title: Curtsy

text: In more formal variants of the curtsy, the girl/woman bends the knees outward (rather than straight ahead), often sweeping one foot behind her. She may also use her hands to hold her skirt out from her body. In the Victorian era, when women wore floor-length, hooped skirts, they curtsied using the plié movement borrowed from second-position in classical ballet in which the knees are bent while the back is held straight. Both feet and knees point out so the torso lowers straight down. This way, the lady lowers herself evenly and not to one side.


title: Curtsy

text: Traditionally, women and girls curtsy for those of senior social rank just as men and boys bow. Today this practice has become less common. In many European cultures it is traditional for women to curtsy in front of royalty. It may then be referred to as a court curtsy and is often especially deep and elaborate. Further, some female domestic workers curtsy for their employers.


title: Curtsy

text: Female dancers often curtsy at the end of a performance to show gratitude or to acknowledge applause from the audience. At the end of a ballet class, students will also curtsy or bow to the teacher and pianist to show gratitude. According to Victorian dance etiquette, a woman curtsies before beginning a dance. Female Scottish highland dancers performing the national dances and the Irish jig also curtsy (at both the beginning and end for the national dances and at the end for the Irish jig). Some female ballroom dancers will curtsy to their partners before beginning the Viennese Waltz.


title: Curtsy

text: In Victorian courts, the curtsy was done as a signal for courtship availability, and social status dominance or submissiveness, in order to be successful socially.


title: Curtsy

text: It is customary for female figure skaters to curtsy at the end of their performances at figure skating competitions or shows.


title: Curtsy

text: During her coronation, Queen Elizabeth II performed a curtsy, or rather a half-curtsy, half-neck bow to King Edward's Chair.


title: Curtsy

text: During the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales the Queen bowed her head in a half-curtsey as the Princess's coffin passed her.


title: Curtsy

text: The "Texas dip" is an extreme curtsy performed by a Texan debutante. The young woman slowly lowers her forehead towards the floor by crossing her ankles, then bending her knees and sinking. The escort's hand is held during the dip. When the debutante's head nears the floor, she turns her head sideways, averting the risk of soiling her dress with lipstick.


title: Dosa (food)

text: A dosa, also called dosai, dosey, or dosha, is a thin pancake in South Indian cuisine made from a fermented batter of ground black lentils and rice. Dosas are popular in South Asia as well as around the world. Dosas are served hot, often with chutney and sambar.


title: Dosa (food)

text: Dosas originated in South India, but its precise geographical origins are unknown. According to historian P. Thankappan Nair, dosa originated in the town of Udupi in present-day Karnataka. However, according to food historian K. T. Achaya, references in the Sangam literature suggest that dosa was already in use in the ancient Tamil country around the 1st century. Achaya states that the earliest written mention of dosa appears in literature of present-day Tamil Nadu, in the 8th century, while the earliest mention of dosa in the Kannada literature appears a century later.


title: Dosa (food)

text: In popular tradition, the origin of the dosa is linked to Udupi, probably because of the dish's association with Udupi restaurants. The Tamil dosai is softer and thicker. The thinner and crispier version of dosa was first made in present-day Karnataka. A recipe for dosa can be found in "Manasollasa", a 12th-century Sanskrit encyclopedia compiled by Someshvara III, who ruled from present-day Karnataka.


title: Dosa (food)

text: After the Independence of India, South Indian cuisine became gradually popular in the North. In Delhi, the Madras Hotel in Connaught Place became one of the first restaurants to serve South Indian cuisine. It arrived in Mumbai with the Udupi restaurants in the 1930s.


title: Dosa (food)

text: Dosa is the anglicised name of a variety of South Indian names for the dish, for example dosai in Tamil, dosey in Kannada and dosha in Malayalam.


title: Dosa (food)

text: The standard transliterations and pronunciations of the word in various South Indian languages are as follows:


title: Dosa (food)

text: Dosa is high in carbohydrates and contains no added sugars or saturated fats. As its key ingredients are rice and black gram, it is a good source of protein. A typical homemade plain dosa without oil contains about 112 calories, of which 84% is carbohydrate and 16% protein. The fermentation process increases the vitamin B and vitamin C content.


title: Dosa (food)

text: A mixture of rice and black or green gram that has been soaked in water is ground finely to form a batter. Some add a bit of soaked fenugreek seeds. The proportion of rice to lentils is generally 3:1 or 4:1. The batter is allowed to ferment overnight, before being mixed with water to get the desired consistency. The batter is then ladled onto a hot "tava" or griddle greased with oil or "ghee". It is spread out with the base of a ladle or bowl to form a pancake. It can be made either to be thick like a pancake, or thin and crispy. A dosa is served hot, either folded in half or rolled like a wrap. It is usually served with chutney and sambar. The mixture of black grams and rice can be replaced with highly refined wheat flour or semolina.


title: Dosa (food)

text: Dosa can be stuffed with fillings of vegetables and sauces to make a quick meal. They are typically served with a vegetarian side dish which varies according to regional and personal preferences. Common side items are:


title: Dosa (food)

text: Masala dosa is a roasted dosa served with potato curry, chutney and sambar; while Saada (plain) dosa is prepared with lighter texture, paper dosa is a thin and crisp version. Rava dosa is made crispier using semolina. Newer versions are Chinese dosa, cheese dosa, paneer dosa, pizza dosa and so on.


title: Shock jock

text: A shock jock is a radio broadcaster or DJ who entertains listeners and attracts attention using humor and/or melodramatic exaggeration that may offend some portion of the listening audience. The term is used pejoratively to describe provocative or irreverent broadcasters whose mannerisms, statements and actions are typically offensive to much of society. It is a popular term within the radio industry. A shock jock is the radio equivalent of the tabloid newspaper in that both consider entertaining readers to be equally as, if not more important than, providing factual information. A radio station that relies primarily on shock jocks for programming has what is called a hot talk format.


title: Shock jock

text: The idea of an entertainer who breaks taboos or who is deliberately offensive is not a new one. Blue comedians have existed throughout history; offensive performers (George Carlin, Petronius, Benny Bell, Le Pétomane, Redd Foxx and Lenny Bruce for example). Petey Greene, who started broadcasting in 1966, has been called the original radio shock jock by some, although the term was not used until 1986, two years after Greene's death. Greene was an influence on Howard Stern, whose radio shows in the 1980s led to the first widespread use of the term "shock jock".


title: Shock jock

text: Shock jocks also tend to push the envelope of decency in their market, and may appear to show a lack of regard for communications regulations (e.g., FCC rules in the U.S.) regarding content. But nearly all American broadcasters have strict policies against content that is likely to draw indecency forfeitures, and air personalities are often contractually obligated to avoid broadcasting such content.


title: Shock jock

text: Many shock jocks have been fired as a result of such punishments as regulatory fines, loss of advertisers, or simply social and political outrage. On the other hand, it is also not uncommon for such broadcasters to be quickly rehired by another station or network. Shock jocks in the United States have been censored under additional pressure from the United States government since the introduction of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, which increased the fines on radio stations for violating decency guidelines by nearly 20 times.


title: Jude Akuwudike

text: Jude Akuwudike (born 1965) is a Nigerian actor. He has mostly worked in the United Kingdom, on screen and stage.


title: Jude Akuwudike

text: Born in Nigeria, West Africa, Akuwudike came to Britain and was educated at St Augustine's College in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, an independent Roman Catholic boarding school. In 1985, he began to train for an acting career at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1987.


title: Jude Akuwudike

text: In 1988, Akuwudike played Captain Watkin Tench in "Our Country's Good" at the Royal Court Theatre. His first film appearance was in the same year, as a priest in "A World Apart". An early leading role came in 1989 in the play "The Fatherland" by Murray Watts, at the Bush Theatre at Riverside, and his first significant part on television was as Sergeant Gummer in the drama serial "Virtual Murder" (1991).


title: Jude Akuwudike

text: Throughout his career, Akuwudike has worked mainly on stage, including appearing in several productions for the National Theatre, notably "Not About Nightingales", "Moon on a Rainbow Shawl", and "Ion". He has also appeared for the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as working on Broadway. He has also had many roles in film and television and is a voice actor.


title: Jude Akuwudike

text: In 1998, in the first British production of "Not About Nightingales" by Tennessee Williams, directed by Trevor Nunn at the National Theatre, Akuwudike originated the part of "the Queen", a gay prisoner. In 2002 he played the black pimp in a Royal National Theatre production of "Edmond", with Kenneth Branagh in the title role.


title: Jude Akuwudike

text: From February to May 2011, Akuwudike was Abel Magwitch in an English Touring Theatre production of "Great Expectations" (adapted by Tanika Gupta), with Lynn Farleigh as Miss Havisham.


title: Jude Akuwudike

text: In the Cary Joji Fukunaga film "Beasts of No Nation" (2015), Akuwudike played Supreme Commander Dada Goodblood, leader of an unnamed West African country torn by civil war.


title: Jude Akuwudike

text: In September 2018, it was announced that Akuwudike had been cast alongside Joe Cole and Sope Dirisu in a new Cinemax television serial called "Gangs of London", then in production.


title: Debt bondage

text: Debt bondage, also known as debt slavery, bonded labour, or peonage, is the pledge of a person's services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligation. Where the terms of the repayment are not clearly or reasonably stated, the person who holds the debt has thus some control over the laborer, whose freedom depends on the undefined debt repayment. The services required to repay the debt may be undefined, and the services' duration may be undefined, thus allowing the person supposedly owed the debt to demand services indefinitely. Debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation.


title: Debt bondage

text: Currently, debt bondage is the most common method of enslavement with an estimated 8.1 million people bonded to labour illegally as cited by the International Labour Organization in 2005. Debt bondage has been described by the United Nations as a form of "modern day slavery" and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery seeks to abolish the practice.


title: Debt bondage

text: The practice is still prevalent primarily in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, although most countries in these regions are parties to the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery. It is estimated that 84 to 88% of the bonded labourers in the world are in South Asia. Lack of prosecution or insufficient punishment of this crime are the leading causes of the practice as it exists at this scale today.


title: Debt bondage

text: Though the Forced Labour Convention of 1930 by the International Labour Organization, which included 187 parties, sought to bring organised attention to eradicating slavery through forms of forced labor, formal opposition to debt bondage in particular came at the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery in 1956. The convention in 1956 defined debt bondage under Article 1, section (a):"Debt bondage, that is to say, the status or condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his personal services or of those of a person under his control as security for a debt if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined;"When a pledge to provide services to pay off debt is made by an individual, the employer often illegally inflates interest rates at an unreasonable amount, making it impossible for the individual to leave bonded labour. When the bonded labourer dies, debts are often passed on to children.


title: Debt bondage

text: Although debt bondage, forced labour, and human trafficking are all defined as forms or variations of slavery, each term is distinct. Debt bondage differs from forced labour and human trafficking in that a person consciously pledges to work as a means of repayment of debt without being placed into labor against will.


title: Debt bondage

text: Debt bondage only applies to individuals who have no hopes of leaving the labor due to inability to ever pay debt back. Those who offer their services to repay a debt and the employer reduces the debt accordingly at a rate commensurate with the value of labor performed are not in "debt bondage".


title: Debt bondage

text: Important to both East and West Africa, pawnship, defined by Wilks as "the use of people in transferring their rights for settlement of debt," was common during the 17th century. The system of pawnship occurred simultaneously with the slave trade in Africa. Though the export of slaves from Africa to the Americas is often analyzed, slavery was rampant internally as well. Development of plantations like those in Zanzibar in East Africa reflected the need for internal slaves. Furthermore, many of the slaves that were exported were male as brutal and labor-intensive conditions favored the male body build. This created gender implications for individuals in the pawnship system as more women were pawned than men and often sexually exploited.


title: Debt bondage

text: After the abolition of slavery in many countries in the 19th century, Europeans still needed laborers. Moreover, conditions for emancipated slaves were harsh. Discrimination was rampant within the labor market, making attainment of a sustainable income for former slaves tough. Because of these conditions, many freed slaves preferred to live through slavery-like contracts with their masters in a manner parallel to debt bondage.


title: Debt bondage

text: During the colonial history of the United States, persons bonded themselves to an owner who paid their passage to the New World. They worked until the debt of passage was paid off, often for years. Debt peonage was practiced as "an illegal form of contemporary slavery... well into the 1950s" in "Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and other parts of the Deep South." Civil authorities would arrest "colored men off the street and in their homes if they were caught not working," charge them with vagrancy, assess fines equal to several weeks of pickers' pay, and compel them "to pick fruit or cut sugarcane to work off the debt... Those captured were hauled to remote plantations ..., held by force, and beaten or shot if they tried to escape."


title: Debt bondage

text: In Peru, a peonage system existed from the 16th century until land reform in the 1950s. One estate in Peru that existed from the late 16th century until it ended had up to 1,700 people employed and had a prison. They were expected to work for their landlord a minimum of three days a week and more if necessary to complete assigned work. Workers were paid a symbolic two cents per year. Workers were unable to travel outside their assigned lands without permission and were not allowed to organise any independent community activity. In the Peruvian Amazon, debt peonage is an important aspect of contemporary Urarina society.


title: Debt bondage

text: Severe personal debt was widespread in the ancient Near East. Debtors who did not pay up could become their creditors' chattel, as could other members of their families. The problem of debt bondage, in conjunction with the state's ability to levy serfs for labour, led many to flee their homes. Some of these fugitives formed bands of roving warriors called "'habiru"-men', especially in the Levant of the late second millennium. (Although not himself a fugitive from debt bondage, the story of Idrimi suggests that these groups could be a considerable threat.) As a result, many new kings annulled debts on ascending to the throne.


title: Debt bondage

text: In the 19th century, people in Asia were bonded to labor due to a variety of reasons ranging from farmers mortgaging harvests to drug addicts in need for opium in China. When a natural disaster occurred or food was scarce, people willingly chose debt bondage as a means to a secure life. In the early 20th century in Asia, most laborers tied to debt bondage had been born into it. In certain regions, such as in Burma, debt bondage was far more common than slavery. Many went into bondage to pay off interest on a loan or to pay taxes, and as they worked, often on farms, lodging, meals, and clothing fees were added to the existing debt causing overall debt and interest to increase. These continued added loan values made leaving servitude unattainable.


title: Debt bondage

text: Moreover, after the development of the international economy, more workers were needed for the pre-industrial economies of Asia during the 19th century. A greater demand for labor was needed in Asia to power exports to growing industrial countries like the United States and Germany. Cultivation of cash crops like coffee, cocoa, and sugar and exploitation of minerals like gold and tin led farm owners to search for individuals in need of loans for the sake of keeping laborers permanently. In particular, the Indian indenture system was based on debt bondage by which an estimated two million Indians were transported to various colonies of European powers to provide labor for plantations. It started from the end of slavery in 1833 and continued until 1920.


title: Debt bondage

text: Debt bondage was "quite normal" in classical antiquity. The poor or those who had fallen irredeemably in debt might place themselves into bondage "voluntarily"—or more precisely, might be compelled by circumstances to choose debt bondage as a way to anticipate and avoid worse terms that their creditors might impose on them. In the Greco-Roman world, debt bondage was a distinct legal category into which a free person might fall, in theory temporarily, distinguished from the pervasive practice of slavery, which included enslavement as a result of defaulting on debt. Many forms of debt bondage existed in both ancient Greece and ancient Rome.


title: Debt bondage

text: Debt bondage was widespread in ancient Greece. The only city-state known to have abolished it is Athens, as early as the Archaic period under the debt reform legislation of Solon. Both enslavement for debt and debt bondage were practiced in Ptolemaic Egypt. By the Hellenistic period, the limited evidence indicates that debt bondage had replaced outright enslavement for debt.


title: Debt bondage

text: The most onerous debt bondage was various forms of "paramonē", "indentured labor." As a matter of law, a person subjected to "paramonē" was categorically free, and not a slave, but in practice his freedom was severely constrained by his servitude. Solon's reforms occurred in the context of democratic politics at Athens that required clearer distinctions between "free" and "slave"; as a perverse consequence, chattel slavery increased.


title: Debt bondage

text: The selling of one's own child into slavery is likely in most cases to have resulted from extreme poverty or debt, but strictly speaking is a form of chattel slavery, not debt bondage. The exact legal circumstances in Greece, however, are far more poorly documented than in ancient Rome.


title: Debt bondage

text: "Nexum" was a debt bondage contract in the early Roman Republic. Within the Roman legal system, it was a form of "mancipatio". Though the terms of the contract would vary, essentially a free man pledged himself as a bond slave "(nexus)" as surety for a loan. He might also hand over his son as collateral. Although the bondsman might be subjected to humiliation and abuse, as a legal citizen he was supposed to be exempt from corporal punishment. "Nexum" was abolished by the "Lex Poetelia Papiria" in 326 BC, in part to prevent abuses to the physical integrity of citizens who had fallen into debt bondage.


title: Debt bondage

text: Roman historians illuminated the abolition of "nexum" with a traditional story that varied in its particulars; basically, a "nexus" who was a handsome but upstanding youth suffered sexual harassment by the holder of the debt. In one version, the youth had gone into debt to pay for his father's funeral; in others, he had been handed over by his father. In all versions, he is presented as a model of virtue. Historical or not, the cautionary tale highlighted the incongruities of subjecting one free citizen to another's use, and the legal response was aimed at establishing the citizen's right to liberty "(libertas)", as distinguished from the slave or social outcast.


title: Debt bondage

text: Cicero considered the abolition of "nexum" primarily a political maneuver to appease the common people "(plebs)": the law was passed during the Conflict of the Orders, when plebeians were struggling to establish their rights in relation to the hereditary privileges of the patricians. Although "nexum" was abolished as a way to secure a loan, debt bondage might still result after a debtor defaulted.


title: Debt bondage

text: While serfdom under feudalism was the predominant political and economic system in Europe in the High Middle Ages, persisting in the Austrian Empire till 1848 and the Russian Empire until 1861 (details), debt bondage (and slavery) provided other forms of unfree labour.


title: Debt bondage

text: Though the figures differ from those of the International Labour Organization, researcher Siddharth Kara has calculated the number of slaves in the world by type, and determined that at the end of 2011 there were 18 to 20.5 million bonded laborers. Bonded laborers work in industries today that produce goods including but not limited to frozen shrimp, bricks, tea, coffee, diamonds, marble, and apparel.


title: Debt bondage

text: Although India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh all have laws prohibiting debt bondage, it is estimated by Kara that 84 to 88% of the bonded laborers in the world are in South Asia. Figures by the Human Rights Watch in 1999 are drastically higher estimating 40 million workers, composed mainly of children, are tied to labor through debt bondage in India alone.


title: Debt bondage

text: Research by Kara estimates there to be between 55,000 and 65,000 brick kiln workers in South Asia with 70% of them in India. Other research estimates 6,000 kilns in Pakistan alone. Total revenue from brick kilns in South Asia is estimated by Kara to be $13.3 to $15.2 billion. Many of the brick kiln workers are migrants and travel between brick kiln locations every few months. Kiln workers often live in extreme poverty and many began work at kilns through repayment of a starting loan averaging $150 to $200. Kiln owners offer laborers "friendly loans" to avoid being criminalized in breaking bonded labor laws. Bonded brick kiln laborers, including children, work in harsh and unsafe conditions as the heat from the kiln may cause heat stroke and a number of other medical conditions. Laborers are discouraged from defaulting on loans through fear of violence and death from brick kiln owners.


title: Debt bondage

text: An essential grain to the South Asian diet, rice is harvested throughout India and Nepal in particular. In India, more than 20% of agricultural land is used to grow rice. Rice mill owners often employ workers who live in harsh conditions on farms. Workers receive such low wages that they must borrow money from their employers causing them to be tied to the rice mill through debt. For example, in India, the average pay rate per day was $0.55 American dollars as recorded in 2006. Though some workers may be able to survive minimally from their compensation, uncontrollable life events such as an illness require loans. Families, including children, work day and night to prepare the rice for export by boiling it, drying it in the sun, and sifting through it for purification. Furthermore, families who live on rice mill production sites are often excluded from access to hospitals and schools.


title: Debt bondage

text: Though there are not reliable estimates of bonded laborers in Sub-Saharan Africa to date from credible sources, the Global Slavery Index estimates the total number of those enslaved in this region is 6.25 million. In countries like Ghana, it is estimated that 85% of people enslaved are tied to labor. Additionally, this region includes Mauritania, the country with the highest proportion of slavery in the world as an estimated 20% of its population is enslaved through methods like debt bondage.


title: Debt bondage

text: The Environmental Justice Foundation found human rights violations in the fisheries on the coasts of South and West Africa including labor exploitation. Exporter fish companies drive smaller businesses and individuals to lower profits, causing bankruptcy. In many cases, recruitment to these companies occurs by luring small business owners and migrant workers through debt bondage. In recruiting individual fishers, fees are sometimes charged by a broker to use ports which opens the debt cycle.


title: Debt bondage

text: After countries began to formally abolish slavery, unemployment was rampant for black people in South Africa and Nigeria pushing black women to work as domestic workers, largely to other black people. Currently, estimates from the International Labour Organization state that between 800,000 and 1.1 million domestic workers are in South Africa. Many of these domestic servants become bonded to labor in a process similar to other industries in Asia. The wages given to servants are often so poor that loans are taken when servants are in need of more money, making it impossible to escape. The hours of working for domestic servants are unpredictable, and because many servants are women, their young children are often left under the care of older children or other family members. Moreover, these women can work up to the age of 75 and their daughters are likely to be servants in the same households.


title: Debt bondage

text: A 1994 report of Burmese prostitutes in Thailand reports compulsory indebtedness is common for girls in forced prostitution, especially those transported across the border. They are forced to work off their debt, often with 100 percent interest, and to pay for their room, food and other items. In addition to debt bondage, the women and girls face a wide range of abuses, including illegal confinement; forced labor; rape; physical abuse; and more.


title: Debt bondage

text: The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that $51.2 billion is made annually in the exploitation of workers through debt bondage. Though the employers actively take part in accruing the debt of laborers, buyers of products and services in the country of manufacturing and abroad also contribute to the profitability of this practice.


title: Debt bondage

text: Global supply chains that deliver goods throughout the world are most likely tainted with slave labor. The reason for this includes convoluted supply chain management that crosses many international borders, ineffective labor laws, corporates claiming plausible deniability, global political-economic restructuring and well-intended consumers. This effort to eradicate modern day slavery resonates with well meaning individuals who purchase fair-trade items, hoping they are making a difference. The fair trade industry is estimated to exceed $1.2 billion annually (Davenport & Low 2012). Unfortunately, this is barely a dent into the global economy. International labor laws need to be created by various authorities such as the International Labor Organization, World Trade Organization, Interpol and the United Nations that have teeth to adequately punish the wrongdoers.


title: Debt bondage

text: In many of the industries in which debt bondage is common like brick kilns or fisheries, entire families are often involved in paying of the debt of one individual, including children. These children generally do not have access to education thus making it impossible to get out of poverty. Moreover, if a relative who still is in debt dies, the bondage is passed on to another family member, usually the children. At the International Labour Organization Convention, this cycle was labeled as the "Worst Forms of Child Labor." Researchers like Basu and Chau link the occurrence of child labor through debt bondage with factors like labor rights and the stage of development of an economy. Although minimum age labor laws are present in many regions with child debt bondage, the laws are not enforced especially with regard to the agrarian economy.


title: Debt bondage

text: Debt bondage has been described by the United Nations as a form of "modern day slavery" and is prohibited by international law. It is specifically dealt with by article 1(a) of the United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery. It persists nonetheless especially in developing countries, which have few mechanisms for credit security or bankruptcy, and where fewer people hold formal title to land or possessions. According to some economists, like Hernando de Soto, this is a major barrier to development in these countries. For example, entrepreneurs do not dare to take risks and cannot get credit because they hold no collateral and may burden families for generations to come.


title: Debt bondage

text: India was the first country to pass legislation directly prohibiting debt bondage through the Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act, 1976. Less than two decades later, Pakistan also passed a similar act in 1992 and Nepal passed the Kamaiya Labour (Prohibition) Act in 2002. Despite the fact that these laws are in place, debt bondage in South Asia is still widespread. According to the Ministry of Labor and Employment of the Government of India, there are over 300,000 bonded laborers in India, with a majority of them in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Odisha.


title: Debt bondage

text: In India, the rise of Dalit activism, government legislation starting as early as 1949, as well as ongoing work by NGOs and government offices to enforce labour laws and rehabilitate those in debt, appears to have contributed to the reduction of bonded labour there. However, according to research papers presented by the International Labour Organization, there are still many obstacles to the eradication of bonded labour in India.


title: Debt bondage

text: In many of the countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritania, and Ghana in which debt bondage is prevalent, there are not laws that either state direct prohibition or specify punishment. In addition, though many of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have laws that vaguely prohibit debt bondage, prosecution of such crimes rarely occurs.


title: Alteryx

text: Alteryx is an American computer software company based in Irvine, California, with a development center in Broomfield, Colorado. The company's products are used for data science and analytics. The software is designed to make advanced analytics accessible to any data worker.


title: Alteryx

text: SRC LLC, the predecessor to Alteryx, was founded in 1997 by Dean Stoecker, Olivia Duane Adams and Ned Harding. SRC developed the first online data engine for delivering demographic-based mapping and reporting shortly after being founded. In 1998, SRC released Allocate, a data engine incorporating geographically organized U.S. Census data that allows users to manipulate, analyze and map data. Solocast was developed in 1998, which was software that allowed customers to do customer segmentation analysis.


title: Alteryx

text: In 2000, SRC LLC entered into a contract with the U.S. Census Bureau that resulted in a modified version of its Allocate software being included on CD-ROMs of Census Data sold by the Bureau.


title: Alteryx

text: In 2006, the software product Alteryx was released, which was a unified spatial and non-spatial data environment for building analytical processes and applications.


title: Alteryx

text: In 2011, Alteryx raised $6 million in venture funding from the Palo Alto investment arm of SAP AG, SAP Ventures. In 2013, Alteryx raised $12 million from SAP Ventures and Toba Capital. In 2014, the company raised $60 million in Round B funding from Insight Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures (formerly SAP Ventures) and Toba Capital, and announced plans for a 30% workforce expansion.


title: Alteryx

text: In 2015, ICONIQ Capital led an $85 million investment in Alteryx, with Insight Venture Partners and Meritech Capital Partners also participating. Alteryx announced plans to use the new capital to expand internationally, invest in research and development, and increase its sales and marketing efforts.


title: Alteryx

text: In October 2017, it was discovered that Alteryx was subject to a data breach of partially anonymized data records for approximately 120 million U.S. households.


title: Alteryx

text: On February 22, 2018, Alteryx was named a leader in Gartner's 2018 Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms.


title: Alteryx

text: As of July 2020, Alteryx offered the following products as part of an analytics platform (ver. 2019.1):


title: Alteryx

text: In January 2017, Alteryx acquired Prague-based software company, Semanta. Alteryx Connect is an outgrowth of the Semanta acquisition.


title: Alteryx

text: In June 2017, Alteryx acquired data science startup Yhat to enhance their capabilities for managing and deploying advanced analytic models ultimately resulting in Alteryx Promote. Alteryx paid $10.8 million in cash and equity. Yhat had raised $2.6 million before the acquisition.


title: Alteryx

text: In February 2018, Alteryx acquired Alteryx ANZ, a distributor of altered software based in Sydney, Australia


title: Alteryx

text: In October 2019, Alteryx acquired Feature Labs, a machine learning startup founded by 2 MIT researchers for $25.2 million in cash with an additional $12.5 million in equity incentive awards. Feature Labs is known for developing Featuretools, an open source library for automated feature engineering with over 350,000 downloads at the time of acquisition. The acquisition added an engineering hub for Alteryx in Boston, Massachusetts. Feature Labs had raised $1.5 million prior to the acquisition.


title: Alteryx

text: In January 2022, Alteryx acquired Trifacta for $400million in cash, with the deal closing the following month.


title: Alteryx

text: Alteryx was recognized by research firm Gartner as a leader in the 2018 Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms. In addition, Alteryx was named the Gold winner in "The Best Business Intelligence and Analytics Software of 2017, as Reviewed by Customers” by Gartner Peer Insights, a comprehensive platform that provides unfiltered, first-hand product and service ratings and reviews by experienced Enterprise Technology Buyers.


title: Alteryx

text: Alteryx has also been named one of Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, an 2019 APPEALIE SaaS Award Winner, and a Top 20 AI All-Stars in Technology by KeyBanc Capital Markets.


title: Alteryx

text: In 2017, co-founder and CEO Dean Stoecker received the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 Award in the Orange County Region, which recognizes entrepreneurs who excel in areas such as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.


title: Alteryx

text: Alteryx was also named as one of the Best Places to Work in Orange County three years in a row (2016), 2017, and 2018, ranking within the top ten in the large employer category.


title: Alteryx

text: Kevin Rubin was recognized as the CFO of the Year by the Orange County Business Journal, an annual award that recognizes Orange County CFOs who demonstrated superior leadership and corporate stewardship in the preceding fiscal year.


title: Alteryx

text: During the October 2017 data breach mentioned above, although no names were attached, telephone numbers and physical addresses were among the 248 fields per household involved in the breach. Also included was "consumer demographics, life event, direct response, property, and mortgage information for more than 235 million consumers" according to the company. Alteryx assembled information from Experian and public sources like the U.S. Census Bureau to create their product which sold for 39,000 per license. Alteryx's hosting on Amazon Web Services had been unsecured (its sources had no breach).


title: All-wheel drive

text: An all-wheel drive vehicle (AWD vehicle) is one with a powertrain capable of providing power to all its wheels, whether full-time or on-demand.


title: All-wheel drive

text: Particularly in North America for several decades, the designation "AWD" has been used and marketed - distinctly from "4X4" and "4WD" - to apply to vehicles with drive train systems that have permanent drive, a differential between the front and rear drive shafts, and active management of torque transfer, especially following the advent of ABS. However, the designations "AWD" and "all-wheel drive" long predated the trend, with Associated Equipment Company (AEC) producing AWD trucks in 1929 in conjunction with the British subsidiary of the pioneering American firm, Four Wheel Drive Auto Company. Additionally, General Motors began manufacturing a line as "all-wheel drive" as early as the late 1930s. This distinction in terminology is not generally used outside North America.


title: All-wheel drive

text: When tire grip is good during road driving, a differential is used between the axles to avoid driveline windup. This is not required off-road, as the limited grip allows the tires to slip. All-wheel drive vehicles designed for extensive off-road use may not have such a differential, and so they suffer from wind-up when used on-road. Selectable 4WD also avoids this problem and requires only a simple dog clutch in the transfer case, rather than a differential. For this reason, most early off-road vehicles used that system; e.g., Jeep, Land Rover.


title: All-wheel drive

text: As vehicles became more sophisticated and tires gave better winter performance in the 1960s there was an interest in giving the benefits of all-wheel drive to conventional cars; not for off-road use but for winter use in snow or on wet roads. Exotic vehicles such as the high-powered Jensen FF followed by the AMC Eagle, Subaru Leone and Audi Quattro series were the first to offer all-wheel drive in a high-speed road-based car. These, particularly the Quattro, would extensively develop this drivetrain with the use of viscous couplings and differentials to provide a safe and drivable car. The first off-road / on-road hybrids such as the Range Rover also chose the permanent all wheel drive system rather than manual selection.


title: All-wheel drive

text: Selectable 4WD has both axles rigidly coupled together, which has some advantages in very poor off-road conditions. To gain the same advantage in a permanent AWD system with a differential, the differential can be locked manually with a differential lock. As this control is frequently misunderstood and mis-used, which can then cause damage due to wind-up, they have tended to be replaced by automatic locking through the viscous couplers.


title: Fumito Ueda

text: Born in Tatsuno, Ueda graduated from the Osaka University of Arts in 1993. In 1995, after trying to make a living as a visual artist, Ueda decided to pursue a career in the video game industry. He joined video game developer WARP and worked as an animator on the game "Enemy Zero" for the Sega Saturn under video game director Kenji Eno. He described his time there as "arduous", as the game was behind schedule and everyone on the project had to work more than normal to meet the release deadline. Eno, who also owned the company, did not think he was that great a digital artist, but handpicked Ueda because of his talent with concepts and design. Ueda worked at the developer for a year and a half.


title: Fumito Ueda

text: In 1997, Ueda joined Sony Computer Entertainment as a first-party developer. In Sony Computer Entertainment's Japan Studio, he began work on "Ico". After "Ico", Ueda and his small team, better known as Team Ico, started working on a game originally titled "NICO", but later retitled "Shadow of the Colossus".


title: Fumito Ueda

text: In February 2007, Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu" reported that Ueda and his team were working on a game for the PlayStation 3. No details about the unnamed title were revealed. In 2008, in the August edition of "", Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida commented that both "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus" took 4 years to develop as a hint that the game was under production, but was not close to release. The game was revealed at E3 2009 as "The Last Guardian", the trailer for which suggests a saga involving elements of both "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus" wherein a young boy resembling Ico partners up with a colossus-sized companion to complete puzzles. Ueda later confirmed "The Last Guardian" to be related to the two previous installments.


title: Fumito Ueda

text: In an interview with G4tv.com in 2009 he expressed admiration for the method of cut-scene story-telling in Valve's "Half-Life 2", and when questioned directly expressed an interest in making a first person game.


title: Fumito Ueda

text: Ueda left Sony in December 2011, although he remained under contract to finish work on "The Last Guardian". Around mid-2014, he formed GenDesign (stylized as genDESIGN), made up of former members from Team Ico to help complete development of "The Last Guardian". At E3 2015, "The Last Guardian" was announced for release on October 25, 2016, but was later delayed to December 6, 2016. In September 2018, Ueda revealed that the studio was at the prototyping stage of designing a new game, supported with funding from the investment fund Kowloon Nights. In March 2020, Epic Games announced that they would be fully funding development of it, with the two companies splitting profits in half. In 2021, the new game was teased in one of GenDesign's New Year post cards, which features screenshots from Ueda's three previous games and an unidentified screenshot of a person under a mechanical structure, which is thought to be from the new game.


title: Fumito Ueda

text: He described himself as a very inquisitive child saying "I enjoyed catching and keeping living things, such as fish or birds. Other than that, I liked both watching and making animation. Basically, I seemed to be interested in things that moved." Among his favorite subjects in school was art. He commented, "If I was not in the games industry, I would want to become a classical artist. Though I regard not only games but also anything that expresses something – be it films, novels or manga – as forms of art."


title: Fumito Ueda

text: Ueda played a lot of Sega Mega Drive games, which influenced his work. He was also a fan of the Amiga computer platformer games "Flashback" and "Another World" during his teenage years. Other games that influenced his work include "The Legend of Zelda", "Virtua Fighter", and "Prince of Persia". He was also influenced by the work of Kenji Eno, and the manga series "Galaxy Express 999" (1977–1981).


title: Fumito Ueda

text: Ueda's games are considered to have a very distinctive style, which Ueda himself describes as "design by subtraction", with sparse landscapes, oversaturated lighting and minimalist story to give his games a personal and distinctive feel. Ueda also admitted that, in video games, ideas for a gameplay mechanic should be made first, then complemented by a game's story. In 2008, "IGN" ranked Ueda as one of their top 100 game creators of all time, saying that his knack for "creating atmospheric puzzle playgrounds with mute or near-mute characters instills a sense of isolation, yet provides an endearing feeling of hope as the protagonists seek simply to find an exodus or redemption from their weather-worn, ornate prisons".


title: Abra (province)

text: Abra, officially the Province of Abra (; ), is a 3rd class province in the Cordillera Administrative Region of the Philippines. Its capital is the municipality of Bangued. It is bordered by Ilocos Norte on the northwest, Apayao on the northeast, Kalinga on the mid-east, Mountain Province on the southeast, and Ilocos Sur on the southwest.


title: Abra (province)

text: Abra is from the Spanish word "abre" meaning gorge, pass, breach or opening. It was first used by the Spaniards to denote the region above the Banaoang Gap where the Abra River exits into the West Philippine Sea, thus the Rio Grande de Abra.


title: Abra (province)

text: The first inhabitants of Abra were the ancestors of the Bontocs and the Ifugaos. These inhabitants eventually left to settle in the old Mountain Province. Other early inhabitants were the Tingguians or Itnegs.


title: Abra (province)

text: In 1585 the Tingguians were mentioned for the first time in a letter from Father Domingo de Salazar to the King of Spain.


title: Abra (province)

text: In 1598 Bangued was occupied by Spanish-Iloko forces. The Spanish established a garrison to protect their missionaries from head hunters so that they could Christianize the Tingguians and locate gold mines.


title: Abra (province)

text: Bangued was under the care of the Spanish missions in Vigan and Bantay. Fr. Esteban Marin and Fr. Agustin Minon established a mission in Bangued as early as 1598. On April 5, 1612 Fr. Pedro Columbo became the first minister. It would seem that this actuation of the Augustinians was precipitated by the Dominican take-over of the ministry of Narvacan. The Dominicans wanted to convert Narvacan as a mission center to evangelize the other parts of Abra. To check this Dominican move, the Augustinians elevated Bangued as a ministry.


title: Abra (province)

text: Fr. Juan Pareja OSA, a former parish priest in Bantay, led the conversion of the province. Fr. Pareja came to Abra in 1626. He is reported to have converted as many as 3,000 inhabitants including the chieftain Miguel Dumaual. Fr. Pareja founded the mission of San Diego and later the ministry of Bangued. He established the following towns as visitas of Bangued: Tayum, Sabangan and Bukao (now Dolores). Inspired by Fr. Juan Pareja these towns battled almost daily against the rancherias of Palang, Talamuy, Bataan, Kabulao, Kalauag, and Langiden.


title: Abra (province)

text: Fr. Jose Polanco OP contributed to the conversion Abra. A man of austere mortification, died in Abra in 1679. He was considered a saint by the locals.


title: Abra (province)

text: Fr. Bernardino Lago OSA arrived in the early 19th century. In 1823 Fr. Lago began work in Pidigan. After 25 years the Christians there numbered about a thousand "baptized, living in community, with schools, church and municipal house, tilling the earth to support themselves and their children." Fr. Lago also founded the town of La Paz. Fr. Galende enumerates the foundation of the other towns of Abra:


title: Abra (province)

text: Originally the area was called "El Abra de Vigan" ("The Opening of Vigan"). During the British Occupation of the Philippines Gabriela Silang and her army fled to Abra from Ilocos and continued the revolt begun by her slain husband Diego Silang. She was captured and hanged by the Spanish in 1763.


title: Abra (province)

text: In 1818 the Ilocos region was divided into Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur. On October 9, 1846 Abra became an independent province with the capital and residence of the provincial governor located in Bucay. In 1863 the capital was transferred to Bangued, the province's oldest town. It remained so until the arrival of the Americans in 1899.


title: Abra (province)

text: In 1908 the Philippine Commission annexed Abra into Ilocos Sur in an attempt to resolve Abra's financial difficulties. On March 9, 1917 the Philippine Assembly re-established Abra as a province under Act 2683.


title: Abra (province)

text: Abra was liberated by the Philippine Commonwealth forces and local Cordilleran guerrillas during the Battle of Abra in 1945 at the end of the Second World War.


title: Abra (province)

text: The revolutionary Marxist priest Conrado Balweg, who fought for the rights of the Cordillera tribes, began his crusade in Abra. After successfully negotiating a peace accord with Balweg's group in 1987 the Philippine government created the Cordillera Administrative Region, which includes Abra.


title: Abra (province)

text: On July 27, 2022, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, jolted the province. Eleven people died (at least seven of them were from Abra) and more than 600 were injured. A magnitude 6.4 aftershock three months later injured more than 100 people and caused additional damage.


title: Abra (province)

text: Abra is situated in the mid-western section of the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. It is bordered by the provinces of Ilocos Norte on the northwest, Apayao on the northeast, Kalinga on the mid-east, Mountain Province on the southeast and Ilocos Sur on the southwest. Abra has a total land area of .


title: Abra (province)

text: The province is bordered by the towering mountain ranges of the Ilocos in the west and the Cordillera Central in the east. The Abra River runs from the south in Benguet to the west and central areas bisecting the Abra Valley. It is joined by the Tineg River originating in the eastern uplands at a point near the municipality of Dolores.


title: Abra (province)

text: The 27 municipalities of the province comprise a total of 303 barangays, with "Poblacion" in La Paz as the most populous in 2010, and "Pattaoig" in San Juan as the least.


title: Abra (province)

text: Abra's inhabitants are mostly descendants of Ilocano settlers and members of the Tingguian tribe. Based on 2000 census data, Ilocanos comprised of the total provincial population of 209,146. Tingguians came in second at , while other ethnic groups in the province were the Ibanag at , Itneg at , and Tagalog at .


title: Abra (province)

text: As of 1990 there were 743 cottage industries in Abra of which 208 are registered with the Department of Trade and Industry. 59% are engaged in bamboo and rattan craft making, both leading industries in the area.


title: Abra (province)

text: Abra's economy is agriculture-based. Its major crops are rice, vegetables and root crops. Commercial products include coffee, tobacco and coconut. Extensive grassland and pasture areas are used for livestock production.


title: Raison d'être

text: Raison d'être is a French expression commonly used in English, meaning "reason for being" or "reason to be".


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: A Mont Blanc (or "Mont-Blanc aux marrons", in Italian, "Monte Bianco") is a dessert of sweetened chestnut purée in the form of vermicelli, topped with whipped cream. It was created in nineteenth-century Piedmont, in Italy. The name comes from Mont Blanc, as the dish resembles a snow-capped mountain.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: "Mont Blanc" has been an autumn and winter favorite at many Parisian pâtisseries, notably the Parisian tea shop Angelina, where it has been a specialty since it opened in 1903. For a long time considered old-fashioned and heavy, it has become newly popular in the 2010s in a lighter form at trendy shops like Pierre Hermé, with many variations.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: Mont Blanc is popular in France, Italy, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Japan, Slovakia, Switzerland, Hungary, and northwestern Romania.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: Chestnut purées have a long history as a soup, porridge, or side dish for meats, especially in regions where chestnuts are a staple food. However, these dishes are not desserts, and are not served with whipped cream. Even a Swiss or German recipe of whole chestnuts cooked with cream and butter and seasoned with cinnamon is treated as a savory dish in 1844.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: The Mont Blanc has three distinctive characteristics: it is sweet, it is made of chestnut purée in the form of vermicelli served as a mount or a ring, and it is heaped with whipped cream.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: A sweet dessert of puréed chestnuts passed through a sieve to make vermicelli shapes—but without the characteristic whipped cream of the Mont Blanc—is called in various French cookbooks starting in 1842 "(compote de) marrons en vermicelle".


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: A dish called "entremets du Mont-Blanc" or simply "montblanc", described as a sweet combination of chestnuts and cream, is said to have been invented by the Dessat(s) pastry-shop by 1847. Sources do not specify exactly how it was prepared, but it was said to be "a true monument which will make his name immortal, that is, a dish that all mouths will praise".


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: An unambiguous reference to the Mont Blanc is a dish of puréed chestnuts topped with whipped cream documented in 1885, called "torche aux marrons", and considered an Alsatian dish. That recipe does not specify that the chestnuts are formed into vermicelli, but an 1892 article does, and clearly says that "torche" is the Alsatian name for what is called "Mont Blanc" in southern France. The same dish is also called "marrons chantilly" in 1889.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: The dish with whipped cream and the name "Mont-Blanc aux marrons" appears in 1888, 1889, and 1893, and then in Escoffier's "Guide Culinaire" in 1903, with the advice to pile the whipped cream up irregularly to imitate a rugged mountain.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: According to the Mont-Blanc ("Monburan") pastry shop in Tokyo, Mont Blanc was introduced to Japan in 1933, inspired by the Mont Blanc of Angelina in Paris. That shop used chestnuts preserved in syrup, which were yellow.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: It has been claimed that the dessert was described in Platina's "De Honesta Voluptate" in 1475, and that a recipe is found in Scappi's "Opera" in 1570, but no such recipe appears in these writings. It is also claimed that it arrived in France from Italy in 1620, but no evidence is given for this.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: Mont Blanc may be made from chestnuts cooked in a light syrup or in milk, or they may be cooked in plain water, and the sugar added afterwards. It may also be made with ready-made canned crème de marrons, a purée of the broken chestnuts left over from the manufacture of marrons glacés.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: The chestnut purée is generally formed into a ring or cone, with big dollops of whipped cream dropped irregularly into or onto the middle, to resemble snow.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: The chestnut purée may be formed in a mold rather than into vermicelli shapes, though this tends to make the dish heavier. This may be what was called "timbale de marrons, Chantilly" on an 1868 menu.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: The original version served multiple diners, but the pâtisserie version today is often an individual serving.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: In France, it is sometimes presented on a meringue or biscuit bottom. It may be flavored or garnished with chocolate, rose syrup, berries, and so on.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: Escoffier also describes a "Mont-Blanc aux fraises", essentially whipped cream studded with "fraises des bois", with no chestnuts at all, the name referring to its shape.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: A simplified version mixes crème de marrons with crème fraîche and serves it in a bowl, with no "mountain".


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: Traditional patisseries in Shanghai often have chestnut vermicelli cut into short bits, and laid atop a base of sponge cake, the thickness of which may vary. Shanghainese chestnut Mont Blanc also feature a heavy unwhipped cream topping and may be served in cups. Such style is said to have been created by a German pastry chef at the city's first European patisserie, Kaisiling, and over time it has become a Shanghainese staple under the unassuming name “li zi dan gao” or chestnut cake.


title: Mont Blanc (dessert)

text: In Japan, sometimes pumpkin, squash, and purple yam are used instead of chestnuts, and along with chestnuts, sometimes cocoa or matcha are added. There are also fruit Mont Blanc, with flavors such as mango and strawberry. In fact, all they have in common with the original is being made of a purée formed into vermicelli shapes.


title: Simon Dominic

text: Jung Ki-suck (; born 9 March 1984), better known by his stage name Simon Dominic (), is a South Korean hip hop recording artist. He debuted in 2009 as a member of the hip-hop duo Supreme Team, which disbanded in 2013. As a solo artist, he has released two studio albums: "Simon Dominic Presents: SNL League Begins" (2011) and "Darkroom" (2018), and two extended plays: "Won & Only" (2015) and No Open Flames (2019).


title: Simon Dominic

text: In addition to rapping, Simon Dominic was the co-CEO of hip hop record label AOMG from 2014 to 2018. He was also a cast member on South Korean variety shows, including "Show Me the Money 5" (2016) and "I Live Alone" (2018).


title: Simon Dominic

text: Simon Dominic began rapping in the underground Korean hip hop scene in the early 2000s, using the stage name K-OUTA. He later changed his stage name, which is a combination of "Simon," Wesley Snipes' character in the movie "Demolition Man", and "Dominic," his baptismal name.


title: Simon Dominic

text: He and rapper E Sens formed the hip hop duo Supreme Team in 2009. The group broke into the South Korean mainstream and won several major awards during their career, including Best New Male Group at the 2009 Mnet Asian Music Awards, and the Hip Hop Award at the 2010 Golden Disc Awards.


title: Simon Dominic

text: In 2011, Simon Dominic released his first solo album, "Simon Dominic Presents: SNL League Begins." The album peaked at #2 on the Gaon Album Chart.


title: Simon Dominic

text: In 2013, Supreme Team disbanded, and Simon Dominic left his label, Amoeba Culture. The following year, he became co-CEO of hip hop artist Jay Park's new record label AOMG.


title: Simon Dominic

text: Simon Dominic released his first extended play, "Won & Only", in 2015. The album's first single, "Simon Dominic," achieved an "all-kill," meaning that it reached #1 on all of South Korea's major real-time music charts. The single peaked at #2 on the weekly Gaon Digital Chart.


title: Simon Dominic

text: In 2016, he appeared on the rap competition TV show "Show Me the Money 5" as a judge and producer alongside fellow AOMG artist Gray. Their team member, rapper Bewhy, was the show's winner.


title: Simon Dominic

text: In 2018, Simon Dominic released his second full-length album, "Darkroom." Soon after, he resigned as co-CEO of AOMG, but remained signed to the label as a rapper.


title: Simon Dominic

text: On September 8, 2022, He donated to help those recovering damage from Typhoon Hin Nam Noh through The Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA is the successor to the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD) as well as the member regulation, enforcement, and arbitration operations of the New York Stock Exchange. The U.S. government agency that acts as the ultimate regulator of the U.S. securities industry, including FINRA, is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. FINRA's mission is to protect investors by making sure the United States securities industry operates fairly and honestly. In December 2019, FINRA oversaw 3,517 brokerage firms, 153,907 branch offices and approximately 624,674 registered securities representatives.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: FINRA has approximately 3,600 employees and operates from Washington, D.C., and New York City, with 20 regional offices around the United States.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: FINRA offers regulatory oversight over all securities firms that do business with the public, plus those offering professional training, testing, and licensing of registered persons, arbitration and mediation, market regulation by contract for the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc., the American Stock Exchange LLC, and the International Securities Exchange, LLC; and industry utilities, such as Trade Reporting Facilities and other over-the-counter operations.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: FINRA was formed by a consolidation of the member regulation, enforcement, and arbitration operations of the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Regulation, Inc., and NASD. The merger was approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 26, 2007.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: The NASD was founded in 1939 and was registered with the SEC in response to the 1938 Maloney Act amendments to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which allowed it to supervise the conduct of its members subject to the oversight of the SEC. In 1971, NASD launched a new computerized stock trading system called the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) stock market. The NYSE and AMEX stock exchanges merged in 1998. Two years later, the NASDAQ underwent a major recapitalization and became an independent entity from NASD. In July 2007, the SEC approved the formation of a new SRO to be a successor to NASD. The NASD and the member regulation, enforcement and arbitration functions of the New York Stock Exchange were then consolidated into the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: The FINRA By-Laws provide that the FINRA Board must consist of the chief executive officer of FINRA, the chief executive officer of NYSE Regulation, eleven public governors, and ten industry governors, including a floor member governor, an independent dealer/insurance affiliate governor, an investment company affiliate governor, three small firm governors, one mid-size firm governor, and three large-firm governors. The small firm governors, mid-size firm governor, and large-firm governors are elected by members of FINRA according to their classification as a small firm, mid-size firm, or large firm.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: FINRA regulates trading in equities, corporate bonds, securities futures, and options. All firms dealing in securities that are not regulated by another SRO, such as by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), are required to be member firms of the FINRA.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: As part of its regulatory authority, FINRA periodically conducts regulatory exams of its regulated institutions. FINRA recently released its tenth annual Regulatory and Examinations Priorities Letter for 2015, which impacts broker-dealers as well as their affiliated insurance companies and banks. In its Regulatory and Examinations Priorities Letter for 2015 FINRA has identified variable annuities as a significant area of focus for exams in 2015 and has pointed out particular elements of sales practices that will be reviewed.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: FINRA licenses individuals and admits firms to the industry, writes rules to govern their behavior, examines them for regulatory compliance, and is sanctioned by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to discipline registered representatives and member firms that fail to comply with federal securities laws and FINRA's rules and regulations. It provides education and qualification examinations to industry professionals. It also sells outsourced regulatory products and services to a number of stock markets and exchanges; e.g. American Stock Exchange (AMEX) and the International Securities Exchange (ISE).


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: NASD, the predecessor of FINRA, founded the NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) stock market in 1971. In 2006, NASD demutualized from NASDAQ by selling its ownership interest.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: The NASD, later FINRA, publishes much educational information for the public and has been publishing and disclosing the education and exam requirements for USA based credentials, charters, designations and certifications that are offered by SROs for about a decade.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: In 2017, Reuters published a report that showed a significant percentage of brokers with multiple disclosures on their record worked at 48 firms. FINRA could make this list of brokers with unusually high numbers of brokers with multiple disclosures searchable, but they refuse, arguing that hiring brokers with BrokerCheck disclosures is not illegal.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: When a March 2020 study revealed that FINRA approves 84% of requests for expungement of BrokerCheck disclosures, Senator Elizabeth Warren addressed FINRA in a letter, stating, "...The study suggests that FINRA's current method of assessing expungement requests-which approves the vast majority of expungement requests-is failing to safeguard information needed for investor protection."


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: On behalf of state securities regulators, FINRA maintains the Central Registration Depository (CRD), the central database containing records for all firms and individuals registered in the securities industry of the United States.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: FINRA had total revenues of US$846.9 million in 2019. FINRA is funded primarily by assessments of member firms' registered representatives and applicants, annual fees paid by members, and by fines that it levies. The annual fee that each member pays includes a basic membership fee, an assessment based on gross income, a fee for each principal and registered representative, and charge for each branch office.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: According to a study by Deborah G. Heilizer and Brian L. Rubin, partners at the Washington, D.C. law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, regulators with NASD and NYSE Regulation (later collectively known as FINRA) obtained supersized fines (i.e., fines over US$1 million) in 35 actions taken in 2005. In 2006, however, that number dropped to 19; furthermore, the number of enforcement actions over US$5 million also fell. In 2005, there were seven such actions as opposed to three in 2006. According to the written report, the "data suggest that securities regulators may have retrenched their efforts to regulate through the use of novel theories."


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: FINRA collected fines against financial firms totaling US$25.9 million in 2008, a third straight annual decline in fines levied by FINRA or one of its predecessor agencies. The 2008 total was 82% below the US$148.5 million in fines collected in 2005. According to FINRA, the fines levied in 2009 were US$47.6 million, declining slightly to US$42.2 million in 2010 and then expanding to US$71.9 million for 2011.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: FINRA operates the largest arbitration forum in the United States for the resolution of disputes between customers and member firms, as well as between brokerage firm employees and their firms. This function had been performed by both NASD and NYSE's regulation committee until their merger in 2007 to form FINRA. Each entity had its own set of rules on arbitration procedures. After its creation, FINRA Dispute Resolution harmonized the prior NYSE and NASD rules.) Virtually all agreements between investors and their stockbrokers include mandatory arbitration agreements, whereby investors (and the brokerage firms) waive their right to trial in a court of law. While arbitration cases are the usual resolution procedure of last resort, class action cases are brought and often permitted to go forward in courts as well, where binding arbitration contracts are sometimes rejected, typically after being ruled unconscionable; see "Wilko v. Swan". Although the fairness of such mandatory arbitration clauses has been called into question, U.S. federal courts have often found them to be lawful and have generally upheld both the enforceability and result of these arbitrations, except in the case of class actions.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: As of May 2011, the pool of arbitrators consisted of 2,854 individuals classified by FINRA as industry panelists and 3,557 individuals classified as non-industry panelists.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: In 1987, the United States Supreme Court ruled in "Shearson/American Express Inc. v. McMahon" that clauses mandating arbitration for disputes under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 were enforceable. Three years later, it overturned "Wilko" completely in "Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/American Express Inc.", extending the arbitration requirement to disputes under the Securities Act of 1933. Thus, many securities disputes are now resolved in arbitration.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: For disputes over US$100,000 between customers and member firms, the panel that decides the case generally consists of three arbitrators: one industry (or, at the customer's timely discretion non-industry) panelist, one non-industry panelist, and one non-industry chairperson, according to the Code of Arbitration Procedure for Customer Disputes. For disputes between an employee and member firms, all three arbitrators are industry panelists, according to the industry code. For a given case, the two sides are provided separate lists by FINRA of ten local arbitrators for each category from which each party can strike up to four arbitrators and provide a ranking for the rest. Also provided are ten-year biographies and prior award histories for each arbitrator. FINRA will then provide the parties with the panel members by selecting the highest ranked available arbitrator from each category.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: According to FINRA, there were 5,680 cases for arbitration filed in 2010, a decrease from the 7,137 cases filed in 2009. The percentage of cases in which customers are awarded damages has risen slightly from 42% in 2008 to 47–48% in 2010 and 2011. FINRA rates any positive award to a customer as a win for the customer, regardless of the magnitude of losses or legal fees.


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: FINRA rules do not require parties to be represented by attorneys. A party may also appear "pro se", or be represented by a non-attorney in arbitration. The third option is not advised, however, since this may be the unauthorized practice of law. Brokerage firms routinely hire attorneys, so a customer who does not can be at a serious disadvantage. One organization whose members specialize in representing customers against brokerage firms in FINRA arbitrations is the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA).


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: In June 2006, Lewis D. Lowenfels, one of two partners at the New York law firm of Tolins & Lowenfels and co-author of the looseleaf treatise "Bromberg and Lowenfels on Securities Fraud and Commodities Fraud, 2d" said of the NASD arbitration process: "What started out as a relatively swift and economical process for a public customer claimant to seek justice has evolved into a costly extended adversarial proceeding dominated by trial lawyers and the usual litigation tactics."


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: Perhaps amidst speculation that the U.S. Congress was contemplating passing legislation preventing mandatory arbitration clauses, FINRA announced in July 2008 that it would be launching a pilot program to evaluate all-public arbitration panels (thus not requiring an industry arbitrator to be on each panel). In February 2011, FINRA announced that it would be making the program permanent. In that announcement, Richard Ketchum, FINRA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer stated "We believe that giving investors the ability to have an all-public panel will increase public confidence in the fairness of our dispute resolution process." There are those, however, who see valid reasons for including an industry arbitrator on each panel. According to Richard Jackson, a principal at the advisor firm of Schlindwein Associates, LLC "It's probably pretty important to have someone on the panel who has specific industry knowledge and past experience in that field to explain some of the complexities that may be at issue,"


title: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

text: FINRA does have a broker check system. This system lists the registered and licensed professionals. Those who have had complaints will also remain in the online system. Others who have passed exams, but have let their licenses retire, are not listed in the system if they had a clean record on their FINRA Form U5.


title: Declarations of war during World War II

text: A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is usually the act of delivering a performative speech or the presentation of a signed document by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more sovereign states. The official international protocol for declaring war was defined in The Hague Peace Conference of 1907 (or Hague II). For the diplomatic maneuvering behind these events, which led to hostilities between nations during World War II, see Diplomatic history of World War II.


title: Declarations of war during World War II

text: Below is a table showing the outbreak of wars between nations which occurred during World War II. Indicated are the dates (during the immediate build-up to, or during the course of, World War II), from which a "de facto" state of war existed between nations. The table shows both the "Initiator Nation(s)" and the nation at which the aggression was aimed, or "Targeted Nation(s)". Events listed include those in which there were simple diplomatic breaking of relations that did not involve any physical attack, as well as those involving overt declarations or acts of aggression. In rare cases, war between two nations occurred twice, with an intermittent period of peace. The list here does not include peace treaties or periods of any armistice.


title: Declarations of war during World War II

text: A = Attack without prior, formal declaration of war;C = Declaration and/or attack without standard, formal procedure, sometimes preceded by a "casus belli" thus "fait accompli";U = State of war arrived at through use of ultimatum; W = Formal declaration of war made.


title: Robert Oberst

text: Robert Oberst (born December 20, 1984) is a retired former American professional strongman competitor. He is a yearly competitor of the World's Strongest Man competition and a finalist in the 2013 and 2018 World's Strongest Man competitions ending up in 9th and 8th place respectively. He also came 8th in the 2014 Arnold Strongman Classic the heaviest and the toughest strongman competition in the world. Oberst has competed in 15 international competitions.


title: Robert Oberst

text: Oberst was born in Santa Cruz, California. From a young age, he was considerably taller than most of his family and friends, standing at 6 ft 1 (1.85m) and weighing 220 lbs (99.8 kg) on his 12th birthday. Oberst parents divorced when he was in high school. He was picked on as a result and thought about dropping out because of it. He attended Aptos High School in Aptos, California. It was there he played football and track and field, lettering four times in football and once in track and field. He then went on to continue playing football at the collegiate level at Western Oregon University majoring in history. Oberst graduated from Western Oregon University in 2008.


title: Robert Oberst

text: After college, Oberst gave the NFL a shot, but did not make the cut so got into bouncing at nightclubs Esta Noche and El Rio. It was there that one of Oberst's friends introduced him to the world of Strongman competitions and encouraged him to train for the events. Upon going to his first workout session, he unofficially broke the amateur Log Press world record, which at the time was around 150 kg, or 330 lbs. With some training, his strength grew greater, and after only four months of training, Oberst had received his Pro-Card.


title: Robert Oberst

text: Oberst is known for advocating "People Shouldn’t Deadlift" at Joe Rogan’s podcast and recommends doing exercises such as cable lateral raises, dumbbell front raises and face pulls.


title: Robert Oberst

text: On December 2, 2022, Oberst announced on the SHAWSTRENGTH Podcast that he is officially retired from the sport of professional strongman competitions going forward.


title: Cole Haan

text: Cole Haan is an American brand of men's and women's footwear and accessories that serves markets worldwide. The company was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1928. Cole Haan currently has its headquarters in both New York City and Greenland, New Hampshire, United States.


title: Cole Haan

text: The company name comes from founders Trafton Cole and Eddie Haan, and was originally named “Cole, Rood & Haan” when the company was strictly a men's footwear label. Today it offers many products, including men's and women's dress and casual footwear, belts, hosiery, handbags, gloves, scarves, hats, outerwear, and sunglasses.


title: Cole Haan

text: Cole Haan was sold to a group of partners headed by George Denney in 1975. These executives built upon the foundation established by Cole and Haan over the following decade, transforming the label into one of the leading U.S. footwear brands. They launched a retail division in 1982, which comprised 40 plus stores worldwide and cumulative annual sales of nearly $70 million by 1996.


title: Cole Haan

text: Nike, Inc. purchased Cole Haan in 1988. Nike announced on May 31, 2012, that it was divesting of Cole Haan and Umbro to focus on the Nike brand and other complementary brands.


title: Cole Haan

text: Cole Haan was bought by private equity firm Apax Partners Worldwide LLP for $570 million on November 16, 2012. Since then the brand has its headquarters in Greenland, New Hampshire, and its design center in New York City. Jack A. Boys is its current CEO.


title: Cole Haan

text: The Cole Haan Maine headquarters relocated from Yarmouth to Scarborough in summer 2011. In October 2013 it was announced that the headquarters would relocate to Greenland, New Hampshire.


title: Cole Haan

text: Cole Haan has over 300 stores with numerous locations in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. Cole Haan has one store in South Africa, and other than one location in Istanbul, does not have any other locations in Europe, nor any in Australia and New Zealand. Cole Haan sells its products worldwide through its own website and websites operated by international distribution partners.


title: Cole Haan

text: Cole Haan products are also sold at retailers such as Nordstrom, Shoe Carnival, Zappos, Macy's, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, Hudson's Bay Company and other department stores and independent stores in the United States, as well as through its own outlet stores found in outlet malls throughout the country.


title: Cole Haan

text: On February 25, 2008, the company announced it would discontinue using real animal fur in its products for business and sustainability reasons.


title: Cole Haan

text: Cole Haan chose Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova to headline its Spring 2009 and Fall 2009 advertising campaigns.


title: Cole Haan

text: Cole Haan has done collaborations with designers, athletes, and tastemakers including a men's footwear capsule collection with CFDA-nominated menswear designer Todd Snyder and a collection of women's ballet flats designed in partnership with three dancers of New York City Ballet, Sara Mearns, Megan Fairchild, and Gretchen Smith.


title: Skynd (band)

text: Skynd (stylised as SKYND) is an industrial rock band consisting of lead singer, Skynd, and multi-instrumentalist, Father. They have pioneered the genre of true crime music with a grim aesthetic and songs largely based on disturbing deaths and murders. They have released songs about topics such as the death of Elisa Lam, the manslaughter of Conrad Roy, the mass suicide in Jonestown, the Columbine High School massacre, and murderers such as Gary M. Heidnik, Armin Meiwes, Chris Watts, and Katherine Knight.


title: Skynd (band)

text: Skynd is known for her diverse vocal styles – ranging from high pitch to low pitch and often with an inhuman element. Notably, Jonathan Davis of Korn is also a fan of true crime and joined Skynd in her song, "Gary Heidnik". Davis appeared in the music video as well.


title: Skynd (band)

text: Skynd's first headliner performance was at Electrowerkz in 2019 where she dressed in a motley combination of corpse paint and Victorian-styled clothing. Fans were greeted with cups of Kool-Aid as a reference to her song about the Jonestown massacre.


title: Skynd (band)

text: Skynd has been interviewed by The Boo Crew on Episode 90 of the "Bloody Disgusting" podcast, as well as by Ebony Story of "Wall of Sound".


title: Xi'an Incident

text: The Xi'an Incident, previously romanized as the Sian Incident, was a political crisis that took place in Xi'an, Shaanxi in 1936. Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Nationalist government of China, was detained by his subordinate generals Chang Hsüeh-liang (Zhang Xueliang) and Yang Hucheng, in order to force the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) to change its policies regarding the Empire of Japan and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).


title: Xi'an Incident

text: Prior to the incident, Chiang Kai-shek followed a strategy of "first internal pacification, then external resistance" that entailed eliminating the CCP and appeasing Japan to allow time for the modernization of China and its military. After the incident, Chiang aligned with the Communists against the Japanese. However, by the time Chiang arrived in Xi'an on 4 December 1936, negotiations for a united front had been in the works for two years. The crisis ended after two weeks of negotiation, in which Chiang was eventually released and returned to Nanjing, accompanied by Zhang. Chiang agreed to end the ongoing civil war against the CCP and began actively preparing for the impending war with Japan.


title: Xi'an Incident

text: In 1931, the Empire of Japan escalated its aggression against China through the Mukden Incident. Japanese troops then occupied Northeast China. "Young Marshal" Chang Hsüeh-liang, who had succeeded his father as head of the Fengtian army in that region, was widely criticized for this loss of territory. In response, Chang resigned from his position and went on a tour of Europe.


title: Xi'an Incident

text: In the aftermath of the Northern Expedition in 1928, China was nominally unified under the authority of the Nationalist government in Nanjing. Simultaneously, the Nationalist government violently purged members of the CCP in the Kuomintang, effectively ending the alliance between the two parties. Beginning in the 1930s, the Nationalist government launched a series of campaigns against the CCP. In the meanwhile, the impending war against Japan led to nationwide unrest and surge of Chinese nationalism. Consequently, the campaigns against the Communist Party were becoming increasingly unpopular. Chiang, fearing the loss of Kuomintang leadership in China, continued the civil war against the CCP despite lacking popular support.


title: Xi'an Incident

text: By late 1935 the Communists had narrowly avoided destruction on their Long March and had begun to establish themselves in a new base area on the border between Gansu and Ningxia provinces. They were besieged by a number of nationalist armies, including the Northwestern Army under Yang Hucheng and the Northeastern Army, to which Zhang Xueliang was re-assigned as commander after his return from a tour of Europe. The Nationalist armies initially gave no notice to the Communist exhortations for war against Japan, but this began to change because of the Red Army's "eastern expedition" from February to April 1936. The Communists declared that they were sending a detachment through Shanxi to fight the Japanese in Jehol and Hubei. Letting the Red Army through would have broken the encirclement, so Yan Xishan stopped them by force. Although defeated militarily, the Red Army had convinced the Shanxi peasantry of their patriotism and gained 8,000 new recruits on their retreat. Zhang Xueliang was likewise impressed and began to seem them as potential allies rather than foes. When Mao announced on March 14 that the Communists were willing to conclude a truce, Zhang covertly agreed. He proposed to Chiang Kai-shek that he reverse the Nationalist policy of prioritizing the purge of Communists, and instead focusing on military preparation against Japanese aggression. After Chiang refused, Zhang began to plot a coup in "great secrecy". By June 1936, the secret agreement between Zhang and the CCP had been successfully settled.


title: Xi'an Incident

text: In November 1936, Zhang told Chiang to come to Xi'an and talk to troops who did not want to fight the Communist forces any more. After Chiang agreed, Zhang informed Mao Zedong, who called the plan "a masterpiece". On 12 December 1936, bodyguards of Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng stormed the cabin where Chiang was sleeping. Chiang was able to escape but suffered an injury in the process. He was eventually detained by Zhang's troops in the morning. A telegram was sent to Nanking (Nanjing) to demand immediate end to civil war against the CCP, and to reorganize the Nationalist government by expelling pro-Japanese factions and adopting an active anti-Japanese stance. As conflicting reports unfolded, the Nationalist government in Nanjing was sent into disarray.


title: Xi'an Incident

text: Many young officers in the Northeast Army demanded Chiang be killed. However, both Zhang and the Communists insisted that he be kept alive and that their intention was "only to change his policy". Had Chiang been killed, it would have ruined any chances of forming a united front against Japan. The responses to the coup from high-level Nationalist figures in Nanking were divided. The Military Affairs Commission led by He Yingqin recommended a military campaign against Xi'an, and immediately send a regiment to capture Tongguan. Soong Mei-ling and Kong Xiangxi were strongly in favor of negotiating a settlement to ensure the safety of Chiang.


title: Xi'an Incident

text: On 16 December, Zhou Enlai and Lin Boqu arrived in Xi'an to represent the CCP in negotiations. At first, Chiang was opposed to negotiating with a CCP delegate, but withdrew his opposition when it became clear that his life and freedom were largely dependent on Communist goodwill towards him. Influencing his decision was also the arrival of Madame Chiang on 22 December, who had travelled to Xi'an hoping to secure his speedy release, fearing military intervention from factions within the Kuomintang. On 24 December, Chiang received Zhou for a meeting, the first time that the two had seen each other since Zhou had left Whampoa Military Academy over ten years earlier. Zhou began the conversation by saying: "In the ten years since we have met, you seem to have aged very little." Chiang nodded and said: "Enlai, you were my subordinate. You should do what I say." Zhou replied that if Chiang would halt the civil war and resist the Japanese instead, the Red Army would willingly accept Chiang's command. By the end of the meeting, Chiang promised to end the civil war, to resist the Japanese together, and to invite Zhou to Nanjing for further talks.


title: Xi'an Incident

text: The Xi'an Incident was a turning point for the CCP. Chiang's leadership over political and military affairs in China was affirmed, while the CCP was able to expand its own strength under the new united front, which later played a factor in the Chinese Communist Revolution.


title: Xi'an Incident

text: Chang was kept under house arrest for over 50 years before emigrating to Hawaii in 1993, while Yang was imprisoned and eventually executed on the order of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, before the Nationalist retreat to Taiwan.


title: Gill Sans

text: Gill Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill and released by the British branch of Monotype from 1928 onwards.


title: Gill Sans

text: Gill Sans is based on Edward Johnston's 1916 "Underground Alphabet", the corporate font of London Underground. As a young artist, Gill had assisted Johnston in its early development stages. In 1926, Douglas Cleverdon, a young printer-publisher, opened a bookshop in Bristol, and Gill painted a fascia for the shop for him in sans-serif capitals. In addition, Gill sketched an alphabet for Cleverdon as a guide for him to use for future notices and announcements. By this time Gill had become a prominent stonemason, artist and creator of lettering in his own right and had begun to work on creating typeface designs.


title: Gill Sans

text: Gill was commissioned to develop his alphabet into a full metal type family by his friend Stanley Morison, an influential Monotype executive and historian of printing. Morison hoped that it could be Monotype's competitor to a wave of German sans-serif families in a new "geometric" style, which included Erbar, Futura and Kabel, all being launched to considerable attention in Germany during the late 1920s. Gill Sans was released in 1928 by Monotype, initially as a set of titling capitals that was quickly followed by a lower-case. Gill's aim was to blend the influences of Johnston, classic serif typefaces and Roman inscriptions to create a design that looked both cleanly modern and classical at the same time. Designed before setting documents entirely in sans-serif text was common, its standard weight is noticeably bolder than most modern body text fonts.


title: Gill Sans

text: An immediate success, the year after its release the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) chose it for all its posters, timetables and publicity material. British Railways chose Gill Sans as the basis for its standard lettering when the railway companies were nationalised in 1948. Gill Sans also soon became used on the modernist, deliberately simple covers of Penguin Books, and was sold up to very large sizes which were often used in British posters and notices of the period. Gill Sans was one of the dominant typefaces in British printing in the years following its release, and remains extremely popular: it has been described as "the British Helvetica" because of its lasting popularity in British design. Gill Sans has influenced many other typefaces, and helped to define a genre of sans-serif, known as the humanist style.


title: Gill Sans

text: Monotype rapidly expanded the original regular or medium weight into a large family of styles, which it continues to sell. A basic set is included with some Microsoft software and macOS.


title: Gill Sans

text: The proportions of Gill Sans stem from monumental Roman capitals in the upper case, and traditional "old-style" serif letters in the lower. This gives Gill Sans a very different style of design to geometric sans-serifs like Futura, based on simple squares and circles, or grotesque or "industrial" designs like Akzidenz-Grotesk, Helvetica and Univers influenced by nineteenth-century lettering styles. For example, compared to grotesque sans-serifs the "C" and "a" have a much less "folded up" structure, with wider apertures. The "a" and "g" in the roman or regular style are "double-storey" designs, rather than the "single-storey" forms used in handwriting and blackletter often found in grotesque and especially geometric sans-serifs.


title: Gill Sans

text: The upper-case of Gill Sans is partly modelled on Roman capitals like those found on the Column of Trajan, with considerable variation in width. Edward Johnston had written that, "The Roman capitals have held the supreme place among letters for readableness and beauty. They are the best forms for the grandest and most important inscriptions." While Gill Sans is not based on purely geometric principles to the extent of the geometric sans-serifs that had preceded it, some aspects of Gill Sans do have a geometric feel. The J descends below the baseline. The "O" is an almost perfect circle and the capital "M" is based on the proportions of a square with the middle strokes meeting at the centre; this was not inspired by Roman carving but is very similar to Johnston. The 'E' and 'F' are also relatively narrow.


title: Gill Sans

text: The influence of traditional serif letters is also clear in the "two-storey" lower-case "a" and "g", unlike that of Futura, and the "t" with its curve to bottom right and slanting cut at top left, unlike Futura's which is simply formed from two straight lines. The lower-case "a" also narrows strikingly towards the top of its loop, a common feature of serif designs but rarer in sans-serifs.


title: Gill Sans

text: Following the traditional serif model the italic has different letterforms from the roman, where many sans-serifs simply slant the letters in what is called an oblique style. This is clearest in the "a", which becomes a "single storey" design similar to handwriting, and the lower-case "p", which has a calligraphic tail on the left reminiscent of italics such as those cut by William Caslon in the eighteenth century. The italic "e" is more restrained, with a straight line on the underside of the bowl where serif fonts normally add a curve. Like most serif fonts, several weights and releases of Gill Sans use ligatures to allow its expansive letter "f" to join up with or avoid colliding with following letters.


title: Gill Sans

text: The basic letter shapes of Gill Sans do not look consistent across styles (or even in the metal type era all the sizes of the same style), especially in Extra Bold and Extra Condensed widths, while the Ultra Bold style is effectively a different design altogether and was originally marketed as such. Digital-period Monotype designer Dan Rhatigan, author of an article on Gill Sans's development after Gill's death, has commented: "Gill Sans grew organically ... [it] takes a very 'asystematic' approach to type. Very characteristic of when it was designed and of when it was used." (At this time the idea that sans-serif typefaces should form a consistent family, with glyph shapes as consistent as possible between all weights and sizes, had not fully developed: it was quite normal for families to vary as seemed appropriate for their weight until developments such as the groundbreaking release of Univers in 1957.)


title: Gill Sans

text: In the light weights, the slanting cut at top left of the regular "t" is replaced with two separate strokes. From the bold weight upwards Gill Sans has an extremely eccentric design of "i" and "j" with the dots (tittles) smaller than their parent letter's stroke.


title: Gill Sans

text: Morison commissioned Gill to develop Gill Sans after they had begun to work together (often by post since Gill lived in Wales) on Gill's serif design Perpetua from 1925 onwards; they had known each other since about 1913. Morison visited Cleverdon's bookshop while in Bristol in 1927 where he saw and was impressed by Gill's fascia and alphabet. Gill wrote that "it was as a consequence of seeing these letters" that Morison commissioned him to develop a sans-serif family.


title: Gill Sans

text: In the period during and after his closest collaboration with Johnston, Gill had intermittently worked on sans-serif letter designs, including an almost sans-serif capital design in an alphabet for sign-painters in the 1910s, some "absolutely legible-to-the-last-degree ... simple block letters" for Army and Navy Stores in 1925 and some capital letter signs around his home in Capel-y-ffin, Wales. Gill had greatly admired Johnston's work on their Underground project, which he later wrote had "redeemed the whole business of sans-serif from its nineteenth-century corruption" of extreme boldness. Johnston apparently had not tried to turn the alphabet (as it was then called) that he had designed into a commercial typeface project. He had tried to get involved in type design before starting work on Johnston Sans, but without success since the industry at the time mostly created designs in-house. Morison similarly respected the design of the Underground system, one of the first and most lasting uses of a standard lettering style as corporate branding (Gill had designed a set of serif letters for WH Smith), writing that it "conferred upon [the lettering] a sanction, civic and commercial, as had not been accorded to an alphabet since the time of Charlemagne".