title: Othello (1995 film)

text: Othello is a 1995 drama film based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. It was directed by Oliver Parker and stars Laurence Fishburne as Othello, Irène Jacob as Desdemona, and Kenneth Branagh as Iago. This is the first cinematic reproduction of the play released by a major studio that casts an African American actor to play the role of Othello, although low-budget independent films of the play starring Ted Lange and Yaphet Kotto predated it.


title: Othello (1995 film)

text: This film is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Othello". Othello, a Moor who has secretly married his native Venetian lover Desdemona, is assigned to fight against a Turkish invasion attempt on the island of Cyprus. During the battle, he was accompanied by his faithful lieutenant, Cassio. When Othello finally arrives at Cyprus, however, the Turkish invasion fleet has been wrecked by a storm, and, reunited with Desdemona, who had volunteered herself to go with him, leads his men and the people of Cyprus in a celebration.


title: Othello (1995 film)

text: Iago, Othello's trusted companion and ensign, envies Othello's prosperous life and Cassio's lieutenancy and, convinced that both of them had slept with his own wife, Emilia, plans to ruin both by manipulating Othello into believing that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio and is pregnant with Cassio's child. He arouses Othello's suspicion and jealousy gradually and then plants Desdemona's handkerchief in Cassio's clothing for Othello to find. When he does, he is convinced of Desdemona's infidelity and, in a rage, decides to kill both her and Cassio.


title: Othello (1995 film)

text: Othello smothers Desdemona, who dies just as Emilia enters the bedroom. Emilia then tells Othello the truth behind Iago's lies and he realizes what he has done. The authorities and Othello turn on Iago, and, after a running fight, capture and beat him. In despair, Othello stabs and wounds Iago. Othello then kills himself, and Iago is taken away to be tortured and executed.


title: Othello (1995 film)

text: The film received largely positive reviews, especially for Branagh's Iago. Branagh was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wrote: "Mr. Branagh's superb performance, as the man whose Machiavellian scheming guides the story of Othello's downfall, guarantees this film an immediacy that any audience will understand. ... Mr. Fishburne's performance has a dangerous edge that ultimately works to its advantage, and he smolders movingly through the most anguished parts of the role. ... Anna Patrick is particularly transfixing in the role of Emilia, Iago's wife and Desdemona's servant, who scathingly articulates some of the play's feminist undercurrents."


title: Othello (1995 film)

text: As of May 2022, the film holds a rating of 68% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 40 reviews with the consensus: "Perhaps less than the sum of its parts, "Othello" is still highly entertaining and features excellent performances from Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh."


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions (i.e. "faiths") and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels. It is distinct from syncretism or alternative religion, in that dialogue often involves promoting understanding between different religions or beliefs to increase acceptance of others, rather than to synthesize new beliefs.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The Archdiocese of Chicago's Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs defines "the difference between ecumenical, interfaith, and interreligious relations", as follows:


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Some interfaith dialogues have more recently adopted the name interbelief dialogue, while other proponents have proposed the term interpath dialogue, to avoid implicitly excluding atheists, agnostics, humanists, and others with no religious faith but with ethical or philosophical beliefs, as well as to be more accurate concerning many world religions that do not place the same emphasis on "faith" as do some Western religions. Similarly, pluralistic rationalist groups have hosted public reasoning dialogues to transcend all worldviews (whether religious, cultural or political), termed transbelief dialogue. To some, the term interreligious dialogue has the same meaning as interfaith dialogue. Neither are the same as nondenominational Christianity. The World Council of Churches states: “Following the lead of the Roman Catholic Church, other churches and Christian


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Throughout the world there are local, regional, national and international interfaith initiatives; many are formally or informally linked and constitute larger networks or federations. The often quoted "There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions" was formulated by Hans Küng, a Professor of Ecumenical Theology and President of the Global Ethic Foundation. Interfaith dialogue forms a major role in the study of religion and peacebuilding.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: History records examples of interfaith initiatives throughout the ages, with varying levels of success in establishing one of three types of "dialogue" to engender, as recently described, either understanding, teamwork, or tolerance:


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The historical effectiveness of interfaith dialogue is an issue of debate. Friar James L. Heft, in a lecture on "The Necessity of Inter-Faith Diplomacy," spoke about the conflicts among practitioners of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Noting that except for the Convivencia in the 14th and 15th centuries, believers in these religions have either kept their distance or have been in conflict, Heft maintains, "there has been very little genuine dialogue" between them. "The sad reality has been that most of the time Jews, Muslims and Christians have remained ignorant about each other, or worse, especially in the case of Christians and Muslims, attacked each other."


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In contrast, The Pluralism Project at Harvard University says, "Every religious tradition has grown through the ages in dialogue and historical interaction with others. Christians, Jews, and Muslims have been part of one another's histories, have shared not only villages and cities, but ideas of God and divine revelation."


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The importance of Abrahamic interfaith dialogue in the present has been bluntly presented: "We human beings today face a stark choice: dialogue or death!"


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The United States Institute of Peace published works on interfaith dialogue and peacebuilding including a Special Report on Evaluating Interfaith Dialogue


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The above section recounts a "long history of interfaith dialogue". However, a 2014 article in" The Huffington Post" said that "religious intolerance is still a concern that threatens to undermine the hard work of devoted activists over the decades". Nevertheless, the article expressed hope that continuing "interfaith dialogue can change this".


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: A PhD thesis "Dialogue Between Christians, Jews and Muslims" argues that "the paramount need is for barriers against non-defensive dialogue conversations between Christians, Jews, and Muslims to be dismantled to facilitate development of common understandings on matters that are deeply divisive". As of 2012, the thesis says that this has not been done.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Interfaith and multi-faith interactivity is integral to the teachings of the Baháʼí Faith. Its founder Bahá'u'lláh enjoined his followers to "consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship". Baháʼís are often at the forefront of local inter-faith activities and efforts. Through the Baháʼí International Community agency, the Baháʼís also participate at a global level in inter-religious dialogue both through and outside of the United Nations processes.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In 2002 the Universal House of Justice, the global governing body of the Baháʼís, issued a letter to the religious leadership of all faiths in which it identified religious prejudice as one of the last remaining "isms" to be overcome, enjoining such leaders to unite in an effort to root out extreme and divisive religious intolerance.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The fourteenth century Zen master Gasan Joseki indicated that the Gospels were written by an enlightened being:


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The 14th Dalai Lama has done a great deal of interfaith work throughout his life. He believes that the "common aim of all religions, an aim that everyone must try to find, is to foster tolerance, altruism and love". He met with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in 1973. He met with Pope John Paul II in 1980 and also later in 1982, 1986, 1988, 1990, and 2003. During 1990, he met in Dharamsala with a delegation of Jewish teachers for an extensive interfaith dialogue. He has since visited Israel three times and met during 2006 with the Chief Rabbi of Israel. In 2006, he met privately with Pope Benedict XVI. He has also met the late Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Robert Runcie, and other leaders of the Anglican Church in London, Gordon B. Hinckley, late President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), as well as senior Eastern Orthodox Church, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and Sikh officials.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In 2010, the Dalai Lama was joined by Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, and Islamic scholar Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University when Emory University's Center for the Study of Law and Religion hosted a "Summit on Happiness".


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Traditional Christian doctrine is Christocentric, meaning that Christ is held to be the sole full and true revelation of the will of God for humanity. In a Christocentric view, the elements of truth in other religions are understood in relation to the fullness of truth found in Christ. God is nevertheless understood to be free of human constructions. Therefore, God the Holy Spirit is understood as the power who guides non-Christians in their search for truth, which is held to be a search for the mind of Christ, even if "anonymously," in the phrase of Catholic theologian Karl Rahner. For those who support this view, anonymous Christians belong to Christ now and forever and lead a life fit for Jesus' commandment to love, even though they never explicitly understand the meaning of their life in Christian terms.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: While the conciliar document "Nostra aetate" has fostered widespread dialogue, the declaration Dominus Iesus nevertheless reaffirms the centrality of the person of Jesus Christ in the spiritual and cultural identity of Christians, rejecting various forms of syncretism.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Pope John Paul II was a major advocate of interfaith dialogue, promoting meetings in Assisi in the 1980s. Pope Benedict XVI took a more moderate and cautious approach, stressing the need for intercultural dialogue, but reasserting Christian theological identity in the revelation of Jesus of Nazareth in a book published with Marcello Pera in 2004. In 2013, Pope Francis became the first Catholic leader to call for "sincere and rigorous" interbelief dialogue with atheists, both to counter the assertion that Christianity is necessarily an "expression of darkness of superstition that is opposed to the light of reason," and to assert that "dialogue is not a secondary accessory of the existence of the believer" but instead is a "profound and indispensable expression ... [of] faith [that] is not intransigent, but grows in coexistence that respects the other."


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In traditional Christian doctrine, the value of inter-religious dialogue had been confined to acts of love and understanding toward others either as anonymous Christians or as potential converts.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In mainline Protestant traditions, however, as well as in the emerging church, these doctrinal constraints have largely been cast off. Many theologians, pastors, and lay people from these traditions do not hold to uniquely Christocentric understandings of how God was in Christ. They engage deeply in interfaith dialogue as learners, not converters, and desire to celebrate as fully as possible the many paths to God.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Much focus in Christian interfaith dialogue has been put on Christian–Jewish reconciliation. One of the oldest successful dialogues between Jews and Christians has been taking place in Mobile, Alabama. It began in the wake of the call of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) of the Roman Catholic Church for increased understanding between Christians and Jews. The organization has recently moved its center of activity to Spring Hill College, a Catholic Jesuit institution of higher learning located in Mobile. Reconciliation has been successful on many levels, but has been somewhat complicated by the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East, where a significant minority of Arabs are Christian.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The Modern Orthodox movement allows narrow exchanges on social issues, while warning to be cautious in discussion of doctrine.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Building positive relations between Jews and members of other religious communities has been an integral component of Reform Judaism's "DNA" since the movement was founded in Germany during the early 19th century, according to Rabbi A. James Rudin. It began with Israel Jacobson, a layman and pioneer in the development of what emerged as Reform Judaism, who established an innovative religious school in Sessen, Germany in 1801 that initially had 40 Jewish and 20 Christian students. "Jacobson's innovation of a 'mixed' student body reflected his hopes for a radiant future between Jews and Christians."


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Moravian born Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, who founded the Reform movement in the United States, sought close relations with Christian church leaders. To that end, he published a series of lectures in 1883 entitled "Judaism and Christianity: Their Agreements and Disagreements". Wise emphasized what he believed linked the two religions in an inextricable theological and human bond: the biblical "Sinaitic revelation" as "... the acknowledged law of God". Rabbi Leo Baeck, the leader of the German Jewish community who survived his incarceration in the Terezin concentration camp, offered these words in his 1949 presidential address to the World Union for Progressive Judaism in London: "...as in a great period of the Middle Ages, [Jews and Muslims] are ...almost compelled to face each other... not only in the sphere of policy [the State of Israel in the Middle East], but also in the sphere of religion; there is the great hope... they will ...meet each other on joint roads, in joint tasks, in joint confidences in the future. There is the great hope that Judaism can thus become the builder of a bridge, the 'pontifex' between East and West."


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In the 1950s and 60s, as interfaith civic partnerships between Jews and Christians in the United States became more numerous, especially in the suburbs, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism, URJ) created a department mainly to promote positive Christian-Jewish relations and civic partnerships. Interfaith relations have since been expanded to include Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and members of other faith communities.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In 2013, Rabbi Marc Schneier and Imam Shamsi Ali coauthored a book "Sons of Abraham: A Candid Conversation about the Issues That Divide and Unite Jews and Muslims".


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Schneier and Ali write about the importance of civil interfaith discussions. Based on their experience, Schneier and Ali believe that other "Jews and Muslims can realize that they are actually more united than divided in their core beliefs".


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Interests in interfaith relations require an awareness of the range of Jewish views on such subjects as mission and the holy land.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Islam has long encouraged dialogue to reach truth. Dialogue is particularly encouraged amongst the People of the Book (Jews, Christians and Muslims) as the Quran states, "Say, "O People of the Scripture, come to a word that is equitable between us and you – that we will not worship except Allah and not associate anything with Him and not take one another as lords instead of Allah." But if they turn away, then say, "Bear witness that we are Muslims [submitting to Him]" [3:64].


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Many traditional and religious texts and customs of the faith have encouraged this, including specific verses in the Quran, such as: "O people! Behold, we have created you from a male and a female and have made you into nations and tribes so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware" [Qur'an 49:13].


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In recent times, Muslim theologians have advocated inter-faith dialogue on a large scale, something which is new in a political sense. The declaration A Common Word of 2007 was a public first in Christian-Islam relations, trying to work out a moral common ground on many social issues. This common ground was stated as "part of the very foundational principles of both faiths: love of the One God, and love of the neighbour". The declaration asserted that "these principles are found over and over again in the sacred texts of Islam and Christianity".


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: A 2003 book called "Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism" contains a chapter by Amir Hussain on "Muslims, Pluralism, and Interfaith Dialogue" in which he shows how interfaith dialogue has been an integral part of Islam from its beginning. Hussain writes that "Islam would not have developed if it had not been for interfaith dialogue". From his "first revelation" for the rest of his life, Muhammad was "engaged in interfaith dialogue" and "pluralism and interfaith dialogue" have always been important to Islam. For example, when some of Muhammad's followers suffered "physical persecution" in Mecca, he sent them to Abyssinia, a Christian nation, where they were "welcomed and accepted" by the Christian king. Another example is Córdoba, Andalusia in Muslim Spain, in the ninth and tenth centuries. Córdoba was "one of the most important cities in the history of the world". In it, "Christians and Jews were involved in the Royal Court and the intellectual life of the city". Thus, there is "a history of Muslims, Jews, Christians, and other religious traditions living together in a pluralistic society". Turning to the present, Hussain writes that in spite of Islam's history of "pluralism and interfaith dialogue", Muslims now face the challenge of conflicting passages in the Qur'an some of which support interfaith "bridge-building", but others can be used "justify mutual exclusion".


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In October 2010, as a representative of Shia Islam, Ayatollah Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad, professor at the Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran, addressed the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Catholic Bishops. In the address he spoke about "the rapport between Islam and Christianity" that has existed throughout the history of Islam as one of "friendship, respect and mutual understanding".


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In 2013, Rabbi Marc Schneier (Jewish) and Imam Shamsi Ali (Muslim) coauthored a book "Sons of Abraham" with the subtitle "A Candid Conversation about the Issues That Divide and Unite Jews and Muslims". As Rabbi Marc Schneier and Imam Shamsi Ali show, "by reaching a fuller understanding of one another's faith traditions, Jews and Muslims can realize that they are actually more united than divided in their core beliefs". By their fuller understanding, they became "defenders of each other's religion, denouncing the twin threats of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and promoting interfaith cooperation". In the book, regarding the state of Jewish-Muslim dialogue, although Rabbi Schneier acknowledges a "tremendous growth", he does not think that "we are where we want to be".


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was founded in 1889. Its members "exceeding tens of millions" live in 206 countries. It rejects "terrorism in any form". It broadcasts its "message of peace and tolerance" over a satellite television channel MTA International Live Streaming, on its internet website, and by its Islam International Publications. A 2010 story in the BBC News said that the Ahmadi "is regarded by orthodox Muslims as heretical", The story also reported persecution and violent attacks against the Ahmadi.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: According to the Ahmadiyya understanding, interfaith dialogues are an integral part of developing inter-religious peace and the establishment of peace. The Ahmadiyya Community has been organising interfaith events locally and nationally in various parts of the world in order to develop a better atmosphere of love and understanding between faiths. Various speakers are invited to deliver a talk on how peace can be established from their own or religious perspectives.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In her 2008 book "The Im-Possibility of Interreligious Dialogue", Catherine Cornille outlines her preconditions for "constructive and enriching dialogue between religions". In summary, they include "doctrinal humility, commitment to a particular religion, interconnection, empathy, and hospitality". In full, they include the following:


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Breaking down the walls that divides faiths while respecting the uniqueness of each tradition requires the courageous embrace of all these preconditions.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In 2016, President Obama made two speeches that outlined preconditions for meaningful interfaith dialogue: On February 3, 2016, he spoke at the Islamic Society of Baltimore and on February 4, 2016, at the National Prayer Breakfast. The eight principles of interfaith relations as outlined by Obama were as follows:


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations is an initiative to prevent violence and support social cohesion by promoting intercultural and interfaith dialogue. The UNAOC was proposed by the President of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the 59th General Assembly of the United Nations in 2005. It was co-sponsored by the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In 2008, Anwarul Karim Chowdhury said: "Interfaith dialogue is absolutely essential, relevant, and necessary. ... If 2009 is to truly be the Year of Interfaith Cooperation, the U.N. urgently needs to appoint an interfaith representative at a senior level in the Secretariat."


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The Republic of the Philippines will host a Special Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial Meeting on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace and Development from March 16 to 18 in Manila. During the meeting, to be attended by ministers of foreign affairs of the NAM member countries, a declaration in support of interfaith dialogue initiatives will be adopted. An accompanying event will involve civil society activities.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In 2010, HM King Abdullah II addressed the 65th UN General Assembly and proposed the idea for a 'World Interfaith Harmony Week' to further broaden his goals of faith-driven world harmony by extending his call beyond the Muslim and Christian community to include people of all beliefs, those with no set religious beliefs as well. A few weeks later, HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad presented the proposal to the UN General Assembly, where it was adopted unanimously as a UN Observance Event. The first week of February, every year, has been declared a UN World Interfaith Harmony Week. The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre released a document which summarises the key events leading up to the UN resolution as well as documenting some Letters of Support and Events held in honour of the week.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects the concept of interfaith dialogue, stating that it is a western tool to enforce non-Islamic policies in the Islamic world.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Many Traditionalist Catholics, not merely Sedevacantists or the Society of St. Pius X, are critical of interfaith dialogue as a harmful novelty arising after the Second Vatican Council, which is said to have altered the previous notion of the Catholic Church's supremacy over other religious groups or bodies, as well as demoted traditional practices associated with traditional Roman Catholicism. In addition, these Catholics contend that, for the sake of collegial peace, tolerance and mutual understanding, interreligious dialogue devalues the divinity of Jesus Christ and the revelation of the Triune God by placing Christianity on the same footing as other religions that worship other deities. Evangelical Christians also critical for dialogues with Catholics.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Religious sociologist Peter L. Berger argued that one can reject interfaith dialogue on moral grounds in certain cases. The example he gave was that of a dialogue with imams who legitimate ISIS, saying such discussions ought to be avoided so as not to legitimate a morally repugnant theology.


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: In the case of Hinduism, it has been argued that the so-called interfaith "dialogue ... has [in fact] become the harbinger of violence. This is not because 'outsiders' have studied Hinduism or because the Hindu participants are religious 'fundamentalists' but because of the logical requirements of such a dialogue". With a detailed analysis of "two examples from Hinduism studies", S.N. Balagangadhara and Sarah Claerhout argue that, "in certain dialogical situations, the requirements of reason conflict with the requirements of morality".


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: The theological foundations of interreligious dialogue have also been critiqued on the grounds that any interpretation of another faith tradition will be predicated on a particular cultural, historical and anthropological perspective


title: Interfaith dialogue

text: Some critics of interfaith dialogue may not object to dialogue itself, but instead are critical of specific events claiming to carry on the dialogue. For example, the French Algerian prelate Pierre Claverie was at times critical of formal inter-religious conferences between Christians and Muslims which he felt remained too basic and surface-level. He shunned those meetings since he believed them to be generators of slogans and for the glossing over of theological differences. However, he had such an excellent knowledge of Islam that the people of Oran called him "the Bishop of the Muslims" which was a title that must have pleased him since he had dreamed of establishing true dialogue among all believers irrespective of faith or creed. Claverie also believed that the Islamic faith was authentic in practice focusing on people rather than on theories. He said that: "dialogue is a work to which we must return without pause: it alone lets us disarm the fanaticism; both our own and that of the other". He also said that "Islam knows how to be tolerant". In 1974 he joined a branch of Cimade which was a French NGO dedicated to aiding the oppressed and minorities.


title: Raquel Castro

text: Raquel Castro is an American actress and singer. She is known for starring in the 2004 film "Jersey Girl" as Gertie Trinké, the daughter of Ollie Trinké (Ben Affleck) and Gertrude Steiney (Jennifer Lopez), for which Castro won the Young Artist Award for the Best Performance in a Feature Film – Young Actress Age Ten or Younger. She was a contestant in the American version of "The Voice".


title: Raquel Castro

text: Castro made her acting debut in an episode of the television series, "Third Watch". She then played the daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's characters in the 2004 film "Jersey Girl", directed by Kevin Smith. She appeared in a 2005 episode of "" entitled "" and in the independent film "Little Fugitive". Castro appeared in two second-season episodes of "Liv & Maddie" ("BFF-A-Rooney" and "SPARF-A-Rooney") as Liv's best friend South.


title: Raquel Castro

text: In 2006, she was cast as Nicole in the music video for the Ludacris song "Runaway Love" with Mary J. Blige, where she plays an abused self-conscious girl who runs away. She later was featured in the 2007 independent film, "Tracks of Color". She has a role in "The Ministers" (2009), starring John Leguizamo. Raquel also spent quite a few years at a dance studio with her younger brother on Long Island.


title: Raquel Castro

text: Castro was a contestant on the first season of the reality television singing competition program "The Voice", She was selected in the Blind Audition round and was coached by Christina Aguilera. She progressed to the first round of the Live shows before being eliminated with Lily Elise in favor of Frenchie Davis and Beverly McClellan.


title: Raquel Castro

text: Castro recorded a cover of Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man" and posted it on YouTube. Castro has also listed Christina Aguilera and Selena as her idols and major influences.


title: Raquel Castro

text: Castro released her first single titled "Diary". According to her YouTube page, the song was written by Alyssa Bonagura and Ted Bruner. It was produced by J Chris Griffin. It was released on iTunes and CDBaby on February 1, 2012. She has uploaded the music video for "Diary" on YouTube and recorded a dance remix of the song, released on March 11, 2012. The remix was released under the title "Diary (J Chris Griffin Remix)". She is also working on her debut album.


title: Raquel Castro

text: A single called "Game Over" was released on January 29, 2013. Castro wrote it with the help of the IDA Program.


title: Raquel Castro

text: Castro was also on season 2 of NBC's "Songland", where she presented her song "Wrong Places" to H.E.R., where she picked her song to put on her album.


title: Kris Letang

text: Kristopher Joseph Pierre Irwin Letang (born April 24, 1987) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and alternate captain for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He played juniors in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) for three seasons, during which time he was selected 62nd overall by the Penguins in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. In his second full NHL season, Letang won the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh, in 2009, he became a two-time Stanley Cup champion when the Penguins defeated the San Jose Sharks in 2016, and a three-time Stanley Cup champion when the Penguins defeated the Nashville Predators in 2017. Internationally, he has competed for Canada at the under-18 and under-20 levels, winning back-to-back gold medals at the World Junior Championships in 2006 and 2007.


title: Kris Letang

text: Letang played major junior hockey for the Val-d'Or Foreurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for three seasons. After recording 32 points in his junior rookie season, he was named to the QMJHL and the CHL All-Rookie Team. That summer, he was drafted in the third round, 62nd overall, in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins. The next season, a 68-point effort in just 60 games earned him QMJHL First Team All-Star honours.


title: Kris Letang

text: Making the Penguins out of training camp, Letang made his NHL debut in the 2006–07 season. He scored his first NHL goal in his third game, against Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers in a 6–5 win. However, after two goals in seven games, Letang was scratched twice and then returned to Val-d'Or for further development. Playing in his third season with Val-d'Or, he led the Foreurs to the 2007 QMJHL Finals with 31 points in the post-season, only to be swept by the Lewiston MAINEiacs in four games. Upon the Foreurs' elimination, he was assigned to the Pittsburgh Penguins' American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, who were in the second round of the Calder Cup playoffs, and recorded an assist in his only game. At season's end, he was the recipient of three major QMJHL awards. In addition to receiving the Emile Bouchard Trophy as the QMJHL's best defenceman and the Paul Dumont Trophy as the best personality, Letang also received the Kevin Lowe Trophy, as the best defensive defenceman, indicative of Letang's abilities on both ends of the ice.


title: Kris Letang

text: After beginning the 2007–08 season in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Letang was quickly recalled by Pittsburgh after recording seven points in ten games in the AHL. Letang excelled in his rookie season with Pittsburgh and was invited to the 2008 NHL YoungStars Game during All-Star weekend, alongside teammate Tyler Kennedy. He completed the season with 17 points in 63 games, sixth among rookie defencemen. Making his Stanley Cup playoffs debut, Letang helped the Penguins to the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals, where they were defeated in six games by the Detroit Red Wings.


title: Kris Letang

text: Entering the 2008–09 season, the Penguins' top two defencemen, Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney, were both put on the long-term injured reserve, immediately increasing Letang's responsibilities on the team's blueline. He was placed on the Penguins top defensive pairing with Brooks Orpik, replacing Gonchar. The increased playing time resulted in a 10-goal, 33-point season, leading all team defencemen. During the season, Letang was also invited to his second NHL YoungStars Game during the 2009 All-Star weekend in his hometown of Montreal, playing for the Sophomores team.


title: Kris Letang

text: After the Penguins eliminated the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round, Letang scored his first career NHL playoff goal in game three of the second round against the Washington Capitals on May 6, 2009, in overtime. Letang's playing status for the game had been uncertain due to a suspected shoulder injury resulting from a Mike Green hit received in Game 3. Nevertheless, his game-winning goal cut the Capitals' series lead to 2–1, helping Pittsburgh overcome the initial 2–0 series deficit and win in seven games. Advancing to the Finals, they met the Red Wings for the second consecutive year. Letang scored one goal in the series, in Game 3, helping the Penguins defeat the Red Wings in seven games. They won the Stanley Cup on June 12, 2009, winning the deciding game 2–1 at the Joe Louis Arena. Letang finished the post-season with 4 goals and 13 points over 23 games.


title: Kris Letang

text: The following season, Letang recorded a career-low three goals to go with 24 assists. Late in the regular season, Letang signed a four-year contract extension through to the 2013–14 season on March 30, 2010, worth an annual salary of $3.5 million. Entering the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs as defending champions, the Penguins were eliminated in the second round by the Montreal Canadiens. Letang surpassed his regular season goals total with 5 tallies in 13 post-season games, along with two assists for seven points.


title: Kris Letang

text: With the departure of the Penguins' top defenceman, Sergei Gonchar, the following summer, Letang assumed a larger role with the club in 2010–11. Enjoying a career year, he was voted in as a starter for the 2011 NHL All-Star Game in Raleigh, North Carolina. With a career-high 50 points (eight goals and 42 assists), Letang finished the season as the second-highest scorer for the Penguins, behind Sidney Crosby. His efforts helped the Penguins to the fourth-best record in the NHL with 49 wins and 106 points despite long-term injuries to the team's top three centres – Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal. Matching up against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, Pittsburgh lost the series in seven games; Letang had four assists.


title: Kris Letang

text: On January 23, 2012, Letang made the NHL 2012 All-Star roster as an injury replacement for Dustin Byfuglien, joining teammates Evgeni Malkin and James Neal. In their first round loss to the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Philadelphia Flyers, Letang scored one goal and had two assists while earning a game misconduct in Game 3 for fighting Kimmo Timonen.


title: Kris Letang

text: On July 2, 2013, Letang signed an eight-year contract with Pittsburgh valued at $58 million that went into effect in the 2014–15 season. Letang played in 34 games in the 2013–14 season before it was announced he would miss six weeks after suffering a stroke. On March 16, 2014, Dan Bylsma, then-head coach of the Penguins, announced Letang was cleared by doctors to return to full practice.


title: Kris Letang

text: In the 2015–16 season, Letang was named to play for the Metropolitan Division team in the 2016 NHL All-Star Game. He scored the Cup-winning goal in game six of the 2016 Stanley Cup Finals, against Martin Jones of the San Jose Sharks. He became just the fourth player in NHL history to record a point on all four game-winning goals in the Stanley Cup Finals. He finished fourth in voting for the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top defenceman, and was named to the end of season second all-star team.


title: Kris Letang

text: In the 2016–17 season, Letang required neck surgery due to a herniated disk in his neck and did not play in the playoffs. Despite this, his name was added to the Stanley Cup and he received a day with the Cup as well.


title: Kris Letang

text: On October 6, 2018, in a 5–1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, Letang recorded his 441st assist, setting a new Penguins franchise record for most points by a defenceman. On February 11, 2019, in a 4–1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, Letang passed Paul Coffey for most goals by a Penguins defenceman.


title: Kris Letang

text: On July 7, 2022, in his final year of his eight-year deal before becoming an unrestricted free agent, Letang signed a six-year $36.6 million extension to stay with the Penguins.


title: Kris Letang

text: On November 30, 2022, the Penguins announced that he would be out indefinitely after suffering a stroke two days before, the second of his career. His condition was not believed to be career-threatening. On December 10, 2022, he returned to the lineup, skating 22:14 in a 3-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.


title: Kris Letang

text: Letang debuted internationally for Canada in his junior rookie season during the 2005 World U18 Championships in the Czech Republic. Letang scored four points in six games in a silver medal effort, losing to the United States in the final.


title: Kris Letang

text: The next two years, Letang competed in the World Junior Championships, earning gold in 2006 and 2007, as part of a five-year Canadian championship run. He won the first gold medal with Canada in Vancouver as the host country, then returned the next year in Sweden to score six points in six games as team captain. Letang was named to the tournament All-Star team, along with national teammates Carey Price and Jonathan Toews.


title: Kris Letang

text: Letang lost one of his closest friends, Luc Bourdon, who was a defensive prospect for the Vancouver Canucks, when he died in a motorcycle accident on May 29, 2008. Letang was at the time playing in the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings. He and Bourdon had been teammates in junior with the Val-d'Or Foreurs and the Canadian junior team. He had been planning on buying a motorcycle but decided against it following the death of Bourdon.


title: Kris Letang

text: Letang and his then long-term girlfriend, Catherine Laflamme, had a son born in November 2012. The couple wed on July 18, 2015, in Montreal. On December 20, 2017, the couple announced on Instagram they were expecting a second child. Their daughter was born in July 2018. His wife was a cast member on the third season of the Canadian reality series "Hockey Wives".


title: Earl Slick

text: Earl Slick (born Frank Madeloni in Brooklyn, New York, October 1, 1952) is a guitarist best known for his collaborations with David Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Robert Smith. He has also worked with other artists including John Waite, Tim Curry and David Coverdale, in addition to releasing several solo recordings, and two records with Phantom, Rocker & Slick, the band he formed with Slim Jim Phantom & Lee Rocker (both from Stray Cats).


title: Earl Slick

text: In the early 1970s, Earl Slick gained his reputation on the New York music scene as a guitarist while playing in a band called Mack Truck featuring singer-songwriter Jimmie Mack and his brother, drummer Jack Mack along with keyboard player and Grammy award winning mixer Jan Fairchild. His work with Scottish singer-songwriter Jim Diamond was as the duo Slick Diamond. They toured and gave performances for a short time in the late 1970s.


title: Earl Slick

text: Slick was initially hired by David Bowie to replace Mick Ronson as lead guitarist for the "Diamond Dogs" tour in 1974 (the live album "David Live" was recorded during this tour). Slick also played lead guitar on Bowie's "Young Americans" and "Station to Station" albums, released in 1975 and 1976 respectively. After disagreements with Bowie's management, Slick was replaced as lead guitarist for the 1976 Station to Station tour by Stacey Heydon. Slick continued working in the studio with former Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono, but also formed his own solo band, releasing both "Razor Sharp" and "Earl Slick Band" in 1976. In 1980, Slick formed Silver Condor with east coast singer/writer Joe Cerisano. Silver Condor's first album was released in 1981 on Columbia Records. During the recording Silver Condor's first he was invited to record on Lennon and Ono's "Double Fantasy". During the sessions for "Double Fantasy", the material for 1984's "Milk and Honey" was recorded as well. Slick also joined Ono in the studio for her solo album, " Season of Glass".


title: Earl Slick

text: In 1983, Slick rejoined David Bowie's touring band for the Serious Moonlight Tour, which supported the "Let's Dance" album. Stevie Ray Vaughan had played guitar on the album but left the band right before the tour due to a dispute between his and Bowie's management. Slick was asked to step in as a last-minute replacement due to his prior working relationship with Bowie.


title: Earl Slick

text: After the Serious Moonlight Tour, Slick played on the Box of Frogs' self-titled album and Game Theory's "Distortion" EP. At that time, Slick co-founded Phantom, Rocker & Slick with Slim Jim Phantom and Lee Rocker. The band released two records, "Phantom, Rocker & Slick" and "Cover Girl". Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards contributed to the single "My Mistake"—an experience Slick cited as one of the most memorable in his career. Between the two Phantom, Rocker & Slick albums, Slick appeared with Carl Perkins and a host of other musicians including Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Rosanne Cash for 1985's "".


title: Earl Slick

text: In 1990, Slick collaborated with David Glen Eisley in the band Dirty White Boy, which released only one album, "Bad Reputation" (1990), and industry showcases in London and Los Angeles. He also played briefly in Little Caesar in 1991–1992. Working with mentor Michael Kamen, Slick contributed to several soundtracks in the 1990s, including "Hudson Hawk" and "Nothing but Trouble". He released another solo record, "In Your Face", in 1991.


title: Earl Slick

text: In the early 2000s Slick returned to Bowie's roster, appearing on the studio albums "Heathen" (2002) and "Reality" (2003). Slick toured with Bowie in support of those albums as well, and performed on the Bowie DVD and double CD, "A Reality Tour". Working with producer Mark Plati Slick released a solo album, "Zig Zag", with guest performances by Bowie, Robert Smith, Joe Elliott, Royston Langdon and Martha Davis of The Motels. Slick then contributed guitar tracks to a Mark Plati remix of The Cure's "A Forest", which appeared on "Join the Dots: B-Sides and Rarities" in 2004.


title: Earl Slick

text: From 2006, he was a member of both The Eons with singer-songwriter Jeff Saphin and Slinky Vagabond. Slinky Vagabond were Glen Matlock, Clem Burke, and Keanan Duffty. Slinky Vagabond (the name comes from the lyrics to the David Bowie song "Young Americans") played their debut concert at the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash in May 2007.


title: Earl Slick

text: In May 2015, Slick joined the Yardbirds, replacing guitarist Top Topham. In August 2015 it was announced that Slick had left the band and was replaced by Johnny A.


title: Earl Slick

text: In February 2016, he performed a tribute to Bowie at the Brit Awards with Bowie's Reality touring band and the New Zealand singer, Lorde.


title: Earl Slick

text: In 2010, Slick announced that he had begun marketing his own line of customized guitar straps, called Slick Straps, in an exclusive distribution deal with Guitar Fetish, an online guitar customizing shop. In addition to the Slick Straps line, Slick has been quoted as endorsing the GFS line of guitar effects pedals marketed by Guitar Fetish.


title: Earl Slick

text: In 2014, Slick announced the exclusive distribution deal with Guitar Fetish of his own brand of guitars, featuring his own custom-wound pickups, and aged hardware and finishes. Each is a "stripped-down" model, with only a single volume knob for simplicity. There are currently four models available: the SL-50 and SL-51 (Telecaster copies), the SL-54 (a one-pickup "strat"-style), the SL-57 (3 single-coil pickup Strat copy), the SL-59 (similar to a double-cutaway Les Paul Junior) and the SL-60 (double-cutaway with dual P90 pickups).


title: American Freedom Party

text: The American Freedom Party (formerly the American Third Position Party or A3P) is a political party in the United States that promotes white nationalism. In November 2009, it filed papers to be on a ballot in California, and was launched in January 2010. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, it was created to channel the right-wing populist resentment engendered by the financial crisis of 2007–2010 and the policies of the Obama administration.


title: American Freedom Party

text: The party chairman is Los Angeles attorney William Daniel Johnson. Kevin B. MacDonald, a retired evolutionary


title: American Freedom Party

text: psychology academic at California State University, Long Beach, has been named one of the eight party directors. MacDonald is also a principal contributor to "The Occidental Quarterly" where his articles have claimed that traits that he attributes to Jews, including higher-than-average verbal intelligence and ethnocentricism, have eugenically and culturally evolved to enhance the ability of Jews to out-compete non-Jews for resources. MacDonald believes this advantage has been used by Jews to advance their group interests and end potential antisemitism by either deliberately or inadvertently undermining the power and self-confidence of the European-derived majorities in the Western world.


title: American Freedom Party

text: A 2006 article in "The Nation" magazine by Max Blumenthal reported that MacDonald's 2004 "Understanding Jewish Influence: A Study in Ethnic Activism" (originally published in the "Occidental Quarterly") "has turned MacDonald into a celebrity within white nationalist and neo-Nazi circles." Writing in the "Journal of Church and State," Professor George Michael wrote that MacDonald's work "has been well received by those in the racialist right, as it amounts to a theoretically sophisticated justification for anti-Semitism," and that on the far-right MacDonald "has attained a near reverential status and is generally considered beyond reproach".


title: American Freedom Party

text: New Hampshire state party chairman Ryan Murdough ran in the Republican primary for a seat representing the Eighth District of the Grafton County delegation to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, but he was refused support by the Republican party, which called him a "despicable racist". He placed fifth out of five candidates in the Republican primary, garnering 296 votes (11%). Murdough was the National Political Director for the National Socialist American Labor Party, a party which espouses Nazi beliefs.


title: American Freedom Party

text: In November 2009, the American Third Position Party filed papers with the office of the Secretary of State of California, with the intention of becoming a fully ballot-accessible party by the time of the June 2010 California primary election. However, the party failed to qualify and was not entered on the 2010 ballot in California or any other state. The party received enough signatures to get Harry Bertram on the ballot for the 2011 West Virginia gubernatorial special election. Bertram's campaign ran a television ad emphasizing his desire to advance the interests of white Americans. Bertram was soundly defeated in the election, coming in last place out of 5 candidates on the ballot and netting only 1,111 votes; less than 0.4 percent of the total.


title: American Freedom Party

text: In January 2012, the American Third Position Party announced Merlin Miller as its presidential nominee for the 2012 presidential election. Virginia Abernethy was announced as his running mate. According to an AmericanFreedomUnion.com posting, they obtained ballot access in Colorado, New Jersey, and Tennessee.


title: American Freedom Party

text: Kenn Gividen was nominated by the party as its candidate for president and Bob Whitaker was nominated for vice president in March 2015. Gividen resigned from the nomination on July 26, 2015, after holding the role for 4 months; Whitaker then stepped into the role as candidate for president. Whitaker, whose favored term "White Genocide" was blocked by the AFP leadership, gave up the nomination on April 7, 2016, in protest over the party's growing support for Donald Trump and the toning down of its use of language.


title: American Freedom Party

text: On February 1, 2013, the party's website carried an announcement that the party was changing its name to "American Freedom Party", although the values and mission would remain unchanged.


title: American Freedom Party

text: In early February 2012, members of the hacker group Anonymous released statements claiming to have hacked the website of the party and various forums and email accounts connected with the group, including that of Jamie Kelso, the website's operator. The front page of the party's website was defaced with #OpBlitzkrieg (the designated name used in January 2012 for a series of Anonymous cyber-attacks on German neo-Nazi websites) and private information about the organization's members was released.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: Henry Reed Rathbone (July 1, 1837 – August 14, 1911) was a United States military officer and diplomat who was present at the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Rathbone was sitting with his fiancée, Clara Harris, next to the president and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, when John Wilkes Booth entered the president's box at Ford's Theatre and fatally shot Lincoln in the head. When Rathbone attempted to prevent Booth from fleeing the scene, Booth stabbed and seriously wounded him.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: Henry Rathbone was born in Albany, New York, one of four children of Jared L. Rathbone, a merchant and wealthy businessman who later became Albany's first elected mayor, and Pauline Rathbone (née Penney). Upon his father's death in 1845, Rathbone inherited . His widowed mother married Ira Harris in 1848. Harris was appointed U.S. Senator from New York after William H. Seward became Lincoln's Secretary of State. Harris was a widower with four children whose wife, Louisa, had also died in 1845. As a result of this marriage, Ira Harris became Rathbone's stepfather, and his daughter, Clara, became Rathbone's stepsister. Rathbone and Clara Harris formed a close friendship and later fell in love. The two became engaged shortly before the American Civil War.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: Rathbone studied law at Union College, where he was known to miss many classes, and worked in a law partnership in Albany. In 1858, he entered the New York National Guard, where he worked as a judge advocate. Shortly after this, he was selected to be sent to Europe as an observer during the Second Italian War for Independence. He entered the Union Army at the start of the American Civil War and served as a captain in the 12th Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredericksburg. In 1863, he was pulled from frontline duty and given a desk job. By the war's end, he had attained the rank of major.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: On April 14, 1865, Rathbone and Harris accepted an invitation from Lincoln and his wife to see a play at Ford's Theatre. Rathbone and Harris had been friends with the president and his wife for some time and were invited after Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia, and several others had declined Mrs. Lincoln's invitation.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: During the play, at about 10:14 pm, noted stage actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box and fatally shot Lincoln in the head with a pistol. As Rathbone attempted to apprehend Booth, Booth slashed Rathbone's left arm with a dagger from the elbow to his shoulder. Rathbone later recalled that he was horrified at the anger on Booth's face. Rathbone again grabbed at Booth as Booth prepared to jump from the sill of the box. He grabbed onto Booth's coat, causing Booth to fall awkwardly to the stage, perhaps breaking his leg, though some conspiracy theorists said that the injury did not occur until later. Booth nonetheless escaped and remained at large for twelve days.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: Despite his serious wound, Rathbone escorted Mary Lincoln to the Petersen House across the street, where the president had been taken.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: Shortly thereafter, he passed out due to blood loss. Harris arrived soon after and held Rathbone's head in her lap while he lay semiconscious. When surgeon Charles Leale, who had been attending Lincoln, finally examined Rathbone, it was realized that his wound was more serious than initially thought. Booth had cut him nearly to the bone and severed an artery. Rathbone was taken home while Harris remained with Mary Lincoln as the president lay dying over the next eight hours. This death vigil lasted through the night until Lincoln died at 7:22 a.m.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: Although Rathbone's physical wounds healed, his mental state deteriorated in the years following Lincoln's death as he anguished over his perceived inability to thwart the assassination. He married Harris on July 11, 1867, and the couple had three children: Henry Riggs (born February 12, 1870), who later became a U.S. Congressman; Gerald Lawrence (born August 26, 1871); and Clara Pauline (born September 15, 1872).


title: Henry Rathbone

text: He rose to the rank of brevet colonel. After his resignation, he struggled to find and keep a job due to his mental instability. He became convinced that Harris was unfaithful and resented the attention she paid their children. He reportedly threatened her on several occasions after suspecting that she was going to divorce him and take the children. He made multiple unsuccessful attempts to obtain a position as a U.S. consul to a European city. Rumors exist that Rathbone was appointed the U.S. consul to Hanover, Germany, but the U.S. never established diplomatic relations with Hanover. Rathbone's brother, Jared Lawrence Rathbone, was the consul to Paris in 1887 during the Cleveland administration.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: Rathbone and his family relocated to Germany, where his mental health continued to decline. On December 23, 1883, he attacked his children in a fit of madness. He fatally shot and stabbed his wife, who was attempting to protect the children. He stabbed himself five times in the chest in an attempted suicide. He was charged with murder, but was declared insane by doctors after he blamed the murder on an intruder. He was convicted and committed to an asylum for the criminally insane in Hildesheim, Germany. The couple's children were sent to live with their uncle, William Harris, in the United States.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: Rathbone spent the rest of his life in the asylum. He died on August 14, 1911, and was buried next to his wife in the city cemetery at .


title: Henry Rathbone

text: The biography of Henry Rathbone, his experience at the Lincoln Assassination and the murder of Clara Harris is covered in the non-fiction book "Worst Seat in the House: Henry Rathbone's Front Row View of the Lincoln Assassination" by Caleb Stephens.


title: Henry Rathbone

text: Rathbone and Harris are also the subjects of "Henry and Clara" (1994, published by Ticknor & Fields), a historical fiction novel by Thomas Mallon.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: Gordon Guthrie Chang (born July 5, 1951) is a columnist, author, and lawyer. He is the author of "The Coming Collapse of China" in which he attempted to predict the collapse of China and claimed that it would collapse by 2011. In December 2011, he changed the timing of the year of the predicted collapse to 2012.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: In 1976, Chang graduated from the Cornell Law School. He then lived in Mainland China and in Hong Kong for close to two decades, where he worked as Partner and Counsel at the US international law firms Baker & McKenzie and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, respectively.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: Chang has given briefings at the National Intelligence Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the US State Department, and the US Department of Defense, and he has testified before the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: Chang was born in New Jersey to a Chinese father and an American mother of Scottish ancestry. His father is from Rugao, Jiangsu, China.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: Chang graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, in 1969, and served as class president in his senior year. Four years later, he graduated from Cornell University, where he was a columnist for "The Cornell Daily Sun" and a member of the Quill and Dagger society. In 1976, Chang graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from the Cornell Law School.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: Chang lived and worked in Mainland China and Hong Kong for almost two decades, most recently in Shanghai, as counsel to the international American law firm Paul Weiss and earlier in Hong Kong as Partner in the US international law firm Baker & McKenzie. Chang has been elected twice as a trustee of Cornell University.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: Chang has given briefings at the National Intelligence Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the US State Department, and the US Defense Department, and he has appeared before the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is a former contributor at "The Daily Beast". His writings on China and North Korea have appeared in "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal", the "International Herald Tribune", "Commentary", "National Review", and "Barron’s" among others, and he has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, PBS, Bloomberg Television, and others as well on as "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart. Chang has spoken at Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Yale, and other universities.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: Chang is a contributing editor for 19FortyFive, an online international affairs website, and serves on the advisory board of the Global Taiwan Institute, a policy incubator based in Washington, D.C.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: Chang has appeared before the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission among others. He has warned that Chinese students attending US colleges and universities have become the long arm of Chinese totalitarianism and that Chinese students, professors, and scientists have become “nontraditional collectors” of intelligence for China.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: As reported by The Cornell Daily Sun, Chang said that students from China suspiciously probe US universities' faculties, "engage in abusive conduct and harassment with other students, heckle criticizers of China and pressure universities to suspend activities. Their demands to remove research for political concerns infringe on academic freedom." Further, Chang has said that China is not trying to compete with the United States within the Westphalian order but to overthrow that order altogether.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: In his book "The Great U.S.–China Tech War" (2020), Chang posits that China and the United States are involved in what he terms as a "cold tech war," with the winner being able to dominate the 21st century. He notes that a decade ago, China was not considered a tech contender but that Chinese leaders have since made their regime a tech powerhouse, with some now finding China to be a leader, with America lagging behind in critical areas. Chang advocates mobilization for the US to regain the control of cutting-edge technologies that it once had.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: As the author of "The Coming Collapse of China", Chang has made numerous predictions of the imminent collapse of the Chinese government and fall of the Communist Party since 2001 including the specific years. Chang insisted that it would be year 2011 when the Chinese government would collapse. When 2011 was almost over, he admitted that his prediction was wrong but said that he was off by only a year and wrote in the "Foreign Policy" magazine, that "Instead of 2011, the mighty Communist Party of China will fall in 2012. Bet on it." Consequently he made Foreign Policy's "10 worst predictions of the year" twice in a row when his predictions were proven wrong again.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: In 2011, Chang stated that China was the "new dot-com bubble" and added that the rapid growth by China was contradicted by various internal factors, including a decrease in population growth and a slowdown of retail sales. In a separate interview, he remarked that China achieved its 149.2 percent trade surplus with the United States by "lying, cheating, and stealing" and that if China decided to realize its threat, expressed since August 2007, to sell its Treasury bonds, it would actually hurt its own economy since it is reliant on exports to the United States. The US economy would be hurt by a selloff of Treasuries, which would the US to buy less from China, which would in turn hurt the Chinese economy.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: In "Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World" (2006), Chang says that North Korea is most likely to target Japan, not South Korea. He also says that North Korean nuclear ambitions could be forestalled if there were concerted multinational diplomacy, with some "limits to patience" backed up by threat of an all-out Korean war.


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: Chang often criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in's term as "dangerous" and said that Moon should be considered "North Korea's agent." Chang also asserted that Moon Jae-in is "subverting freedom, democracy, and South Korea."


title: Gordon G. Chang

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chang praised the U.S. and claiming it had acted "very, very quickly" in response to the epidemic, and also made statements that China was responsible for spreading the coronavirus, and that it was difficult to co-operate with a country that he alleged had "deliberately" infected and killed Americans.


title: Marley Marl

text: Marlon Williams (born September 30, 1962), better known by his stage name Marley Marl, is an American DJ, record producer, rapper and record label founder, primarily operating in hip hop music. Marlon grew up in Queensbridge housing projects located in Queens, New York. He performed in local talent shows during the early days of rap music, further fueling his interest.


title: Marley Marl

text: He was also featured on Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid in Full" from their debut album, which was also recorded in his studio. As a producer, one notable project was LL Cool J.


title: Marley Marl

text: He is credited with influencing a number of hip hop icons such as RZA, DJ Premier, Madlib, and Pete Rock. Producer Madlib stated in an interview that Marley was the first producer who inspired him to make beats. "Vibe" magazine wrote that he, "forever changed the sound of hip-hop with his unique beat barrages."


title: Marley Marl

text: Marley's career started with an interest in electronica. As a young intern at Unique Recording Studios in the early 1980s, he had an opportunity to experiment with very expensive samplers like the Fairlight CMI. One day during a studio session with an artist named Captain Rock he discovered sampling by accident. "I was actually trying to get a riff off of a record. I made a mistake and got the snare in there before the sound came. I was truncating the vocal part but the snare was playing with the beat — we was truncating while the beat was playing. Thank God the beat was playing, because it probably wouldn't have happened if the beat wasn't playing. So I was playing it and the snare sounded better than the snare that I had from the drum machine when I was popping it."A short time later pioneering hip-hop radio DJ Mr. Magic heard Marley Marl's remix of Malcolm McLaren's Buffalo Gals, leading to Marley becoming his DJ. They eventually started the hip-hop collective the Juice Crew together in 1983. 1986 saw the foundation of Cold Chillin' Records, where Marley served as in-house producer for many projects. He earned $250,000 per year for his production work. The label was also home to many Juice Crew artists.


title: Marley Marl

text: Marley caught his big break in 1984, with artist Roxanne Shante's hit "Roxanne's Revenge". In a 2008 interview Shante noted how seriously he took recording despite his limited setup. "We'd be recording in his living room on a reel-to-reel and four-tracks. I really just wanted to go to the mall after one take, but Marley always made me do it again."


title: Marley Marl

text: Another significant early record was 1985's "Marley Marl Scratch" featuring MC Shan. The song was recorded on a four-track cassette recorder and Shan used a mic with a missing ball to record his lyrics.


title: Marley Marl

text: Several of his early record feature inventive use of the Roland TR-808 drum machine. On MC Shan's 1986 Pop Art single "The Bridge', which later appeared on his 1987 album "Down By Law", Marley used the 808 pulse to trigger different samplers. According to Biz Markie, the button on Marley's 808 stuck during the recording of his hit "Make the Music with Your Mouth, Biz", leading to sound heard on the record today. Juice Crew member Big Daddy Kane praised his ability to pair 808 drum sounds with sampled drums. "Regardless of how clean or brand-new the record was that he was sampling, or light the production may have been, he always gave it a really gritty feel when he sampled it. He always put the 808 to it and gave it a heavy bottom and warm feel."


title: Marley Marl

text: In the late 1980s, the Juice Crew gained increased attention from mainstream publications. "Spin" magazine wrote, "they've produced some of the genre's toughest, most uncompromising music." At the time Marley began a streak of producing entire albums for several Juice Crew members. He produced all of the tracks on Craig G's "The Kingpin" (1989), Big Daddy Kane's "Long Live The Kane" (1988)"," Biz Markie's "Goin' Off" (1988), Kool G Rap & DJ Polo's "Road to the Riches" (1989), MC Shan's "Down By Law" (1987) and "Born to Be Wild" (1988), and Roxanne Shante's "Bad Sister" (1989).


title: Marley Marl

text: In 1988, he produced the Juice Crew posse cut "The Symphony" by using a Hal Jackson record from the WBLS record library as a sample source.


title: Information management

text: Information management (IM) concerns a cycle of organizational activity: the acquisition of information from one or more sources, the custodianship and the distribution of that information to those who need it, and its ultimate disposal through archiving or deletion.


title: Information management

text: This cycle of information organisation involves a variety of stakeholders, including those who are responsible for assuring the quality, accessibility and utility of acquired information; those who are responsible for its safe storage and disposal; and those who need it for decision making. Stakeholders might have rights to originate, change, distribute or delete information according to organisational information management policies.


title: Information management

text: Information management embraces all the generic concepts of management, including the planning, organizing, structuring, processing, controlling, evaluation and reporting of information activities, all of which is needed in order to meet the needs of those with organisational roles or functions that depend on information. These generic concepts allow the information to be presented to the audience or the correct group of people. After individuals are able to put that information to use, it then gains more value.


title: Information management

text: Information management is closely related to, and overlaps with, the management of data, systems, technology, processes and – where the availability of information is critical to organisational success – strategy. This broad view of the realm of information management contrasts with the earlier, more traditional view, that the life cycle of managing information is an operational matter that requires specific procedures, organisational capabilities and standards that deal with information as a product or a service.


title: Information management

text: In the 1970s, the management of information largely concerned matters closer to what would now be called data management: punched cards, magnetic tapes and other record-keeping media, involving a life cycle of such formats requiring origination, distribution, backup, maintenance and disposal. At this time the huge potential of information technology began to be recognised: for example a single chip storing a whole book, or electronic mail moving messages instantly around the world, remarkable ideas at the time. With the proliferation of information technology and the extending reach of information systems in the 1980s and 1990s, information management took on a new form. Progressive businesses such as British Petroleum transformed the vocabulary of what was then "IT management", so that “systems analysts” became “business analysts”, “monopoly supply” became a mixture of “insourcing” and “outsourcing”, and the large IT function was transformed into “lean teams” that began to allow some agility in the processes that harness information for business benefit. The scope of senior management interest in information at British Petroleum extended from the creation of value through improved business processes, based upon the effective management of information, permitting the implementation of appropriate information systems (or “applications”) that were operated on IT infrastructure that was outsourced. In this way, information management was no longer a simple job that could be performed by anyone who had nothing else to do, it became highly strategic and a matter for senior management attention. An understanding of the technologies involved, an ability to manage information systems projects and business change well, and a willingness to align technology and business strategies all became necessary.


title: Information management

text: In the transitional period leading up to the strategic view of information management, Venkatraman (a strong advocate of this transition and transformation, proffered a simple arrangement of ideas that succinctly brought together the managements of data, information, and knowledge (see the figure)) argued that:


title: Information management

text: This is often referred to as the DIKAR model: Data, Information, Knowledge, Action and Result, it gives a strong clue as to the layers involved in aligning technology and organisational strategies, and it can be seen as a pivotal moment in changing attitudes to information management. The recognition that information management is an investment that must deliver meaningful results is important to all modern organisations that depend on information and good decision-making for their success.


title: Information management

text: It is commonly believed that good information management is crucial to the smooth working of organisations, and although there is no commonly accepted theory of information management "per se", behavioural and organisational theories help. Following the behavioural science theory of management, mainly developed at Carnegie Mellon University and prominently supported by March and Simon, most of what goes on in modern organizations is actually information handling and decision making. One crucial factor in information handling and decision making is an individual's ability to process information and to make decisions under limitations that might derive from the context: a person's age, the situational complexity, or a lack of requisite quality in the information that is at hand – all of which is exacerbated by the rapid advance of technology and the new kinds of system that it enables, especially as the social web emerges as a phenomenon that business cannot ignore. And yet, well before there was any general recognition of the importance of information management in organisations, March and Simon argued that organizations have to be considered as cooperative systems, with a high level of information processing and a vast need for decision making at various levels. Instead of using the model of the "economic man", as advocated in classical theory they proposed "administrative man" as an alternative, based on their argumentation about the cognitive limits of rationality. Additionally they proposed the notion of satisficing, which entails searching through the available alternatives until an acceptability threshold is met - another idea that still has currency.


title: Information management

text: In addition to the organisational factors mentioned by March and Simon, there are other issues that stem from economic and environmental dynamics. There is the cost of collecting and evaluating the information needed to take a decision, including the time and effort required. The transaction cost associated with information processes can be high. In particular, established organizational rules and procedures can prevent the taking of the most appropriate decision, leading to sub-optimum outcomes


title: Information management

text: . This is an issue that has been presented as a major problem with bureaucratic organizations that lose the economies of strategic change because of entrenched attitudes.


title: Information management

text: According to the Carnegie Mellon School an organization's ability to process information is at the core of organizational and managerial competency, and an organization's strategies must be designed to improve information processing capability and as information systems that provide that capability became formalised and automated, competencies were severely tested at many levels. It was recognised that organisations needed to be able to learn and adapt in ways that were never so evident before and academics began to organise and publish definitive works concerning the strategic management of information, and information systems. Concurrently, the ideas of business process management and knowledge management although much of the optimistic early thinking about business process redesign has since been discredited in the information management literature. In the strategic studies field, it is considered of the highest priority the understanding of the information environment, conceived as the aggregate of individuals, organizations, and systems that collect, process, disseminate, or act on information. This environment consists of three interrelated dimensions which continuously interact with individuals, organizations, and systems. These dimensions are the physical, informational, and cognitive.


title: Information management

text: Venkatraman has provided a simple view of the requisite capabilities of an organisation that wants to manage information well – the DIKAR model (see above). He also worked with others to understand how technology and business strategies could be appropriately aligned in order to identify specific capabilities that are needed. This work was paralleled by other writers in the world of consulting, practice and academia.


title: Information management

text: Bytheway has collected and organised basic tools and techniques for information management in a single volume. At the heart of his view of information management is a portfolio model that takes account of the surging interest in external sources of information and the need to organise un-structured information external so as to make it useful (see the figure).


title: Information management

text: Such an information portfolio as this shows how information can be gathered and usefully organised, in four stages:


title: Information management

text: Stage 1: Taking advantage of public information: recognise and adopt well-structured external schemes of reference data, such as post codes, weather data, GPS positioning data and travel timetables, exemplified in the personal computing press.


title: Information management

text: Stage 2: Tagging the noise on the World Wide Web: use existing schemes such as post codes and GPS data or more typically by adding “tags”, or construct a formal ontology that provides structure. Shirky provides an overview of these two approaches.


title: Information management

text: Stage 3: Sifting and analysing: in the wider world the generalised ontologies that are under development extend to hundreds of entities and hundreds of relations between them and provide the means to elicit meaning from large volumes of data. Structured data in databases works best when that structure reflects a higher-level information model – an ontology, or an entity-relationship model.


title: Information management

text: Stage 4: Structuring and archiving: with the large volume of data available from sources such as the social web and from the miniature telemetry systems used in personal health management, new ways to archive and then trawl data for meaningful information. Map-reduce methods, originating from functional programming, are a more recent way of eliciting information from large archival datasets that is becoming interesting to regular businesses that have very large data resources to work with, but it requires advanced multi-processor resources.


title: Information management

text: In 2004, the management system "Information Management Body of Knowledge" was first published on the World Wide Web


title: Information management

text: and set out to show that the required management competencies to derive real benefits from an investment in information are complex and multi-layered. The framework model that is the basis for understanding competencies comprises six “knowledge” areas and four “process” areas:


title: Information management

text: The IMBOK is based on the argument that there are six areas of required management competency, two of which (“business process management” and “business information management”) are very closely related.


title: Information management

text: Even with full capability and competency within the six knowledge areas, it is argued that things can still go wrong. The problem lies in the migration of ideas and information management value from one area of competency to another. Summarising what Bytheway explains in some detail (and supported by selected secondary references):


title: Information management

text: There are always many ways to see a business, and the information management viewpoint is only one way. It is important to remember that other areas of business activity will also contribute to strategy – it is not only good information management that moves a business forwards. Corporate governance, human resource management, product development and marketing will all have an important role to play in strategic ways, and we must not see one domain of activity alone as the sole source of strategic success. On the other hand, corporate governance, human resource management, product development and marketing are all dependent on effective information management, and so in the final analysis our competency to manage information well, on the broad basis that is offered here, can be said to be predominant.


title: Information management

text: Organizations are often confronted with many information management challenges and issues at the operational level, especially when organisational change is engendered. The novelty of new systems architectures and a lack of experience with new styles of information management requires a level of organisational change management that is notoriously difficult to deliver. As a result of a general organisational reluctance to change, to enable new forms of information management, there might be (for example): a shortfall in the requisite resources, a failure to acknowledge new classes of information and the new procedures that use them, a lack of support from senior management leading to a loss of strategic vision, and even political manoeuvring that undermines the operation of the whole organisation. However, the implementation of new forms of information management should normally lead to operational benefits.


title: Information management

text: In early work, taking an information processing view of organisation design, Jay Galbraith has identified five tactical areas to increase information processing capacity and reduce the need for information processing.


title: Information management

text: The lateral relations concept leads to an organizational form that is different from the simple hierarchy, the “matrix organization”. This brings together the vertical (hierarchical) view of an organisation and the horizontal (product or project) view of the work that it does visible to the outside world. The creation of a matrix organization is one management response to a persistent fluidity of external demand, avoiding multifarious and spurious responses to episodic demands that tend to be dealt with individually.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Vale S.A., formerly "Companhia Vale do Rio Doce" (the Sweet River Valley Company, referring to the Doce River) () is a Brazilian multinational corporation engaged in metals and mining and one of the largest logistics operators in Brazil. Vale is the largest producer of iron ore and nickel in the world. It also produces manganese, ferroalloys, copper, bauxite, potash, kaolin, and cobalt, currently operating nine hydroelectricity plants, and a large network of railroads, ships, and ports used to transport its products.


title: Vale S.A.

text: The company has had two catastrophic tailings dam failures in Brazil: Mariana, in 2015, and Brumadinho, in 2019; the Brumadinho dam disaster caused the company to lose its license to operate eight tailings dams in Minas Gerais, and its stock to lose nearly 25 percent in value. Vale is considered the most valuable company in Latin America, with an estimated market value of US$ 111 billion in 2021.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Although the company's primary operations are in Brazil, Vale has operations in 30 countries, which are detailed below and on the company's website.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Iron ore: Vale is the world's largest iron ore producer. Sales of iron ore fines and pellets represented 65% of total company revenues in 2014. In 2014, Vale sold 256 million metric tonnes of iron ore fines and 44 million metric tonnes of iron ore pellets. Vale's Mariana Hub was the 9th largest iron ore mining center in the world in 2014, with an output of 39 million metric tonnes. Vale's Serra Sul / S11D is the largest mining reserve in the world. The company's iron ore mines are primarily in Brazil.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Nickel: Vale is the world's largest nickel producer. Sales of nickel represented 17% of total company revenues in 2014. In 2014, Vale sold 272,000 metric tonnes of nickel. The company owns nickel mines in Canada, Indonesia, New Caledonia and Brazil. Tesla is known to buy the majority of their Nickel from Vale. In May 2022, Vale said that it had signed a long term deal of supplying nickel for Tesla. The agreement involves supplying low-carbon Class 1 nickel which Tesla needs for its electric vehicles' batteries. In line with this, Vale is pushing to increase its exposure to the electric vehicle industry.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Fertilizer products, primarily phosphates and nitrogen: Sales of fertilizer products represented 6% of total company revenues in 2014. In 2014, Vale sold 9 million metric tonnes of fertilizer products.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Copper: Sales of copper concentrate represented 4% of total company revenues in 2014. In 2014, Vale sold 353,000 metric tonnes of copper. The company owns copper mines in Brazil, Canada, Chile and Zambia.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Manganese and alloys: Sales of manganese and alloys represented 1% of total company revenues in 2014. In 2014, Vale sold 2 million metric tonnes of manganese and alloys.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Coal: Sales of coal represented 2% of total company revenues in 2014. In 2014, Vale sold 7.5 million metric tonnes of coal. The company owns coal mines in Australia and Mozambique.


title: Vale S.A.

text: From 2000 to 2006, Vale invested more than $1.3 billion on the acquisition of over 361 locomotives and around 14,090 freight cars, those locomotives were primarily for iron ore transportation, but some were for regular cargo. Some of the locomotives purchased were secondhand for refurbishment but at least 55 of the locomotives acquired were new ones of the model EMD SD70M, each one costing about $2 million.


title: Vale S.A.

text: After those investments, Vale became the owner of over 800 locomotives and more than 35,000 freight cars.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Vale owns the concession of three Brazilian railways: Vitória-Minas Railway (EFVM), Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica (FCA) and Carajás railroad (EFC).


title: Vale S.A.

text: On February 5, 2019, the state court of the Province of Minas Gerais ordered Vale to halt use of eight of its tailings dams, including the Laranjeiras dam at Brucutu.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Vale also operates port terminals in the state of Sergipe and two others in the state of Espirito Santo.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Vale has also entered the shipping business by ordering 35 Very Large Ore Carriers (VLOC) to transport iron ore between South America and Asia. These , 400,000 DWT ships are the longest and largest dry bulk carriers in the world. The first ship, "Vale Brasil", was delivered in March 2011.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Vale's energy business is focused at power production to fulfill the needs of its mining operations, as well as supplying the general Brazilian power grid. In 2005 it consumed 16.9 TWh of electrical power, accounting for 4.4% of Brazil's total consumption in that year.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Vale has participation in 8 hydroelectric plants, with 7 of these located in the state of Minas Gerais. Vale's investment in hydroelectric power plants totals $880 million. The company also plans to build a 600 MW thermoelectric power plant in the state of Pará.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In November 2007, the company retired the name "CVRD" in favour of simplified company name of "Vale", and rebranded.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (widely known as CVRD prior to 2007) (in English, "Doce River Valley Company") was founded in Itabira, Minas Gerais, by the Brazilian Federal Government on 1 June 1942.


title: Vale S.A.

text: The 1950s marked Companhia Vale do Rio Doce's entry into the global iron ore market, after the company's mine-railroad-port complex was modernized and iron ore prices doubled. At first, sales were mostly to the United States, but exports to Europe increased over the course of the decade.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 1966, the company inaugurated in Espirito Santo the Port of Tubarão, which was to become the most important port for CVRD and is still used to export iron ore mined from the "Iron Quadrangle" in Minas Gerais.


title: Vale S.A.

text: The company acquired a majority interest in the Carajás Mine, with over 1.5 billion tonnes of iron ore in reserves, in 1970.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In the mid 1980s, profits increased considerably under the leadership of Eliezer Batista, father of Eike Batista.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 1985, Vale started to explore the Carajás Mine in the state of Pará just after the gauge Carajás railroad was opened.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 1986, Ponta Madeira port terminal, which is still used to export iron ore mined at the Carajás Mine, was inaugurated in the state of Maranhão.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In March 2017, Vale SA chose a commodities industry veteran, Fabio Schvartsman, as chief executive officer. Schvartsman was CEO of Klabin SA, Brazil's largest paper and cardboard producer, for the previous six years.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In May 1997, despite protests by Vale employees and some politicians, the Brazilian Government auctioned a 41.73% interest in the company, which was sold for R$3.34 billion (US$3.13 billion). The largest interest purchased was a 16.3% stake purchased by Brazilian steel company Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2001, Vale sold its Cenibra wood pulp business for US$670.5 million to focus on mining and logistics.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2002, Vale sold 100,000 acres of land and the eucalyptus forests thereon related to its wood pulp business for R$137 million.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2000, the company sold its stake in Açominas to Gerdau in exchange for preferred shares in Gerdau.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2006, the company sold 5,362,928 shares in Usiminas for or R$378.6 million. In 2007, the company sold the majority of its stake in Usiminas. In 2009, the company sold its remaining stake in Usiminas.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In May 2000, the company acquired Sociomex, owner of the Gongo Sôco Mine, with proven reserves of approximately 75 million tons.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In May 2000, the company also acquired a controlling interest in Samitri, one of the biggest pelletizing companies of Brazil.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In April 2001, the company acquired Ferteco, then the third largest Brazilian producer of iron ore, with a production capacity of 15 million tonnes per year.


title: Vale S.A.

text: On 1 April 2000, Vale offered to pay Mitsui US$277 million for 50% of the common shares and US$150 million for 40% of the preferred stock in Caemi. Caemi owned MBR, Brazil's second largest iron ore producer, mining over 60 million tonnes per year.


title: Vale S.A.

text: On 23 January 2006, the company announced a stock swap merger to acquire the interest Caemi that it did not already own.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2007, increased its ownership in MBR by purchasing additional interests from Mitsui for US$114.5 million.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Also in 2007, Vale announced that it will lease the shares of MBR that it did not already own from their 7 Japanese shareholders for a 30-year period. The agreement required the company to pay a total of US$60.5 million in 2007 and US$48.1 million annually for a 30-year period and gave it total control of MBR.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2001, Vale increased its copper mining operations by purchasing the Sossego mine in Carajas, in northern Brazil, for $48.5 million.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2005, Vale acquired Canico Resource, owner of a nickel mine in Brazil, after increasing its offer to $865 million.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In October 2006, Vale acquired Canadian-based nickel producer Inco for $18.9 billion, including $17.7 billion in cash and the assumption of $1.2 billion in debt. To gain approval from Canadian authorities, Vale promised to continue investments in Canada and not lay off people for 3 years after closing.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2007, Vale made a major entry into coal mining by acquiring AMCI Holdings Australia for AU$835 million.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In June 2011, Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram were killed at the 3,000 foot level of the Frood Mine near Sudbury, Ontario.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2014, Vale announced the sale of coal assets in Mozambique to Mitsui in a $950 million transaction.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2015, the company announced that it would sell a 25% interest in gold produced from its Salobo mine, located in Brazil, to Silver Wheaton for US$900 million.


title: Vale S.A.

text: On 26 November 2015, Vale announced that it planned to reduce its budget for capital expenditures from US$8 billion in 2015 to US$6.2 billion in 2016, with further reductions to US$4–5 billion by 2018.


title: Vale S.A.

text: On 5 November 2015, the Mariana dam disaster caused 19 deaths and massive environmental contamination when a tailings dam collapsed at the Samarco mining site, co-owned by Vale and BHP. Heavy metal contamination of the Doce River caused water emergencies in many downstream cities which depend on the river for drinking water. Activities at the mine were suspended, and the companies agreed to pay compensation of R$4.4 billion (US$1.55 billion).


title: Vale S.A.

text: An investigation into the disaster commissioned by BHP, Vale and Samarco found the collapse was due to a variety of construction and design flaws. In June 2018, Samarco, Vale and BHP signed an agreement to drop a US$7 billion lawsuit and allow two years for the companies to address the greater US$55 billion suit seeking social, environmental and economic compensation.


title: Vale S.A.

text: On 25 January 2019, the Brumadinho dam disaster occurred at the Córrego do Feijão mine in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, releasing 3 billion gallons of mine waste, in a wave of red iron ore which destroyed the mine's cafeteria, where many workers were present and lost their lives, and which flooded the town of Brumadinho. Two hundred and seventy people were killed. In 2020, prosecutors found that Vale had falsified safety reports for at least ten of its dams. They later charged sixteen officials of Vale including its CEO, with manslaughter.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2021, Vale agreed to pay victims $7 billion. Though substantially deadlier, the environmental devastation was not as severe as with Bento Rodrigues.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Following the Córrego do Feijão disaster, a Brazilian court ordered Vale to stop disposing of tailings at eight dams.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In 2013, Vale S.A. agreed to pay the equivalent of $9.5 billion to settle a tax dispute with the Brazilian authorities regarding its overseas profits from 2003 to 2012.


title: Vale S.A.

text: On September 28, 2021, thirty-nine miners were trapped underground for 24 hours at the Totten Mine in Ontario after the entrance shaft became obstructed.


title: Vale S.A.

text: In January 2012, Vale received the "people's choice" Public Eye Award as the corporation with the most "contempt for the environment and human rights" in the world. Vale received 25,000 votes, with the Belo Monte Dam cited as a reason.


title: Vale S.A.

text: During the interim between the two dam disasters of 2015 and 2019; Vale had denied owning an upstream tailings waste structure such as collapsed, causing the Brumadinho dam to burst.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Following the 2019 disaster, BBC News reported that "Correspondents say the alarm system the company had installed to warn residents of any risk did not go off."


title: Vale S.A.

text: In February 2021, an agreement was signed that required Vale to pay over $7 billion in compensation to the families of the victims.


title: Vale S.A.

text: Vale reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for 31 December 2020 at 10,250 Kt (-1,850 /-15.3% y-o-y). This is a higher rate of decline than over the period since 4Q'18 (-10.9% CAGR).


title: UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball

text: The UNLV Runnin' Rebels are the men's basketball team that represent the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in the Mountain West Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); it plays at the Thomas & Mack Center on campus. As of 2009, UNLV had the fourth-highest winning percentage (.712) in Division I history, ranking behind Kentucky, North Carolina and Kansas, but ahead of UCLA and Duke. UNLV is 33–19 all-time in the NCAA tournament with a 63.5 winning percentage. In July 2008, ESPNU named the program the eighth most prestigious collegiate basketball program in the nation since the 1984–85 season.


title: UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball

text: In 1977, just seven years after joining Division I, The Rebels made the Final Four in a squad today known as the "Hardway Eight". Ten years later, the team made the Final Four with one loss. In 1990, UNLV won the NCAA Championship by beating Duke by a record-setting margin of 103–73, becoming the first team and only team to score over 100 points in the championship game. Before becoming a basketball powerhouse in the late 1970s, UNLV was often referred to as "Tumbleweed Tech" due to its relative obscurity. Led by famed coach Jerry Tarkanian, the Runnin' Rebels were among the most exciting teams in the nation. They consistently led the nation in points scored, turnovers forced, and most importantly – wins. The Runnin' Rebels were well known for going on long runs that turned close games into blowouts. They were also known for up-tempo offense and stifling defense.