title: Human iron metabolism

text: Most of the iron in the body is hoarded and recycled by the reticuloendothelial system, which breaks down aged red blood cells. In contrast to iron uptake and recycling, there is no physiologic regulatory mechanism for excreting iron. People lose a small but steady amount by gastrointestinal blood loss, sweating and by shedding cells of the skin and the mucosal lining of the gastrointestinal tract. The total amount of loss for healthy people in the developed world amounts to an estimated average of a day for men, and 1.5–2 mg a day for women with regular menstrual periods. People with gastrointestinal parasitic infections, more commonly found in developing countries, often lose more. Those who cannot regulate absorption well enough get disorders of iron overload. In these diseases, the toxicity of iron starts overwhelming the body's ability to bind and store it.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: Most cell types take up iron primarily through receptor-mediated endocytosis via transferrin receptor 1 (TFR1), transferrin receptor 2 (TFR2) and GAPDH. TFR1 has a 30-fold higher affinity for transferrin-bound iron than TFR2 and thus is the main player in this process. The higher order multifunctional glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) also acts as a transferrin receptor. Transferrin-bound ferric iron is recognized by these transferrin receptors, triggering a conformational change that causes endocytosis. Iron then enters the cytoplasm from the endosome via importer DMT1 after being reduced to its ferrous state by a STEAP family reductase.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: Alternatively, iron can enter the cell directly via plasma membrane divalent cation importers such as DMT1 and ZIP14 (Zrt-Irt-like protein 14). Again, iron enters the cytoplasm in the ferrous state after being reduced in the extracellular space by a reductase such as STEAP2, STEAP3 (in red blood cells), Dcytb (in enterocytes) and SDR2.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: In the cytoplasm, ferrous iron is found in a soluble, chelatable state which constitutes the labile iron pool (~0.001 mM). In this pool, iron is thought to be bound to low-mass compounds such as peptides, carboxylates and phosphates, although some might be in a free, hydrated form (aqua ions). Alternatively, iron ions might be bound to specialized proteins known as metallochaperones. Specifically, poly-r(C)-binding proteins PCBP1 and PCBP2 appear to mediate transfer of free iron to ferritin (for storage) and non-heme iron enzymes (for use in catalysis). The labile iron pool is potentially toxic due to iron's ability to generate reactive oxygen species. Iron from this pool can be taken up by mitochondria via mitoferrin to synthesize Fe-S clusters and heme groups.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: Iron can be stored in ferritin as ferric iron due to the ferroxidase activity of the ferritin heavy chain. Dysfunctional ferritin may accumulate as hemosiderin, which can be problematic in cases of iron overload. The ferritin storage iron pool is much larger than the labile iron pool, ranging in concentration from 0.7 mM to 3.6 mM.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: Iron export occurs in a variety of cell types, including neurons, red blood cells, macrophages and enterocytes. The latter two are especially important since systemic iron levels depend upon them. There is only one known iron exporter, ferroportin. It transports ferrous iron out of the cell, generally aided by ceruloplasmin and/or hephaestin (mostly in enterocytes), which oxidize iron to its ferric state so it can bind ferritin in the extracellular medium. Hepcidin causes the internalization of ferroportin, decreasing iron export. Besides, hepcidin seems to downregulate both TFR1 and DMT1 through an unknown mechanism. Another player assisting ferroportin in effecting cellular iron export is GAPDH. A specific post translationally modified isoform of GAPDH is recruited to the surface of iron loaded cells where it recruits apo-transferrin in close proximity to ferroportin so as to rapidly chelate the iron extruded.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: The expression of hepcidin, which only occurs in certain cell types such as hepatocytes, is tightly controlled at the transcriptional level and it represents the link between cellular and systemic iron homeostasis due to hepcidin's role as "gatekeeper" of iron release from enterocytes into the rest of the body. Erythroblasts produce erythroferrone, a hormone which inhibits hepcidin and so increases the availability of iron needed for hemoglobin synthesis.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: Although some control exists at the transcriptional level, the regulation of cellular iron levels is ultimately controlled at the translational level by iron-responsive element-binding proteins IRP1 and especially IRP2. When iron levels are low, these proteins are able to bind to iron-responsive elements (IREs). IREs are stem loop structures in the untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNA.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: Both ferritin and ferroportin contain an IRE in their 5' UTRs, so that under iron deficiency their translation is repressed by IRP2, preventing the unnecessary synthesis of storage protein and the detrimental export of iron. In contrast, TFR1 and some DMT1 variants contain 3' UTR IREs, which bind IRP2 under iron deficiency, stabilizing the mRNA, which guarantees the synthesis of iron importers.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: Functional or actual iron deficiency can result from a variety of causes. These causes can be grouped into several categories:


title: Human iron metabolism

text: The body is able to substantially reduce the amount of iron it absorbs across the mucosa. It does not seem to be able to entirely shut down the iron transport process. Also, in situations where excess iron damages the intestinal lining itself (for instance, when children eat a large quantity of iron tablets produced for adult consumption), even more iron can enter the bloodstream and cause a potentially deadly syndrome of iron overload. Large amounts of free iron in the circulation will cause damage to critical cells in the liver, the heart and other metabolically active organs.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: Iron toxicity results when the amount of circulating iron exceeds the amount of transferrin available to bind it, but the body is able to vigorously regulate its iron uptake. Thus, iron toxicity from ingestion is usually the result of extraordinary circumstances like iron tablet over-consumption rather than variations in diet. The type of acute toxicity from iron ingestion causes severe mucosal damage in the gastrointestinal tract, among other problems.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: Excess iron has been linked to higher rates of disease and mortality. For example, breast cancer patients with low ferroportin expression (leading to higher concentrations of intracellular iron) survive for a shorter period of time on average, while high ferroportin expression predicts 90% 10-year survival in breast cancer patients. Similarly, genetic variations in iron transporter genes known to increase serum iron levels also reduce lifespan and the average number of years spent in good health. It has been suggested that mutations that increase iron absorption, such as the ones responsible for hemochromatosis (see below), were selected for during Neolithic times as they provided a selective advantage against iron-deficiency anemia. The increase in systemic iron levels becomes pathological in old age, which supports the notion that antagonistic pleiotropy or "hyperfunction" drives human aging.


title: Human iron metabolism

text: Chronic iron toxicity is usually the result of more chronic iron overload syndromes associated with genetic diseases, repeated transfusions or other causes. In such cases the iron stores of an adult may reach 50 grams (10 times normal total body iron) or more. The most common diseases of iron overload are hereditary hemochromatosis (HH), caused by mutations in the "HFE" gene, and the more severe disease juvenile hemochromatosis (JH), caused by mutations in either hemojuvelin ("HJV") or hepcidin ("HAMP"). The exact mechanisms of most of the various forms of adult hemochromatosis, which make up most of the genetic iron overload disorders, remain unsolved. So, while researchers have been able to identify genetic mutations causing several adult variants of hemochromatosis, they now must turn their attention to the normal function of these mutated genes.


title: Horse-drawn vehicle

text: A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by automobiles and other forms of self-propelled transport.


title: Horse-drawn vehicle

text: Horses were domesticated circa 3500 BCE. Prior to that oxen were used. Historically a wide variety of arrangements of horses and vehicles have been used, from chariot racing, which involved a small vehicle and four horses abreast, to horsecars or trollies, which used two horses to pull a car that was used in cities before electric trams were developed.


title: Horse-drawn vehicle

text: A two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle is a cart (see various types below, both for carrying people and for goods). Four-wheeled vehicles have many names – one for heavy loads is most commonly called a wagon. Very light carts and wagons can also be pulled by donkeys (much smaller than horses), ponies or mules. Other smaller animals are occasionally used, such as large dogs, llamas and goats (see draught animals). Heavy wagons, carts and agricultural implements can also be pulled by other large draught animals such as oxen, water buffalo, yaks or even camels and elephants.


title: Horse-drawn vehicle

text: Vehicles pulled by one animal (or by animals in a single file) have two "shafts" which attach either side of the rearmost animal (the "wheel" animal or "wheeler"). Two animals in single file are referred to as a "tandem" arrangement, and three as a "randem". Vehicles which are pulled by a pair (or by a team of several pairs) have a "pole" which attaches between the wheel pair. Other arrangements are also possible, for example, three or more abreast (a "troika"), a wheel pair with a single lead animal (a "unicorn"), or a wheel pair with three lead animals abreast (a "pickaxe"). Very heavy loads sometimes had an additional team behind to slow the vehicle down steep hills. Sometimes at a steep hill with frequent traffic, such a team would be hired to passing wagons to help them up or down the hill. Horse-drawn carriages have been in use for at least 3,500 years.


title: Horse-drawn vehicle

text: Two-wheeled vehicles are balanced by the distribution of weight of the load (driver, passengers, and goods) over the axle, and then held level by the animal – this means that the shafts (or sometimes a pole for two animals) must be fixed rigidly to the vehicle's body. Four-wheeled vehicles remain level on their own, and so the shafts or pole are hinged vertically, allowing them to rise and fall with the movement of the animals. A four-wheeled vehicle is also steered by the shafts or pole, which are attached to the front axle; this swivels on a "turntable" or "fifth wheel" beneath the vehicle.


title: Horse-drawn vehicle

text: From the 15th century drivers of carts were known as carmen, and in London were represented by the Worshipful Company of Carmen. In 1890 there were 13,800 companies in the United States in the business of building carriages pulled by horses. By 1920, only 90 such companies remained.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: Religion in the Czech Republic is varied, with a vast majority of the population (78%) being either irreligious (atheist, agnostic or other irreligious life stances) or declaring neither religious nor irreligious identities, and almost equal minorities represented by Christianity (11.7%, almost entirely Catholicism) and other religious identities or beliefs (10.8%). The religious identity of the country has changed drastically since the first half of the 20th century, when more than 90% of the Czechs were Christians. According to the sociologist Jan Spousta, not all the irreligious or neither religiously nor irreligiously identified people are atheists; indeed, since the late 20th century there has been an increasing distancing from both Christian dogmatism and atheism, and at the same time ideas and non-institutional models similar to those of Eastern religions have become widespread through movements started by various "guru"s, and hermetic and mystical paths.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: The Christianisation of the Czechs (Bohemians, Moravians and Silesians) occurred in the 9th and 10th century, when they were incorporated into the Catholic Church and abandoned indigenous Slavic paganism. After the Bohemian Reformation which began in the late 14th century, most Czechs became Hussites, that is to say followers of Jan Hus, Petr Chelčický and other regional Proto-Protestant religious reformers. Taborites and Utraquists were the two major Hussite factions. During the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century, the Utraquists sided with the Catholic Church, and following the joint Utraquist—Catholic victory, Utraquism was accepted by the Catholic Church as a legitimate doctrine to be practised in the Kingdom of Bohemia, while all the other Hussite movements were prohibited. Jewish minorities were also present in the country.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: After the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, some in Bohemia, especially Sudeten Germans, went with the teachings of Martin Luther (Lutheranism). In the wake of the Reformation, Utraquist Hussites took a renewed increasingly anti-Catholic stance while some of the defeated Hussite factions (notably the Taborites) were revived. The defeat of Bohemians estates by the Habsburg monarchy in the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 affected the religious sentiments of the Czechs, as the Habsburgs endorsed a Counter-Reformation to forcibly reconvert all Czechs, even Utraquist Hussites, back to the Catholic Church.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: Since the Battle of White Mountain, widespread anti-Catholic sentiment and resistance to the Catholic Church underlay the history of the Czech lands even when the whole population nominally belonged to the Catholic Church, and the Czechs have been historically characterised as "tolerant and even indifferent towards religion". At the end of the 18th century, Protestant and Jewish minorities were once again granted some rights, but they had to wait another century to have full equality. In 1918 the Habsburg monarchy collapsed, and in the newly independent Czechoslovakia, in 1920, the Catholic Church suffered a schism as the Czechoslovak Hussite Church re-established itself as an independent organism. In 1939–1945, Nazism annihilated or expelled most of the Jewish population. The Catholic Church then lost about half of its adherents during the communist period of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1960–1990), and has continued to decline in the contemporary epoch after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 restored democracy in Czechoslovakia. Protestantism did not recover immediately after the Habsburg Counter-Reformation; it regained some ground when the Habsburg monarchy disintegrated in the early 20th century (in 1950 about 17% of the Czechs were Protestants, mostly Hussites), although after the 1950s it declined again and today it is a very small minority (around 1%).


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: According to the official censuses conducted by the Czech Statistical Office, Catholicism was the religion of 39.1% of the Czechs in 1991 and has declined to 9.3% in 2021; Protestantism and other types of Christianity declined in the same period from around 5% to around 2%; at the same time, adherents of other religions or believers without an identifiable religion grew from 0.3% to 10.8%. Small minority religions in the Czech Republic include Buddhism, Islam, Paganism, Hinduism, Judaism, and others. In the census of 2021, 47.8% of the Czechs declared that they did not believe in any religion, while 30.1% did not declare any identification, neither religious nor irreligious.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: The Czechs gradually converted to Christianity from Slavic paganism between the 9th and the 10th century, and Christianity—especially the Catholic Church, with significant minorities of Protestantism, and even majorities in some periods, from the 15th century onwards—remained the religion of nearly all the population until the end of the 19th century. Bořivoj I, Duke of Bohemia, baptised by the Saints Cyril and Methodius, was the first ruler of Bohemia to adopt Christianity as the state religion. Since the late 19th century, and especially throughout the 20th century, Christianity was gradually abandoned by the majority of the Czechs and today it remains the religion of a minority. From 1950 to 2021, the official censuses of the Czech Statistical Office recorded a decline of professed Christianity from about 94% to about 12% of the population of the Czech lands.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: The communist period of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1960–1990) certainly saw an oppression of Christianity, thus contributing to its decline, but also hampered the appearance of any alternatives in the area of religion, so that Christianity continued to have a monopolistic position in the religious interpretation of the world. Only the restoration of democracy after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 opened the country to the spread of non-Christian religions. According to the scholar Jan Spousta, throughout the 20th century Christianity gradually lost its character as the Czechs' traditional religion, and was abandoned by most while turning into a religion of sincere choice for the minority who continues to identify itself with it and practise it. Spousta also found that Christians in the early 21st century tended to be older and less educated than the general population, and females were far more likely than males to be believers. Christianity remained relatively higher in percentage among the populations of the agrarian south-eastern regions of Moravia, while the percentages were already very low in the large cities and the north-western more industrialised regions of Bohemia.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: Roman Catholicism was the main tradition of Christianity historically practised by the Czechs after they converted from Slavic paganism, and although in the 15th and 16th century many Czechs—in many areas and periods most—joined Proto-Protestant and Protestant churches, the Habsburg monarchy which gained imperial power on the Czech lands in the early 17th century enacted a Counter-Reformation movement which reconverted most Czechs to the Catholic Church. By the time of the collapse of the Habsburg power and the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, the position of the Catholic Church had already been weakened by criticism from the intellectual class and by the social changes brought by the rapid industrialisation of especially the northern and western pars of the country, Bohemia. At the same time, the association of Catholicism with the unpopular erstwhile Habsburg power led to widespread anticlericalism and anti-Catholicism, and to a revival of the native historical form of Czech Protestantism, namely Hussitism; in 1920, Hussites split out of the Catholic Church with about 10% of the formerly Catholic clergy and established themselves as the Czechoslovak Hussite Church.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: From 1950 onwards, communists gained power in Czechoslovakia, which from 1960 to 1989 became the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and while they fought all religions, Catholicism was targeted with particular aggressiveness. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and the restoration of democracy in the Czech lands, Catholicism, like other forms of Christianity, did not recover and continued to lose adherents. The data from the national censuses show that Catholics decreased from 76.7% of the Czechs in 1950 prior to the communist period, to 39.1% in 1991 after the fall of communism, to 26.9% in 2001, to 10.5% in 2011, and to 9.3% in 2021.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: In the late 14th century, the religious and social reformer Jan Hus started a Proto-Protestant movement which would have been later called "Hussitism" after him. Although Jan Hus was declared heretic by the Catholic Church and burnt at the stake in Constance in 1415, his followers seceded from the Catholic Church and in the Hussite Wars (1419–1434) they defeated five crusades organised against them by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Petr Chelčický continued in the wake of the Bohemian Hussite Reformation and gave rise to the Hussite Moravian Church. During the 15th and 16th century, most of Czechs were adherents of Hussitism, and at the same time many Sudeten Germans of the Czech lands joined the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther and his doctrine (Lutheranism).


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: After 1526, Bohemia came increasingly under the control of the Habsburg monarchy, as the Habsburgs became first the elected and later the hereditary rulers of Bohemia. The Defenestration of Prague and the subsequent revolt against the Habsburgs in 1618 marked the start of the Thirty Years' War, which quickly spread throughout Central Europe. In 1620, the rebellion in Bohemia was crushed at the Battle of White Mountain, and the ties between Bohemia and the Habsburgs' hereditary lands in Austria were strengthened. The war had a devastating effect on the local population, and the people were forced to convert back to Catholicism under the Habsburgs' Counter-Reformation efforts.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: In 1918, when the Habsburg monarchy disintegrated and independent Czechoslovakia emerged, most of the Czechs professed formal affiliation to Catholicism; anti-Catholic sentiments spread quickly as Catholicism was viewed as the religion re-imposed by the Habsburg, so that in 1920 the Czechoslovak Hussite Church split off the Catholic Church and was joined by about 10% of the former Catholic clergy, and 10.6% of the Czechs had become again Hussites by 1950. The Czechoslovak Church was supported by the government of the first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Masaryk (1850–1937). In the same years, the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (a doctrinally mixed church of Lutheran, Calvinist and Hussite traditions) represented another 4.5% of the population, and another 1% were members of Lutheran churches of the Augsburg Confession (mostly of the Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession).


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: During the communist years of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic all religions were discouraged by the government; the Czech Protestant churches lost many members (the Czechoslovak Church lost 80% of its adherents), and they continued to decline after the restoration of democracy after 1989. Protestantism today constitutes a small minority of around 1% of the population; according to the 2021 census, only 0.2% of the Czechs (23,610) adhered to the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, 0.3% (32,577) adhered to the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, and 0.1% (11,047) were Lutherans of the Augsburg Confession (still mostly Silesian). The Moravian Church, historically tied to the region of Moravia, was still present with a very small number of adherents, about 1,257. Other Protestant minorities include Anglicans, Adventists, Apostolic Pentecostals, Baptists, Brethren, Methodists, and nondenominational Evangelicals.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: In the 2021 census, 41,178 Czechs (0.4% of the population) identified themselves as adherents of the Eastern Orthodox Church, almost all of them members of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia and only a few hundreds of the Czech branch of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the same census, 13,298 (0.1%) identified themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses, and very small minorities as Mormons of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, adherents of the Unification Church, and of other minor Christian churches. 71,089 Czechs (0.7%) identified themselves simply as "Christians".


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: In the 2021 census, 5,257 Czechs declared themselves adherents of Buddhism. Many of the Vietnamese Czechs, which constitute the largest immigrant ethnic group in the Czech Republic, are adherents of Mahayana traditions of Vietnamese Buddhism. Ethnic Czech Buddhists are otherwise mostly followers of Vajrayana traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, Mahayana traditions of Korean Buddhism, and Theravada traditions. There are various Tibetan Buddhist, Korean Buddhist and Theravada Buddhist centres in the country; many of those of the Tibetan tradition are afferent to the Diamond Way founded by the Danish "lama" Ole Nydahl.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: The entire Pagan community in the Czech Republic, including Slavic Rodnovery (Czech: "Rodnověří") as well as other Pagan religions, was described by scholars of religion as small in 2013. In the 2021 census, 2,953 Czechs identified themselves as Pagans (including 189 Druids). The first Pagan groups to emerge in the Czech Republic in the 1990s were oriented towards Germanic Heathenry and Celtic Druidry, while modern Slavic Rodnovery began to develop around 1995–1996 with the foundation of two groups, the National Front of the Castists and "Radhoŝť", which in 2000 were merged to form the Community of Native Faith ("Společenství Rodná Víra"). There are also adherents of the Rodnover denomination of Ynglism; the Civic Association Tartaria ("Občanské sdružení Tartaria"), headquartered in Slovakia, also caters to Czech Ynglists. Besides Slavic Rodnovers, Germanic Heathens and Celtic Druids, in the Czech Republic there are also Wiccan followers, and one Kemetic organisation, "Per Kemet".


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: The Community of Native Faith was among the government-recognised religious entities until 2010, when it was unregistered and became an informal association due to ideological disagreements between the Castists and other subgroups about whether Slavic religion was Indo-European hierarchic worship (supported by the Castists), Neolithic mother goddess worship, or neither. The leader of the organisation since 2007 has been Richard Bigl (Khotebud), and it is today devoted to the celebration of annual holidays and individual rites of passage, to the restoration of sacred sites associated with Slavic deities, and to the dissemination of knowledge about Slavic spirituality in Czech society. While the contemporary association is completely adogmatic and apolitical, and refuses to "introduce a solid religious or organisational order" because of the past internal conflicts, between 2000 and 2010 it had a complex structure, and redacted a "Code of Native Faith" defining a precise doctrine for Czech Rodnovery (which firmly rejected the "Book of Veles"). Though "Rodná Víra" no longer maintains structured territorial groups, it is supported by individual adherents scattered throughout the Czech Republic.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: The deep changes in the religious sensibility of the Czechs since the early 20th century, and the loss of religious monopoly and decline of Christianity, opened a space for the growth of new forms of religiousness, including ideas and non-institutional, diffuse models similar to those of Eastern religions, with the spread of movements centred around various "gurus", and hermetic and mystical paths.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: In the 2021 census, 21,539 Czechs (0.2% of the population) identified themselves as adherents of Jediism (a real philosophy based on that of the fictional Jedi of the "Star Wars" space opera), 5,244 as Muslims, 2,696 as Pastafarians (a social movement for a light-hearted interpretation of religion), 2,024 as Hindus, 1,901 as Jews, 1,053 as adherents of Biotronics (incorporated as the Community of Josef Zezulka, "Společenství Josefa Zezulky"), and 89,254 (0.8% of the population) as adherents of other minority religions. Another 9.6% of the Czechs declared themselves as having some belief but not identifiable with any specific religion.


title: Religion in the Czech Republic

text: In the 2021 census, 5,027,794 Czechs, corresponding to 47.8% of the total population of the Czech Republic, identified themselves as irreligious, including atheism, agnosticism and other irreligious life stances. Other 3,162,540 Czechs, or 30.1% of the population of the country, did not identify themselves with either religious or irreligious life stances. Some Czech atheists have organised themselves in the Civic Association of Atheists ("Občanské sdružení ateistů"), which is a member of the Atheist Alliance International. Not all irreligious or neither religiously nor irreligiously identified Czechs are atheists; a number of non-religious people believe or practise unorganised forms of spirituality which do not require strict adherence or identification, similar to Eastern religions.


title: Aon Center (Chicago)

text: The Aon Center (200 East Randolph Street, formerly Amoco Building) is a modern supertall skyscraper in the Chicago Loop, Chicago, Illinois, United States, designed by architect firms Edward Durell Stone and The Perkins and Will partnership, and completed in 1974 as the Standard Oil Building. With 83 floors and a height of 1,136 feet (346 m), it is the fourth-tallest building in Chicago, surpassed in height by Willis Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, and St Regis Chicago.


title: Aon Center (Chicago)

text: The building is managed by Jones Lang LaSalle, which is also headquartered in the building. Aon Center also houses the headquarters of Aon and one of Kraft Heinz's two headquarters (the other being in Pittsburgh), and the former world headquarters of Amoco prior to its acquisition by BP.


title: Aon Center (Chicago)

text: From its completion until the 1974 completion of the Sears Tower (now Willis Tower), the building was tallest completed building in Chicago. However, the tallest Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) was topped out in May 1973. It was also the fourth-tallest completed building in the world at the time of its completion.


title: Aon Center (Chicago)

text: The Standard Oil Building was constructed as the headquarters of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, which had previously been housed at South Michigan Avenue and East 9th Street. When it was completed in 1973, it was the tallest completed building in Chicago and the fourth-tallest in the world, earning it the nickname "Big Stan". In 1974, the taller Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) in Chicago surpassed it as the tallest completed building in Chicago (the Sears Tower was also the tallest in the world). However, the Sears Tower had already been topped out in May 1973. When the Aon Center opened as the fourth-tallest completed building in the world, it was only exceeded in height by the twin towers of the original World Trade Center and the Empire State Building in New York City. Originally clad in marble, the Aon Center was also the tallest marble-clad building in the world.


title: Aon Center (Chicago)

text: The building employs a tubular steel-framed structural system with V-shaped perimeter columns to resist earthquakes, reduce sway, minimize column bending, and maximize column-free space. This construction method was also used for the original World Trade Center twin towers in New York City.


title: Aon Center (Chicago)

text: When completed, it was the world's tallest marble-clad building, sheathed entirely with 43,000 slabs of Italian Carrara marble. The marble used was thinner than previously attempted in cladding a building, which soon proved to be a mistake. On December 25, 1973, during construction a 350-pound marble slab detached from the façade and penetrated the roof of the nearby Prudential Center. In 1985, inspection found numerous cracks and bowing in the marble cladding of the building. To alleviate the problem, stainless steel straps were added to hold the marble in place. Later, from 1990 to 1992, the entire building was refaced with Mount Airy white granite at an estimated cost of over $80 million. Amoco was reluctant to divulge the actual amount, but it was well over half the original price of the building, without adjustment for inflation. Two-thirds of the discarded marble was crushed and used as landscaping decoration at Amoco's refinery in Whiting, Indiana, one-sixth was donated to Governors State University, in University Park, and one-sixth donated to Regalo, a division of Lashcon Inc. Under a grant from the Illinois Department of Rehabilitative Services, Regalo's 25 handicapped workers carved the discarded marble into a variety of specialty items such as corporate gifts and mementos including desk clocks and pen holders. The building's facade somewhat resembles that of the North and South tower of the former World Trade Center Complex due to the upward flow of the columns.


title: Aon Center (Chicago)

text: The Standard Oil Building was renamed the Amoco Building when the company changed names in 1985. In 1998, Amoco sold the building to The Blackstone Group for an undisclosed amount, estimated to be between $430 and $440 million. It was renamed as the Aon Center on December 30, 1999, although the Aon Corporation would not become the building's primary tenant until September 2001. In May 2003, Wells Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. acquired the building for between $465 and $475 million. On August 10, 2007, Wells Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. changed its name to Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc.)


title: Aon Center (Chicago)

text: Real estate investors Mark Karasick and Victor Gerstein acquired the building from Piedmont in 2015 for $713 million.


title: Aon Center (Chicago)

text: On May 14, 2018, the building's owners unveiled $185 million proposal for an observatory featuring a thrill ride on the roof called the Sky Summit, the world's tallest exterior elevator, and new entrance pavilion. The observatory was supposed to be completed in 2022, but the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed construction plans by about a year.


title: Aon Center (Chicago)

text: In recent years, the top floors of the building have been lit at night with colors to reflect a particular season or holiday. Orange is used for Thanksgiving, green or red for Christmas, and pink during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The lighting commonly matches the nighttime lighting on the antenna of Willis Tower, the John Hancock Center and the upper floors of the Merchandise Mart.


title: Bonne Maman

text: Bonne Maman is a French brand of jam, marmalade, compotes, desserts, cakes and biscuits owned by Andros. It is Andros's leading brand.


title: Bonne Maman

text: The Bonne Maman brand was created by Andros in 1971 as a mass-produced product with a home-made feel, with a handwritten-style label, gingham-patterned ("motif Vichy") lid, and a name meaning "granny".


title: Bonne Maman

text: Andros promotes Bonne Maman jams as being made with "five simple ingredients that could be found in your kitchen" and without high fructose corn syrup, additives, or preservatives.


title: Bonne Maman

text: In February 2021, a story circulated that the brand's owners saved Jews during the Holocaust, but there is no good evidence for this, and the company has declined to comment.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne? ( "What is Fatmagül's Fault?" or "What Did Fatmagul Wrong?") is a Turkish television drama series produced by Ay Yapım and broadcast on Kanal D. The series is based on Vedat Türkali's scenario, "Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?", which was made into a film in 1986, Hülya Avşar as Fatmagül. The series is written by the duo Ece Yörenç and Melek Gençoğlu. The soundtrack was composed and conducted by Toygar Işıklı. It tells the story of a poor gang-raped woman who does not stop seeking justice after she is forced into marriage with one of her rapists.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: Fatmagül Ketenci (Beren Saat) is a lower-class dairy-farm naïve girl who lives in the village Ildır on the Aegean coast belonging to the administrative district of Çeşme, in Izmir province, with her too simple brother Rahmi (Bülent Seyran), his son and his wife Mukaddes (Esra Dermancıoğlu) who hates her for no reason. Fatmagül plans to marry her childhood love Mustafa (Fırat Çelik), a fisherman. They are only waiting for Mustafa to earn much money to finish their house construction before marriage. Then there is the Yaşaran family, the rich upper-class businessmen and their political social elites. Yaşaran Family is in Izmir for the engagement ceremony of the son of the elder brother Reşat Yaşaran (Musa Uzunlar) to the daughter of a politician. Selim (Engin Öztürk) is his son and Erdoğan (Kaan Taşaner) his nephew. These cousins have a third friend Vural (Buğra Gülsoy) who also belongs to the upper-class. All these three have spent their childhood in Izmir but as the businesses of their fathers grew, they moved to Istanbul. They have a childhood friend in Izmir, whom they meet on yearly basis when they come there for summer vacations. This fourth friend of theirs is the hero - Kerim Ilgaz (Engin Akyürek).


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: Kerim Ilgaz is a well-mannered boy, a blacksmith apprentice by profession, who lives with his aunt Meryem Aksoy (Sumru Yavrucuk), known affectionately as "Ebe Nine", who is a homeopath. Kerim was orphaned during childhood so Meryem brought him up as her own son. He works as a carpenter in the workshop of his father's friend. Kerim though unlike his rich friends, is over-powered by their presence. He considers himself important with them and hence, enjoys their company.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: Fatmagül is desperate to be married-off to Mustafa, not only because she loves him but also to get rid away from her nagging sister-in-law. Her desire for Mustafa and an independent married life is growing with time as Mukaddes's hatred is growing towards her. Except for Mustafa, she has no one to share her feelings with. While in Izmir, Erdoğan, Selim, Vural and Kerim see Fatmagül and the three rich men ogle and tease her. Kerim doesn't like this. Then at Selim's engagement, Kerim comes face-to-face with her as she is working there with her sister-in-law.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: The big event of the season is the engagement of Selim, to the politician Turaner Alagöz's (Aziz Sarvan) daughter Meltem (Seda Güven). Kerim after attending Selim's engagement, joins his friends for an after-party. All four go for drinking and drug binge near the sea. Mustafa is leaving for a night fish-catch. Fatmagül is coming to see him off. She passes from the area where the drunk boys are singing. Kerim sees her and on recognizing her shouts to his friends 'Guys! It's the same girl'!! Then when she tries to run, Kerim gets hold of her while the other three come near her.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: The tragedy occurs. Fatmagül is gang-raped. The four boys are shown to be involved in the crime as she faints when Kerim comes on her. The next morning, a traumatized Fatmagül is discovered by Ebe Nine while she is picking herbs. The four boys have already left the crime scene. Kerim drops off Selim and Erdoğan at their place and himself goes with Vural to his house. Kerim is left deeply disturbed by the event and is even more distressed to know that the girl has been rescued by his mother. The rich boys are confident in the power of their rich fathers and are sure to be saved. As Mukaddes approaches the Yaşarans threatening of giving their name to the police (as she had found Selim's engagement ring at the rape-scene), with the course of events, the Yaşarans save their sons and forcefully marry Kerim to Fatmagül. Kerim accepts the blame of solely raping Fatmagül for protecting his friends and also because he believes himself to be guilty. Mukaddes is their accomplice in all this. Mustafa is hurt primarily because of his fiance being raped. He burns their half-finished house in front of Fatmagül because he believes Yaşaran's false stories that Fatmagül has been having an affair with Kerim from the beginning. Fatmagül and Kerim's families sell their properties and move to İstanbul to start a new life.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: The story develops in Istanbul. Fatmagül hates Kerim. She insults him, abuses him, spits at him, tries to kill him, etc. Kerim is not sure whether he really raped her, as he was drunk and drugged. But Fatmagül believes that he did it as his was the last face she saw before fainting. Then Vural who is having little traumas of guilt, tells Kerim what he knows that; Kerim did not rape Fatmagül. In fact, when she laid there and fainted, he just sat beside her. Kerim tells this to Fatmagül. She believes it but it is of no importance for her as she hates him and considers him as much as culprit as the other three.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: Things become complicated due to the exploitations of the Yaşarans and their unscrupulous lawyer, Münir Telci (Murat Daltaban), who wants to protect them, as well as Mustafa, who seeks revenge on Kerim. As a result, both the Yaşarans and Mustafa start harassing Kerim, Fatmagül and their relatives. Kerim, realizing his presence causes Fatmagül a lot of pain, prepares to leave and divorce her as she desires. Just before he leaves, Kerim realizes that he loves Fatmagül, and that it was love at first sight. He writes a letter to her, telling her to move on in her life and that one day he will come and ask for forgiveness from her.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: Fatmagül reads this letter. Later-on the viewers are shown that this was the moment when Fatmagül fell in love with Kerim as his words softened her heart for him and she believed him. Kerim returns and Fatmagül gradually begins to trust him more.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: One day, Vural overhears Erdoğan's plan to get rid of Mustafa and Kerim forever. He requests a meeting with Kerim to warn him. Fatmagül, on a passing bus, sees Vural hug Kerim goodbye and her trust in Kerim dissolves. She believes he is still conspiring with her rapists. In order to prove his innocence and love for her, Kerim files her rape case and asks the police to arrest him, Vural and the Yaşarans, after which Fatmagül finally accepts his of being honest with her. Mustafa finds out the truth and asks Fatmagül to forgive him, but she rejects him. The Yaşarans bribe Mustafa to not divulge the truth to the police and he becomes a greedy co-conspirator in the Yaşarans' attempts to obstruct justice. During the first trial, the Yaşarans falsify their testimonies. They also resort to using several bribed witnesses. Vural then is accidentally killed by Mustafa.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: In the second season, Fatmagül also confesses her love for Kerim. After the Yaşarans forcefully protect Mustafa against Fatmagül, he abducts her, stating he loves her more than Kerim and that he regrets leaving her. Kerim eventually rescues his wife and they escape. Mustafa is arrested and imprisoned for his crimes. At the wedding of Kerim and Fatmagül, Mustafa intentionally tries to escape from police custody and is therefore, shot to death. Meanwhile, Selim and Erdoğan surreptitiously move to Malta where they briefly hide from the authorities. However, they are extradited to Istanbul after Erdoğan engages in a fight at a nightclub and is arrested.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: Eventually, Fatmagül confronts them in court and they are charged for their part in her rape, essentially bringing down the Yaşaran empire. The series ends with Fatmagül and Kerim expecting their first child. In the final scene, they walk down the street in Izmir holding hands, expressing that their love cannot be shaken despite the difficult challenges they faced and that when a woman is strong like Fatmagül and has the support of a strong husband like Kerim, even a crime like 'rape' cannot escape justice.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: Fatmagül gained a lot of popularity in Turkey, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Arabic countries and many other countries all around the world.It also dubbed in many languages notably Persian.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: Turkish television drama is popular in Iran, where they are dubbed into Persian. The song "Roozhaye Tanhaei" by Iranian singer Ava Bahram has been prepared and performed for the title track of the series "Fatmagul". The most popular Turkish show is "Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?".


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: In Kosovo, the most popular TV shows in December 2012 were "Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?", which ranked top of all programmes and "Aşk ve Ceza" ("Love and Punishment"), which came in third according to data by Index Kosova. In Serbia, research from January 2013 indicates that the top two Turkish shows in TV were "Muhteşem Yüzyıl", which ranked fourth, and "Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki" ("As Time Goes By"), which came in seventh. Fatmagul was one of the most popular shows in Macedonia which irked the government to pass a bill to restrict broadcasts of Turkish series during the day and at prime time in order to reduce the Turkish impact on Macedonian society.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: The Bangla dubbed version of "Fatmagul" was broadcast on Deepto TV in June 2019. It became one of the most popular Turkish series in Bangladesh.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: "Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?" was well received by Ethiopians due to the popularity of other Turkish dramas that had been previously shown in Ethiopia. "Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?" was dubbed in Amharic with title "ቅጣት" or "kitat" and aired on Kana TV.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: "Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?" was the second most popular Turkish series in Pakistan which was ranked top in 2013 above Pakistani shows like "Zindagi Gulzar Hai", "Kankar" and "Aunn Zara". The series averaged 16% TV ratings with the viewership above 25 million in Pakistani urban and rural market. "Aşk-ı Memnu", was the highest rated Turkish series which broke all records in 2012.


title: Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?

text: In 2013, the most popular Turkish shows worldwide were "Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?", "Aşk-ı Memnu" and "Muhteşem Yüzyıl". "Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?" has increased the popularity of Istanbul as a tourist destination among Arabs. With "Aşk-ı Memnu's" popularity "Beren Saat" became the female sensation in Arab television which led to a generally higher viewership for Fatmagul.


title: Damian McGinty

text: Damian Joseph McGinty Jr. (born 9 September 1992) is an Irish singer and actor. McGinty has been performing for over a decade, and a member of the group Celtic Thunder for thirteen years starting when he was fourteen. On 21 August 2011, McGinty won the Oxygen reality show "The Glee Project", earning him a seven-episode guest-starring role on the hit Fox television show "Glee" which was later extended to 18 episodes.


title: Damian McGinty

text: McGinty was born into a Catholic family in Derry, Northern Ireland, the son of Damian McGinty Sr. and Joanne McGinty. Damian has three siblings, James, Emmett and Gemma, and is an avid Manchester United fan. He has been performing since winning his first singing competition when he was just five years old. In 2006, McGinty won another competition and the following year, he made a CD which was recorded for charity. It was then passed along to Celtic Thunder Producer Sharon Browne and Music Director Phil Coulter, who invited McGinty to sing for their first show.


title: Damian McGinty

text: McGinty joined the newly formed Celtic Thunder in 2008 as a boy soprano at 14, and as he aged, developed a rich baritone, while still singing tenor and able to hit the high notes. During the four years he was a member, the group did four tours of the US and Canada, six PBS TV specials, performed at the White House and sold over a million recordings, with McGinty on nine of the concert CDs and DVDs. For three of his four years, Celtic Thunder was named Top World Album by Billboard magazine. In 2015, McGinty returned as the Special Guest in the "Very Best of Celtic Thunder Tour" and now, he takes George Donaldson's place in the newest concert "Legacy". He is a full member of the group once again.


title: Damian McGinty

text: In 2011, McGinty was selected as one of the top twelve finalists, out of 40,000 contenders, in a Myspace audition search, to be on the Oxygen reality show, "The Glee Project". The O visa arrived at the last moment, allowing him to compete. He became very popular with viewers due to his humor, talent and hard work. Although his friend Cameron Mitchell, who quit (possibly saving McGinty who was in the bottom three that episode), won the Bing Fan Favorite, they sang Michael Bublé's "Haven't Met You Yet" together for the Bing video. McGinty's rendition of "Beyond the Sea" impressed the judges who selected him as co-winner with Samuel Larsen for a seven episode arc on the third season of the Fox series "Glee". He announced that he was leaving Celtic Thunder for Glee.


title: Damian McGinty

text: In the third season of "Glee", McGinty played Rory Flanagan, a foreign exchange student staying with Brittany S. Pierce's family and befriended by Finn Hudson. In his premiere, the season's fourth episode "Pot o' Gold", McGinty performed two solos: Teddy Thompson's "Take Care of Yourself", which showcased his "beautiful range", and Kermit the Frog's "Bein' Green", his "simple, clear-voiced ode to being an outsider rang true and was hauntingly beautiful." His initial seven episodes were extended to the end of the third season and he returned for the fourth season Christmas episode, for a total of 18. His "smooth and lovely" rendition of "Blue Christmas" was featured on "", as well as "Home" as a solo, as well as part of numerous group and duet songs. McGinty appeared in a humorous sketch about his Irish accent on a MTV "Glee-Cap"


title: Damian McGinty

text: McGinty and Máiréad Carlin sang the Derry City of Culture anthem "Let the River Run" at the BBC TV Gala Concert "Sons and Daughters." Carly Simon, who felt their rendition of her song was "absolutely stunningly wonderful," released it as a single by her Iris Records and McGinty's Walled City Records company in 2014. She also performed her song with them during the multi-star Oceana Partners Awards Gala in Beverly Hills, California.


title: Damian McGinty

text: Between 2008 and 2011, prior to his time on "Glee", McGinty was in five PBS specials as a member of Celtic Thunder: "The Show", "It’s Entertainment", "Christmas", "Heritage" and "Storm". In 2013, McGinty appeared in two PBS specials. He joined former Celtic Thunder member Paul Byrom on his "This Is the Moment" show, and later they did a short tour. The other special "The Power of Music" with Ethan Bortnick was also a 2014 US tour.


title: Damian McGinty

text: McGinty gave a "stunning performance" of the national anthem before the Kansas City Royals vs. Cincinnati Reds baseball game on 19 May 2015. He also has done all sized venues as a solo artist and is currently performing shows.


title: Damian McGinty

text: His first EP ("Run," "This Is Your Song", "With or Without You", "Yellow" and "That's What Friends Are For") was released in December 2012 and at one point was No. 3 on the iTunes chart for US, and No. 1 in Ireland, Mexico and Peru. Various reviewers made note of his "smooth crooner voice", "rich tones" and his "golden pipes." Recently, he has been writing songs for his first album.


title: Damian McGinty

text: McGinty has lent his support to various charities including Concern Worldwide in a public service video on the need to get the children back to school in Haiti following the earthquake, The Trevor Project, Kids Beating Cancer, Oceana, and local charities.


title: Damian McGinty

text: The band performed a US tour between 14 October and 21 November 21, 2021. |url=https://damianmcginty.com/tours|


title: Damian McGinty

text: McGinty served as "Cultural Champion" for Derry, Northern Ireland, when the city was named the UK City of Culture 2013.


title: Damian McGinty

text: McGinty and his childhood friend Oran O’Carroll co-own the music companies Walled City Records and Audio Booth recording company.


title: Damian McGinty

text: McGinty announced his engagement to Anna Claire Sneed, on 3 June 2018, via Instagram post. The pair had been dating since April 2014. On 1 June 2019, McGinty and Sneed got married in Memphis, Tennessee.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The Netherlands national cricket team (Dutch: Nederlandse cricket team) is the men's team that represents the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is administered by the Royal Dutch Cricket Association.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: Cricket has been played in the Netherlands since at least the 19th century, and in the 1860s was considered a major sport in the country. Other sports – notably football – have long since surpassed cricket in popularity amongst the Dutch, but today there are around 6,000 cricketers in the Netherlands. The first national association, the forerunner of today's Royal Dutch Cricket Association, was formed in 1890 and the Netherlands achieved Associate Membership of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1966.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The Netherlands have taken part in all eleven ICC Trophy/World Cup Qualifier tournaments, winning the competition in Canada in 2001 and finishing as runners-up twice (in 1986 and 1990). The Netherlands also participated in the 1996, 2003, 2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups, and from 1995 onwards the national team entered the English domestic NatWest Trophy competition (and its successor, the C&G Trophy). In 2004 they played first-class cricket in the ICC Intercontinental Cup, drawing with Scotland in Aberdeen and then going down to an innings defeat against Ireland in Deventer.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The Netherlands enjoyed full One Day International status from 1 January 2006 until 1 February 2014. They regained Twenty20 International status in June 2014, having played their first match in this format in 2008. The Netherlands regained their ODI status after the conclusion of the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in March 2018. They had guaranteed this status before the tournament as a result of winning the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship and thus qualifying for the 2020–23 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, and will retain the status until the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between the Netherlands and other ICC members after 1 January 2019 will be a full T20I. Pieter Seelaar is the current team captain.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: Cricket was introduced to the Netherlands by British soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century. Further clubs came into existence in the 1870s. The Netherlands national team played their first game in 1881. They fielded 22 players against an Uxbridge Cricket Club XI, but still lost by an innings. The Dutch Cricket Union was formed in 1890, with 18 member clubs, four of which are still in existence today.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The first national tournament was held the following year, and was won by Haagsche CC. English touring teams then began visiting in 1890 including one in 1891 that featured the author of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In 1894, the Gentlemen of Holland were the first Dutch team to visit England. The tour included a game against the MCC at Lord's, which the MCC won by an innings and 169 runs. Tours by English sides continued for the rest of the 1890s, which also saw the emergence of Carst Posthuma, who was later the first Dutch player to play first class cricket. He took 2339 wickets at an average of 8.66 in his career in the Netherlands.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: 1901 saw another visit to England by the Gentlemen of Holland. They played five games on the tour, drawing two and losing the remainder. 1905 saw the first international game against Belgium, which finished in a draw. Cricket began a decline in popularity in the first decade of the 20th century, particularly amongst young athletes, due, in part, to the Dutch sympathizing with the Boers in the Boer War and therefore not being attracted to a game with links to England.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In 1910, the Dutch team visited Belgium to take part in an exhibition tournament, which also featured the MCC, Belgium and France. They lost to the MCC by 2 wickets, and to France by 63 runs, but beat Belgium by 116 runs.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: During World War I, in which the Netherlands remained neutral, large numbers of British officers were interned in the country, and many of these joined local cricket clubs. A team made up of these players even won the Dutch championship in 1918.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The Flamingos, a Dutch touring side, was formed in 1921, and later made several tours of England. Tours by English teams also continued in this period. The 1930s are said to be the heyday of Dutch cricket. In 1934, the first Dutch women's league was formed, and the women's national team played two games against Australia in 1937, losing heavily in both. Cricket was of course curtailed after the German invasion in 1940.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The 1950s saw visits to the Netherlands by Australia and the West Indies, in addition to their first match against Denmark. In 1958, the Cricket Board received a Royal Charter, and became the "Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond", a name which it retains to this day.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In August 1964, the Netherlands achieved their first victory against a Test-playing nation when they beat Australia by three wickets at The Hague. They were rewarded with associate membership of the ICC two years later.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The first two ICC Trophy tournaments, in 1979 and 1982, brought little success to the Dutch, who were eliminated in the first round in both tournaments. But in the 1986 tournament, they finished as runners-up to Zimbabwe. The same year, Paul-Jan Bakker became the first Dutch player to play county cricket. In 1989, the Dutch beat a strong England XI that included two future England captains, Alec Stewart and Nasser Hussain, by 3 runs.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In 1990 the Netherlands hosted the ICC Trophy, the first such tournament outside England, and again finished runners-up to Zimbabwe. In 1991 they achieved a five-wicket win over a West Indies XI, followed in 1993 by a seven-wicket win over an England XI and in 1994 a nine-wicket win over a South Africa XI. In 1994 the Dutch finally qualified for the World Cup, after finishing third in that year's ICC Trophy. In the World Cup itself in 1996, they were eliminated in the first round, but performed with some credit in their game against England.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: 1995 saw the Netherlands enter the NatWest Trophy for the first time. They took part in this tournament for ten years, and their best performance came in 1999 when they reached the fourth round, beating Durham along the way.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The Netherlands failed to qualify for the 1999 World Cup, as they could only manage sixth in the 1997 ICC Trophy. However, the country hosted one World Cup match, between Kenya and South Africa at Amstelveen.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The Netherlands competed in the first European Championship in 1996, coming second. They have competed in every tournament since, winning in 1998 and 2000.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: 2001 finally saw the Netherlands win the ICC Trophy, beating Namibia in the final in Toronto. They thus qualified for the 2003 World Cup. They again failed to progress beyond the first round in the tournament, but recorded their first one-day international win over Namibia during the tournament. Feiko Kloppenburg (with 121) and Klaas-Jan van Noortwijk (134 not out) scored the first two One Day International centuries in the side's history.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In the 2005 ICC Trophy, the Netherlands finished 5th, qualifying for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and gaining one-day International status until the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier. Their first one-day international with this new status was scheduled to be against Kenya in March 2006; however this match was cancelled due to a Kenyan tour of Bangladesh. Instead their first ODI with this status (and their twelfth overall) came against Sri Lanka; this was their first ODI at home. However Sri Lanka won the two match series 2–0, with a then-record ODI score of 443–9.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The Dutch played their first Intercontinental Cup match of 2006 against Kenya in Nairobi in March. The game was drawn, but the Netherlands gained six points for a first innings lead. In August, the Netherlands competed in Division One of the European Championship. They beat Denmark and Italy, but lost to Scotland and their game against Ireland was rained off. They finished third in the tournament.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In November, the Dutch travelled to South Africa. They first played an Intercontinental Cup match against Bermuda: David Hemp achieved what was then a competition record score of 247 not out in the drawn match. This was followed by a triangular series against Bermuda and Canada, which they won. Their final game of 2006, also in South Africa, was an Intercontinental Cup game against Canada. They won the match by 7 wickets, with Ryan ten Doeschate setting a new competition record individual score of 259 not out.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In early 2007, they travelled to Nairobi, Kenya to take part in Division One of the World Cricket League, finishing third out of six. This was followed by the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, where they were eliminated in the first round, though they did beat Scotland along the way.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: Following the World Cup, they underwent a period of transformation. Captain Luuk van Troost retired, as did Tim de Leede and their coach Peter Cantrell. Daan van Bunge also opted to take a break from international cricket, and the new coach opted not to retain the services of bowling coach Ian Pont.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In June 2007, they visited Canada, first winning an Intercontinental Cup match against Canada in King City, Ontario. They then won the first ODI by 117 runs, with the second one being abandoned. They then played a quadrangular series in Ireland, losing by ten wickets to the West Indies, and by one run to Ireland, with the game against Scotland being abandoned due to rain.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In August 2008, The Netherlands participated in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. This was their debut playing Twenty20 International matches. They finished in first place in Group B, based on their run-rate. After beating Scotland in the Semi-Finals, the final was abandoned due to rain and the trophy was shared between The Netherlands and Ireland.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The Netherlands caused a sensation in the cricketing world by beating England in the opening match of the ICC World Twenty20 2009, whilst being 500/1 outsiders.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: They lost their second match to the eventual winners Pakistan and did not qualify for the super 8 stage based on run rate.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: On 20 July 2010, The Netherlands beat a full-member nation for the first time in an ODI. In a one-off match shortened by rain to 30 overs a side, they beat Bangladesh by 6 wickets. The win in combination with their winning percentage against other associate and affiliate nations resulted in The Netherlands being included in ICC's official ODI-rankings.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: On 22 February 2011, The Netherlands posted their highest ever total against a full-member nation, scoring 292 against England, batting first at the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Ryan Ten Doeschate top scored 119 from 110 balls. However, the Netherlands were unable to defend their strong total and failed to pull off a huge shock, England winning by 6 wickets with 2 overs to spare. They eventually failed to win any of their group matches and were last in their Group.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, Netherlands had one win and one loss before their final game. In order to go through on net run rate against Zimbabwe and Ireland, they needed to chase down Ireland's score in 14.2 overs or less. As Ireland scored 189, this seemed unlikely. However, strong and aggressive batting enabled them to score 193/4 in 13.5 overs, securing passage to the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 Super 10s. Although they lost their first three games in the group, including a 39/10 against Sri Lanka, they pulled off an upset against England in their last game.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In June 2014, Nepal along with Netherlands granted T20I status by the ICC board at the annual conference in Melbourne.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: In their last match of the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup, The Netherlands defeated South Africa in a massive upset, knocking them out of the tournament as a result, also finishing in their best ever position (8th) to date in a T20 World Cup.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: Several Dutch cricketers have also played at first-class level elsewhere, the most successful of these probably being Roland Lefebvre who played for Somerset and Glamorgan in English county cricket as well as for Canterbury in New Zealand.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: This lists of all players who have been selected in the team's most recent ODI or T20I squad. Pieter Seelaar has retired after the last ODI series.


title: Netherlands national cricket team

text: The following people have coached the Dutch national side at various stages. For some coaches, the exact dates of their tenure are unavailable, although key tournaments are noted:


Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back () is a 2017 Chinese fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Tsui Hark. A sequel to Stephen Chow's 2013 film "", it was produced and co-written by both Tsui and Chow.


title: Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back

text: The film follows the adventures of Tang Sanzang and his disciples Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing after the events of the first film; all four roles have been recast. The film was released in China by Lianrui Pictures on 28 January 2017 in MX4D, 4DX, IMAX 3D and 3D.


text: The monk Tang Sanzang (Kris Wu) finds himself as a giant in a city in India. His master congratulates him on reaching India and retrieving the Sutras, and gives him a halo as a reward. The halo, however, malfunctions and Tang awakes from his dream to find himself in an alley in a village of circus performers with his three disciples: Sun Wukong (Lin Gengxin); Zhu Bajie (Yang Yiwei); and Sha Wujing (Mengke Bateer). Tang encourages Sun Wukong to perform for the villagers, but the disciple refuses. Angered by this stubbornness, Tang provokes Sun Wukong by calling him a "bad monkey", which causes Sun Wukong to smash the village and damage the villagers' homes in his temper. The terrified villagers present the group with money and food for their travels, but Sun Wukong continues wreaking havoc, sending Zhu Bajie and Tang flying through the air. That night, Tang whips Sun Wukong for his disobedience.


text: The next morning, Tang goes to find water for their breakfast congee and comes across a house. Its host, a beautiful woman in a splendid outfit (Wang Likun), welcomes them all in for breakfast with her companions. Sun Wukong, however, sees through their disguises as spider demons; he purposely provokes them, until she and the others show their true form. During the subsequent battle, the demons come together to form one huge spider. After being poisoned by the spider, Sha Wujing falls ill and slowly bloats into a fish-like creature. Sun Wukong defeats the spider and Tang attempts to exorcise her, but Sun Wukong smashes in the demon's head with one blow. Once more, Tang is annoyed at Sun Wukong's disobedience and whips him again that evening. Later that night, the enraged Sun Wukong discusses with the other disciples his plans to kill Tang, but the others fear Tang's mighty Buddha Palm powers. Tang overhears this conversation and prays to Buddha to help him and also confesses that he actually does not know, or have, Buddha Palm powers. Zhu Bajie overhears this admission and tells Sun Wukong, who challenges Tang to a fight. Just as Sun Wukong is about to strike, a blinding ray of light shines from the heavens and he retreats.


text: The next day, the group pass into the capital city of the Biqiu Kingdom and a minister (Yao Chen) comes out to greet them and bring them to see the king: an immature and childlike man who likes to play games. The king orders Tang to perform for him but the monk doesn't have anything to showcase. Sun Wukong therefore pastes an "obedience sticker" on Tang allowing Tang to copy his actions and perform stunts for the king. Sun Wukong, however, goes too far and makes Tang slap the king continuously, who throws them all out. Tang orders Sun Wukong to return and apologize, but it is revealed that Sun Wukong purposely provoked the king to make him reveal his form as the demon Red Boy. They fight and Sun Wukong defeats Red Boy, also freeing the true king of Biqiu (Bao Bei'er) from his cage under the throne. As a reward for helping him, the king presents them with a beautiful girl, Felicity (Lin Yun), to accompany them on their travels. As Felicity dances for them, Tang is reminded of his deceased lover, Ms Duan (Shu Qi).


text: The group set off and on the way, Sun Wukong realizes that Felicity is actually a demon. In the meantime, Felicity took out the nose plugs on Sha Wujing, allowing him to sneeze out the poison and turn him back into his human form. Tang, however, does not believe him, so they set off to visit Felicity's home village. Sun Wukong becomes enraged with Tang's lack of trust in him and that night he destroys the whole village, killing everyone. Tang stops him from killing Felicity, further angering Sun Wukong, who attacks Tang, but Felicity finally confesses that she is actually the demon White Bone Spirit and that the whole village was an illusion conjured by her. Sun Wukong flares up and turns into a giant Monkey King demon and swallows Tang. At that moment, the minister and Red Boy arrive and see Sun Wukong has fallen for their trick.


text: They had deliberately sent Felicity with the group to cause strife between Tang and Sun Wukong, so Sun Wukong would kill his master. Sun Wukong spits Tang out, however, as they had, in fact, known this all along, but played along with story, so that the minister would reveal her true form. They battle and the minister creates an illusion of Buddhas surrounding Sun Wukong, using them to fight him. The real Buddha, however, uses his giant palm to destroy the false Buddhas and reveals the minister's real identity as the Immortal Golden Vulture.


text: After the battle, Tang heads back to find dying Felicity. He has no choice but to free her soul as there is too much demon in her. Before she dies, Felicity asks Tang if he loves her, Tang replies that he has only one person in his heart. The animosity between Tang and Sun Wukong has finally dissolved; together with Sha Wujing and Zhu Bajie, they continue their journey to the West through a desert.


text: In a post-credits scene, breaking of the fourth wall was invoked with the appearance of a modern movie theater, where theater employees telling both the viewer and the in-story audience that its time to leave and there are no post-credits scene.


text: Principal photography began in October 2015. This was the first major collaboration between Chow and Tsui. Previously, during Spring Festival 2016, Tsui Hark had only a cameo role in Chow's "The Mermaid". Here, however, Tsui directed the film, which was written by Chow, who was also the executive producer. The film was shot in 3D. The companies that produced and/or invested in the film are: China Film Group Corporation, Star Overseas, Hehe (Shanghai) Pictures, Xiangshan Zeyue Media, Shanghai Tao Piao Piao Entertainment, Wanda Media, Dadi Century Films (Beijing), Guangzhou JinYi Media Corporation, Zhejiang HengDian Entertainment, Tianjin Maoyan Media, Maxtimes Culture (Tianjin) Films, Lianrui (Shanghai) Pictures, Huayi Brothers Media Group, Shanghai New Culture Media Group, Dongshen (Shanghai) Pictures, Black Ant Shanghai Entertainment, Horgos Hehe Pictures, Horgos Lianrui Pictures, Wuxi Huichi Entertainment and Shanghai Mengchacha Entertainment Investment.


text: The film was released in China on 28 January 2017, the start of the Chinese New Year holiday. In December 2016, Sony Pictures acquired the North American and multi-territory distribution rights to the film for the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and much of Asia outside the Mainland China (including Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia). The film opened simultaneously with its Chinese release (28 January) in Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, Australia and New Zealand. The UK and U.S. release followed on 3 February 2017, with that in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand taking place later in the month.


text: "The Demons Strike Back" was made on a production budget of 440 million yuan ($63.9 million) with an additional 140 million yuan ($20 million) spent on marketing (promotion and advertising) materials. The film was highly anticipated in China by both industry insiders and ordinary moviegoers and was projected to emerge very successful at the box office, partly due to the robust demand and success of the first film. Moreover, in its domestic market, the film was released during the Chinese New Year period, the most lucrative time of the year for local films. The holiday, which is also known as Spring Festival, is a coveted release period in the country in which millions of Chinese moviegoers – both casual and hardcore fans – flock to theaters in what is regarded as the busiest moviegoing period on the planet. Since the period is a strategic time to release films with blockbuster potential, "The Demons Strike Back" faced competition. Nine other Chinese-made films opened on the same day and films such as "Kung Fu Yoga", "Buddies in India", "Duckweed", "The Village of No Return" and "Boonie Bears: Entangled World" posed a box office challenge for the film. The film pre-sold more than 100 million yuan ($14.54 million) worth of tickets, according to the film distributors and promoters, breaking the previous record held by Chow's "The Mermaid".


text: The main draw of the film has been credited to Tsui Hark who has directed some of the highest-grossing films in China, including the recent "The Taking of Tiger Mountain" and "". Chow's involvement in the project is also considered a factor in the early momentum for the film, but the impact of the cast is seen as mixed.


text: The film opened 28 January 2017 and grossed over 345–360 million yuan ($50–52 million) on its opening day. Data from research group Entgroup showed that the movie had 103,065 screenings and registered 8.7 million admissions on Saturday, the busiest day ever at the Chinese box office. This broke the record for the biggest single/opening day for a local film in China, dethroning "The Mermaid"s former record of 270 million yuan in 2016. The record for all films is that of "Furious 7"s 391 million yuan opening day sales. Before this, the film made an estimated 10.45 million yuan ($1.5 million) from midnight previews on Friday night. It earned 209 million yuan ($30.4 million) on its second day, Sunday, bringing its two-day cumulative total to 553 million yuan ($80.3 million), with some figures going as high as $83 million. This broke the record for the biggest Saturday-Sunday opening in China, created a year earlier by the Hollywood film "". In IMAX the film broke the record for the biggest single/opening day with $4.2 million from 390 screens and the best Chinese New Year opening day for IMAX. It came in third for all titles, behind "Warcraft" and "Furious 7". In two days, the gross was worth $7.4 million, the second best, behind "The Force Awakens".


text: After its record-breaking openings, "The Demons Strikes Back" began to witness significant falls in accruing revenues from its third day onwards. In three days, the film made a combined 728 million yuan ($105.9 million) compared to "The Mermaid"s 770 million yuan ($117.4 million) and the discrepancy widened in the following days. One major reason for the film's fall in demand was the negative reception and bad word-of-mouth from critics and audiences that took a mounting toll on the film's box office performance. Its average user ratings from China's major online film portals such as Douban, Maoyan, Gewara, and Mtime were among the lowest for such a wide release. By comparison, in Douban, "The Demons Strike Back" scored just 6.9/10 compared to "The Mermaid"s 8.0/10.


text: Outside the Middle Kingdom, Sony Pictures acquired the rights to distribute the film in many territories. The studio released the film simultaneously across six markets with the Chinese premiere, realising a two-day weekend haul of $2.2 million from 362 screens.


text: Its worldwide box office total now (as of 16 February 2017) stands at $239.5 million, with $232 million from China's market. It also has become the highest-grossing film in Tsui Hark's career and the highest-grossing film among the Journey to the West novel adaptations.


text: Rotten Tomatoes reported that 58% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 5.76/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 4 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


text: "RogerEbert.com" gave the movie a glowing review and a 3/4 rating. They called the collaboration between Stephen Chow and Tsui Hark a "worthy fusion of two of the film world's most brilliant stars" and praised the film saying, "it's got more imagination in one nimble limb than a "Fast & Furious" sequel or a "Star Wars" prequel can lay claim to in their whole battered chassis." "The Hollywood Reporter" gave a mixed review, praising the film for its action sequences and special effects, but criticizing its screenplay, narration and weak character development. "South China Morning Post" also criticized the performance of its leads.


title: Annie Ross

text: Annabelle McCauley Allan Short (25 July 193021 July 2020), known professionally as Annie Ross, was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.


title: Annie Ross

text: Ross was born in Surrey, England, the daughter of Scottish vaudevillians John "Jack" Short and Mary Dalziel Short (née Allan). Her brother was Scottish entertainer and theatre producer and director Jimmy Logan. She first appeared on stage at age three. At the age of four, she travelled to New York by ship with her family; she later recalled that they "got the cheapest ticket, which was right in the bowels of the ship".


title: Annie Ross

text: Shortly after arriving in the city, she won a token contract with MGM through a children's radio contest run by Paul Whiteman. She subsequently moved with her aunt, Scottish-American singer and actress Ella Logan, to Los Angeles, and her mother, father and brother returned to Scotland. She did not see her parents again until fourteen years later. At the age of seven, she sang "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" in "Our Gang Follies of 1938", and played Judy Garland's character's sister in "Presenting Lily Mars" (1943).


title: Annie Ross

text: At the age of 14, she wrote the song "Let's Fly", which won a songwriting contest and was recorded by Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers.


title: Annie Ross

text: At the end of 10th grade, she left school, changed her name to Annie Ross, and went to Europe, where she established her singing career. She changed her surname to Ross during the plane trip to Prestwick; in a 2011 interview, she said: "My aunt was very fanciful and she said I had an Irish grandmother called Ross, so that's where that surname came from".


title: Annie Ross

text: In 1952, Ross met Prestige Records owner Bob Weinstock, who asked her to write lyrics to a jazz solo in a similar way to King Pleasure, a practice that would later be known as vocalese. The next day, she presented him with "Twisted", a treatment of saxophonist Wardell Gray's 1949 composition of the same name, a classic example of the genre. The song, first released in 1952 (later collected on the album "King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings"), was an underground hit, and resulted in her winning "Down Beat" magazine's New Star award.


title: Annie Ross

text: In February 1956, the British music magazine "NME" reported that Ross's version of the song "I Want You to Be My Baby" was banned by the BBC due to the lyric "Come upstairs and have some loving".


title: Annie Ross

text: She recorded seven albums with Lambert, Hendricks & Ross between 1957 and 1962. Their first, "Sing a Song of Basie" (1957), was to have been performed by a group of singers hired by Jon Hendricks and Dave Lambert with Ross brought in only as vocal consultant. It was decided that the trio should attempt to record the material and overdub all the additional vocals themselves, but the first two tracks were recorded and deemed unsatisfactory so they ditched the dubbing idea. The resulting album was a success, and the trio became an international hit. Over the next five years, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross toured all over the world and recorded such albums as "The Hottest New Group in Jazz" (1959), "Sing Ellington" (1960), "High Flying" (1962), and "The Real Ambassadors" (1962), written by Dave Brubeck and featuring Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae.


title: Annie Ross

text: Ross left the group in 1962 and in 1964 opened a nightclub in London. Annie's Room hosted Joe Williams, Nina Simone, Stuff Smith, Blossom Dearie, Anita O'Day, Jon Hendricks, and Erroll Garner.


title: Annie Ross

text: Her adulthood film roles included Liza in the film "Straight On till Morning" (1972), Claire in "Alfie Darling" (1976), Diana Sharman in "Funny Money" (1983), Vera Webster in "Superman III" (1983), Mrs. Hazeltine in "Throw Momma from the Train" (1987), Rose Brooks in "Witchery" (1988), Loretta Cresswood in "Pump Up the Volume" (1990), Tess Trainer in Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" (1993), and Lydia in "Blue Sky" (1994). She also appeared as Granny Ruth in the horror films "Basket Case 2" (1990) and "" (1991). She also had a bit part in Robert Altman's "The Player" in 1992. Ross also starred in Scottish Television's comedy-drama "Charles Endell Esquire" (1979).


title: Annie Ross

text: She provided the speaking voice for Britt Ekland in "The Wicker Man" (1973), and Ingrid Thulin's singing voice in "Salon Kitty" (1976). On stage, she appeared in "Cranks" (1955; London and New York City), "The Threepenny Opera" (1972), "The Seven Deadly Sins" (1973) at the Royal Opera House, "Kennedy's Children" (1975) at Arts Theatre, London, "Side by Side by Sondheim", and in the Joe Papp production of "The Pirates of Penzance" (1982).


title: Annie Ross

text: In 1949, Ross had a brief affair with drummer Kenny Clarke. This affair produced a son, Kenny Clarke Jr. (born 1950), who was raised by Clarke's brother and his wife. During her time with Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, she became addicted to heroin and in the late 1950s had an affair with the comedian Lenny Bruce, who was also having drug problems. By 1960, Carol Sloane was substituting for her on tour. After a performance by the trio in London in May 1962, she remained in London to confront her drug addiction.


title: Annie Ross

text: In 1963, she married actor Sean Lynch; they divorced in 1975, and he died in a car crash soon afterwards. By that time, she had also lost her home and declared bankruptcy.


title: Annie Ross

text: She became a United States citizen in 2001. Ross died in New York City on 21 July 2020 from emphysema and heart disease, four days before her 90th birthday.


title: Annie Ross

text: Ross received the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame award (2009), the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters' Award (2010), and the MAC Award for Lifetime Achievement (2011).


title: Annie Ross

text: In July 2006 a one-woman play entitled "TWISTED: The Annie Ross Story" by Brian McGeachan premiered at The Space Theatre in London, starring Verity Quade. It focused on her stormy relationship with her aunt, Broadway legend Ella Logan, her brief affair with the comedian Lenny Bruce and her addiction to heroin. The play transferred to the Brockley Jack Theatre in London that same year, with Ross being played by Betsy Pennington.


title: Annie Ross

text: A documentary about Ross's life, entitled "No One But Me", premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival in 2012.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: Equalization, or simply EQ, in sound recording and reproduction is the process of adjusting the volume of different frequency bands within an audio signal. The circuit or equipment used to achieve this is called an equalizer.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: Most hi-fi equipment uses relatively simple filters to make bass and treble adjustments. Graphic and parametric equalizers have much more flexibility in tailoring the frequency content of an audio signal. Broadcast and recording studios use sophisticated equalizers capable of much more detailed adjustments, such as eliminating unwanted sounds or making certain instruments or voices more prominent. Since equalizers "adjust the amplitude of audio signals at particular frequencies" they are, "in other words, frequency-specific volume knobs."


title: Equalization (audio)

text: Equalizers are used in recording studios, radio studios and production control rooms, and live sound reinforcement and in instrument amplifiers, such as guitar amplifiers, to correct or adjust the response of microphones, instrument pick-ups, loudspeakers, and hall acoustics. Equalization may also be used to eliminate or reduce unwanted sounds (e.g., low-frequency hum coming from a guitar amplifier), make certain instruments or voices more (or less) prominent, enhance particular aspects of an instrument's tone, or combat feedback (howling) in a public address system. Equalizers are also used in music production to adjust the timbre of individual instruments and voices by adjusting their frequency content and to fit individual instruments within the overall frequency spectrum of the mix.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: The concept of equalization was first applied in correcting the frequency response of telephone lines using passive networks; this was prior to the invention of electronic amplification. Initially, equalization was used to "compensate for" (i.e., correct) the uneven frequency response of an electric system by applying a filter having the opposite response, thus restoring the fidelity of the transmission. A plot of the system's net frequency response would be a flat line, as its response at any frequency would be equal to its response at any other frequency. Hence the term "equalization."


title: Equalization (audio)

text: Much later the concept was applied in audio engineering to adjust the frequency response in recording, reproduction, and live sound reinforcement systems. Sound engineers correct the frequency response of a sound system so that the frequency balance of the music as heard through speakers better matches the original performance picked up by a microphone. Audio amplifiers have long had filters or controls to modify their frequency response. These are most often in the form of variable bass and treble controls (shelving filters), and switches to apply low-cut or high-cut filters for elimination of low frequency "rumble" and high frequency "hiss" respectively.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: Graphic equalizers and other equipment developed for improving fidelity have since been used by recording engineers to modify frequency responses for aesthetic reasons. Hence in the field of audio electronics the term "equalization" is now broadly used to describe the application of such filters regardless of intent. This broad definition therefore includes all linear filters at the disposal of a listener or engineer.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: A British EQ or British style equalizer is one with similar properties to those on consoles made in the UK by companies such as Amek, Neve and Soundcraft from the 1950s through to the 1970s. Later on, as other manufacturers started to market their products, these British companies began touting their equalizers as being a cut above the rest. Today, many non-British companies such as Behringer and Mackie advertise British EQ on their equipment. A British style EQ seeks to replicate the qualities of the expensive British mixing consoles.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: Filtering audio frequencies dates back at least to acoustic telegraphy and multiplexing in general. Audio electronic equipment evolved to incorporate filtering elements as consoles in radio stations began to be used for recording as much as broadcast. Early filters included basic bass and treble controls featuring fixed frequency centers, and fixed levels of cut or boost. These filters worked over broad frequency ranges. Variable equalization in audio reproduction was first used by John Volkman working at RCA in the 1920s. That system was used to equalize a motion picture theater sound playback system.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: The Langevin Model EQ-251A was the first equalizer to use slide controls. It featured two passive equalization sections, a bass shelving filter, and a pass band filter. Each filter had switchable frequencies and used a 15-position slide switch to adjust cut or boost. The first true graphic equalizer was the type 7080 developed by Art Davis's Cinema Engineering. It featured 6 bands with a boost or cut range of 8 dB. It used a slide switch to adjust each band in 1 dB steps. Davis's second graphic equalizer was the Altec Lansing Model 9062A EQ. In 1967 Davis developed the first 1/3 octave variable notch filter set, the Altec-Lansing "Acousta-Voice" system.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: In 1966, Burgess Macneal and George Massenburg began work on a new recording console. Macneal and Massenburg, who was still a teenager, conceptualized an idea for a sweep-tunable EQ that would avoid inductors and switches. Soon after, Bob Meushaw, a friend of Massenburg, built a three-band, frequency adjustable, fixed-Q equalizer. When asked who invented the parametric equalizer, Massenburg stated “four people could possibly lay claim to the modern concept: Bob Meushaw, Burgess Macneal, Daniel Flickinger, and myself… Our (Bob’s, Burgess’ and my) sweep-tunable EQ was borne, more or less, out of an idea that Burgess and I had around 1966 or 1967 for an EQ… three controls adjusting, independently, the parameters for each of three bands for a recording console… I wrote and delivered the AES paper on Parametrics at the Los Angeles show in 1972… It’s the first mention of `Parametric’ associated with sweep-tunable EQ.”


title: Equalization (audio)

text: Daniel N. Flickinger introduced the first parametric equalizer in early 1971. His design leveraged the high performance op-amp of his own design, the 535 series (USPTO #3727896) to achieve filtering circuits that were before impossible. Flickinger's patent (USPTO #3752928) from early in 1971 showed the circuit topology that would come to dominate audio equalization until the present day, as well as the theoretical underpinnings of the elegant circuit. Instead of slide potentiometers working on individual bands of frequency, or rotary switches, Flickinger's circuit allowed completely arbitrary selection of frequency and cut/boost level in three overlapping bands over the entire audio spectrum. Six knobs on his early EQ's would control these sweepable filters. Up to six switches were incorporated to select shelving on the high and low bands, and bypassing for any unused band for the purest signal path. His original model boasts specifications that are seldom met today.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: Other similar designs appeared soon thereafter from George Massenburg (in 1972) and Burgess McNeal from ITI corp. In May 1972 Massenburg introduced the term "parametric equalization" in a paper presented at the 42nd convention of the Audio Engineering Society. Most channel equalization on mixing consoles made from 1971 to the present day rely upon the designs of Flickinger, Massenburg and McNeal in either semi or fully parametric topology. In the late 1990s and in the 2000s, parametric equalizers became increasingly available as digital signal processing (DSP) equipment, usually in the form of plug-ins for various digital audio workstations. Standalone outboard gear versions of DSP parametric equalizers were also quickly introduced after the software versions and are typically called Digital Parametric Equalizers.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: Although the range of equalization functions is governed by the theory of linear filters, the adjustment of those functions and the flexibility with which they can be adjusted varies according to the topology of the circuitry and controls presented to the user. Shelving controls are usually simple first-order filter functions which alter the relative gains between frequencies much higher and much lower than the cutoff frequencies. A "low shelf", such as the bass control on most hi-fi equipment, is adjusted to affect the gain of lower frequencies while having no effect well above its cutoff frequency. A "high shelf", such as a treble control, adjusts the gain of higher frequencies only. These are broad adjustments designed more to increase the listener's satisfaction than to provide actual equalization in the strict sense of the term.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: A parametric equalizer, on the other hand, has one or more sections each of which implements a second-order filter function. This involves three adjustments: selection of the center frequency (in Hz), adjustment of the Q which determines the sharpness of the bandwidth, and the level or gain control which determines how much those frequencies are boosted or cut relative to frequencies much above or below the center frequency selected. In a "semi-parametric" equalizer there is no control for the bandwidth (it is preset by the designer) or is only selected between two presets using a switch. In a "quasi-parametric" equalizer, the bandwidth is depending on the gain level. With rising gain, the bandwidth gets wider.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: A graphic equalizer also implements second-order filter functions in a more user-friendly manner, but with somewhat less flexibility. This equipment is based on a bank of filters covering the audio spectrum in up to 31 frequency bands. Each second-order filter has a fixed center frequency and Q, but an adjustable level. The user can raise or lower each slider in order to visually approximate a "graph" of the intended frequency response.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: Since "equalization" in the context of audio reproduction is not used strictly to compensate for the deficiency of equipment and transmission channels, the use of high-pass and low-pass filters may be mentioned. A high-pass filter modifies a signal by eliminating only lower frequencies. An example of this is a low-cut or rumble filter, which is used to remove infrasonic energy from a program that may consume undue amplifier power and cause excessive diaphragm excursions in (or even damage to) loudspeakers. A low-pass filter only modifies the audio signal by removing high frequencies. An example of this is a high-cut or hiss filter, which is used to remove annoying white noise at the expense of the crispness of the program material.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: A first-order low-pass or high-pass filter has a standard response curve that reduces the unwanted frequencies well above or below the cutoff frequency with a slope of 6 dB per octave. A second-order filter will reduce those frequencies with a slope of 12 dB per octave and moreover may be designed with a higher Q or finite zeros in order to effect an even steeper response around the cutoff frequency. For instance, a second-order "low-pass notch" filter section only reduces (rather than eliminates) very high frequencies, but has a steep response falling to zero at a specific frequency (the so-called "notch frequency"). Such a filter might be ideal, for instance, in completely removing the 19 kHz FM stereo subcarrier pilot signal while helping to cut even higher frequency subcarrier components remaining from the stereo demultiplexer.


title: Equalization (audio)

text: In addition to adjusting the relative amplitude of frequency bands, an audio equalizer usually alters the relative phases of those frequencies. While the human ear is not as sensitive to the phase of audio frequencies (involving delays of less than 1/30 second), music professionals may favor certain equalizers because of how they affect the timbre of the musical content by way of audible phase artifacts.