title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2005 event was administered by new NYRR CEO Mary Wittenberg, the first woman director of an international Major marathon.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The top male finisher was Marílson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil in a time of 2:09:58, while Jeļena Prokopčuka of Latvia won the female marathon for the second consecutive time in 2:25:05. Gomes dos Santos became the first South American ever to win the race. Stephen Kiogora of Kenya placed second, and Paul Tergat, the 2005 defending champion and former marathon world record holder, placed third.


title: New York City Marathon

text: Former American professional road racing cyclist and triathlete Lance Armstrong ran in the 2006 race, finishing 868th with a time of 2:59:36. He also ran the same year in the British 10K. Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee also completed the race in 2006, finishing in 5:33:43, and wearing bib #110, signifying the 110 pounds lost during his weight loss campaign.


title: New York City Marathon

text: Amanda McGrory won the female wheelchair race in a time of 1:54:17, while the male wheelchair division was won by Kurt Fearnley in a time of 1:29:22.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2007 race was held on Sunday, November 4. It was the final race of the 2006–2007 World Marathon Majors, a two-year series of elite marathon racing that also included the Boston, Chicago, London and Berlin marathons. However, there were very few elite American marathoners participating in 2007 because many had competed the day before at the 2008 USA Men's Olympic Marathon Trials, which was held in conjunction with the New York City Marathon on some of the same course.


title: New York City Marathon

text: Martin Lel from Kenya won the men's race in a time of 2:09:04, completing a double of the 2007 London and New York Marathons. The women's winner was the world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe from Great Britain in a time of 2:23:09, one second faster than her 2004 win.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2008 New York City Marathon was held on Sunday, November 2. A field of 37,899 runners participated. The men's winner was Marílson Gomes dos Santos in 2:08:43. Paula Radcliffe won her third NYC marathon in 2:23:56.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2008 marathon events saw the deaths of three marathon participants. Carlos Jose Gomes, 58, of Brazil fell unconscious shortly after completing the race in 4:12:15. An autopsy revealed that he had a preexisting heart condition and died of a heart attack. Joseph Marotta, 66, of Staten Island, N.Y. succumbed to a heart attack hours after he completed his fourth New York City Marathon. He walked the course in 9:16:46. Fred Costa, 41, from Cincinnati, OH collapsed at the marathon and died on November 15 of a heart attack.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2009 New York City Marathon was held Sunday November 1, 2009. Meb Keflezighi of the United States won the men's race (the first American winner since Alberto Salazar in 1982) with a time of 2:09:15 while Ethiopian Derartu Tulu took the women's crown in 2:28:52, the first Ethiopian woman to do so. This was the first marathon in history with more than 40,000 official finishers, as 43,660 crossed the finish, 5,053 more than the previous best at the 2008 edition of this race.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2010 New York City Marathon was held on November 7. Gebregziabher Gebremariam of Ethiopia, in his first ever marathon, won the race after breaking away from his last rival, Emmanuel Mutai of Kenya, in the 25th mile to finish in a time of 2:08:14. The race featured 37-year-old world record holder Haile Gebrselassie, who ran with a bad knee and dropped out of the race at the 16th mile. Afterwards, he announced his retirement, but later reversed this decision. Edna Kiplagat won the women's title with a time of 2 hours, 28 minutes, 20 seconds, ahead of American Shalane Flanagan.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The total number of official finishers, 44,829 (28,757 men and 16,072 women) was a new world record for a marathon race.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2011 Marathon was held on November 6. The men's event was won by Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya in a time of 2:05:06, breaking the 10-year-old course record. Second-place runner Emmanuel Mutai, also of Kenya, and third-place runner Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia also beat the previous record for the event, with times of 2:06:28 and 2:07:14, respectively. Geoffrey Mutai, who won the Boston Marathon earlier in the year, became the first man to win both races in course-record time in the same year. Firehiwot Dado of Ethiopia won the women's race in a time of 2:23:15, her first major marathon victory. Coming second, 4 seconds behind the leader originally from Ethiopia, but now living in the Bronx, was Bizunesh Deba with a time of 2:23:19. There were a world record 46,795 official finishers: 29,867 men and 16,928 women.


title: New York City Marathon

text: Edison Peña, one of the miners who had been trapped in the 2010 Copiapó mining accident, ran the race. Former NHL player, Mark Messier, finished with a time of 4:14:21 at age 50. Retired Dutch soccer player Edwin van der Sar ran in 4:19 and said it was the toughest thing he had ever done. Former CART champion Alex Zanardi won the handcycle class.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2012 marathon was scheduled for November 4, 2012. Organizers planned to hold the event despite the passage of Hurricane Sandy the week before. However, on November 2, 2012, the marathon was cancelled; Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that: "While holding the race would not require diverting resources from the recovery effort, it is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division... We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it." Three days earlier, Bloomberg had said that the marathon would take place. That declaration started a debate on whether to hold the race with thousands of residents still without electricity, public transportation, and other basic needs. Proponents for going ahead said that the event would give an economic and morale boost to the city, while opponents said the resources (such as food, water, and police) were better used elsewhere.


title: New York City Marathon

text: Others chose to congregate and run an informal "Shadow Marathon" in Central Park. Controversy over the cancellation of the Marathon, the timing of the announcement and the repercussions of the decision, including criticism of New York Road Runners CEO Mary Wittenberg, continued well after the 2012 race was meant to have taken place. As a resolution, all who were registered to run the 2012 race were offered three options: a refund; guaranteed, non-complimentary entry to the New York City Marathon in 2013, 2014, or 2015; or guaranteed, non-complimentary entry to the NYC Half 2013.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2013 New York City Marathon was run November 3, 2013. The race proved to be the clincher for the 2013 World Marathon Majors titles for both men and women. Duplicating their London Marathon wins from April 2013, Tsegaye Kebede and Priscah Jeptoo each won $500,000 for their season-wide efforts. After the 2012 cancellation, Geoffrey Mutai returned to become the first repeat winner in 15 years (after John Kagwe in 1997–1998). Under windy conditions, his 2:08:24 was more than 3 minutes slower than in 2011. Mutai broke away around mile 22 to win by almost a minute over Ethiopian Tsegaye Kebede, who had finished third two years earlier. Jeptoo spotted Buzunesh Deba, an Ethiopian runner who has lived in the Bronx since 2009, three and a half minutes at the half-marathon mark, but came back to pass her in the 24th mile.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2014 New York City Marathon was run on Sunday, November 2, 2014. It was announced on October 2, 2013, that the marathon's main sponsor would be Tata Consultancy Services starting in 2014. It is an eight-year deal, and the race was renamed the TCS New York City Marathon. Wind was unusually high, blowing from the north on a mostly northbound course. Winners were Wilson Kipsang in 2:10:59 and Mary Keitany in 2:25:07.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2015 New York City Marathon was run on Sunday, November 1, 2015. Winners were Stanley Biwott in 2:10:34 and Mary Keitany in 2:24:25.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2016 New York City Marathon was run on Sunday, November 6. Ghirmay Ghebreslassie won the men's competition with a time of 2:07:51. The female race winner was Mary Keitany from Kenya in 2:24:26. The men's wheelchair race winner was Marcel Hug with a time of 1:35:49, and the women's wheelchair race winner was Tatyana McFadden with a time of 1:47:43. Lauren Lubin ran as the first openly non-binary athlete in the New York City Marathon.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2017 TCS New York City Marathon was run on Sunday, November 5. Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya won the men's competition with a time of 2:10:53, 3 seconds ahead of 2nd-place finisher Wilson Kipsang. In 3rd place was Lelisa Desisa with a time of 2:11:32.


title: New York City Marathon

text: On the women's side, the winner was Shalane Flanagan, a native of Marblehead, Massachusetts. She was the first American to win since 1977. Her time was 2:26:53. Mary Keitany placed 2nd with 2:27:54, and Mamitu Daska finished 3rd with a time of 2:28:08.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2018 TCS New York City Marathon was run on Sunday, November 4. Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia won his first New York City Marathon after finishing third in 2017, third in 2015 and second in 2014, followed by Shura Kitata and defending champion Geoffrey Kamworor. Their times of 2:05:59, 2:06:01 and 2:06:26 were the second, third and fourth fastest times in race history.


title: New York City Marathon

text: Mary Keitany was in a pack of women that passed halfway in 1:15:50 but then she ran the second 13.1 miles in 1:06:58, the fastest time ever for any second half of a marathon, to capture her fourth NYC crown in 2:22:48, the second fastest time ever there. London winner, Vivian Cheruiyot was second in 2:26:02 and American Shalane Flanagan placed third in 2:26:22, 31 seconds faster than her winning time the previous year.


title: New York City Marathon

text: Once again there were a world record number of finishers, with 52,812 (30,669 men/22,143 women) runners completing the race.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 49th TCS New York City Marathon took place November 3. Joyciline Jepkosgei, of Kenya, won the women's marathon and Geoffrey Kamworor, also of Kenya, won the men's marathon. Jepkosgei was a first-time winner while Kamworor had won in 2017. Manuela Schär, of Switzerland, won the women's wheelchair competition and Daniel Romanchuk, of the United States, won the men's. The 2019 NYC Marathon set another world record for the number of finishers ever for a marathon with 53,627 runners crossing the finish line.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 2020 TCS New York City Marathon was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the following year's race would instead be the 50th running. It was the first cancellation in 8 years. Entrants were offered a refund or guaranteed complimentary entry to the New York City marathons in 2021, 2022 or 2023, or the 2022 NYC Half-Marathon.


title: New York City Marathon

text: As the original event was cancelled, runners were able to compete in the virtual race between 17 October 2020 and 1 November 2020. Over 15,000 athletes took part. The male race was won by British athlete and Team Real Runners coach Kevin Quinn in a time of 2:23:48. The women's race was won by American professional athlete Stephanie Bruce in a time of 2:35:28.


title: New York City Marathon

text: The 50th running of the New York City Marathon was held on November 7, 2021. The number of competitors was limited to 33,000 due to coronavirus pandemic precautions.


title: New York City Marathon

text: While Boston Marathon and London Marathon banned or restricted Russian and Belarusian nationals from participating in their races, NYRR has not taken an action.


title: Port Vila

text: Port Vila (), or simply Vila (; ; ), is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. It is located on the island of Efate.


title: Port Vila

text: Its population in the last census (2009) was 44,040, an increase of 35% on the previous census result (29,356 in 1999). In 2009, the population of Port Vila formed 18.8% of the country's population, and 66.9% of the population of Efate.


title: Port Vila

text: On the south coast of the island of Efate, in Shefa Province, Port Vila is the economic and commercial centre of Vanuatu. The mayor is Erick Puyo Festa, of the Vanua'aku Pati, elected in January 2018; his deputy is Jenny Regenvanu, of the Graun mo Jastis Pati.


title: Port Vila

text: Locally the town is most commonly referred to simply as "Vila", whether in French or Bislama or in English (not like English "villa").


title: Port Vila

text: The name of the area is "Efil" in the native South Efate language and "Ifira" in neighbouring Mele-Fila language. "Vila" is a variant of these names. Ifira is a small island in Vila harbour where many of the area's traditional landowners reside.


title: Port Vila

text: The area occupied by Port Vila has been inhabited by Melanesian people for thousands of years. In Autumn of 2004, an archaeological expedition known as "Teouma" discovered a burial site of 25 tombs containing three dozen skeletons of members of the Lapita culture. Pieces of ceramics found at the site were dated to the 13th century BC.


title: Port Vila

text: Efate Island was charted in 1774 by James Cook, who named it Sandwich Island. Cook's expedition did not land but noted the presence of good harbours and land suitable for European settlement. In late 19th century when the islands were known as the New Hebrides, the British were initially the dominant European presence, though by the 1890s, the economic balance had begun to favour the French, who established large plantations. French citizen Ferdinand Chevillard began buying and clearing land around Port Vila to be converted into the largest French plantation on the island. Instead, it was converted into the municipality of Franceville, which declared independence on 9 August 1889, though this only lasted until June of the following year.


title: Port Vila

text: It was the first self-governing nation to practice universal suffrage without distinction of sex or race. Although the population at the time consisted of about 500 native islanders and fewer than fifty whites, only the latter were permitted to hold office. One of the elected presidents was a US citizen by birth, R. D. Polk, a relative of American president James K. Polk.


title: Port Vila

text: After 1887, the territory was jointly administered by the French and the British. This was formalized in 1906 as an Anglo-French Condominium. During World War II, Port Vila was an American and Australian airbase.


title: Port Vila

text: In 1987, Cyclone Uma severely damaged the city. A powerful earthquake in January 2002 caused minor damage in the capital and surrounding areas. The city suffered massive damage from a category 5 cyclone named Cyclone Pam in March 2015, whose eye wall passed just to the east of Port Vila.


title: Port Vila

text: Port Vila has a tropical climate, more specifically a tropical rainforest climate, with noticeably wetter and drier months. As the trade winds are almost permanent and cyclones are not rare in Port Vila, the climate is not equatorial but maritime trade-wind tropical climate. Rainfall averages about per year, and the wettest month is March. The driest month is September. There are 153 wet days in an average year. The area also has south-east trade winds. Temperatures do not vary very much at all throughout the year, and the record high is . The coolest month, July, has an average high of , and an average low of . The hottest month, February, has an average high of and an average low of . The record low for Port Vila is . Humidity is often high.


title: Port Vila

text: Port Vila is Vanuatu's most important harbour and the center of the country's trade. The international airport, Bauerfield International (VLI) is also located in the city. Air Vanuatu has its head office in Vanuatu House in Port Vila.


title: Port Vila

text: Major industries in the city remain agriculture and fishing. Tourism is also becoming important, especially from Australia and New Zealand. There were over 80,000 visitors in 1997.


title: Port Vila

text: Vanuatu is still dependent on foreign aid, most of which comes from Australia and New Zealand, although in recent years aid has also come from the People's Republic of China. One example was New Zealand paying to train doctors selected from the local community, then paying part of their wages during the first year after qualification. Australia has paid consultants to work in Port Vila Central Hospital.


title: Port Vila

text: The population is around 45,000; predominately Melanesian, with small Polynesian, Asian, Australian and European populations, mainly French and British.


title: Port Vila

text: The day-to-day lingua franca in the capital city is Bislama. In addition, English and French are also widespread.


title: Port Vila

text: Among Vanuatu's 100 indigenous languages, many are spoken in the capital, as people from rural areas come to live in the city, either temporarily or permanently.


title: Port Vila

text: Christianity is the predominant religion across Vanuatu, followed by more than 90% of the population. The largest denomination is the Presbyterian Church in Vanuatu, followed by one third of the population. Roman Catholicism and the Church of Melanesia are also common, each about 15%. Cathédrale du Sacré-Cœur is a modern Roman Catholic cathedral in Port Vila. The seat of the Diocese of Port Vila, the church is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On October 5, 2020, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints announced plans to construct a temple in the city, and the Bahá'í community is also established in Port Vila.


title: Port Vila

text: The capital of Vanuatu has various sights to offer. There are several memorials, e.g. opposite the Parliament where two traditional totem poles and a monument representing a pig's tusk can be seen. The Presbyterian Church of Port Vila is an impressive and sightworthy building opposite the Independence Park. A colourful wall painting can be seen on the administration building opposite the market hall. Another noteworthy wall painting is on the façade of the post office. The City Hall of Port Vila is an oblong and sightworthy building on a hill in the city centre.


title: Port Vila

text: The Vanuatu Cultural Centre, hosting the Vanuatu National Museum, is located at the Saralana Park in front of the national parliament, close to the National Library and the Malvatumauri (Vanuatu National Council of Chiefs). This institution is an important place for the preservation and promotion of the different aspects of the local culture. Traditional artifacts from several islands are on display in the museum. The centre host also the National Audiovisual Archives which is the most important fund of documents from the late 19th century until today.


title: Port Vila

text: Port Vila was the location in August 1999 for the ”2nd World Heritage Global Strategy Meeting for the Pacific Islands Region" held by UNESCO. One of the major topics related to Vanuatu and the Pacific region was the question of the suitability of underwater heritage for inscription on the World Heritage List.


title: Port Vila

text: Port Vila is one location of the University of the South Pacific, an educational institution co-owned by twelve Pacific countries. The Vanuatu campus is the only law school in the university, and it also teaches languages.


title: Port Vila

text: The municipality of Port Vila is divided into four wards and administered by a council consisting of 14 members. The four wards are:


title: Port Vila

text: Malapoa-Tagabe and South are allotted three representatives each to the council while Anabrou-Melcofe-Tassiriki and Centre have four.


title: Port Vila

text: The municipality handles primary education, primary health care, regional planning, road maintenance and construction, trash collection, cemeteries, parks and open spaces and the promotion of tourism.


title: Port Vila

text: There are also informal settlements such as Blacksands which are effectively suburbs of Vila but are outside the municipality. Living conditions in some of these neighbourhoods are very poor, and lack of service provision and insecure land tenure are major problems. Blacksands was squatted in the 1960s.


title: Port Vila

text: Port Vila is one of the eighteen constituencies in Vanuatu, and elects six Members of Parliament. Following the 2016 general election, its representatives are:


title: Geotagging

text: Geotagging, or GeoTagging, is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geotagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. This data usually consists of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, distance, accuracy data, and place names, and perhaps a time stamp.


title: Geotagging

text: Geotagging can help users find a wide variety of location-specific information from a device. For instance, someone can find images taken near a given location by entering latitude and longitude coordinates into a suitable image search engine. Geotagging-enabled information services can also potentially be used to find location-based news, websites, or other resources. Geotagging can tell users the location of the content of a given picture or other media or the point of view, and conversely on some media platforms show media relevant to a given location.


title: Geotagging

text: The geographical location data used in geotagging can, in almost every case, be derived from the global positioning system, and based on a latitude/longitude-coordinate system that presents each location on the earth from 180° west through 180° east along the Equator and 90° north through 90° south along the prime meridian.


title: Geotagging

text: The related term geocoding refers to the process of taking non-coordinate-based geographical identifiers, such as a street address, and finding associated geographic coordinates (or vice versa for reverse geocoding). Such techniques can be used together with geotagging to provide alternative search techniques.


title: Geotagging

text: Facebook users can geotag photos that can be added to the page of the location they are tagging. Users may also use a feature that allows them to find nearby Facebook friends by generating a list of people according to the location tracker in their mobile devices.


title: Geotagging

text: Instagram uses a map feature that allows users to geotag photos. The map layout pin points specific photos that the user has taken on a world map.


title: Geotagging

text: Two main options can be used to geotag photos: capturing GPS information at the time the photo is taken or "attaching" geocoordinates to the photograph after the picture is taken.


title: Geotagging

text: In order to capture GPS data at the time the photograph is captured, the user must have a camera with built in GPS or a standalone GPS along with a digital camera. Because of the requirement for wireless service providers in United States to supply more precise location information for 911 calls by September 11, 2012, more and more cell phones have built-in GPS chips. Most smart phones already use a GPS chip along with built-in cameras to allow users to automatically geotag photos. Others may have the GPS chip and camera but do not have internal software needed to embed the GPS information within the picture. A few digital cameras also have built-on or built-in GPS that allow for automatic geotagging.


title: Geotagging

text: Devices use GPS, A-GPS or both. A-GPS can be faster getting an initial fix if within range of a cell phone tower, and may work better inside buildings. Traditional GPS does not need cell phone towers and uses standard GPS signals outside of urban areas. Traditional GPS tends to use more battery power. Almost any digital camera can be coupled with a stand-alone GPS and post processed with photo mapping software, to write the location information to the image's exif header.


title: Geotagging

text: In the field of remote sensing the geotagging goal is to store coordinates of every pixel in the image. One approach is used with the orthophotos where we store coordinates of four corners and all the other pixels can be georeferenced by interpolation. The four corners are stored using GeoTIFF or World file standards. Hyperspectral images take a different approach defining a separate file of the same spatial dimensions as the image where latitude and longitude of each pixel are stored as two 2D layers in so called "Input geometry data" (IGM) files, also known as GEO files.


title: Geotagging

text: Audio/video files can be geotagged via: metadata, audio encoding, overlay, or with companion files. Metadata records the geospatial data in the encoded video file to be decoded for later analysis. One of the standards used with unmanned aerial vehicle is which allows geocoding of corner points and horizon lines in individual video frames. Audio encoding involves a process of converting gps data into audio data such as modem squawk. Overlay involves overlaying GPS data as text on the recorded video. Companion files are separate data files which correspond to respective audio/video files. Companion files are typically found in the .KML and .GPX data formats. For audio and video files which use the vorbiscomment metadata format (including Opus, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Speex, and Ogg Theora), there is a proposed GEO LOCATION field which can be used. Like all vorbis comments, it is plain text, and it takes the form:


title: Geotagging

text: RFC 1876 defines a means for expressing location information in the Domain Name System. LOC resources records can specify the latitude, longitude, altitude, precision of the location, and the physical size of on entity attached to an IP address. However, in practice not all IP addresses have such a record, so it is more common to use geolocation services to find the physical location of an IP address.


title: Geotagging

text: The GeoURL method requires the ICBM tag (plus optional Dublin Core metadata), which is used to geotag standard web pages in HTML format:


title: Geotagging

text: The Geo microformat allows coordinates within HyperText Markup Language pages to be marked up in such a way that they can be "discovered" by software tools. Example:


title: Geotagging

text: An example is the Flickr photo-sharing Web site, which provides geographic data for any geotagged photo in all of the above-mentioned formats.


title: Geotagging

text: No industry standards exist, however there are a variety of techniques for adding geographical identification metadata to an information resource. One convention, established by the website Geobloggers and used by more and more sites, e.g. photo sharing sites Panoramio and Flickr, and the social bookmarking site del.icio.us, enables content to be found via a location search. Such sites allow users to add metadata to an information resource via a set of so-called "machine tags" (see folksonomy).


title: Geotagging

text: This describes the geographic coordinates of a particular location in terms of latitude (codice_7) and longitude (codice_8). These are expressed in decimal degrees in the WGS84 datum, which has become something of a default geodetic datum with the advent of GPS.


title: Geotagging

text: Using three tags works within the constraint of having tags that can only be single 'words'. Identifying geotagged information resources on sites like Flickr and del.icio.us is done by searching for the 'geotagged' tag, since the tags beginning codice_9 and codice_10 are necessarily very variable.


title: Geotagging

text: A further convention proposed by FlickrFly adds tags to specify the suggested viewing angle and range when the geotagged location is viewed in Google Earth:


title: Geotagging

text: These three tags would indicate that the camera is pointed heading 225° (south west), has a 45° tilt and is 560 metres from the subject.


title: Geotagging

text: Where the above methods are in use, their coordinates may differ from those specified by the photo's internal Exif data, for example because of a correction or a difference between the camera's location and the subject's.


title: Geotagging

text: In order to integrate geotags in social media and enhance text readability or oral use, the concept of 'meetag' or tag-to-meet has been proposed. Differing from hashtag construction, meetag includes the geolocation information after an underscore. A meetag is therefore a word or an unspaced phrase prefixed with an underscore ("_"). Words in messages on microblogging and social networking services may be tagged by putting "_" before them, either as they appear in a sentence, (e.g. "There is a concert going _montreuxjazzfestival", "the world wide web was invented _cern _geneve", ...) or appended to it.


title: Geotagging

text: Geoblogging attaches specific geographic location information to blog entries via "geotags". Searching a list of blogs and pictures tagged using geotag technology allows users to select areas of specific interest to them on interactive maps.


title: Geotagging

text: The progression of GPS technology, along with the development of various online applications, has fueled the popularity of such tagged blogging, and the combination of GPS phones and GSM localization, has led to the moblogging, where blog posts are tagged with exact position of the user. Real-time geotagging relays automatically geotagged media such as photos or video to be published and shared immediately.


title: Geotagging

text: For better integration and readability of geotags into blog texts, the meetag syntax has been proposed, which transforms any word, sentence, or precise geolocalization coordinates prefixed with an underscore into a 'meetag'. It not only lets one express a precise location but also takes in account dynamically changing geolocations.


title: Geotagging

text: One of the first attempts to initiate the geotagging aspect of searching and locating articles seems to be the now-inoperative site Wikinear.com, launched in 2008, which showed the user Wikipedia pages that are geographically closest to one's current location.


title: Geotagging

text: The 2009 app Cyclopedia works relatively well showing geotagged Wikipedia articles located within several miles of ones location, integrated with a street-view mode, and 360-degree mode.


title: Geotagging

text: The app Respotter Wiki, launched in 2009, claims to feature Wikipedia searching via a map, also allowing users to interact with people around them, via messaging and reviews, etc. The app, in its current function, however, seems to give only geotagged photo results.


title: Geotagging

text: As of 2017, the provides a simple map search tool which can display tagged articles near to a particular location, as well as a variety of more sophisticated tools integrated with external mapping services.


title: Geotagging

text: Following a scientific study and several demonstrative websites, a discussion on the privacy implications of geotagging has raised public attention. In particular, the automatic embedding of geotags in pictures taken with smartphones is often ignored by cell-phone users. As a result, people are often not aware that the photos they publish on the Internet have been geotagged. Many celebrities reportedly gave away their home location without knowing it. According to the study, a significant number of for-sale advertisements on Craigslist, that were otherwise anonymized, contained geotags, thereby revealing the location of high-valued goods—sometimes in combination with clear hints to the absence of the offerer at certain times. Publishing photos and other media tagged with exact geolocation on the Internet allows random people to track an individual's location and correlate it with other information. Therefore, criminals could find out when homes are empty because their inhabitants posted geotagged and timestamped information both about their home address and their vacation residence. These dangers can be avoided by removing geotags with a metadata removal tool for photos before publishing them on the Internet.


title: Geotagging

text: In 2007, four United States Army Apache helicopters were destroyed on the ground by Iraqi insurgent mortar fire; the insurgents had made use of embedded coordinates in web-published photographs (geotagging) taken of the helicopters by soldiers.


title: Geotagging

text: Another newly realised danger of geotagging is the location information provided to criminal gangs and poachers on the whereabouts of often endangered animals. This can effectively make tourists scouts for these poachers, so geotagging should be turned off when photographing these animals.


title: Rita Simons

text: Rita Joanne Simons (born 10 March 1977) is an English actress and singer from London. She is best known for playing Roxy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders" from 2007 to 2017, when her character was killed-off, alongside her on screen character's sister Ronnie Mitchell (Samantha Womack). For her performance on the show Simons received many accolades, including the 2008 National Television Award for Most Popular Newcomer.


title: Rita Simons

text: On 12 November 2018, Simons was confirmed to be participating in that year's series of "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!". She was the fourth to be eliminated on 4 December 2018.


title: Rita Simons

text: Simons was born at Whipps Cross University Hospital in Whipp Cross, Leytonstone, London. She is Susan (née Franks) and Mark Simons daughter. Both of her parents are Jewish. She has an older brother, Ben. Through her paternal aunt's marriage, Simons is the niece of billionaire businessman Lord Sugar, who is best known for appearing in the BBC reality series "The Apprentice".


title: Rita Simons

text: In August 2004, she married hairdresser Theo Silverston. They have twin daughters. The couple separated in 2018.


title: Rita Simons

text: Simons is best friends with co-star Samantha Womack, who played her on-screen sister Ronnie Mitchell. She is also good friends with Danniella Westbrook, who played her on-screen cousin Sam Mitchell.


title: Rita Simons

text: Before her acting career, Simons was in the group Girls@Play, who had a couple of hit singles before splitting up. Their songs included "Airhead" and a cover of Mel and Kim's "Respectable". Simons then joined a different group called Charli with three other members, including Shar from the Paradiso Girls, and released a single titled "Feel Me".


title: Rita Simons

text: Simons has made appearances in the Sky 1 dramas "Dream Team" (2002) and "Mile High" (2003; as Hannah), as well as the ITV drama "London's Burning".


title: Rita Simons

text: On 11 May 2007, it was announced that she would be joining the cast of "EastEnders" as Roxy Mitchell, alongside Samantha Womack who played Roxy's sister Ronnie Mitchell. Of her role, Simons said: "I've always watched "EastEnders" and it's been my dream to become part of the Mitchell family." Simons temporarily departed from "EastEnders" in late 2015 (the character departed from screens from 1 January to 4 May 2016), allowing the actress to take part in a "Snow White" pantomime at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, over the 2015–2016 Christmas and New Year period. In August 2016, it was announced that Simons was leaving "EastEnders" along with Samantha Womack. Her on-screen character Roxy Mitchell drowned in a swimming pool in an episode broadcast on New Year's Day 2017, along with her sister Ronnie.


title: Rita Simons

text: Simons appeared as Paulette Bonafonte in the 2017–2018 UK tour of "Legally Blonde: the Musical" in 2017. In 2019, Simons played the role of ‘Miss Hedge’ in the hit musical "Everybody's Talking About Jamie" at the Apollo Theatre. She was to take on the role of Velma von Tussle in the 2021 revival of "Hairspray" at the London Coliseum. In 2022, she joined the cast of TV show, "Professor T".


title: Rita Simons

text: In December 2009, Simons visited her old secondary school, Watford Grammar School for Girls, to open the Christmas fair.


title: Rita Simons

text: In December 2010, Simons launched the RNID Christmas Concert where she announced that her five-year-old daughter is deaf.


title: Rita Simons

text: In July 2011, Simons held an autograph session at the St Nicholas Primary School summer fair in Elstree.


title: Rita Simons

text: In December 2011, Simons hosted the annual Action on Hearing Loss concert along with the Mayor of Camden, Councillor Abdul Quadir.


title: Rita Simons

text: She appeared on a "Big Star's Little Star" episode, broadcast on 1 April 2015, and won £13,000 for charity.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: Aston George Taylor Jr. (born August 5, 1968), professionally known as Funkmaster Flex, is an American DJ, rapper, record producer, and host on New York City's Hot 97 radio station. In 1992, he became host of the first hip hop radio show on Hot 97 in New York, which was a pop radio station at the time.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: Aston Taylor Jr. was born in the Bronx borough of New York City to Jamaican immigrant parents. His father, DJ Aston George Taylor Sr., was a sound system professional. He was raised in a strict, religious household. At the age of 16, he began DJing at local nightclubs.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: By the age of 19, he began working with fellow Bronx native Chuck Chillout for WRKS 98.7 Kiss-FM in New York. He later left KISS, and spent a brief period at 107.5 WBLS-FM. In the early 1990s, Flex made club appearances at many of Vito Bruno's operated nightclubs. Bruno later convinced Joel Salkowitz, a regional vice president of Hot 97, to begin airing live broadcasts from clubs where he was performing. When they realized the resurgence of Hip Hop was coming fast from its decline in the eighties, they increased the hours of this urban radio programming. Due to the success of that programming, in the spring of 1992 Funkmaster Flex began mixing and hosting his own show, a specialized rap program on Hot 97. With this, Hot 97 became the first pop station in New York to showcase rap. Flex has been with Hot 97 ever since, and currently airs nationally through syndication during weeknights and weekends. He is well known for his signature "bomb drop" sound effect over records.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: On August 3, 2010, Flex launched his news website InFlexWeTrust.com. He makes the audio, video and mp3's of artist freestyles from his show "exclusively" available on the site. The site also posts entertainment news, music, cars, models, sports and technology. It joined the Complex media network in September 2012, and has been mentioned in songs, including Fabolous' "So NY."


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: In 2011, Flex was arrested for allegedly pushing his wife Monica Joseph-Taylor and sending her threatening texts. As of 2014, Flex is battling his ex-girlfriend in court over child support for their son.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: In 2012, Flex had a feud with rival NYC hip-hop radio station Power 105.1 and their radio personalities, including DJ Envy and Charlamagne Tha God.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: In 2015, a petition was started online to get Funkmaster Flex to step down from hosting his radio program on NYC's Hot 97. Flex promised through a series of social media posts that he would air an exclusive premiere of Meek Mill's answer diss track to rapper Drake's "Charged Up" in the midst of their feud. During the actual broadcast on Monday, July 27, Flex told listeners that he had reference tracks that would "expose" Drake's usage of a ghostwriter. However, after many spins of Fetty Wap's "Trap Queen", Rihanna's "Bitch Better Have My Money", and songs off of Future's DS2, listeners started to become enraged, citing that they felt duped.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: By the mid-1990s, Flex was signed by a major record label, Loud Records, for a series of mixtapes entitled "60 Minutes of Funk". All four were certified gold by the RIAA in the US. In 1995 he formed The Flip Squad along with seven of New York City's most respected disc jockeys, including Biz Markie, "BounceMasta" Doo Wop, Big Kap, DJ Enuff, Mister Cee, Frankie Cutlass, DJ Riz, Cipha Sounds and Mark Ronson. Their self-titled debut LP was released on MCA in late 1998. In 1999, he released The Tunnel with Def Jam, which included songs by artists Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Eminem, LL Cool J, DJ Myth, Method Man, DMX, Nas and Snoop Dogg. Other acts he has worked with include Yvette Michele, Pras, DJ Kool and Armand Van Helden.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: In October 2020, Flex announced plans of an upcoming album. In December, he released the album's lead single, "Lurkin", with King Von, while confirming that the album would feature an array of artists, including Juice Wrld, Kodak Black, Post Malone, Lil Baby, and Pop Smoke, among others. A release date is yet to be announced, however the album will be released through Flex's own label IFWT Films and Records.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: Funkmaster Flex first appeared on television in the early nineties on "Yo! MTV Raps" hosted by Fab 5 Freddy, DJ Myth, Ed Lover, and Doctor Dré. He later did various hip-hop and automobile spots for MTV.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: In 2003, Flex debuted his first television series, Ride with Funkmaster Flex on the Spike cable network. The show documented the subculture of cars popular in hip hop culture. Noteworthy moments in the series included a look into Diddy's private jet and a visit to Eminem's studio.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: Flex later developed a one-off Spike TV show race event – The Funkmaster Flex Super Series Invitational. The race featured 60 late-model stock car drivers at The Waterford Speedbowl in Connecticut. Celebrities like Orange County Choppers, LL Cool J, and Lil' Kim were brought out to watch the event.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: ESPN noticed "Ride with Funkmaster Flex" and decided to create a show with Flex focusing on custom cars and interviewing athletes from the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball. Guests included Danica Patrick, Terrell Owens, and Jason Giambi. The show was called "All Muscle with Funkmaster Flex" and began airing early 2007.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: Later in 2007, a second show called Car Wars with Funkmaster Flex premiered on ESPN. Car Wars asked different car customizers to modify existing vehicles for cash prizes. If featured automotive designers such as Patrick Schiavone, former Ford North American Truck & SUV Design Director and currently Vice President of Design at Whirlpool, Ford Explorer Exterior Design Manager Melvin Betancourt and Louis D'erasmo of Valanca Auto Concepts.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: For "Fast Machines with Funkmaster Flex", Flex returned to Spike TV to focus on making muscle and modern car customization for celebrities. Examples included a 1955 Chevy Bel Air for Dale Earnhardt Jr., a 1966 Pontiac GTO for Pontiac Enthusiast Magazine and a 1970 Chevy Chevelle for the U.S. Marines. It also featured an interview with Royal Purple race driver Kathryn Minter.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: In 2010, Flex returned to MTV with a new show – "Funk Flex Full Throttle". The show featured Flex interviewing hip-hop artists and customizing cars; either on location at Spring Break, the New York Auto Show or in his garage. "Full Throttle" also integrated reality elements as Flex directed his team of car customizers at various builds and allowed viewers inside the lifestyle of Hip-Hop stars.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: Taylor developed and promotes an annual eight-city Funkmaster Flex Custom Car & Bike Show Tour. It has had featured artists such as Drake, Nicki Minaj and Fabolous. Each stop showcases customized cars in competition for cash prizes and model and recording talent search. In 2010, he added the Funkmaster Flex Lifestyle Expo which included sneaker and DJ battles, video game competitions, skateboard demos.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: In 2005, Ford Motor Company opened its Dearborn design studio doors to Taylor to look at how to customize its product line-up and add exposure to the brand. He has since customized several models for Ford.


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: FunkMaster Flex's namesake was used on the American release for the PS2 videogame Music 3000, FunkMaster Flex's Digital Hitz Factory


title: Funkmaster Flex

text: He is a celebrity adversary and an unlockable free agent fullback in season mode of "ESPN NFL 2K5". He also has an unlockable team, the Baurtwell Funkmasters.


title: Richardson High School

text: Richardson High School (RHS) is a magnet high school in Richardson, Texas, United States with approximately 2,770 students and a student/teacher ratio of approximately 15:1 in the 20182019 school year. It is the oldest high school in the Richardson Independent School District (RISD).


title: Richardson High School

text: Richardson High School is the flagship high school of the Richardson Independent School District (RISD). The school has many magnet programs, such as culinary arts, theater, visual arts, tech theater, communications, robotics, law, science, and computer science. The school also has award-winning mock trial, debate, and computer science teams.


title: Richardson High School

text: The school, which opened shortly after the first public school in the city was burned down by Ross Inman in 1890, began in a two-room building on Old Pike Road, a street that is now part of Greenville Avenue. A rural school with fewer than 100 students up to 1950, the school opened its present facility in 1961. During the period of the late 1950s, RHS shared facilities with Westwood Junior High School on Abrams Road. Bill Passmore was principal during this transition into the new facility on Belt Line Road.


title: Richardson High School

text: On July 30, 2008, teacher and coach Brent Archie was arrested on charges of having relationships with three female students. Archie was a football and wrestling coach, and also taught Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) and world history. This was the first incident of its kind in RISD history.


title: Richardson High School

text: On January 8, 1991, Jeremy Wade Delle, a 15-year-old sophomore, fatally shot himself in front of his second-period English class. The incident inspired the Pearl Jam song "Jeremy".


title: Richardson High School

text: As of the 2018–2019 school year, the administration at RHS is led by Chris Choat, Principal; Michelle King, Associate Principal; Bill Parker, Magnet Principal; Von Ensley, Assistant Principal; Ramiro Lucio, Assistant Principal; Elise Curry, Assistant Principal; Jose Vega, Assistant Principal; and Tara McLennan, Assistant Principal.


title: Richardson High School

text: Richardson's sports mascot is the Eagle; students, teachers, and alumni are referred to as Eagles; and the team shares Eagle-Mustang Stadium (capacity 12,000) with J. J. Pearce High School.


title: Richardson High School

text: The school was the University Interscholastic League State Champions for Men's & Woman's Soccer in 1985.


title: Richardson High School

text: In August 2006, Richardson High School was named one of three "best practices" high schools in the state of Texas. The award granted by the National Council of Educational Accountability and the Just 4 Kids Foundation is based upon staff development, staff retention, standardized test scores and support programs for students.


title: Richardson High School

text: In May 2007, the RISD was awarded the "Excellence in Education Award for Large School District in Texas" by the HEB Foundation. Richardson High School and Richardson West Junior High played instrumental roles in the selection process and hosted the site visit committee in March 2007. In addition to the award, the RISD received a check for $100,000.


title: Richardson High School

text: In the 2012 "U.S. News & World Report" rankings of the Best Schools in America, Richardson High School ranked number 711 out of 21,766 public high schools, putting it in the top 3.5% of all public high schools in the United States. RHS was also rated the 65th best in the state of Texas.


title: Richardson High School

text: In 2015, 2016, and 2017, Richardson High School was one of the few hundred schools in the state of Texas, and the only high school in RISD to earn all 7 distinctions in the STAAR state assessment.


title: Richardson High School

text: In 2009, the school's student news team started a public, student written, magazine known as "The Talon".


title: Richardson High School

text: In 1960 the Richardson Independent School District established KRET, the first TV station in the nation to be owned by a school district. The studio was located at Richardson High from 1963–1970. The studio was previously located at Richardson Junior High School (1960–1963). The station was converted on August 31, 1970, into a closed-circuit network named "TAGER".


title: Liraz Charhi

text: Charhi was born in Ramla, Israel, to an Iranian Jewish family. Her aunt is Israeli singer and actress Rita.


title: Liraz Charhi

text: She was enlisted as a soldier to the Israel Defense Forces, serving in the military band of the Education and Youth Corps, until 1999.


title: Liraz Charhi

text: Charhi began singing and performing at the age of 5, and made her debut as stage actress at the Habima National Theatre, where she worked professionally from 11 to 14; then she studied at the Beit Zvi Stage Arts School.


title: Liraz Charhi

text: She appeared in the Israeli TV series "Ha-Masa'it" in 2002 and gained further attention after a nomination by the Israeli Film Academy (Ophir Award) for her role in the 2004 film "Turn Left at the End of the World" ("Sof Ha'Olam Smola"). She was invited to the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2006, after which she broke into Hollywood.


title: Liraz Charhi

text: Charhi has since become known for her roles in the French mini TV series "Revivre", and the films, "Fair Game" (2010) and "A Late Quartet" (2012) in which she played the jogger and flamenco dancing girlfriend of Philip Seymour Hoffman.


title: Liraz Charhi

text: As a singer she has released the singles "Od Tzohorayim" and "Al Tafsik" which have been played on radio in Israel. Charhi's first album sung in Persian, "Naz", was released in 2018.


title: Liraz Charhi

text: In November 2020, Charhi's second Persian album, titled "Zan" (meaning "woman"), was released on Glitterbeat Records in collaboration with Raman Loveworld and some other Iranian artists. Some artists collaborated anonymously, and some have joined the project publicly, despite the risks involved in collaborating with an Israeli artist. The first release from the album was "Injah".


title: Liraz Charhi

text: In 2020, she played Yael Kadosh, an Israeli Mossad agent in the Israeli espionage television series "Tehran" (), written by Zonder and Omri Shenhar and directed by Daniel Syrkin. The series is about the Iran–Israel proxy conflict; and it premiered in Israel on 22 June 2020 and on 25 September 2020 internationally on Apple TV+.


title: Liraz Charhi

text: She was married to Israeli composer and conductor Ziv "Kojo" Cojocaru from 2004 to 2010. She married Israeli actor Tom Avni in 2013, and they have two daughters.


title: Eugena Washington

text: Eugena Washington is an American model. She was born in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. She was the last eliminated on America's Next Top Model, Cycle 7. In Playboy magazine's post-nude era, she was the first Playmate of the Year, and was the last to be announced by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. She appeared in the music video of rapper B.o.B's single "Nothin' on You".


title: Eugena Washington

text: Washington was the fourth (after Melrose Bickerstaff, Jaeda Young and Michelle Babin) girl to be selected for the seventh cycle of "America's Next Top Model". Over her stay, Washington received one first call-out and survived the bottom two twice over Monique Calhoun and Brooke Miller who were both eliminated in their only ever bottom two appearance upon Washington's stay. She also won three challenges where two of them Washington selected CariDee English and Jaeda Young after winning the Covergirl challenge and Amanda Babin after winning the flamenco dancing challenge. The judges eliminated Washington eleventh (finishing third in overall rank) in Barcelona during her third collective bottom two appearance which Melrose Bickerstaff had survived for the second time round (the first being over Christian Evans who was the first eliminee) after CariDee English was selected to be the first finalist and eventually won.


title: Eugena Washington

text: Washington was the "Playboy" Playmate of the Month for December 2015 and Playmate of the Year 2016. She was the third African American to be so named. She was the first Playmate of the Year after Playboy eliminated its Centerfold.


title: Eugena Washington

text: In May, 2016, she was the last Playmate of the Year to be announced by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion.


title: Eugena Washington

text: Washington also appears in a McDonald's cafe commercial along with American R&B artist Dwele. She appeared in the video for B.o.B single "Nothin' On You". She was named one of the influencers for Cîroc "Lets Get It" Campaign in 2016.


title: Fenella Woolgar

text: Fenella Justine Therese Woolgar (born 4 August 1969) is an English film, theatre, television and radio actress. She is known for her roles in the films "Bright Young Things" (2003) and "Judy" (2019). She is also well known for appearing in TV shows "Doctor Who" as crime novelist Agatha Christie, "Inside Number 9", and "Call the Midwife" as Sister Hilda.


title: Fenella Woolgar

text: Woolgar was born in the West London Borough of Hillingdon to parents Michael and Maureen McCann) Woolgar. Her mother is of Irish descent. Woolgar's early years were spent in New Canaan, Connecticut, USA. She was educated at Mayfield School, Durham University, and then Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).


title: Fenella Woolgar

text: At university, along with acting she directed "Murder in the Cathedral" in Durham Cathedral and wrote and performed comedy in The Durham Revue.


title: Fenella Woolgar

text: Following Woolgar's graduation from RADA in 1999 she worked in rep at The Royal Exchange, Manchester, York Theatre Royal, Sheffield Crucible and for the BBC in both television and radio. In 2002 she was cast as Agatha in Stephen Fry's film "Bright Young Things" for which she was nominated for several awards. She subsequently went on to work with Mike Leigh in "Vera Drake" and "Mr. Turner", Conor McPherson in "The Veil" at the National Theatre and Woody Allen in "Scoop" and "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger". She played Agatha Christie in "Doctor Who" in 2008. In 2010 she voiced the character of Dr. Sofia Lamb, the main antagonist in the video game BioShock 2.


title: Fenella Woolgar

text: Woolgar has most recently worked in theatre at the Donmar, Royal Court, National Theatre; the Old Vic and in the West End. She won the Clarence Derwent Award for Best Supporting Actress in the West End in 2013 and the "Sunday Times" Culture Award for Stage Performance of the Year 2014 for playing Margaret Thatcher in "Handbagged". She is regularly heard on the radio and was nominated for Best Actress on the radio in 2013 for "An American Rose" in which she played Rosemary Kennedy. She played the title role in "Mrs Dalloway" for BBC Radio 4 and Edith Wharton in both "The Jinx Element" and "Ethan Frome". She stars in the BBC Radio 4 comedy "Dot". She has narrated several audiobooks and was nominated for Audio Book of the Year 2013.


title: Fenella Woolgar

text: Woolgar's recent work includes two television roles. She appeared in 2014 and 2015 as Alison Scotlock in "Home Fires". She joined the cast of "Call the Midwife" in series 8 as Sister Hilda.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Alexis Argüello (April 19, 1952 – July 1, 2009) was a Nicaraguan professional boxer who competed from 1968 to 1995, and later became a politician. He was a three-weight world champion, having held the WBA featherweight title from 1974 to 1976; the WBC super featherweight title from 1978 to 1980; and the WBC lightweight title from 1981 to 1982. Additionally, he held the "Ring" magazine and lineal featherweight titles from 1975 to 1977; the "Ring" lightweight title from 1981 to 1982; and the lineal lightweight title in 1982. In his later career he challenged twice for light welterweight world titles, both times in famous fights against Aaron Pryor.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Argüello has regularly been cited as one of the greatest boxers of his era, having never lost any of his world titles in the ring, instead relinquishing them each time in pursuit of titles in higher weight classes. After his retirement from boxing, he became active in Nicaraguan politics and in November 2008 was elected mayor of his native Managua, the nation's capital city.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: "The Ring" magazine has ranked Argüello as 20th on their list of "100 greatest punchers of all time", while the Associated Press ranked him as the world's best Junior Lightweight of the 20th century. He was named one of the 20 greatest fighters of the past 80 years by "The Ring" magazine and is widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers to ever come out of Latin America and one of the few to have fought in four different decades.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Argüello was born April 19, 1952. His father was a shoemaker. Argüello had a troubled childhood, growing up in abject poverty in Managua. When he was 5 years old, his father attempted suicide. At the age of 9, Argüello ran away to work in a dairy farm. When he was 13, he emigrated to Canada to provide for his family. Argüello was constantly involved in street brawls through his teenage years, but it wasn't until his sister Marina, one of Alexis' 7 siblings, married a boxer that young Alexis took an interest in the sport. Argüello's brief amateur career saw him compile a 58–2 record.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Argüello debuted on October 26, 1968, trained by former boxer Miguel Angel Rivas. After winning his first 3 fights "The Explosive Thin Man" suffered an unavenged fourth-round KO loss, followed by another split decision loss. Argüello would then win 29 of his next 30 bouts over the next 5 years, including a win over José Legrá. Eventually, Argüello earned a world featherweight championship bout against experienced WBA champion Ernesto Marcel. The fight took place in Panama, Marcel's home country. The young challenger lost a 15-round unanimous decision in the champion's retirement bout. Months after Marcel's retirement, the WBA featherweight title was won by former unified bantamweight champion Rubén Olivares.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Undaunted, Argüello put together another streak of wins, and found himself contending for the WBA featherweight, this time against Olivares in the latter's first defense. The fight took place at The Forum in Inglewood on November 23, 1974. After Olivares had built a small lead on the judges' scorecards, Argüello and Olivares landed simultaneous left hooks in round thirteen. Olivares's left hand caused a visible expression of pain on Argüello's face, but Argüello's left hand caused Olivares to crash hard against the canvas. A few seconds later, Argüello was the new featherweight champion of the world.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Argüello's first defense came against Venezuelan featherweight champion Leonel Hernández. Once again, Argüello fought in enemy territory, as the fight took place in Caracas. Nevertheless, Argüello made short work of his challenger, stopping him by technical knockout in the 8th round. His first defense in Nicaragua was against Rigoberto Riasco. Argüello dominated once again, this time stopping Riasco in the second round. Next up for Argüello would be Royal Kobayashi, a highly touted Japanese challenger who was undefeated until then. After a tense, close start Argüello's relentless body-punching broke Kobayashi halfway through the fifth round, with the challenger dropping to the canvas twice.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: After a successful fourth defense, Argüello moved up in weight to challenge world junior lightweight champion Alfredo Escalera in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, in what has been nicknamed "The Bloody Battle of Bayamon" by many. Escalera had been a busy champion with ten defenses, and he had dethroned Kuniaki Shibata in 2 rounds in Tokyo. In what some experts (including "The Ring" writers) consider one of the most brutal fights in history, Escalera had his eye, mouth and nose broken early, but was rallying back in the scorecards when Argüello finished him, once again in the thirteenth round.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: His reign at Junior Lightweight saw him fend off the challenges of Escalera in a rematch held at Rimini, Italy, as well as former and future world champion Bobby Chacon, future two time world champion Rafael ""Bazooka"" Limón, Ruben Castillo, future champion Rolando Navarrete, and Diego Alcalá, beaten in only one round.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Argüello suffered many cuts around his face during his second victory against Escalera. The on-site doctor wanted him hospitalized, but Argüello had a flight to catch from Rome the next day to return to Nicaragua, and he boarded a train from Rimini. The doctor decided to travel with Argüello, and performed plastic surgery on Argüello's cuts with Argüello awake.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: After eight successful title defenses, Argüello then moved up in weight again, and this time he had to go to London, England, to challenge world lightweight champion Jim Watt. Watt lasted fifteen rounds, but the judges gave Argüello a unanimous 15-round decision, thus making him only the sixth boxer to win world titles in 3 divisions, and the second Latin American (after Wilfred Benítez had become the first by beating Maurice Hope one month before) to do it. He had to face some less known challengers in this division, one exception being the famous prospect Ray Mancini (known as "Boom Boom" Mancini). Mancini and Argüello engaged in a fight that was later showcased in a boxing video of the best fights of the 1980s, with Argüello prevailing by stoppage when he decked Mancini in round 14. After the fight, Argüello gained many American fans when he embraced Mancini and told a CBS Television audience that he would do anything to help Mancini's father, who at the time was dealing with illness. Andrew Ganigan proved to be one of Argüello's toughest challenges as he dropped Argüello in the second round, but ultimately the defending champion prevailed by stopping Ganigan in the fifth.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Arguello successfully defended his lightweight title four times. After defeating James 'Bubba' Busceme by sixth round stoppage, Argüello decided to move up in weight class again, and on November 12, 1982, he tried to become the first world champion in 4 different categories, meeting the heavier and future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Pryor, in what was billed as "The Battle of the Champions" in Miami, Florida. Argüello was stopped in the 14th round. The fight sparked controversy however, because Pryor's trainer, Panama Lewis, introduced a second water bottle which he described as "the bottle I mixed" after round 13, leading to speculation that the bottle was tainted. The Florida State Boxing Commission failed to administer a post-fight urinalysis, adding to speculation that the bottle contained an unsanctioned substance. Lewis claimed at various times that the bottle was filled with peppermint schnapps or Perrier to help Pryor deal with an upset stomach. It was later revealed in an interview with former Lewis-trained boxer Luis Resto that Lewis would break apart antihistamine pills used to treat asthma and pour the medicine into the water, giving Lewis's fighter greater lung capacity in the later rounds of a fight.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: A rematch was ordered. This time, in Las Vegas, Arguello was KO-ed in the tenth, and stated after the fight "I'm not going to fight anymore. I quit." But he later returned to the ring for financial reasons.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: During the 1980s Argüello briefly fought with the Contras in his native Nicaragua, but after a few months in the jungle he retired from the war. He then attempted several comebacks into boxing during the late 1980s and early 1990s and had some success, most notably a fourth round stoppage of former World Junior Welterweight Champion Billy Costello in a 1986 televised bout that put him in a position for another shot at the Junior Welterweight title. He retired for good in 1995 with a record of 82 wins, 8 losses, and 65 KO's, along with the recognition of being one of the sports most universally respected fighters among fans, experts, and boxers.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Argüello was elected to the International Boxing Hall Of Fame in 1992. In 2008 he was honored by being selected as Nicaragua's flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Argüello was an avid breeder of cats, and had several articles published in "Cat Fancy" magazine throughout the 1990s.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: He remained very friendly with his old rivals Alfredo Escalera and Aaron Pryor, and both pairs of friends saw each other several times until Argüello's death.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Alexis Arguello was voted as the Greatest Junior Lightweight Ever by the Houston Boxing Hall Of Fame in 2014. The HBHOF is a voting body composed entirely of current and former fighters.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Argüello was actively involved in Nicaraguan politics with the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)--the same party against whom he took up arms in the 1980s—and in 2004 was elected vice-mayor of Managua. Amid accusations of vote-rigging Argüello narrowly won the mayoral election in Managua on November 9, 2008 against the candidate of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party, Eduardo Montealegre, who had come second to Daniel Ortega in the 2006 presidential election. Argüello's margin of victory was narrow as he attained just 51.30% of the vote.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Argüello died on July 1, 2009, after apparently shooting himself through the heart in Managua. The national police confirmed the death shortly afterwards, and the death was ruled a suicide following the autopsy.


title: Alexis Argüello

text: Those close to Argüello affirmed that he was becoming progressively disenchanted with the "Orteguistas" and the Sandinista government, and was planning an imminent departure from the Sandinista political party.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Beer in Belgium includes pale ales, lambics, Flemish red ales, sour brown ales, strong ales and stouts. In 2018, there were 304 active breweries in Belgium, including international companies, such as AB InBev, and traditional breweries including Trappist monasteries. On average, Belgians drink 68 liters of beer each year, down from around 200 each year in 1900. Most beers are bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every beer has its own branded, sometimes uniquely shaped, glass. In 2016, UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: In Belgium, beer was already produced in the Roman era, as evidenced by the excavation of a brewery and malthouse from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD at Ronchinne. During the Early and High Middle Ages, beer was produced with gruit, a mix of herbs and spices that was first mentioned in 974 when the bishop of Liège was granted the right to sell it at Fosses-la-Ville. From the 14th century onwards, gruit was replaced by hops, after the example of imported beers from northern Germany and Holland. After that, several Belgian towns developed their own types of beer for export to other regions, most notably the white beer of Leuven and Hoegaarden, the "caves" of Lier and the "uitzet" of Ghent.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Monasteries played only a small role in beer production and mostly brewed for their own consumption and that of their guests. Monastic brewing would only receive some renown from the late 19th century onwards, when the trappists of Chimay produced a brown beer that was commercially available.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: In 1885, a change in legislation made brewing of German-style bottom-fermenting beers viable in Belgium, and it was only from then that large industrial-scale brewing in Belgium took off. During the 20th century the number of breweries in Belgium declined from 3223 breweries in 1900 to only 106 breweries in 1993. Yet, a number of traditional beer styles, such as white beer, lambic and Flemish old brown were preserved, while new local, top-fermented styles developed, such as "spéciale belge", abbey beer and Belgian strong ale. In 1988, the country's two biggest breweries, Artois and Piedboeuf, formally merged to become Interbrew, then the world's 18th biggest brewer, which was to merge with AmBev in 2004 to become today's AB InBev, the biggest beer producing company in the world.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: In Belgium, four types of fermentation methods are used for the brewing of beer, which is unique in the world. However, for good understanding of labels of Belgian beer and reference works about Belgian beer often use different terms for the fermentation methods based on archaic or traditional jargon:


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Beers brewed in Trappist monasteries are termed Trappist beers. For a beer to qualify for Trappist certification, the brewery must be in a monastery, the monks must play a role in its production and the policies and the profits from the sale must be used to support the monastery or social programs outside. Only twelve monasteries currently meet these qualifications, six of which are in Belgium, two in the Netherlands, one in Austria, one in the United States, one in Italy and one in England. Trappist beer is a controlled term of origin: it tells where the beers come from, it is not the name of a beer style. Beyond their being mostly warm fermented, Trappist beers have very little in common stylistically.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: In addition to the above, a lower-strength beer is sometimes brewed for consumption by the brothers ("patersbier") or sold on site.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: The designation "abbey beers" ("Bières d'Abbaye" or "Abdijbier") originally applied to any monastic or monastic-style beer. After introduction of an official Trappist beer designation by the International Trappist Association in 1997, it came to mean products similar in style or presentation to monastic beers.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: In 1999, the Union of Belgian Brewers introduced a "Certified Belgian Abbey Beer" ("Erkend Belgisch Abdijbier") logo


title: Beer in Belgium

text: as opposed to other abbey-branded beers which the trade markets using other implied religious connections, such as a local saint. The requirements for registration under the logo include the monastery having control over certain aspects of the commercial operation, and a proportion of profits going to the abbey or to its designated charities. Monastic orders other than the Trappists can be and are included in this arrangement.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: The "Abbey beer" logo and quality label is no longer used for beers given the name of a fictitious abbey, a vaguely monastic branding or a saint name without mentioning a specific monastery. Some brewers may produce abbey-style beers such as dubbel or tripel, using such names but will refrain from using the term Abbey beer in their branding.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: What connoisseurs now recognize as Trappist breweries began operations in 1838. Several monasteries, however, maintained "working" breweries for 500+ years before the French regime disrupted religious life (1795–1799). Even then, some Abbey beers such as Affligem Abbey, whose name now appears on beers made by the Heineken-owned Affligem Brewery, resumed brewing from "working" monasteries until the occupation of most of Belgium in World War I. Commercial Abbey beers first appeared during Belgium's World War I recovery.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Although Abbey beers do not conform to rigid brewing styles, most tend to include the most recognizable and distinctive Trappist styles of brune (Belgian brown ale, aka dubbel), strong pale ale or tripel, and blonde ale or blond. Modern abbey breweries range from microbreweries to international giants, but at least one beer writer warns against assuming that closeness of connection with a real monastery confirms a product's quality.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Pilsners are not particularly distinctive or renowned by connoisseurs. The top brands include Jupiler (within Belgium) and Stella Artois (both brewed by Inbev), Maes pils and Cristal (both brewed by the Alken Maes branch of Heineken). Stella Artois, originating in Belgium, is distributed globally.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: The Pilsnerbeer is which is popularly called ""pintje"" (in Flemish, from English "pint" but in volume only 1/2 pint) or ""choppe"" (in French) in Belgium, was the basis of the ""fluitjesbier"" distributed during the German occupation in WWII and under rationing. This ""fluitjesbier"" was watered down to about 0.8° (compared to fruitjuice which can have up to 1.5° due to natural fermentation).


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Bock is a strong lager of German origin. Some Belgian brewers have produced bock-style beers what makes it a style applicable to Belgium.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: This type of beer, commonly called "witbier" in Dutch, "bière blanche" in French and "wheat beer" in English, originated in the Flemish part of Belgium in the Middle Ages. Traditionally, it is made with a mixture of wheat and barley. Before hops became widely available in Europe, beers were flavoured with a mixture of herbs called gruit. In the later years of the Middle Ages, hops were added to the gruit. That mixture continues today in most Belgian white beers.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: The production of this type of beer in Belgium had nearly ended by the late 1950s. In the town of Hoegaarden, the last "witbier" brewery, Tomsin, closed its doors in 1955. However, ten years later, a young farmer by the name of Pierre Celis in the same village decided to try reviving the beer. In 1966, Celis began brewing a wit beer in his farm house. Ultimately, his beer took the name of the village and became very successful and famous.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Some notable current examples are Celis White, Blanche de Namur and Watou's Wit. Their alcohol strength is about 5–6 percent ABV, and these beers can be quite refreshing, especially during the warm summer months. The herb mixture traditionally includes coriander and bitter orange peel, among other herbs. White beers also have a moderate light grain sweetness from the wheat used. In recent times, brewers have been making fruit flavoured wheat beers.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: These are a light variation on pale ale, often made with pilsner malt. Some beer writers regard blonde and golden ales as distinct styles, while others do not. Duvel is the archetypal Belgian blonde ale, and one of the most popular bottled beers in the country as well as being well known internationally. Its name means "Devil" and some other blonde beers follow the theme—Satan, Lucifer and Judas for example. The style is popular with Walloon brewers, the slightly hazy Moinette being the best-known example. Chouffe can be considered a spiced version (with coriander).


title: Beer in Belgium

text: A few Belgian beers are pale and assertively hopped. 's has a British-style name. 's , another example, hails from Belgium's hop-growing district.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Lambic is a wheat beer brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium (southwest of Brussels) by spontaneous fermentation. Most modern beers are fermented by carefully cultivated strains of brewer's yeasts; Lambic's fermentation, however, is produced by exposure to the wild yeasts and bacteria that are said to be native to the Zenne valley, in which Brussels lies. The beer then undergoes a long aging period ranging from three to six months (considered "young") to two or three years for mature. It is this unusual process which gives the beer its distinctive flavour: dry, vinous, and cidery, with a slightly sour aftertaste.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: These are beers similar to the traditional pale ales of England, although less bitterly hopped. A notable example is the 5% ABV De Koninck brand, with its distinctive half-spherical glasses (called 'bollekes'). It is popular in its native city of Antwerp. Another is Palm Speciale. Some, such as , were based on British styles to please troops stationed in Belgium during World War I. Others were introduced by the UK-born brewer George Maw Johnson in the late 19th century. A very strong "ambrée" is brewed by "Bush" ("Dubuisson"), another brewery influenced by British styles.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Walloon amber or "ambrée" ale, such a , is considered to be somewhat distinct by some beer writers, and to be influenced by the French version of the "ambrée" style.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Tripel is a term used originally by brewers in the Low Countries to describe a strong pale ale, and became associated with "Westmalle Tripel". The style of Westmalle's "Tripel" and the name was widely copied by the breweries of Belgium, then the term spread to the US and other countries. "Gulden Draak" was awarded the best-tasting beer in the world in 1998 by the "American Tasting Institute" (now ChefsBest).


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Dubbel ("double") has a characteristic brown colour. It is one of the classic Abbey/Trappist types, having been developed in the 19th century at the Trappist monastery in Westmalle. Today, some commercial brewers using abbey names call their strong brown beers "Dubbel". Typically, a dubbel is between 6 and 8% abv. In addition to the dubbels made by most Trappist breweries, examples include St. Bernardus Pater, Adelardus Dubbel, Maredsous 8 and Witkap Dubbel.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Typified by Rodenbach, the eponymous brand that started this type over a century ago, this beer's distinguishing features from a technical viewpoint are a specially roasted malt, fermentation by a mixture of several 'ordinary' top-fermenting yeasts and a lactobacillus culture (the same type of bacteria yoghurt is made with) and maturation in oak. The result is a mildly strong 'drinking' beer with a deep reddish-brown colour and a distinctly acidic, sour yet fruity and mouthy taste. This style is closely related to Oud bruin.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: This style, aged in wooden casks, is a cousin to the sour "Flemish Red" style. Examples include Goudenband and Petrus.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Regular bruin or brune beers such as are darker than amber ales, less sour than Flemish brown ale, and less strong than dubbel.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: These sweet, heavy-bodied brown ales represent a style which originated in the British Isles. The Caledonian theme is usually heavily emphasized with tartan and thistles appearing on labels. Examples include Gordon's, Scotch de Silly and La Chouffe Mc Chouffe.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Examples include Callewaerts and Ellezelloise Hercule. The sweeter versions resemble the almost-defunct British style "milk stout", while the stronger ones are sometimes described as Imperial stouts.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Champagne style beers are generally ales that are finished "à la méthode originale" for champagne. Examples include Grottenbier, DeuS and . They receive a second fermentation much like Champagne does and are stored for several months "sûr lie" while the fermentation lasts. This creates the smaller, softer bubbles that we know from Champagne, but maintains the beer flavour and style.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: In Belgium "Grand Cru" is more often used than "Quadrupel", these beers are a mostly a blend of brews, which is often refermented as a blend.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Saison (French for "season") is the name originally given to refreshing, low-alcohol pale ales brewed seasonally in farmhouses in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium, to refresh farm workers during harvest season. Modern-day saisons are also brewed in other countries, particularly USA, and are generally bottle conditioned, with an average range of 5 to 8% ABV, though saisons at the more traditional 3.5% strength can still be found.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Although saison has been described as an endangered style, there has been a rise in interest in this style in recent years, with Saison Dupont being named "the Best Beer in the World" by the magazine "Men's Journal" in July 2005.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Historically, saisons did not share identifiable characteristics to pin them down as a style, but rather were a group of refreshing summer ales. Each farm brewer would make his own distinctive version.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: A related style known as a grisette was traditionally associated with mining regions near the border of Belgium and France.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Many breweries produce special beers during December. Most contain more alcohol than the brewery's other types of beer and may also contain spicing. An annual beer festival in Essen near Antwerp focuses on this type of beer with over 190 beers available for tasting in 2014.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Some brewers that are not Lambic-brewers make fruit beers in a similar process as the Fruit Lambic beers.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: All brewers of this style make fruit lambic. Many brewers of top fermentation beers such as Belgian golden ales, ambers and Flemish old brown beers, that produce beers that usually go through a multiple stage fermentation process, are catching on to the trend to make fruit beers. The process starts after the first fermentation of the wort, when sometimes sugar is added to referment the beer on wooden casks. To make fruit beer the fruit, juice or syrup is added (instead of sugar) to the first brew and refermented, these may be termed fruit lambics or fruit beers, depending on the type of first brew.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Beer that has fruit syrup or fruit lemonade added after (the final stage of) fermentation, in other words as a flavouring, are termed "Radlers" ("Shandy" in the UK) definitely not fruit beer.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Sometimes the following styles are referred to as a type/style of Belgian Beer, however these are not because they cover multiple styles :


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Beers above 7%, such as tripels or strong dubbels, are referred to in some sources as Belgian strong ale, although this is not a name used by Belgian brewers.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: "Table beer" (tafelbier, bière de table) is a low-alcohol (typically not over 1.5%) brew sold in large bottles to be enjoyed with meals. The last decade it has gradually lost popularity due to the growing consumption of soft drinks and bottled water. It comes in blonde or brown versions. Table beer used to be served in school refectories until the 1980s; in the early 21st century, several organizations made proposals to reinstate this custom as the table beer is considered more healthy than soft drinks. Some bars serve a glass of draft lager with a small amount of table beer added, to take away the fizziness and act as a sweetener, in Limburg it is referred to as a "half om".


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Belgian "special" beers (stronger or bottled beers) are often served in elaborate branded beer glassware. Unless the bar is out of the specific glass that goes with that beer it is more often than not served in its own glass. Most bartenders or waitresses will apologize if the beer comes in a different glass.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: A tulip glass not only helps trap the aroma, but also aids in maintaining large heads, creating a visual and olfactory sensation. The body is bulbous, but the top flares out to form a lip which helps head retention.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: A vessel similar to a champagne flute is the preferred serving vessel for Belgian lambics and fruit beers. The narrow shape helps maintain carbonation, while providing a strong aromatic front. Flute glasses display the lively carbonation, sparkling colour, and soft lacing of this distinct style.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Chalices and goblets are large, stemmed, bowl-shaped glasses mainly associated with Trappist and Abbey ales. The distinction between goblet and chalice is typically in the glass thickness. Goblets tend to be more delicate and thin, while the chalice is heavy and thick walled. Some chalices are even etched on the bottom to nucleate a stream of bubbles for maintaining a nice head.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: In addition to the profusion of glasses provided by brewers, some Belgian beer cafés serve beer in their own "house" glassware. An example is "La Lunette" in Brussels.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: The majority of Belgian beer brands are sold in bottles. Draught beers tend mostly to be pale lagers, wheat beers, regional favourites such as kriek in Brussels or De Koninck in Antwerp; and the occasional one-off. Customers who purchase a bottled beer (often called a "special" beer) can expect the beers to be served ceremoniously, often with a free snack.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: These days, Belgian beers are sold in brown- (or sometimes dark green-) tinted glass bottles (to avoid negative effects of light on the beverage) and sealed with a cork, a metal crown cap, or sometimes both. Some beers are bottle conditioned, meaning reseeded with yeast so that an additional fermentation may take place. Different bottle sizes exist: 25 cl, 33 cl, 37.5 cl, 75 cl and multiples of 75. (8, 12, 24 or multiples of 24 fl. oz.) The 37.5 cl size is usually for lambics. Other beers are generally bottled in 25 or 33 cl format (depending on brands). The bigger bottles (75 cl) are sold almost in every food shop but customers do not always have an extensive choice. Bottles larger than 75 cl are named following the terminology used for champagne and are limited in quantity. In Belgian cafés, when someone orders a "demi" (English: "half"), he receives a 50 cl (half liter) glass (with beer from the tap, or from 2 bottles of 25 cl).


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Belgium contains thousands of cafés that offer a wide selection of beers, ranging from perhaps 10 (including bottles) in a neighborhood café, to over 1000 in a specialist beer café. Among the most famous are "Beer Circus," "Chez Moeder Lambic," and "Delirium Café" in Brussels; "de Kulminator" and "Oud Arsenaal" in Antwerp, "Barnabeer" in Namur, "De Garre" and "'t Brugs Beertje" in Bruges, "Het Botteltje" in Ostend, "Het Hemelrijk" in Hasselt, "Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant", "De Dulle Griet" and "Trappistenhuis" in Ghent, "De Blauwe Kater" in Leuven, the Vaudrées in Liège and the "Stillen Genieter" in Mechelen. Although many major brands of beer are available at most supermarkets, off-licences located throughout the country generally offer a far wider selection, albeit at somewhat higher prices.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Belgium exports almost 80% of its beer. Some draught-beer brands produced by AB InBev – Stella Artois, Hoegaarden and Leffe – are available in several European countries. Aside from these, mostly bottled beer is exported across Europe. Cafés, exclusively or primarily offering Belgian beers, exist beyond Belgium in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, amongst others. Some beer festivals outside Belgium have a Belgian beer bar as an alternative to local products. In North America, a growing number of draught Belgian beer brands have started to become available, often at "Belgian Bars". Such brands include Brasserie Brunehaut, Karmeliet, Kwak, Maredsous, Mont Saint-Aubert, Palm, Rodenbach and St. Feuillien.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: A number of traditional Belgian dishes use beer as an ingredient. One is "carbonade" (French) or "stoverij" or "stoofvlees" (Dutch), a stew of beef cooked in beer, similar to Boeuf bourguignon. The beer used is typically the regional speciality—lambic in Brussels, De Koninck in Antwerp, and so on—so that the taste of the dish varies. Another is rabbit in gueuze. "In't Spinnekopke", Brussels, and "Den Dyver", Bruges are famed for their beer cookery. In 1998 Anheuser-Busch InBev started a worldwide chain of bars/restaurants, Belgian Beer Cafe, serving typical Belgian dishes combined with Belgian Beer.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: The varied nature of Belgian beers makes it possible to match them against each course of a meal, for instance:


title: Beer in Belgium

text: "Zythos" is the name of the main consumer's organization, successor to the earlier OBP (Objectieve Bierproevers).


title: Beer in Belgium

text: The Belgian Brewers' Association represents breweries. It organizes beer festivals and an open breweries day.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: The Knighthood of the Mashstaff honours individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to brewing, and pays tribute to Gambrinus and Saint Arnold.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: Beer writers who have written extensively on Belgian beer include Belgians Peter Crombeq, Gert van Lierde and Erik Verdonck, and Britons Michael Jackson and Tim Webb.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: On 1 December 2016, in the eleventh session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, as an appreciation towards the beer culture in Belgium, it was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.


title: Beer in Belgium

text: The following list contains beers that are brewed in Belgium. Not to be confused with "Belgian style" beers that are produced in other countries, and may or may not resemble a style that is specific to Belgium.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: The Big Gold Belt is a historic professional wrestling championship belt that has represented multiple world championships throughout its history.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: Originally designed in 1985 by silversmith Charles Crumrine and commissioned by Jim Crockett Promotions for NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair, the championship belt has three large gold plates with a distinctive name plate onto which the champion's name was etched. While not the first wrestling championship belt to incorporate a name plate, it popularized the concept. The original championship belt design was known for being unbranded as it only read "World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion" and bore no initials or trademark of its owning promotion. The original belt is currently owned by Conrad Thompson.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: The Big Gold Belt was first introduced in 1986 to replace the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt that had been used since 1973, historically known as the "domed globe", and nicknamed by both wrestlers and fans the "Ten Pounds of Gold". Jim Crockett Jr., of Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), commissioned Charles Crumrine, a Reno, Nevada, silversmith specializing in rodeo-style belt buckles, to produce the new championship belt. The championship belt debuted on February 14, 1986, at a Championship Wrestling from Florida card called "Battle of the Belts II", where NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair defended the title against Barry Windham.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: In 1988, the assets of JCP were purchased by media mogul Ted Turner, whose cable network TBS broadcast JCP programming. He launched the promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which took its name from JCP's flagship tv show, and inherited its membership in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), continuing to promote the NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: In January 1991, WCW officially recognized Ric Flair as their world champion in conjunction with the NWA's recognition. During this time, the Big Gold Belt represented the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as well as the newly established WCW World Heavyweight Championship. An exception to this arose in the spring of 1991. On March 21, 1991, Tatsumi Fujinami defeated Flair at the WCW/New Japan Supershow. Following this match, the NWA recognized Fujinami as their new champion. However, WCW did not recognize this title change. While Flair would defeat Fujinami at SuperBrawl I on May 19, 1991 to reunify the NWA and WCW world titles, during Fujinami's approximately two-month reign as NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Flair retained possession of the championship belt and it only represented the WCW World Heavyweight Champion.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: In July 1991, Flair and WCW parted ways while Flair was still champion. The Big Gold Belt left with Flair due to a dispute with WCW Vice President Jim Herd in which Herd refused to return Flair's $25,000 deposit, a deposit per regulations that was required of reigning NWA World Heavyweight Champions and was to be returned after the conclusion of their reigns. WCW was forced to strip Flair of their recognition of world champion and introduced a new title belt design to continue to represent the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. On September 8, two days before Flair's WWF debut, the NWA followed suit and also stripped Flair of their recognition as world champion.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: Flair soon signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and exhibited the Big Gold Belt there, proclaiming himself "The Real World's Heavyweight Champion" until WCW sued, upon which Flair instead used a WWF World Tag Team title belt, digitized out on television, on the (kayfabe) orders of WWF President Jack Tunney until Flair won the World Wrestling Federation Championship at the 1992 Royal Rumble, thereby unifying it with his own claim. Flair stated on the 2008 DVD release of "Nature Boy Ric Flair: The Definitive Collection" that the $25,000 he initially deposited with additional interest totalling $38,000 was never paid back to him, and as a result, Flair kept the Big Gold Belt until a settlement was finally reached with WCW.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: With its return to WCW, the Big Gold Belt represented the NWA World Heavyweight Championship once again, being awarded to Masa Chono after his August 1992 tournament final victory over Rick Rude for the vacant title in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Meanwhile the new WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt design that had been commissioned after Flair's departure also continued to be used.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: In September 1993, WCW formally seceded from the NWA and with that the promotional rights to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship were returned to the NWA. With the Big Gold Belt remaining property of WCW, Ric Flair who won NWA World Heavyweight Championship in July was recognized by WCW as holding the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship, the world championship of a kayfabe subsidiary of WCW called "WCW International". The WCW International World Heavyweight Championship was represented by the Big Gold Belt until June 1994, when it was unified with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: The Big Gold Belt then represented the WCW World Heavyweight Championship again, remaining the top title in WCW until the end of the promotion in 2001. Upon winning the title for the second time in 1996, Hollywood Hogan spray-painted the belt with the nWo logo and afterwards wore the Big Gold Belt in that defaced condition. During the filming of the movie "Ready to Rumble" in 1999, bronze cast copies of the original belt were made for use as a prop in the film (as the original was needed for the actual company). These copies saw use as substitute belts at WCW events afterwards.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: In March 2001, after the long and bitter rivalry of the Monday Night Wars, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. bought out WCW. The Big Gold Belt became property of the WWF and continued to represent the abbreviated WCW Championship within the promotion during the period of the WCW/ECW "Invasion". After the conclusion of Invasion at the Survivor Series in November 2001, the WCW Championship being held by The Rock became known simply as the World Championship for the month that followed as the WCW name was phased out. The title was unified with the WWF Championship at Vengeance in December 2001. Chris Jericho became the final recognized titleholder and the subsequent undisputed champion in the WWF and professional wrestling.


title: Big Gold Belt

text: Following the unification of the World Championship (formerly WCW Championship) and WWF Championship in December 2001, the Big Gold Belt and the WWF Championship belt were collectively used to represent the Undisputed WWF Championship (those who held the championship belts after Jericho are credited as having held only the WWF Championship). After Jericho was defeated by Triple H at WrestleMania X8, the two title belts were replaced by a single Undisputed WWF Championship belt (later WWE), which was first awarded to by Triple H on April 1, 2002.