title: Aldol reaction

text: This strategy allows the otherwise challenging cross-aldol reaction between two aldehydes. In general, cross-aldol reactions between aldehydes are typically challenging because they can polymerize easily or react unselectively to give a statistical mixture of products. The first example is shown below:


title: Aldol reaction

text: In contrast to the preference for syn adducts typically observed in enolate-based aldol additions, these organocatalyzed aldol additions are anti-selective. In many cases, the organocatalytic conditions are mild enough to avoid polymerization. However, selectivity requires the slow syringe-pump controlled addition of the desired electrophilic partner because both reacting partners typically have enolizable protons. If one aldehyde has no enolizable protons or alpha- or beta-branching, additional control can be achieved.


title: Aldol reaction

text: An elegant demonstration of the power of asymmetric organocatalytic aldol reactions was disclosed by MacMillan and coworkers in 2004 in their synthesis of differentially protected carbohydrates. While traditional synthetic methods accomplish the synthesis of hexoses using variations of iterative protection-deprotection strategies, requiring 8–14 steps, organocatalysis can access many of the same substrates using an efficient two-step protocol involving the proline-catalyzed dimerization of alpha-oxyaldehydes followed by tandem Mukaiyama aldol cyclization.


title: Aldol reaction

text: The aldol dimerization of alpha-oxyaldehydes requires that the aldol adduct, itself an aldehyde, be inert to further aldol reactions.


title: Aldol reaction

text: Earlier studies revealed that aldehydes bearing alpha-alkyloxy or alpha-silyloxy substituents were suitable for this reaction, while aldehydes bearing Electron-withdrawing groups such as acetoxy were unreactive. The protected erythrose product could then be converted to four possible sugars via Mukaiyama aldol addition followed by lactol formation. This requires appropriate diastereocontrol in the Mukaiyama aldol addition and the product silyloxycarbenium ion to preferentially cyclize, rather than undergo further aldol reaction. In the end, glucose, mannose, and allose were synthesized:


title: Aldol reaction

text: In the usual aldol addition, a carbonyl compound is deprotonated to form the enolate. The enolate is added to an aldehyde or ketone, which forms an alkoxide, which is then protonated on workup. A superior method, in principle, would avoid the requirement for a multistep sequence in favor of a "direct" reaction that could be done in a single process step. One idea is to generate the enolate using a metal catalyst that is released after the aldol addition mechanism. The general problem is that the addition generates an alkoxide, which is much more basic than the starting materials. This product binds tightly to the metal, preventing it from reacting with additional carbonyl reactants.


title: Aldol reaction

text: One approach, demonstrated by Evans, is to silylate the aldol adduct. A silicon reagent such as TMSCl is added in the reaction, which replaces the metal on the alkoxide, allowing turnover of the metal catalyst. Minimizing the number of reaction steps and amount of reactive chemicals used leads to a cost-effective and industrially useful reaction.


title: Aldol reaction

text: Examples of aldol reactions in biochemistry include the splitting of fructose-1,6-bisphosphate into dihydroxyacetone and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate in the fourth stage of glycolysis, which is an example of a reverse ("retro") aldol reaction catalyzed by the enzyme aldolase A (also known as fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase).


title: Aldol reaction

text: In the glyoxylate cycle of plants and some prokaryotes, isocitrate lyase produces glyoxylate and succinate from isocitrate. Following deprotonation of the OH group, isocitrate lyase cleaves isocitrate into the four-carbon succinate and the two-carbon glyoxylate by an aldol cleavage reaction. This cleavage is similar mechanistically to the aldolase A reaction of glycolysis.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: A tumor suppressor gene (TSG), or anti-oncogene, is a gene that regulates a cell during cell division and replication. If the cell grows uncontrollably, it will result in cancer. When a tumor suppressor gene is mutated, it results in a loss or reduction in its function. In combination with other genetic mutations, this could allow the cell to grow abnormally. The loss of function for these genes may be even more significant in the development of human cancers, compared to the activation of oncogenes.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: TSGs can be grouped into the following categories: caretaker genes, gatekeeper genes, and more recently landscaper genes. Caretaker genes ensure stability of the genome via DNA repair and subsequently when mutated allow mutations to accumulate. Meanwhile, gatekeeper genes directly regulate cell growth by either inhibiting cell cycle progression or inducing apoptosis. Lastly landscaper genes regulate growth by contributing to the surrounding environment, when mutated can cause an environment that promotes unregulated proliferation. The classification schemes are evolving as medical advances are being made from fields including molecular biology, genetics, and epigenetics.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: The discovery of oncogenes and their ability to deregulate cellular processes related to cell proliferation and development appeared first in the literature as opposed to the idea of tumor suppressor genes. However, the idea of genetic mutation leading to increased tumor growth gave way to another possible genetic idea of genes playing a role in decreasing cellular growth and development of cells. This idea was not solidified until experiments by Henry Harris were conducted with somatic cell hybridization in 1969.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: Within Dr. Harris’s experiments, tumor cells were fused with normal somatic cells to make hybrid cells. Each cell had chromosomes from both parents and upon growth, a majority of these hybrid cells did not have the capability of developing tumors within animals. The suppression of tumorigenicity in these hybrid cells prompted researchers to hypothesize that genes within the normal somatic cell had inhibitory actions to stop tumor growth. This initial hypothesis eventually lead to the discovery of the first classic tumor suppressor gene by Alfred Knudson, known as the Rb gene, which codes for the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: Alfred Knudson, a pediatrician and cancer geneticist, proposed that in order to develop retinoblastoma, two allelic mutations are required to lose functional copies of both the Rb genes to lead to tumorigenicity. Knudson observed that retinoblastoma often developed early in life for younger patients in both eyes, while in some rarer cases retinoblastoma would develop later in life and only be unilateral. This unique development pattern allowed Knudson and several other scientific groups in 1971 to correctly hypothesize that the early development of retinoblastoma was caused by inheritance of one loss of function mutation to an RB germ-line gene followed by a later de novo mutation on its functional Rb gene allele. The more sporadic occurrence of unilateral development of retinoblastoma was hypothesized to develop much later in life due to two de novo mutations that were needed to fully lose tumor suppressor properties. This finding formed the basis of the two-hit hypothesis. In order to verify that the loss of function of tumor suppressor genes causes increased tumorigenicity, interstitial deletion experiments on chromosome 13q14 were conducted to observe the effect of deleting the loci for the Rb gene. This deletion caused increased tumor growth in retinoblastoma, suggesting that loss or inactivation of a tumor suppressor gene can increase tumorigenicity.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: Unlike oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes generally follow the two-hit hypothesis, which states both alleles that code for a particular protein must be affected before an effect is manifested. If only one allele for the gene is damaged, the other can still produce enough of the correct protein to retain the appropriate function. In other words, mutant tumor suppressor alleles are usually recessive, whereas mutant oncogene alleles are typically dominant.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: Proposed by A.G. Knudson for cases of retinoblastoma. He observed that 40% of U.S cases were caused by a mutation in the germ-line. However, affected parents could have children without the disease, but the unaffected children became parents of children with retinoblastoma. This indicates that one could inherit a mutated germ-line but not display the disease. Knudson observed that the age of onset of retinoblastoma followed 2nd order kinetics, implying that two independent genetic events were necessary. He recognized that this was consistent with a recessive mutation involving a single gene, but requiring bi-allelic mutation. Hereditary cases involve an inherited mutation and a single mutation in the normal allele. Non-hereditary retinoblastoma involves two mutations, one on each allele. Knudson also noted that hereditary cases often developed bilateral tumors and would develop them earlier in life, compared to non-hereditary cases where individuals were only affected by a single tumor.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: There are exceptions to the two-hit rule for tumor suppressors, such as certain mutations in the p53 gene product. p53 mutations can function as a dominant negative, meaning that a mutated p53 protein can prevent the function of the natural protein produced from the non-mutated allele. Other tumor-suppressor genes that do not follow the two-hit rule are those that exhibit haploinsufficiency, including PTCH in medulloblastoma and NF1 in neurofibroma. Another example is p27, a cell-cycle inhibitor, that when one allele is mutated causes increased carcinogen susceptibility.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: The proteins encoded by most tumor suppressor genes inhibit cell proliferation or survival. Inactivation of tumor suppressor genes therefore leads to tumor development by eliminating negative regulatory proteins. In most cases, tumor suppressor proteins inhibit the same cell regulatory pathways that are stimulated by the products of oncogenes. While tumor suppressor genes have the same main function, they have various mechanisms of action, that their transcribed products perform, which include the following:


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: Expression of genes, including tumor suppressors, can be altered through biochemical alterations known as DNA methylation. Methylation is an example of epigenetic modifications, which commonly regulate expression in mammalian genes. The addition of a methyl group to either histone tails or directly on DNA causes the nucleosome to pack tightly together restricting the transcription of any genes in this region. This process not only has the capabilities to inhibit gene expression, it can also increase the chance of mutations. Stephen Baylin observed that if promoter regions experience a phenomenon known as hypermethylation, it could result in later transcriptional errors, tumor suppressor gene silencing, protein misfolding, and eventually cancer growth. Baylin et al. found methylation inhibitors known as azacitidine and decitabine. These compounds can actually help prevent cancer growth by inducing re-expression of previously silenced genes, arresting the cell cycle of the tumor cell and forcing it into apoptosis.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: There are further clinical trials under current investigation regarding treatments for hypermethylation as well as alternate tumor suppression therapies that include prevention of tissue hyperplasia, tumor development, or metastatic spread of tumors. The team working with Wajed have investigated neoplastic tissue methylation in order to one day identify early treatment options for gene modification that can silence the tumor suppressor gene. In addition to DNA methylation, other epigenetic modifications like histone deacetylation or chromatin-binding proteins can prevent DNA polymerase from effectively transcribing desired sequences, such as ones containing tumor suppressor genes.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: Gene therapy is used to reinstate the function of a mutated or deleted gene type. When tumor suppressor genes are altered in a way that results in less or no expression, several severe problems can arise for the host. This is why tumor suppressor genes have commonly been studied and used for gene therapy. The two main approaches used currently to introduce genetic material into cells are viral and non-viral delivery methods.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: The viral method of transferring genetic material harnesses the power of viruses. By using viruses that are durable to genetic material alterations, viral methods of gene therapy for tumor suppressor genes have shown to be successful. In this method, vectors from viruses are used. The two most commonly used vectors are adenoviral vectors and adeno-associated vectors. In vitro genetic manipulation of these types of vectors is easy and in vivo application is relatively safe compared to other vectors. Before the vectors are inserted into the tumors of the host, they are prepared by having the parts of their genome that control replication either mutated or deleted. This makes them safer for insertion. Then, the desired genetic material is inserted and ligated to the vector. In the case with tumor suppressor genes, genetic material which encodes p53 has been used successfully, which after application, has shown reduction in tumor growth or proliferation.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: The non-viral method of transferring genetic material is used less often than the viral method. However, the non-viral method is a more cost-effective, safer, available method of gene delivery not to mention that non-viral methods have shown to induce fewer host immune responses and possess no restrictions on size or length of the transferable genetic material. Non-viral gene therapy uses either chemical or physical methods to introduce genetic material to the desired cells. The chemical methods are used primarily for tumor suppressor gene introduction and are divided into two categories which are naked plasmid or liposome-coated plasmids. The naked plasmid strategy has garnered interest because of its easy to use methods. Direct injection into the muscles allows for the plasmid to be taken up into the cell of possible tumors where the genetic material of the plasmid can be incorporated into the genetic material of the tumor cells and revert any previous damage done to tumor suppressor genes. The liposome-coated plasmid method has recently also been of interest since they produce relatively low host immune response and are efficient with cellular targeting. The positively charged capsule in which the genetic material is packaged helps with electrostatic attraction to the negatively charged membranes of the cells as well as the negatively charged DNA of the tumor cells. In this way, non-viral methods of gene therapy are highly effective in restoring tumor suppressor gene function to tumor cells that have either partially or entirely lost this function.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: The viral and non-viral gene therapies mentioned above are commonly used but each has some limitations which must be considered. The most important limitation these methods have is the efficacy at which the adenoviral and adeno-associated vectors, naked plasmids, or liposome-coated plasmids are taken in by the host’s tumor cells. If proper uptake by the host’s tumor cells is not achieved, re-insertion introduces problems such as the host’s immune system recognizing these vectors or plasmids and destroying them which impairs the overall effectiveness of the gene therapy treatment further.


title: Tumor suppressor gene

text: As the cost of DNA sequencing continues to diminish, more cancers can be sequenced. This allows for the discovery of novel tumor suppressors and can give insight on how to treat and cure different cancers in the future. Other examples of tumor suppressors include pVHL, APC, CD95, ST5, YPEL3, ST7, and ST14, p16, BRCA2.


title: Marc Ecko

text: Marc Louis Ecko (né Milecofsky; August 29, 1972) is an American fashion designer, entrepreneur, and artist. He is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of fashion company Ecko Unlimited. He also founded "Complex" magazine in 2002.


title: Marc Ecko

text: Milecofsky was born in New Jersey on August 29, 1972. He was brought up with his twin Marci and an older sister, Shari, in suburban Lakewood, New Jersey, where his father was a pharmacist and his mother was a real estate broker. In 1996, Milecofsky legally changed his name to Ecko; he had intended to use "Echo", a name he was known by at home, but since he wanted to build a brand out of the name and the name "Echo" was already taken, he settled on the alternate spelling.


title: Marc Ecko

text: Ecko entered Rutgers University's School of Pharmacy in New Brunswick, New Jersey after high school. During his time in college he painted graffiti and practiced drawing, taking "Ecko" for his name. In his third year, the school's dean encouraged Ecko to take a year off and pursue art.


title: Marc Ecko

text: In 1993, Ecko started Ecko Unltd. as a T-shirt company, with small investments from his sister and a friend, Seth Gerszberg. He traveled to Hong Kong to learn about the clothing industry. Early clients Spike Lee and Chuck D helped bring attention to his fledgling business, as did a "Good Morning America" segment that featured his T-shirt designs. The company expanded further into hip-hop and skater styles, and began to sport a rhinoceros logo.


title: Marc Ecko

text: Ecko's businesses have expanded to include "Complex" magazine, video and social gaming, and venture capital.


title: Marc Ecko

text: Ecko was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA); the youngest designer to do so. Since 2010, he has been a member of the Emeritus Board.


title: Marc Ecko

text: Ecko is Jewish. In 2000, Ecko married Allison Rojas. They have three children and live in Bernardsville, New Jersey.


title: Marc Ecko

text: In 2011, Ecko started Unlimited Justice, a social activism campaign which opposed corporal punishment in U.S. schools.


title: Marc Ecko

text: On October 1, 2013, Ecko released an autobiographical business book, "Unlabel: Selling You Without Selling Out".


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: Frank John Yankovic (July 28, 1915 – October 14, 1998) was an American accordion player and polka musician. Known as "America's Polka King", Yankovic was considered the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during his long career. He was not related to fellow accordionist and song parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic, although the two collaborated.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: Yankovic was born to Slovene immigrant parents: Andrew Yankovic ("Andreas Jankovič", 1879–1949) from Kal and Rose T. Yankovic (née "Theresia Mele", 1886–1968) from Cerknica, who married in 1910. Yankovic was raised in the Collinwood neighborhood on Cleveland's East Side. He released over 200 recordings in his career. In 1986, he was awarded the first-ever Grammy in the Best Polka Recording category. He rarely strayed from Slovenian-style polka, but did record with country guitarist Chet Atkins and pop singer Don Everly. He also recorded a version of the "Too Fat Polka" with comedian Drew Carey.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: Yankovic's father, a blacksmith, and his mother, a cook, met in a lumber camp in West Virginia where they both worked. When Yankovic was young, his father moved to Cleveland to escape authorities who learned of his bootlegging, and the rest of the family followed shortly thereafter. While living in Cleveland, he became enthralled by the brass bands that played at Slovenian social functions. His mother took on boarders to help with the family finances, including a man named Max Zelodec who performed Slovenian tunes on a button box. Yankovic acquired an accordion at age 9, and received a few lessons from Zelodec. By the late 1920s, in his early teenage years, he was a working musician, playing for community events. In the 1930s, he formed a business relationship with Joe Trolli and began making radio appearances on stations such as WJAY and WGAR. As his reputation spread, he sought opportunities to make records, but the major labels turned him down. His first records were made for the Yankee and Joliet labels operated by Fred Wolf, and the expenses were paid for by Yankovic himself.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: In 1940, he married his first wife June, and they began to raise a family. However, the expenses of family life quickly overcame the incoming money from his music career, so he opened a tavern, calling it the Yankovic Bar. It became a popular hangout for local musicians, and he continued to run it until he sold it in 1948, dedicating himself to the accordion.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: Yankovic enlisted in the armed forces in 1943 and cut numerous records while on leave, prior to his departure for Europe. Yankovic was assigned duty in 1943 in the infantry as a flame-thrower operator. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge where a severe case of frostbite nearly required the amputation of his hands and feet. Fortunately, he was able to beat the resulting gangrene before that became necessary, and was awarded a Purple Heart. The doctors urged him to have his fingers amputated, but he refused, as that would have ended his music career. After getting out of the hospital, he and four other musicians were assigned to special services to entertain the troops, including General George Patton and his Third United States Army.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: Yankovic hit the national scene when he earned two platinum singles for "Just Because" (1947) and "Blue Skirt Waltz" (1949). Others who recorded the Blue Skirt Waltz were the Tunemixers and Guy Lombardo both in 1949, Lawrence Welk (Myron Floren) in 1958, Jim Ed Brown and the Browns in 1960, Hank Thompson in 1962, and Bobby Vinton in 1976. Yankovic found a Bohemian Waltz called "Cervenou Sukynku," (written by Vaclav Blaha) or loosely translated, "Red Skirt Waltz." Yankovic asked Mitchell Parrish ("Stardust", "Sleighride") to write new lyrics to the melody. Parrish changed "red" to "blue". Yankovic sold over 2.5 million records and with the Tunemixers version and Guy Lombardo's version, it sold over 4 million records total in 1949. It was the second Cleveland-style song to sell over one million recordings.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: Columbia Records initially refused to record "Just Because", because other versions of the song had been around for years without much success; only allowing it when Yankovic said that he would buy the first 10,000 records. Yankovic obtained the title of America's Polka King after beating Louis Bashell, Romy Gosz, Harold Loeffelmacher and the Six Fat Dutchmen, Whoopee John Wilfahrt, and Lawrence Duchow in a battle of the bands in Milwaukee at the Milwaukee Arena on June 9, 1948.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: Yankovic also hosted the television series "Polka Time" for Buffalo, New York-based WKBW-TV for 26 weeks in 1962. He commuted from Cleveland to host each episode, which aired live. He also hosted a similar show at WGN-TV Chicago at about the same time.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: He won a Grammy Award in 1986 for his album "70 Years of Hits". He was the first winner in the Polka category. The NARAS (Grammy) organization dropped the category in 2008.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: He performed with musical comedian and fellow accordionist "Weird Al" Yankovic, although the two are not related. Al, who also performs polka music among many other styles, has jokingly hypothesized that he was given accordion lessons as a child because his parents thought that "there should be at least one more accordion-playing Yankovic in the world." Al performed accordion on "Who Stole the Kishka?" on one of Frankie's final records, "Songs of the Polka King, Vol. 1". A portion of Frankie's "The Tick Tock Polka" is included in the song "Polka Face" on Weird Al's "Alpocalypse"; it was used as a lead-in for Weird Al's take on "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: Yankovic died on October 14, 1998, in New Port Richey, Florida, from heart failure, at the age of 83. He is buried in Cleveland's Calvary Cemetery. Hundreds of friends, family, his loyal fans and fellow musicians attended his memorial service. At his peak, Yankovic traveled extensively and performed 325 shows a year. He sold 30 million records during his lifetime.


title: Frankie Yankovic

text: In Bob Dolgan's 2006 biography of Yankovic, Frankie's longtime drummer Dave Wolnik observed that "Yankovic didn't have a street named for him in his own hometown". This launched a campaign by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum and City Councilman Michael Polensek, and in a ceremony on August 21, 2007, the square at the intersection of Waterloo Rd. and East 152nd St. in Cleveland (), not far from where Yankovic grew up, was named in his honor.


title: Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

text: Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (born October 1981) is an American football executive who is the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the vice president of football operations for the Cleveland Browns from 2020 to 2021 and also served in various executive roles for the San Francisco 49ers from 2013 to 2019.


title: Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

text: A native of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Adofo-Mensah attended and earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton University, where he would also walk-on to the basketball team. He earned his master's degree in economics from Stanford University. Before entering the NFL, Adofo-Mensah had several ventures as a portfolio manager and commodities trader on Wall Street.


title: Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

text: In 2013, Adofo-Mensah began his NFL career with the San Francisco 49ers, under general manager Trent Baalke, and Head Coach Jim Harbaugh following a chance meeting with the team’s executive vice president of football operations and NFL cap and contract manager Paraag Marathe. As manager of football research and development, Adofo-Mensah developed under Paraag, who is renowned for his cap management work in the NFL.


title: Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

text: In 2017, Adofo-Mensah was retained under new general manager John Lynch and was promoted to director of football research and development.


title: Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

text: On May 15, 2020, Adofo-Mensah was hired by the Cleveland Browns as their vice president of football operations under general manager Andrew Berry.


title: ISI mark

text: The ISI mark is a standards-compliance mark for industrial products in India since 1955. The mark certifies that a product conforms to an Indian standard (IS) developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the national standards body of India. The ISI mark is by far the most recognised certification mark in the Indian subcontinent. The "ISI" is an initialism of "Indian Standards Institution", the name of the national standards body until 1 January 1987, when it was renamed to the Bureau of Indian Standards. The ISI mark is mandatory for certain products to be sold in India, such as many of the electrical appliances like switches, electric motors, wiring cables, heaters, kitchen appliances, etc., and other products like Portland cement, LPG valves, LPG cylinders, automotive tyres, etc. In the case of most other products, ISI marks are optional.


title: ISI mark

text: It is very common in India to find products with fake ISI marks. That is, industrial traders cheat customers by affixing ISI marks on the product without actually certified. Fake ISI marks usually do not carry


title: ISI mark

text: For example, if a kitchen grinder's box has a small ISI mark on it with the ISI code of the appliance's wire, one can conclude that the wire is BIS-certified but the appliance itself is not an BIS-certified product. Counterfeiting ISI marks is a punishable offence by the law, but enforcement is uncommon.


title: ISI mark

text: 9. ISI Mark Certification Process, Documents Required, and list of the Products under BIS Certification Scheme - Aleph INDIA


title: Johnny Tapia

text: John Lee Anthony Tapia (February 13, 1967 – May 27, 2012) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2011. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the unified IBF and WBO super flyweight titles between 1994 and 1998, the unified WBA and WBO bantamweight titles between 1998 and 2000, and the IBF featherweight title in 2002. His 1999 loss by decision to Paulie Ayala was named the Fight of the Year by "The Ring" magazine.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: Tapia was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Mexican American parents. His father had reportedly been murdered while his mother was pregnant with him. When he was eight years old, his mother, Virginia, was kidnapped, raped, repeatedly stabbed, and left for dead by her assailant. Raised thereafter by his grandmother, Tapia turned to boxing at the age of nine.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: Tapia had an outstanding amateur career, winning the 1983 New Mexico State Golden Gloves, the 1983 and 1985 National Golden Gloves tournaments at light flyweight and flyweight, respectively.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: Tapia's professional boxing career began on March 25, 1988, when he fought Effren Chavez in Irvine, California. After four rounds of boxing the fight was called a draw. He won eight fights that year, five by knockout, of which four were in the first round.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: In 1989, he won seven more fights, including a first-round knockout of Abner Barajas and an eight-round decision against John Michael Johnson.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: In 1990, he won seven bouts, including an eight-round decision over Jesus Chong, an eleventh-round technical knockout of Roland Gomez in Reno that gave him the USBA super flyweight title, and a twelve-round decision over Luigi Camputaro, to retain that title. Tapia was, by the end of the year, a known boxer, his name often appearing in magazine articles. However, his career came to a halt for the next three and a half years after being suspended from boxing for testing positive for cocaine.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: When he finally returned to the ring on March 27, 1994, he beat Jaime Olvera by a knockout in four rounds in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He won three more fights by knockout, and then he faced Oscar Aguilar on the Michael Carbajal–Josué Camacho undercard in Phoenix for the NABF super flyweight title, winning in three rounds. Five days later the Albuquerque Police claimed they found cocaine after the fight in a bag carried by Tapia. Tapia claimed what the police found was only a soap bar, and the charges were eventually dropped.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: On October 12, 1994 at The Pit, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tapia defeated Henry Martínez in eleven rounds to win the vacant WBO super flyweight title. He then knocked out former champion Rolando Bohol in the second round. In his first title defense, Tapia defeated Jose Rafael Sosa by decision.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: He retained the title with a nine-round technical draw with Ricardo Vargas and a decision in twelve against his onetime nemesis in the amateur ranks, Arthur Johnson. After two more wins, he gave Willy Salazar a title shot, knocking him out in nine rounds.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: In 1996, he fought six more times, keeping his undefeated record and defending the title five additional times during that period, which included wins against Giovanni Andrade, Ivan Alvarez, future champion Hugo Rafael Soto, Sammy Stewart and Adonis Cruz. By then, a heated rivalry was cooking up between him and IBF champion Danny Romero. Their rivalry had begun many years earlier when Romero's father trained both boxers. Tapia's split with the Romero family had not been on good terms.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: 1997 saw Tapia fend off a challenge from Jorge Barrera in three rounds. After that, the fight with Romero was set for Las Vegas. The fight took place on July 18. Tapia won by a unanimous twelve-round decision, adding the IBF title to his WBO belt. In his next fight, he defeated Puerto Rico's Andy Agosto via decision. Tapia began 1998 by successfully defending his championships for the 11th time against former world champion Rodolfo Blanco of Colombia via decision, and then he vacated his world titles in order to move up in weight.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: On December 5, 1998, Tapia defeated WBA bantamweight champion Nana Konadu by decision to become a two-division world champion.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: In 1999, Tapia suffered his first loss in his 48-bout career, losing a decision and the WBA title to Paulie Ayala in what "The Ring Magazine" called its "Fight of the Year." Later that year, Tapia tried to commit suicide with a drug overdose and required hospitalization. Back quickly after that, he was given a shot at the WBO title. He became a two time world bantamweight champion by beating Jorge Eliecer Julio by a decision at Albuquerque on January 8, 2000. After he defended his belt with a decision over Javier Torres, a rematch with Ayala to unify the belt was set up. Ayala won by unanimous decision in a fight that ring observers largely felt Tapia won; following the fight, Showtime commentators said that Tapia "put on a clinic" and "something's not right," nearly labeling the decision as rigged.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: Tapia returned home to prepare for bouts in 2001, when he went up in weight and beat Famosito Gomez by a knockout in six, and former WBC featherweight champion Cesar Soto by knockout in three.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: In 2002, Tapia traveled to London, where he knocked out Eduardo Enrique Alvarez in the first round; after the bout, he was interviewed by former rival Romero. Tapia's next bout, for the IBF featherweight title, was versus Manuel Medina. Tapia won a dubious decision, becoming a world title holder in three different divisions. He left the title vacant so he could face Lineal & "The Ring" champion Marco Antonio Barrera, who beat Tapia by unanimous decision.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: Tapia returned on the night of October 4, 2003, defeating Carlos Contreras by ten round unanimous decision at Albuquerque.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: On April 15, 2005, he sustained an injury to his left eye, but was able to continue and win a repeat match-up with Frankie Archuleta. That win came by ten round split decision in Albuquerque.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: At 38, Tapia faced little-known Sandro Marcos in Chicago. In the second round, Marcos connected with a left hook to the body. Tapia fell to the canvas, clutching his ribcage, as referee Genaro Rodriguez reached the count of 10.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: On January 17, 2007, Tapia held a press conference stating that he would face Ilido Julio on February 23 in his home town of Albuquerque, New Mexico, then retire. The bout was being promoted as "The Final Fury" and Tapia promised he would win. Tapia won the fight by majority decision, 98–92, 96–94, 95–95.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: Tapia was found unconscious and not breathing in a hotel room early on the morning of March 12, 2007. Tapia was hospitalized in critical condition from an apparent cocaine overdose at Albuquerque Presbyterian Hospital.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: The next day, on the morning of March 13, Tapia's brother-in-law and nephew were killed in an automobile accident on U.S. Highway 550 near Bloomfield, New Mexico, apparently en route to the hospital to visit Tapia. That same day, Tapia was upgraded from critical to serious condition.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: Tapia was scheduled to make a comeback on May 2, 2008, in El Paso, Texas, but pulled out due to contractual disputes with promoter Ron Weathers.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: On February 11, 2009, Tapia was taken into custody in Albuquerque for a violation of parole related to cocaine use.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: Tapia beat Jorge Alberto Reyes by a knockout in the 4th round on March 6, 2010, at the Ohkay Casino, San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, United States, in front of a sold-out crowd.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: He had many tattoos, which were prominent when he was fighting. One of them said "Mi Vida Loca" ("My Crazy Life"), the nickname he adopted. He wrote an autobiography by that title. He was a born-again Christian.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: In 2010, at age 43, Tapia learned that apparently, his father was alive. Jerry Padilla, who Tapia already knew, was supposedly intrigued by the similarities in their mannerisms, and the two decided to submit to a DNA test, which proved they were father and son. After Tapia died in 2012, his widow briefly married his alleged half-brother, Jeffrey Padilla, in 2014. However, she felt it wrong that the senior Padilla had “jokingly” mingled his DNA swabs with Tapia in 2010, getting a court order to compare a new and controlled swab with some of Tapia's tissue, proving in 2017 that they were not father and son.


title: Johnny Tapia

text: On May 27, 2012, Tapia was found dead in his Albuquerque home. He was 45 years old. Tapia died of heart failure.


title: Karan Razdan

text: He began his writing career with an unforgettable television show named ‘’Rajni’’ and then wrote produced and made his debut as director with a hit television show, "Tehkikaat". He is famous for writing hit films like "Dilwale", "Diljale", "Deewane", and "" (script consultant). He has written and directed some films with controversial themes like "Girlfriend" (2004), "Hawas" (2004), "", and "Mittal vs Mittal". "Umar" (2006) is an emotional film about retired Indian old men in England. He has written and directed "Mr. Bhatti on Chutti", a comedy. Presently he has completed a film named "Hindutva".


title: Karan Razdan

text: He also wrote and acted in the hit TV series of mid 80s, "Rajani" and he has written produced and directed the detective TV serial Tehkikaat starring Vijay Anand and Saurabh Shukla


title: Karan Razdan

text: He was married to Rajani series actor, Priya Tendulkar, but the couple separated in 1995. Later he married Arti Bhatti in 2002 who is now known as Arti Razdan.


title: Life and Fate

text: Life and Fate () is a novel by Vasily Grossman, written in the Soviet Union in 1959 and published in 1980. Technically, it is the second half of the author's conceived two-part book under the same title. Although the first half, the novel " Stalingrad", written during the rule of Joseph Stalin and first published in 1952, expresses loyalty to the regime, "Life and Fate" sharply criticises Stalinism. In 2021, the critic and editor Robert Gottlieb, writing in "The New York Times", referred to "Life and Fate" as "the most impressive novel written since World War II."


title: Life and Fate

text: Vasily Grossman, a Ukrainian Jew, became a correspondent for the Soviet military paper "Krasnaya Zvezda", having volunteered and been rejected for military service in 1941. He spent approximately 1,000 days on the front lines, roughly three of the four years of the conflict between the Germans and Soviets. He also wrote the novel "The People Immortal". He was one of the first journalists to write about the genocide of people in Eastern Europe and was present at many famous battles. "Life and Fate" was his defining achievement, its writing in part motivated by guilt over the death of his mother in the Berdychiv massacre at Berdychiv (UkSSR) in September 1941.


title: Life and Fate

text: Begun by Grossman while Stalin was still alive, "Life and Fate" was his sequel to "For a Just Cause". It was written in the 1950s and submitted for possible publication to "Znamya" magazine around October 1960. Very quickly after it was submitted, the KGB raided his apartment; the manuscripts, carbon copies and notebooks, as well as the typists' copies and even the typewriter ribbons were seized. The KGB did not know that he had left two copies of the manuscript with friends, one with the prominent poet Semyon Lipkin, a friend, and the other (Grossman's original manuscript) with Lyolya Klestova, often erroneously identified as Lyolya Dominikina, a friend from his university days.


title: Life and Fate

text: On 23 July 1962, the Politburo ideology chief Mikhail Suslov told the author that, if published, his book could inflict even greater harm to the Soviet Union than Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago", speculating that it could begin a public discussion on the need for the Soviet Union. Suslov has been said to have told Grossman that his novel could not be published for two hundred years; however more recent research amongst the documents of both Grossman and Suslov, in writing about this meeting, provide no evidence for this; they doubt that Suslov actually said this. Suslov's comment reveals both the presumption of the censor and recognition of the work's lasting significance. Grossman tried to appeal against this verdict to Khrushchev personally, unaware of Khrushchev's personal antagonism towards Grossman, and misunderstanding the climate of the time.


title: Life and Fate

text: "I ask you to return freedom for my book, I ask that my book be discussed with editors, not the agents of the KGB. What is the point of me being physically free when the book I dedicated my life to is arrested... I am not renouncing it... I am requesting freedom for my book."


title: Life and Fate

text: In 1974, Lipkin got one of the surviving copies to put onto microfilm and smuggled it out of the country with the help of satirical writer Vladimir Voinovich and nuclear scientist Andrei Sakharov. Grossman died in 1964, never having seen his book published, which did not happen in the West until 1980 at the publishing house L'Age d'homme, thanks to the efforts of Shimon Markish, professor of the University of Geneva and Efim Etkind (then in Paris) who achieved the meticulous work of reading from the microfilm.


title: Life and Fate

text: As the policy of glasnost was initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, the novel was finally published on Russian soil in 1988 in the "Oktyabr" magazine and as a book.


title: Life and Fate

text: Some critics have compared Grossman's war novels, and specifically "Life and Fate", with Leo Tolstoy's monumental work "War and Peace". He had written to his daughter that "War and Peace" had been the only book he had been able to read during Stalingrad, but while there are similarities, it is recognized that, because Grossman actually witnessed the events of Stalingrad, there are many differences. Robert Chandler, who translated "Life and Fate" into English, while noting the comparison with Tolstoy, says that there is something Chekovian about his writing.


title: Life and Fate

text: In Linda Grant's introduction to the 2011 Random House edition of the book, Grant says that Grossman never had the chance to edit his book; what Robert Chandler had to work with was a work that was "a copy from an imperfect microfilm of an imperfect book".


title: Life and Fate

text: Most of the events of "Life and Fate" take place in the Soviet Union during the late autumn and winter of 1942-43. It was the time of Operation Blue and Operation Fischreiher, the continuation into a second year of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union that had started with Operation Barbarossa; it was the time of the Battle of Stalingrad. But, just as much as it takes place as a part of the Second World War, it takes place as part of the history of Stalinist Russia.


title: Life and Fate

text: Hitler and Stalin had previously signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which, on the face of it, seemed to be advantageous to both. However, on 22 June 1941, Hitler unilaterally terminated the pact by invading the Soviet Union. There has been much speculation on the Soviet response. But, whatever the reason for this response, they were not ready for what took place; the army had been seriously weakened by Stalin's purges of the army of the late 1930s, and the intelligence that was getting through to Stalin was filtered by their fear of having to tell Stalin things that he did not want to hear. So, though they had increased military spending, they did not yet have an army that could benefit from this. This was compounded by the change in command structure that Stalin initiated in the wake of the 1937 purges and maintained for large periods up to 1942. Political commissars operated alongside military commanders.


title: Life and Fate

text: The book begins when Germany lays siege to the city, trying to conquer it. Throughout the book there are references to the decaying city and the damage from aerial bombardments and artillery based around the city. There are also occasions in the Russian novel in which the German blockade is quite noticeable. The characters suffer from starvation and thirst. The book ends with the surrender of German field-marshal Friedrich Paulus' 6th Army remnants and the return of civilians to the city.


title: Life and Fate

text: The novel's characters are a combination of fictional and historical figures. The historical figures include Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. Many of the characters are more loosely based on a historical figure, or a representative Russian. The main character, Viktor Shtrum, is a “self portrait” of Grossman himself, though Shtrum also had a real-life prototype - the Soviet nuclear physicist , who was a family friend of Grossmans in Kyiv. One of the most promising Soviet physicists of his time, Lev Shtrum was arrested and executed during Stalin's Great Purge. Vasily Grossman took an enormous risk and immortalized his friend, first in the novel "Stalingrad", which was first published under the title "For a Just Cause" in 1952, i.e. still in Stalin's lifetime, and then - in the novel "Life and Fate".


title: Life and Fate

text: In "Life and Fate" there are different times when the Nazi concentration camps are mentioned. A long section of "Life and Fate" is about a German prison camp, where many characters are on their way to the gas chamber to be gassed; then follows a dialogue of ranked Nazi officers inside a new gas chamber who toast its opening. The characters shipped off to Germany had been caught leaving one of the countries under Nazi rule. Grossman's inclusion is historically accurate, since there are records of many Russians in Nazi labor and death camps. Grossman also includes another German concentration camp where one of his main arguments takes place concerning communism and fascism. Grossman devotes large sections of the book to the prisoners held at Soviet and German labor and concentration camps, which is necessary for a holistic understanding of the time and events.


title: Life and Fate

text: The novel at heart narrates the history of the family of Viktor Shtrum and the Battle of Stalingrad. It is written, despite attempting to get away from it, in the socialist realist style, which can make it seem odd in parts to western readers.


title: Life and Fate

text: "Life and Fate" is a multi-faceted novel, one of its themes being that the Eastern Front was the struggle between two comparable totalitarian states. The tragedy of the common people is that they have to fight both the invaders and the totalitarianism of their own state.


title: Life and Fate

text: "Life and Fate" is a sprawling account of life on the eastern front, with countless plotlines taking place simultaneously all across Russia and Eastern Europe. Although each story has a linear progression, the events are not necessarily presented in chronological order. Grossman will, for example, introduce a character, then ignore that character for hundreds of pages, and then return to recount events that took place the very next day. It is difficult to summarize the novel, but the plot can be boiled down to three basic plotlines: the Shtrum/Shaposhnikov family, the siege of Stalingrad, and life in the camps of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Although "Life and Fate" is divided into three parts, each of these plotlines is featured in each section.


title: Life and Fate

text: Viktor Shtrum is a brilliant physicist who, with his wife, Lyudmila, and daughter, Nadya, has been evacuated from Moscow to Kazan. He is experiencing great difficulty with his work, as well as with his family. He receives a letter from his mother from inside a Jewish ghetto informing him that she is soon to be killed by the Germans. Lyudmila, meanwhile, goes to visit her son from her first marriage, Tolya, in an army hospital, but he dies before her arrival. When she returns to Kazan, she is extremely detached and seems still to be expecting Tolya's return. Viktor finds himself engaging in anti-Soviet conversations at the home of his colleague, Sokolov, partly to impress Sokolov's wife, Marya (Lyudmila's only friend). He consistently compares political situations to physics, and remarks that Fascism and Stalinism are not so different. He later regrets these discussions out of fear that he will be denounced, an indecision that plagues his decision-making throughout the novel. Suddenly, Viktor makes a huge mathematical breakthrough, solving the issues that had hindered his experiments. Viktor's colleagues are slow to respond, but eventually come to accept the genius of his discovery. After moving back to Moscow, however, the higher-ups begin to criticize his discoveries as being anti-Leninist and attacking his Jewish identity. Viktor, however, refuses to publicly repent and is forced to resign. He fears that he will be arrested, but then receives a call from Stalin himself (presumably because Stalin had sensed the military importance of nuclear research) that completely, and immediately reverses his fortune. Later, he signs a letter denouncing two innocent men and is subsequently racked by guilt. The last details about Viktor regard his unconsummated affair with Marya.


title: Life and Fate

text: The events recounted at Stalingrad center on Yevghenia Shaposhnikova (Lyudmila's sister), Krymov (her former husband), and Novikov (her lover). After reconnecting with Novikov, Yevghenia evacuates to Kuibyshev. Novikov, the commander of a Soviet tank corps, meets General Nyeudobnov and Political Commissar Getmanov, both of whom are Party hacks. Together they begin planning the counter-assault on Stalingrad. Novikov delays the start of the assault for fear of unnecessarily sacrificing his men. Getmanov later denounces Novikov and he is summoned for trial, even though the tank attack was a complete success. Meanwhile, Krymov, a Political Commissar, is sent to investigate House 6/1, where a tiny group of soldiers have held back the Germans for weeks, even though they are completely surrounded and cut off from all supplies. Grekov, the commanding officer, refuses to send reports to HQ, and is disdainful of Krymov's rhetoric. He later wounds Krymov in his sleep, causing him to be evacuated from the house. Soon after, House 6/1 is completely leveled by German bombs. Krymov, a staunch Communist, is then accused of being a traitor (this was standard for Russian soldiers who had been trapped behind enemy lines ) and is sent to Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, where he is beaten and forced to confess. Yevghenia decides not to marry Novikov and goes to Moscow to try and visit Krymov. He receives a package from her and realizes that he still loves her but may never be released from prison.


title: Life and Fate

text: The sections that take place in the camps have few recurring characters, with the exception of Mostovskoy, an Old Bolshevik who takes part in a plot to rebel against the Germans, but is dismayed by the prevailing lack of faith in Communism. His interrogator, Liss, asserts that Fascism and Communism are two sides of the same coin, which upsets Mostovskoy greatly. He is later killed by the Germans for his part in the uprising. In one scene, Sturmbannführer Liss tells Mostovskoy that both Stalin and Hitler are the leaders of qualitatively new formation: "When we look at each other's faces, we see not only a hated face; we see the mirror reflection. ... Don't you recognize yourself, your [strong] will in us?" Grossman also focuses on Sofya Levinton, a Jewish woman on her way to a Nazi extermination camp.


title: Life and Fate

text: As Grossman moves into Part Three of the novel, he writes with an increasingly analytic style and abandons many of the characters that he has created. The only plotlines that achieve real closure are those whose protagonists perish during the war. All of these characters, he seems to say, are part of a larger, ongoing story — that of Russia, and of mankind. The final chapter solidifies this notion of universality. The author introduces a set of characters who remain anonymous: an elderly widow observing her tenants, a wounded army officer recently discharged from hospital, his wife and their young daughter. It is heavily implied, however, that the officer returning to his family is Major Byerozkin, a recurring character from Stalingrad who is shown to be a kind man struggling to retain his humanity. In a sense, therefore, the ending is slightly uplifting – many characters have died, or experienced tragedy, but at least one fundamentally good person gets a happy ending.


title: Life and Fate

text: Grossman describes the type of Communist Party functionaries, who blindly follow the Party line and constitute the base for the oppressive regime. One such political worker (политработник), Sagaidak, maintained that entire families and villages intentionally starved themselves to death during the collectivisation in the USSR.


title: Life and Fate

text: Viktor Shtrum is in part a reflection of Grossman's own character. There are many overlaps between Shtrum's life and Grossman's life, such as their mothers' deaths in the Holocaust; both seem to find a place in their Jewish identity that was not present before the war. Grossman was one of the first to write about the Holocaust in 1944, seeing first hand that Eastern Europe was empty of Jews; Jewish acquaintances he came to check up on were in mass graves, their houses empty. His article on the camp Treblinka was even used as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials. Raised as a secular Jew, it becomes clear that Shtrum discovers part of his identity through the suffering he encounters.


title: Life and Fate

text: In Ch. 15 of Part II, Grossman uses Ikonnikov's letter to provide his own perspective on humanity. He first asks whether a good common to all man exists, and then proceeds to describe how the ideal of good has changed for different races and religions. Grossman criticizes Christianity especially, deeming its attempt to create universal good through peace and love responsible for many of the world's most horrific events. “This doctrine caused more suffering than all of the crimes of people who did evil for its own sake,” he writes (406). Grossman then inquires as to the very nature of life—is it that life itself is evil? And although he provides multiple examples of such evil, Grossman does believe that life itself has some good in it: “Yes, as well as this terrible Good... there is everyday human kindness” (407). But it's not so simple, for “after despairing of finding Good either in God or in Nature, I began to despair even of kindness... Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil struggling to crush a kernel of human kindness. But if what is human in human beings has not been destroyed even now, then evil will never conquer.” (410). Here, Grossman offers an alternative to despair: the idea that, despite such great evil, humanity and good will be the ultimate victors. Simple, often unnoticed, human kindness forms the basis for Grossman's theory, which is to say that despite great evil, small acts of charity reflect the idea that good is both alive and unconquerable no matter what. No matter how great the evil may be, this basic “kernel” of good is a key part of human nature and can never be crushed.


title: Life and Fate

text: Despite his acknowledgement of the world's great evil, Grossman believes humanity to be fundamentally good. If mankind is stripped down to its very core, all that will remain is this invincible kernel; therefore, it is this kernel (and perhaps this kernel alone) that is responsible for the basic goodness of humanity.


title: Life and Fate

text: This worldview is reflected in Ch. 40 of Part I, when Grossman describes Abarchuk and his love for Stalinism. “He [Abarchuk] had repeated, 'You don't get arrested for nothing,' believing that only a tiny minority, himself among them, had been arrested by mistake. As for everyone else—they had deserved their sentences. The sword of justice was chastising the enemies of the Revolution. He had seen servility, treachery, submissiveness, cruelty... And he had referred to all this as 'the birthmarks of capitalism,' believing that these marks were borne by people of the past... His faith was unshakeable, his devotion to the Party infinite” (179). Abarchuk is incapable of understanding the reality of his situation: that he has been wrongly imprisoned and will suffer in spite of his innocence, as has happened to so many others. Abarchuk is so completely immersed in the aura of the Party and so dedicated to the Stalinist religion that he cannot see the ethical violations occurring all around him. He is a reflection of the “religious frenzy” of Stalinism; the prisoner simply refuses to comprehend his situation and instead chooses to focus on his faith and devotion to the Party (Buruma).


title: Life and Fate

text: Therefore, Abarchuk and his mentality are, at this point in the book, Grossman's representations of the archetypical Party member and the dream-world in which he lives. Despite being presented with an excellent cause to abandon the Party, Abarchuk maintains his faith.


title: Life and Fate

text: At the end of "Life and Fate", Vasily Grossman presents the reader with the broadest concept of his novel: the idea that despite war, genocide, suffering beyond the realm of imagination, and utter destruction, life goes on. This idea is depicted in the last few lines of the book, as Grossman writes, “Somehow you could sense spring more vividly in this cool forest than on the sunlit plain. And there was a deeper sadness in this silence than in the silence of autumn. In it you could hear both a lament for the dead and the furious joy of life itself. It was still cold and dark, but soon the doors and shutters would be flung open. Soon the house would be filled with the tears and laughter of children, with the hurried steps of a loved woman and the measured gait of the master of the house. They stood there, holding their bags, in silence.” (871). All through "Life and Fate", Grossman has painted gritty pictures of war, death, and suffering. He has shown us the loss of hope, destruction, and total fatigue. Indeed, the author references these scenes as he describes the sadness in the silence of the forest—the “lament for the dead”—and the “still cold and dark” house (871). Grossman, however, does not conclude the book with these thoughts. He turns instead to the future, and future hope. The author describes a family scene, with a husband, wife, and children, in addition to the flinging open of doors and shutters—an act symbolic of moving on and reclaiming one's life. Therefore, Grossman wants the reader to come away from reading "Life and Fate" with an appreciation for the darkness of World War II, but also an understanding of the cyclical nature of life. We may suffer, but, in the end, life always goes on; happiness and peace return eventually.


title: Life and Fate

text: As a Soviet physicist, the main character of the novel, Viktor Shtrum, offers an irregular view of the Soviet system. Science, in the novel, plays the role of a calming constant, the last remnant of rationality in a world of chaos. Despite Stalin's alterations and manipulations of societal and human truths, he cannot deny the plausibility of physics. For this reason, Viktor is affected by both the disrupted world of his personal life and the soothing world of mathematics. He finds that his two lives begin to split as he becomes more and more pressured from both sides. As his anxiety over his dysfunctional formula eats away at him, he realizes that he can no longer discuss such things openly with his wife. And vice versa: as his friendship with his partner, Sokolov, is threatened by Viktor's anti-Party feelings and temper, his work also suffers.


title: Life and Fate

text: In Chapter 17 of Part One, Viktor discourses on the new strides made in physics during the forties and fifties. He remarks that the stability of science previously falsely represented the universe. Instead, he wonders at the newfound bending, stretching, and flattening of space. “The world was no longer Euclidean, its geometrical nature no longer composed of masses and their speeds.” (Grossman 79) While this discovered chaos may at first seem to contradict the sanctity of reason, it actually strengthens it. With this realization, Viktor learns that the political and social chaos Russia is undergoing in fact fits right in with the fundamental laws of the universe. This is why science was such a key field under the Soviet regimes.


title: Life and Fate

text: Under Stalin, free thought was oppressed and discouraged. Therefore, Viktor's work as a physicist was increasingly difficult under the watchful eye of Stalin. During much of the novel, Viktor finds himself at a loss for the solution to a problem concerning an atomic phenomenon. The point at which he finally figures it out, however, is a point when he has just thoroughly slandered Stalinism and Soviet society. This goes to show that Grossman believed that true freedom of thought was entirely impossible in anyone who accepted Stalin as their leader.


title: Life and Fate

text: Grossman, in many chapters involving Seryozha Shaposhnikov and Novikov, portrays the stark difference between life on the battlefield and in the cities. In chapter 60 of part one, Seryozha is introduced among the war-hardened soldiers of the surrounded House 6/1. Here, Grossman offers an interpretation of war that compares it to an all-engrossing haze. “When a man is plunged up to his neck into the cauldron of war, he is quite unable to look at his life and understand anything.” (Grossman 255) This statement sets up the book to be looked at from two different perspectives: those whose lives are entirely immersed in war, and those who either straddle or are more distanced from it.


title: Life and Fate

text: In his writing, Grossman gives a very distinct feeling to war scenes that is absent from chapters devoted to city life and totalitarian rule. Battles are imbued with an intense feeling of isolation, from government, politics, and bureaucracy. Instead, they focus on the thoughts of the human, the individual who is participating. Thoughts of family, lovers, friends, and home become the centerpiece of these violent sections. In House 6/1, even in their vulnerable position, everyone becomes infatuated with the one woman present and 'gossip' reigns. By setting this up, the author seeks to separate the true meaning of the war from the ideologies that supposedly govern it. In addition, their feelings and emotions that are directed towards their relations become a flurry of unrelated thoughts, brought on by the chaos of war.


title: Life and Fate

text: In domestic settings, however, the focus becomes entirely on meaning behind the war, political ideologies, and largely abstractions. Aside from the direct personal relationships and casualties experienced, conversation in cities often concerns the war as an abstraction, not as an experience. In this way, there is a stark difference in perception inside and outside of Stalingrad. As Grossman paints it, war completely devours those involved, becoming in many ways an alternative reality irreconcilable with their former reality. There is an increased amount of freedom, lacking the constraints of Russian bureaucracy, but also an increased risk of death. It poses different daily questions to the individuals involved, asking them how they should spend and survive their day instead of asking if it's worth it to do so.


title: Life and Fate

text: An English-language radio adaptation of the novel was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 18 to 25 September 2011. Translated by Robert Chandler and dramatised by Jonathan Myerson and Mike Walker, the eight-hour dramatisation stars Kenneth Branagh, David Tennant, Janet Suzman, Greta Scacchi and Harriet Walter.


title: Life and Fate

text: A television series, with twelve episodes, based on the book was broadcast on Russian television in 2012. It is also available on Amazon Prime in certain countries.


title: Ruby pistol

text: The Ruby pistol was a semi-automatic pistol of .32 ACP calibre made by Gabilondo y Urresti and other Spanish companies. It saw use in both World Wars as the service weapon of the French Army under the name Pistolet Automatique de 7 millim.65 genre "Ruby".


title: Ruby pistol

text: The pistol was closely modeled after John Browning's 1903 Pocket Hammerless design produced by Colt. The French Army decommissioned it in 1958.


title: Ruby pistol

text: In 1914, just before the start of the First World War, Gabilondo started manufacture of a sturdy self-loading pistol based on the Browning Model 1903 and chambered for the 7.65mm Browning/.32 ACP cartridge. Unusual for the time, the magazine capacity was nine shots instead of the usual six or seven. The pistol was intended for export to the Americas, and despite the small calibre it was designed with military and police sales in mind. Other Spanish manufacturers had copied the Browning since around 1905. The Ruby, apart from the extended magazine appears to be a direct copy of a pistol called the "Victoria" made by Esperanza and Unceta. This pistol used features patented by Pedro Careaga in 1911, and by the Esperanza and Unceta company in 1912. These patents may have covered the frame-mounted safety (instead of a grip safety), and an internal striker (instead of a hammer).


title: Ruby pistol

text: In 1915 Gabilondo sent examples of the pistols to the French government, who were hard-pressed for all sorts of small-arms, even in this early stage of the war. After testing was completed in May 1915, the French decided to accept the Ruby as the "Pistolet Automatique de 7 millimètre 65 genre "Ruby" and contracted Gabilondo to produce 10,000 pistols a month. By August the target had been raised to 30,000 and later still an incredible 50,000 a month. Despite its size, the company could barely cope with the initial contract and arranged for four partners to manufacture the Ruby for them:


title: Ruby pistol

text: The contract stipulated that each company would produce a minimum of 5,000 pistols per month. Gabilondo would produce 10,000 guns, carry out overall quality control and arrange delivery to the French authorities in Bayonne. As the number of pistols required increased the company agreed to purchase any pistols in excess of the agreed number at the same contracted price. As demand increased Gabilondo recruited another three partners to help manufacture the Ruby. Estimates of Gabilondo Ruby production are between 250,000 and 300,000 pistols in total. While most Gabilondo contract pistols were of good quality, others were less well made.


title: Ruby pistol

text: As the French became more desperate, the procurement process spiralled out of control. Eventually Gabilondo contracted with another three companies and at least 45 other companies contracted with the French directly to produce Ruby-type pistols in a variety of calibres, barrel lengths and magazine capacities.


title: Ruby pistol

text: French officials quickly became aware that few of the Spanish Ruby-types had interchangeable magazines, and insisted the manufacturers mark the base of all magazines. This was to prevent the possibly fatal consequence at the front line of either not being able to insert a new magazine, or having a loaded magazine detach from the gun in action.


title: Ruby pistol

text: Many Ruby-type pistols were plagued by poor finish and incorrectly hardened steel parts which, after a short period of use, could become so badly worn that a very dangerous situation known as a "runaway gun" could result. Another danger characteristic to poorly manufactured Ruby pistols were faulty safety mechanisms - due to improper fitting or the use of inappropriate materials for critical safety components. Despite the existence of faulty and/or dangerous Ruby-type pistols produced by the more unscrupulous sub-contractors, the basic Ruby showed itself to be a well thought out design that, when properly manufactured of appropriate quality components, resulted in a pistol highly regarded for its reliability and accuracy,


title: Ruby pistol

text: Gabilondo ceased production in 1919 and switched to more advanced models, but other firms continued to produce the Ruby-type until the Great Depression wiped out many arms producers. Ruby-types continued to be used until the end of World War II, particularly by Spanish and French Maquis, as well as their Vichy opponents.


title: Ruby pistol

text: The Ruby-type pistol is very intuitive to operate, even for novices. The slide stop doubles as a safety and field stripping is remarkably simple. The small size and large magazine capacity was an advantage, making it a popular "backup" weapon for troops involved in trench warfare, as well as the standard issue weapons for telephonists, stretcher bearers, machine-gun, machine-rifle, tank, and mortar crews, and rear-echelon personnel of all descriptions. The comparatively weak cartridges these pistols were chambered in gave little recoil, making them easier for novices to use effectively.


title: Ruby pistol

text: The primary disadvantage of these pistols (apart from quality control issues) is the relatively weak cartridges they were chambered in, reducing the pistol's stopping power.


title: Ruby pistol

text: The reliance on only one type of safety, and the lack of a visible hammer make these pistols very dangerous to carry "cocked and locked". Early models could come off safety when holstered in a tight-fitting holster and a large protruding stud was added to the slide in order to prevent this.


title: Ruby pistol

text: In later years, Ruby-types became notorious for the lack of standardization of parts between different manufacturers, resulting in a widespread incompatibility of spare parts that made the Ruby-types difficult to maintain. Some of this is due to the persistent confusion over exactly who made which Ruby-type pistol.


title: Ruby pistol

text: The Ruby directly influenced the design of the FN Model 1910/22, which was a nine-shot version of the M1910 developed for Yugoslavia (who had previously been issued Ruby-type pistols). Finland, Netherlands, Greece, Turkey, Romania, France, Denmark, and Germany also adopted this pistol at various times. Several commercially made French pistols by M.A.B and were heavily influenced by the Ruby.


title: Barn

text: A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain. As a result, the term barn is often qualified e.g. tobacco barn, dairy barn, cow house, sheep barn, potato barn. In the British Isles, the term barn is restricted mainly to storage structures for unthreshed cereals and fodder, the terms byre or shippon being applied to cow shelters, whereas horses are kept in buildings known as stables. In mainland Europe, however, barns were often part of integrated structures known as byre-dwellings (or housebarns in US literature). In addition, barns may be used for equipment storage, as a covered workplace, and for activities such as threshing.


title: Barn

text: The word "barn" comes from the Old English , for barley (or grain in general), and , for a storage place—thus, a storehouse for barley. The word , also spelled "bern" and "bearn", is attested to at least sixty times in homilies and other Old English prose. The related words "bere-tun" and "bere-flor" both meant threshing floor. "Bere-tun" also meant granary; the literal translation of "bere-tun" is "grain enclosure". While the only literary attestation of "bere-hus" (also granary) comes from the "Dialogi" of Gregory the Great, there are four known mentions of "bere-tun" and two of "bere-flor". "A Thesaurus of Old English" lists and ("meal-store house") as synonyms for barn.


title: Barn

text: The modern barn largely developed from the three aisled medieval barn, commonly known as tithe barn or monastic barn. This, in turn, originated in a 12th-century building tradition, also applied in halls and ecclesiastical buildings. In the 15th century several thousands of these huge barns were to be found in Western Europe. In the course of time, its construction method was adopted by normal farms and it gradually spread to simpler buildings and other rural areas. As a rule, the aisled barn had large entrance doors and a passage corridor for loaded wagons. The storage floors between the central posts or in the aisles were known as bays or mows (from Middle French "moye").


title: Barn

text: The main types were large barns with sideway passages, compact barns with a central entrance and smaller barns with a transverse passage. The latter also spread to Eastern Europe. Whenever stone walls were applied, the aisled timber frame often gave way to single-naved buildings. A special type were byre-dwellings, which included living quarters, byres and stables, such as the Frisian farmhouse or Gulf house and the Black Forest house. Not all, however, evolved from the medieval barn. Other types descended from the prehistoric longhouse or other building traditions. One of the latter was the Low German (hall) house, in which the harvest was stored in the attic. In many cases, the New World colonial barn evolved from the Low German house, which was transformed to a real barn by first generation colonists from the Netherlands and Germany.


title: Barn

text: In the Yorkshire Dales, England, barns, known locally as cowhouses were built from double stone walls with truffs or throughstones acting as wall ties.


title: Barn

text: In the U.S., older barns were built from timbers hewn from trees on the farm and built as a log crib barn or timber frame, although stone barns were sometimes built in areas where stone was a cheaper building material. In the mid to late 19th century in the U.S. barn framing methods began to shift away from traditional timber framing to "truss framed" or "plank framed" buildings. Truss or plank framed barns reduced the number of timbers instead using dimensional lumber for the rafters, joists, and sometimes the trusses. The joints began to become bolted or nailed instead of being mortised and tenoned. The inventor and patentee of the Jennings Barn claimed his design used less lumber, less work, less time, and less cost to build and were durable and provided more room for hay storage. Mechanization on the farm, better transportation infrastructure, and new technology like a hay fork mounted on a track contributed to a need for larger, more open barns, sawmills using steam power could produce smaller pieces of lumber affordably, and machine cut nails were much less expensive than hand-made (wrought) nails. Concrete block began to be used for barns in the early 20th century in the U.S.


title: Barn

text: Modern barns are more typically steel buildings. From about 1900 to 1940, many large dairy barns were built in northern USA. These commonly have gambrel or hip roofs to maximize the size of the hay loft above the dairy roof, and have become associated in the popular image of a dairy farm. The barns that were common to the wheatbelt held large numbers of pulling horses such as Clydesdales or Percherons. These large wooden barns, especially when filled with hay, could make spectacular fires that were usually total losses for the farmers. With the advent of balers it became possible to store hay and straw outdoors in stacks surrounded by a plowed fireguard. Many barns in the northern United States are painted barn red with a white trim. One possible reason for this is that ferric oxide, which is used to create red paint, was the cheapest and most readily available chemical for farmers in New England and nearby areas. Another possible reason is that ferric oxide acts a preservative and so painting a barn with it would help to protect the structure. The custom of painting barns in red with white trim is widely spread in Scandinavia. Especially in Sweden the Falu red with white trims is the traditional colouring of most wooden buildings.


title: Barn

text: With the popularity of tractors following World War II many barns were taken down or replaced with modern Quonset huts made of plywood or galvanized steel. Beef ranches and dairies began building smaller loftless barns often of Quonset huts or of steel walls on a treated wood frame (old telephone or power poles). By the 1960s it was found that cattle receive sufficient shelter from trees or wind fences (usually wooden slabs 20% open).


title: Barn

text: In older style North American barns, the upper area was used to store hay and sometimes grain. This is called the mow (rhymes with cow) or the hayloft. A large door at the top of the ends of the barn could be opened up so that hay could be put in the loft. The hay was hoisted into the barn by a system containing pulleys and a trolley that ran along a track attached to the top ridge of the barn. Trap doors in the floor allowed animal feed to be dropped into the mangers for the animals.


title: Barn

text: In New England it is common to find barns attached to the main farmhouse (connected farm architecture), allowing for chores to be done while sheltering the worker from the weather.


title: Barn

text: In the middle of the twentieth century the large broad roof of barns were sometimes painted with slogans in the United States. Most common of these were the 900 barns painted with ads for Rock City.


title: Barn

text: A farm may have buildings of varying shapes and sizes used to shelter large and small animals and other uses. The enclosed pens used to shelter large animals are called stalls and may be located in the cellar or on the main level depending in the type of barn. Other common areas, or features, of an American barn include:


title: Barn

text: The physics term "barn", which is a subatomic unit of area, 10 m, came from experiments with uranium nuclei during World War II, wherein they were described colloquially as "big as a barn", with the measurement officially adopted to maintain security around nuclear weapons research.


title: Barn

text: Barns have been classified by their function, structure, location, or other features. Sometimes the same building falls into multiple categories.


title: Barn

text: Old farm buildings of the countryside contribute to the landscape, and help define the history of the location, i.e. how farming took place in the past, and how the area has been settled throughout the ages. They also can show the agricultural methods, building materials, and skills that were used. Most were built with materials reflecting the local geology of the area. Building methods include earth walling and thatching.


title: Barn

text: Buildings in stone and brick, roofed with tile or slate, increasingly replaced buildings in clay, timber and thatch from the later 18th century. Metal roofs started to be used from the 1850s. The arrival of canals and railways brought about transportation of building materials over greater distances.


title: Barn

text: Clues determining their age and historical use can be found from old maps, sale documents, estate plans, and from a visual inspection of the building itself, noting (for example) reused timbers, former floors, partitions, doors and windows.


title: Barn

text: The arrangement of the buildings within the farmstead can also yield valuable information on the historical farm usage and landscape value. Linear farmsteads were typical of small farms, where there was an advantage to having cattle and fodder within one building, due to the colder climate. Dispersed clusters of unplanned groups were more widespread. Loose courtyard plans built around a yard were associated with bigger farms, whereas carefully laid out courtyard plans designed to minimize waste and labour were built in the latter part of the 18th century.


title: Barn

text: The barns are typically the oldest and biggest buildings to be found on the farm. Many barns were converted into cow houses and fodder processing and storage buildings after the 1880s. Many barns had owl holes to allow for access by barn owls, encouraged to aid vermin control.


title: Barn

text: The stable is typically the second-oldest building type on the farm. They were well built and placed near the house due to the value that the horses had as draught animals


title: Barn

text: Modern granaries were built from the 18th century. Complete granary interiors, with plastered walls and wooden partitioning to grain bins, are very rare.


title: Barn

text: Longhouses are an ancient building where people and animals used the same entrance. These can still be seen, for example, in North Germany, where the Low Saxon house occurs.


title: Barn

text: Few interiors of the 19th century cow houses have survived unaltered due to dairy-hygiene regulations in many countries.


title: Barn

text: Old farm buildings may show the following signs of deterioration: rotting in timber-framed constructions due to damp, cracks in the masonry from movement of the walls, e.g. ground movement, roofing problems (e.g. outward thrust of it, deterioration of purlins and gable ends), foundation problems, penetration of tree roots; lime mortar being washed away due to inadequate weather-protection. Walls made of cob, earth mortars or walls with rubble cores are all highly vulnerable to water penetration, and replacement or covering of breathable materials with cement or damp-proofing materials may trap moisture within the walls.


title: Barn

text: In England and Wales some of these historical buildings have been given "listed building" status, which provides them some degree of archaeological protection.


title: Barn

text: Some grant schemes are available to restore Historic Farmland buildings, for example Natural England's Environmental Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and Environmentally Sensitive Areas Schemes.


title: Page and Plant

text: Page and Plant (also known as Jimmy Page & Robert Plant) was an English rock band active between 1994 and 1998. The group consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant (both formerly of English rock band Led Zeppelin), accompanied by bassist Charlie Jones and drummer Michael Lee. Formed in 1994 for an MTV Unplugged reunion, Page and Plant released the platinum-selling live album , featuring both new material and middle eastern-influenced covers of classic Led Zeppelin songs. Following the success of the live album, they embarked on a world tour featuring a full orchestra.


title: Page and Plant

text: In 1998, Page and Plant released "Walking into Clarksdale", comprising entirely new material and featuring the Grammy Award-winning single "Most High". Following the album's release, they embarked on a second world tour before disbanding at the end of 1998. The band reunited for a final performance in 2001.


title: Page and Plant

text: The initial plans for a reunion were made in 1993, with discussions between the two of collaborating emerging from casual small talk and then an invitation to perform on MTV Unplugged. Music producer Bill Curbishley, who had been managing Plant since the 1980s and who assumed management of Page in 1994, was integral in the reuniting of Page and Plant. Despite failed attempts by others to reunite the pair, Curbishley was able to persuade the previously reluctant Plant into working with Page again. In an interview he gave in 2004, Page recounted the background:


title: Page and Plant

text: Led Zeppelin's main songwriters reformed on 17 April 1994 as a part of the Alexis Korner Memorial Concert at Buxton, England. On 25 and 26 August they taped performances in London, Wales, and Morocco with Egyptian and Moroccan orchestration of several Led Zeppelin tunes along with four new songs. The performances aired on 12 October, and were so successful that the two coordinated a tour which kicked off in February 1995. The Unplugged performance was released as an album in November 1994 as "".


title: Page and Plant

text: Page and Plant's touring line-up included Charlie Jones on bass and percussion, Michael Lee on drums, plus Pearl Thompson (of The Cure fame, then credited as "Porl Thompson") on guitar and banjo, Najma Akhtar providing backup vocals, Jim Sutherland on mandolin and bodhrán, Nigel Eaton playing the hurdy-gurdy, and Ed Shearmur adding Hammond organ with orchestral arrangements. Page spoke fondly of the lineup, stating:


title: Page and Plant

text: The band, joined by keyboardist Phil Andrews, recorded a cover of "Rude World" by Rainer Ptacek for the 1997 charity album "The Inner Flame: A Tribute to Rainer Ptacek".


title: Page and Plant

text: In 1998, Page and Plant entered the studio to record "Walking into Clarksdale". The album, recorded and mixed by engineer Steve Albini, featured the single "Most High", which won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. "Walking into Clarksdale" was certified gold with over 500,000 copies sold. Despite the critical acclaim for "Most High", the album received mixed reviews from critics and was not as commercially successful as 1994's platinum-certified "No Quarter".


title: Page and Plant

text: To promote "Walking into Clarksdale", Page and Plant embarked on a world tour consisting of 97 tour dates in North America and Europe. Their concert in Bucharest, Romania was professionally filmed and aired live on MTV for the special "Live from the 10 Spot".


title: Page and Plant

text: After the 1998 supporting tour for "Walking into Clarksdale", Robert Plant left to focus on other projects, dissolving the reunion. The pair briefly reunited for a final performance in 2001 at the Montreux Jazz Festival.


title: Page and Plant

text: In a 2005 interview with "Uncut" magazine, Plant attributed his decision to dissatisfaction with the production on "Walking Into Clarksdale", along with a desire to "get back to playing clubs":


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: James Francis Cauty (born 19 December 1956), also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo The KLF, co-founder of The Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Cauty was born on the Wirral Peninsula. As a 17-year-old artist, he drew a popular "The Lord of the Rings" poster (and later, a counterpart based on "The Hobbit") for British retailer Athena.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: In 1981–82 Cauty was guitarist in a band called Angels 1–5, who recorded a Peel session on 1 July 1981. Lead vocalist was Cressida Bowyer, whom Cauty later married. He then joined the band Brilliant with which he remained until its break-up in 1986. Cauty was also an original member of Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, in 1985.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Cauty joined with Bill Drummond to form The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), a collaboration that played out in various guises and media over much of the next decade.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: As an A&R man, Drummond had signed Brilliant to WEA. Concocting a scheme for a hip-hop record on New Year's Day 1987, Drummond needed a like-minded collaborator with expertise in current music technology, and so contacted Cauty. Drummond later commented that Cauty "knew exactly, to coin a phrase, 'where I was coming from'". A week later, The JAMs had recorded their debut single, "All You Need Is Love". Several singles and three albums as The JAMs followed (their debut, "1987"; the follow-up, "Who Killed The JAMs?"; and compilation "Shag Times") before a change of direction saw the duo mutate into dance and ambient music pioneers, The KLF. The duo had their first British number one hit single as The Timelords with the Gary Glitter/Dr. Who novelty-pop mash-up "Doctorin' the Tardis", claimed to be sung by Cauty's 1968 Ford Galaxie American police car. During this period, Cauty also worked with Tony Thorpe of The Moody Boys; besides remix and production work by the Moody Boys for The KLF and vice versa, Thorpe and Cauty recorded the single "Journey into Dubland" together at the KLF's Trancentral studios.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: The KLF released two albums, "Chill Out" and "The White Room", and a string of top 5 singles, becoming the biggest selling singles act in the world in 1991. In 1992, suddenly and very publicly, The KLF retired from the music industry and deleted their entire back catalogue.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Drummond and Cauty re-emerged in 1993 as the K Foundation, releasing one limited edition single ("K Cera Cera") and awarding the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the "worst artist of the year". In 1994, the duo courted infamy by setting fire to one million pounds in cash on the Scottish island of Jura. In 1995, they undertook a screening tour of a film of the burning, before signing a moratorium on K Foundation activities.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Cauty worked with Drummond again in 1997 with a campaign to "Fuck the Millennium", the highlight of which was a 23-minute live performance satirising the "pop comeback", in which Cauty and Drummond appeared as grey-haired pensioners and wheeled around the stage in electric wheelchairs. They returned as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu in 2017, with a novel - "" - and a 3-day festival, "Welcome to the Dark Ages". Cauty confirmed that the duo's work is an ongoing project.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Throughout their career, Drummond has often been the mouthpiece of the group and was sometimes viewed, subjectively, as their chief protagonist. "NME", for example, wrote: "One suspects that the real boiling genius of the duo is initiated by Drummond. The elements of the K Foundation affair are classic Drummond – honesty mixed with deranged publicity-seeking, pop terrorism ideas mixed with utter strangeness and mysticism..., and a sense that the things pop groups do should be visionary and above all should not be mundane." However, the initial "idea" for the K Foundation's one million incineration was Cauty's, although he was beginning to express regret in 1995 at which time Drummond remained resolute.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Contrasting with Drummond's image, Jimmy Cauty was perceived, or presented, as "Rockman Rock – cool dude"; the "quiet", enigmatic one, a "long-haired and quietly spoken chain-smoker: a leather-jacketed misfit [who] has carried his adolescent rock obsession into adulthood". However, as the previously quoted "NME" piece cautioned, "We can't underestimate the importance of Jimmy Cauty". Cauty was the musical bedrock of The KLF, whether laying down the starting track for "Doctorin' the Tardis", or playing electric guitar, bass, drums and keyboard on "America: What Time Is Love?". He and his wife, Cressida, were at the centre of KLF operations, living and working at Trancentral (actually the Cautys' squat in Stockwell, London) and driving the "JAMsmobile" (Cauty's 1968 Ford Galaxie American police car) as their regular, everyday vehicle. Cressida, too, helped out, taking on an organisational role for KLF Communications, in addition to design and choreography work for The KLF, and her own work as an artist.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Engineer Mark Stent recalled Drummond as providing "big concepts and insane ideas", whereas Cauty - he said - was "literally a musical genius".


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: In the late 1980s, Cauty met Alex Paterson and the duo began DJing and producing together as The Orb. Paterson and Cauty's first release was a 1988 acid house anthem track, "Tripping on Sunshine" released on the compilation "Eternity Project One", put together by Paterson's childhood friend and Cauty's ex-bandmate, Martin "Youth" Glover. The following year, The Orb released the "Kiss EP", a four-track EP based on samples from New York City's Kiss FM on Paterson and Youth's new record label WAU/Mr. Modo Records.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: After spending a weekend of making what Paterson described as "really shit drum sounds", the duo decided to abandon beat-heavy music and instead work on music for after-hours listening by "taking the bloody drums away". Paterson and Cauty began DJing in London and landed a deal in 1989 for The Orb to play the chill-out room at London nightclub Heaven. Resident DJ Paul Oakenfold brought in the duo specifically as ambient DJs for his "The Land of Oz" event at Heaven.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Though initially The Orb's Monday night performances had only several "hard-core" followers, their "Chill Out Room" act grew popular over the course of their six-month stay at Heaven to the point that the small room was often packed with around 100 people. The Orb's performances became especially popular among weary DJs and clubbers who sought solace from the loud, rhythmic music of the dancefloor. The Orb would build up melodies using multitrack recordings linked to multiple record decks and a mixer. They incorporated many CDs, cassettes, and BBC sound effects into their act, often accompanied with pieces of popular dance tracks such as "Sueño Latino". Most often, they played dub and other chill out music which Bill Drummond described as "Ambient house for the E generation."


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Throughout 1989, Paterson, Cauty, Drummond and Youth developed the musical genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The culmination of Cauty and Paterson's musical work came towards the end of the year when The Orb recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1. The track, then known as "Loving You", was largely improvisational and featured a wealth of sound effects and samples from science fiction radio plays, nature sounds, and Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You". The Orb changed the title to "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld". In 1990, Cauty and Drummond held a chillout party at Trancentral, Cauty's squat. A recording of Patersons DJing was made with a view to releasing it as an LP but the mix contained many uncleared samples and other records and was unusable. Later that year Cauty and Drummond went to the isle of Jura, Scotland to record a techno record called Gate. Instead they created a long form ambient film called Waiting (1990). During the same year Cauty and Drummond went into the studio and made the ambient LP "Chill Out". The "Grove Dictionary" suggests "Chill Out" to be the first ambient house album.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: When offered an album deal by Big Life, The Orb found themselves at a crossroads. Cauty preferred that albums by The Orb were released on his KLF Communications label, whereas Paterson wanted to ensure The Orb did not become an offshoot of The KLF. Due to these issues, Cauty and Paterson split in April 1990, with Paterson keeping the name "The Orb". Cauty removed Paterson's contributions from the recordings in progress and released the album as "Space" on KLF Communications.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: In 1999 Cauty produced several remixes under the alias "The Scourge of the Earth" for Placebo, Marilyn Manson, Hawkwind, Ian Brown, The Orb, and others. In December 1999 he joined with Guy Pratt, Lloyd Stanton and Denise Palmer to record and release a mobile telephone-themed novelty-pop record "I Wanna 1-2-1 With You" under the name Solid Gold Chartbusters. It was released as competition for the Christmas Number One but only reached Number 62 in the UK Singles Chart.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: In 2001, Cauty joined with former collaborators Alex Paterson and Pratt in a London recording studio, together with Dom Beken, an associate of Pratt. Recording later continued in Cauty's Brighton studio. In 2003, the group released their first single, "Boom Bang Bombay", under the name "Custerd". Subsequently, they settled on the name "Transit Kings". Cauty left the band in 2004 to work on other projects. Two years later, the Transit Kings released their debut album, "Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God"; Cauty is listed as a composer on seven of the album's 12 tracks.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: In 2002, Cauty's two remixes of U2's "New York" were featured as B-sides on the band's Electrical Storm single.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Cauty was, until mid-2005, part of art/music collective Blacksmoke, together with James Fogarty and manager Keir Jens-Smith.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Cauty works with the L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, London which he explains "is not a gallery, it’s a support system, spiritual home and technical epicentre for a small group of artists" which includes Billy Childish, Jamie Reid, and Harry Adams. Cauty first worked in conjunction with L-13 on the Cautese Nationál Postal Disservice. Subsequent collaborations included the Riot in a Jam Jar exhibitions and the ADP Riot Tour - is a vast 1:87 scale model in a 40-foot shipping container which tours historic riot sites around the world. L-13 continue to collaborate with Cauty and Drummond, running "dead perch merch", official merchandise operatives to The JAMs.


title: Jimmy Cauty

text: Following 2003 media speculation that Saddam Hussein could launch a poison chemical attack on London, Cauty designed the Stamps of Mass Destruction for Blacksmoke Art Collective. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd class stamps featuring the Queen's head wearing a gas mask were released as limited edition prints and exhibited at Artrepublic Gallery, Brighton. Following a legal battle over alleged copyright infringement, the stamps were sent to Royal Mail for destruction.