title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Ghost is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a genius inventor and hacker who wears a battle suit that allows him to become invisible and intangible. Although he started out as an adversary of the superhero Iron Man, Ghost has also been depicted as an antihero and member of the Thunderbolts.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: The character has been substantially adapted from the comics into various forms of media, including animated television series and video games. Hannah John-Kamen portrays a female adaptation of Ghost named Ava Starr in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "Ant-Man and the Wasp" (2018), whose powers instead stem from a failed attempt to replicate Hank Pym's quantum technology. John-Kamen will reprise the role in the upcoming film "" (2024).


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Created by David Michelinie and Bob Layton, the character first appeared in "Iron Man" #219 (June 1987). Originally a supervillain to Iron Man, Ghost has since become an anti-hero figure after becoming a member of the Thunderbolts during the events of "Dark Reign" and "Heroic Age".


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Very little is known about the identity of the Ghost. He claims to have been an IT researcher at one time, and to have been made into what he is by corporate greed. The Ghost is an anticapitalist saboteur who seeks to destroy various political and economic institutions he views as oppressive, apparently being most interested in those dealing with advanced technology and surveillance. He has, at times, hired his services out to corporations and other organizations, such as Norman Osborn's Thunderbolts, that wish to destroy rival groups, but invariably plans to turn on his own employers and topple them as well.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: As the Ghost told Moonstone, he once worked as a programmer and an engineer at a rising IT company called Omnisapient. Impressing the board of directors with his technological prowess and genius intellect, he quickly rose up the ranks and assumed the company's flagship project for which he developed a revolutionary processor that could physically change in reaction to its environment, becoming intangible before it can overheat. Thanks to his Ghost Tech, the company's stock skyrocketed while the board, ever more dependent on the man who would become Ghost, collected the credit. Exhausted after months of work, the socially introverted programmer decided to leave on vacation, conflicting with the board of directors' expectations for an ahead-of-schedule launch that could increase their profit margins significantly. Approached by an attractive co-worker as he was about to leave, the young man cancelled his travel plans and began a relationship with her. Happier and more productive than ever, he now found every single aspect of his life tied to the company, all part of a well-oiled machine, until his lover died in an explosion at her apartment. Depressed over her death and unable to cope with its apparent randomness, he sought solace by immersing his consciousness into the data networks he created by wiring his own flesh with his flux-state processors. Within this network, no randomness existed and his unconscious mind, in a state of alpha, could solve any dilemma his conscious mind was unable or unwilling to. In this state, he pieced memories and hidden fragments of data together to realize his dead lover had been hired by the board to seduce him, keeping him happy and available to the company's every demand, and later murdered for blackmailing them for more money. Terrified, he attempted to flee, but his discoveries had been detected by the board of directors which dispatched a contract killer after him. The hitman detonated a bomb in his apartment before he could leave, destroying the entire building and killing dozens of tenants. However, he survived, made intangible by the flux-state processors fused with his body when a wall of fire hit him. The experience completed his psychological transformation and the once naive workaholic emerged as the Ghost, a paranoid vigilante bent on wiping out corporatocracy. He took revenge upon the board of directors, butchering them, along with their contract killer, and then erased all records of his previous life.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Sometime after this, Ghost was hired by Carrington Pax, a leading executive of the Roxxon Oil Corporation, to destroy Accutech Research and Development. Accutech was trying to develop a beta particle generator and when they refused to sell it to Roxxon, the Ghost was hired to drive Accutech into bankruptcy. Tony Stark was interested in acquiring Accutech's technology and bought the company. Investigating a disturbance at the new facility as Iron Man, he first met the Ghost. Iron Man managed to drive the Ghost from Accutech, but the Ghost swore that he would have his revenge on Iron Man's employer, Tony Stark.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: For the next few weeks, Tony Stark spent all his free time modifying his armor. Sometimes, for extra security, he would sleep in his armor, too. When Pax and the other executives at Roxxon heard that the Ghost had gone rogue, they feared his actions would make the company look bad, so they called in Spymaster to take care of him. After a fierce battle at Stark Enterprises, the Ghost killed Spymaster. Using a modified version of his intangibility circuits, the Ghost made Spymaster materialize in a wall. The shock caused Spymaster's whole body to shut down, and he was believed dead. It was shown years later in Dark Reign that the Spymaster had faked his death.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Tony finally took the offensive against the Ghost. He set up a trap and the Ghost walked right into it. After a short battle between Iron Man and the Ghost, Iron Man cornered the Ghost in the room with the beta particle generator. He had it turned on so he could see the cloaked Ghost better, since radiation from the generator would cause interference in the Ghost's sophisticated tech-suit. However, prolonged exposure to the generator was fatal, and Iron Man didn't want to stay in the room for too long. But the Ghost had sworn to bring down Stark Enterprises and nothing, not even the chance of dying, would stop him. As he tried to reach the generator to destroy it, the intense heat from his overloading costume caused the floor to melt and the Ghost fell through. As Iron Man searched for him, all he found of the Ghost was his burnt costume. Still, Tony didn't believe that the Ghost was dead.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Indeed, fairly soon after, the Ghost reappeared — this time plaguing a company in Italy, owned by none other than Justin Hammer. The shrewd industrialist intended to sell the company, Electronica Fabbrizi, to Tony Stark, ridding him of a dangerous enemy and a useless asset, as well as sticking a business rival with a nasty problem. However, after Tony Stark discovered the true ownership of the floundering company, a compromise was reached: Hammer's forces and Iron Man would cooperate in taking out the Ghost. Hammer sent his operatives Blacklash, Blizzard, and Boomerang to help Iron Man fight the Ghost. However, Hammer's team betrayed Iron Man, planning to get rid of both their enemies.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Ghost attempted to kill Iron Man by rendering him intangible. While Iron Man managed to save the lives of everybody involved, Electronica Fabbrizi was irrevocably destroyed and the Ghost escaped. However, when the mysterious villain confronted Hammer, it was revealed the ruthless business man had defenses developed against the Ghost's intangibility powers, and made his own escape, leaving his assailant trapped. Blasting his way out, the saboteur vowed to continue his crusade against Hammer and all companies anywhere.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Ghost was next hired by the Kingpin to steal the new Roxxon process to create synthetic vibranium, and battled Spider-Man and the Black Panther.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Much later, several companies were suddenly and violently destroyed when bombs, apparently installed in personal computers, went off in inner-city offices. Tony Stark, who at the time was undercover as a common employee at one of the companies that went under, managed to track down the source of the attacks: the "Advanced Corp", a cover for AIM. It was then revealed that AIM, not usually operating in common business circles, on this occasion had employed a special agent to eliminate the competition: the Ghost. Nearly defeating Iron Man in their first fight and escaping without a hitch, he hit a nasty snag during their second fight when he attempted to phase his costumed hand into Iron Man's chest, and Tony Stark's then-artificial heart defended itself, knocking him unconscious. He was subsequently arrested, but his identity appears to have remained unknown.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Later still, having apparently escaped, the Ghost (in a new, more streamlined outfit) was employed by the third Spymaster to help free the Living Laser, who was "held captive" by Stark Industries at the time. He attempted to kill Iron Man, and believed to have succeeded. In the end, he proved too unreliable and quirky, and was abandoned by his employer, remaining at large.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: The Ghost was mentioned by Gauntlet as the one who attacked him and left a NW mark on him (when it was actually the seemingly light-hearted recruit Slapstick).


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "Dark Reign" storyline, Ghost seems to have become more unhinged and reclusive; however, as Ms. Marvel mentions "He smells... Badly." And The Ghost himself shows signs of increasing obsessiveness. With the Thunderbolts officially disbanded, Norman Osborn recruits Ghost for his new Thunderbolts, now a black ops team under Osborn's direct control.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Ghost helps Osborn take control of Air Force One with the Goblin (actually new Thunderbolts member Headsman), Doc Samson, and the new president aboard. As part of Osborn's plan, the Ghost phases Samson out of the plane, and drops him from the sky. Osborn calls for the Ghost to come to Stark Tower, where he unlocks a vault containing Iron Man's old armors. Ghost later reveals to the Black Widow (actually Natasha Romanoff in disguise) that when Osborn is king of the corporate world, he'll act as "a virus" to bring it down from the inside. He explains he wants to inform Yelena's "real" boss, Nick Fury. Widow was eventually exposed as Natalia Romanova, who was in fact Nick Fury's undercover agent, and who was attempting to make sure Songbird stayed alive. Paladin, Ghost and Headsman purposely turned on the other Thunderbolts in order for the two heroines to escape. However, Ghost insisted that they stay in the Thunderbolts, for they all have their own agendas. He uses electro-convulsive shock in order to make Scourge and Mister X forget about the betrayal. At the end of the Dark Reign arc, Ghost betrayed Osborn by sending a data package he had collected to whatever heroes could receive it, warning them of Osborn's plans to capture Odin's magical weapon, Gungnir. Aware of the emergency, Quicksilver crossed the Atlantic Ocean and crushed Mister X (who wielded the weapon at the time) in combat, retrieving it.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Because Tony Stark had purposely lobotomized himself into a vegetative state, and had his power of attorney transferred over to Donald Blake, Madame Masque hired Ghost to kill Stark. She provided him a phone made by the Tinkerer, which he could use to execute his phase abilities to reach any place in the world. Ghost managed to track Stark to Broxton, Oklahoma, where he twice attempted to assassinate Stark. All the while, Stark's comrades were attempting to reboot his brain. By then, Stark had regained consciousness and used the Ghost's own phone against him, sending him to a facility in Seoul.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: For his help in the downfall of Norman Osborn, Ghost was recruited into the new Thunderbolts team formed in the aftermath of the "Siege" storyline. Ghost is the first team member that Cage meets with as he arrives at the Raft. During the 2010 "Shadowland" storyline, he would witness Crossbones assassinate a police officer the Thunderbolts were meant to save. Ghost would also prove instrumental in the attempted Thunderbolt break out, but in doing so, managed to go to an alternate dimension, and he came face to face with Iron Man again. In order to beat Ghost, Iron Man transmitted into Ghost's network a confirmation that all Stark Industries divisions were being shut down effective immediately. Ghost therefore resigned from plans to kill Stark, because he is no longer a tech monopolist. After coming back to The Raft, Ghost told Moonstone an unverifiable origin tale, whereupon he mused over whether that means he's regained his capacity to trust or whether he simply perceives her as no threat at all, only to conclude, as he phased through a speechless Moonstone, that both are irrelevant to a man who abandoned his humanity and is truly untouchable.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: Ghost is later approached by Tiberius Stone and Mark Raxton, who hire him to sabotage Parker Industries, a competitor to Stone's own company Alchemax. Ghost infiltrates Parker Industries, and while he is subdued by Spider-Man and the company's employees, he still succeeds in destroying their building and everything in it with explosives.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: The Ghost wears a battlesuit of his own design. Its Ghost-tech enables him to turn himself and any objects he touches invisible or intangible, but not both at the same time. Devices in the battle-suit enable him to hack and reprogram all manner of electronic systems in his vicinity as well as intercept, tamper with, or silence electromagnetic signals. This tech along with his superb intellect make him a super-hacker.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: The Ghost also invented guns that fire bursts of electricity or concussive force blasts and employs a large arsenal of high-tech weaponry, including incendiary devices, self-targeting Anson grenades and sound-activated bombs. He often avoids direct confrontations altogether, preferring subterfuge and ambush tactics.


title: Ghost (Marvel Comics)

text: The Ultimate Marvel version of Ghost is introduced in "Ultimate Comics: Armor Wars" #1, where he sneaks into one of Tony Stark's underground hideouts and steals an ornament from him. His armor has the traditional phasing capabilities, and he is also able to generate teleportation fields that allow him to warp objects away. He is later revealed to be working for "Project Tomorrow" under the Titanium Man. After Justine and Tony are kidnapped by Titanium Man's forces, who reveals himself to be Howard Stark Sr., he and all the other experiments except Tony are killed by an EMP that destroys all tech nearby. Very little is known about this Ghost, but according to Howard Stark Sr., "He got a funny accent."


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: "High Hopes" is a song by American pop rock band Panic! at the Disco. The song was released through Fueled by Ramen and DCD2 Records on May 23, 2018, as the second single from the band's sixth studio album, "Pray for the Wicked" (2018). The song was written and produced by Jake Sinclair and Jonas Jeberg, and co-written by Brendon Urie, Jenny Owen Youngs, Lauren Pritchard, Sam Hollander, William Lobban-Bean, Taylor Parks, and Ilsey Juber, with additional production by Jonny Coffer. It was serviced to alternative radio on July 31, 2018, and impacted hot adult contemporary radio on August 27, 2018, and US pop radio the following day. The music video was also released on August 27, 2018.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: "High Hopes" peaked at number four on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming the band's highest-charting song on the chart, surpassing their 2006 breakout single, the top 10 hit "I Write Sins Not Tragedies." It topped the charts in Poland and reached the top ten and top twenty in several countries, becoming their highest-charting single worldwide.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: It holds the record for most weeks spent at number one on the US Hot Rock Songs chart, at 65 weeks. It also became the act's first single to top one of "Billboard"'s Dance/Electronic charts, reaching number-one on its Dance/Mix Show Airplay list in February 2019.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: "High Hopes" was written and produced by Jake Sinclair and Jonas Jeberg, and co-written by Brendon Urie, Jenny Owen Youngs, Lauren Pritchard, Sam Hollander, William Lobban-Bean, Taylor Parks, and Ilsey Juber; with additional production by Jonny Coffer. Jeberg, Parks, Juber, and Lobban-Bean began writing the song at a BMI writing camp in Aspen, Colorado in 2015. When the four of them had arrived an hour early, they decided to go into a hot tub together outside. Jeberg has said of the song's conception: "I was sitting in the hot tub, singing bass notes. We didn't have any instruments because we were in the hot tub. I was singing bass notes and directing chords in that way, and we were brainstorming different lyrics." Eventually they set up a portable recording studio and began recording a demo version with a beat, horns and vocals. Initially, the song's hook was conceived as a rap song, and they began sending it to different artists who all declined. In 2016, Panic! at the Disco's management company said the band wanted to record the song for their next studio album. In early 2018, lead singer Brendon Urie co-wrote the verses for "High Hopes," before Sinclair and Jeberg (later, Coffer) were brought in to finish the production.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: The song is written in the key of F major with a tempo of 82 beats per minute. During their live performances, it's sung in the key of F major. Urie's vocals span from the low note D to the high note of D


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: The audio track was uploaded to Panic! at the Disco's official YouTube channel on the same day of its release on May 23, 2018. An official music video for the song was uploaded on August 27, 2018. As of November 2022, the music video has surpassed 700 million views.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: The video features lead vocalist Brendon Urie walking through LA as people bump into him. Eventually, he sizes up a skyscraper with a glass exterior. Determined, he presses a foot to the glass, flips horizontally, and begins walking up the outside of the wall. People flock to the base of the building, recording Urie and watching with awe. He waves to the people below and inside the building, and finally gets to the roof as the crowd below applauds. As the sun sets, he joins the rest of the band on the roof and continues to sing the final chorus of the song.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: To promote the album, the band performed the song at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards and their concert on The Today Show.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: "Paste" magazine described it as having "a blaring brass section" and "crisp vocals." "Rolling Stone" described it as "upbeat" and having "punchy horns."


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: "High Hopes" peaked at number four on the "Billboard" Hot 100, making it Panic! at the Disco's highest-charting song, exceeding the peak of "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", which reached number seven 12 years prior. In August 2019, the song became one of the few songs to spend a full year on the chart when it logged its 52nd week on the chart. Also in the United States, it reached number one on the Radio Songs airplay chart, marking their first leader there. Worldwide, the song has charted highly, reaching number seven in Australia and number twelve in the United Kingdom, also becoming their highest-charting song in those countries. Also, "High Hopes" is the fourth song to top the Pop Songs, Adult Pop Songs and Alternative Songs charts simultaneously since the Adult Pop Songs chart began in "Billboard" in March 1996, the Pop Songs chart began in October 1992 and the Alternative Songs chart began in September 1988. Also, with 14 weeks on top of Radio Songs, "High Hopes" tied Alicia Keys' "No One" and Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me" for fifth longest-leading number one on the Radio Songs chart, which began in 1990.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: With 15 weeks on top of Adult Pop Songs, "High Hopes" became the longest-leading No. 1 on the Adult Pop Songs chart of the 2010s, which began in "Billboard"s pages in March 1996. "High Hopes" also has the distinction of being the first Panic! at the Disco song to register on the "Billboard" Adult Contemporary chart, where it peaked at number eight. In June 2019, "High Hopes" broke the record for most weeks at No. 1 on "Billboard"s Hot Rock Songs chart, logging 34 consecutive weeks at the top. On the chart dated January 18, 2020, "High Hopes" set a new record on "Billboard"s Hot Rock Songs chart, logging its 52nd week at the top - an entire year. It went on to spend a total of 65 weeks atop the chart, eventually dethroned by Twenty One Pilots' "Level of Concern", another release from Fueled by Ramen label, on April 25, 2020. It was ranked number-one on the 2019 Year-End Rock Songs chart.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: When the song first came out, NBC and NBCSN used it to promote their coverage of the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals which had the band's hometown team, the Vegas Golden Knights, in the finals against the Washington Capitals. The band later performed the song before Game 5, the final game of the series, which resulted in a 4–2 victory for the Capitals, who claimed their first Stanley Cup in franchise history over the Knights, winning the series 4–1.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: In 2019, Rede Globo used "High Hopes" as the background music for advertisements for its streaming service Globoplay to advertise its offerings and programs. The song was also used in the trailer for the 2019 animated film "Klaus".


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: The song was the campaign anthem of 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and was played at most of his rallies and speeches. A special dance to the song was created by staff and volunteers of the Buttigieg campaign. It was also used by candidates Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker and Julian Castro in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: The song was featured and remixed in the heavily panned "". It was used in the soundtrack for the "NHL 19" video game, as well as the trailers for films such as the 2021 animated film "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" and the 2019 animated Christmas film "Klaus".


title: High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song)

text: The song was used at a Trump re-election rally in June 2020, to which Urie tweeted "Dear Trump Campaign, Fuck you. You’re not invited. Stop playing my song. No thanks, Brendon Urie, Panic! At The Disco & company," which was accompanied by a cease and desist order and a voter registration link encouraging fans to vote against Trump in November.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is an action role-playing game, the third main game in the "Star Ocean" series. The game was developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2 console. It was released in Japan, North America, and the PAL territories. The original Japanese release date was in February 2003 by Enix, its penultimate release before its merger to become Square Enix. It was re-released in 2004 as a two-disc "Director's Cut" version with bonus features such as new characters and dungeons. The North American and European versions are based on the "Director's Cut" version with Ubisoft handling publishing rights in Europe. "Till the End of Time" takes place four hundred years after the events of "".


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: While having many similarities to its predecessor, "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time" includes many elements that make it unique among the majority of role-playing video games. Instead of menu-driven combat, "Star Ocean 3" offers real-time interactive combat, similar to the ".hack" and "Tales" series. Battles occur when running into enemies on the main travel field or when certain pre-scripted events occur. In battle, the player directly controls one character, while the other two characters are controlled by AI. The player can, however, choose the tactics used by AI characters or switch which character they are directly controlling.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: Enemy attacks can target either a player's hit points (HP) or mental points (MP). Players will also lose HP from using special attacks or lose MP from using symbology or runeology, which is functionally equivalent to magic in other games. If a character loses all of their HP or, unlike most games, if they lose all of their MP, they are knocked out and unable to continue participation in the battle (unless certain revival items are used). Each character also has a Fury meter, which governs how fast the character moves over the battle screen, and how often actions can be performed. Standing still will replenish Fury, while any movement will continue to drain it or cause the character to lag. If all three characters are defeated, the game is over and the player must reload from their last saved game. If all the enemies are defeated, the player is awarded money (Fol) and experience points (EXP). When some groups of enemies are defeated, the player's characters can also receive a small amount of HP/MP, to counteract the HP/MP that was lost as a result of using special attacks or symbology/runeology.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: When the player strikes an enemy, the Bonus Battle Gauge will fill. When the gauge reaches full capacity, the player will enter "Bonus Battle". In "Bonus Battle", the player receives special bonuses, which can help benefit a character's EXP, Fol, items received after battle, etc. However, if a character receives a critical hit, runs away from battle, or dies, the gauge will deplete completely, resulting in the end of "Bonus Battle" and any bonuses the player received. The Bonus Battle Gauge will also reset if the player turns the game off and turns it back on, or restarts their save file.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: Like the previous games in the series, the game contains an Item Creation feature that allows the player to create and enhance a multitude of items. A variety of trades are offered, including Cookery, Alchemy, Engineering, and Smithery. Workshops for Item Creation are scattered throughout the towns and dungeons of the game and can be invested in by the player to allow a wider variety of items to be made there. Once a player invents an item, they can file for a patent, and get money from the profits made off selling those items in various shops. The player is also able to recruit inventors to aid them in creating various items.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: The "Director's Cut" version added a VS. Mode to battle against a second player or against the computer. Up to two human players could compete, either against each other or against another character controlled by the computer. Another addition was the use of "Battle Trophies" which may be acquired by completing various challenges in combat. For example, a player can receive a battle trophy for winning a battle in under 30 seconds, or for defeating a boss without receiving damage. Earning battle trophies unlocks bonus options such as harder game difficulty levels, alternate costumes, and a sound test.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: The universe of "Star Ocean" is science fiction in nature, although like the first two games in the series, much of the plot is set on an "underdeveloped planet." The game is set in S.D 772 (A.D 2858). It features a galaxy-spanning government in the Pangalactic Federation, several races and species of aliens, different factions, multiple colonized planets, and advanced technology. But despite this science fiction atmosphere, a form of magic exists in the universe: symbology, also translated as heraldry in the Japanese version and in "". Standard symbology involves tattooing crests and runes onto one's flesh to draw out apparently latent power in the form of spells, and numerous underdeveloped planets make extensive use of it. Despite its supernatural connotations, Symbology is treated as a legitimate field of scientific study in-universe.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time" begins on the planet Hyda IV where a young man, Fayt Leingod, and his childhood friend, Sophia Esteed, are on vacation with Fayt's family. Fayt is the son of Robert Leingod, a famous scientist in the field of symbological genetics. For an unknown reason, the Vendeeni — an alien civilization with highly advanced technology that spans only a single planet — attacks Hyda IV unprovoked, thus initiating a war with the Pangalactic Federation. Fayt and Sophia escape on the starship "Helre", but are separated from Fayt's parents, Robert and Ryoko Leingod. The "Helre" is also attacked by the Vendeeni, and the two are separated.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: Fayt's escape pod lands on the "underdeveloped planet" Vanguard III, a planet with technology equivalent to 16th Century Earth, and discovers an off-world criminal, the exiled Rezerbian Norton, plotting to take it over. Cliff Fittir, a member of the anti-Federation organization Quark, then lands and helps Fayt defeat this criminal. Fayt learns that Quark's leader wishes to speak to him and plans on rescuing his father, though Cliff does not reveal the reason behind this interest. After getting off the planet with Cliff and meeting his assistant Mirage, the Vendeeni again attack them — but they escape and crash-land on another underdeveloped world, Elicoor II. Elicoor seems to be around 17th Century Earth in terms of technological advancement. Fayt, Cliff, and Mirage crash-land into the capital of the Kingdom of Airyglyph, who believe that their ship is a weapon developed by the country they are at war with, Aquaria. Fayt and Cliff are imprisoned as a result Mirage escapes, though they are soon rescued by an assassin-like agent, Nel Zelpher, who believes they are engineers from the technologically advanced continent of Greeton. She rescues them under the condition that they aid her country, Aquaria, with their technological knowledge or that she will kill them to prevent them leaking secrets to Airyglyph. This leads the two directly into the war between the two kingdoms and eventually into a great final battle between them. Then a new — at least to the Elicoorians — foe appears in the skies above, a Vendeeni battleship that has found their quarry. However, Fayt destroys the battleship with a previously unknown power of his, though another battleship remains in orbit. During the distraction, the leader of Quark, Maria Traydor, manages to arrive on Elicoor. It seems that both Quark and the Vendeeni knew of Fayt's unusual abilities, and he had been their target the whole time. The party vies with the Vendeeni over control of an unusual "out of place artifact" and Fayt's father, who is killed before Maria can finish interrogating him over his "crimes."


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: Fayt finds himself space-borne once more, and the galaxy has not stood still. Shortly after the apparently unprovoked attack on Hyda IV, a threat of destruct-full magnitude emerges in the form of ultra-powerful space-borne beings calling themselves "Executioners." The best ships of the Federation and the Vendeeni are nearly powerless against these new beings, and are quickly being forced into full retreat. The party, acting on a hint from Fayt's father, venture to the Moonbase research station, and Fayt is reunited with Sophia. While on the station, they are confronted by an angelic-looking Executioner that calls itself Proclaimer. It launches itself to attack, telling them that they must be destroyed.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: Investigation of the Moonbase records reveals the truth behind the Executioners and their appearance. During the charting of a planet called Styx, explorers encountered an extremely advanced and extremely old Time Gate. When activated, it informed them that their forays into the field of symbological genetics had angered the Creator, and that they were to be destroyed. Even if they were to abandon symbological genetics, the reins would be taken up by another soon enough, and that they were not being warned — they were being sentenced.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: The explorers beat a hasty retreat and informed the Federation of what they had found. Studies soon suggested that the statement came from another plane of existence; an entirely new universe. Further study revealed that symbology might be used to access this universe. The scientists agreed to use their own offspring; the subjects were Fayt Leingod, Sophia Esteed, and Maria Traydor. Fayt was the son of Robert and Ryoko Leingod, while Sophia was the daughter of Clive Esteed. Maria was an orphan who was later adopted by the fourth member of the team, Jessie Traydor. The three were symbologically altered in such a way that if they worked together, they could gain entry through the Time Gate. Maria was given the power of Alteration, which would allow her and those with her to remain in physical forms in the new world. Fayt was given the power of Destruction, as it was assumed they would need to physically defend themselves. Two years later, the younger Sophia was given the power of Connection - the key ability needed to make contact with 4D space. The Vendeeni had been attacking in hopes of handing over Fayt to the Executioners and staying their wrath.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: The party goes to Styx and finds the area flooded with Executioners. Escaping their ship in a small shuttle, they witness the mysterious beings and their awesome might first-hand as the Federation battleship "Aquaelie" which had escorted them is destroyed. Reaching the Time Gate, the party enters "4D space," a dimension higher than their own. According to the 4D beings, their universe is actually not real in relation to 4D space; rather, it is a computer simulation developed by Luther Lansfeld, the owner of the Sphere Company. Dubbed the "Eternal Sphere", it is similar to a real-world massively multiplayer online game for the inhabitants of 4D space.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: Fayt and his allies learn that the Executioners are anti-viruses sent to delete anomalies in the Milky Way section of the Eternal Sphere. With the help of Blair Lansfeld, programmer and sister to Luther, the party manages to find Luther. Blair and the group believe that the residents of the Eternal Sphere have managed to achieve a level of intelligence equal to that of 4D citizens; Luther, however, considers them "mere data", and in a rage decides to delete the entire Eternal Sphere. The party fights and defeats him, causing him to be deleted himself, but fails to stop the deletion. Ultimately the universe is not destroyed, hinted to be due to the combined sentience of its inhabitants willing its continued existence, and now exists independent of 4D space. The party goes their separate ways, with Fayt's "affection" level dictating whether he goes with one of them or goes off on his own.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: One of the major influences of the design changes from "" to "Till the End of Time" was "Star Trek". The combat system was mostly unaltered from the previous title, but characters were rendered in 3D instead of 2D and more strategy was incorporated into the fights. Transitioning to a completely 3D environment from a 2D/3D mix was a lengthy process, and was only possible due to the increased power of the PlayStation 2 console. In terms of story message, game producer Yoshinori Yamagishi stated that the main message the game communicates is one of "trust". Several characters and dungeons did not make the cut for the final version of the game, but most of what developers wanted found its way into the game. Gameplay balance was adjusted between the Japanese and American releases, as well as fixing various technical errors that occurred in the original Japanese release.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: The music for this game was composed by Motoi Sakuraba, a long-time collaborator with tri-Ace. The soundtrack was eventually released in four parts:


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: When the game was revised into the Director's Cut, Sakuraba composed a few new pieces of music and released an album for them.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: The song "The Small Bird That Forgot How To Fly" (飛び方を忘れた小さな鳥, "Tobikata Wo Wasureta Chiisana Tori") by the JPop singer Misia was used to accompany the game's ending credits.


title: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

text: Initially, the game received a somewhat negative impression in Japan. Parts of the game were alleged to be buggy, and the game refused to work at all in older SCPH-10000 PlayStation 2s. Enix blamed Sony, as they had coded "Star Ocean 3" with features from updated libraries that were apparently not backward-compatible. Sony denied all responsibility. Regardless, it impacted the game's sales, and Enix released the "Director's Cut" in 2004 to assuage grievances about the original by fixing the bugs and adding features. In North America, the game was initially well received among both critics and players, with GameRankings, a compilation of critical reviews, giving it an average score of 80.99%. "Star Ocean 3" was the 96th-best seller among console games of the PS2/GameCube/Xbox generation as of July 2006; it had estimated U.S. sales of 630,000 copies, with revenues of $23 million. In Japan, the original release sold 533,373 in 2003, while the "Director's Cut" sold 207,881 copies between 2004 and 2009, bringing worldwide sales to 1,371,254 units. "IGN" placed "Till the End of Time" at number 58 on their "Top 100 PlayStation 2 Games" list.


title: Japan Air Lines Flight 351

text: Japan Air Lines Flight 351 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tokyo Haneda Airport to Fukuoka that was hijacked by members of the Red Army Faction of the Japan Communist League on March 31, 1970, in an incident usually referred to in Japanese as the .


title: Japan Air Lines Flight 351

text: Approximately 20 minutes after takeoff, a young man by the name of Takamaro Tamiya got up from his seat and drew a katana shouting "We are Ashita no Joe!", stating his intent to hijack the plane, and instructed the other hijackers to draw their weapons. The hijackers then took 129 people (122 passengers and seven crew members) hostage and commanded the pilots to fly the plane to Havana, Cuba, where they intended to receive training by communist military groups. The hijackers were then informed that the aircraft, a Boeing 727, was not capable of making such a journey, due to the plane's inability to hold the necessary amount of fuel. Upon learning of this, the hijackers insisted that the plane be diverted to Pyongyang, North Korea, after stopping to refuel in Fukuoka. Upon arrival at Fukuoka, the police convinced the hijackers to release the majority of their hostages, and the pilots were given a map of the Korean Peninsula. Attached to the map was a note which instructed the pilots to tune their radios to a specific frequency. The air traffic controllers, who were aware of the situation, intentionally gave the pilots incorrect directions in an effort to have them land at Gimpo Airport in Seoul, South Korea, where they had disguised the airport as being North Korean. Despite this, the hijackers quickly realised that they had been tricked, and Japan's Vice Minister for Transport, Shinjiro Yamamura, had volunteered to take the place of the remaining hostages, to which the hijackers accepted. They then proceeded to Pyongyang's Mirim Airport, with Yamamura now as hostage, where they surrendered to North Korean authorities, who offered the whole group asylum.


title: Japan Air Lines Flight 351

text: Using North Korea as a base, they sought to incite rebellion in South Korea and elsewhere across East Asia. The plane carrying Vice Minister Yamamura and the remainder of the crew was released two days later and returned to its gate at Haneda Airport at 9:39AM on April 5.


title: Japan Air Lines Flight 351

text: The alleged mastermind of the hijacking, who did not take part in the actual operation, was Takaya Shiomi. Shiomi was arrested, convicted, and served almost 20 years in prison in Japan. After his release in 1989, suffering from poor health, Shiomi obtained a lowly paid job as an attendant at a multi-level parking facility in Kiyose, Tokyo, where he was working as late as 2008. He said that they had intended to go to Cuba via North Korea. He joined an antibase movement in Okinawa and an antinuclear campaign, and wrote several books related to the Red Army Faction. In April 2015, he ran in the city assembly elections in Kiyose, campaigning on an anti-Abe platform and against the city's policies which are "bullying" the elderly. He died on November 14, 2017 of heart failure at a Tokyo hospital.


title: Japan Air Lines Flight 351

text: Moriaki Wakabayashi was an early member (bass player) in the long-running avant-garde rock band Les Rallizes Dénudés. In a March 2010 interview with Kyodo News, Wakabayashi stated that the hijacking was a "selfish and conceited" act. Wakabayashi added that he wished to return to Japan and was willing to face arrest and trial for his role in the hijacking. In April 2014 he was still alive, and residing in North Korea together with other members of his group.


title: Japan Air Lines Flight 351

text: In 1985, Yasuhiro Shibata returned to Japan in secret to raise money for the group, was arrested, and was sentenced to five years in prison. Yoshimi Tanaka was arrested in Thailand with a large amount of counterfeit money and repatriated to Japan in March 2000, where he was sentenced; he died before its completion. However, the other hijackers remain at large, according to Japan's National Police Agency.


title: Japan Air Lines Flight 351

text: The leader of the group, Takamaro Tamiya, died in 1995 and Kintaro Yoshida sometime before 1985. Takeshi Okamoto and his wife Kimiko Fukudome were probably killed trying to flee North Korea. , Shiro Akagi, Kimihuro Uomoto and Moriaki Wakabayashi still reside in North Korea; all except Takeshi Okamoto were confirmed to have been alive when they were interviewed by Kyodo News. In June 2004, the remaining hijackers made a request to North Korean authorities that they be allowed to return to Japan, even if they are to be punished for the hijacking.


title: Japan Air Lines Flight 351

text: The future Roman Catholic Archbishop and Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao was one of the passengers on the flight. Another passenger was Shigeaki Hinohara, who was one of the world's longest-serving physicians and educators. The passengers also included American Pepsi's director, Herbert Brill.


title: Mike LaFleur

text: Mike LaFleur (born 1987) is an American football coach who is the offensive coordinator for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). He previously has served as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Falcons, the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers.


title: Mike LaFleur

text: Mike LaFleur attended Elmhurst College and played quarterback for the Bluejays in 2006 and 2007. LaFleur started all ten games at safety for the Bluejays in 2008. He was a team captain and a three-time letter winner at Elmhurst.


title: Mike LaFleur

text: Mike LaFleur started his coaching career in 2009 as an offensive assistant for the Elmhurst Bluejays. LaFleur next coached at Saint Joseph's from 2010 to 2012 before accepting an offensive coordinator position with Davidson in 2013.


title: Mike LaFleur

text: LaFleur accepted his first NFL position as an offensive intern in 2014 for the Cleveland Browns under offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan.


title: Mike LaFleur

text: Upon Kyle Shanahan's promotion to the head coach of the 49ers, LaFleur accepted a position as the passing game coordinator and wide receivers position coach for the San Francisco 49ers in 2017. LaFleur served in the dual role for two years before losing his wide receivers coach designation in 2019, upon Shanahan's addition of Wes Welker to his coaching staff. That season, LaFleur helped coach the 49ers to an NFC Championship, and before the Super Bowl, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that LaFleur agreed to a contract extension with San Francisco.


title: Mike LaFleur

text: LaFleur followed Robert Saleh from the 49ers to become the Jets' offensive coordinator in 2021. The Jets under his offense with rookie quarterback Zach Wilson went 4–13.


title: Mike LaFleur

text: He is the younger brother of Matt LaFleur, the current head coach of the Green Bay Packers. LaFleur married his wife, Lauren, in July 2010. The couple have two children.


title: David Wood (Christian apologist)

text: David Wood (born April 7, 1976) is an American evangelical apologist, YouTube personality, and the head of the Acts 17 Apologetics ministry. He is most well known for his YouTube videos in which he opposes and criticizes Islam, particularly Islamic views on theology and morality, as well as the Quran in general and Muhammad as a person, using Islamic sources such as the Quran and hadith.


title: David Wood (Christian apologist)

text: In a video testimony about Wood's conversion to Christianity he has stated that he was an atheist in his youth, and that he had run-ins with the law by breaking into homes and later went as far as smashing his father's head in with a hammer at the age of 18 in an attempt on his life, claiming a belief that morality was merely societal rules that were beneath him. He also said that after the assault on his father, Wood was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder (sociopathy) and was sentenced to ten years in prison for malicious wounding. While in prison, he said, he was confronted with a fellow prisoner named Randy who was a devout Christian. Wood said he often challenged Randy's Christian beliefs, initially claiming that Randy was only a Christian because he was born into a primarily Christian society, specifically the United States. Wood stated that, while in prison, he and Randy frequently fasted, with Wood attempting to "beat" Randy at fasting, which eventually resulted in Wood being placed into solitary confinement under observation due to concerns over Wood potentially attempting to commit suicide by starvation. During this time, he began to read the Bible and participate in various Bible study programs in order to respond to Randy's rebuttals (thus "beating" him) but it eventually led Wood to convert to Christianity in 1996.


title: David Wood (Christian apologist)

text: He said that after five years between jail and prison, he was released in 2000 and went to college at Old Dominion University where he earned a bachelor's degree. He later earned a doctorate in philosophy from Fordham University. Wood wrote that while he was studying at Old Dominion University, he was challenged to convert to Islam by his friend, Nabeel Qureshi (an American Ahmadiyya Muslim of Pakistani descent), and that he went about investigating the life of Muhammad using the earliest sources, including Ibn Ishaq's "Life of Muhammad" (the earliest extant biography of Muhammad); the hadith collections of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim (considered by Sunni Muslims to be the two most reliable or "sahih" collections of Muhammad's statements, actions, and example); and the "History of the Prophets and Kings" by Al-Tabari (one of Islam's greatest historians). Wood said that he concluded that the Quran and Muhammad's example did not simply describe violence in the past (as in the Christian Bible per his assertion), but rather commanded ongoing violence. As a result, Wood said he then became a Christian apologist, and that his roommate Nabeel later did so as well.


title: David Wood (Christian apologist)

text: Wood has participated in public debates with Muslims and atheists, including debates with Muslim scholars like Shabir Ally. Wood was invited on several ABN shows, in inter-religious discussions against atheism and Islam, where among other things he regularly appears on the Aramaic Broadcasting Network. He has produced YouTube videos presenting his views on religion. Writing for "The Catholic World Report", William Kilpatrick says that Wood has made "highly effective short videos that set the record straight on areas of Christian-Muslim disagreement," and that he "comes across as the quintessence of calm, controlled manhood. Armed with a winning sense of humor, a razor-sharp mind, and a ton of knowledge, Wood doesn’t even have to raise his voice to make his points."


title: David Wood (Christian apologist)

text: In 2013, Wood completed his Ph.D. from Fordham University, publishing his dissertation "Surprised by suffering: Hume, Draper, and the Bayesian argument from evil."


title: David Wood (Christian apologist)

text: Wood opposed the Park51 Islamic Center, arguing that it was not meant to honor the victims' families, but instead was a symbol of Islamic victory and named Cordoba House in memory of the Islamic conquest of Spain by the Umayyad Caliphate which later formed the Caliphate of Córdoba. Wood has been described as part of the counter-jihad movement.


title: David Wood (Christian apologist)

text: Wood was arrested outside Dearborn, Michigan, after preaching at an Arab festival and being charged with a misdemeanor of disturbing the peace, but was later acquitted. In May 2013, the City of Dearborn was required to post a public apology to be maintained on the City's website for three years and pay $300,000 to Wood and his three compatriots.


title: David Wood (Christian apologist)

text: Wood wrote a polemic regarding the work of Richard Carrier which he titled "Good 'n' Senseless Without God: A Critical Review of Richard Carrier's New Book, Sense & Goodness Without God". Richard Carrier responded to the review with an essay entitled "On the Deceptions of David Wood", in which he argued that Wood misrepresented his arguments and that his review was full of diatribes. Wood has also written journals arguing against the views of Dan Barker.


title: David Wood (Christian apologist)

text: On 26 May 2022, Wood announced his decision to delete his YouTube channel at some point in June of the same year, due to what he saw as an increase in censorship and restriction of free speech from the side of YouTube. Wood has stated that he will establish a website to serve as his new base of online operations and content creation, but has encouraged fans to re-upload his videos onto their own YouTube channels if they wished to keep them on the site. On 3 July, he changed his plans in response to Hatun Tash being robbed and arrested at Speaker’s Corner, opting instead to clear his channel and transfer ownership to Hatun Tash. On 4 July 2022, he joined a livestream which showed him deleting his videos.


title: David Wood (Christian apologist)

text: He met his wife Marie, then an agnostic while in university; she also became a Christian. They have five sons, two of whom suffer from centronuclear myopathy.


title: Plat

text: In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bearing between section corners, sometimes including topographic or vegetation information. City, town or village plats show subdivisions broken into blocks with streets and alleys. Further refinement often splits blocks into individual lots, usually for the purpose of selling the described lots; this has become known as subdivision.


title: Plat

text: After the filing of a plat, legal descriptions can refer to block and lot-numbers rather than portions of sections. In order for plats to become legally valid, a local governing body, such as a public works department, urban planning commission, or zoning board must normally review and approve them.


title: Plat

text: In gardening history, in both varieties of English (and in French etc), a "plat" means a section of a formal parterre planted only with grass, and perhaps a central feature such as a statue.


title: Plat

text: The creation of a plat map marks an important step in the process of incorporating a town or city according to United States law. Because the process of incorporation sometimes occurred at a courthouse, the incorporation papers for many American cities may be stored hundreds of miles away in another state. For example, to view the original General Land Office plat for the city of San Francisco, California, filed in 1849, one must visit the Museum of the Oregon Territory in Oregon City, Oregon, as at that time Oregon City was the site of the closest federal land office to San Francisco.


title: Plat

text: A plat of consolidation or plan of consolidation originates when a landowner takes over several adjacent parcels of land and consolidates them into a single parcel. In order to do this, the landowner will usually need to make a survey of the parcels and submit the survey to the governing body that would have to approve the consolidation.


title: Plat

text: A plat of subdivision or plan of subdivision appears when a landowner or municipality divides land into smaller parcels. If a landowner owns an acre of land, for instance, and wants to divide it into three pieces, a surveyor would have to take precise measurements of the land and submit the survey to the governing body, which would then have to approve it. A plat of subdivision also applies when a landowner/building owner divides a multi-family building into multiple units. This can apply for the intention of selling off the individual units as condominiums to individual owners.


title: Plat

text: A correction plat or amending plat records minor corrections to an existing plat, such as correcting a surveying mistake or a scrivener's error. Such plats can sometimes serve to relocate lot-lines or other features, but laws usually tightly restrict such use.


title: Plat

text: A vacating plat functions to legally void a prior plat or portion of a plat. The rules normally allow such plats only when all the platted lots remain unsold and no construction of buildings or public improvements has taken place.


title: Plat

text: Other names associated with parcel maps are: land maps, tax maps, real estate maps, landowner maps, lot and block survey system and land survey maps. Parcel maps, unlike any other public real estate record, have no federal, state or municipal oversight with their development.


title: The Vegetarian

text: The Vegetarian () is a South Korean three-part novel written by Han Kang and first published in 2007. Based on Han's 1997 short story "The Fruit of My Woman", "The Vegetarian" is set in modern-day Seoul and tells the story of Yeong-hye, a part-time graphic artist and home-maker, whose decision to stop eating meat after a bloody, nightmarish dream about human cruelty leads to devastating consequences in her personal and familial life.


title: The Vegetarian

text: Published on 30 October 2007 in South Korea by Changbi Publishers, "The Vegetarian" was received as "very extreme and bizarre" by the South Korean audience. "Mongolian Mark", the second and central part of the novel was awarded the prestigious Yi Sang Literary Prize. It has been translated into at least thirteen languages, including English, French, Spanish, and Chinese.


title: The Vegetarian

text: "The Vegetarian" is Han's second book to be translated into English. The translation was conducted by the British translator Deborah Smith, and was published in January 2015 in the UK and February 2016 in the US, after which it received international critical acclaim, with critics praising Han's writing style and Smith's translation. In May 2016, it won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. "The Vegetarian" thus became the first recipient of the award after its reconfiguration in 2015, prior to which it was awarded to an author's body of work rather than a single novel. It is considered as Korean translated literature's biggest win since Kyung-Sook Shin's "Please Look After Mom" won the closing Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012. Prior to it winning the prize, "The Vegetarian" had sold close to 20,000 copies in the nine years since its first publication. In June 2016, "Time" included the book in its list of best books of 2016.


title: The Vegetarian

text: "The Vegetarian" tells the story of Yeong-hye, a home-maker who, one day, suddenly decides to stop eating meat after a series of dreams involving images of animal slaughter. This abstention leads her to become distanced from her family and from society. The story is told in three parts: "The Vegetarian", "Mongolian Mark", and "Flaming Trees". The first section is narrated by Yeong-hye's husband Mr. Cheong in the first person. The second section is narrated in third person focusing on Yeong-hye's brother-in-law, and the third section remains in third-person but focuses on her sister, In-hye, while sporadically speaking in the present tense.


title: The Vegetarian

text: Mr. Cheong considers his wife to be "completely unremarkable in any way". He explains that when he first met her, he was not even attracted to her and that suits him just fine. Mr. Cheong is content meandering through life; it seems as if his only goal is to live a conventional, unremarkable life. He chooses to marry his wife since he thinks she would prove to be a good, dutiful wife who would fit nicely into the kind of lifestyle he seeks. After several years of relatively normal marriage, Mr. Cheong wakes up to find his wife disposing of all meat products in the house. He demands an explanation, and Yeong-hye replies vaguely that "I had a dream." Mr. Cheong attempts to rationalize his wife's life decision over the next few months and to deal with vegetarian meals at home, but as Yeong-hye gradually starts to eat less and continues to get thinner, eventually calls Yeong-hye's family and an intervention is scheduled. While around the dinner table, Yeong-hye's family attempts to convince her to eat meat; her father, who served in Vietnam and is known for his stern temperament, slaps her when she refuses. Her father then asks a reluctant Mr. Cheong and Yeong-hye's brother Yeong-ho to hold her arms while he force-feeds her a piece of pork. Yeong-hye breaks away, spits out the pork, grabs a fruit knife, and slits her wrist. The incredulous family rushes her to a hospital where she recovers and where Mr. Cheong admits to himself that she has become mentally unstable. As the section ends Yeong-hye manages to walk out of the hospital and when she is tracked down, she reveals a bird in her palm, which has a "predator's bite" in it, and she asks "Have I done something wrong?"


title: The Vegetarian

text: The husband of Yeong-hye's sister In-hye, whose name remains unstated, is a video artist. He imagines a love-making scene between two people, with their bodies decorated by painted flowers and, upon learning that Yeong-hye has a Mongolian spot birthmark shaped like a flower petal, he forms a plan to paint and record her in order to bring this artistic image to life. It is revealed that he is attracted to Yeong-hye, especially after checking up on her—the narrator reveals that Yeong-hye has been served divorce papers by Mr. Cheong—and finding her unabashedly naked in her apartment. Yeong-hye agrees to model for him and he paints flowers across her body in a studio rented from an art professor in the area. He follows up this project with a second piece of art, which involves recruiting a fellow artist to join Yeong-hye in a sexually-explicit film. When the brother-in-law asks if the two will engage in actual intercourse, his friend becomes ashamed and leaves. Yeong-hye, who had become aroused during this sequence, claims it was because of the flowers painted on the man's body. The brother-in-law asks a friend to paint flowers on him and visits Yeong-hye, where the two engage in a recorded moment of intercourse. When his wife discovers the film, she calls "emergency services", claiming that both he and Yeong-hye are mentally unwell. He contemplates jumping off of the balcony, most likely to his death, but remains "rooted to the spot" and is escorted out of the building by the authorities.


title: The Vegetarian

text: In-hye remains the only member of the family to support Yeong-hye after her mental and physical decline. She has separated from her husband after the events of the previous section, and is left to take care of their son in addition to her deteriorating sister. As Yeong-hye's behavior worsens, she is admitted to a mental hospital at Mount Ch'ukseong, where, despite receiving high-level treatment for mania, she behaves gradually more plant-like. On one occasion she escapes the hospital and is found standing in a forest "soaked with rain as if she herself were one of the glistening trees". In-hye, who constantly ruminates about the pain of dealing with her divorce and the care of her child and who throughout the chapter shows signs of her own depression and mental instability, visits Yeong-hye regularly and continues to try to get her to eat. Yeong-hye has given up food altogether, and when In-hye witnesses the doctors force-feeding her and threatening sedation to prevent vomiting, In-hye bites the nurse holding her back and grabs her sister. In-hye and Yeong-hye are driven to a different hospital by ambulance, and In-hye observes trees as they pass by.


title: The Vegetarian

text: Han first got the idea of writing about vegetation or plants when, as a university student, she came across the work of the noted South Korean writer Yi Sang. In particular, she was struck by the quote "I believe that humans should be plants." Han's lifelong exploration of the themes of violence and humanity are also sampled in the book, which primarily deals with human beings' natural and daily choices in terms of food. Talking to Sarah Shin for "The White Review", she said, "While writing "The Vegetarian", I was harboring questions about human violence and the (im)possibility of innocence. On the reverse side of the protagonist Yeong-hye’s extreme attempt to turn her back on violence by casting off her own human body and transforming into a plant lies a deep despair and doubt about humanity." In February 2016, while talking to Bethanne Patrick of Literary Hub, Han explained, "The idea for the book originally came to me as an image of a woman turning into a plant. I wrote a short story, “The Fruit of My Woman,” in 1997, where a woman literally turns into a plant. After several years (2003–2004) I reworked this image in "The Vegetarian", in a darker and fiercer way."


title: The Vegetarian

text: In a February 2016 interview with "The Guardian", Han Kang said, "As a teenager I suffered typical questions: why pain, why death? I thought that books held the answers, but curiously I realized they contain only questions. Their writers were weak and vulnerable just like we were." Writing the book was a difficult task, she said, with the main cause being her joint problems which started in her mid-30s. She wrote the entire novella in longhand. Han received help from a video artist and a psychiatric hospital when researching the book. The second part of the book is primarily inspired by Han's experiences with the aforementioned artist whose body of work was extensively studied.


title: The Vegetarian

text: "The Vegetarian" was first published in Korean in 2007 in South Korea as "Chaeshikjueuija" by Changbi Publishers. ASIA Publishers subsequently bought the rights to the book and published the English translation for distribution in South Korea. It also published the English versions of Han's short story "Convalescence", and her 2016 novel "Human Acts".


title: The Vegetarian

text: "Chaeshikjueuija" [The Vegetarian] published by Changbi Publishers in 2007, while the title is Chaeshikjueuija [The Vegetarian] as the first short story of the novel is the title piece of it, contains all the three short stories each of which was published previously in 3 separate South Korean literary magazines, and it is the original script translated into English by Deborah Smith.


title: The Vegetarian

text: "The Vegetarian" has been translated into twenty-three languages since its publication in 2007. Following is a list containing information about the translated works.


title: The Vegetarian

text: The book was translated from Korean into English by Deborah Smith, a British translator, who has been translating Korean into English since 2010. She is the founder of Tilted Axis Press, a non-profit publishing house focusing on contemporary fiction specifically from Asia. Speaking at the Seoul International Book Fair on 15 June 2016, Smith said that a translator "must be unfaithful to some aspects in order to be faithful to others. I try to stay faithful to the spirit, and faithful to the letter as much as I can, without compromising the spirit." Talking about the process, Han said, "Deborah usually sends me the file of her translation after she finishes, with notes and questions. And I send it back to her with my answers and notes. It is just like having a chat endlessly. I truly enjoy this process. I am lucky to have met Deborah, a wonderful translator who can render subtlety and delicacy." Smith has said that her first attempt at Korean translation involved "looking up practically every other word in the dictionary". Smith has translated some of Han's other works, including "Human Acts" (2016) and "The White Book" (2017).


title: The Vegetarian

text: Smith's translation was criticized in South Korea for inaccuracies. The "Los Angeles Times" noted that Smith embellished Han's writing style, quoting a translator who called it an "adaptation" rather than a translation. Writing for "The Guardian", Claire Armitstead felt that Smith's "activist" translation helped make South Korean literature more accessible. Smith defended her translation in the "Los Angeles Review of Books".


title: The Vegetarian

text: The novella primarily deals with desire, shame, and empathy reflected by the characters' faltering attempts to understand the people around them. Charles Montgomery, a teacher in the English Interpretation and Translation Division of Dongguk University and the editor of the Korean Literature in Translation website, states that Han's "description of some evil functions of life" is reminiscent of her previous book, "Convalescence", which is a short story about a group of people each of whom have suffered different kinds of trauma. Montgomery argues that "since it's written from the perspective of multiple narrators it achieves a kind of overall verisimilitude and three-dimensional character".


title: The Vegetarian

text: Contrary to what the title might suggest, the book only briefly touches on the philosophy of vegetarianism and the associated diet.


title: The Vegetarian

text: During a 2016 interview, Han Kang stated, "I think this novel has some layers: questioning human violence and the (im)possibility of innocence; defining sanity and madness; the (im)possibility of understanding others, body as the last refuge or the last determination, and some more. It will be inevitable that different aspects are more focused on by different readers and cultural backgrounds. If I could say one thing, this novel isn’t a singular indictment of the Korean patriarchy. I wanted to deal with my long-lasting questions about the possibility/impossibility of innocence in this world, which is mingled with such violence and beauty. These were universal questions that occupied me as I wrote it".


title: The Vegetarian

text: Boyd Tomkin, chairman of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize judging panel, lauded the book for its "disturbing outlook on a subject of vast interest", and Smith's "creative effort for blending beauty and horror". He commented, "This compact, exquisite, and disturbing book will linger long in the minds, and maybe the dreams, of its readers. Deborah Smith's perfectly judged translation matches its uncanny blend of beauty and horror at every turn."


title: The Vegetarian

text: Julia Pascal, writing for "The Independent" said, "It is the women who are killed for daring to establish their own identity. The narrative makes it clear it is the crushing pressure of Korean etiquette which murders them. Han Kang is well served by Deborah Smith's subtle translation in this disturbing book." Porochista Khakpour, writing for "The New York Times", states that the book is nothing like typical stories about vegetarianism that end with "enlightenment". She compares the work with African-Australian author Ceridwen Dovey's novella "Blood Kin", American author Herman Melville's 1853 short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener", Iranian author Sadegh Hedayat's 1937 cult horror story "The Blind Owl", and various journals and works of Czech author Franz Kafka, including "A Hunger Artist".


title: The Vegetarian

text: Calling it "an extraordinary story of family fallout", Daniel Hahn of "The Guardian" wrote, "Sentence by sentence, "The Vegetarian" is an extraordinary experience. Last year’s London Book Fair had Korea as guest of honour, in the hope of tempting English-language publishers to seek out more contemporary Korean novelists, but "The Vegetarian" will be hard to beat. It is sensual, provocative and violent, ripe with potent images, startling colors and disturbing questions." Claire Fallon, writing for "The Huffington Post", called it "an elegant tale, in three parts, of a woman whose sudden turn to veganism disrupts her family and exposes the worst human appetites and impulses". Calling it a melancholic tale of something more than vegetarianism, Thrity Umrigar, writing in "The Boston Globe", described "The Vegetarian" as a tale of a woman torn between a stock of her own cautious and conventional life choices and her family members who are not as innocent as they seem to be.


title: The Vegetarian

text: Gabe Habash of "Publishers Weekly" called it an ingenious, upsetting, and unforgettable novel. He added, "There is much to admire in Han's novel. Its three-part structure is brilliant, gradually digging deeper and deeper into darker and darker places; the writing is spare and haunting; but perhaps most memorable is its crushing climax, a phantasmagoric yet emotionally true moment that's surely one of the year's most powerful". He compared its parts to Patrick Süskind's "Perfume", Herman Koch's "The Dinner", and Hanya Yanagihara's "A Little Life" respectively. Eileen Battersby, writing for "The Irish Times", said, ""The Vegetarian" is more than a cautionary tale about the brutal treatment of women: it is a meditation on suffering and grief. It is about escape and how a dreamer takes flight. Most of all, it is about the emptiness and rage of discovering there is nothing to be done when all hope and comfort fails. For all the graphic, often choreographed description, Han Kang has mastered eloquent restraint in a work of savage beauty and unnerving physicality." Laura Miller, writing for "Slate", compares the straightforward style of writing with works by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami.


title: The Vegetarian

text: The second part of the novella, "Mongolian Mark", was awarded the Yi Sang Literary Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in South Korea.


title: The Vegetarian

text: In 2016, the English translated edition of the book won the Man Booker International Prize for fiction, with the judging panel citing it as "unforgettably powerful and original". The book became the first winner of the prize for which only one work of the author was judged, as compared to previous prizes which were awarded for collective works by an author. The novel beat "The Story of the Lost Child" by the Italian writer Elena Ferrante and "A Strangeness in My Mind" by the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, both of which were considered as frontrunners.


title: The Vegetarian

text: The prize money of 50,000 was shared by Han and Smith. The prize catapulted the book's international sales, as a further 462,000 copies were ordered and printed by Changbi Publishers to assuage the demand. Commenting on the sales, Han said, "I am overwhelmed. I had thought the previous 20,000 copies sold was good enough. I feel that Korean literature is starting to become a trend, now is just the beginning."


title: The Vegetarian

text: In 2009, "The Vegetarian" was adapted into a drama film with the same name by arthouse director Lim Woo-Seong with Chae Min-seo as Young-hye. It was Woo-seong's debut film, and also stars Kim Young-jae, Kim Yeo-jin, and Park Sang-yeon. It was produced by Blue Tree Pictures and Rudolf Film in association with Sponge Entertainment.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap () is an Indian Hindi-language historical fiction series that premiered on 27 May 2013 on Sony Entertainment Television. Produced by Abhimanyu Singh and Rupali Singh under Contiloe Entertainment, it starred Sharad Malhotra, Rachana Parulkar, Faisal Khan and Roshni Walia. The series went off air on 10 December 2015.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: "Bharat Ka Veer Putra - Maharana Pratap" received positive reviews from critics and audience. It won numerous awards and nominations including The Best Historical Show Award.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: From a young age Prince Pratap is a true patriot who, like his ancestors, is a great warrior and treats his land as his mother. He follows the principles and teachings of his mother Jaivanta Bai. Pratap's step-mother Rani Dheerbai plans


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: Pratap's falls in love with his childhood friend Ajabde Punwar and they later get married. Ajabde gives birth to Pratap's eldest son and heir Amar Singh. Ajabde's death during Battle of Haldighati shook Pratap. Pratap also gets married to Phoolbai due to political issues.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: The show traces Maharana Pratap's journey as a loyal son, caring brother, trust worthy lover, loving husband and father, noble king, great warrior and a true patriot. It also traces his struggle against Akbar and the Mughals.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: "Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap" is produced under Contiloe Entertainment. It is based on the life of Maharana Pratap, a sixteenth century ruler of Mewar kingdom.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: Amitabh Bachchan narrated the introductory part of the series in first episode tracing the background of Mewar family and their resistance to Muslim invasions.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: During Pratap and Ajabde's grand wedding, Roshni Walia's outfits were designed by Neerusha Nikhat. The wedding procession went on for almost 15 long days.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: Faisal Khan was cast as the younger version of Maharana Pratap. While Roshni Walia was cast as young Ajabde Punwar and Jannat Zubair Rahmani as young Phoolbai Rathore.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: Post the leap, Sharad Malhotra was cast as elder version of Maharana Pratap. Rachana Parulkar was cast as elder Ajabde Punwar and Heena Parmar was cast as elder Phoolbai Rathore.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: Sahil Deshmukh Khan and Vishal Jethwa were cast as young Akbar. Krip Suri played elder Akbar who was later replaced by Avinesh Rekhi.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: Shakti Anand was cast as Rana Udai Singh II, while Rajshree Thakur was cast as Maharani Jaivanta Bai, marking her TV comeback. Aashka Goradia was cast as Dheer Bai Bhatiyani. Jineet Rath was cast as Amar Singh I, post the leap.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: The series is set in Mewar, Rajasthan. The series was extensively shot in Vapi, Gujarat till July 2014.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: The set was later shifted to Film City, Mumbai. On changing the filming location, producer Abhimanyu Singh said,


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: Post the leap, introductory sequence of Sharad Malhotra, the elder Pratap was shot in Gadisar, Jaisalmer.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: "Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap" premiered on Sony Entertainment Television on 27 May 2013. The series went off air on 10 December 2015. The series had a rerun during the Covid 19 lockdown.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: Certain Rajput groups claimed and protested against the series for wrong portrayal of historical figures. They claimed the series showed Maharana Pratap. "A Rajput prince dressed in Marathi headgear wearing Afghani pants." They protested against the show along with "Jodha Akbar", another historical series that aired on Zee TV.


title: Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap

text: Nikhat Mariyam, costume and jewellery designer of Maharana Pratap, said, "I have done more than 28 costume dramas. I am myself a history student and have done thorough research. It hardly matters if a Rajput boy is wearing a Marathi style headgear. It was very difficult for 15-year-old Faisal Khan to shoot for 20 hours a day, wearing a Rajasthani pagdi for stunts. It was not practical." She adds, "Agar hum historical point of view se serial banayenge to bahut boring ho jayega."


title: Burmese alphabet

text: The Burmese alphabet ( "mranma akkha.ra", ) is an abugida used for writing Burmese. It is ultimately adapted from a Brahmic script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet of South India. The Burmese alphabet is also used for the liturgical languages of Pali and Sanskrit. In recent decades, other, related alphabets, such as Shan and modern Mon, have been restructured according to the standard of the Burmese alphabet (see Mon–Burmese script.)


title: Burmese alphabet

text: Burmese is written from left to right and requires no spaces between words, although modern writing usually contains spaces after each clause to enhance readability and to avoid grammar ambiguity. There are several systems of transliteration into the Latin alphabet; for this article, the MLC Transcription System is used.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: The Burmese alphabet was derived from the Pyu script, the Old Mon script, or directly from a South Indian script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet. The earliest evidence of the Burmese alphabet is dated to 1035, while a casting made in the 18th century of an old stone inscription points to 984. Burmese calligraphy originally followed a square format but the cursive format took hold from the 17th century when popular writing led to the wider use of palm leaves and folded paper known as parabaiks. A stylus would rip these leaves when making straight lines. The alphabet has undergone considerable modification to suit the evolving phonology of the Burmese language.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: As with other Brahmic scripts, the Burmese alphabet is arranged into groups of five letters for stop consonants called "wek" (ဝဂ်, from Pali ) based on articulation. Within each group, the first letter is tenuis ("plain"), the second is the aspirated homologue, the third and fourth are the voiced homologues and the fifth is the nasal homologue. This is true of the first twenty-five letters in the Burmese alphabet, which are called grouped together as "wek byi" (ဝဂ်ဗျည်း, from Pali ). The remaining eight letters (, , , , , , , ) are grouped together as "a wek" (အဝဂ်, ), as they are not arranged in any particular pattern.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: A letter is a consonant or consonant cluster that occurs before the vowel of a syllable. The Burmese alphabet has 33 letters to indicate the initial consonant of a syllable and four diacritics to indicate additional consonants in the onset. Like other abugidas, including the other members of the Brahmic family, vowels are indicated in Burmese alphabet by diacritics, which are placed above, below, before or after the consonant character. A consonant character with no vowel diacritic has the inherent vowel (often reduced to when another syllable follows in the same word).


title: Burmese alphabet

text: The following table provides the letter, the syllable onset in IPA and the way the letter is referred to in Burmese, which may be either a descriptive name or just the sound of the letter, arranged in the traditional order:


title: Burmese alphabet

text: Consonant letters may be modified by one or more medial diacritics (three at most), indicating an additional consonant before the vowel. These diacritics are:


title: Burmese alphabet

text: A few Burmese dialects use an extra diacritic to indicate the /l/ medial, which has merged to /j/ in standard Burmese:


title: Burmese alphabet

text: Letters in the Burmese alphabet are written with a specific stroke order. The letter forms of the Burmese script are based on circles. Typically, one circle should be done with one stroke, and all circles are written clockwise. Exceptions are mostly letters with an opening on top. The circle of these letters is written with two strokes coming from opposite directions.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: The ten following letters are exceptions to the clockwise rule: ပ, ဖ, ဗ, မ, ယ, လ, ဟ, ဃ, ဎ, ဏ. Some versions of stroke order may be slightly different.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: The Burmese stroke order can be learned from ပထမတန်း မြန်မာဖတ်စာ ၂၀၁၇-၂၀၁၈ ("Burmese Grade 1, 2017-2018"), a textbook published by the Burmese Ministry of Education. The book is available under the LearnBig project of UNESCO. Other resources include the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University and an online learning resource published by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: Syllable rhymes (i.e. vowels and any consonants that may follow them within the same syllable) are indicated in Burmese by a combination of diacritic marks and consonant letters marked with the virama character ် which suppresses the inherent vowel of the consonant letter. This mark is called "asat" in Burmese (, ), which means "nonexistence" (see Sat (Sanskrit)).


title: Burmese alphabet

text: One or more of these accents can be added to a consonant to change its sound. In addition, other modifying symbols are used to differentiate tone and sound, but are not considered diacritics.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: "La hswe" (လဆွဲ) used in old Burmese from the Bagan to Innwa periods (12th century - 16th century), and could be combined with other diacritics ("ya pin", "ha hto" and "wa hswe") to form ္လျ ္လွ ္လှ. Similarly, until the Innwa period, "ya pin" was also combined with "ya yit" to form ျြ. From the early Bagan period to the 19th century, ဝ် was used instead of ော် for the rhyme Early Burmese writing also used ဟ်, not the high tone marker း, which came into being in the 16th century. Moreover, အ်, which disappeared by the 16th century, was subscripted to represent creaky tone (now indicated with ့). During the early Bagan period, the rhyme (now represented with the diacritic ဲ) was represented with ါယ်). The diacritic combination ိုဝ် disappeared in the mid-1750s (typically designated as Middle Burmese), having been replaced with the ို combination, introduced in 1638. The standard tone markings found in modern Burmese can be traced to the 19th century.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: Certain sequences of consonants are written one atop the other, or "stacked". A pair of stacked consonants indicates that no vowel is pronounced between them, as for example the "m-bh" in ကမ္ဘာ "kambha" "world". This is equivalent to using a "virama" ် on the first consonant (in this case, the "m"); if the "m" and "bh" were not stacked, the inherent vowel "a" would be assumed (*ကမဘာ "kamabha"). As Stacked consonants are always homorganic (pronounced in the same place in the mouth), which is indicated by the traditional arrangement of the Burmese alphabet into five-letter rows of letters called ဝဂ်. Consonants not found in a row beginning with "k, c, t," or "p" can only be doubled – that is, stacked with themselves.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: When stacked, the first consonant (the final of the preceding syllable, in this case "m") is written as usual, while the second consonant (the onset of the following syllable, in this case "bh") is subscripted beneath it.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: Stacked consonants are largely confined to loan words from languages like Pali, Sanskrit, and occasionally English. For instance, the Burmese word for "self" (via Pali ) is spelt အတ္တ, not *အတ်တ, although both would be read the same. Stacked consonants are generally not found in native Burmese words, with a major exception being abbreviation. For example, the Burmese word သမီး "daughter" is sometimes abbreviated to သ္မီး, even though the stacked consonants do not belong to the same row and a vowel is pronounced between. Similarly, လက်ဖက် "tea" is commonly abbreviated to လ္ဘက်. Also, "ss" is written ဿ, not သ္သ.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: A decimal numbering system is used, and numbers are written in the same order as Hindu–Arabic numerals.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: The digits from zero to nine are: ၀၁၂၃၄၅၆၇၈၉ (Unicode 1040 to 1049). The number 1945 would be written as ၁၉၄၅. Separators, such as commas, are not used to group numbers.


title: Burmese alphabet

text: There are two primary break characters in Burmese, drawn as one or two downward strokes: ၊ (called ပုဒ်ဖြတ်, ပုဒ်ကလေး, ပုဒ်ထီး, or တစ်ချောင်းပုဒ်) and ။ (called ပုဒ်ကြီး, ပုဒ်မ, or နှစ်ချောင်းပုဒ်), which respectively act as a comma and a full stop. There is a Shan exclamation mark ႟. Other abbreviations used in literary Burmese are:


title: Alpha Blondy

text: Seydou Koné (; born January 1, 1953 in Dimbokro), better known by his stage name Alpha Blondy, is an Ivorian reggae singer and international recording artist. Many of his songs are politically and socially motivated, and are mainly sung in his native language Dyula, French and English, though he occasionally uses other languages, for example, Arabic or Hebrew.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: The first son of a family of eight children, Seydou Koné was raised by his grandmother in an environment described by him as "among elders", which was to have a big impact on his career. In 1962, Alpha Blondy joined his father in Odienné, where he spent ten years, attended Sainte Elisabeth High School, and was involved in the Ivory Coast students movement. He formed a band in high school, but this affected his schooling and he was expelled for poor attendance. His parents sent him to study English in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, in 1973. He spent thirteen months there and then moved to the United States to improve his English.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: In 1974, Seydou moved to New York where he majored in English at Hunter College and the Columbia University American Language Program, pursuing a career in teaching. In New York, he was introduced to Rastafari and attended concerts by Jamaican artists including Burning Spear. Seydou was involved in multiple altercations before returning to the Ivory Coast where he encountered further trouble until he reunited with his childhood friend, Fulgence Kassi, who had become a noted television producer. This was the beginning of his career as a musician, and he adopted the alias "Alpha Blondy".


title: Alpha Blondy

text: After various TV shows for Kassi, Blondy recorded his first solo album in 1982, entitled "Jah Glory". This album was to have enormous success and would become later a symbol of resistance because of the song "Brigadier Sabari," which documents his experience of being arrested in Abidjan in the 1980s and his subsequent mistreatment by the police. Alpha Blondy became a big star in Abidjan with his African twist of Reggae music, becoming in the eyes of his fans "the Bob Marley of Africa". Alpha Blondy is spiritual, political and positive just like Marley himself, and recorded a cover of Bob Marley's song "War". In order to reach more people with his message, he chose to sing in many languages: English; French; Baoulé, and his native language – Dioula. Later, he also brought new instrumentation to his brand of reggae such as the violin and cello.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: Soon, the fame of Alpha Blondy spread to Europe. Following the success of an EP entitled "Rasta Poué", he went to Paris in 1984 to make his second album, "Cocody Rock", with the label Pathe Marconi. The "Bob Marley of Africa" travelled to the island of Jamaica and recorded the title track of this album with Marley's backing group, The Wailers.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: Back home in 1985, Blondy went into the studio to record "Apartheid Is Nazism"; the title song was a call for the end of apartheid. In 1986, he recorded “Jerusalem” at Tuff Gong studios in Jamaica, again with The Wailers featuring legendary Aston "Family Man" Barrett. Blondy tried to promote unity between the religion of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. He drew his arguments and inspiration from his own diverse knowledge of the Bible, the Quran, and the Torah. That same year, he sang in Hebrew during a concert in Morocco. At this point, he was continuously touring. His new album "Revolution" had a lighter, gentler sound; this album featured cellos in the instrumentation, and the line-up included veteran Ivory Coast singer Aicha Kone. The album also included "Jah Houphouët parle", a long speech by Ivory Coast president Félix Houphouët-Boigny with only the most minimal beat behind it.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: Blondy spent the years 1987–89 giving concerts and recording "SOS Guerre Tribale" in Abidjan. This was promoted by Blondy himself, as he was distancing himself from Pathe Marconi at this stage. This was not to be a real success but it did not deter Blondy and in 1991 he returned to Europe for a concert tour and to record his famous album "Masada" with the help of musical legends such as Bocana Maiga and UK reggae producer Dennis Bovell. The album, with its hit single "Rendez Vous", was a huge success, and Blondy was later to receive his first Gold Disc in Paris.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: At the beginning of 1993, worn out from a world tour, Blondy succumbed to depression and was taken into an institution for psychiatric help. But as his health recovered he recorded the album "Dieu" ("God"), on which he appears more spiritual and religious, on tracks such as "Heal Me", about his illness and recovery.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: Blondy's psychiatric treatment continued but on 10 December 1994, he was back with the festival in memory of President Houphouet, and later he made his European comeback at a storming concert at Le Zenith in Paris. In 1996, Blondy released a hits compilation and went back into the studio to record the album "Grand Bassam Zion", singing in six languages: Malinke; Arabic; French; English; Ashanti and Wolof.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: After two more years in Paris, Blondy returned to his homeland in 1998, with a new album, "The Prophet". Convinced his label was too focused on the international market, he decided to create his own label. Since then he has recorded albums and singles, such as "Yitzhak Rabin", in memory of the Israeli prime minister who was assassinated in 1995 (this was accompanied by a grueling tour of Europe), the single "Journaliste en Danger" from his 2000 album "Elohim".


title: Alpha Blondy

text: Alpha Blondy celebrated 20 years as a recording artist with the 2002 release of CD "MERCI", featuring Ophelie Winter and Saian Supa Crew, which earned him a 2003 Grammy Award nomination for "Best Reggae Album". However, due to the political situation in Ivory Coast, he was unable to personally attend the award ceremony in New York City. In an unprecedented move, the Grammy Awards permitted him to send a representative in his place of honour.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: His CD "Jah Victory" was released July 2007. It features Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, as well as Tyrone Downie formerly of Bob Marley and the Wailers. "Victory" is in honor of the peace agreement that was reached and implemented in the Ivory Coast in March 2007.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: On 19 July 2009, Blondy performed at New York's Central Park before a crowd of many native Africans, Jamaicans, and Americans.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: On 13 June 2010, a large crowd was allowed into a Blondy concert in the Ivory Coast to celebrate the peace and unity of the country. Overcrowded conditions at the concert resulted in at least 20 people being injured, two of whom died.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: On 27 June 2010, Alpha Blondy was the closing act at Parkpop, The Hague, Netherlands. He replaced Snoop Dogg and Beenie Man.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: In November 2014 singer/songwriter Jonathan Wilson released an EP called "Slide By" featuring the song "Alpha Blondy Was King".


title: Alpha Blondy

text: Released in January 2015, the Roots Reggae Library featured an edition on Alpha Blondy with interpretations and translations of songs in all languages, including those in Dioula.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: Alpha Blondy was born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother, and was brought up by a grandmother "who taught him to love everyone". Blondy's respect for all religions and the spirituality he derives from them can be heard on the tracks “God is One” or “Jerusalem” where he sang for unity among all religions in 1986.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: In 2005, Alpha Blondy was named United Nations Ambassador of Peace for Côte d'Ivoire. He made great efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to his country's political and physical division which was a result of an attempted coup in 2001. As of March 2007 a peace agreement was signed and implemented, due to the hard work of many people including Alpha Blondy. Alpha now reaches out further with the newly created not-for-profit, non-government, non-political, charitable foundation, Alpha Blondy Jah Glory Foundation, which works towards ending social injustice and generational poverty by giving people the tools that they need to help themselves. He strongly believes in helping the poor (Jah Glory), and also that children should not be hurt. The Foundation strives to create and implement grassroots programs at the village level, such as the Women's Self-Sufficiency Micro Loan Program, to teach women who are caring for multiple orphans how to start and manage their own business, to better provide for their families, as well as other sustainable projects, such as the Tafari-Genesis Retreat Camp for Children (Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso). It especially hopes to bring joy and hope to children who have been affected by civil wars, former child soldiers, and those who suffer from chronic life-threatening illnesses, such as sickle-cell anemia, malaria, asthma, etc.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: Alpha Blondy continues to fight for peace and unity all around the world through music. A recent example is his single “Who Are You” with Ophélie Winter against antipersonnel mines. He has also participated at many humanitarian and charity concerts, such as the concert in Senegal in March 2006 for the eradication of Malaria in Africa (where he appeared along with many other celebrities). He also continues this work in Ivory Coast itself, at his annual free concert at Bassam beach called “festa”.


title: Alpha Blondy

text: In 2014, he sang "On n'oublie pas" (written by Serge Bilé) with several artists and personalities including Jocelyne Béroard, Harry Roselmack and Admiral T. This song is a tribute to the 152 victims from Martinique of the crash of 16 August 2005, to remember this event and to help the AVCA, the association of the victims of the air disaster, to raise funds.


title: Tim Davie

text: Timothy Douglas Davie (born 25 April 1967 in Croydon, London) is the current and seventeenth Director-General of the BBC. He succeeded Tony Hall in the role on 1 September 2020. Davie was formerly the chief executive officer of BBC Studios. He served as acting Director-General of the BBC following George Entwistle's resignation in November 2012 until Lord Hall took over the role permanently in April 2013. During his time as acting director-general he oversaw the investigations into BBC management and conduct following revelations the broadcaster had known about sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile.


title: Tim Davie

text: Davie won a scholarship to attend Whitgift School in Croydon, and studied English at Selwyn College, Cambridge, being the first in his family to attend university. He joined Procter & Gamble as a trainee in 1991.


title: Tim Davie

text: Appointed UK Marketing Manager for PepsiCo in 1993, Davie was subsequently promoted to Vice-President, Marketing, Europe and Sub-Sahara Africa, holding several similar appointments, including in the United States, before taking up the Vice-President for Marketing and Franchise post.


title: Tim Davie

text: Davie stood as a councillor for the Conservative Party in Hammersmith in 1993 and 1994 and was deputy chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative party in the 1990s.


title: Tim Davie

text: Davie joined the BBC as Director of Marketing, Communications and Audiences in April 2005, succeeding Andy Duncan. He was Director-General Mark Thompson's first senior external appointment.