.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" remains one of the most-popular songs in Japanese karaoke. In 2013, it placed third in a Koebu.com poll about the favorite karaoke songs by voice actors. In 2014, the company Joysound placed it at number one on its list of the year's most-popular anime theme songs. The song also reappeared among the twenty most-sung songs of the first half of that same year, and also appeared on previous charts; in 2007, it peaked at number twenty, in 2009 at number two, and in the first week of June 2013 at number six. A similar result was recorded in 2015; it was top of Charapedia's poll of about 10,000 fans' favorite karaoke songs. In March of that year, the website Nico Nico News asked more than 300 adults which animated theme song was the most annoying and whose songs they were most sick of hearing, and "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" won 40.6% of the votes. In 2017, 2019, and 2020, it again listed among the ten most-popular songs on Joysound's Japanese karaoke popularity polls and in Karatetsu's charts. On February 18, 2017, NHK BS Premium broadcast a live program entitled "Countdown LIVE Anisong Best 100!", in which the single was ranked eighth. Joysound listed it as the most-played song in karaoke in the Heisei period, the previous thirty years of Japanese history, and the second-most-sung anisong of the first half of 2020, after LiSA's "Gurenge".


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: For "The Cruel Angel's Thesis", Gainax made a ninety-second opening video that was animated by Takeshi Honda and Shinya Hasegawa. The production took some time; it was still unfinished in July 1995, when the first two episodes were premiered at the company's second festival. The music video was completed in September of the same year, shortly before the anime premiered on TV Tokyo. The video consists of approximately 2,160 frames divided into eighty-four scenes, averaging one sequence per second. Gainax staff attempted to create a retro effect, paying homage to and imitating theme songs from previous works. Hideaki Anno's name appears in large letters in the video's last few seconds, and is seemingly cut off by Eva-01's arms, emphasizing the director's strong imprint on every aspect of the series.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: A second video for the song's full version was released for the 2003 home video edition of the series named Renewal of Evangelion. The new video was directed by Masayuki, and is different from the one for the television broadcast. The full video includes images from the director's cut of the episodes and scenes from the film "" (1997). It also includes captions with white characters on a black background, written and coordinated by Hideaki Anno. The video was released in high definition on King Records' official YouTube channel on June 20, 2018.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: The video of the television version of "A Cruel Angel's thesis" contains several cultural references, most notably to Christianity and Judaism. In the opening frames, a bright blue dot appears and expands like a drop of water and surrounded by a circle of the same color. The image, according to the script, represents the beginning of the universe; according to critic Mario Pasqualini, the symbol could refer to the relationship between God and Creation. After the point of light appears, a figure with twelve wings on a red background, similar to some representations of cherubic angels, appears. This is followed by a celestial flame, which refers to the concept of the soul or "life breath" and which plays a role in the series. The image also depicts the first light seen by a newborn child. Further religious symbolism consists of a dual depiction of the Kabbalistic tree of life, in reference to the series' Human Instrumentality Project, a plan for the evolution of humanity pursued by the character of Gendo Ikari.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In the latter part, a frame of Rei Ayanami touching a window is glimpsed, with a close-up of her eye as she blinks. This device has been compared by writer Dennis Redmond to a similar image used by director Krzysztof Kieślowski in the film "" (1993). Alternating on the screen are images of Eva-01's hand covered in blood and 01 unleashing twelve wings of light, along with white captions on a black background and "vice versa", maps, pencil sketches, a drawing depicting Kaworu Nagisa, portraits of Misato Katsuragi, Ryōji Kaji and Ritsuko Akagi, the first Angel Adam, and a luminous red sphere. For the light wings of 01, the authors were inspired by the Christian figure of Lucifer, a fallen angel who, according to traditional iconography, has twelve wings.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: The video ends with a text written, according to the official storyboards, in angelic characters; according to Anno, it represents the Dead Sea Scrolls. "Neon Genesis Evangelion" manga English editor Carl Gustav Horn also compared the calligraphy of the characters to the "Sefer Raziel HaMalakh", a Kabbalistic grimoire of Practical Kabbalah.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: The video clip for "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" received praise from audiences and critics. According to "Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Unofficial Guide", written by Martin Foster and Kazuhisa Fujie, some viewers were at first confused by seeing the theme song, but after the series' conclusion they noticed that "everything that appeared in the story had been highlighted, flagged or hinted at in the opening sequence". "Newtype" magazine praised the video, calling it "excellent" and appreciating the large amount of sequences. For Nick Valdez of Comic Book, the video is "chock full of memorable imagery" and "one of the coolest trips down memory lane". Dani Cavallaro, a writer and critic specializing in Japanese animation, cited it as an example of Hideaki Anno's "complexity of animation" and style, describing it as "an intriguing array of mystical symbols, a perfect match of visuals and music and sophisticated framing". According to Cavallaro, "each of the key images elegantly counterbalances another image moving in the opposite direction", such as the two depictions of the Tree of Life, as well as Rei and Asuka's frames, which flow vertically, and Misato's frames, which move horizontally.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In 2015, Takahashi sang "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California, and 2017 she performed it during Billboard Live in Tokyo, receiving a warm reception from the audience. On June 20, 2018, she performed the song during the Evangelion World Tour, which was organized to promote the song's re-release with restored and remastered audio along with "Tamashii no rufuran", on stages in Japan, France, and Hong Kong. In June 2019, Takahashi performed at the Japan Expo in Paris, singing songs from the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" soundtrack just before an official preview of the film "Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0" and in conjunction with the anime's release on Netflix. To mark the occasion, all of "Neon Genesis Evangelion I", including "Zankoku na tenshi no these", was added to Spotify on June 21.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In 2020, an event dedicated to "Evangelion" Operation Yashima was announced in Hakone, a city where the show's fictional city Tokyo-3 is located. During the event, held on March 28 and May 23, a live performance of Takahashi's "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" was planned, but the dates were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On October 3 of the same year, Takahashi took part in the unveiling of a reproduction of Eva-01 at Toei Kyoto Studio Park in Ukyō-ku, singing "Zankoku na tenshi no these" on the palm of the humanoid's hand.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: For "Take Care of Yourself", the anime's last episode, Sagisu rearranged the song's accompaniment and melody into the instrumentals "The Heady Feeling of Freedom" and "Good, or Don't Be", for piano, electric piano, acoustic guitar, violins, and cellos. Remixes of the single were added to "Dancemania" compilations. The Shihori version was included in the albums "Dancemania Summer Story 2008" (25 June 2008), "Wa-euro Best" (5 August 2009), "Dancemania Summer Story 2009" (10 June 2009), "Best of Wa-euro Best" (21 July 2010), the Mint version in "Himetra Best" (14 May 2008), and "Himetra Anime*Mix" (21 January 2009), while a version by Diana Gross was included in the compilation "Him Trace 3". Other remixes were later included in the "Dancemania Speed"' compilations "Anime Speed" (25 May 2005), "Anime Speed Newtype Edition" (19 July 2006), "Happy Speed" (18 April 2007), and "Himetra Speed" (30 July 2008). Other versions were included in Takahashi's albums; the arrangement of the original single was copyrighted by King Records, so for legal reasons the record companies that released Takahashi's works had to rely on other arrangements.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: A "Version '96" was added to the album "Best Pieces", released on February 10, 1999, and then included in "Super Value Yoko Takahashi", released on February 19, 2001 by Universal Music. In "～refrain～The songs were inspired by Evangelion" (November 6, 1997), a remix named "Ambivalence Mix" and an instrumental version titled "Epilogue de these" edited by Tony Orly were added. A new version of "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" titled "Remix for Peace" was also produced in 1999 and included on Takahashi's album "Best Pieces II", which was released on February 10 of that year; as well as Takahashi's hit collections such as "Yoko Takahashi Best 10" (January 17, 2007), "Yoko Takahashi Essential Best" (December 19, 2007) and "Golden☆Best Yoko Takahashi", multiple versions of which were released on February 25, 2004, December 5, 2012, and December 5, 2018. An additional remix, "Harmonia Version", was added to "LI-La", another album by the performer, that was later reissued in "Li-La +3", which was released on October 2, 2013, along with the "Remix for Peace".


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In 2005, a new version of the song, again with Takahashi on vocals and forty-seven seconds longer than the original, was recorded for the tenth anniversary of the series. The new version, named "10th Anniversary Edition", was included as the twelfth track in "Neon Genesis Evangelion Decade". Michio Nakagoe was the sound and mixing engineer, while the musicians were Mineaki Matsumoto on piano, Tatsu Kase on double bass, Yuichi Tokashiki on drums, Masanobu Fukuhara on electric guitar, Eric Miyagi and Koji Nishimura on trumpet, Eijiro Nakagawa on trombone, Osamu Koike on alto saxophone, Hiroshi Yaginuma on tenor saxophone, and Atsushi Kurokatsuno on bass saxophone. In 2009, Takahashi recorded new versions of "Zankoku na tenshi no these" and "Fly Me to the Moon", which were included in a single released on May 13. The songs were produced in conjunction with the presentation of a pachinko series on "Evangelion" named ; a cover designed by Takeshi Honda was used for the album. The 2009 version was included in Takahashi's "20th century Boys & Girls" collection, released on June 23 of the following year, and, ten years later, in the mini-album "Evangelion Extreme", which was released by King Amusement Creative and includes the tracks used in the pachislots dedicated to the series.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In 2015, Takahashi recorded a new version of the composition named "2015 Version" in a single live session with acoustic guitar accompaniment for her thirteenth studio album "20th century Boys & Girls II", which was released on April 22, 2015, by King Records. Two years later, a new arrangement titled "2017 Version" was included in the anthology "Yoko Sings Forever" (March 22, 2017); the recording was done live with piano by Marashii and organ by Satoshi Takebe. At first, a single titled "Zankoku na tenshi no these ~ Tamashii no rufuran" was planned but not included in the final version. In July 2019, "Zankoku na tenshi no these" was also used in the strategy video game "The Battle Cats"; Takahashi sang only the word , a Japanese onomatopoeia of meow. The version was later uploaded to Oricon and MaiDiGiTV YouTube channels, and both videos gained more than one million views. In the same year, Eitetsu Hayashi produced a new arrangement of "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" stylistically close to Japanese traditional music and mainly made with taiko instruments; it was premiered on King Amusement Creative's official YouTube channel as "Zankoku na tenshi no these: Matsuri Spirit" and was fully released on July 24 of the same year.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: The Chinese broadcaster Shenzhen TV acquired "Evangelion" for a Chinese-language dubbing; the first translation was not approved by the National Radio and Television Administration, a ministerial agency under the State Council of the People's Republic of China, so the series was translated and dubbed again, removing the contents that were considered inappropriate for a young audience and the theme song was renamed "Měilì tiānshǐ de xíngdòng gānglǐng" (美丽天使的行动纲领, "The beautiful angel's plan of action"), also known as "Yǒnggǎn de shàonián" (勇敢的少年, "The brave boy"). The anime was then broadcast between 1999 and 2001.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: In 1996, the fourth album of the soundtracks of the series "Neon Genesis Evangelion Addition" was released; it includes "Zankoku na tenshi no these (Director's Edit. Version II)", lasting 4:04 minutes and sung by Kotono Mitsuishi, Megumi Hayashibara, and Yūko Miyamura, voice actresses of the three major female characters of the show, respectively: Misato Katsuragi, Rei Ayanami and Asuka Sōryū Langley. In 2001, the album "The Birthday of Rei Ayanami" (30 March 2001) was released; among the tracks was a cover of "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" performed by Hayashibara. The song was added to "bertemu", the artist's seventh album (released on November 1, 1996), and as a bonus track on "Center Color", her eleventh (released on January 7, 2004). Hayashibara stated while singing "The Cruel Angel's Thesis" she thought of the scene in which Rei smiles for the first time at Shinji Ikari in the film version of "Eva". Megumi Ogata, Shinji's voice actress, performed the song during her concerts. Junko Iwao, the Japanese voice actress of Hikari Horaki, also recorded her bossa nova version of the song for her album "Anime On Bossa", which was released on January 30, 2008.


title: A Cruel Angel's Thesis

text: Other artists have recorded covers of "A Cruel Angel's Thesis"; these include Shōko Nakagawa, MIQ, Yōko Ishida, Masami Okui, Shizuka Itō, Mikuni Shimokawa, Toshi, Aya Hirano, arlie Ray, Ryō Horikawa, Chihiro Yonekura, Akina Nakamori, Maya Sakura, Konomi Suzuki, Kikuko Inoue, and Natsuki Katō. Music groups, both Japanese and foreign, include Animetal, Anipunk, Globe, Move, Flow, Glay, Glory Gospel Singers, Anime That Jazz!, Max, and Roselia, a band from the media franchise "BanG Dream!".


title: Bossanova (Pixies album)

text: Bossanova is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Pixies. It was released on August 13, 1990 by English independent record label 4AD in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Because of 4AD's independent status, major label Elektra handled distribution in the US.


title: Bossanova (Pixies album)

text: "Bossanova" reached number 70 on the "Billboard" 200. The album peaked at number three in the UK Albums Chart. Two singles were released from "Bossanova": "Velouria" and "Dig for Fire". Both charted on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart in the US, at No. 4 and No. 11, respectively.


title: Bossanova (Pixies album)

text: After Pixies finished touring obligations for their second album, "Doolittle" (1989), in January 1990, band members Black Francis, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering moved from Boston to Los Angeles. Bassist Kim Deal stayed in the UK to record the Breeders' first album in January with producer Steve Albini, although she ultimately decided to travel out to Los Angeles with the rest of the group. Lovering stated that he, Santiago, and Francis moved to Los Angeles because that's where they intended to record their next album. The three band members lived in the Oakwood apartments, along with comic Garrett Morris and members of the band White Lion. Producer Gil Norton also moved into the apartment complex.


title: Bossanova (Pixies album)

text: Pixies started recording material for "Bossanova" at Cherokee Studios in February 1990, where the sessions ran into problems. Norton said that nothing could be recorded after 6 p.m. because the recording desk would pick up pirate radio stations. Norton decided to work on overdubs in another studio for a few days until the problem was corrected, but when he returned to Cherokee, he found that any time something was plugged into a guitar amplifier it would generate "this incredible hum". Norton refused to tell 4AD owner Ivo Watts-Russell about the problem until he felt he could address it. One day while visiting a bar, Norton and Santiago met producer Rick Rubin and informed him of their situation. Rubin had his secretary find another studio for the group, and the band continued recording at Master Control.


title: Bossanova (Pixies album)

text: One album song, "Blown Away", had been written in Spain in early June 1989 while on tour. The song was recorded with producer Gil Norton, who was specially flown in for the one-song session, at Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin, after their June 19 concert there.


title: Bossanova (Pixies album)

text: In contrast to previous records, many songs were written in the studio and few demo recordings were created. Santiago said that the band only practiced for a two-week period, in contrast to previous albums, when the band would rehearse constantly in Boston. Black Francis noted, "So I was writing [lyrics] on napkins five minutes before I sang. Sometimes it's good, sometimes not. That's just the nature of that songwriting."


title: Bossanova (Pixies album)

text: The album was released in August 1990 on 4AD in the UK, and jointly by 4AD and Elektra in the USA. After 4AD re-acquired sole distribution rights for Pixies' back catalog, a re-issued (although not remastered) CD appeared solely on 4AD in the US in 2004. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab released a version in 2008 that was remastered from the original analog master tapes.


title: Bossanova (Pixies album)

text: The UK reviews of "Bossanova" were generally positive. In his September 1990 review of "Bossanova", "Q"s Mat Snow said that "the Pixies are masters of the calculated incongruity," and commented that "they give other rockers an object lesson in the first principles of how it should be done." Terry Staunton of "NME" noted that the album's production "leans towards the harsh garage grunge of "Surfer Rosa", although the songs retain the strong melodies of "Doolittle"," and said that ""Bossanova" is the composite Pixies LP."


title: Bossanova (Pixies album)

text: In comparison to the band's previous albums, "Rolling Stone" reviewer Moira McCormick described "Bossanova" as "more of a straight-ahead rock album – by the Pixies' standards, meaning it's still safely off the mainstream."


title: Bossanova (Pixies album)

text: UK magazine "Select" made "Bossanova" their album of the year for 1990. The album was also included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".


title: Jay-Z singles discography

text: The singles discography of American rapper Jay-Z consists of 68 singles as a lead artist, and 51 singles as a featured artist, as well as 14 promotional singles.


title: Jay-Z singles discography

text: The Brooklyn native rapper Jay-Z had success on the "Billboard" Hot 100 with singles from his debut studio album "Reasonable Doubt". In 1997 he had success outside of the US with singles like "Sunshine" which peaked at number 25 in UK, 18 in Germany and 22 in NZ. His next single "Wishing on a Star" peaked at number 13 in UK being his highest peak on the chart until Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem). The next single "The City Is Mine was the most successful single of "In My Lifetime, Vol. 1". The album peaked at number 3 on the "Billboard" 200 and it received positive reviews from critics. In 1998 he released the smash hit singles "Can I Get A..." and "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" which peaked at number 19 and 15 on the Hot 100 and had wide success worldwide, too. The singles helped the album "Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life" to debut at number 1 on the Albums chart and selling over 5 million copies. "Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter" had hits like "Jigga My Nigga" which peaked at number 1 on the Rap chart and #28 on the Hot 100. Hits like "Girl's Best Friend" and "Big Pimpin'" were released and the later peaked at #18 on the Hot 100 earning a platinum certification by the RIAA. His next album "" was released shortly after Vol 3. The album sold 500k first week and had the hit "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" which peaked at number one on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart being his first single to reach that peak. In 2001 he released his classic album "The Blueprint" which spawned his first top 10 single "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" which was produced by Kanye West. "The Blueprint" peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 selling 400k, eventually reaching 2 million. The sequel followed in 2002 and had hits like "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" , "Excuse Me Miss" both peaking inside the top 10 on the Hot 100. The first single was his most successful single worldwide for Jay since "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)". The album sold 500k but it received mixed reviews. "The Black Album" was released and had three hit singles and 2 of them were top 10. The album was considered a classic and Jay said it would be his last album. The project reached #1 on the albums chart and it won a Grammy for "99 Problems". Even though he said "The Black Album" would be his last album he released a collaboration EP with Linkin Park spawning a hit single which earned a Grammy.


title: Jay-Z singles discography

text: After he became the president of Def Jam Recordings, Jay-Z released a new album in late 2006 titled "Kingdom Come". It spawned the top 10 single "Show Me What You Got", but its other singles were not as successful and some did not even chart. He later collaborated with T.I. on the top 5 and Grammy winning single "Swagga like Us". In 2009, he released "The Blueprint 3", which included his first chart-topping single "Empire State of Mind". The singles from the album went on to win several Grammys and peaked high on the charts as well. His 2011 collaborative album with Kanye West, "Watch the Throne" spawned the hit singles "H•A•M", "Otis", "Gotta Have It", and "Niggas in Paris"; the latter peaked at number 5 on the Hot 100 and sold 5 million units, becoming one of the biggest hits in both rappers' careers. His twelfth studio album "Magna Carta Holy Grail" was not promoted by any singles. In 2017, he released his thirteenth studio album, "". The album's title track, as well as "The Story of O.J.", both charted in the top 40 on the Hot 100, despite the latter not being released as a single.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: The Chicago Manual of Style (abbreviated in writing as CMOS or CMS, or sometimes as Chicago) is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 17 editions have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publishing. It is "one of the most widely used and respected style guides in the United States". The guide specifically focuses on American English and deals with aspects of editorial practice, including grammar and usage, as well as document preparation and formatting. It is available in print as a hardcover book, and by subscription as a searchable website as "The Chicago Manual of Style Online." The online version provides some free resources, primarily aimed at teachers, students, and libraries.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: "The Chicago Manual of Style" is published in hardcover and online. The online edition includes the searchable text of both the 16th and 17th—its most recent—editions with features such as tools for editors, a citation guide summary, and searchable access to a Q&A, where University of Chicago Press editors answer readers' style questions. "The Chicago Manual of Style" also discusses the parts of a book and the editing process. An annual subscription is required for access to the online content of the "Manual". (Access to the Q&A, however, is free, as are various editing tools.)


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: Many publishers throughout the world adopt "Chicago" as their style. It is used in some social science publications, most North American historical journals, and remains the basis for the "Style Guide of the American Anthropological Association", the "Style Sheet" for the Organization of American Historians, and corporate style guides, including the "Apple Style Guide".


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: "The Chicago Manual of Style" includes chapters relevant to publishers of books and journals. It is used widely by academic and some trade publishers, as well as editors and authors who are required by those publishers to follow it. Kate L. Turabian's "A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations" also reflects Chicago style.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: "Chicago" style offers writers a choice of several different formats. It allows the mixing of formats, provided that the result is clear and consistent. For instance, the 15th edition of "The Chicago Manual of Style" permits the use of both in-text citation systems and/or footnotes or endnotes, including use of "content notes"; it gives information about in-text citation by page number (such as MLA style) or by year of publication (like APA style); it even provides for variations in styles of footnotes and endnotes, depending on whether the paper includes a full bibliography at the end.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: Two types of citation styles are provided. In both cases, two parts are needed: first, notation in the text, which indicates that the information immediately preceding was from another source; and second, the full citation, which is placed at another location.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: Using author-date style, the sourced text is indicated parenthetically with the last name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication with no intervening punctuation.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: When page numbers are used, they are placed along with the author's last name and date of publication "after" an interposed comma.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: If the author's name is used in the text, only the date of publication need be cited parenthetically (with or without the page number).


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: In-text citations are usually placed just inside a mark of punctuation. An exception to this rule is for block quotations, where the citation is placed outside the punctuation.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: The full citation for the source is then included in a references section at the end of the material. As publication dates are prominent in this style, the reference entry places the publication date "following" the author(s) name.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: Heilman, James M., and Andrew G. West. 2015. "Wikipedia and Medicine: Quantifying Readership, Editors, and the Significance of Natural Language." "Journal of Medical Internet Research" 17 (3): e62. doi:10.2196/jmir.4069.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: Using notes and bibliography style, the sourced text is indicated by a superscripted note number that corresponds to a full citation either at the bottom of the page (as a footnote) or at the end of a main body of text (as an endnote). In both instances, the citation is also placed in a bibliography entry at the end of the material, listed in alphabetical order of the author's last name. The two formats differ: notes use commas where bibliography entries use periods.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: The following is an example of a journal article citation provided as a note and its bibliography entry. The third example of the bibliography entry is marked up with color to identify its parts.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: What now is known as "The Chicago Manual of Style" was first published in 1906 under the title "Manual of Style: Being a compilation of the typographical rules in force at the University of Chicago Press, to which are appended specimens of type in use". From its first 203-page edition, the "CMOS" evolved into a comprehensive reference style guide of 1,146 pages in its 17th edition. It was one of the first editorial style guides published in the United States, and it is largely responsible for research methodology standardization, notably citation style.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: The most significant revision to the manual was made for the 12th edition, published in 1969. Its first printing of 20,000 copies sold out before it was printed. In 1982, with the publication of the 13th edition, it was officially retitled "The Chicago Manual of Style", adopting the informal name already in widespread use.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: More recently, the publishers have released a new edition about every seven to ten years. The 15th edition (2003) was revised to reflect the emergence of computer technology and the internet in publishing, offering guidance for citing electronic works. Other changes include a chapter on American English grammar and use, and a revised treatment of mathematical copy.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: In August 2010, the 16th edition was published simultaneously in the hardcover and online editions for the first time in the "Manual"s history. In a departure from the earlier red-orange cover, the 16th edition features a robin's-egg blue dust jacket (a nod to older editions with blue jackets, such as the 11th and 12th). The 16th edition featured "music, foreign languages, and computer topics (such as Unicode characters and URLs)". It also expands recommendations for producing electronic publications, including web-based content and e-books. An updated appendix on production and digital technology demystified the process of electronic workflow and offered a primer on the use of XML markup. It also includes a revised glossary, including a host of terms associated with electronic and print publishing. The "Chicago" system of documentation is streamlined to achieve greater consistency between the author-date and notes-bibliography systems of citation, making both systems easier to use. In addition, updated and expanded examples address the many questions that arise when documenting online and digital sources, from the use of DOIs to citing social networking sites. Figures and tables are updated throughout the book, including a return to the "Manual"s popular hyphenation table and new, selective listings of Unicode numbers for special characters.


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: In April 2016, the publisher released "The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation", Bryan A. Garner's expansion of his "Chicago Manual of Style" chapter on the topic, and coinciding with the release of the new edition of "Garner's Modern American Usage".


title: The Chicago Manual of Style

text: The 17th edition was published in September 2017. It offers new and expanded style guidelines in response to advancing technology and social change. It also includes new and revised content reflecting the latest publishing practices and electronic workflows and self-publishing. Citation recommendations, the glossary of problematic words and phrases, and the bibliography have all been updated and expanded. In the 17th edition, email lost its hyphen, internet became lowercase, the singular "they" and "their" are now acceptable in certain circumstances, a major new section on syntax has been added, and the long-standing recommendation to use "ibid" has changed due to electronic publishing.


title: Paranoid (TV series)

text: Paranoid is a British crime drama, which began broadcasting on ITV on 22 September 2016, and streaming internationally on Netflix in 2016. The eight-part series focuses on a group of UK detectives working for the fictional Woodmere police force attempting to solve the murder of a local doctor who is stabbed at a children's playground. During the course of their investigation, the detectives discover the murder has links to a German pharmaceutical company and they enlist the help of their German colleagues in Düsseldorf to find the killer. Indira Varma, Robert Glenister, and Dino Fetscher star as main protagonists DS Nina Suresh, DC Bobby Day, and DC Alec Wayfield, respectively.


title: Paranoid (TV series)

text: Angela Benton, a well-liked local GP in the fictional town of Woodmere, is stabbed to death in a local children's playground. A team of detectives from Woodmere Police are assigned to investigate the case, including: DS Nina Suresh (Indira Varma), DC Bobby Day (Robert Glenister), DC Alec Wayfield (Dino Fetscher), and their supervising officer, DI Michael Niles (Neil Stuke). They initially suspect the murderer is a local mental patient, Jacob Appley, who is under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Chris Crowley (Michael Maloney). When Appley is later found dead, his brother, Henry (William Ash), is convinced that Jacob was not responsible for the murder, and has been framed by a party or parties unknown.


title: Paranoid (TV series)

text: Meanwhile, an unidentified man (Kevin Doyle), dubbed the "Ghost Detective", is sending the team information and clues to evidence that could identify Angela's killer. As the investigation continues, the team discovers Angela's death could be linked to her ex-boyfriend, Ruben Lukana. The team enlists the help of Düsseldorf detective Linda Felber (Christiane Paul) to look into Lukana. When he is found dead face down in his swimming pool, Felber and her partner, Walti Merian (Dominik Tiefenthaler), begin an investigation. A suspect for the murders is identified, but when he evades capture and flees back to Germany, Niles arranges for Bobby to travel to Düsseldorf to assist with the German investigation.


title: Assegai

text: An assegai or assagai (Arabic "az-zaġāyah", Berber "zaġāya" "spear", Old French "azagaie", Spanish "azagaya", Italian "zagaglia", Middle English "lancegay") is a pole weapon used for throwing, usually a light spear or javelin made up of a wooden handle and an iron tip.


title: Assegai

text: The use of various types of the assegai was widespread all over Africa and it was the most common weapon used before the introduction of firearms. The Zulu, Xhosa and other Nguni tribes of South Africa were renowned for their use of the assegai.


title: Assegai

text: Shaka of the Zulu invented a shorter stabbing spear with a two-foot (0.61 m) shaft and a larger, broader blade one foot (0.3 m) long. This weapon is otherwise known as the "iklwa" or "ixwa", after the sound that was heard as it was withdrawn from the victim's wound. The traditional spear was not abandoned, but was used to range attack enemy formations before closing in for close quarters battle with the iklwa. This tactical combination originated during Shaka's military reforms. This weapon was typically used with one hand while the off hand held a cowhide shield for protection.


title: Assegai

text: It is also the name of a southern African tree ("Curtisia dentata") whose wood was suitable for making spears or lances, most notably by the Bantu-speaking people of southern Africa.


title: Caspar Phillipson

text: Caspar Phillipson (born 13 January 1971) is a Danish actor who has performed onscreen, onstage, and as a voice actor, predominantly in Scandinavian productions. Phillipson is best known in the English-speaking world for his portrayal of John F. Kennedy in the 2016 film "Jackie". Although Phillipson appears in "Jackie" for only ten minutes, his resemblance to Kennedy has been considered unusually striking. Phillipson has subsequently portrayed Kennedy in a short film, in live performances of Kennedy's speeches, in the TV series "Project Blue Book" and in the 2022 Marilyn Monroe biopic "Blonde".


title: Caspar Phillipson

text: Phillipson has worked as a stage actor, screen actor, and voice actor. As a voice actor, Phillipson has dubbed roles from English-language films into Danish, including revoicing Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005). Phillipson has appeared in Scandinavian productions for the screen, including the television series "The Bridge" and "Borgen".


title: Caspar Phillipson

text: Phillipson portrayed John F. Kennedy in "Jackie" (2016), his first role in an English-language film. He first auditioned for the part by video from Istanbul while appearing in a stage production of "Hamlet". To audition in person for "Jackie" in Paris, Phillipson claimed sick leave from a Danish stage production called "Don't Touch Nefertiti", missing five sold-out performances in a role that had been specially written for him. The Danish theater company took Phillipson to court and, in January 2017, the company was awarded for the inconvenience he had caused the theater.


title: Caspar Phillipson

text: Although Phillipson appeared for less than ten minutes in "Jackie", the press noted his close resemblance to Kennedy. "The Washington Post" commented on the resemblance after photos from the film's set were released: "That thatch of hair, those white teeth, the smile lines around the eyes — all very Kennedyesque. He might not be familiar to U.S. audiences, but he's far more visually similar to the former prez than other actors who’ve played JFK in recent memory, including James Marsden in "The Butler" (2013), Greg Kinnear in the 2011 TV miniseries "The Kennedys" and Rob Lowe in 2013's "Killing Kennedy"." Prior to auditioning for the part, Phillipson said his resemblance to Kennedy had only been noticed when he spent time in the United States: "I did a workshop years ago with Frank Corsaro, this iconic American teacher — he was the leader of Actors Studio — and suddenly, in the middle of a different scene, he said in this gruff voice, 'You have to do Kennedy one day. You just "have" to.'" Following Corsaro's advice, Phillipson practiced speeches by Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy, who he believed he more closely resembled.


title: Caspar Phillipson

text: "Jackie" casting director Mathilde Snodgrass said, "There had been an actor in Los Angeles who had done JFK for 10 or 15 years. He was in everything. But he was getting too old now. I thought, if Caspar could come with us, then he could be the next one. He could be "the guy"". After the film's release, Phillipson appeared in live performances as Kennedy alongside Anders Agner Pedersen, a Danish biographer of Kennedy; Pedersen provided historical context for a Kennedy speech before Phillipson delivered it. The actor delivered notable speeches by Kennedy such as his inaugural address, his 1963 American University speech, and his 1963 West Berlin speech. Phillipson reprised the role of Kennedy again in a short film, performing a "lost" speech written for the president to deliver on 22 November 1963, the date of his assassination. Phillipson's delivery of the speech was filmed at the 2017 COLCOA Film Festival and released as "The Speech JFK Never Gave". He played Kennedy again in the 2022 film "Blonde".


title: Creamy layer

text: Creamy layer is a term used in Indian politics to refer to some members of a backward class who are highly advanced socially as well as economically and educationally. They constitute the forward section of that particular backward class – as forward as any other forward class member. They are not eligible for government-sponsored educational and professional benefit programs. The term was introduced by the "Sattanathan Commission" in 1971, which directed that the "creamy layer" should be excluded from the reservations (quotas) of civil posts. It was also identified later by Justice Ram Nandan Committee in 1993.


title: Creamy layer

text: The creamy layer (income) criteria were defined as gross annual income of parents from all sources more than 100,000 rupees (₹ or INR defined by Sattanathan committee in 1971) In 1993 when "creamy layer" ceiling was introduced, it was ₹ "1 lakh". It was subsequently revised to "Rs 2.5 lakh" per "annum" in (2004), and revised to ₹ 4.5 lakh (2008), Rs 6 lakh (2013) and Rs 8 lakh (2017). In October 2015, the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) proposed that a person belonging to Other Backward Class (OBC) with gross annual income of parents up to Rs 15 lakh should be considered as the minimum ceiling for OBC. The NCBC also recommended the sub-division of OBCs into "backward", "more backward", and "extremely backward" blocs and divide 27% quota amongst them in proportion to their population, to ensure that stronger OBCs don't corner the quota benefits.


title: Creamy layer

text: The Supreme Court of India defined the "creamy layer", quoting an Indian governmental office memorandum dated 8 September 1993. The term was originally introduced in the context of reservation of jobs for certain groups in Indra Sawhney & Others v. Union of India case in 1992. The Supreme Court has said that the benefit of reservation should not be given to OBC children of constitutional functionaries—such as the President, Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, employees of central and state bureaucracies above a certain level, public sector employees, and members of the armed forces and paramilitary personnel above the rank of colonel. Those from scheduled castes (SCs) and in scheduled tribes (STs) are exempt from this classification, and always receive the benefits of reservation regardless of family income. Those not from preferred groups do not now receive the benefit of reservation regardless of how low the family income.


title: Creamy layer

text: The children of persons engaged in trade, industry and professions such as a doctor, lawyer, chartered accountant, income tax consultant, financial or management consultant, dental surgeon, engineer, computer specialist, film artists and other film professional, author, playwright, sports person, sports professional, media professional or any other vocations of like status whose annual income is more than ₹ 800,000 (Rs 8 lakh) for a period of three consecutive years are also excluded. [OBC children belong to any family earning a total gross annual income (from sources other than salary and agricultural land) of less than Rs 6 lakh for a period of three consecutive year—as the 1993 income ceiling for the creamy layer was raised from ₹ 100,000 (Rs 1 lakh, when the office memo was accepted) to Rs 6 lakh for a period of three consecutive years (in May 2013). Individuals belonging to the creamy layer are also excluded from being categorised as "socially and educationally backward" regardless of their social/educational backwardness.


title: Creamy layer

text: The 'creamy layer' categorization was meant only for the OBCs until 30 September 2018 but now are also applied to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, it was argued that it is not on economic basis rather on the basis of untouchability or backwardness. This applied only in reservations in promotion and rest remain the same. In December 2019, the central govt has appealed in Supreme Court against the previous order of applicability of creamy layer to the SC/ST quota.


title: The Rising (album)

text: The Rising is the twelfth studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released on July 30, 2002, on Columbia Records. An immediate critical and commercial success, it was Springsteen's first to top the US "Billboard" 200 since "Tunnel of Love" (1987). Hailed as a triumphant return to form for Springsteen, the album won two Grammy awards and marked the start of a successful collaboration with producer Brendan O'Brien. "The Rising" came seven years after "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (1995), the longest interlude between studio albums for the artist, and was his first in almost two decades with the E Street Band, with whom he had recently completed a highly successful reunion tour. The album is based in large part on Springsteen's reflections in the aftermath of 9/11.