title: Monster Pig

text: Monster Pig was the subject of a controversial 2007 story that initially ran in the news media as a report (and a series of accompanying photographs) of an 11-year-old boy shooting a massive feral pig. The pig was claimed to have been shot during a hunt on May 3, 2007, by an 11-year-old boy named Jamison Stone. The location of the shooting was the Lost Creek Plantation, a commercial hunting preserve outside Anniston, Alabama, US. According to the hunters (there were no independent witnesses), the pig weighed and measured in length.


title: Monster Pig

text: The story quickly ran into veracity problems with news organizations backing off on their coverage when inconsistencies in the story were revealed, including NBC, who canceled their interview with the Stone family when they suspected the story was a hoax. It was pointed out right away that the photographs of the pig released to the media seemed to be purposely posed and doctored to exaggerate scale. It was later also revealed that the "giant feral hog" was actually a large domestic farm-raised pig named "Fred" that had been purchased by the hunting preserve's owner four days before the hunt in an apparent publicity stunt. There was a 2008 grand jury investigation of the event based on charges of animal cruelty that was later canceled.


title: Monster Pig

text: The story, as told by the Stones to the news media, was that on May 3, 2007, 11-year-old Jamison Stone was hunting a huge feral hog with his father Mike Stone along with Keith O'Neal and Charles Williams, owners of Southeastern Trophy Hunters, on a farm outside of Ashton, Alabama. Jamison told the media they were invited there by a "friend" who told them about a "big hog he had that was tearing up land". The Stones and the other hunters tracked/chased the hog through the woods for over 3 hours and Jamison Stone fired 16 shots with a .50 caliber Smith & Wesson Model 500 revolver equipped with red dot sight shooting 350-grain Hornady cartridges, hitting it nine times before he killed it with a head shot. They hauled the pig by truck to the Clay County Farmers Exchange in Lineville where they used a scale, finding out it weighed . The hunters also claimed that the pig was in length from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. However, this has not been corroborated by any source.


title: Monster Pig

text: It was soon revealed that the hunt took place in a low fence enclosure within the larger commercial hunting preserve called Lost Creek Plantation. A later claim said that Mr Stone had paid $1,500 to Eddy Borden, the owner of Lost Creek Plantation, so that his son could shoot a trophy wild hog in the commercial hunting preserve. Other facts were revealed expanding the controversy around this story.


title: Monster Pig

text: Several days after the story broke, suspicion mounted over the authenticity of the photographic evidence. Retired New York University physicist, Dr. Richard Brandt, used perspective geometry to demonstrate that either the pig was long (far bigger than claimed) or the boy in the photo was standing several meters behind the pig, using forced perspective to create the optical illusion that the animal was larger than its actual size. Others claim the photographs were digitally altered.


title: Monster Pig

text: It has been shown that most of the pictures that were distributed to the media were altered through the use of digital enhancement and perspective


title: Monster Pig

text: to make the pig look much larger than it really was. There were also claims that there were other photographs from the Stone family owned Monsterpig.com website (since removed) that showed a more normal size/scale for the pig.


title: Monster Pig

text: Despite evidence that the photos were altered, the Stone family website continues to deny that the images were modified to make Monster Pig look larger than its actual size.


title: Monster Pig

text: The Associated Press (AP) continues to keep the monster pig image in their archives with no disclosures of the forced perspective photo trick having been employed. The monster pig photo has an AP archive caption as if it is a legitimate photograph. The caption states: "In this photo released by Melynne Stone, Jamison Stone, 11, poses with a wild pig he killed near Delta, Ala., May 3, 2007. Stone's father says the hog weighed a staggering and measured from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. If claims of the animal's size are true, it would be larger than Hogzilla, the huge hog killed in Georgia in 2004."


title: Monster Pig

text: Shortly after the story hit the press, the truth about the origins of the pig was revealed. Four days before "Monster Pig" was shot, he lived on a nearby farm, a domesticated, part Duroc hog named "Fred". The owners, Rhonda and Phil Blissitt, stated that the pig loved to play with their grandchildren and his favorite treat was canned sweet potatoes. Previous stories reported that the pig had escaped domestication; however, the Blissits in fact sold the pig to the game preserve, and he was released on the reserve four days before being hunted and killed by Stone. According to "The Anniston Star" report, the Blissitts had raised him from a piglet as a pet. The Blissitts had been selling all of the pigs on their farm, and came forward as they were concerned that Fred was being passed off as a wild pig.


title: Monster Pig

text: As reported by the Associated Press, the problem with the weight was that the scale at the Clay County Coop, according to Jeff Kinder, the man who gave the keys to the scale to the plantation's owner, only weighs in increments. Thus, the weight in could not have been measured and made the whole measurement, on its face, incorrect or in part an estimate. The father said he had misunderstood the reading on the scale and believed the true measurement had been .


title: Monster Pig

text: Later news reports brought forward allegations that the entire story was the result of a canned hunt scheme cooked up by Eddy Borden, the owner of Lost Creek Plantation, and Keith O'Neal of Southeastern Trophy Hunters, to build up business for the then four-months-old Lost Creek hunting plantation, trying to create their own news event along the lines of the 2004 "Hogzilla" event. Borden purchased "Fred" from the Blissitts for $250, released him into the enclosure, and passed him off as a wild hog to the unsuspecting Stones. It was also reported that they were told by a local TV station that it would only be a news worthy story if the boy shot the pig.


title: Monster Pig

text: LCP is offering a once in a lifetime opportunity to harvest a truly giant boar...Eddy Borden, owner and operator of LCP, has just trapped another boar... this monster will weigh at least a thousand ponds – that is a half ton of pork! The beast is now roaming the worlds of Lost Creek Plantation. We are offering this hunt on a no kill = a no pay basis. The total cost of this hunt is fifteen hundred dollars and includes everything but the processing of the meat. The boar is jet black and has huge tusks. Keith O' Neal and Chris Williams will be on hand to help guide and video this hunt. if you ever wanted to take an animal of this magnitude, now is your chance! this beast will not last long, so if you're interested call us ASAP. Yours in hunting/fishing, Keith O' Neal Southeastern Trophy Hunters, April 28, 2007.


title: Monster Pig

text: January 29, 2008, saw reports that an Alabama grand jury was investigating Keith O'Neal, Charles Williams, and Lost Creek Plantation owner Eddy Borden over the killing of the pig. The grounds of the investigation was that, since there was no "kill shot" delivered by Jamison Stone, it was animal cruelty to allow a pig to be chased and continually shot by an 11 year old until it bled out when there were experienced marksmen present who could have dispatched it. Clay County District Attorney Fred Thompson later cancelled the grand jury without explanation and the case was never reviewed before the one year statute of limitations was up.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: Ecco the Dolphin is an action-adventure game originally developed by Ed Annunziata and Novotrade International for the Mega Drive/Genesis and published by Sega in 1992. "Ecco the Dolphin" was republished digitally via Nintendo's Virtual Console in 2006, Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade, Steam, iOS, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: It is the first installment in the "Ecco the Dolphin" video game franchise. The player character is a bottlenose dolphin who travels through time to combat hostile extraterrestrials in Earth's oceans and on an alien spacecraft.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: Ecco can attack enemies by ramming into them at high speeds. Swimming can be made progressively faster by tapping a certain button, and the speed can be maintained by holding it down. Players can perform a purely aesthetic spin in the air when jumping out of the water.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: Two features of the gameplay are based on actual dolphin habits: one button causes Ecco to sing, allowing him to speak with other cetaceans and interact with certain objects. The same button is used for echolocation: holding it down causes the song to return, generating a map of the area. Several levels contain enormous crystals called "glyphs", which respond in different ways if Ecco touches or sings to them. Some block paths, and a "key-glyph" must be found in such cases to pass. Others give information, and a few in later levels replenish health/air and give Ecco temporary invulnerability.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: Additionally, Ecco, being a mammal, must surface periodically for air, or else find an air vent. If the "air meter" runs out, Ecco loses health rapidly, which represents drowning. His health is measured by a separate meter (above the air meter); it is depleted by enemies or when his air meter runs out, and it is recharged by eating fish, "singing" to clams, or, later in the game, singing to special statues or glyphs. Ecco's song can be optionally upgraded at two points in the game: one upgrade allows Ecco's song to be used in combination with a charge as a long-range weapon, and the other temporarily disorients sharks and makes minor enemies freeze temporarily. Touching any enemy by any means other than an attack causes Ecco to sustain damage. The enemies range from seahorses to giant octopods.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: The game opens with Ecco, a bottlenose dolphin, as he and his pod are swimming in their home bay. A podmate challenges Ecco to a game to see how high he can jump into the air. When he is in the air, a giant waterspout forms and sucks up all marine life in the bay except Ecco, leaving him alone in the bay. Upon leaving the bay, Ecco swims around meeting other marine life including other dolphins who tell them they have felt the storm and the entire ocean is in chaos. An orca that Ecco encounters tells him to travel to the Arctic to meet the "Big Blue", an ancient blue whale revered by marine life for his age and wisdom, who might be able to help Ecco on his journey. Arriving in the Arctic after a long journey through the ocean, Ecco finds the Big Blue, who says that the storms occur every 500 years. Though the Big Blue doesn't know what causes the storms, he suggests that Ecco should seek the Asterite, the oldest life form on Earth. Acting on this advice, Ecco leaves the Arctic and travels to a deep-sea cavern, where he finds the Asterite. To his dismay, though the Asterite would otherwise have the power to aid Ecco, it currently can't, as some orbs from its body were lost a long time ago. The Asterite tells Ecco to go to the sunken ruins of the city of Atlantis, where he can use the time machine left behind by the Atlanteans to retrieve the orbs.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: Ecco travels to the sunken city of Atlantis, where he discovers an ancient library filled with Glyphs, giant crystals filled with information. From the library, Ecco learns about the source of the storms: an alien race known as the Vortex lost the ability to produce food on their planet. According to the texts, when the planets align once every 500 years, the Vortex use their technology to harvest from the waters of Earth. The Atlanteans fought a long war with the Vortex, which only ended when the Vortex fired a beam at Atlantis, sending the city into the depths of the ocean. Learning this, Ecco activates the time machine and travels 55 million years into Earth's past. While Ecco is in the past he learns an ancient song to communicate with a "Pteranodon". Ecco locates the Asterite in the past but is immediately attacked by it. Forced into battle, he manages to dislodge a globe from it. This opens a time portal and he is sent back into the present. After receiving the globe, the Asterite grants him the power to turn his sonar into a deadly weapon against the Vortex, as well as the abilities to breathe underwater and to slowly regenerate lost health. The Asterite instructs him to use the time machine to travel back in time to the hour of the harvest. This time he manages to be sucked into the waterspout with his pod. Ecco is sent flying through outer space to a giant tube-like machine. Making his way through the construct Ecco arrives on the planet Vortex engaging the aliens in combat. He makes his way to the Vortex Queen and engages her in a fight. When the Queen is defeated, she spits out Ecco's pod, and the dolphins make their collective escape back to Earth.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: The existence of "Ecco the Dolphin" had been heavily rumored throughout the industry before it was finally revealed by Sega in 1992 as a Mega Drive/Genesis exclusive, then simply known as "Dolphin". After deciding to create a game based around dolphins, developer Ed Annunziata carried out research on the subject and was particularly inspired by the book "Sounding" by Hank Searls which explained how the creatures use echolocation. Annunziata worked with the music team on the soundtrack, playing them songs by Pink Floyd to illustrate the feeling he was aiming for. Annunziata later said: "I was paranoid about game rentals and kids beating the game over the weekend. So... I... uh... made it hard". His favourite level was "Welcome to the Machine", which was "way over the top challenging".


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: Annunziata had considered naming the character after the constellation Delphinus, which is depicted on the character's forehead. But Sega's director of marketing Al Nilsen suggested the name "Botticelli the Dolphin", citing the popularity of characters named after Italian artists, like the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Panicked, Annunziata turned to his boss Clyde Grossman who suggested "Echo", which alluded to the dolphin's echolocation ability. Annunziata loved the idea. Being of Italian descent, he chose the spelling "Ecco", because it can loosely mean "I see" in that language, and "seeing with sound" is what echolocation enables dolphins to do.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: The penultimate level of the game is titled "Welcome to the Machine", named after "Welcome to the Machine", a song on Pink Floyd's 1975 studio album "Wish You Were Here". "" (1994) features a level called "New Machine", named after "A New Machine", a two-part song on Pink Floyd's 1987 album "A Momentary Lapse of Reason".


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: The Mega Drive/Genesis version of the game was released in late December 1992. The game was ported to multiple consoles throughout the years.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: Versions for the Game Gear and the Master System were also released; they feature different levels from the other versions and a special intro featuring a whale song, and dolphin noises for the title screen. The Game Gear version has a dolphin "SEGA" on the SEGA screen and dolphins laughing on the title screen, along with a new soundtrack by Csaba Gigor and Gábor Foltán, as well as a wider color gamut.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: An enhanced Sega CD version that features new and redesigned levels and an alternate Red Book audio soundtrack, composed by Spencer Nilsen, was also released. In Japan, the Sega CD version was only released in a compilation (along with "Ecco: The Tides of Time"), titled "Ecco the Dolphin CD", on February 24, 1995. The Sega CD version was later ported to Windows. The Windows port was further enhanced with higher resolution graphics. In 2014 a fan-made fixed and enhanced version, dubbed "Ecco PC Fixed & Enhanced Edition", became available.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: "Ecco the Dolphin", along with "" and "Ecco Jr.", can be found on the PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable game "Sega Genesis Collection".


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: In 2002, Sega's first attempt to enter the downloadable retail game content business occurred on RealOne Arcade. The first few titles released included "Ecco the Dolphin", "Columns III" and "Shinobi III." These downloadable releases came in one-hour trial versions.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: "Ecco the Dolphin" was released in Europe and Australia for the Virtual Console on Nintendo's Wii console on December 8, 2006 for 800 Wii Points. It was released later in North America on November 28 for 800 Wii Points, and in Japan on December 2 for 600 Wii Points.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: "Ecco the Dolphin" is part of "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, along with its sequel.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: "3D Ecco the Dolphin" is a port of the game for the Nintendo 3DS as part of Sega's 3D Classics line. Along with stereoscopic 3D graphics and the option to choose between Japanese and international versions of the game, the port also adds 'Super Dolphin Mode', which decreases the difficulty by giving players invincibility and unlimited oxygen. The game was released for the Nintendo eShop in Japan on June 26 and in North America and Europe on December 12, 2013.


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: In 1996, a soundtrack album combining music from both "Ecco the Dolphin" and "Ecco: The Tides of Time" was released, under the title "Ecco: Songs of Time".


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: The Sega Mega Drive version became a bestseller. A reviewer for "Next Generation" called the PC release "little more than a conversion from the yesteryears of the 16-bit Sega Genesis. Except for a few video cut-scenes, there is little attempt to make this game look or play better for the PC". He nonetheless praised the game not only for its novel concept and responsive controls, but also "its smooth graphics".


title: Ecco the Dolphin (video game)

text: "Mega" placed the game at No. 24 in their Top Mega Drive Games of All Time. Complex ranked "Ecco the Dolphin" #44 in their "The Best 100 Sega Genesis Games". They called the game: "the most soothing puzzle-action game available on the Genesis." In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the Sega cd version 100th on their Top 100 Video Games, they praised the game’s atmosphere, eerie music, sad dolphin song and the rich underwater look concluding: "Proof that you don’t need explosions, fatalities or a celebrity endorsement to make a great game."


title: Shock Wave 2

text: Shock Wave 2 is a 2020 Hong Kong-Chinese action film written and directed by Herman Yau, produced by and starring Andy Lau. The film is a standalone sequel to the 2017 film "Shock Wave", featuring a new storyline and characters. In the film, Lau plays a former bomb disposal officer who falls into a coma in an explosion, resulting in amnesia, and becomes a top suspect of a terrorist attack. After being apprehended, he escapes from custody as a fugitive to piece together his identity and the in and outs of the incident.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: The film was first announced on 15 March 2018. Production for "Shock Wave 2" began in February 2019 and wrapped up on 8 May 2019. The film was originally set for theatrical release in July 2020, but was later pushed back to 24 December 2020. It has grossed $226.4 million worldwide, making it the tenth highest-grossing film of 2020.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: In Hong Kong, a mysterious terrorist organization, Vendetta, run by Ma Sai-kwan (codename Maverick) and a mysterious individual known as Blizzard, bombs the region's education bureau, making it the center of the police's attention. Poon Sing-fung, Ma's friend and a former Hong Kong Police Explosive Ordinance disposal officer who lost his leg to a neglected explosive in a rescue mission five years ago, was denied of his career by his superiors in fear of damaging the police' reputation for employing the handicapped. Enraged by their blatant betrayal, he joined Vendetta. Four months later, he is spotted placing a bomb at a hotel by security. Poon is unconscious after the bomb explodes and is now a suspect. He wakes up in a hospital with no memory about what happened, and escapes during an interrogation. Pong Ling, chief inspector of the Counter Terrorism Response Unit, and Lee Yiu-sing, CID Chief Inspector, are assigned to find out who is behind the bombings and the identity of the Blizzard and their supposedly meeting with an individual known as "Davy". Vendetta operatives are sent to the hospital to retrieve Poon but are killed by Lee and his men.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: Poon corners Pong Ling after the chaos. She reminds him of his past life after his leg loss, such as being a model officer in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau (EODB), his deteriorating relationship with his superiors, and his slandering of the police forces in a ceremony honoring him. Poon is also told he is the Vendetta member Blizzard. While most of this is true, Pong claims that he joined Vendetta undercover to stop them and reclaim his career. Pong tells Tung Cheuk-man, another EOD officer and Poon's best friend, that when Poon fell into a coma, she hired top neurology doctors to manipulate his allegiance via implanting false memories. Tung is upset with their methods and only plays along as Poon's friend. Pong retorts that this is the best way for the HK supreme court to show Poon mercy after his involvement in the bombings.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: Upon receiving a message containing inspiration magazine from Al-Qaeda, Poon meets with Vendetta's leader Ma Sai-kwan and four other members of the group, codenamed Money, Slave, Sniper and Rhino who are all planning yet another attack. Vendetta sends Sniper to place a bomb in the middle of the city, which would destroy a large area by rupturing gas pipelines below it. Tung, Inspector Lee, Pong Ling, and Poon's former co-workers in the EODB, Lun Ting-pong and Chan King-to, are dispatched to the scene. Sniper severely wounds Chan and Tung (who survives in part to his suit's armor). Unable to properly shoot Sniper at range, Pong's squad is forced to find their way around and eventually shoot him dead. Chan dies from blood-loss, despite efforts to save him.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: Poon is then spotted talking to Pong by Vendetta, and he later wishes to withdraw. Feeling betrayed, Ma traps Poon based on a board game (Mastermind) in order to force Poon to remember who he is before leaving. Pong and Tung arrive with a squad to save Poon, though they fail initially until Poon recalls Ma's Mastermind combination, allowing Tung to free him at the last moment. Poon tells them Vendetta is planning to bomb the IFC building and the Hong Kong airport, while "Davy" is a tiny nuclear warhead. If detonated, it is of 10 to 20 tons of TNT equivalent and will leave the area irradiated for centuries to come. They then rush to intercept the Vendetta terrorists.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: Ma and his men simultaneously raid the IFC and Hong Kong MTR as well as the Airport tram. He hijacks a train and has his men plant bombs and the Davy Crockett bomb and leaves with the train but not before his men take hostages to slow the police down. Lun and his co-worker Fat Sze managed to defuse the rigged van in IFC parking garage while also killing Money and Slave. Inspector Lee arrives with his team and kills the Vendetta members to secure the area. Lun manages to intercept the other train carrying the other bomb and arranges to ram the bomb train into the water. The plan involves destroying both connections of the Tsing Ma Bridge to sink the explosives, thereby minimizing any collateral damage. Pong and her CTRU teams successfully raid the control station, killing Rhino's men, and he commits suicide.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: Poon and Tung arrange for the rigged van to be near a strategic location before arming the bomb. Tung escapes into the helicopter, but Poon insists staying behind as atonement for his involvement in the previous Vendetta terrorist attacks. Tearfully saying goodbye to Pong, Poon sacrifices himself to destroy the bridge. With Lun's help, Ma's train is intercepted by the severed bridge and sinks before exploding moments later, killing him and Poon while sending a shockwave underwater, saving HK from a potential fallout. Tung and Lun mourn Poon's death, while Pong is left in tears wondering if Poon's sacrifice was worth all their efforts.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: In the closing scenes, Pong requests one of the neurology doctors to erase all her memories associated with Poon, save for one particular moment. She then flashes back to encountering Poon at a police dinner, where he deliberately spills some red wine on her uniform to catch her eye.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: A sequel to "Shock Wave" was first announced by producer and star Andy Lau during a celebration event for the film on 4 May 2017. On 16 March 2018, Universe Entertainment confirmed this and released a teaser film poster. Lau returned as producer and star while Herman Yau as director. Daneil Lam also announced that production would commence in 2019, and that it would be a standalone sequel with new characters and a new story line. A week later, the film was promoted at the 2018 Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (Filmart), which ran from 19 to 22 March 2018.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: On 8 March 2019 while attending as a presenter for the 25th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award ceremony, Andy Lau revealed that he had begun working on the filming of "Shock Wave 2", and appearing in a new hairstyle look for his role in the film. On 11 March, reporters spotted the crew filming a scene around Fa Yuen Street and Golden Fish Street in Mongkok, where director Herman Yau and cast members Ni Ni and Timmy Hung were present. The film held its production commencement blessing ceremony in Kam Tin, Yuen Long on 28 March. The ceremony was attended by director Herman Yau along with cast members Lau, Sean Lau, Ni, Philip Keung, Tse Kwan-ho, Ron Ng, Hung, Kenny Wong, Jerome Cheung and Zhang Yang.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: On 30 March, filming of a car explosion scene took place in Temple Street where cast members Andy Lau, Sean Lau, Keung, Ng and Wong were present. Real firefighters and paramedics were employed for the filming of this scene instead of using extra actors On 27 April, filming of a major explosion scene involving Lau dropping a grenade into a sandbag defence place in East Tsim Sha Tsui. A number of police cars, ambulances and an EOD vehicle were used in the scene along with over 50 extra actors. Production for "Shock Wave 2" officially wrapped up on 8 May 2019, where a wrap up ceremony was held on the same day at the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui attended by the cast and crew.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: "Shock Wave 2" was originally set for release in July 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pushed back to 24 December 2020. However, due to cinema closures from 2 December 2020 to 17 February 2021 amid the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, the film's release in Hong Kong was postponed again until cinemas reopened on 18 February 2021. The film retained its 24 December 2020 release date for China, where it played in IMAX theatres, Singapore and Western countries such as North America, Australia and New Zealand.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: The film was shown at the 23rd Far East Film Festival from 24 to 26 June 2021, and will also be shown in competition at the 20th Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival as part of "New Cinema From Asia" on 3 July 2021.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: As of 28 Match 2021, "Shock Wave 2" has grossed US$226.4 million worldwide, combining its box office gross from Hong Kong (US$2.5 million), China (US$219 million), Taiwan (US$3.28 million), Singapore (US$1.12 million), Australia (US$308,538), New Zealand (US$82,444), United Arab Emirates (US$80,965), South Korea (US$11,462) and Russia (US$6,403). The film debuted No. 1 at the global box office, grossing US$63.9 million on its opening weekend worldwide.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: The film debuted at No. 1 on its opening day in Hong Kong with a gross of HK$1,137,578. By the end of its opening weekend, the film grossed HK$6,414,402 (US$827,334), coming in at No. 1, after consecutively topping the daily box office during its four days of release despite theaters operating with reduced capacity due to Covid-19 safety guidelines. The film remained at No. 1 during its second weekend where it grossed HK$6,608,241 and have accumulated a total gross of HK$13,022,643 (US$1,678,911) by then. During its third weekend, the film grossed HK$3,513,430, coming in at No. 2, and have accumulated a total gross of HK$16,539,304 (US$2,130,475) by then. On its fourth weekend, the film grossed HK$1,599,517, coming in at No. 4, and have grossed a total of HK$18,138,821 (US$2,336,604) by then. During its fifth weekend, the film grossed HK$748,226, coming in at No. 5, and have accumulated a total gross of HK$18,887,167 (US$2.43 million) by then. On its sixth weekend, the film grossed HK$243,554, coming in at No. 9, and have grossed a total of HK$19,130,721 (US$2.5 million) by then.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: "Shock Wave 2" grossed a total of HK$19,387,097 at the Hong Kong box office and is currently the highest-grossing domestic film as well as being the fourth-highest grossing film overall of 2020 in the territory.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: In China, the film grossed US$63.2 million after consecutively topping the daily box office during its four days of release, including US$4.4 million from IMAX screens, debuting at No. 1 on its opening weekend. During its second weekend, the film grossed US$67.1 million, coming in at No. 3, accumulating a total gross of US$137.1 million by then. On its third weekend, the film grossed US$24 million and remained at No. 3, having grossed a total of US$161.2 million by then. During its fourth weekend, the film grossed US$15.7 million, moving up to No. 2 and have grossed a total of US$176.9 million by then. On its fifth weekend, the film grossed US$12.9 million, remaining at No. 2, and have grossed a total of US$189.9 million by then. On its sixth weekend, the film grossed US$12.1 million, remaining at No. 2 for three consecutive weeks, and have grossed a total of US$202 million by then. On its seventh weekend, the film remained at No. 2 for four consecutive weeks with a gross of US$10.6 million and have accumulated a total gross of US$212.6 million by then. During its eighth weekend, the film grossed US$5.5 million, coming in at No. 8, and have grossed a total of US$218.1 million so far. The film did not make it to the top 10 box office during its ninth weekend, but it secured a position in its tenth weekend, grossing US$0.9 million and coming in at No. 10, with the box office totaling US$219 million.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: "Shock Wave 2" grossed CN¥1,314,789,000 at the Chinese box office and became the highest-grossing Hong Kong film in China, overtaking previous record holder, which was Lau and Yau's previous collaboration, "" in 2019.


title: Shock Wave 2

text: Opening on 31 December 2020 in Taiwan, the film grossed NT$27.88 million (US$970,000) during its first four days of release, debuting at No. 3 on its opening weekend and is the highest-grossing new release during the New Year's Day holiday period. During its second weekend, the film grossed NT$23.07 million, moving up to No. 2, and have accumulated a total gross of NT$50.95 million (US$1.79 million) by then. On its third weekend, the film grossed NT$16.51 million, coming in at No. 3 and have grossed a total of NT$67.1 million (US$2.35 million) by then. During its fourth weekend, the film grossed NT$10.56 million, coming in at No. 4, and have grossed a total of NT$77.66 million (US$2.73 million) by then. On its fifth weekend, the film grossed NT$5.88 million, ranking at No. 7, and have accumulated a total gross of NT$83.54 million (US$2.94 million) by then. During its sixth weekend, the film grossed NT$2.92 million, coming in at No. 11, and have grossed a total of NT$86.46 million (US$3.04 million) by then. On its seventh weekend, the film grossed NT$3.68 million, coming in at No. 15, and have accumulated a total gross of NT$89.09 million (US$3.13 million) by the then. In the eighth weekend, the film grossed NT$1.73 million, coming in at No. 18, accumulating a total gross of NT$90.82 million (US$3.26 million) so far. In the ninth week, the box office revenue was NT$430,000, and the cumulative box office so far is NT$91.25 million (US$3.28 million).


title: Shock Wave 2

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Shock Wave 2" has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of .


title: Shock Wave 2

text: Jeanmarie Tan of "The New Paper" gave the film a score of 4/5 and praises Andy Lau's physical prowess and multi-layer performance. Edmund Lee of the "South China Morning Post" gave the film a score of 3.5/5 stars and compliments its abundance of action sequences which makes it "easy to look beyond the overwrought story". Tay Yek-keak of "Today" gave the film a similar score of 3.5/5, praising it as larger, more fast-paced and entertaining than its predecessor. Lim Yian-lu of "Yahoo! Singapore" gave the film a score of 3/5 stars, describing it as less thrilling than its predecessor. Anna Smith of "Deadline Hollywood" gives praises to the film's action set pieces and visual effects. Sean Gilman of "Medium" praises director Herman Yau as "nothing if not sophisticated in both his critique of the state and the limits of his own abilities to express that critique through popular cinema." Leslie Felperin of "The Guardian" gave the film a score of 2/5 stars and describes the film as "all a bit otiose and a little stale."


title: Shock Wave 2

text: On 18 June 2021, Andy Lau announced several upcoming film projects that he will be starring in during a live broadcast celebration of the 33rd anniversary of his fan club, Andy World Club, with a sequel to the film titled "Shock Wave 3" being one of the slated films and is set to begin production in 2022.


title: Surviving the Game

text: Surviving the Game is a 1994 American action-adventure film directed by Ernest R. Dickerson. It is loosely based on the 1924 short story "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. The film stars Ice-T, Rutger Hauer, Charles S. Dutton, John C. McGinley, William McNamara, Gary Busey, and F. Murray Abraham.


title: Surviving the Game

text: "Surviving the Game" was released in the United States on April 15, 1994, by New Line Cinema. The film received negative reviews from critics and was a box office bomb, grossing $7.7 million against a production budget of $7.4 million (not including advertisement and distribution costs).


title: Surviving the Game

text: Jack Mason is a homeless man from Seattle, Washington who loses his only friends—Hank, a fellow homeless man and his pet dog—on the same day. Dejected, Mason attempts to commit suicide when a soup kitchen worker, Walter Cole, saves him. Cole refers him to businessman Thomas Burns, who kindly offers Mason a job as a hunting guide. Despite his misgivings, the lure of a well paying job causes Mason to accept.


title: Surviving the Game

text: Flying to a remote cabin surrounded by hundreds of acres of woods, Mason meets the rest of the hunting party, all of whom paid $50,000 for the privilege of being there. In addition to Burns and Cole, the party includes Doc Hawkins, the founder of the hunt and a psychopathic psychiatrist who specializes in psychological assessments, Texas "oil man" John Griffin, and wealthy executive Derek Wolfe Sr. and his son Derek Wolfe Jr., the latter of whom is at first unaware of the true purposes of the hunt. On the first night, all the men are eating a nice dinner and engaging in conversation. Mason receives a pack of cigarettes from Hawkins and learns a little about his past. Hawkins relays a brutal story from his childhood when his father forced him to fight and kill his dog as a lesson in being a man.


title: Surviving the Game

text: The following morning, Mason is awakened with a gun in his face by Cole, who explains that the men are not hunting any animals, but rather Mason himself. Mason is given a head start with only the time it takes the others to eat breakfast. Mason quickly flees the area, but comes to a realization and turns back. The hunters finish their meal and set off after him. Wolfe Jr. is horrified at the thought of killing a man, but is pushed into it by his father. The hunters race off into the forest, but by now Mason has returned to the cabin in search of weapons. He finds none, and instead makes the disgusting discovery of the hunters' trophy room behind a locked door: the preserved heads of the victims of previous hunts.


title: Surviving the Game

text: Mason decides to burn the cabin down using chemicals found outside the cabin. The hunters quickly assume Mason's return to the cabin and go back. Wolfe Sr. enters just as Mason lights up the cabin and engages in a fist fight with Hawkins out back, away from the others. Hawkins is knocked back into the cabin as the preserving agent explodes, killing him in the inferno. Wolfe Jr. saves his father, and spots Mason fleeing in the process. The hunt resumes and Mason begins to use his wits to beat the hunters, luring them with falsely-planted lit cigarettes to lead them in the wrong way. Mason manages to lure Griffin away from the others, and takes him hostage.


title: Surviving the Game

text: Over the night, Mason learns why Griffin is taking part in the hunt. A couple of months ago, his daughter was murdered by a homeless man and he's venting his rage, which was enhanced earlier when he asked Mason what happened to his family and Mason sarcastically snarled "I killed them." Mason then reveals that he didn't literally kill his family : they died in an apartment fire that he couldn't rescue them from, and Griffin realizes that Mason's comment earlier means that Mason blames himself for the tragedy even though it wasn't his fault. Griffin is freed by Mason as he takes off and returns to the group having a change of heart, he tells Burns that he will not continue the hunting, but is murdered by Cole to prevent any future legal conflicts. By now, with their numbers dwindling, the remaining hunters seem more intent on killing Mason. Mason sabotages one of their ATVs, causing it to explode. The explosion rips off most of Cole's lower body, mortally wounding him. Burns then uses his fingers to apply pressure to Cole's jugulars in order to kill him and spare him from the pain. As they pursue Mason, Wolfe Jr. is killed by accident when he falls in a ravine, and Wolfe Sr. vows revenge in a fit of rage.


title: Surviving the Game

text: The second night sees Wolfe Sr. and Mason fighting one on one with Mason the victor and Burns escaping to the city, knowing that Mason will most likely be searching for him. Days later, Burns is back in Seattle, preparing to leave his current identity, hoping to escape both Mason and the legal responsibilities resulting from the disastrous hunt. But Mason has escaped the forest, returned to the city, and tracked him down. A fight ensues where Mason beats up Burns and takes his gun, but instead of shooting the evil man Mason just leaves the gun and walks away. Burns picks up the gun, thinking Mason screwed up and prepares to shoot him. What he doesn't realize is Mason used a tip from his late friend Hank and messed with the barrel on Burns' gun; when Burns tries to kill Mason, the gun backfires and kills Burns instead, and Mason Walks off into the night.


title: Surviving the Game

text: The film's city scenes are set in Seattle, Washington. However, in some shots, the skyline of Philadelphia is used. The outdoor scenes are supposed to take place across the Oregon border, in the U.S. Northwest. However, they were filmed in locations of Entiat and Wenatchee, Washington. Lake Wenatchee and Wenatchee National Forest are both featured in the film.


title: Surviving the Game

text: "Surviving the Game" received mostly negative reviews. It currently holds a 32% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10.


title: Surviving the Game

text: "Entertainment Weekly"s Owen Gleiberman called the film ""Cliffhanger" with one third the firepower," saying that Dickerson does little to differentiate from other films in the genre. He did give praise to the cinematography and the efforts of the main cast, singling out Ice-T for having on-screen charisma but being a bit unconvincing as an action star, concluding that: "Still, for a few moments there, the movie gives Robert Bly just what he deserves." Marjorie Baumgarten of "The Austin Chronicle" was critical of the script's characters and overall message as being "out-of-whack and sophomoric" but gave credit to the actors portraying them and the production team for being a vital element in Dickerson's filmmaking, saying that: "He has a definite flair for action pictures but the stunning contributions from cinematographer Bojan Bazelli add immeasurably to the movie."


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: "The Mother of All Demos" is a name retroactively applied to a landmark computer demonstration, given at the Association for Computing Machinery / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (ACM/IEEE)—Computer Society's Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, by Douglas Engelbart, on December 9, 1968.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: The live demonstration featured the introduction of a complete computer hardware and software system called the oN-Line System or, more commonly, NLS. The 90-minute presentation demonstrated for the first time many of the fundamental elements of modern personal computing: windows, hypertext, graphics, efficient navigation and command input, video conferencing, the computer mouse, word processing, dynamic file linking, revision control, and a collaborative real-time editor. Engelbart's presentation was the first to publicly demonstrate all of these elements in a single system. The demonstration was highly influential and spawned similar projects at Xerox PARC in the early 1970s. The underlying concepts and technologies influenced both the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows graphical user interface operating systems in the 1980s and 1990s.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: The first use of this name for Engelbart's talk is ascribed to journalist Steven Levy in his 1994 book "Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything", where he describes the event as "a calming voice from Mission Control as the truly final frontier whizzed before their eyes. It was the mother of all demos." The terminology reflected contemporary use of phrases of form "mother of all ..." given currency by then-President of Iraq Saddam Hussein's proffer of a "mother of all battles", in lead-up to the 1991 Gulf War. Andries van Dam (who was present at the demo, and whose FRESS hypertext system adopted several concepts from the demo) repeated the phrase in 1995 while introducing Engelbart at the Vannevar Bush Symposium at MIT. The phrase was also cited in John Markoff's 2005 book "What the Dormouse Said".


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: Much of Engelbart's thought that led to the development of his Augmentation Research Center (ARC), as well as the oN-Line System, was derived from the "research culture" of World War II and the early Cold War. A notable source of inspiration to Engelbart was the article "As We May Think", written by Vannevar Bush in "The Atlantic" magazine, which Engelbart read while stationed as a US Navy radar technician in the Philippines in 1946. In Engelbart's view, in order to steer society into the right use of scientific knowledge derived from the war, that knowledge would need to be better managed and regulated.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: In his book "From Counterculture to Cyberculture", Fred Turner gave voice to this view, which arose from seeing the unintended effects of technology on the postwar world:


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: [T]he American military had developed technologies with which it might destroy the world. In its wake, scientists and technologists had begun to fan out around the globe, seeking to use their knowledge to eradicate disease and increase food production, often in an effort to win the cold war loyalties of Third World nations. Engelbart had read about these efforts and saw that they often backfired. Rapid food production led to the depletion of the soil; the eradication of insects led to ecological imbalances.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: This ultimately led to the idea that beyond merely performing calculations, computers could be used to augment the capabilities of the human mind.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: Engelbart had assembled a team of computer engineers and programmers at his Augmentation Research Center (ARC) located in Stanford University's Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the early 1960s. His idea was to free computing from merely being about number crunching and for it to become a tool for communications and information-retrieval. He wanted to turn Vannevar Bush's idea for a Memex machine into reality, where a machine used interactively by one person could "augment" their intelligence.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: Over the course of six years, with the funding help of both NASA and ARPA, his team went about putting together all the elements that would make such a computer system a reality. At the urging of ARPA's director, Robert Taylor, the NLS would make its first public appearance at the 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco's Civic Auditorium.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: The conference session was presented under the title "A research center for augmenting human intellect". Approximately 1,000 computer professionals were in attendance in the auditorium to witness the presentation. Notable attendees in the audience included Alan Kay, Charles Irby and Andy van Dam, as well as Bob Sproull.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: Engelbart, with the help of his geographically distributed team (including Bill Paxton), with Bill English directing the presentation's technical elements, demonstrated NLS's functions. The presentation used an Eidophor video projector that allowed the video output from the NLS computer to be displayed on a large high screen so the audience could see what Engelbart was doing.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: The Augment researchers also created two customized homemade modems at 1200 baudhigh-speed for 1968linked via a leased line to transfer data from the computer workstation keyboard and mouse at the Civic Auditorium to their Menlo Park headquarters' SDS-940 computer.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: In order to provide live two-way video between the lab and the conference hall, two microwave links were used. English also commanded a video switcher that controlled what was displayed on the big screen. The camera operator in Menlo Park was Stewart Brand—at the time, a non-computer person, best known as the editor of the "Whole Earth Catalog"—who also advised Engelbart and the team about how to present the demo.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: During the 90-minute presentation, Engelbart used his mouse prototype to move around the screen, highlight text, and resize windows. This was the first time that an integrated system for manipulating text onscreen was presented publicly.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: At separate times, his Augment associates Jeff Rulifson and Bill Paxton appeared in another portion of the screen to help edit the text remotely from ARC. While they were editing they could see each other's screen, talk and see each other as well. He further demonstrated that clicking on underlined text would then link to another page of information, demonstrating the concept of hypertext.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: When he finished the demonstration, the audience gave him a standing ovation. To further demonstrate the system, a separate room was set aside so that attendees could take a closer look at the NLS workstations and ask Engelbart questions. One last notion is that of Engelbart's NLS system. As Fred Turner stated in his book "From Counterculture to Cyberculture":


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: Engelbart promulgated a philosophy of 'bootstrapping', in which each experimental transformation of the socio-technical system that was the NLS would feed back into the system itself, causing it to evolve (and presumably to improve).


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: Prior to the demonstration, a significant portion of the computer science community thought Engelbart was "a crackpot". When he was finished, he was described as "dealing lightning with both hands". Van Dam was working on a similar system, but had only begun work on it in 1967, and was stunned to see how mature NLS was: he practically accosted Engelbart with his line of questioning in the post-presentation question and answer session. After he finished interrogating Engelbart, van Dam agreed the NLS demo was the greatest thing he ever witnessed. Van Dam would go on to become a leader in teaching computer graphics in the 1970s. The actual impact on computer science, however, was limited:


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: As the 1970s started, much of Engelbart's team departed ARC and went their own ways, with many of them ending up at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Among these people were Bill English, who would further improve upon the mouse. Also migrating to PARC was Engelbart's former backer at NASA and ARPA, Robert Taylor. Alan Kay, also in attendance at the demo, would go on to design an object-oriented computing environment called Smalltalk while he was at PARC.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: By 1973, the Xerox Alto was a fully functional personal computer similar to the NLS terminal which Engelbart had demonstrated in 1968, but much smaller and physically refined. With its mouse-driven GUI, the Alto would go on to influence Steve Jobs and Apple's Macintosh computer and operating system in the 1980s. Eventually, Microsoft's Windows operating system would follow the Macintosh and use a multi-button mouse like the Alto and the NLS system did.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: Engelbart's influence peaked at the conference, and he was mostly remembered throughout the 1970s and much of the 1980s as the inventor of the mouse and hypertext, famously adapted by Apple and Microsoft. On the demo's 30th anniversary in 1998, Stanford University held a major conference to celebrate Engelbart's visionary impact on computing and the World Wide Web. By the time the 40th anniversary was celebrated, Engelbart's demo was acknowledged as one of the most important in computer history.


title: The Mother of All Demos

text: In 2015, a performance art musical presentation called "The Demo" depicted the event. It was composed and performed by Mikel Rouse and Ben Neill, with its premiere at Stanford's Bing Concert Hall.


title: Jasraj

text: Pandit Jasraj (28 January 1930  – 17 August 2020) was an Indian classical vocalist, belonging to the "Mewati gharana" (musical apprenticeship lineage). His musical career spanned 75 years resulting in national and international fame, respect and numerous major awards and accolades. His legacy includes memorable performances of classical and semi-classical vocal music, classical and devotional music, albums and film soundtracks, innovations in various genres including "Haveli Sangeeth" and popularizing the "Mewati Gharana" - a school of thought in Hindustani classical music. Pandit Jasraj taught music to amateur and professional students in India, Europe, Canada and the United States.


title: Jasraj

text: Jasraj was born on 28 January 1930 in Pili Mandori, a village in the then Hisar district (now in Fatehabad district) of Haryana, in a middle-class Brahmin family to Pandit Motiram, a classical singer and Krishna Bai. He was the youngest of three sons, in a family of classical singers. Motiram died in 1934 when Jasraj was four, on the day he was to be appointed as the state musician in the court of Mir Osman Ali Khan. His eldest brother was vocalist Pandit Maniram, who instructed Jasraj after the passing of their father. Jasraj's elder brother, Pandit Pratap Narayan, was also an accomplished musician and was the father of music composer duo Jatin–Lalit, singer-actress Sulakshana Pandit and actress Vijeta Pandit. Pandit Pratap Narayan taught Jasraj to play tabla starting at age 7, but Jasraj decided that he wanted to only sing by 14.


title: Jasraj

text: Jasraj spent his youth in Hyderabad, and travelled often to Sanand in Gujarat to study music with musicians of the "Mewati gharana". Jasraj performed for Maharaj Jaywant Singh Waghela, the Thakur Sahib of Sanand, who was deeply dedicated to classical music, and received training from him.


title: Jasraj

text: In 1962, Jasraj married Madhura Shantaram, the daughter of film director V. Shantaram, whom he had first met in 1960 in Bombay. They initially lived in Calcutta, moving to Bombay in 1963. They had two children, a son, Shaarang Dev Pandit, a daughter, Durga Jasraj, and three grandchildren.


title: Jasraj

text: Madhura made a film, "Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj" in 2009 and directed her first Marathi film, "Aai Tuza Ashirwad", in 2010, in which her husband and Lata Mangeshkar sang in Marathi.


title: Jasraj

text: Jasraj was initiated into vocal music by his father, and later trained as a tabla accompanist under his elder brother, Pandit Pratap Narayan. He would frequently accompany Maniram in his solo vocal performances. He credits the vocalist, Begum Akhtar, as inspiring him to take up classical music.


title: Jasraj

text: Jasraj began training as a vocalist at the age of 14, after renouncing tabla in reaction to how accompanists were treated at the time . He would practice singing close to 14 hours a day. In 1952 when he was 22 he performed his first stage concert as a vocalist in the court of King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah of Nepal in Kathmandu. Before becoming a stage performer, Jasraj worked as a performing artist on radio for several years.


title: Jasraj

text: He initially trained as a classical vocalist with Pandit Maniram, and later with Jaiwant Singh Waghela, a vocalist and beenkar, and Gulam Qadir Khan of Mewati gharana. In addition, he trained under Swami Vallabhdas Damulji of the "Agra gharana".


title: Jasraj

text: Although Jasraj belonged to the Mewati gharana, a school of music known for its traditional performances of , Jasraj had sung khayals with some flexibility, adding elements of lighter styles, including the . During the initial stages of his career, he was criticised for incorporating elements from other schools of music, or , into his singing. Musicologist S. Kalidas has noted, however, that this borrowing of elements across "gharanas" has now become more commonly accepted.


title: Jasraj

text: Jasraj created a novel form of called "Jasrangi" that is styled on the ancient system of "", between a male and a female vocalist, who each sing different ragas at the same time. He was also known for presenting a variety of rare ragas including Abiri Todi and Patdeepaki.


title: Jasraj

text: In addition to performing classical music, Jasraj had worked to popularise innovations in semi-classical musical styles, such as "Haveli Sangeet", which involves semi-classical performances in temples. He had also sung classical and semi-classical compositions for film soundtracks, such as the song, 'Vandana Karo', composed in the raga "Ahir Bhairav" by the composer Vasant Desai, for the film "Ladki Sahyadri Ki" (1966), a duet with vocalist Bhimsen Joshi for the soundtrack of the film "Birbal My Brother" (1975), and a ballad, "Vaada Tumse Hai Vaada" for a horror film titled "1920" (2008) directed by Vikram Bhatt.


title: Jasraj

text: In memory of his father, Jasraj organised an annual musical festival called the Pandit Motiram Pandit Maniram Sangeet Samaroh in Hyderabad. The festival has been held annually since 1972.


title: Jasraj

text: On 28 January 2017, the production house Navrasa Duende celebrated Jasraj's 87th birthday and 80 years of his service to music with a classical music concert titled "My Journey, an Intimate Evening with Pandit Jasraj" at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi. He received a standing ovation.


title: Jasraj

text: Jasraj tutored several students who have gone on to perform as classical musicians, including Saptarshi Chakraborty, Sanjeev Abhyankar, violinist Kala Ramnath, Sandeep Ranade, shehnai player Lokesh Anand, Tripti Mukherjee, Suman Ghosh, flautist Shashank Subramanyam, Anuradha Paudwal, Sadhana Sargam, and Ramesh Narayan.


title: Jasraj

text: He was also the founder of schools for Indian classical music in Atlanta, Tampa, Vancouver, Toronto, New York, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Mumbai, and Kerala. Jasraj would spend six months of each year in the United States and Canada at either his home in New Jersey, teaching, or touring. At age 90, he was teaching some of his international students through Skype.


title: Jasraj

text: Pandit Jasraj remained in the US when the country entered its COVID-19 lockdown. He died at his home in New Jersey on 17 August 2020 at 5:15 am EST, due to cardiac arrest. His body was later repatriated on an Air India flight to Mumbai where it was cremated with state honours and 21-gun salute at Pawan Hans Crematorium in Vile Parle. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi said that his death "leaves a deep void in the Indian cultural sphere. Not only were his renditions outstanding, he also made a mark as an exceptional mentor to several other vocalists."


title: Kurt Tank

text: Kurt Waldemar Tank (24 February 1898 – 5 June 1983) was a German aeronautical engineer and test pilot who led the design department at Focke-Wulf from 1931 to 1945. He was responsible for the creation of several important Luftwaffe aircraft of World War II, including the Fw 190 fighter aircraft, the Ta 152 fighter-interceptor and the Fw 200 Condor airliner. After the war, Tank spent two decades designing aircraft abroad, working first in Argentina and then in India, before returning to Germany in the late 1960s to work as a consultant for Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB).


title: Kurt Tank

text: Tank was born in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz), Province of Posen. His grandfather was a cavalry sergeant in the Uhlans and his father, Willi Tank, was a grenadier sergeant in the 3rd Division. When World War I broke out Tank wished to join the "Deutsches Heer"'s then-named "Fliegertruppe" air service, but his father insisted he instead follow the family tradition and enlist in the cavalry. He ended the war as a captain, with many decorations for bravery.


title: Kurt Tank

text: After the war, Tank graduated from the Technical University of Berlin in 1923. A mentor from the university secured him his first job, in the design department of Rohrbach Metallflugzeug GmbH, where he worked on flying boats, and helped design a passenger aircraft, the Ro VIII "Roland".


title: Kurt Tank

text: Tank moved to the firm Albatros Flugzeugwerke, where he worked as a test pilot. The Albatros company went bankrupt in 1929 and in 1931, under government pressure, was merged with Focke-Wulf.


title: Kurt Tank

text: Tank then started work on the design of the Fw 44 "Stieglitz" (Goldfinch), a two-seat civilian biplane. It was Focke-Wulf's first commercially successful design, launched in 1932. In 1934 Tank's Fw 56 advanced trainer began production. This led to burgeoning growth for the company as Hitler began to prepare the country for war.


title: Kurt Tank

text: Ludwig Roselius, chairman and 46% majority shareholder of Focke-Wulf via Kaffee HAG, and Barbara Goette - his closest confidante, met with Kurt Tank in the Marcus-Allee, Bremen on many occasions. Barbara declared Focke-Wulf to be a "war-determining" enterprise.


title: Kurt Tank

text: In 1936 Tank designed the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 "Condor" to a Deutsche Luft Hansa specification for air transport. The first flight, with Tank as pilot, occurred in July 1937, less than a year after work had begun. The "Condor" made a famous non-stop flight from Berlin to New York City in 1938, proving the concept of transatlantic air travel. The "Condor" would later be used as a maritime patrol bomber aircraft of some repute during the war.


title: Kurt Tank

text: The Fw 190 "Würger" (Shrike), first flying in 1939 and produced from 1941 to 1945, was a mainstay Luftwaffe single-seat fighter during World War II, and Tank's most-produced (over 20,000) and famous design. In January 1943, he was named honorary professor with a chair at the Technical University of Braunschweig, in recognition of his work developing aircraft.


title: Kurt Tank

text: In 1944, the "Reichsluftfahrtministerium" (German Air Ministry) decided that new fighter aircraft designations must include the chief designer's name. Kurt Tank's new designs were therefore given the prefix Ta. His most notable late-war design was the high-speed/high-altitude Ta 152 single-engine fighter, a continuation of the Fw 190 design.


title: Kurt Tank

text: After the war, Tank negotiated for an employment position with the United Kingdom, with the Nationalist government of China, and with representatives of the Soviet Union. When those negotiations proved unsuccessful, he accepted an offer from Argentina to work at its aerotechnical institute, the Instituto Aerotécnico in Córdoba under the name of Pedro Matthies. The British government decided not to offer him a contract on the grounds that they could not see how he could be integrated into a research project or design group.


title: Kurt Tank

text: Tank moved to Córdoba in northern Argentina in late 1946, with many of his Focke-Wulf co-workers. One of these was Ronald Richter, who proposed to power airplanes with nuclear energy, to be developed in the Huemul Project, which was later proven to be a fraud according to some.


title: Kurt Tank

text: The Instituto Aerotécnico later became Argentina's military aeroplane factory, the Fábrica Militar de Aviones. While there, Tank designed the IAe Pulqui II based on the Focke-Wulf Ta 183 design that had reached mock-up stage by the end of World War II. It was a state-of-the-art design for its day, but the project was cancelled after the fall of Peron in 1955. When President Juan Perón fell from power, the ex-Focke-Wulf team dispersed, with many, including Tank, moving to India. First he worked as Director of the Madras Institute of Technology, where one of his students was future President of India Abdul Kalam, who went on to design the indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) and lead the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. Tank later joined Hindustan Aeronautics, where he designed the Hindustan Marut fighter-bomber, the first military aircraft constructed in India. The first prototype flew in 1961, and the Marut was retired from active service in 1985. Tank left Hindustan Aeronautics in 1967 and by the 1970s, he had returned to live in Berlin, basing himself in Germany for the rest of his life. He worked as a consultant for MBB. He died in Munich in 1983.


title: Shangri-La City

text: Shangri-La (, Tibetan: Gyalthang) is a county-level city in Northwestern Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China and is the location of the seat of the Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, bordering Sichuan to the northwest, north, and east.


title: Shangri-La City

text: Shangri-La was formerly called Zhongdian County () but was renamed on 17 December 2001 and upgraded into a county-level city on 16 December 2014 as Shangri-La (other spellings: Semkyi'nyida, Xianggelila, or Xamgyi'nyilha) after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the 1933 James Hilton novel "Lost Horizon", in an effort to promote tourism in the area. Formerly, the Tibetan population referred to the city by its traditional name Gyalthang or Gyaitang (; Wylie: rgyal thang, ZWPY: Gyaitang), meaning "Royal plains". The Chinese name of the county seat, Jiantang (), reflects the pronunciation of Gyalthang.


title: Shangri-La City

text: In the early morning of January 11, 2014, a fire broke out in the 1,000-year-old Dukezong Tibetan neighborhood. About 242 homes and shops were destroyed and 2,600 residents were displaced.


title: Shangri-La City

text: About half of the old town was destroyed by the fire, half was spared. After the fire residents were allowed back to their homes and shops. By the end of 2014 rebuilding had started and tourism started to come back. Generally tourism was not affected by the fire, since the main sights in the old town, such as the prayer wheel and temples were not damaged. Many of the other main sights are located outside of the old town.


title: Shangri-La City

text: The southern half of the city is inhabited by the Naxi people, who spoke Naxi language, a language separate from the Tibetic languages. The northern half is inhabited by the Khams, who spoke the southern variety of Khams Tibetan. Southwestern Mandarin is spoken by the Han Chinese throughout the city.


title: Shangri-La City

text: Shangri-La has either a dry-winter, warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dwb), or a dry-winter subtropical highland climate (Köppen climate classification: Cwb), both of which are unusually cool by Yunnan standards due to the high elevation, which ranges between . Winters are chilly but sunny, with a January 24-hour average temperature of , while summers are cool, with a July 24-hour average temperature of , and feature frequent rain; more than 70% of the annual precipitation is delivered from June to September. The annual mean is . Except during the summer, nights are usually sharply cooler than the days. Despite the dryness of the winter, the small amount of precipitation is generally sufficient to cause major transportation dislocations and isolate the area between November and March.


title: Alex North

text: Alex North (born Isadore Soifer, December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, including "A Streetcar Named Desire" (one of the first jazz-based film scores), "Viva Zapata!", "Spartacus", "Cleopatra", and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" He was the first composer to receive an Honorary Academy Award, but never won a competitive Oscar despite fifteen nominations.


title: Alex North

text: He wrote the music for Unchained Melody as the theme for the prison film "Unchained" (1955), It has become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, with over 1,500 recordings made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages.


title: Alex North

text: North was born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania, to Jewish parents Jesse and Baila (Bessie) who had left the Russian Empire for the US around 1906. Jesse was from Bila Tserkva and Besie originated from Odessa (both cities are now in Ukraine). In the US, Jesse was a blacksmith, and Bessie ran a grocery store. During the Second World War, North served as a captain in the United States Army Special Services division from 1942 to 1946. There, he was responsible for "self-entertainment" programs in mental hospitals. He also composed music for more than twenty-six documentaries for the War Department while in the service.


title: Alex North

text: North managed to integrate his modernism into typical film music leitmotif structure, rich with themes. One of these became the famous song "Unchained Melody". Nominated for fifteen Oscars but unsuccessful each time, North is one of only two film composers to receive the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award, the other being Ennio Morricone. North's frequent collaborator as orchestrator was the avant-garde composer Henry Brant. He won the 1968 Golden Globe award for his music to "The Shoes of the Fisherman" (1968).


title: Alex North

text: His best-known film scores include "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Death of a Salesman", "Viva Zapata!", "The Rainmaker", "Spartacus", "The Misfits", "Cleopatra", "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", "Dragonslayer" and "Under the Volcano". His music for "The Wonderful Country" makes use of Mexican and American motifs.


title: Alex North

text: His for "" is notorious for having been discarded by director Stanley Kubrick. Although North later incorporated motifs from the rejected score for "The Shoes of the Fisherman", "Shanks" and "Dragonslayer", the score itself remained unheard until composer Jerry Goldsmith rerecorded it for Varèse Sarabande in 1993. In 2007, Intrada Records released the 1968 recording sessions on CD from North's personal archives.


title: Alex North

text: North was also commissioned to write a jazz score for "Nero Wolfe", a 1959 CBS-TV series based on Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe characters, starring William Shatner as Archie Goodwin and Kurt Kasznar as Nero Wolfe. A pilot and two or three episodes were filmed, but the designated time slot was, in the end, given to another series. North's unheard score for "Nero Wolfe" and six recorded tracks on digital audio tape are in the UCLA Music Library Special Collections. He also wrote the music for various other television shows, such as the anthologies "Climax!" and "Playhouse 90".


title: Alex North

text: Though North is best known for his work in Hollywood, he spent years in New York writing music for the stage; he composed the score, for the original Broadway production of "Death of a Salesman". It was in New York that he met Elia Kazan (director of "Salesman"), who brought him to Hollywood in the 1950s. North was one of several composers who brought the influence of contemporary concert music into film, in part marked by an increased use of dissonance and complex rhythms. But there is also a lyrical quality to much of his work which may be connected to the influence of Aaron Copland, with whom he studied.


title: Alex North

text: His classical works include two symphonies and a "Rhapsody for Piano, Trumpet obbligato and Orchestra". He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his score for the 1976 television miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man", and went on to score the sequel "Rich Man, Poor Man Book II" and the 1978 miniseries "The Word". North is also known for his opening to the CBS television anthology series "Playhouse 90" and the 1965 ABC television miniseries "FDR".


title: Alex North

text: In 2016, the Library of Congress added North's 1951 recording of his score to "A Streetcar Named Desire" to its National Recording Registry.


title: Alex North

text: North died on September 8, 1991 in Los Angeles, California. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.


title: Alex North

text: The American Film Institute ranked North's score for "A Streetcar Named Desire" #19 on their list of the greatest film scores. His scores for the following films were also nominated for the list:


title: Alex North

text: North was nominated for fifteen Academy Awards throughout his career, one for Best Original Song, the rest in the Best Original Score category, making him the most-nominated composer to have never won. He was however awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1986; he was the first composer to receive it.


title: Don Powell

text: Donald George Powell (born 10 September 1946) is an English musician who was the drummer for glam rock and later hard rock group Slade for over fifty years.


title: Don Powell

text: As a child, Powell joined the Boy Scouts where he became interested in the drums after being asked to join the band on a Sunday morning parade. After attending Etheridge Secondary Modern School he studied Metallurgy at Wednesbury Technical College. Powell then worked as a metallurgist in a small foundry before turning professional as a drummer. He was athletic and a keen amateur boxer, although an easy going personality. It was he who was sent around with the money collection hat amongst early audiences.


title: Don Powell

text: Powell became a member of The Vendors, a band that guitarist Dave Hill later joined. The Vendors became the N'Betweens and bass guitarist / keyboard player / violinist / guitarist Jim Lea joined at an audition. Powell then spotted Noddy Holder playing with Steve Brett & The Mavericks and he and Hill got Holder to join the N'Betweens. They regrouped as Ambrose Slade, changed the name to Slade and the success began.


title: Don Powell

text: He co-wrote a number of Slade's earlier songs, mainly with Lea; many of them can be found on the 1970 Slade album "Play it Loud". He also co-wrote one of Slade's Top 10 hits "Look Wot You Dun" with Holder and Lea in 1972, and made the breathing noises in the background of the song.


title: Don Powell

text: Powell started drumming on a borrowed Olympic kit as a youngster. He moved up to a deep blue Hayman set for his work with Slade until the early 1970s. From there he changed to Ludwig, but in the mid-2000s he switched to Pearl as the original Ludwig firm had changed ownership. Currently he states he likes a four-piece kit with a shallow snare drum.


title: Don Powell

text: At 1 am on 4 July 1973, when Slade were popular in Europe and number one in the UK Singles Chart with "Skweeze Me Pleeze Me", Don Powell was severely injured in a serious car crash at Compton Road West, Wolverhampton, in which his 20-year-old fiancée Angela Morris was killed.


title: Don Powell

text: After Slade split up in February 1992, Powell owned and operated an antique import/export company before he reconvened the band as Slade II later that year with Dave Hill. He remained active with various line-ups. In 1994, the band released the album "Keep on Rockin'". The name of the band was shortened back to Slade in 1997. In 2000, Powell had a small cameo role in the BBC TV version of "Lorna Doone".


title: Don Powell

text: Powell has been married twice and for a number of years lived in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, England. In 2004, he moved to Silkeborg, Denmark where he now lives with his Danish wife Hanna.


title: Don Powell

text: In December 2005, Powell appeared in the Channel 4 TV documentary "Bring Back...The Christmas Number One".


title: Don Powell

text: A long-time fan of Ringo Starr, Powell contributed the foreword to the 2016 book "Ringo Starr And The Beatles Beat" by Alex Cain and Terry McCusker. As the drummer with Colonel Bagshot, McCusker toured with Slade in the 1970s and the two have remained firm friends.


title: Don Powell

text: Powell is now one-third of the group Quatro Scott Powell (QSP) alongside Suzi Quatro and Sweet guitarist Andy Scott. Don has played at two of Scott's 'Concert At The Kings' events at All Cannings in Wiltshire, and in 2017 he contributed towards a BBC Radio Wiltshire documentary of the life of former Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt.


title: Don Powell

text: In late 2019, Powell's side project, Don Powell's Occasional Flames, featuring Les Glover on lead vocals and guitar, and Paul Cookson's lyrics and poetry, released their first album and single which charted on several download sites, the highest position being 23 on Amazon chart.


title: Don Powell

text: In February 2020, Powell announced that he had been fired by email by Dave Hill and would be forming Don Powell's Slade to perform Slade songs.


title: Don Powell

text: Powell collaborated with Lise Lyng Falkenberg on his biography since 2006, in part using the notebooks and diaries he kept due to his problems with short term memory following his 1973 accident. The biography, titled "Look Wot I Dun – My Life in Slade" was released via the publisher Music Sales Ltd in October 2013. It covers in detail Slade's long career and Powell's life, which included booze-ups with Ozzy Osbourne. In 2013, Powell created his own website, and in early 2014 he published his diary entries for 1977 and 1978.


title: The Artful Escape

text: The Artful Escape is a platform video game developed by Beethoven & Dinosaur, published by Annapurna Interactive for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game was released on September 9, 2021, and released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch on January 25, 2022.


title: The Artful Escape

text: The fictional town of Calypso, Colorado is the birthplace of the deceased folk-music legend, Johnson Vendetti. On the 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking album during the 1970s, the town is holding a large festival, and Johnson's nephew, Francis Vendetti (Michael Johnston), is expected to play Johnson's folk songs at a concert. However, Francis struggles with living in the shadow of his uncle and follow folk music when he really wants to play rock music. The day before the concert, he meets an odd woman, Violetta (Caroline Kinley), who dares him to take risks, such as climbing a tree he had been scared of climbing before. She tells Francis to look for Lightman's before she heads off, despite Francis not knowing of any such place in Calypso.


title: The Artful Escape

text: That night, Francis is visited by an alien Zomm (Jason Schwartzman) who tells him he must meet Lightman. Recalling Violetta's words, he follows Zomm to find Lightman (Carl Weathers), a guitarist that says he needs Francis to play as his opening act. Francis follows Lightman and Zomm through an impossible space below Calypso and finds himself in the Cosmic Extraordinary as they head towards the Cosmic Lung, Lightman's ship. Once there, Lightman explains that to travel through the Cosmic Extraordinary, they need to put on a show for the Glamourgonn (Courtenay Taylor) to gain clearance for the next station, which will be the only way Francis will be able to get back to Calypso in time for the concert. Francis discovers Violetta works as the head of Lightman's laser show but has reservations for Lightman's plans for Francis.


title: The Artful Escape

text: For Francis to be able to perform as Lightman's opening act, he first must travel to meet Stargordon (Mark Strong), a talent agent. There, Stargordon helps Francis conceive of a new name and identity to help sell himself, though senses that the weight of Johnson's influence still haunts Francis' life. With this identity, Francis performs for the Heliotromm, who is impressed with his performance and offers to broadcast it across the galaxy, but Francis declines, still fearing drawing attention to himself. Lightman then sends Francis to the planet of Glimmerdimm to play at a highly exclusive nightclub, but after his performance, Francis finds the only way back is to locate the warp turtle, held in fashion-strict Glimmer City. An alien, Frida, helps Francis to create a new outfit purposely to cause a ruckus in Glimmer City and reach the turtle.


title: The Artful Escape

text: Back at the Cosmic Organ, Francis learns that Lightman is no longer captain of the ship but instead Francis has been promoted due to his performances. Feeling guilty, Francis offers Lightman to be his opening act but allows Lightman to select the stage. Lightman heads to the Hyperion Wailzone, where the Glamourgonn lives. Violetta tells Francis that Lightman was the only person to have performed and survived the Glamourgonn twenty years ago and may be trying to recapture his glory. Francis follows and eventually meets with the Glamourgonn's agent, the Tastemaker (Lena Headey), to arrange to see the Glamourgonn. She sees that Francis still has doubts about accepting this new identity and reveals that when Lightman had faced him, he had brought Johnson Vendetti along, who himself had disliked the folk music he wrote about. Because Francis is still in doubt, she denies both from seeing the Glamourgonn. Francis comes to an epiphany and comes to fully accept his new persona, and demonstrates this to the Tastemaker. She sees Francis has changed, and allows him to perform for the Glamourgonn. Francis's performance, aided by Violetta's laser show, impresses the Glamourgonn, and she grants passage for the Cosmic Lung as well as providing them with a separate vehicle.


title: The Artful Escape

text: Violetta returns Francis back to Calypso, well after the concert was to go on, and promises that she will come back to see him some day. Francis goes to perform at the planned after-party event, showcasing his rock styling and new persona and stunning the crowd.


title: The Artful Escape

text: "The Artful Escape" is a platform game, where the player controls Francis in moving him across a musical-infused landscape. Besides running and jumping, Francis has a guitar which he can play to create various effects, such as interacting with the scenery or facing boss characters.


title: The Artful Escape

text: "The Artful Escape" was conceived of by Johnny "Galvatron", one of the founding members and lead guitarist of the band The Galvatrons. Prior to forming the band, Galvatron had studied film and computer animation in college in Melbourne, Australia, but then formed The Galvatrons and had a record deal with Warner Bros. shortly after graduation. During the nearly ten years he spent with the band, he also continued his interest in video games, submitted some articles for various publications and creating small games based on the band's music while they toured Australia and the United Kingdom. Galvatron grew weary from the long tours and had been drawn more into the artistic goals. The band eventually went on hiatus, which allowed Galvatron to pursue other creative efforts, including writing a book, creating a short film, and eventually into game development.


title: The Artful Escape

text: "The Artful Escape", as described by Galvatron, is a story in the vein of "David Bowie traveling off from London on an interstellar trip to create Ziggy Stardust". In addition to Bowie, Galvatron cited works by Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson and Steven Spielberg to help establish the art style he used for the game, as well as using his own experiences from the music touring and the music industry. Some of the character and world designs are based on doodles that Galvatron made in his school books when he was younger. Johnson Vendetti is based on folk music legend Bob Dylan, according to Galvatron.


title: The Artful Escape

text: Galvatron formed Beethoven & Dinosaur, an Australian studio, to work on the game. The studio includes composer Josh Abrahams, guitarist Eden Altman and programmers Justin Blackwell and Sean Slevin. The studio received $17,000 from an Unreal Dev Grant from Epic Games for "The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti" in June 2015 to help them develop the title on the Unreal Engine 4. The studio then got approval through the Steam Greenlight program for publishing on the Steam platform in the following month. The studio launched a Kickstarter in March 2016 to secure about $35,000 in additional funds for completing the Microsoft Windows and OS X version of the game. However, the Kickstarter failed to raise sufficient funds, but the studio was able to secure a publication deal with Annapurna Interactive to continue development of the game, and allowing for development of console versions on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.


title: The Artful Escape

text: The game, still under the name "The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti", was first shown in playable form at PAX East during March 2017. The game had a larger reveal during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017 that June as a featured title in Microsoft's press conference, where it was revealed that the game would have a console-exclusive release on the Xbox One. At Microsoft's Xbox London event in November 2019, the game was confirmed for a 2020 release date on Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and for iOS devices via Apple Arcade. In November 2020, Annapurna Interactive confirmed that the game was delayed to 2021.


title: The Artful Escape

text: The game was one featured during Annapurna Interactive's July 2021 showcase. In addition to the planned September 9, 2021 release, it was shown that the game will include voicework from Michael Johnston as Francis, Caroline Kinley as Violetta, along with supporting voice work from Lena Headey (the Tastemaker), Jason Schwartzman (Zomm), Mark Strong (Stargordon), and Carl Weathers (Lightman).


title: The Artful Escape

text: Beethoven & Dinosaur were the recipients of a small business grant from the City of Melbourne in 2017.


title: The Artful Escape

text: "The Artful Escape" received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.


title: The Artful Escape

text: "GamesRadar+" praised the voice cast, singling out the performances of Michael Johnston and Caroline Kinley as helping to "ground the world in human emotion". "GameSpot" liked the game's art and aesthetic, but criticized the writing, saying that the cast "speak in strange metaphors that aim for artful but end up hitting hackneyed". "IGN" enjoyed the levels and the audio of "The Artful Escape," writing that "the performances of its cast and the quality of its soundtrack are every bit as stellar as the eye-popping celestial realms it crisscrosses through".


title: The Artful Escape

text: Rachel Watts of "PC Gamer" felt the gameplay of "The Artful Escape" didn't live up to the graphical side, "The Artful Escape's musical guitar mechanics never reach the heights of its showstopping visuals". "The Guardian" liked the message of the game, describing it as "a touching tale of how to break free of the creative expectations of others". "Kotaku" disliked the short length of the musical puzzles sequences, writing that it was "not long enough to enjoy the proceedings". "Rock Paper Shotgun"s Matthew Castle wished the game had more replayability beyond the initial playthrough, saying the game was "An awesome ride, but it does mean you've heard everything it has to offer in a couple of hours". "Polygon" cited it as the 44th best game of 2021, saying the game offered "the most over-the-top, luxurious, self-indulgent, entertaining moments of any game this year." "Push Square" gave the game seven stars out of ten, praising its guitar battles, art direction, soundtrack, writing, and voicing while criticizing the lack of substantial gameplay, frame drops, and occasionally clunky platforming. "Nintendo Life" reviewed the Switch port of the game, giving it eight stars, lauding its sights, sounds, and imaginative ideas while taking issue with the underused best bits, light gameplay, and sacrifices made to port the game to the Switch.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: Bread is a British television sitcom, written by Carla Lane, about a close-knit, working-class family in Liverpool, England. It was produced by the BBC and screened on BBC1 from 1 May 1986 to 3 November 1991. In 1988, the ratings for the series peaked at 21 million viewers.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: The series focused on the extended Boswell family of Liverpool, in the district of Dingle. The family were Catholic and working class, and led by the acid-tongued matriarch Nellie Boswell (Jean Boht) who ruled over her family with an iron fist. Early series focused on her children attempting to make enough money (in English slang, "bread") to support the family through various illicit means. Later series saw less emphasis on moneymaking schemes, and more storylines focusing on the characters' love lives and marriages.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: The Boswell family consisted of Nellie's philandering, free-spirited husband Freddie (Ronald Forfar) who spent most of the series with one foot in the family household, and the other with his mistress, the red-haired Irish siren Lilo Lil (Eileen Pollock). This union led to one of the series' most famous catchphrases, which Nellie frequently declared about Lilo Lil in a storm of rage: "She is a tart!"


title: Bread (TV series)

text: Eldest child Joey (Peter Howitt/Graham Bickley) was essentially the level-headed household head, with his leather trousers, classic Jaguar, and charming demeanor ("Greetings!" was his catchphrase), Joey was involved in tax fraud after making a fortune selling personalised number plates and not declaring this to the taxman. Throughout the series, Joey was in love with dour, demanding divorcee Roxy (Joanna Phillips-Lane), whom he finally married in the final series. The character was extremely popular for the first four series, and Peter Howitt was considered the series' heartthrob and break-out star. When he decided to leave "Bread" to concentrate on directing and other acting opportunities, his replacement was not as popular with viewers, so the character wasn't as prominent in the later series.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: Second-eldest child Jack was the thoughtful, sensitive type who ran an antique-dealing business, often with disastrous results. Actor Victor McGuire was absent in series 4, and Jack went to America for a year. He returned in series 5 and eventually fell in love with an older woman, Leonora (Deborah Grant), who moved in across the road. Adrian (Jonathon Morris) was the theatrical poet, who had his poetry published ('My Granny's Bucket'). His real name was Jimmy, but he changed his name to Adrian which he considered "less common". He endured relationships with several highly-sexed women and was frequently seen emerging red-faced from the bushes.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: The youngest Boswell son, Billy (Nick Conway), was loud-mouthed, annoying, and immature. He somehow managed to father Francesca with his miserable mistress Julie (Caroline Milmoe/Hilary Crowson) who lived across the road. Billy married Julie in series 3, but they were divorced by series 5, and Julie moved to Sefton Park (and left the series), leaving Billy devastated. Billy drove an old Volkswagen Beetle which constantly backfired when driven, as well as a van from the back of which he sold sandwiches.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: The only Boswell daughter was Aveline (Gilly Coman/Melanie Hill), a colourful, enduring model who married Protestant vicar Oswald Carter (Giles Watling) at the end of series 4 (to staunchly-Catholic Nellie's outrage); after trying to conceive throughout series 5, Aveline gives birth to Ursula in series 6.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: Next door is grumpy, permanently-hungry Grandad (Kenneth Waller). The series doesn't make explicitly-clear whether he is Nellie's or Freddie's father, as he is only ever referred to and called Grandad. However, in a fleeting sequence in a series-4 episode, Freddie is arrested for stealing his rubbish cart. When the family arrive at the Police Station to collect him, Nellie refers to Freddie as Grandad's son-in-law for the only time, confirming that he is, in fact, her own father. In later series we are told Grandad's name is William Duval and Nellie refers to her maiden name of Duval. This confirms that Grandad was Nellie's father. He appeared in all seven series and was in the last episode's final scene, alongside Jean Boht. Grandad was frequently seen telling people to "Piss off!" and reminiscing about his childhood sweetheart Edie Matteson. However, in the spin off book "Mrs Boswells Slice of Bread", it is confirmed that Grandad is Nellie's father.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: There are also several notable supporting characters seen throughout the series: the deadpan Department of Health and Social Security clerk Martina (Pamela Power) spent all seven series enduring the various tales the Boswells spun to get more dole money. She perfected her catchphrase "Next!" but ultimately failed to snare her favourite Boswell, 'Shifty' (Bryan Murray), after several attempts at a relationship with him. Shifty arrived in series 4, ostensibly to cover Jack's absence in the series, but he stayed on in "Bread" after Jack's return and lived next door with Grandad until the end of the sixth series.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: Other neighbours include Celia Higgins, played by Rita Tushingham during series 4; in series 6 and 7, Leonora Campbell (Deborah Grant) moved into Julie's old house and eventually began dating Jack.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: The show's title is a reference to "bread" meaning "money"; though this is not a Liverpudlian Scouse expression but cockney rhyming slang ("bread and honey"). Liverpudlians at the time largely referred to money as "dough". A regular scenario in each episode was that of Nellie opening a cockerel-fashioned kitchen egg-basket prior to the evening meal into which the family would place money for their upkeep. The amount of money placed in the pot by each depended on how successful a day they'd had. The pot would be at the forefront of the screen at the end of each episode as the credits rolled.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: Other frequently-seen scenarios included Nellie answering a cordless phone (a newfangled item in the mid-1980s) which she kept in the pocket of her pinny; she always said "Hello, yes?" when answering, followed by a series of frantic "Thank you"s when it was Derek (Peter Byrne), Nellie's secret park-bench pal, on the other end, ensuring the parking places outside the terraced house were kept free for the family's many vehicles, by putting out illicitly-acquired police traffic cones.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: The show featured soap opera-style cliffhangers, meaning that viewers had to watch each week to see how the previous week's cliffhanger would be resolved. This also meant that each episode was not self-contained, but the plot unfolded as the series progressed. This was unusual for a comedy at the time, but has been used to great effect by comedies since.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: The theme tune was sung by the cast members and was released on BBC Records but failed to make the UK singles chart. The theme was re-recorded for the fifth series of the show, due to BBC1's transition from mono to NICAM stereo sound – the original theme had been recorded in mono - and also to allow Graham Bickley and Melanie Hill, who joined the cast in Series 5 replacing the original Joey and Aveline respectively, to replace the originals in the vocals.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: A comic strip based on the series featured in the BBC's Teen magazine "Fast Forward", although the overall tone was altered for the magazines younger readership, and most of the featured stories were of a generic nature, not following the continuity of the television series and mostly just using the characters to tell simple joke stories .


title: Bread (TV series)

text: After the series had finished, a stage play of the show entitled "Bread – The Farewell Slice" toured the UK.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: Also following the end of the series, Jonathon Morris announced his desire for a follow-up series about his character, theatrical poet Adrian, feeling that the character 'had a lot of potential and a lot of stories yet to tell beyond the "Bread" setting', and suggested the premise of Adrian moving down to London in hopes of cracking the bigger theatrical scene. He proposed his idea to the BBC and even announced his hopes for the series during an appearance in March 1991 on Saturday morning programme "Going Live!" as filming for the final series of "Bread" was drawing to a close. The BBC declined on the suggestion; Morris went on to co-write a one-man play based around Adrian which he intended to tour with, and also in hope of using it as an example to the BBC of what could be done with the character. The project was eventually dropped, due to ownership rights for the character with Carla Lane. However the effort was not completely detrimental to Morris, as his enthusiasm led to "Going Live!" host Phillip Schofield recommending Morris for his replacement as presenter for "Children's BBC" series "The Movie Game", a position which Morris went on to fill.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: Though the show was popular, and received audiences over 21 million, "Bread" was criticised for mocking Liverpudlian culture and people, who had suffered significant economic downturn and unemployment in the 1980s. Lane countered these criticisms saying that her characters were cartoonish and one-dimensional, and were not intended to be a serious social comment on the state of Liverpool.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: In 1989, at the height of "Bread"'s success, the departure of two of the series leading actors, Peter Howitt as Joey, and Gilly Coman as Aveline, led to the characters being re-cast. "Bread" was also criticised several times in both the "Radio Times" and on "Points of View" for its bad language before the 9pm watershed - Grandad's catchphrase "Piss off!" was often the cause of complaints.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: In the UK, the first four series were released in two 3-DVD sets in 2003. However, the first series' episodes had some, but not all, profanity bleeped out or muted. A 16-DVD "Complete Collection" followed in 2014, containing all 74 episodes and the three Christmas specials. This time, episodes from series three onwards and the specials were uncensored but the first two series consisted of the previously-released censored discs.


title: Bread (TV series)

text: In Australia, only the first 5 seasons have been released so far and it is unknown if the remaining seasons will follow.


The 2018 Tripura Legislative Assembly election was held on 18 February for 59 of the state's 60 constituencies. The counting of votes took place on 3 March 2018. With 43.59% of the vote, the BJP secured a majority of seats (36) and subsequently formed the government with Biplab Kumar Deb as Chief Minister. The former governing Left Front alliance while receiving 44.35% of the vote secured only 16 seats.