title: Heather Mack

text: On September 23, 2015 the cousin of Tommy Schaefer, Robert Bibbs, was arrested in Chicago on federal charges for conspiracy for advising Mack and Schaefer about how to kill Mack's mother. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison on June 2nd, 2017 on one count of conspiracy to commit foreign murder. The plea deal stated that Bibbs was aware that Heather had offered Tommy $50,000 to kill her mother, and that Bibbs advised Schaefer on how to kill her, that he encouraged him to kill her.


title: Heather Mack

text: Mack was the beneficiary of a $1.6 million trust fund from her mother, which would pay her small annual payments until the age of 30, and then the balance at that time.


title: Heather Mack

text: During the court case, up to $150,000 was initially approved to cover legal expenses, plus smaller payments for food and personal expenses. Sheila's brother, Bill Wiese, the administrator of the estate, expressed concern that the money was being used to cover bribes, when a demand came from her Indonesian lawyer for a further $200,000 lump sum.


title: Heather Mack

text: The final disposition of the trust fund was resolved in a 2018 settlement in favor of Heather's daughter.


title: Heather Mack

text: Heather Mack received a total of 34 months remission from her prison sentence, including a six-month Independence day remission awarded by President Joko Widodo in August of 2021, and was freed from prison on 29 October 2021. Mack wanted to stay in Indonesia with her daughter, claiming it was safer than Chicago. Indonesian immigration indicated that both would be immediately deported, as her daughter was born American under Indonesia's jus sanguinis nationality law.


title: Heather Mack

text: On her arrival to the United States Heather was arrested on conspiracy and obstruction charges. Her federal trial will begin on July 31, 2023.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: Norfolk International Airport is seven miles (11 km) northeast of downtown Norfolk, an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is owned and operated by the Norfolk Airport Authority: a bureau under the municipal government. The airport serves the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of southeast Virginia (along with Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport in Newport News) as well as northeast North Carolina. Despite its name, the airport does not have any international destinations nonstop.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2019–2023 categorized it as a small-hub primary commercial service facility. Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 3,663,996 passengers in calendar year 2018, an increase of 9% from 3,380,902 in 2017.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: , Norfolk International was ranked as the 70th-busiest airport in the United States and the fourth-busiest in Virginia in terms of passengers served annually, behind Dulles International Airport, Reagan National Airport and Richmond International. Delta Air Lines has the largest share of passenger traffic, followed by Southwest Airlines and American Airlines.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: The airport was first established in 1938 as Norfolk Municipal Airport; from 1942 until 1947 it was run by the United States Army Air Forces. In 1968 its name changed to Norfolk Regional Airport, and in 1976 it was renamed again to the present Norfolk International Airport.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: The airport covers 1,300 acres (526 ha) at an elevation of 27 feet (8 m). Its main runway, 5–23, is 9,001 by 150 feet (2,744 x 46 m) and crosswind runway 14–32 is 4,875 by 150 feet (1,486 x 46 m).


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: The crosswind runway (14–32) was closed for renovations on December 19, 2009, and reopened in the spring of 2011. The airport's long-term plan calls for this runway to be destroyed to make way for a parallel runway (5R-23L) east of runway 5–23, but the FAA grounded the plan in summer 2016 due to diminishing demand, limited space, and environmental impacts.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: In 2017 the airport had 67,679 aircraft operations, average 185 per day: 39% airline, 27% air taxi, 27% general aviation, and 2% military. In November 2018, 95 aircraft were based at the airport: 52 single-engine, 20 multi-engine, 20 jet, and 3 helicopter.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: General aviation services, or fixed-base operations, are provided by Signature Flight Support with full-service facilities for maintaining and housing private and corporate aircraft. The modern terminal facility offers everything from aircraft rental to sightseeing flights and aircraft repair.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: Daily scheduled aircraft include ERJ140/145 (United, American), CRJ200/700/900 (Delta, United, American), ERJ170/175 (American, United), A300 (FedEx), A319/320 (United, Allegiant, American, Frontier), B717 (Delta), B737 (Southwest, American, Delta), and B757 (UPS and Delta).


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: Built in 1995, the FAA Norfolk Air Traffic Control Tower stands high. Operated and managed by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Norfolk Tower handles about 1,100 aircraft per day, 24 hours per day and 365 days per year. Radar coverage is provided by the ASR-9 terminal system with a six-level weather detection capability. Also available for use is an Enhanced Target Generator (ETG) lab with two radar scopes to accomplish training objectives, as well as the IDS4 system, a specialized microcomputer network system designed to distribute and display both static and real-time data regarding weather and other rapidly changing critical information to air traffic controllers.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: Norfolk International Airport has two passenger concourses: Concourse A (gates A1-A11), and Concourse B (gates B16-B30). American Airlines and Southwest Airlines occupy Concourse A while Allegiant Air, Delta Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and United Airlines occupy Concourse B. International flights are handled at gate A1; however, there are currently no scheduled international flights. Specific gate locations are the following: American A2, A4, A6-A11, Delta B21-B25, Southwest A3 and A5, United B27-B30, with Allegiant and Frontier using common gates of B16, B17, B18, B20. Concourse B gates B22 and B26 are no longer in use.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: About 70 million pounds of air cargo are shipped in and out of Norfolk International Airport each year.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: NIA houses one of the most modern and efficient air cargo facilities in the state. Its two modern air cargo terminals have of space. A ramp provides direct access from plane to warehouse.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: There are no bus or shuttle services to and from Norfolk International Airport. The nearest bus (HRT Route 15) connection is away at the intersection of Military Highway (Route 165) and Norview Avenue (Route 247).


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: All ground transportation services are located in the arrivals terminal. There are several on-site rental car companies, an authorized shuttle service providing door-to-door service to the entire Hampton Roads area, and taxis available through several companies. Both Uber and Lyft service the airport through an agreement with the airport authority.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: A nine-level parking garage adjacent to the new arrivals terminal opened in July 2002. It provides 2,800 covered spaces for short term, long term and rental parking. Overall, NIA parking facilities can accommodate 7,000 vehicles.


title: Norfolk International Airport

text: In February 2019, the airport announced it would begin construction of a brand new 1.09 million square foot parking garage. Construction started in July 2019. This new parking garage will consolidate all parking lots at ORF. It will also replace the employee shuttle that costs over $600,000 a year to operate.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City development. It contains the Olympic stadium, now known as the London Stadium, and the Olympic swimming pool together with the athletes' Olympic Village and several other Olympic sporting venues and the London Olympics Media Centre. The park is overlooked by the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower and Britain's largest piece of public art.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: It was simply called The Olympic Park during the Games but was later renamed to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II (though it is not an official Royal Park of London). The park occupies an area straddling four east London boroughs; Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest. Part of the park reopened in July 2013, while a large majority of the rest (including the Aquatics Centre, Velopark and Orbit observation tower) reopened in April 2014.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: The site covers parts of Stratford, Bow, Leyton, and Hackney Wick in east London, overlooking the A12 road. The site was previously a mixture of greenfield and brownfield land, including parts of Hackney Marshes.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: The Royal Mail gave the park and Stratford City the postcode E20, which had previously only appeared in the television soap opera "EastEnders" for the fictional suburb of Walford.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: On 2 August 2011, it was announced the five neighbourhoods of housing and amenities (anti-clockwise from north-east) are:


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: These names have relevant history in the area. All four of the East London boroughs covering the park as such have a neighbourhood except for Waltham Forest.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: The park was designed by the EDAW Consortium (including EDAW, Allies and Morrison and Buro Happold), working with Arup and WS Atkins. Detailed landscape architecture was by LDA Design in conjunction with Hargreaves Associates. LDA design contracted Wallace Whittle to carry out various aspects of the M+E Building services design. The NHBC carried out the Sustainability assessments. The park was illuminated with a lighting scheme designed by Speirs + Major.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: London's Olympic and Paralympic bid proposed that there would be four indoor arenas in the park in addition to the main venues, but the revised master plan published in 2006 reduced this to three, with the volleyball events moved to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre. The fencing arena was also cancelled, with the fencing events taking place at ExCeL London. The remaining indoor arenas are the Basketball Arena and the Copper Box, in addition to the Water Polo Arena, the Aquatics Centre, and the Velopark. The final design of the park was approved by the Olympic Delivery Authority and its planning-decisions committee.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: The Legacy List is the independent charity for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, set up in 2011 to support the legacy of the Games. Their mission is to make creative connections between people and the Park by developing, commissioning and supporting high quality art, education and skill building initiatives, to engage, educate and inspire current and future generations.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: During its construction over 80,000 workers were engaged on the project. The construction of the Olympic Park was managed by CLM Delivery Partner, comprising CH2M Hill ,Laing O'Rourke and Mace. CLM specifically managed the "white" space between the venue construction zones, including managing the internal road network. To enable the major phase of construction to begin, the 52 electricity pylons, up to high, that dominated the landscape in and around the park were removed and the power transferred through the new Lower Lea Valley Cable Tunnels constructed by Murphy.also there was a roman village underground when they were digging it up Following site clearance, the soil across the Park site was cleaned down to a human health layer, by soil washing.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: The park has been given over to a number of current and planned uses after the London 2012 Summer Olympics finished, such as:


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: As of January 2021, several arts and creativity institutions are constructing outposts at the park as part of a £1.1billion development, including:


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: International Quarter London is a new commercial district in Stratford, East London, which hosted the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It will be a mixed-use development, with a total investment of in excess of £1.3 billion, and will be delivered by Lend Lease and London and Continental Railways in a 50/50 joint venture.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: International Quarter London will include 4 million sq ft of commercial office space, 330 homes known as Glasshouse Gardens and a new hotel. The area is accessible via Stratford station.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: Although the sporting venues in the park were reduced in scale after the conclusion of London 2012, part of the legacy is to ensure the continued use of those facilities that are permanent, as local and community resources and for major international sporting events that make use of the world class facilities constructed for the Olympics and Paralympics:


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: In addition to the use of the venues for international events, some of them are intended for use on a regular basis by amateur and professional sports teams in various sports.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: On 11 February 2011, West Ham United were selected as preferred bidders, ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, to take over the Olympic Stadium as a football venue after the end of the games. However, five days later Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn announced that he would be challenging the decision to allow West Ham to relocate to the stadium, as he believed that having West Ham playing within of their Brisbane Road stadium could cost Orient support and even their existence. Incidentally, Hearn had expressed interest some years earlier in moving Orient to Olympic Park and reducing its capacity to 25,000 seats, while West Ham would cut the capacity to 60,000 if their relocation went ahead. Tottenham Hotspur also pursued legal action over the decision and eventually the deal with West Ham collapsed due to legal pressure on 11 October 2011. West Ham did go on to win the later tenancy bid and began using the stadium from the start of the 2016–17 football season as the main tenant.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: The Copper Box was the only permanent indoor arena remaining after the end of London 2012. Built primarily for use in the handball and goalball competitions, it was converted to a multi-use venue that will include use for basketball. As a result of the owners of the Prestige Homes Arena in Milton Keynes terminating their lease, the London Lions basketball club, after a season at the National Sports Centre, Selhurst, relocated to the Copper Box for the 2013-14 BBL season.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: The Lee Valley Hockey Centre was born from a revamp of the Olympic Legacy Hockey Facility. The facility is the current ground of Wapping Hockey Club. The centre includes 2 state-of-the-art hockey pitches and is operated by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: Following the demolition of the original warm-up track after the end of the Olympics, a new six-lane facility, the London Marathon Community Track, was constructed on the south side of the Olympic Stadium, for use both as a community venue and as a new home for Newham and Essex Beagles Athletic Club following the 2017 World Championships. Football side Altis FC, members of the Amateur Football Combination, are based at the stadium.


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: In January 2013, music concert promoter Live Nation won the right to stage shows at the stadium and in the surrounding park. The park hosted the music events in July 2013, but the stadium was not used. The former site of the Riverbank Arena was used to stage the Hard Rock Calling, Wireless and Electric Daisy Carnival festivals .


title: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

text: In 2021, ABBA began construction of a purpose-built arena in the Olympic Park for a motion-capture hologram concert scheduled to take place in 2022. The announcement of the arena's construction and purpose took place during a YouTube livestream to announce their upcoming 2021 album "Voyage".


title: Rose Hills Memorial Park

text: Rose Hills Memorial Park is located in Whittier, California. It is currently owned and operated by Service Corporation International (formerly, Loewen Group). It claims to be the largest cemetery in North America.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: Charles Shane Robinson (born July 2, 1964) is an American professional wrestling senior referee and former professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE on the SmackDown brand.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: Robinson made his wrestling debut in 1995 for Pro Wrestling Federation (PWF) as a photographer and later the referee. He signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1997 and was described as "Little Naitch" as part of the Four Horsemen stable. When WCW closed its doors in 2001, he was hired by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and was initially one of the referees of the villainous The Alliance stable. After The Alliance disbanded, he became one of the company's longest active tenured referees and is part of the ring crew. Robinson is known and praised for refereeing many women's matches.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: While growing up, Robinson idolized NWA superstar Ric Flair. He also studied NWA referee Tommy Young in order to hone his mannerisms as a referee. His professional wrestling career began when he joined the Pro Wrestling Federation (PWF) as a photographer in 1995. After being used as a special guest referee in 1995, he later became a full-time referee for the PWF.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: Robinson repeatedly petitioned the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) professional wrestling promotion for a job. On September 15, 1997, he was given a tryout match, refereeing a dark match between Chris Adams and Kendall Windham before "WCW Monday Nitro" at Independence Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. A few weeks following the match, Robinson was contacted by WCW and signed to a contract. His first appearance was during the WCW TV tapings at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: In 1999, Robinson became the heel referee of the Four Horsemen, aligning himself with Flair. Robinson frequently favored the Horsemen in the matches he officiated, enraging Randy Savage. Savage, who had been suspended by Flair (then the WCW President), proposed a match between his girlfriend, Gorgeous George, and Robinson, with Savage to be reinstated if George defeated Robinson. The match, which marked Robinson's wrestling debut, took place at Slamboree 1999 on May 9, 1999. Robinson, dubbed "Little Naitch" (a reference to Flair's nickname, the "Nature Boy"), came to the ring in a robe similar to those worn by Flair, and mimicked Flair's mannerisms, signature strut and "wooo" catchphrase. Robinson emulated Flair throughout the match, using Flair's customary illegal tactics, but was defeated by George, who pinned him following a diving elbow drop. Robinson wrestled his second match one week later, teaming with Flair to face Randy Savage and Madusa on an episode of "WCW Monday Nitro". In the course of the match, Savage delivered a botched diving elbow drop to Robinson, cracking several of his vertebrae and collapsing his lung. After undergoing treatment, Robinson returned to WCW television several weeks later, and was appointed to President Flair's stable. Flair and Piper kayfabe ran WCW until they were unseated by Sting, with Robinson returning to his refereeing duties.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: Robinson would again turn heel in the Fall of 1999, this time siding with Sid Vicious and Rick Steiner. Robinson would get involved in matches he was refereeing for Vicious and Steiner. This would go on for a month before Robinson would go back to being an unbiased Referee. In 2000, Robinson appeared in the WCW-produced film "Ready to Rumble". On March 26, 2001 on "Nitro", Robinson refereed the last WCW match ever, where Sting defeated Ric Flair via submission.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: When WCW's properties were purchased by the World Wrestling Federation from AOL Time Warner in March 2001, Robinson was hired by the WWF. He debuted in the WWF as a member of The Alliance, bickering with WWF loyalist referee Jack Doan and accompanying senior WCW official Nick Patrick to ringside for his match at Invasion on July 22, 2001. He refereed his first WWF match on July 2, 2001. Despite being a member of the Alliance, Robinson, unlike fellow Alliance member Nick Patrick, was mostly a fair and impartial referee. An example of this would be the August 20, 2001 episode of "Raw" when he awarded Tajiri a victory over Booker T by disqualification when Booker T started choking Tajiri with his shirt. The night before at SummerSlam, Robinson refereed Booker T's match against the Rock and called the match right down the middle as the Rock won the WCW Championship.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: In 2002, the WWF was renamed "World Wrestling Entertainment", and the roster was divided between two "brands", "Raw" and "SmackDown!". Robinson was initially assigned to "Raw", but was later traded to "SmackDown!", where he refereed many women's matches. On the July 1, 2004, episode of "SmackDown!", Robinson was forced to wrestle Luther Reigns by General Manager Kurt Angle. The match, however, was quickly stopped by Charlie Haas.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: At No Mercy 2006, Robinson, who had refereed a match between Mr. Kennedy and The Undertaker, was on the receiving end of a Tombstone Piledriver from the Undertaker after he had called for him to be disqualified after hitting Mr. Kennedy with his WWE United States Championship belt. Robinson also officiated the World Heavyweight Championship matches at WrestleMania 22, WrestleMania 23, as well as Ric Flair's final WWE match and the last part of the World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXIV. Two years later he refereed the main event of WrestleMania XXVI, the retirement match of Shawn Michaels.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: On the June 20, 2008, episode of "SmackDown", Robinson was placed in a match by General Manager Vickie Guerrero after ejecting Chavo Guerrero Jr. from ringside during Bam Neely's match with Matt Hardy. He lost to The Great Khali in a squash match. After the match he was carried out by medical officials. He returned in a match between Edge and The Big Show, where he stopped Big Show from giving a con-chair-to to Edge. In November 2008 referees were made no longer exclusive to certain brands. Robinson has worked the final matches of Eddie Guerrero, Edge, and Shawn Michaels, as well as Ric Flair's WWE retirement match at WrestleMania XXIV. He also refereed Triple H's successful victory against Sting at WrestleMania 31. This was Sting's first match in WWE, and Sting personally chose Robinson as the referee. Robinson also refereed the match between Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker at SummerSlam where the match ended in controversy after Undertaker tapped out to Lesnar. Even though Robinson didn't see Undertaker tapping, the timekeeper saw it and rang the bell. Undertaker then hit Lesnar with a low blow and made Lesnar pass out to Hell's Gate. In a post-match backstage interview, Robinson admitted that, after watching the replays, Undertaker did tap out, but he also confirmed that it didn't matter if the timekeeper or the crowd saw it, and that as long as Robinson didn't call for the bell, the match would continue, due to him being the referee and the official. At Payback on May 1, 2016, he refereed the match between Charlotte (with her father Ric Flair) and Natalya (with Bret Hart) for the WWE Women's Championship. During the match, Robinson called for the bell when Charlotte had Natalya in the sharpshooter despite Natalya not submitting. This was similar to the Montreal Screwjob of Survivor Series 1997, when Bret Hart lost the WWF Championship. Robinson was one of the referees assigned to the inaugural WWE Cruiserweight Classic.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: Since 2002, Robinson has been a part of the WWE production and ring crew, helping assemble and disassemble the ring and set before and after shows.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: In April 2020, Robinson became "SmackDown"`s senior official referee, after SmackDown's senior official referee Mike Chioda was released from his WWE contract as part of budget cuts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: He once had his elbow knocked out of its socket while refereeing a match in the PWF in Gastonia, North Carolina. Fire Breaker Chip accidentally kicked Charles's elbow during a pin attempt. He was out of action for 4 months.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: On April 18, 2014, while traveling with the WWE in Saudi Arabia, Robinson suffered a freak accident while helping assemble the wrestling ring, resulting in him nearly losing his thumb. The injury required six stitches.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: On January 29, 2017 during the Royal Rumble PPV, Robinson was refereeing the WWE Championship Match between John Cena and AJ Styles when he tore the plantar fascia on his left foot seven minutes into the match. He completed the match, but was subsequently out of action for two months, during which he underwent successful surgery. He returned on March 25, 2017 during a WWE SmackDown Live house show in Johnson City. He made his television return on the March 28, 2017 episode of 205 Live.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: On the July 11, 2017 episode of "SmackDown", Robinson's left index finger was mildly fractured by Baron Corbin while he refereed Corbin's match against Shinsuke Nakamura.


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: Robinson's likeness appears as the referee in THQ's "WWE 12", "WWE 13", and 2K Sports "WWE 2K14", "WWE 2K15" and "WWE 2K16".


title: Charles Robinson (referee)

text: On October 11, 2000, Robinson married a woman named Amy, who was diagnosed with melanoma of the lung in January 2001 and died on April 7, 2002. He has a daughter named Jessica from a previous relationship. He is a Christian.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: John van der Put (born 9 June 1980) is a magician and comedian from the United Kingdom who performs under the stage name Piff the Magic Dragon. A winner of multiple awards from British magic societies, he toured as a supporting act for Mumford and Sons and has appeared on "" and "America's Got Talent". In June 2019, van der Put was named one of Variety's 10 Comics to Watch for 2019. Van der Put lives in Las Vegas and has a residency at The Flamingo.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: Van der Put grew up in South East London. As a teenager, he was inspired to become a magician after seeing Jerry Sadowitz on the BBC2 show "Stuff the White Rabbit". At the age of 18, he became a member of The Magic Circle, and was one of the youngest members to have lectured there.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: His parents persuaded him to have a back-up career, so he completed a Computer Science degree, and began a career in IT. After two years, a bout of acute pancreatitis caused him to rethink his life goals, and he quit IT to learn performance methods as a drama student at the Central School of Speech and Drama.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: With fellow alumni of the CSSD Alexis Terry, Maya Politaki, and Lucy Cullingford, he co-founded the theatrical cabaret company "standnotamazed", becoming their artistic director. The company's "Love and Other Magic Tricks", starring Politaki and van der Put and described in a "WhatsOnStage" review as "a show of subtlety and magic rather than drama and showmanship", won the Time Out Critic's Choice award as well as the 2009 Buxton Festival Fringe's award for Best Production, and was nominated for the Festival's Best New Writing award. Van der Put also had a supporting role in Derek Walcott's 2008 operatic production of Seamus Heaney's "The Burial at Thebes" at Shakespeare's Globe.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: Van der Put credits Fay Presto for enabling him to become a professional magician. Jobs included restaurant close-up performances for tables of diners; cruise ship work; and corporate work including "product launches, PR stunts, tradeshows and internal presentations" for global companies.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: Regarding his earlier pre-Piff magician career, asked whether or not it was a comedy act also, van der Put said "Not intentionally. It was me doing magic tricks. And then sort of people would say ridiculous things, like, 'Can you make my wife disappear? Can you do this? Can you do that?' And I would make a comment to them that I would think was funny, and a couple of people would think was funny, but most people would just get offended. So, the dragon outfit definitely helped make me socially acceptable."


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: Regarding his comedic influences, van der Put said "It was the people who are a little more irreverent. It was people like The Amazing Johnathan, Penn and Teller, Harry Anderson … and also if you look at some of the Copperfield stuff, like with the singing tie, he’s got amazingly funny routines as well. But obviously, the other stuff that Copperfield does is very straight and serious. And that was what I was reacting against."


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: And when asked which is harder, doing the magic or getting the comedy right, van der Put said: "It is, without question, getting the magic tricks to work. That is the hardest bit. Because for the comedy, you can rewrite a joke pretty quickly, but to make a magic trick work it’s usually at least a month or two in R&D prototyping. And if it doesn’t work, then you have to really go back to the drawing board. Because now you spent all this time on something that nobody even cares about. So, you have to start again."


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: In 2008, van der Put created his stage persona of Piff the Magic Dragon, dressing in a green, red and yellow dragon costume, with self-deprecating humour and deadpan delivery. He is assisted by "Mr. Piffles", a chihuahua in a dragon costume. The Magic Dragon persona was created by happenstance, when he went to a costume party in a dragon outfit, and nobody else turned up in costume. "It was just me. And one of my friends who knew that I was a magician said to me, 'You should do this in your act. You could be Puff the Magic Dragon.' And I said, 'Wait, I could be Piff the Magic Dragon. You might have heard of my older brother, Steve.' And that's where that came from."


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: When asked in an interview why he is a dragon, and not some other mythological being, van der Put responded:


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: Piff the Magic Dragon has appeared regularly in shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, debuting at the 2009 Free Fringe Festival with a solo show that broke the record for highest takings in one night, and being nominated for the inaugural 2012 Time Out and Soho Theatre Cabaret Award. His show at the 2009 Buxton Fringe won the award for Best Comedy Show the same year that "Love and Other Magic Tricks" won. He has had national tours of the UK and Australia, including runs at the Soho Theatre and Sydney Opera House.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: In 2011, Piff appeared on the first season of "" with a phased transformation of incorrect card to signed card, a performance that according to Metro saw him "steal the show" with a routine that would "have been as welcome on a small stage at a comedy festival as it would a Vegas stage". Although his card trick segment of the performance fooled Penn and Teller initially, the pair seemed to figure it out and were therefore "not fooled" by Piff's own admission on stage. Penn subsequently revealed the method they gave on air was "kinda sorta wrong" and Piff just played along. The duo rated the act their favourite of the season, and Piff "a stunningly good magician". The routine was subsequently voted onto Channel 5's "TV's 50 Greatest Magic Tricks". The next year, his routine was plagiarised by a Ukrainian magician on the Russian TV3 show "Surprise Me!" (.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: As Piff, van der Put was a support act for band Mumford & Sons on their 2012 Tour of Two Halves. The band first discovered him when they both appeared in the benefit concert "The Secret Policeman's Ball 2012", and included him in their Galway "Gentlemen of the Road Stopover" and on the cover of their album "Babel". Together with his other 2012 performances, these appearances made him the UK magician seen live on stage by the most people that year.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: Van der Put moved to Las Vegas to join The Cosmopolitan's "Rose. Rabbit. Lie" club and its 2014 Spiegelworld "Vegas Nocturne" show, having been headhunted while on tour in Australia. In December of that year, he opened for Human Nature's December 2014 Christmas shows at The Venetian.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: In May 2015, Piff appeared on the 10th season of NBC's "America's Got Talent". His audition, a repeat of his "Fool Us" routine with a phased transformation of incorrect card to signed card, was unanimously selected for the Judge Cuts round. In that round, a signed card reappeared in a sealed dog-food can, with special guest judge Neil Patrick Harris using his Golden Buzzer to send Piff straight to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, three hanging boxes selected by judge Howie Mandel were violently destroyed, while the fourth unselected box was revealed to contain Mr. Piffles. This received sufficient votes to send him to the Semifinals, where his revelations of three selected cards earned him standing ovations from judges Howard Stern, Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel, and sufficient votes for the Final round. That week's act, which involved firing Mr. Piffles from a cannon and the reappearance of a signed bill inside a walnut, did not receive enough votes for him to win, and instead placed him in the Top 10. He returned as a guest performer on AGT's 2016 "America's Got Talent Holiday Spectacular" and in 2017 during Season 12.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: In late 2015, van der Put became the resident performer at The Flamingo, and The Flamingo renamed its “Bugsy’s Cabaret” theater as the “Piff the Magic Dragon Theater". He is assisted by showgirl and real-life spouse Jade Simone.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: In October 2020, Piff's show relocated to the much larger (700 seat) Flamingo Showroom with a 3-year contract.


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: Van der Put served as consultant to Penn and Teller, and helped develop the Vanishing African Spotted Pygmy Elephant Act. He also served as a magic consultant for the theater company Theatre-Rites, for their production of "Mojo", as well as to Heston Blumenthal, who said van der Put worked on magic water for his restaurant "The Fat Duck": "When two people ask for still and sparkling, we’ll pour it from the same bottle without any physical divide."


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: Van der Put grew up as an evangelical Christian, and performed Gospel magic when younger. When asked his opinion in an interview regarding the claim of some religious fundamentalists that dragons were actually fire-breathing dinosaurs, van der Put said:


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: On the subject of religion, van der Put also said: "So, my joke with Penn [Jillette] is always that at some point he’s going to be renouncing his atheism and jump on the God bandwagon. [Laughs] But the truth is that … you know, it’s that thing about the older you get, the less you know."


title: Piff the Magic Dragon

text: Van der Put won the 2008 British Ring Close-up Magician of the Year, while The Magic Circle awarded him their 2011 Close-up Magician of the Year, 2012 Stage Magician of the Year (as Piff), and 2013 Carlton Award. In 2013, the Circle also inducted him into their Inner Ring with Gold Star.


title: Clone Hero

text: Clone Hero is a freeware music rhythm video game created by Ryan Foster, first released in alpha on March 1, 2017, receiving a full release on November 29, 2022. The game is a clone of the "Guitar Hero" franchise with nearly identical gameplay. The main draw of the game is its ability to play community-made songs, which has resulted in a large fan community around the game as well as a resurgence in popularity for the genre.


title: Clone Hero

text: "Clone Hero", by design, features nearly identical gameplay to "Guitar Hero". Specifically, the game is most similar to later entries in the series such as "World Tour" and "", using GUI assets from those games. Gameplay involves hitting colored in time to songs; "Clone Hero" allows players to use any PC-compatible controller from the "Guitar Hero" or "Rock Band" franchises, as well as a keyboard or any other input device. Unlike the "Guitar Hero" series, by default there is no penalty for missing notes, aside from breaking a combo, making it impossible to fail a song, although there is an option to enable this.


title: Clone Hero

text: For guitar, players must hold specific buttons that line up with combinations of five colored notes that appear on the screen on a "highway"; when the notes hit the bottom of the highway, the player must strum to hit the notes in time with the music. Notes can be singular, or multiple at a time, forming a chord. Notes can also be sustains, in which the player must hold the matching button(s) after strumming, the duration of the hold being indicated by a line following the note or chord. There is also an "open strum" note, represented with a purple bar, which requires the player to strum without pressing any other buttons. In addition to normal notes, there are "HOPO"s ("hammer-ons" and "pull-offs") and "tap notes", which both do not require the player to strum them to hit them, with the difference between the two being that a string of HOPOs must begin with a strum, and the player must re-strum if they miss a note. Certain notes may also be part of a "star power phrase", marked by a series of notes with star outlines. Successfully playing the marked section will reward the player with star power, which can be used to double the combo multiplier for a limited time. The game also contains a mode which emulates the guitar gameplay of "Guitar Hero Live", which is notably different from other games in the series, involving six guitar buttons instead of the standard five.


title: Clone Hero

text: For drums, gameplay is similar, involving one less possible note; players must hit a corresponding drum or cymbal when a note hits the bottom of the highway. There is also a bass drum note, represented by an orange bar, which unlike the guitar's open strum can be combined with other notes.


title: Clone Hero

text: Unlike Guitar Hero games which each have a large built-in setlist, "Clone Hero" comes pre-bundled with only seventeen songs as of the v1.0 update, including "Troopers of the Stars" by DragonForce, a composition made by the band specifically for "Clone Hero." The game instead largely relies on the ability to play community-made songs, called "charts". However, unlike games in the "Guitar Hero" series, these songs do not need to be original compositions, and can instead be any audio file a member of the community wishes to turn into a playable chart. This allows for any song to be made playable in the game, but also leads to many humorous and/or non-musical audio files being turned into charts, as well as the creation of many intentionally impossible charts. The freedom offered by the game's system has also spawned many charts that are created as brutal challenges to other players, far beyond the difficulty of anything in the standard "Guitar Hero" series. While "Clone Hero" includes the main four difficulty modes seen in "Guitar Hero", the vast majority of charts are designed for Expert mode.


title: Clone Hero

text: "Clone Hero" started as a small project of Ryan Foster's in 2011, then called "GuitaRPG", built in the XNA engine and bearing simple, 2D graphics. Around 2015, the game's name was changed to "Guitar Game" to reflect its forking away from the RPG style, and had been upgraded with pseudo-3D graphics made with 2D graphics with warped perspective. The project was later moved to Unity, and received its final name change to "Clone Hero". In 2017, the game had its first alpha release.


title: Clone Hero

text: "Clone Hero" made an appearance at Awesome Games Done Quick 2020. The game has been praised for its large and thriving community, as well as its gameplay which has been favorably compared to the original "Guitar Hero" games.


title: Monarchy of Germany

text: The Monarchy of Germany (the German Monarchy) was the system of government in which a hereditary monarch was the sovereign of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918.


title: Monarchy of Germany

text: The Monarch of Germany was created with the proclamation of the President of the North German Confederation and the King of Prussia, William I of Prussia, as "German Emperor" during the Franco-Prussian War, on 18 January 1871 at the Palace of Versailles.


title: Monarchy of Germany

text: The title German Emperor () was carefully chosen by Minister President of Prussia and Chancellor of the North German Confederation Otto von Bismarck after discussion until (and after) the day of the proclamation. William I accepted this title grudgingly as he would have preferred "Emperor of Germany" which was, however, unacceptable to the federated monarchs, and which would also have signalled a claim to lands outside of his reign (Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg etc.). The title "Emperor of the Germans", as had proposed at the Frankfurt Parliament in 1848, was ruled out as he considered himself chosen "By the Grace of God", not by the people as in a democracy.


title: Monarchy of Germany

text: By this ceremony, the North German Confederation was transformed into the German Empire. This empire was a federal monarchy; the emperor was head of state and president of the federated monarchs (the kings of Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, the grand dukes of Oldenburg, Baden, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hesse, as well as other principalities, duchies and of the free cities of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen).


title: Monarchy of Germany

text: Some organisations such as "Tradition und Leben" advocate a return to monarchy; however, there is currently little mainstream support for a restoration of the monarchy.


title: Monarchy of Germany

text: Despite the abolition of the monarchy in 1918, the House of Hohenzollern never relinquished their claims to the thrones of Prussia and the German Empire. These claims are linked by the Constitution of the German Empire: according to this, whoever was King of Prussia was also German Emperor. However, these claims are not recognised by the Federal Republic of Germany or anyone else, this included the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and West or East Germany.


title: Monarchy of Germany

text: In 1933 Prince William renounced his claim to the former throne when he married Dorothea von Salviati, in 1940 William II accepted Dorothea and his daughters Felicitas and Christa as dynastic members thus styled HRH Dorothea, Princess of Prussia, HRH Felicitas, Princess of Prussia and HRH Christa, Princess of Prussia, Prince William was killed in 1940.


title: Monarchy of Germany

text: Prince Louis Ferdinand who was third in line of the succession by 1933, his first son Prince Friedrich Wilhelm renounced his claim in 1967 to marry Waltraud Freytag whom he divorced in 1975 and his second son Prince Michael renounced his claim in 1966 to marry Jutta Jörn like his brother he divorced her in 1982, then his third son Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, Jr. was involved in a severe accident during military maneuvers when he was pinned between two vehicles. Although his leg was amputated, he succumbed several weeks later to the trauma and died in 1977.


title: Monarchy of Germany

text: Prince George Frederick inherited from his grandfather, and during his time as head of House of Hohenzollern his two uncles Princes Friedrich Wilhelm and Michael challenged him to a lawsuit claiming that, despite their renunciations as dynasts at the time of their marriages, the loss of their inheritance rights based on their selection of spouse was discriminatory and unconstitutional. His uncles were initially successful, the Regional Court of Hechingen and the higher Regional Court of Stuttgart ruling in their favour in 1997 on the grounds that the requirement to marry equally was "immoral". However, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany overturned the original rulings in favour of Georg Friedrich's uncles, the case being remanded to the courts at Hechingen and Stuttgart. This time both courts ruled in favour of Georg Friedrich. His uncles then took their case to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany which overruled the previous court rulings in Georg Friedrich's favour. On 19 October 2005, a German regional court ruled that Georg Friedrich was indeed the principal heir of his grandfather, Louis Ferdinand (who was the primary beneficiary of the trust set up for the estate of Wilhelm II), but also concluded that each of the children of Louis Ferdinand was entitled to a portion of the Prussian inheritance.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: Demons () is a 1985 Italian horror film directed by Lamberto Bava, produced by Dario Argento, and starring Urbano Barberini and Natasha Hovey. Its plot follows two female university students who, along with a number of random people, are given complimentary tickets to a mysterious movie screening, where they soon find themselves trapped in the theater with a horde of ravenous demons.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: The story was originally planned to be part of a three-story horror anthology film written by Dardano Sacchetti, but Bava took interest in the story more than the others, so he and Sacchetti began developing it into a separate feature. Argento, beginning to be interested in producing films, would contribute to the screenplay with Franco Ferrini, who was brought in by Argento. Filming took place in Berlin and Rome in the summer of 1985. The film features an instrumental score composed by Claudio Simonetti, as well as a soundtrack that includes songs by such artists as Mötley Crüe and Billy Idol.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: Distributed by Titanus, "Demons" received a theatrical release in Italy in October 1985. It was followed by a 1986 sequel, "Demons 2", also directed by Bava and produced by Argento. A third "Demons" film was conceived, but was completely rewritten and released as "The Church" (1989), directed by Michele Soavi.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: On the Berlin subway, a mysterious, masked man offers university student Cheryl two tickets to a free screening at the Metropol, an isolated and recently renovated local cinema. Cheryl talks her friend Kathy into going with her; at the theater, they meet two preppy college boys, George and Ken. Other attendees of the screening include a blind man and his guide daughter; a married couple; a boyfriend and girlfriend; and a pimp named Tony along with his two prostitutes. One of the prostitutes, Rosemary, scratches her face with a bizarre mask that is on display in the lobby. The film being shown is a violent, disturbing horror film about four teenagers who discover an old tomb and dig up the grave of a sixteenth-century fortune-teller called Nostradamus. When the teenagers dig up Nostradamus's coffin, they find no body and instead an old book and a mask identical to the strange mask in the lobby. When one of the movie's characters puts the mask on and is scratched by it just like Rosemary was by its doppelganger, he then turns evil and slaughters his friends.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: Feeling ill, Rosemary goes to the bathroom, where she transforms into a bloodthirsty, red-eyed demon similar to the one in the film. Rosemary attacks her friend, Carmen, who then transforms into a demon in front of the rest of the cinema-goers. The group of uninfected people race to any exit they can find, only to find that they have all been bricked up making escape impossible. Although they attempt to barricade themselves in the balcony, many are attacked and infected by the demons. One of the demons escapes into the city when four punks break into the building through a back entrance; the punks are soon transformed into demons as well.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: In the cinema, only George and Cheryl remain uninfected. Using a display motorcycle and sword props from the foyer, they ride through the auditorium, slicing down many demons. George kills nearly all of them when suddenly, a helicopter crashes through the roof. George and Cheryl use an emergency grappling hook and winch to climb to the roof, where they are attacked by the mysterious man from the subway. They are able to kill him by impaling his head on an exposed bit of rebar. The two climb down to the street and discover that the demonic infection has spread throughout Berlin. They are then chased by a horde of demons before being picked up by a jeep of well-armed survivors. As they drive out of the city to safety, Cheryl (having been infected at some point in the theater) transforms into a demon. But before she can harm George, one of the jeep's survivors shoots with a shotgun, killing her. As Cheryl's body collapses into the roadway, George (the sole survivor of the cinema) and the survivalists drive out of the city to an unknown future.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: Following the release of a "giallo" "A Blade in the Dark", the action film "Blastfighter", and the science fiction horror film "Monster Shark", director Lamberto Bava considered writing a three part horror film anthology film written by Dardano Sacchetti, similar to his father's film "Black Sabbath". One of the stories involved monsters that came from a movie theatre screen and attacked the audience, a story that Bava liked more than the other two and began developing it into a feature film.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: Dardano and Bava took their 25-page treatment for the film to producer Fabrizio De Angelis, who wanted to use footage from Lucio Fulci's films as the film within a film to cut costs. The two would also take the treatment to Luciano Martino who suggested the two to produce the film themselves. Meanwhile, Dario Argento, who was fresh from the financial success of "Phenomena" (1985) and was beginning to be interested in producing films as he had done previously with "Dawn of the Dead". Argento began looking for films to produce, first reading a science fiction script from Luigi Cozzi which he was not convinced with, and then meeting with Bava who agreed to produce "Demons".


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: Sacchetti was not content with Argento's suggestions for the script, later stating that Argento brought in Franco Ferrini who he felt only tried to please Argento. Ferrini stated his contributions to the script was to post-pone the appearance of the demons, which he said originally appeared much earlier in the film. Sacchetti then said Argento paid him and had him leave the project, only to invite him back towards the end to give the script a final polish. Sacchetti later remarked that the first half of the film's story was the same as the original script while the second half had more blood and gore and special effect scenes.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: "Demons" was shot in nine weeks in June and July 1985. It was shot on location in Berlin and at De Paolis In.Ci.R. Studios in Rome.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: The idea to have the demons eyes glow in the film came to Bava on set, who said when filming a scene where the demons approach the camera involved the actors wearing refractive paper which caused the effect.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: The soundtrack was released on LP, and features 1980s rock and heavy metal themes. The soundtrack was performed live for the film's thirty-year anniversary at Shock Pop Comiccon in February 2015. The instrumental soundtrack was composed by Claudio Simonetti.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: "Demons" was distributed theatrically in Italy by Titanus on 4 October 1985. The film grossed a total of 1,225,490,000 Italian lire domestically, making it the 39th highest-grossing film in Italy that year, more than "Cat's Eye", "Silver Bullet" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street". The film was distributed elsewhere in the world in 1986 including the United States, France and Hong Kong. The film was planned to be released in the United Kingdom but its release was seemingly canceled.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: In a contemporary review, Kim Newman stated in "The Monthly Film Bulletin" that ""Demons" suffers from the same uncertain, over-emphatic tone that brought down producer Dario Argento's own "Phenomena"" and that "the film has horror effects aplenty-gory deaths, transformations into dribbling monsters, a demon bursting out of a girl's back - and an interesting set of ideas and situations, but flounders badly as it tried to build up a high energy cumulative effect."


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: "Demons" holds a 64% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 11 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.10/10. Leonard Maltin gave the film 1 out of 4 stars, criticizing the film's lack of characterizations, logic and plot.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: The film was listed at number 53 on American TV channel Bravo's "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments" countdown.


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: From retrospective reviews, Newman commented in "Sight & Sound" that the film was "the sort of picture it takes at least four people [...] to write: it isn't so much scripted as assembled" noting "one note characters". Newman commented on the series stating that they "have many problems of 80s cinema: everyone wears a puffy jacket and has puffier hair, characters like the coke snorting punks of "Demons" and the bad boy/bad driver of "Demons 2" come from middle aged imagination rather than he streets of Berlin." Newman concluded that both "Demons" and its sequel were "chaotic, inconsistent, blithely indifferent to storytelling and as prone to cack-handed unintentional comedy as gross out horror, these are guilty pleasures, but their demented glee makes them - aptly - ideal party horror movies."


title: Demons (1985 film)

text: Following the commercial success of "Demons", Argento and his collaborators began work on a sequel titled "Demons 2" which began shooting on May 19, 1986 and was released on October 9, 1986 in Italy. Bava spoke of a second sequel as early as January 22, 1988 with Argento stating it would be called "Ritorno alla casa dei demoni" () The project for the third film later changed hands to eventually become "The Church" directed by Michele Soavi. Bava's television film "The Ogre" was released outside of Italy as "Demons III: The Ogre".


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: Bigg Boss Kannada (BBK) is the Kannada version of the reality TV show Bigg Boss which is broadcast in India through Colors Kannada Channel. The show is produced by Endemol Shine India, who owns the global format of Big Brother. Kiccha Sudeepa was hired to host the reality show in 2013 for the first season on ETV Kannada (now Colors Kannada). Later, he continued as a host of the show.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: A 'Bigg Boss' House is constructed for every season. For the first two seasons, the house was located in Lonavala, Pune district of Maharashtra, where the Hindi version of Bigg Boss usually takes place. As the schedules for the Hindi and Kannada versions were expected to be overlapped, a house exclusive for Kannada version of the show was built at Innovative Film City in Bengaluru, Karnataka for the third season. This continues to be the location of the house for the next seasons of Bigg Boss Kannada as well. The house built for a season of Bigg Boss is retained until the start of next season and is open for public at the venue, serving as an attraction.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The house would be usually well-furnished and decorated. It would have all the modern amenities and a large, common bedroom with beds for all contestants. There was an addition in the form of a luxurious single bedroom for the captain starting from second season. The house would also have common toiletries, swimming pool, gymnasium and spacious gardens. Apart from these, show specific activity areas and a small sound-proof room with controlled entrance called as the 'confession room' is built in the house where the housemates would be called in by the Bigg Boss for nomination process and other conversational activities. A secret room with bed and other facilities was incorporated into the house starting from season 2 where an evicted contestant, if selected by the Bigg Boss to continue the game, would be retained in this room for a week or two and would be put back into the game.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The House has no television connection (except for the day where the show host Sudeep converses with the contestants through the TV), no telephones, no access to internet, no clocks, no articles to write, complying with the rules of Big Brother around the world.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The house was completely reduced to ashes on 22 February 2018, and had to be rebuilt for the sixth season.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: Each season gets its own 'Eye' logo similar to the Bigg Boss and Big Brother shows. The first season of Bigg Boss Kannada on ETV Kannada inherited its logo from the sixth season of its Hindi counterpart in the form of a human eye with an eyeball displaying the SMPTE color bars, against a purple background with lightning storm. The second season, moved to Suvarna TV and got its dedicated logo in the form of a more detailed human eye against a background which split the 'hot' (orange) and 'cold' (blue) sides of the personalities in the house. This logo also had the text 'Season 2' inserted below the 'Eye'. The third season returned to the previous broadcaster, then re-branded as Colors Kannada and the logo was adopted from the one used for the first season. The same eye was used against a purple background with a tornado and the season number was not mentioned. Season numbers were omitted to be a part of the logo from this season.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The fourth season had a make-over with the new 'Eye' that resembled a futuristic design, with different elements inside the eye, against a background that uses tech elements and logos from previous season on a dominant blue color. This logo was partially derived from the eye used for the 15th Season of Big Brother UK. The logo used for the 5th Season of Bigg Boss Kannada was adapted from 14th Season of Big Brother UK; shows a pile of old-generation television sets displaying the SMPTE bars hanging at the center from the top, surrounded by multicolored doors, cupboards, lights and windows forming the shape of an eye against a background of an overcast sky with half blue and half brownish orange shade with fireworks behind the eye. For the 6th season, an 'ice-fire' theme was adopted for the logo while the 7th season's logo was adapted from 20th Season of Celebrity Big Brother UK.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: While all the rules have never been disclosed to the audience, the most prominent ones are clearly seen. The inmates should talk in Kannada at all times however, minimal use of English is allowed. The property of the house including the electronic equipment and the furniture should not be tampered or damaged by the housemates. The housemates can not leave the house premises at any time except when permitted to. Sleeping during the day time is prohibited and the contestants are allowed to sleep only when the lights go off in the night. Liquor is abandoned and the housemates with smoking habits can only smoke in the smoking area and are not allowed to smoke in any other parts of the house. A housemate can not assault another housemate physically; failing to follow this rule would result in Elimination of the assaulter from the house.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: Nomination is a mandatory activity, usually taking place on first day of the week in which all housemates need to take part unless directed by Bigg Boss. Each housemate nominates two other housemates for eviction. Housemates getting maximum nomination votes will be nominated for eviction from the house in that week and undergoes public vote (through SMS) for retention. On the weekend episode, usually one contestant with lowest public votes will be evicted from the house. A housemate may also be directly nominated for eviction by that week's captain of the house or for other reasons by the Bigg Boss. Housemates who are awarded 'immunity' can not be nominated by other contestants. Immunity is automatically given to the week's captain and can be earned by contestants through winning specific tasks or achieving secret tasks given by Bigg Boss. Sometimes, the captain can make a contestant immune from nomination upon Bigg Boss' direction. The housemates are not allowed to discuss about the nominations or the nomination process with each other.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The captaincy concept was introduced in the second season. A captain is selected for every week by the Bigg Boss through specific tasks or elected by the housemates. A captain will have additional privileges in the form of immunity from nomination for that particular week, exemption from participating in the task activities and a separate bedroom with facilities more than that of other contestants. The captain will be exempted from nomination procedure for his/her captaincy week and will have power to either nominate a housemate directly or make a housemate immune from nomination or rescue a nominated housemate, depending on Bigg Boss' decisions. Captain's main duty is to supervise the weekly task and make sure the conditions and stipulations are met and task is performed well to procure the 'luxury budget' for the next week. Captains should also keep an eye on house rules and may punish a housemate for violating the rules.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: Bigg Boss Kannada is first aired on ETV Kannada and second season aired on Star Suvarna and third and fourth season aired on Colors Kannada and fifth and sixth season aired on Colors Super and seventh season aired on Colors Kannada also can be streamed on Voot. Every day's episodes contain the main happenings of the previous day. Every Sunday episode mainly focuses on an interview of the evicted contestant by the host. For the seventh season the eviction process was changed to Saturday episode which was opposed to previous seasons.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The first season of Bigg Boss Kannada was launched in 2013 and derived many of its concepts from the sixth season of the original Bigg Boss including the visual elements and the house itself, with slight alterations. 'Howdu Swami!' ('Yes Sir!') was adopted as the slogan for this season and the theme song for the show was sung by Vijay Prakash. The show was aired on ETV Kannada from Mondays to Saturdays from 8 pm to 9 pm, premiering on 24 March 2013. The tasks and house activities would take place from Mondays to Thursdays following a special episode on Fridays, 'Varada Kathe Kicchana Jothe' ('The Week's Story with Kiccha') in which the show's host Sudeep would appear and carryout the eviction for the week. Sudeep's appearance would continue on the next day's special episode, 'Super Saturday with Sudeep' where an interview of the evicted contestant and a promotion for an upcoming movie would take place with a celebrity guest on the stage with Sudeep. The programming that included the unseen content, 'Bigg Boss Unseen' was aired from 11 pm to 12 am on weeknights. A marathon of all the episodes of the week would run on Sundays from morning. All the episodes were available online on YouTube and the official website of Bigg Boss Kannada after the original airing. The finale of the show was aired on 30 June 2013. Post conclusion of the season, a spin-off programming 'Bigg Boss Autograph' was aired on the same time-slot which consisted of interviews on the journey of fellow contestants in the show. As of date, the episodes from this season are not available online.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The second season moved to Asianet Suvarna and was launched in 2014. A new logo and a house exclusive to the Kannada version were created for this season along with a new theme song, with Vijay Prakash reprising his singing role. The slogan for this season was 'Thamashene Alla!' ('Not a Joke at all!'). The season premiered on 29 June 2014 with many new elements getting introduced, including the house captaincy. The programming was increased by a day to include Sundays and the weekly activities would take place from Mondays to Fridays from this season. Eviction episodes with Sudeep, 'Kicchinca Kathe Kicchana Jothe' ('Igniting Story with Kiccha') was aired on Saturdays followed by special episodes for interviews and movie promotions 'Sakkath Sunday with Sudeep' on Sundays. The unseen content for the season, 'Innu Ide Nodi Swami!' ('There's more to watch, Sir!') was aired from 11 pm to 12 am on weeknights. A marathon of all the episodes of the week would run on Sundays from morning. All the episodes were available online on YouTube and the official website of Suvarna after the original airing. The finale of the show was aired on 5 October 2014. After the season concluded, 'Bigg Boss Autograph' was aired on the same time-slot. As of date, the episodes from this season are not available online.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The third season returned to the previous broadcaster, then re-branded to Colors Kannada from ETV Kannada. This was the first season to take place inside Karnataka, in a house bigger than the previous ones, built exclusively for the Kannada version at the Innovative Film City in Bengaluru. The season used many elements including the theme song and the logo with slight modifications from the first season. The season was also the first one to omit unseen content programming and online voting. The season premiered on 25 October 2015 and 'Naatakakke Illi Jaaga Illa!' ('There is no place for drama here!') was the slogan of this season. As with the usual format, the episodes would be aired from Mondays to Sundays, this time an hour later than the previous seasons. The time-slot from the third season has been 9 pm to 10 pm on weeknights. The eviction episode, 'Varada Kathe Kicchana Jothe' ('The Week's Story with Kiccha') returned and was aired on Saturdays and continued with 'Super Sunday with Sudeep' on Sundays. The 'Bigg Boss Autograph' for Season 3 was hosted by Rishika Singh, alumna of the first season of Bigg Boss Kannada. The show's finale was aired on 31 January 2016. The episodes from this season were not available online after the airing, however were later made available on Voot platform.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The fourth season was aired on Colors Kannada and Colors Kannada HD and was the first season to broadcast the episodes in high-definition format. 'Kandiro Mukhagala Kanade Iro Mukha!' ('Unseen faces of the seen faces!') was the tagline for this season. The season premiered on 9 October 2016 with the same time-slot as of previous season. The format was same as that of previous season, with the same weekend programming with slight alteration in the Sunday's 'Super Sunday with Sudeepa'. The online voting was omitted for this season too but the unseen content was given more importance and a spin-off programming named 'Bigg Boss Night Shift' was aired on Colors Kannada's sister channel Colors Super from 10 pm to 11 pm every day. This show acted as the supplement for the main show and contained unseen footage with commentary. The spin-off was hosted by Rehman Haseeb, the Bigg Boss alumnus from 3rd Season. Also, on the Viacom 18's OTT platform Voot, two exclusive short-shows (referred to as Voot Shorts) were being streamed; both hosted by Rehman. 'Doddmane Suddi' ('News from the Big House') highlighted the events of the day's show before going on air and 'Theremareya Kathe' ('Story behind the Scenes') showed the unseen footage from the show which are not aired on the original episodes. Rehman also hosted a 30-minute interview about the in-house experience of the evicted contestants every weekend in 'Just Maath Maathalli' ('Just in the Talks'), yet another Voot exclusive show. The show was extended for two weeks and the finale took place on 29 January 2017. The final 14 episodes were aired on Colors Super and the finale was simulcast on Colors Kannada, Colors Kannada HD and Colors Super. The 'Bigg Boss Autograph' for this season was hosted by Niranjan Deshpande, an alumnus from the same season. All the episodes were made available online on Voot platform after original airing.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The fifth season was moved to Colors Super and premiered on 15 October 2017. The show duration was increased by 30 minutes from this season and the episodes were aired throughout the week from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm. The major addition to this season was that the housemates included contestants from the public, selected through audition process along with the celebrities. The format of the show continued to be the same as that of previous seasons while the Sunday's episode had a major change. The 'Super Sunday with Sudeepa' episodes included a special segment called 'Kicchan Time' ('Kiccha's / Kitchen Time'), a cookery show in which Sudeep, the host cooks with the celebrity guests invited for promotions. Unseen content was not aired on TV for this season and was made exclusive to Voot platform with two short-shows 'Unseen Avantara' ('Unseen Nuisance') / 'Unseen Kathegalu' ('Unseen Stories') and 'Deep Agi Nodi' ('Watch it Deep') being produced. There was no tagline for this season and online voting was not included. The episodes in high-definition format were simulcast on Colors Kannada HD. All the episodes and daily highlights were made available on Voot platform after original airing.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The sixth season premiered on 21 October 2018. All the episodes and daily highlights were made available on Voot platform after original airing. For this season, the number of auditioned contestants (commoners) increased to half of the housemate population; 9 celebrities and 9 commoners entered the house on the premiere. Integration of the show with Voot deepened with exclusive content for the platform in the form of 'Deep Agi Nodi' ('Watch it Deep'), 'Unseen Kathegalu' ('Unseen Stories'), 'Voot Weekly', 'Voot Fryday','Bigg Inn' and 'Bigg Bang'. 'Bigg Prashne' ('Bigg Question') enabled audience to ask their questions to the fellow contestants through the Voot app and selected questions would be asked by Sudeep on the Saturday episode. A major change was made to the voting for nominated contestants; voting was made exclusive on Voot from this season. Continuing its run on Colors Super, the episodes in high-definition format were simulcast on Colors Kannada HD. All the episodes and daily highlights were made available on Voot platform after original airing.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The seventh season was moved back to Colors Kannada and an 'all-celebrity' model was re-introduced for the show. The show premiered on 13 October 2019 and 18 celebrity contestants entered the house. Time-slot was also pushed to 9:00 pm to 10:30 pm with high-definition simulcast on Colors Kannada HD. All the episodes and daily highlights were made available on Voot platform after original airing. Voting continued to be exclusive to Voot platform and exclusive content in the form of 'Deep Agi Nodi' ('Watch it Deep'), 'Unseen Kathegalu' ('Unseen Stories'), 'Bigg Inn', 'Voot Weekly' and 'Voot Fryday' were produced. It was made possible for the audience to choose the Friday task for the contestants through 'Voot Fryday'; audience were also able to record and send a video of themselves sharing their opinions on the fellow contestants through 'Video Vichaara', through the Voot app and selected videos would be shown on the TV inside the Bigg Boss house. Another change was brought to the eviction episode where on the Saturday episode, the saved contestants would be declared, reducing the nominated contestants to 2 or 3 of which one would be evicted on the Sunday episode as opposed to the previous seasons where the evictions used to happen on the Saturday episode.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The series is also set to roll out a digital version of the show called "Bigg Boss OTT", which is also going to be hosted by Sudeepa and broadcast by Voot for 24×7 coverage. The series is set to launch on 6 August 2022 at 7pm. Roopesh Shetty emerged as winner (Show Topper)


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: Each season has grown in terms of revenue and has attracted prominent brands to sponsor the show. The sponsors receive the privilege of getting their brands advertised on the show, in the house as well as during the commercial breaks. Few tasks on the show would be designed in a way such that the brand gets advertised directly. Household articles such as pillows and coffee mugs would usually contain the branding from the sponsor. The sponsors for the show until date are listed in the table below.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The first season of the show became popular and turned out to be a TRP magnet, eventually becoming the No.1 reality show in South India.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: Bigg Boss Kannada moved to Asianet's Suvarna (now under Star India) for the second season and grew even bigger in the market. The channel claimed an approximate increase of 25% in viewership and 400% in online engagement for the season. The season debuted with 6.7 TVR while averaging 5.7 TVR in its launch week and had a peak rating of 7.9 TVR during the first elimination episode of Saturday.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The show returned to Viacom 18 with Sudeep signing to host the next five seasons. The third season was aired on Colors Kannada (rebranded from ETV Kannada) and witnessed a slight fall in the TRP because of a controversy involving a fellow housemate following his immediate elimination. A year later, during the press meet for the fourth season, it was clarified that the TRP fall was a false claim and the ratings actually went up after the elimination.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The fame of the show as of fourth season reached to an extent where the film producers from the Kannada Film Industry and the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce held a protest in front of Innovative Film City in Bidadi, where the Bigg Boss house is located, demanding the actors not to participate or host reality shows on television, also tried to impose a ban on the show because of its popularity affecting the performances of movies in the box office.


title: Bigg Boss Kannada

text: The fifth season of the show was aired in Colors Super, the second Kannada GEC by Viacom18 to increase the viewership for the channel. The season premiered on 15 October 2017 and has been the first season to include non-celebrity housemates selected through online audition process. The grand finale was held on 28 and 29 January 2018 and Chandan Shetty emerged as the winner. Season 6 of Bigg Boss premiered on 21 October 2018 in Colors Super. After a successful season the grand finale was aired on 26 and 27 January 2019 and farmer Shashi Kumar emerged as the winner, with runner-up being singer Naveen Sajju, followed by Kavitha Gowda, Andrew Jayapaul and Rapid Rashmi in the 3rd, 4th and 5th place respectively. Sudeep was the host of this season too.


title: Richa Sharma (singer)

text: Richa Sharma (born 29 August 1974) is an Indian film playback singer as well as a devotional singer. In 2006, she sang Bollywood's longest track, the "bidaai" song, in film "Baabul".


title: Richa Sharma (singer)

text: Under the tutelage of Pandit Aaskaran Sharma, Richa went on to get proper training in Indian classical and light music. Richa added ghazals; film songs, Punjabi and Rajasthani folk songs to her repertoire, thus making her voice reach out to more and more people in a variety of sounds.


title: Richa Sharma (singer)

text: While music was at its peak in Richa's life, academic education had to be sacrificed and without any backing with a dream to make it big in the music world, Richa landed in Mumbai in 1994. She sang cover versions and bhajans to ensure she had her bread and butter and simultaneously continued her struggle in Bollywood. She made her debut in Bollywood with Sawan Kumar's "Salma Pe Dil Aa Gaya" in 1996 and followed it up by a number of films until the big hit came by in the form of "Taal" where she sang for A.R. Rahman.


title: Richa Sharma (singer)

text: Thereafter a spate of hits followed, "Zubeidaa", "Saathiya" (A.R. Rahman); "Hera Pheri" (Anu Malik); "Khakee" (Ram Sampath); "Tarkeeb" (the song "Duppatte Ka Palu"), "Baghban" (Title Song for Aadesh Shrivastava); "Soch" (the song "Nikal Chali Be" for Jatin–Lalit); "Rudraksh", "Kal Ho Naa Ho" (Sad version of the title track for Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy); "Gangajal" (Sandesh Shandilya); "Popcorn Khao Mast Ho Jao" (Vishal–Shekhar), "Saawariya" (Monty Sharma), and "Om Shanti Om" (Vishal–Shekhar) and the most popular song for "Kaante" ("Mahi Ve" for Anand Raaj Anand).


title: Richa Sharma (singer)

text: The versatile playback singer has also done quite a few albums to showcase her talent. Albums like "Ni Main Yaar Nu Sajda Kardi", "Piya" and "Winds of Rajasthan" (for Times Music released early 2004) have brought out the class and grace in Richa's voice and her versatility as a singer.


title: Richa Sharma (singer)

text: In March 2011, Richa Sharma and her family inaugurated the Saibaba Temple in Faridabad, Haryana and launched her first Saibaba devotional album Sai Ki Tasveer released by SaReGaMa India...


title: Kuji-in

text: The kuji-in () also known as Nine Hand Seals is a system of mudras and associated mantras that consist of nine syllables. The mantras are referred to as kuji (九字), which literally translates as "nine characters" The syllables used in kuji are numerous, especially within Japanese esoteric Mikkyō.


title: Kuji-in

text: Scholars have stated that kuji is of Taoist origin, not Buddhist. There is no mention of the kuji in any of the Shingon or Tendai records that were brought back from China. The use of kuji is largely a layman’s practice, and is uncommon in many orthodox Buddhist traditions. It is however, found extensively in Shugendō, the ascetic mountain tradition of Japan, and Ryōbu Shintō, which is the result of blending Shingon Buddhism and Shinto.


title: Kuji-in

text: The kuji are first introduced in the Bàopǔzǐ (), a Chinese Taoist text written by Gé Hóng c.280–340 CE). He introduces the kuji in chapter 17, entitled "Dēngshè" (登涉; lit. "Climbing [mountains] and crossing [rivers]), as a prayer to the Liùjiǎ (六甲; Six Generals), ancient Taoist gods. In Daoist Magic, the Jiǎ are powerful celestial guardians and are among the gods of the Celestial Thunder Court of Emperor Xuanwu.


title: Kuji-in

text: The kuji form a grammatically correct sentence in Classical Chinese. They come from this section of the chapter and are written as which can be roughly translated, "(Celestial) soldiers/fighters descend and arrange yourselves in front of me"", or ""May all those who preside over warriors be my vanguard!"


title: Kuji-in

text: Other translations are possible as well, as variations exist in Japanese esoteric Buddhism. According to the Baopuzi, the kuji is a prayer to avert difficulties and baleful influences and to ensure things proceed without difficulty. To this end it can be said that the primary purpose of kuji is abhisheka (正灌頂, "shōkanjō") and exorcism (調伏, "chōbuku").


title: Kuji-in

text: The Taoist kuji are next cited in a text called "The commentary on the discourse about the Sutra on Immeasurable Life, and on the verses about the vow to be reborn [in the Pure Land]" (無量壽經優婆提舍願生偈註, "Wúliàng shòu jīng yōu pó tí shě yuàn shēng jì zhù"), also known as the "Commentary on the treatise on rebirth in the Pure Land" (往生論註, "Wǎngshēng lùn zhù") written by Taluan (467?–542? CE).


title: Kuji-in

text: How the kuji arrived in Japan is still a matter of debate. The Korean variant is 臨兵鬥者皆陣列在前行. Some contemporary scholars assert that the kuji arrived in Japan via China through Jōdo-shū and Shugendō around the 8th century, if not much later. Others assert that they were introduced by Korea. As to what the kuji consisted of at the time it arrived in Japan is unknown. The mudras are found in Taoist material as well as in Shugendō. Some have suggested that Shugendō created the mudras that are currently associated with the kuji, as the vast majority of information that is known about the kuji comes from Shugendō literature.


title: Kuji-in

text: Kuji is rumored to be a dangerous ritual if carried out without proper initiation. It is believed that if the ritual is performed incorrectly, it can attract unwanted entities.


title: Kuji-in

text: The earliest known Japanese application of the kuji comes from the Shingon monk Kakuban (1095–1143 CE) who was an academic of Taluan’s writings and teachings. Kakuban introduced several kuji formulas dedicated to Amitābha, in his text "The Illuminating Secret Commentary on the Five Cakras and the Nine Syllables" (五輪九字明秘密義釈, "Gorin kuji myō himitsu gishaku" or 五輪九字 "Gorin kuji hishaku").


title: Kuji-in

text: The kuji formulas Kakuban introduces are commonly grouped under the title zokushu, and are completely unrelated to original Taoist kuji. The monk Shinran (1173–1263 CE), founder of Jōdo Shinshū sect, introduced several new kuji formulas, also dedicated to Amitābha. Nichiren, founder of the Nichiren sect, introduced a kuji prayer derived from chapter 26 of the Lotus Sutra, where it is uttered by the god Vaiśravaṇa.


title: Kuji-in

text: Neither the founder of Shingon, Kōbō Daishi, nor the founder of Tendai, Saichō, mentioned the kuji in any of their writings. It may be assumed that they were unfamiliar with the kuji or only considered them as part of a minor teaching. Regardless, the nine syllables of the kuji have developed several correlations and associations with religious and philosophical aspects of Japanese esoteric Buddhism. They are associated with the five chakras (五輪, "gorin"), the five elements (五大, "godai"), certain directions of the compass, colors, and deities.


title: Kuji-in

text: There are numerous variations of the nine original Taoist kuji in Japanese Buddhism. Most of these variations occurred well after the introduction of the kuji into Japan. Some, however, are other Taoist formulas taken from Taoist writings and Buddhist sutras. The kuji that is most often seen in the context of budo, or martial arts, and also in general, consists of the nine original Taoist syllables "Rin Pyou Tou Sha Kai Chin Retsu Zai Zen" ([Celestial] soldiers/fighters descend and arrange yourselves in front of me). The fact that the Taoist kuji are not seen in Japanese documents and writings until at least the 1500s, and then not extensively until around the Edo (1603-1868) and Meiji (1868-1912) periods indicates that they were either not extensively practiced, or taught as kuden (oral transmission). However, the fact that so many koryu list the kuji in their makimono indicates it must have been considered an essential teaching (goku-i). And the fact the kuji are listed in numerous kobudō makimono from the 1500s onward, is proof that the kuji were practiced by the bushi.


title: Kuji-in

text: Why the number nine is used has also been of concern to some. The number nine is seen in Taoist divination as the perfect number for yang/yo, the “bright side” when determining the individual hexagram lines according to the I-ching (Book of Changes). Some have suggested that the number nine refers to the nine planets, that the Taoist believe directly influence human destiny, or to the seven stars of the Big Dipper (Northern Seven Stars) plus the two attendant/guardian stars which Taoist believe is the gateway to heaven, and which each star is a Taoist deity. The Imperial Palace had nine halls, the celestial sphere has nine divisions, both in Buddhism and Taoism, heaven is 'nine enclosures' (chiu ch'ung). The nine submandalas of the Vajradhãtu-mandala correspond to the imperial city of Ch'ang-an. (Waterhouse, 1996)


title: Kuji-in

text: The Kuji-in (九字印), “Nine Hand Seals,” refers to the mudra (hand seals/gestures) associated with the nine syllables themselves, whereas kuji-ho refers to the entire ritual of kuji and encompasses the mudra, mantra and meditation. Kuji-kan (nine syllable visualization) is a specialized form of Buddhist meditation. Technically the word “Kuji no in” refers only to the hand postures (mudra), whereas “kuji no shingon” refers to the related incantations (mantra). There are hundreds of mudras in Shingon alone. Shugendō itself has hundreds of mudras, as does Taoism. Many of these mudras are shared; however, many are not. To further complicate this fact, there are also untold numbers of variations on a given mudra, and many mudras are associated with more than one deity or idea. Furthermore a mudra may have more than one name, or one association depending on its purpose. Practitioners would be wise to keep this mind when practicing kuji ho.


title: Kuji-in

text: The dualistic influence of inyogoku (yin yang dualism) is apparent only in respects to the mudra of certain kuji rituals. As stated earlier the kuji in and of itself is a simple prayer. The obvious influences of onmyōdō (the way of Yin and Yang) is clearly seen in the mudra themselves which were added latter. Especially in regards to the first and last mudras, the mudras associated with the syllables "to" and "sha", "kai" and "jin". These mudras are obvious yin and yang counterparts. This is significant in that the concept of yin and yang is seen as encompassing all the cosmic phenomena, all eternity between the two polar opposites. The mudra gejishi-in (gesture of the outer lion) and its immediate counterpart naijishi-in (gesture of the inner lion) clearly represent this yin/yang relation. In fact, not only do these two related mudras represent the alpha and omega by themselves, but the two lions associated with them take this association a step further. The two lions are commonly seen outside the doors of Buddhist temples, where they stand as guardians against evil and baleful influences. The first lion utters the sound “A” which symbolizes the alpha, that all reality and phenomena are, in the tradition of mikkyō, said to neither absolutely exist, nor non-exist – they arise in dependence on conditions, and cease when those conditions cease. Whereas, the second lion utters the sound “Un” (Hūm) which symbolizes the omega, the destruction of all evils; it summarizes the two basic false views of nihilism and externalism, and shows them to be false. The truth of things is that they are neither real nor unreal. This description also applies to the next two mudra, gebbaku-in (gesture of the outer bond) and its immediate counterpart neibbaku-in (gesture of the inner bound). The first (dokko-in, kongōshin-in) and last mudra (hobyo-in, ongyō-in), occupy the two most important positions, the beginning and the end, again with relation to the Taoist and mikkyō points of view of the alpha and omega.


title: Kuji-in

text: In relation to yin and yang theory, the yang aspect is the light, masculine, positive, offensive, absolute, horizontal, left, forward, upward. While the yin aspect is the dark, feminine, negative, defensive, relative, vertical, right, backward, down. (Waterhouse, 1996)


title: Kuji-in

text: Ku-ji ho as generally practiced in budo comes from text "Sugen jinpi gyoho fuju shu" or "Fuju shu" for short, a Shugendō document of the Tozan-ha lineage, edited between 1871–1934 by Nakuno Tatsue. The original compiler is unknown, but it appears to incorporate numerous Shugendō rituals from various Shingon sects such as Tachikawa-ryu. The text compilation of texts appears to span a time period from the 1200s on up to 1500s and 1600s. The Fuju shu lists 400 rituals, 26 of them kuji-ho. (Waterhouse, 1996).


title: Kuji-in

text: The two particular techniques of ku-ji that are most directly related to budo, and most widely known are kuji hon-i (Fuju Shu #199) and kuji no daiji (Fuju Shu #200). These two kuji rituals are centered in the esoteric deities of Shingon mikkyo, the shirtenno (Four Heavenly Kings) and Godai myo-o (Five Wisdom Kings). Other groupings of deities exist as well depending on the sect and purpose of the kuji.


title: Kuji-in

text: The related practice of making nine cuts— five horizontal and four vertical, alternating — in the air or palm of a hand with the finger or on paper with a brush is known as kujikiri, nine syllable cuts. Kuji-kiri is explained in Shugendo texts, quite correctly, as a preparatory ritual of protection, to cut off demonic influences and their "inki" (vital substance) (Waterhouse, 1996). In Japanese folk-magic and onmyodo, the nine cuts are often made over writing or a picture, to gain control of the object named or pictured. Thus, a sailor wishing to be protected from drowning might write them over the kanji for "sea" or "water". Author and historian John Stevens notes that methods of oral sex using kuji-kiri were employed by practitioners of Tachikawa-ryu. The Fuju shu does not spell out every ritual in detail. However, in several of the kuji-kiri rituals it is spelled out that the strokes are made alternately horizontal and then vertical: five horizontal and four vertical for men; and four horizontal and five vertical for woman. A modern Japanese text labeled "Dai Marishi-Ten hiju"/大摩利子天秘授 (Nine syllables of the Tactics of the Great Goddess of Light (Marishi-Ten)) says that five horizontal slashes are made while reciting the "yo"-syllables: "rin, toh, kai, retsu, zen", which spells (come, fight, ready, line up, in front) first. These are to be followed by four vertical slashes while reciting the "in"-syllables: "pyo, sha, jin, zai" which spells (warriors, one formation, take position). The document gives no other information as to why this arrangement is used.


title: Kuji-in

text: Ku-ji itself is a very flexible practice that can be modified depending on the needs of the practitioner. The practice of ku-ji ho as found in Japanese esoteric Buddhism is a sanmitsu nenju (concentrated three mysteries practice), and as such, consists of several dependent, integrated practices. It can be practiced in the form of either of the two mandaras of esoteric Buddhism [mikkyo]. The Kongo-kai/金剛界 mandara (vajradhatu; Diamond Universe Nine Assemblies mandala) of Shingon Buddhism, or the Taizo-kai/胎蔵界 mandara (garbhakosa-dhatu; Womb mandala). It is also used by other Buddhist sects, especially in Japan; some Taoists and practitioners of Shinto and Chinese traditional religion; and in folk-magic throughout East Asia.


title: Kuji-in

text: In general, simply offering incense, reciting the kuji with hands in gasho, and being mindful and present is sufficient to appease to Jia.


title: Kuji-in

text: The Kuji-in practice symbolizes that all the forces of the universe are united against evil; because of this, it was often used by the common people for luck when traveling, especially in the mountains.


title: Kuji-in

text: Rin (臨), Pyō (兵), Tō (闘), Sha (者), Kai (皆), Jin (陣), Retsu (列), Zai (在), Zen (前). If the nine cuts are then made, as is sometimes done, the syllable Kō (行) is sometimes spoken.


title: Kuji-in

text: Note that the syllables are shortened forms, and there are also longer, Japanese mantra that go with the same mudra. As to why there appears to be no correlation between the mudra and mantra and the representative deities is unknown at this time. Also many mantra end with the Sanskrit word "o'ṃ" (om). The meaning of "o'ṃ" is literally "to shout loudly", while the esoteric religious meaning is seen as the sacred name or essence of God and means "I am existence". It is used at the end of the invocation to the god being sacrificed to (anuvakya) as an invitation to and for that god to partake of the sacrifice.


title: Kuji-in

text: There is no indication of where this particular kuji ritual comes from. It seems to be one of more common forms of the Buddhist (possibly Shugendo) kuji. If the original source is discovered it will be made available.


title: Kuji-in

text: 臨 (Rin): Hands together, fingers interlocked. The index (sometimes middle) fingers are raised and pressed together.


title: Kuji-in

text: Mantra is, "On baishiramantaya sowaka". [All hail the glory of Vaiśravaṇa (The one who likes to hear the Dharma). o'ṃ] [Eng.]


title: Kuji-in

text: 兵 (Pyō): Hands together, pinkies and ring fingers interlocked (often on the inside). Index finger and thumb raised and pressed together, middle fingers cross over index fingers and their tips curl back to touch the thumbs' tips, the middle-fingers' nails touching.


title: Kuji-in

text: 闘 (Tō): Hands together, index fingers cross each other to touch opposite ring fingers, middle fingers crossed over them. Ring and pinky fingers are straight. Tips of ring fingers pressed together, tips of pinkies pressed together, but both sets of ring and pinky fingers are separated to form a V shape or bird beak


title: Kuji-in

text: Mantra is, "On jiterashi itara jibaratanō sowaka". [All hail the exultant and glorious celestial jewel, o'ṃ]


title: Kuji-in

text: 者 (Sha): Hands together, ring fingers cross each other to touch opposite index fingers, middle fingers crossed over them. Index finger, pinky and thumb straight, like American Sign Language "I love you".


title: Kuji-in

text: mantra is, "On hayabaishiramantaya sowaka". (All hail the swift thunderbolt of exalted strength, virtue, and glory! o'ṃ)


title: Kuji-in

text: Mantra is, "On nōmaku sanmanda basaradan kan". [Homage to all-pervading diamond thunderbolts. Utterly crush and devour! o'ṃ] [Eng.]


title: Kuji-in

text: 列 (Retsu): Left hand in an upward-pointing fist, index finger raised. Right hand grips index finger, and thumb is pressed onto left index's nail.


title: Kuji-in

text: Mudra is, Chiken-in "seal of the wisdom fist," also known as "seal of the interpenetration of the two realms."


title: Kuji-in

text: Mantra is, "On irotahi chanoga jiba tai sowaka". [All hail the radiant divine all-illuminating light, bursting and streaming forth in all directions, o'ṃ]


title: Kuji-in

text: 前 (Zen): Hands form a circle, thumbs on top and fingers on the bottom, right hand overlapping left up to the knuckles.


title: Kuji-in

text: The influence of Taoism is very apparent in the practice of ku-ji, in that there are yin/in and yang/yō aspects to ku-ji that must be taken into consideration by the practitioner. There are five yang/yō-syllables, and four yin/in-syllables. In onmyōdo philosophy yin/in is related to relative, to benefit self, defensive; yang/yō is absolute, to use against others, offensive. Thus, when looking at the implied meaning of the syllables in ku-ji it is apparent that the in-syllables are used to defend the self, and the yō-syllables are used to attack outside influences.


title: Kuji-in

text: The yin and yang theory of kuji also carries over to kuji kiri. In kuji kiri the vertical strokes/slashes represent the yin/in syllables, while the horizontal strokes/slashes represent the yang/yo syllables. Thus in kuji kiri the practitioner is first making an aggressive horizontal slash representing the first syllable which is a yang/yo which represents the absolute aspect or offensive nature of the deity. The second stroke/slash is defensive and represents the second syllable or relative aspect or defensive nature of the deity.


title: Kuji-in

text: Often a tenth syllable is added at the end. Generally it is the mata [syllable] for victory, or "to destroy".


title: Kuji-in

text: Each of the nine syllables has a meaning that when integrated with the corresponding mudra, mantra, and visualization [corresponding deity] manifests sanmitsu kaji [grace, virtue, merit of the Three mysteries]. In general it can be said that ku-ji is the harnessing and control of psychospiritual or psychophysical energies, and, or, of cosmic–universal spirits/deities/energies.


title: Kuji-in

text: The deities most commonly called upon in mikkyo (esoteric Buddhism, Vajaryana-tantra) are deities of Hindu and Tantric origin, which are ultimately all emanations of Mahavairocana (Dainichi Nyorai). These deities are the shirtenno and the Godai myō-Ō, as well as Marishi-ten [Goddess of light], Nitten [Sun god], Bon-ten (Brahma), Ichiji Kinrin Bochto (Ekaksa-rosnisa-cakra, or Ekasara-buddhosnisa-cakra), and so on.


title: Kuji-in

text: With relation to Japanese esoteric Buddhism [mikkyo], the yang/yō-syllables represent the shirtenno (Four Heavenly Kings), with the exception of the “kai” syllable which represents Fudo-myō-o. The yin/in-syllables represents the Godai myō-o. A simple look at the ku-ji and their relation to the prescribed deities shows a very logical pattern. The ku-ji and associated deities form a simple mandara, with Fudō myō-Ō at his rightful and proper place in the center, surrounded by the other four Myō at their respective locations, which comprises the inner sanctum–hall of the mandara. The shidaitenno being of a lower rank–office than the Myō, occupy the outer sanctum/hall of the mandara at their respective positions.


title: Kuji-in

text: This is the other kuji ho that most directly deals with the martial arts, the most direct being the above kuji hon-i.