Plot.

In the early Meiji era, after participating in the Bakumatsu war as the assassin ""Hitokiri Battōsai"", Himura Kenshin wanders the countryside of Japan with a reverse blade katana, offering protection and aid to those in need as atonement for the murders he once committed. When arriving in Tokyo in the 11th year of Meiji (1878), he meets a young woman named Kamiya Kaoru, who is in the middle of a fight with a murderer - who claims to be the "Hitokiri Battōsai" - tarnishing the name of the swordsmanship school that she teaches. Kenshin decides to help her and defeats the fake "Battōsai". After discovering that Kenshin is the real infamous assassin, Kaoru offers him a place to stay at her dojo noting that he is peace-loving and not cold-hearted, as his reputation implies. Kenshin accepts and begins to establish lifelong relationships with many people such as Sagara Sanosuke, a former Sekihō Army member; Myōjin Yahiko, an orphan from a samurai family who is also living with Kaoru as her student; and a doctor named Takani Megumi, caught in the opium trade. However, he also deals with his fair share of enemies, new and old, including the former leader of the Oniwabanshū, Shinomori Aoshi and a rival from the Bakumatsu turned police officer, Saitō Hajime.  After several months of living in the dojo, Kenshin discovers that his successor as assassin of the shadows,

Production.

A prototype series titled "Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story" appeared as a pair of separate short stories published in 1992 and 1993. The first story, published on December 1992 in the "Weekly Shōnen Jump Winter Special" issue of 1993, featured an earlier version of Kenshin stopping a crime lord from taking over the Kamiya family dojo. Watsuki described the first "Rurouni" story, echoing the "Megumi Arc," as a "pilot" for "Rurouni Kenshin". According to Watsuki, the final "Rurouni Kenshin" series was not composed entirely of his free will. Describing the creation of historical stories as "hard," Watsuki initially wanted to make his next series in a contemporary setting. An editor approached Watsuki and asked him to make a new historical story. With the historical concept, Watsuki intended to use the Bakumatsu period from "Moeyo Ken" ("Burn, O Sword") with a story akin to "Sanshiro Sugata". Watsuki experimented with various titles, including "Nishin" ("Two-Hearts") "Kenshin", "Yorozuya" ("Jack-of-All-Trades") "Kenshin", and variations of "Rurouni" and "Kenshin" with different kanji in that order.  The second "Rurouni" story, published on April 1993 in the "Weekly Shōnen Jump" 21–22 double issue of that year, featured Kenshin helping a wealthy girl named Raikōji Chizuru. Watsuki recalled experiencing difficulty when condensing "everything" into 31 pages for that story. He said that he "put all [his] soul into it" but sighs when looking at it from his perspective after the publication of the "Rurouni Kenshin" Volume 1 graphic novel in Japan. Watsuki describes that second "Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story" as receiving mediocre reviews and about two hundred letters. He referred to it as a "side story."  During his childhood, Watsuki used to practice kendo, which influenced him in the making from the series. Although Watsuki developed various one-shots before the official serialization from the series, he mentioned he based the series from "Crescent Moon in the Warring States", a story which introduced Kenshin's fighting style and his teacher. While naming the characters, he based some of their names from places he used to live such as Makimachi Misao's "Makimachi" and Sanjō Tsubame, who are named after places from Niigata.  Being fascinated by the Shinsengumi, Watsuki designed the characters by basing their characteristics to that of the real Shinsengumi members and also used fictional representation of them and other historical characters from the Bakumatsu period of Japan. The historical characters were considered to be a hard task by Watsuki. Due to problems with the characterization from Sagara Sōzō, Watsuki decided to illustrate Saitō Hajime in his own style avoiding the historical figure. He felt very good with Saitō's character having noted he fit very well in the manga. However, Watsuki mentioned that many Japanese fans of the Shinsengumi complained about the personality of Saitō, as he was made sadistic.  When questioned about the series' theme being Kenshin's self-redemption, Watsuki mentioned that when he was young, he used to read "shōjo" and that it influenced his writing of "Rurouni Kenshin". He added that he wanted to make a story different from other comics as he considers the main character Kenshin is neither a good nor evil character. Since volume 7, Watsuki mentioned the series took a more adult tone due to the various conflicts in the story but commented it was influenced by the "shōjo" manga he read. Through the series' development, Watsuki was deciding if Kamiya Kaoru's character was going to die before the end. However, he later decided to keep Kaoru alive as he came to the conclusion he wanted a happy ending and that the manga is aimed at young readers. Watsuki said he was an "infatuated" type of person rather than a "passionate" kind of person, therefore "Rurouni Kenshin" is a "Meiji Swordsman Story" as opposed to being a "Meiji Love Story."  When the manga series started to be published in "Weekly Shōnen Jump", Watsuki had little hope in the development of the series. He planned to finish the story in approximately 30 chapters, ending with Kenshin's departure from Tokyo similarly to the one from volume 7. Kenshin's enemies would have been people from Kyoto who would send an assassin to kill Kenshin. When the Oniwabanshū were introduced during the serialization, Watsuki noted that the series could be longer as he had created various main characters. In that time, there was a survey, and the series had become very popular.  When the series reached seven volumes, Watsuki's boss suggested to him that it was time to make a longer story-arc, which resulted in the creation of the fights between Kenshin and Shishio Makoto. The arc was only meant to be serialized for one year, but it ended up being one year-and-a-half-long. This arc was also done to develop Kenshin's character as he considered him not to have a weak point. Watsuki commented that his artistic skills were honed with this arc, as he could draw everything he wanted to. The last arc from the manga was meant to be much shorter, but it turned out to be a fairly long one as he could not present it simplistically. Watsuki originally made this arc prior to the series' start, having already thought about how would Kenshin's scar had been made. Watsuki also had ideas to create a "Hokkaido episode, a sequel" but wanted to start a new manga and so ended "Rurouni Kenshin" with the last arc he made. In 2012, Watsuki revealed that when he clashed with the editorial staff at the end of the series, his editor Hisashi Sasaki understood his intentions and saw that he was at his physical limit and backed him up. He said it was out of respect and appreciation for the readers that he ended the popular series while it was still popular. The Hokkaido sequel, "", began serialization in 2017.

Themes.

The series' main theme is responsibility as seen through Kenshin's action as he wants to atone for all the people he killed during the Bakumatsu by aiding innocent people by wielding a non-lethal sword. Marco Olivier from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University said that the sakabatō symbolizes Kenshin's oath not to kill again which has been found challenging by other warriors appearing in the series.

Media.

Manga.

Written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki, the first chapter of "Rurouni Kenshin" premiered in the 19th issue of "Weekly Shōnen Jump" on April 25, 1994, and was serialized in the magazine until its 43rd issue on September 21, 1999. The 255 individual chapters were collected and published in 28 "tankōbon" volumes by Shueisha, with the first volume released on September 9, 1994 and the last on November 4, 1999. In July 2006, Shueisha began re-releasing the series in a twenty-two "kanzenban" special edition volumes. A single chapter follow up to the series that follows the character of Yahiko Myōjin,, was

Anime series.

The anime, directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi, began airing on Japan's Fuji TV on January 10, 1996 and ended on September 8, 1998. It was produced by Aniplex and Fuji TV, and was animated from episode 1 to 66 by Studio Gallop, whereas the episodes from 67 onwards were animated by Studio Deen. The anime only adapts the manga up until the fight with Shishio, from then on it features original material not in the manga. The final episode did not air in Japan, but was a bonus episode for the VHS and DVD releases. Since its premiere in Japan, episodes from the series have been collected in DVDs various times: two DVDs series with both of them featuring four episodes per volume and three DVD boxes. 26 collected DVD volumes were released in Japan.  Sony Pictures

Animated films.

"Requiem for the Ishin Patriots".

The series also has a movie called "Rurouni Kenshin: The Motion Picture", known in Japan as and originally released in North America as "Samurai X: The Motion Picture", which tells a story where Kenshin meets a samurai who was very close to a man Battōsai murdered in the war. The samurai is trying to start a revolution to

"New Kyoto Arc".

A new "Rurouni Kenshin" project was announced in April 2011's "Jump Square". Director Kazuhiro Furuhashi, Studio Deen, and the original cast returned after nine years (except Hirotaka Suzuoki who died in 2006; Saitō Hajime was voiced by Ken Narita). The project was split into two parts and is a remake of the second arc, the Kyoto arc, with some changes. Part I was released on December 17, 2011 and titled, which was selected from a fan suggestion, ran at Tokyo's Cinema Sunshine Ikebukuro theater and Osaka's Cine-Libre Umeda theater for one week only. Part II,, was released on June 23, 2012 and ran for three weeks in ten theaters. Aniplex of America announced at Otakon 2011 that they were in "negotiations" for the English language rights to the films. Aniplex released part I on DVD and Blu-ray on March 21, 2012 in Japan, while Part II was released on August 22, 2012. In 2013, North American licensor Sentai Filmworks released both films together on DVD and Blu-ray, editing them into a single movie.

Original video animations.

There are also two "Rurouni Kenshin" original video animation (OVA) series which was trailered at the end of season 3, Tales of the Meiji, to begin the Enishi saga & Ashitaro saga for the next seasonal portions of the TV series (Season 4 & 5). The first of them, "", collectively known in Japan as, was released in 1999 as four episodes in Japan, and later edited into a two-hour theatrical film with some new animated sequences (Director's Cut). It is set during the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate and during Kenshin's job as an assassin. ADV Films released the series on two VHS or DVD sets in 2000 under their "Samurai X" name

Live-action films.

On June 28, 2011, a live-action film adaptation of "Rurouni Kenshin" was announced. Produced by Warner Bros., with actual film production done by Studio Swan, the film was directed by Keishi Ōtomo and stars Takeru Satoh (of "Kamen Rider Den-O" fame) as Kenshin, Munetaka Aoki

Soundtracks.

All of the series music was composed by Noriyuki Asakura and several CDs have been released by Sony Records. The first, "Rurouni Kenshin OST 1" was released on April 1, 1996 and contained twenty-three songs that were used during the first episodes of the series. The second one, "Rurouni Kenshin OST 2 - Departure" was released on October 21, 1996 and contained fifteen tracks that were first used before the start of the Kyoto Arc. The next one, "Rurouni Kenshin OST 3 - Journey to Kyoto" was released on April 21, 1997 and contained the thirteen tracks that originally used in the Kyoto Arc. For the next arc, "Rurouni Kenshin OST 4 - Let it Burn" was released on February 1, 1998 and contained twelve tracks.  For the OVAs series, all themes were composed by Taku Iwasaki and the CDs were released by Sony Visual Works. The first, "Rurouni Kenshin Tsuioku Hen OST" was released on March 20, 1999 and contained sixteen tracks that were used in "". For the "" OVA a

Stage shows.

In 2016, the Takarazuka Revue performed a musical adaptation of the manga called "Rurouni Kenshin:

Art and guidebooks.

Two encyclopedias of the "Rurouni Kenshin" manga were released in Japan. The first one,, was released first in Japan on July 4, 1996 by Shueisha and in the United States by Viz Media on November 1, 2005., released on December 15, 1999 includes the story, which details the fates of all of the "Rurouni Kenshin" characters. The story takes place years after the manga's conclusion, when Kenshin and

Light novels.

The "Rurouni Kenshin" light novels were published by Shueisha's Jump J-Books line and co-written by Kaoru Shizuka. Most of them are original stories which were later adapted in the anime. Others are adaptations of manga and anime stories. The first novel, "Rurouni Kenshin: Voyage to the Moon World", which was published in Japan on October 10, 1996 and in North America on October 17, 2006 details another adventure involving the return of Tales of the Meiji Season

Video games.

There are five "Rurouni Kenshin" games released for the PlayStation console. The first, was released on November 29, 1996. It was developed by ZOOM Inc.. The game is a 3D fighter game with 5 playable characters, while the plot focuses in the first seven volumes from the manga. The second one, was released on December 18, 1997 and was re-released in

Merchandise.

Watsuki commented that there was a lot of "Rurouni Kenshin" merchandise released for the Japanese market. He recommended that buyers consider quality before paying

Reception.

Manga.

"Rurouni Kenshin" has been highly popular, having sold over 55 million tankōbon copies in Japan alone up until February 2012, making it one of Shueisha's top ten best-selling manga series. In 2014, it was reported that the series had 70 million tankōbon copies in circulation. As of December 2019, the manga had over 72 million copies in circulation, including digital releases. Volume 27 of the manga ranked second in the "Viz Bookscan Top Ten" during June 2006, while volume 21 and 20 ranked second and tenth, respectively, in the "Top 10 Graphic Novels of Viz" of 2005. "Rurouni Kenshin" volume 24 also ranked in 116th position in the USA Today's best selling book list for the week ending

Anime series.

When TV Asahi, a television network in Japan, conducted a nationwide survey for the one hundred most popular animated television series, the "Rurouni Kenshin" anime came in sixty-sixth place. They also conducted an online web poll, in which "Rurouni Kenshin" was placed at number 62. Nearly a year later, TV Asahi once again conducted an online poll for the top one hundred anime, and "Rurouni Kenshin" anime advanced in rank and came in twenty-sixth place. It also ranked at tenth place in the "Web's Most Wanted 2005", ranking in the animation category. The fourth DVD of the anime was also Anime Castle's best selling DVD in October 2001. "Rurouni Kenshin" was also a finalist in the American Anime Awards in the category "Long Series" but lost against "Fullmetal Alchemist". In 2010, Mania.com's Briana Lawrence listed "Rurouni Kenshin" at number three of the website's "10 Anime Series That Need a Reboot".  The anime has also been commented on by Chris Shepard from ANN noting a well-crafted plot and good action scenes. However, he also criticized that during the first episodes the fights never get quite interesting as it becomes

OVAs.

"" has received significant praise for its story, animation, art, music and Japanese voice acting from various critics. Mike Crandol from ANN noted "Trust & Betrayal" as one of the greatest OVA series of all time, celebrating the new characters designs as well as the fights scenes which were also noted to be "terribly bloody" and beautiful at the same time. Although DVD Talk reviewer Don Houston mentioned the OVAs were very violent for teenagers, he found the

Live-action films.

At the box office, the 2012 live-action film "Rurouni Kenshin" grossed worldwide, including up until December 2012 prior to its release in the Philippines, $728,085 from Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines up until May 2013, and then

, also known sometimes as Samurai X in the TV show, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins during the 11th year of the Meiji period in Japan (1878) and follows a former assassin from the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his work against the bakufu, Hitokiri Battosai disappears to become Himura Kenshin: a wandering swordsman who protects the people of Japan with a vow never to take another life. Watsuki wrote the series upon his desire to make a "shōnen manga" different from the other ones that were published at the time, with Kenshin being a former assassin and the story taking a more serious tone as it continued. The manga revolves around themes of atonement, peace, and romance.

《浪客剑心》()是1994年至1999年于少年JUMP周刊连载的日本漫画作品,作者为和月伸宏,单行本共28卷。它曾被改编为电视动画,共95集,自1996年1月至1998年9月在富士电视台系首播,却-{只}-播放了第1至94集,第95集(密藏篇)没有在电视播放,多个版本的录像产品也没有收录第95集。也有OVA及剧场版动画及游戏的推出。此外有两本官方公式书:分别为剑心华传和剑心皆传。和月伸宏将再度推出漫画新作《浪客剑心─特笔版》,在《Jump Square》2012年6月号至2013年7月号连载,两本单行本于2012年9月4日至2013年7月4日发售。2017年9月开始新续篇「北海道篇」连载。2017年11月,随着作者因持有儿童色情物品遭法办,集英社将此作品休载,直至2018年4月宣布重新恢复连载。系列漫画的发行量超过了6000万册。


Ancient Near East.

None of the extant extrabiblical laws of the Ancient Near East deal with tithing, although other secondary documents show that it was a widespread practice in the Ancient Near East. William W. Hallo (1996) recognises comparisons for Israel with its ancient Near Eastern environment, however, as regards tithes, comparisons with other ancient Near Eastern evidence is ambiguous, and Ancient Near Eastern literature provides scant evidence for the practice of tithing and the collection of tithes.

The "esretu" – "ešretū" the Ugarit and Babylonian one-tenth tax.

Listed below are some specific instances of the Mesopotamian tithe, taken from

Hebrew Bible.

Hebrew is a Semitic language, related to Akkadian, the lingua franca of that time.

Patriarchs.

In, Abraham, after rescuing Lot, met with Melchizedek. After Melchizedek's blessing, Abraham gave him a tenth

Mosaic law.

The tithe is specifically mentioned in the Books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The tithe system was organized in a seven-year cycle, corresponding to the "Shmita"-cycle. These tithes were in reality more like taxes for the people of Israel and were mandatory, not optional giving. This tithe was distributed locally "within thy gates" () to support the Levites and assist the poor.  Every year, "Bikkurim", "Terumah", "Ma'aser Rishon" and "Terumat Ma'aser" were separated from the grain, wine and oil (). (As regards other fruit and produce, the Biblical requirement to tithe is a source of debate.) The "first tithe" is giving of one tenth of agricultural produce (after the giving of the standard "terumah") to the Levite (or Aaronic priests). Historically, during the First Temple period, the first tithe was given to the Levites. Approximately at the beginning of the Second Temple construction, Ezra and his Beth din implemented its giving to the kohanim.  Unlike other offerings which were restricted to consumption within the tabernacle, the "second tithe" could be consumed anywhere. On years one, two, four and five of the "Shemittah"-cycle, God commanded the Children of

United Kingdom of Israel.

LMLK seals may represent the oldest archaeological evidence of tithing. About 10 percent of the storage jars manufactured during Hezekiah's reign (circa 700 BC) were stamped (Grena, 2004, pp. 376–78). See 2 Chronicles 29–31 for

Minor Prophets.

The Book of Malachi has one of the

Deuterocanonical.

The deuterocanonical Book of Tobit provides an example

Judaism.

Orthodox Jews continue to follow the laws of "Terumah" and "Ma'aser" as well as the custom of tithing 10% of one's earnings to charity ("ma'aser kesafim"). Due to doubts concerning the status of persons claiming to be Kohanim or

Christianity.

Jesus Christ taught that "tithing must be done in conjunction with a deep concern for justice, mercy and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23)". Many of the ancient and historic Christian Churches practice tithing, as it was taught by the Council of Tours in 567, and in the Third Council of Mâcon in AD 585, a penalty of excommunication was prescribed for those who did not adhere to this ecclesiastical law. Tithes can be given to the Church at once (as is the custom in many Christian countries with a church tax), or distributed throughout the year; during the part of Western Christian liturgies known as the offertory, people often place a portion of their tithes (sometimes along with additional offerings) in the collection plate.  According to a 2018 study by LifeWay Research that interviewed 1,010 Americans, 86% of people with Evangelical beliefs say that tithe is still a biblical commandment today. In this number, 87% of Baptist believers, 86% of Pentecostal believers, 81% of Non-denominational believers share this position.

Denominational positions.

Adventist Churches.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches in its Fundamental Beliefs that "We acknowledge God's ownership by faithful service

Anabaptist Churches.

The Mennonite Church teaches that "tithing as a minimum baseline

Baptist Churches.

The National Baptist Convention of America teaches that "Baptists believe that a proper sense of stewardship begins with the 'tithe'; a presentation of which belongs to Him. 'The tithe is the Lord's.' We have not given as a result of presenting the tithe. Our giving begins with the offering {after we have tithed}."  The Southern Baptist Convention, in its Baptist Faith and Message, states that "God is the source of all blessings, temporal

Catholic Church.

The Council of Trent, which was held after the Reformation, taught that "tithes are due to God or to religion, and that it is sacrilegious to withhold them." Nowadays the Catholic Church no

Lutheran Churches.

The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod teaches that "Encourage[s] cheerful, first-fruit, proportionate (including

Methodist Churches.

"The Discipline of The Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection", which teaches the doctrine of the Storehouse Tithing, holds:  The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church states that it is the responsibility of ecclesiastics to

Moravian Church.

The Moravian Church encourages its members to "financially support the ministry of the Church toward the goal of tithing."

Orthodox Churches.

Tithing in medieval Eastern Christianity did not spread so widely as in the West. A Constitution of the Emperors Leo I (reigned

Pentecostal Churches.

The Pentecostal Church of God teaches that "We recognize the scriptural duty of all our people, as well as ministers, to pay tithes as unto

Reformed Churches.

The Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church (USA) states, with respect

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) bases its tithing on the following additional scriptures:  Tithing is currently defined by the church as payment to the church of one-tenth of one's annual increase. Many church leaders have made statements in support of tithing. Every Latter-day Saint receives an opportunity once a year to meet with their bishop about their tithing settlement. The payment of tithes is mandatory for members to receive the priesthood or obtain admission to temples.  The LDS Church is a lay ministry. The money that is given is used to build and maintain church buildings as well as to further the work of the church. None of the funds collected from tithing is paid to local church officials or those who serve in the church. Those serving in full-time church leadership do receive stipends for living expenses, but they are paid from non-tithing resources, such as investements. Brigham Young University, a church-sponsored institution, also receives "a significant portion" of its maintenance and operating costs from tithes of the church's members.

Church collection of religious offerings and taxes.

England and Wales.

The right to receive tithes was granted to the English churches by King Ethelwulf in 855. The Saladin tithe was a royal tax, but assessed using ecclesiastical boundaries, in 1188. The legal validity of the tithe system was affirmed under the Statute of Westminster of 1285. The Dissolution of the Monasteries led to the transfer of many rights to tithe to secular landowners and the Crown – and tithes could be extinguished until 1577 under an Act of the 37th year of Henry VIII's reign. Adam Smith criticized the system in "The Wealth of Nations" (1776), arguing that a fixed rent would encourage peasants to work far more efficiently.  See below for a fuller description and history, until the reforms of the 19th century, written by Sir William Blackstone and edited by other learned lawyers

France.

In France, the tithes – called "la dîme" – were a land tax. Originally a voluntary tax, the "dîme" became mandatory in 1585. In principle, unlike the taille, the "dîme" was levied on both noble and non-noble lands. The dîme was divided into a number of types, including the "grosses dîmes" (grains, wine, hay), "menues" or "vertes dîmes" (vegetables, poultry), "dîmes de charnage" (veal, lamb, pork). Although the term "dîme" comes from the Latin "decima [pars]" ("one tenth", with the

Greece.

There has never been a separate church tax or mandatory tithe on Greek citizens. The state pays the salaries of the clergy of the

Ireland.

From the English Reformation in the 16th century, most Irish people chose to remain Roman Catholic and had by now to pay tithes valued at about 10 per cent of an area's agricultural produce, to maintain and fund the established state church, the Anglican Church of Ireland, to which

United States.

While the federal government has never collected a church tax or mandatory tithe on its citizens, states collected a tithe into the early 19th century. The United States and its governmental subdivisions also exempt most churches from payment of income tax (under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and similar state statutes, which also allows donors to claim the donations as an income tax itemized

Spain and Latin America.

Both the tithe ("diezmo"), a levy of 10 per cent on all agricultural production, and "first fruits" ("primicias"), an additional harvest levy, were collected in Spain throughout the medieval and early modern periods for the support of local Catholic parishes.  The tithe crossed the Atlantic with the Spanish Empire; however, the Indians who made up the vast majority of the population in colonial Spanish America were exempted from paying tithes on native crops such as corn and potatoes that they raised for their own subsistence. After some debate, Indians in colonial Spanish America were forced to pay tithes on their production of European agricultural products, including wheat, silk, cows, pigs, and sheep.  The tithe was abolished in several Latin American countries, including Mexico, soon after independence from Spain (which started in 1810). The tithe was abolished in Spain itself in 1841, and in Argentina in 1826.

Governmental collection of Christian religious offerings and taxes.

Austria.

In Austria a colloquially called church tax ("Kirchensteuer", officially called "Kirchenbeitrag", i. e. "church contribution") has to be paid by members of the Catholic and Protestant Church. It is levied by the churches

Denmark.

All members of the Church of Denmark pay a church

Finland.

Members of state churches pay a church tax of between 1% and 2% of income, depending on

Germany.

Germany levies a church tax, on all persons declaring themselves to be Christians, of roughly 8–9% of their income tax, which is effectively (very much depending on the social and financial situation) typically between 0.2% and 1.5% of the total income. The proceeds are shared among Catholic, Lutheran, and other Protestant Churches.  The church tax ("Kirchensteuer") traces its roots back as far as the "Reichsdeputationshauptschluss" of 1803. It was reaffirmed in the Concordat of 1933 between Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church. Today its legal basis is article 140 of the "Grundgesetz" (the German "constitution") in connection with article 137 of the Weimar Constitution. These laws originally merely allowed the churches themselves to tax their members, but in Nazi Germany, collection of church taxes was transferred to the German government. As a result, both the German government and the

Italy.

Originally the Italian government of Benito Mussolini, under the Lateran treaties of 1929 with the Holy See, paid a monthly salary to Catholic clergymen. This salary was called the "congrua". The eight per thousand law was created as a result of an agreement, in 1984, between the Italian Republic and the Holy See.  Under this law Italian taxpayers are able to vote how to partition the 0.8% ('eight per thousand') of the total income tax IRPEF levied by

Scotland.

In Scotland "teinds" were the tenths of certain produce of the land appropriated to the maintenance of the Church and clergy. At the Reformation most of the Church property was acquired by the Crown, nobles and landowners. In 1567 the Privy Council of Scotland provided that

Switzerland.

There is no official state church in Switzerland; however, all the 26 cantons (states) financially support at least one of the three traditional denominations — Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, or Protestant — with funds collected through taxation. Each canton has its own regulations regarding the relationship between church and state. In some cantons, the church tax (up to 2.3 per cent) is voluntary but in others an individual who chooses not to contribute to church tax may formally have to leave the church. In some cantons private companies are unable to avoid payment of the church tax.

Tithes and tithe law in England before reform.

Excerpts from Sir William Blackstone, "Commentaries on the Laws of England":

Definition and classification and those liable to pay tithes.

... tithes; which are defined to be the tenth part of the increase, yearly arising and renewing from the profits of lands, the stock upon lands, and the personal industry of the inhabitants: in general, tithes are to be paid for every thing that

History.

We cannot precisely ascertain the time when tithes were first introduced into this country. Possibly they were contemporary with the planting of Christianity among the Saxons, by Augustin the monk, about the end of the fifth century. But the first mention of them, which I have met with in any written English law, is in a constitutional decree, made in a synod held A.D. 786, wherein the payment

Beneficiaries.

And upon their first introduction (as hath formerly been observed), though every man was obliged to pay tithes in general, yet he might give them to what priests he pleased; which were called "arbitrary" consecrations of tithes: or he might pay them into the hands of the bishop, who distributed among his diocesan clergy the revenues of the church, which were then in common. But, when dioceses were divided into

Exemptions.

We observed that tithes are due to the parson of common right, unless by special exemption: let us therefore see, thirdly, who may be exempted from the payment of tithes... either in part or totally, first, by a real composition; or secondly, by custom or prescription.  First, a real composition is when an agreement is made between the owner of the lands, and the parson or vicar, with the consent of the ordinary and the patron, that such lands shall for the future be discharged from payment of tithes, by reason of some land or other real recompence given to the parson, in lieu and satisfaction thereof.  Secondly, a discharge by custom or prescription, is where time out of mind such persons or such lands have been, either partially or totally, discharged from the payment of tithes. And this immemorial usage is binding upon all parties, as it is in its nature an evidence of universal consent and acquiescence; and with reason supposes a real composition to have been formerly made. This custom or prescription is either "de modo decimandi", or "de non-decimando".  A "modus decimandi", commonly called

Islam.

Zakāt ( ) or "alms giving", one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is the giving of a small percentage of one's assets to charity. It serves principally as the welfare contribution to poor and deprived Muslims, although others may have a rightful share. It is the duty of an Islamic state not just to collect zakat but to distribute it fairly as well.  Zakat is payable on three kinds of assets: wealth, production, and animals. The more well-known zakat on wealth is 2.5 per cent of accumulated wealth, beyond one's personal needs. Production (agricultural, industrial, renting, etc.), is subject to a 10 per cent or 5 per cent zakat (also known as Ushur (عُشر), or "one-tenth"), using the rule that if both labor and capital are involved, 5% rate is applied, if only one of the two are used for production, then the rate is 10 per cent. For any earnings, that require neither labor nor capital, like finding underground treasure, the rate is 20 per cent. The rules for zakat on animal

Sikhism.

"Daswandh" (Punjabi: ਦਸਵੰਧ), sometimes spelled "Dasvandh", is the one tenth part (or 10 per cent) of one's income that should be donated in the name of the God, according to Sikh principles.

A tithe (; from Old English: "teogoþa" "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural produce. Several European countries impose a church tax linked to the tax system to financially support their national church.

什一奉献(或什一税、什一捐),常用于指犹太教和基督宗教的宗教奉献,欧洲封建社会时代用来指教会向成年教徒征收的宗教税。


Taxonomy.

Mollymawks are albatrosses in the family Diomedeidae and order Procellariiformes, which also includes shearwaters, fulmars, storm petrels, and diving petrels. These birds share certain identifying features. They have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns, although the nostrils on the albatross are on the sides of the bill. The bills of Procellariiformes are also unique in that they are split into between seven and nine horny plates. They produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This is used against predators as well as being an energy-rich food source for chicks and also for the adults during their long flights. The albatross also has a salt gland above the nasal passage which helps to remove salt from the ocean water that they imbibe. The gland excretes a high saline solution through the bird's nose.  In 1998, Robertson and Nunn published their view that the Campbell albatross ("Thalassarche impavida"), should be split from this species ("T. melanophris"). Over the course of the next few years, others agreed, including BirdLife International in 2000, and Brooke in 2004. James Clements did not adopt the split, the ACAP has not yet adopted the split, and the SACC recognizes the need for a proposal.  The black-browed albatross was first described as "Diomedea melanophris" by Coenraad Jacob Temminck, in 1828, based on a specimen from the Cape of Good Hope.

Etymology.

The origin of the name "melanophris" comes from two Greek words "melas" or "melanos", meaning "black", and "ophris", meaning "eyebrow", referring to dark feathering around the eyes.

Description.

The black-browed albatross is a medium-sized albatross, at long with a wingspan and an average weight of. It can have a natural lifespan of over 70 years. It has a dark grey saddle and upperwings that contrast with the white rump, and underparts. The underwing is predominantly white with broad, irregular, black margins. It has a dark eyebrow and a yellow-orange bill with a darker reddish-orange tip. Juveniles have dark horn-colored bills with dark tips, and a grey head and collar. They also have dark underwings. The features that distinguish it from other mollymawks (except the closely related Campbell albatross) are the dark eyestripe which gives it its name, a broad black edging to the white underside of its wings, white head and orange bill, tipped darker orange. The Campbell albatross is very similar but with a pale eye. Immature birds are similar to grey-headed albatrosses but the latter have wholly dark bills and more complete dark head markings.

Range and habitat.

The black-browed albatross is circumpolar in the southern oceans, and it breeds on 12 islands throughout that range. In the Atlantic Ocean, it breeds on the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the Cape Horn Islands. In the Pacific Ocean it breeds on Islas Ildefonso, Diego de Almagro, Islas Evangelistas, Campbell Island, Antipodes Islands, Snares Islands, and Macquarie Island. In the Indian Ocean it breeds on the Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island, and McDonald Island.  There are an estimated 1,220,000 birds alive with 600,853 breeding pairs, as estimated by a 2005 count. Of these birds, 402,571 breed in the Falklands, 72,102 breed on South Georgia Island, 120,171 breed on the Chilean islands of Islas Ildefonso, Diego de Almagro, Islas Evangelistas, and Islas Diego Ramírez. 600 pairs breed on Heard Island, Finally, the remaining 5,409 pairs breed on the remaining islands. This particular species of albatross prefers to forage over shelf and shelf-break areas. Falkland Island birds winter near the Patagonian Shelf, and birds from South Georgia forage in South African waters, using the Benguela Current, and the Chilean birds forage over the Patagonian Shelf, the Chilean Shelf, and even make it as far as New Zealand. It is the most likely albatross to be found in the North Atlantic due to a northerly migratory tendency. There have been 20 possible sightings in the Continental United States. 0n 13 May 2017, an individual was seen off the coast at Bempton Cliffs, England.

Behaviour.

Colonies are very noisy as they bray to mark their territory, and also cackle harshly. They use their fanned tail in courting displays.

Feeding.

The black-browed albatross feeds on fish, squid, crustaceans, carrion, and fishery discards. This species has been observed stealing food from other species.

Reproduction.

This species normally nests on steep slopes covered with tussock grass and sometimes on cliffs; however, on the Falklands it nests on flat grassland on the coast. They are an annual breeder laying one egg from between 20 September and 1 November, although the Falklands, Crozet, and Kerguelen breeders lay about three weeks earlier. Incubation is done by both sexes and lasts 68 to 71 days. After hatching, the chicks take 120 to 130 days to fledge. Juveniles will return to the colony after two to three years but only to practice courtship rituals, as they start breeding around the 10th year.

Conservation.

Until 2013, the IUCN classified this species as endangered due to a drastic reduction in population. Bird Island near South Georgia Island had a 4% per year loss of nesting pairs, and the Kerguelen Island population had a 17% reduction from 1979 to 1995. Diego Ramírez decreased in the 1980s but has rebounded recently, and the Falklands had a surge in the 1980s probably due to abundant fish waste from trawlers; however, recent censuses have shown drastic reduction in the majority of the nesting sites there. There has been a 67% decline in the population over 64 years.  Increased longline fishing in the southern oceans, especially around the Patagonian Shelf and around South Georgia has been attributed as a major cause of the decline of this bird, The black-browed albatross has been found to be the most common bird killed by fisheries. Trawl fishing, especially around the Patagonian Shelf and near South Africa, is also a large cause of deaths.  Conservation efforts underway start with this species being placed on Convention on Migratory Species Appendix II, and Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels Annex 1. It is being monitored on half of the islands, and most of the breeding sites are reserves. Heard Island, McDonald Island, Macquarie Island, and the New Zealand islands are World Heritage Sites. An initial Chilean census has also been completed.

Vagrancy.

Although this is a rare occurrence, on several occasions a black-browed albatross has summered in Scottish gannet colonies (Bass Rock, Hermaness and now Sula Sgeir) for a number of years. Ornithologists believe that it was the same bird, known as "Albert", who lives in north Scotland. It is believed that the bird was blown off course into the North Atlantic in 1967. A similar incident took place in the gannet colony in the Faroe Islands island of Mykines, where a black-browed albatross lived among the gannets for over 30 years. This incident is the reason why an albatross is referred to as a "gannet king" (Faroese: súlukongur) in Faroese. In July 2013 the first recorded sighting of a black-browed albatross in the Bahamas was made from the Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organisation's research vessel, off Sandy Point, Abaco. For four consecutive years from 2014 on, a bird - probably the same individual named "Albert" - has been sighted over Heligoland, and on the east coast of England.

The black-browed albatross ("Thalassarche melanophris"), also known as the black-browed mollymawk, is a large seabird of the albatross family Diomedeidae; it is the most widespread and common member of its family.

黑眉信天翁(学名:)是一种大型及分布最广和普遍的信天翁。


Early life.

Samuel Leroy Jackson was born in Washington, D.C. on December 21, 1948, the only child of Elizabeth Harriett (née Montgomery) and Roy Henry Jackson. He grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His father lived away from the family in Kansas City, Missouri, and later died of alcoholism. Jackson met him only twice during his life. He was raised by his mother, a factory worker and later a supplies buyer for a mental institution; he was also raised by his maternal grandparents, Edgar and Pearl Montgomery, as well as extended family. According to DNA tests, Jackson partially descends from the Benga people of Gabon, and he became a naturalized citizen of Gabon in 2019. He attended several segregated schools and graduated from Riverside High School in Chattanooga. He played the French horn, piccolo, trumpet, and flute in the school orchestra. During childhood, he had a stuttering problem. While he eventually learned to "pretend to be other people who didn't stutter" and use the curse word "motherfucker" as an affirmation word, he still has days where he stutters. Initially intent on pursuing a degree in marine biology, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. After joining a local acting group to earn extra points in a class, he found an interest in acting and switched his major. Before graduating in 1972, he co-founded the Just Us Theatre.  After Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968, Jackson attended King's funeral in Atlanta as one of the ushers. He then travelled to Memphis, Tennessee, to join an equal rights protest march. In a 2005 "Parade" interview, he revealed, "I was angry about the assassination, but I wasn't shocked by it. I knew that change was going to take something different – not sit-ins, not peaceful coexistence." In 1969, Jackson and several other students held members of the Morehouse College board of trustees (including a nearby Martin Luther King Sr.) hostage on the campus, demanding reform in the school's curriculum and governance. The college eventually agreed to change its policy, but Jackson was charged with and eventually convicted of unlawful confinement, a second-degree felony. He was then suspended for two years for his criminal record and his actions. He would later return to the college to earn a BA in drama in 1972. While he was suspended, he took a job as a social worker in Los Angeles. He decided to return to Atlanta, where he met with Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, and others active in the Black Power movement. He began to feel empowered with his involvement in the movement, especially when the group began buying guns. However, before he could become involved with any significant armed confrontations, his mother sent him to Los Angeles after the FBI warned her that he would die within a year if he remained with the group. In a 2018 interview with "Vogue", he denied having been a member of the Black Panther Party.

Career.

1970s.

Jackson initially majored in marine biology at Morehouse College before switching to architecture. He later settled on drama after taking a public speaking class and appearing in a version of "The Threepenny Opera". Jackson began acting on the stage, including "Home" and "A Soldier's Play". He appeared in several television films, and made his feature film debut in the blaxploitation independent film "Together for Days" (1972). After these initial roles, Jackson moved from Atlanta to New York City in 1976 and spent the next decade appearing in stage plays, including the premiers of "The Piano Lesson" and "Two Trains Running" at the Yale Repertory Theater. Jackson developed addictions to alcohol and cocaine, which prevented him from proceeding with the two plays to Broadway (actors Charles S. Dutton and Anthony Chisholm took his place). Throughout his early film career, mainly in minimal roles in films such as "Coming to America" and various television films, Jackson was mentored by Morgan Freeman.

1980s.

After a 1981 performance in the play "A Soldier's Play", Jackson was introduced to director Spike Lee, who cast him for small roles in "School Daze" (1988) and "Do the Right Thing" (1989). He also worked for three years as a stand-in for Bill Cosby on "The Cosby Show".

1990s.

Jackson played a minor role in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film "Goodfellas", as real-life Mafia associate Stacks Edwards. Having overdosed on heroin several times, he gave up the drug in favor of cocaine. His family entered him into a New York rehabilitation clinic. After he successfully completed rehabilitation, he appeared in "Jungle Fever" as a crack cocaine addict. Jackson said that the role was cathartic, commenting, "It was a funny kind of thing. By the time I was out of rehab, about a week or so later I was on set and we were ready to start shooting." The film was so acclaimed that the 1991 Cannes Film Festival created a special "Supporting Actor" award just for him. Following this role, Jackson became involved with the comedy "Strictly Business" and dramas "Juice" and "Patriot Games". He then moved on to two other comedies: "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1" (his first starring role) and "Amos & Andrew". Jackson worked with director Steven Spielberg in 1993's "Jurassic Park".  After a turn as the criminal Big Don in 1993's "True Romance"—written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott—Tarantino asked Jackson to play Jules Winnfield in "Pulp Fiction". Jackson was surprised to learn that the part had been specifically written for him: "To know that somebody had written something like Jules for me. I was overwhelmed, thankful, arrogant—this whole combination of things that you could be, knowing that somebody's going to give you an opportunity like that." Although "Pulp Fiction" was Jackson's thirtieth film, the role made him internationally recognized and he received praise from critics. In a review by "Entertainment Weekly", his role was commended: "As superb as Travolta, Willis, and Keitel are, the actor who reigns over "Pulp Fiction" is Samuel L. Jackson. He just about lights fires with his gremlin eyes and he transforms his speeches into hypnotic bebop soliloquies." For the Academy Awards, Miramax Films pushed for, and received, the Best Supporting Actor nomination for Jackson. He also received a Golden Globe nomination and won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Role.  After "Pulp Fiction", Jackson received multiple scripts to review: "I could easily have made a career out of playing Jules over the years. Everybody's always sending me the script they think is the new "Pulp Fiction"." With a succession of poor-performing films such as "Kiss of Death", "The Great White Hype", and "Losing Isaiah", Jackson began to receive poor reviews from critics who had praised his performance in "Pulp Fiction". This ended with his involvement in the two box-office successes, "Die Hard with a Vengeance", starring alongside Bruce Willis in the third installment of the "Die Hard" series; and "A Time to Kill", where he played a father put on trial for killing two men who raped his daughter. For "A Time to Kill", Jackson earned an NAACP Image for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture and a Golden Globe nomination for a Best Supporting Actor.  Quickly becoming a box office star, Jackson continued with three starring roles in 1997. In "187" he played a dedicated teacher striving to leave an impact on his students. He received an Independent Spirit award for Best First Feature alongside first-time writer/director Kasi Lemmons in the drama "Eve's Bayou", for which he also served as executive producer. He joined up again with Tarantino for "Jackie Brown" and received the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival and a fourth Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of arms merchant Ordell Robbie In 1998, he worked with established actors: Sharon Stone and Dustin Hoffman in "Sphere;" and Kevin Spacey in "The Negotiator", playing a hostage negotiator who resorts to taking hostages himself when he is falsely accused of murder and embezzlement. In 1999, Jackson starred in the horror film "Deep Blue Sea", and as Jedi Master Mace Windu in George Lucas' "". In an interview, Jackson claimed that he did not have a chance to read the script for the film and did not learn he was playing the character Mace Windu until he was fitted for his costume (though he later said that he was eager to accept any role, just for the chance to be a part of the "Star Wars" saga).

2000s.

On June 13, 2000, Jackson was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7018 Hollywood Blvd. He began the next decade of his film career playing a Marine colonel put on trial in "Rules of Engagement", co-starred with Bruce Willis for a third time in the supernatural thriller "Unbreakable", and starred in the 2000 remake of the 1971 film "Shaft". He reprised both of the latter roles in 2019, his "Unbreakable" character Mr. Glass in "Glass" and Shaft in another film titled "Shaft". Jackson's sole film in 2001 was "The Caveman's Valentine", a murder thriller directed by Lemmons in which he played a homeless musician. In 2002, he played a recovering alcoholic, attempting to keep custody of his kids while fighting a battle of wits (in "Changing Lanes") with Ben Affleck's character. He returned for "", seeing his minor supporting role develop into a major character. Mace Windu's purple lightsaber in the film was the result of Jackson's suggestion; he wanted to be sure that his character would stand out in a crowded battle scene. Jackson then acted as an NSA agent, alongside Vin Diesel in "XXX", and as a kilt-wearing drug dealer in "The 51st State". In 2003, Jackson again worked with John Travolta in "Basic" and then as a police sergeant alongside Colin Farrell in the television show remake "SWAT" A song within the soundtrack was named after him, entitled "Sammy L. Jackson" by Hot Action Cop. Jackson also appeared in HBO's documentary "Unchained Memories", as a narrator along many other stars like Angela Bassett and Whoopi Goldberg. Based on reviews gathered by Rotten Tomatoes, in 2004 Jackson starred in both his lowest and highest ranked films in his career. In the thriller "Twisted", Jackson played a mentor to Ashley Judd. The film garnered a 2% approval rating on the website, with reviewers calling his performance "lackluster" and "wasted". He then lent his voice to the computer-animated film "The Incredibles" as the superhero Frozone. The film received a 97% approval rating, and Jackson's performance earned him an Annie Award nomination for Best Voice Acting. He then went on to do a cameo in another Quentin Tarantino film, "".  In 2005, he starred in the sports drama "Coach Carter", where he played a coach (based on the actual coach Ken Carter) dedicated to teaching his players that education is more important than basketball. Although the film received mixed reviews, Jackson's performance was praised despite the film's storyline. Bob Townsend of the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" commended Jackson's performance, "He takes what could have been a cardboard cliché role and puts flesh on it with his flamboyant intelligence." Jackson also returned for two sequels: "", this time commanding Ice Cube, and the final "Star Wars" prequel film, "". His last film for 2005 was "The Man" alongside comedian Eugene Levy. On November 4, 2005, he was presented with the Hawaii International Film Festival Achievement in Acting Award.  On January 30, 2006, Jackson was honored with a hand and footprint ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre; he is the seventh African American and 191st actor to be recognized in this manner. In an interview that year, he said that he chooses roles that are "exciting to watch" and have an "interesting character inside of a story", and that in his roles he wanted to "do things [he hasn't] done, things [he] saw as a kid and wanted to do and now [has] an opportunity to do". He next starred opposite actress Julianne Moore in the box office bomb "Freedomland", where he depicted a police detective attempting to help a mother find her abducted child while quelling a citywide race riot. Jackson's second film of the year, "Snakes on a Plane", gained cult film status months before it was released based on its title and cast. Jackson's decision to star in the film was solely based on the title. To build anticipation for the film, he also cameoed in the 2006 music video "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)" by Cobra Starship. On December 2, 2006, Jackson won the German Bambi Award for International Film, based on his many film contributions. In December 2006, Jackson starred in "Home of the Brave", as a doctor returning home from the Iraq War. On January 30, 2007, Jackson was featured as narrator in Bob Saget's direct-to-DVD "Farce of the Penguins". The film was a spoof of the box office success "March of the Penguins" (which was narrated by Morgan Freeman). Also in 2007, he portrayed a blues player who imprisons a young woman (Christina Ricci) addicted to sex in "Black Snake Moan", and the horror film "1408", an adaptation of the Stephen King short story. Later the same year, Jackson portrayed an athlete who impersonates former boxing heavyweight Bob Satterfield in director Rod Lurie's drama, "Resurrecting the Champ". In 2008, Jackson reprised his role of Mace Windu in the CGI film, "", followed by "Lakeview Terrace" where he played a racist cop who terrorizes an interracial couple. In November of the same year, he starred along with Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes (who both died before the film's release) in "Soul Men". In 2008, he portrayed the villain in "The Spirit", which was poorly received by critics and the box office. In 2009, he again worked with Quentin Tarantino when he narrated several scenes in the World War II film "Inglourious Basterds".

2010s.

In 2010, he starred in the drama "Mother and Child" and portrayed an interrogator who attempts to locate several nuclear weapons in the direct-to-video film "Unthinkable". Alongside Dwayne Johnson, Jackson again portrayed a police officer in the opening scenes of the comedy "The Other Guys". He also co-starred with Tommy Lee Jones for a film adaptation of "The Sunset Limited".  Throughout Jackson's career, he has appeared in many films alongside mainstream rappers. These include Tupac Shakur ("Juice"), Queen Latifah ("Juice"/"Sphere"/"Jungle Fever"), Method Man ("One Eight Seven"), LL Cool J ("Deep Blue Sea"/"S.W.A.T."), Busta Rhymes ("Shaft"), Eve ("xXx"), Ice Cube ("xXx: State of the Union"), Xzibit ("xXx: State of the Union"), David Banner ("Black Snake Moan"), and 50 Cent ("Home of the Brave"). Additionally, Jackson has appeared in five films with actor Bruce Willis (National Lampoon's "Loaded Weapon 1", "Pulp Fiction", "Die Hard with a Vengeance", "Unbreakable", and "Glass") and the actors were slated to work together in "Black Water Transit" before both dropped out.  In 2002, Jackson gave his consent for Marvel Comics to design their "Ultimate" version of the character Nick Fury after his likeness. In the 2008 film "Iron Man", he made a cameo as the character in a post-credit scene. In February 2009, Jackson signed on to a nine-picture deal with Marvel which would see him appear as the character in "Iron Man 2", "Thor", "", and "The Avengers" as well as any other sequels they would produce. He reprised the role in "" (2014) and "" (2015). In February 2015, Jackson stated that he only has two movies left on his Marvel contract following "Ultron". In 2018 and 2019, Jackson made cameo appearances as Fury in the Avengers sequels "" and "", and starred as a younger, de-aged Fury in "Captain Marvel" alongside Brie Larson.  Among his more recent film roles, Jackson appeared in Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained", which was released December 25, 2012, Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight", which was released in 70mm on December 25, 2015, and Jordan Vogt-Roberts' "", which was released on March 10, 2017. In 2019, Jackson reprised his "Unbreakable" role as Mr. Glass in the film "Glass", and his Shaft role in "Shaft", both sequels to his 2000 films. Also in 2019, he appeared in the Brie Larson film "Unicorn Store", and had a prominent role as Nick Fury in the Marvel film "".

Upcoming films.

He is set to produce a live-action film adaptation of "Afro Samurai", and is assuming the role of Sho'nuff in a remake of "The Last Dragon".

Television and other roles.

In addition to films, Jackson also appeared in several television shows, a video game, music videos, as well as audiobooks. Jackson had a small part in the Public Enemy music video for "911 Is a Joke". Jackson voiced several television show characters, including the lead role in the anime series, "Afro Samurai", in addition to a recurring part as the voice of Gin Rummy in several episodes of the animated series "The Boondocks". He was in the Pilot for Ghostwriter. He guest-starred as himself in an episode of the BBC/HBO sitcom "Extras". He voiced the main antagonist,, in the video game "". Jackson also hosted a variety of awards shows. He has hosted the MTV Movie Awards (1998), the ESPYs (1999, 2001, 2002, and 2009), and the Spike TV Video Game Awards (2005, 2006, 2007, and 2012). In November 2006, he provided the voice of God for "The Bible Experience", the New Testament audiobook version of the Bible. He was given the lead role because producers believed his deep, authoritative voice would best fit the role. He also recorded the Audible.com audiobook of "Go the Fuck to Sleep". For the Atlanta Falcons' 2010 season, Jackson portrayed Rev. Sultan in the Falcons "Rise Up" commercial.  He reprised his role as Nick Fury in a cameo appearance on "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." in 2013 and the season finale in 2014.  He also appeared in the Capital One cash-back credit card commercials.  Jackson released a song about social justice with KRS-One, Sticky Fingaz, Mad Lion & Talib Kweli about violence in America called "I Can't Breathe" which were the last words said by Eric Garner.

Box office performance.

Throughout the 1990s, A.C. Neilson E.C.I., a box office tracking company, determined that Jackson appeared in more films than any other actor who grossed $1.7 billion domestically. By 2011, the films that featured Jackson as a leading actor or supporting co-star have grossed a total of $2.81 to $4.91 billion at the North American box office. This placed him as the seventh highest-grossing lead actor and the second highest-grossing actor, behind only voice actor Frank Welker. The 2009 edition of "The Guinness World Records", which uses a different calculation to determine film grosses, stated that Jackson is the world's highest grossing actor, having earned $7.42 billion in 68 films.

Personal life.

In 1980, Jackson married actress and producer LaTanya Richardson, whom he met while attending Morehouse College. The couple have a daughter named Zoe (born 1982). In 2009, they started their own charity to help support education. Jackson has said that he watches his own films in cinemas: "Even during my theater years, I wished I could watch the plays I was inwhile I was in them! I dig watching myself work." He also enjoys collecting the action figures of the characters he portrays in his films, including Jules Winnfield, Shaft, Mace Windu, and Frozone.  Jackson is bald but enjoys wearing wigs in his films. He said about his decision to shave his head, "I keep ending up on those 'bald is beautiful' lists. It's cool. You know, when I started losing my hair, it was during the era when everybody had lots of hair. All of a sudden, I felt this big hole in the middle of my afro. I couldn't face having a comb over so I had to quickly figure what the haircut for me was." His first bald role was in "The Great White Hype". He usually gets to pick his own hairstyles for each character he portrays. He poked fun at his baldness the first time he appeared bald on "The Tonight Show", explaining that he had to shave his head for one role, but then kept receiving more and more bald roles and had to keep shaving his head so that wigs could be made for him. He joked that "the only way [he's] gonna have time to grow [his] hair back is if [he's] not working". He is noted for often wearing a Kangol hat in public.  Jackson has a clause in his contracts that allows him to play golf during film shoots. He has played in the Gary Player Invitational charity golf tournament to assist Gary Player in raising funds for children in South Africa. Jackson is a keen basketball fan, supporting the Toronto Raptors and the Harlem Globetrotters. He has supported English soccer team Liverpool FC since appearing in "The 51st State", which was shot in Liverpool. He also supports Irish soccer team Bohemian FC.  Jackson campaigned during the 2008 Democratic Primary for Barack Obama in Texarkana, Texas. He said, "Barack Obama represents everything I was told I could be growing up. I am a child of segregation. When I grew up and people told me I could be president, I knew it was a lie. But now we have a representative... the American Dream is a reality. Anyone can grow up to be a president." He also said, "I voted for Barack because he was black. That's why other folks vote for other peoplebecause they look like them". He compared his "Django Unchained" character, a villainous house slave, to black conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, saying that the character has "the same moral compass as Clarence Thomas does".  In June 2013, Jackson launched a joint campaign with Prizeo in an effort to raise money to fight Alzheimer's disease. As part of the campaign, he recited various fan-written monologues and a popular scene from the AMC series "Breaking Bad". In August 2013, he started a vegan diet for health reasons, explaining that he is "just trying to live forever", and attributed a weight loss to his new diet. He had largely abandoned the diet by March 2017, but still praised it. He launched a campaign called "One for the Boys", which teaches men about testicular cancer and urges them to "get themselves checked out".

Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer. Widely regarded as one of the most popular actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him the highest-grossing actor of all time (when cameo appearances are excluded). He rose to fame with films such as "Goodfellas" (1990), "Jungle Fever" (1991), "Patriot Games" (1992), "Amos & Andrew" (1993), "True Romance" (1993), and "Jurassic Park" (1993), and has especially been noted for his roles in the Quentin Tarantino films "Pulp Fiction" (1994), "Jackie Brown" (1997), "Django Unchained" (2012), and "The Hateful Eight" (2015). For his role in "Pulp Fiction", he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

山缪·勒罗伊·杰克森(英语:Samuel Leroy Jackson,1948年-12月21日)是一位美国男演员及监制。最广为人知的作品有《侏罗纪公园》、《危险人物》和《星球大战前传I》、《星际大战II》及《星际大战III》,近作则有《复仇者联盟》等。


Award.

The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) gives out the Hugo Awards each year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The Hugos are widely considered the premier award in science fiction. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, who founded the pioneering science fiction magazine "Amazing Stories" and who is considered one of the "fathers" of the science fiction genre. Works are eligible for an award if they were published in the prior calendar year, or translated into English in the prior calendar year. There are no written rules as to which works qualify as science fiction or fantasy, and the decision of eligibility in that regard is left up to the voters, rather than to the organizing committee. Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, and the presentation evening constitutes its central event. The selection process is defined in the WSFS constitution as instant-runoff voting with six nominees per category, except in the case of a tie. The awards are split over more than a dozen categories, and include both written and dramatic works.  For each category of Hugo, the voter may rank "No Award" as one of their choices. Voters are instructed that they should do so if they feel that none of the nominees are worthy of the award, or if they feel the category should be abolished entirely. A vote for "No Award" other than as one's first choice signifies that the voter believes the nominees ranked higher than "No Award" are worthy of a Hugo in that category, while those ranked lower are not.  The six works on the ballot for each category are the most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of stories that can be nominated. With the exception of 1956, the first years of the awards did not include any recognition of runner-up novels, but since 1959 all of the candidates have been recorded. Initial nominations are made by members in January through March, while voting on the ballot of six nominations is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held. Prior to 2017, the final ballot was five works in each category. Worldcons are generally held near the start of September, and take place in a different city around the world each year.  The idea of giving out awards at Worldcons was proposed by Harold Lynch for the 1953 convention. The idea was based on the Academy Awards, with the name "Hugo" being given by Robert A. Madle. The award trophy was created by Jack McKnight and Ben Jason in 1953, based on the design of hood ornaments of 1950s cars. It consisted of a finned rocket ship on a wooden base. Each subsequent trophy, with the exception of the 1958 trophy, has been similar to the original design. The rocket trophy was formally redesigned in 1984, and since then only the base of the trophy has changed each year. There is no monetary or other remuneration associated with the Hugo, other than the trophy.

Retro-Hugos.

Retrospective Hugo Awards, or Retro-Hugos, were added to the ballot beginning in 1996. They are awards optionally given by a Worldcon for works eligible in a year 50, 75, or 100 years earlier when there was a Worldcon but no Hugo Award. A 2017 rule change expanded the criteria to works which would have been eligible in any year after 1939 in which no Hugos were awarded, whether or not there was a Worldcon that year.  According to the current rule, awards can be given for 1939-1952 and 1954, with works from the previous year eligible, fifteen years in all. Awards have been given for seven of those years, and in 2020 a 1945 Retro-Hugo will be awarded for works published in 1944.

History.

1950s.

The first Hugo Awards were presented at the 11th Worldcon in Philadelphia in 1953, which awarded Hugos in seven categories. The awards presented that year were initially conceived as a one-off event, though the organizers hoped that subsequent conventions would also present them. At the time, Worldcons were completely run by their respective committees as independent events and had no oversight between years. Thus there was no mandate for any future conventions to repeat the awards, and no set rules for how to do so.  The 1954 Worldcon chose not to, but the awards were reinstated at the 1955 Worldcon, and thereafter became traditional. The award was called the Annual Science Fiction Achievement Award, with "Hugo Award" being an unofficial, but better known name. The nickname was accepted as an official alternative name in 1958, and since the 1992 awards the nickname has been adopted as the official name of the award.  In 1959, though there were still no formal guidelines governing the awards, several rules were instated which thereafter became traditional. These included having a ballot for nominating works earlier in the year and separate from the voting ballot; defining eligibility to include works published in the prior calendar year, rather than the previous rule of the "preceding year"; and allowing voters to select "no award" as an option, which then won that year in two categories: Dramatic Presentation and Best New Author. The eligibility change additionally sparked a separate rule, prohibiting the nomination of works which had been nominated for the 1958 awards, as the two time periods overlapped.

1960s.

In 1961, after the formation of the WSFS to oversee each Worldcon committee, formal rules were set down in the WSFS constitution mandating the presenting of the awards as one of the responsibilities of each Worldcon organizing committee. The rules restricted voting to members of the convention at which the awards would be given, while still allowing anyone to nominate works; nominations were restricted to members of the convention or the previous year's convention in 1963. The guidelines also specified the categories that would be awarded, which could only be changed by the World Science Fiction Society board. These categories were for Best Novel, Short Fiction (short stories, broadly defined), Dramatic Presentation, Professional Magazine, Professional Artist, and Best Fanzine (fan magazine). 1963 was also the second year in which "no award" won a category, again for Dramatic Presentation.  In 1964 the guidelines were changed to allow individual conventions to create additional categories, which was codified as up to two categories for that year. These additional awards were officially designated as Hugo Awards, but were not required to be repeated by future conventions. This was later adjusted to only allow one additional category; while these extra Hugo Awards have been given out in several categories, only a few were ever awarded for more than one year.  In 1967 categories for Novelette, Fan Writer, and Fan Artist were added, and a category for Best Novella was added the following year; these new categories had the effect of providing a definition for what word count qualified a work for what category, which was previously left up to voters. Novelettes had also been awarded prior to the codification of the rules. The fan awards were initially conceived as separate from the Hugo Awards, with the award for Best Fanzine losing its status, but were instead absorbed into the regular Hugo Awards by the convention committee.

1970s.

While traditionally five works had been selected for nomination in each category out of the proposed nominees, in 1971 this was set down as a formal rule, barring ties. In 1973, the WSFS removed the category for Best Professional Magazine, and a Best Professional Editor award was instated as its replacement, in order to recognize "the increasing importance of original anthologies".  After that year the guidelines were changed again to remove the mandated awards and instead allow up to ten categories which would be chosen by each convention, though they were expected to be similar to those presented in the year before. Despite this change no new awards were added or previous awards removed before the guidelines were changed back to listing specific categories in 1977. 1971 and 1977 both saw "no award" win the Dramatic Presentation category for the third and fourth time; "no award" did not win any categories afterwards until 2015.

1980s and 90s.

In 1980 the category for Best Non-Fiction Book (later renamed Best Related Work) was added, followed by a category for Best Semiprozine (semi-professional magazine) in 1984. In 1983, members of the Church of Scientology were encouraged by people such as Charles Platt to nominate as a bloc "Battlefield Earth", written by the organization's founder L. Ron Hubbard, for the Best Novel award; it did not make the final ballot. Another campaign followed in 1987 to nominate Hubbard's "Black Genesis"; it made the final ballot but finished behind "no award". 1989 saw a work—"The Guardsman" by Todd Hamilton and P. J. Beese—withdrawn by its authors from the final ballot after a fan bought numerous memberships under false names, all sent in on the same day, in order to get the work onto the ballot.  In 1990 the Best Original Art Work award was given as an extra Hugo Award, and was listed again in 1991, though not actually awarded, and established afterward as an official Hugo Award. It was then removed from this status in 1996, and has not been awarded since. The Retro Hugos were created in the mid-1990s, and were first awarded in 1996.

Since 2000.

In 2003, the Dramatic Presentation award was split into two categories, Long Form and Short Form. This was repeated with the Best Professional Editor category in 2007. 2009 saw the addition of the Best Graphic Story category, and in 2012 an award for Best Fancast was added.  In 2015, two groups of science fiction writers, the "Sad Puppies" led by Brad R. Torgersen and Larry Correia, and the "Rabid Puppies" led by Vox Day, each put forward a similar slate of suggested nominations which came to dominate the ballot. The Sad Puppies campaign had run for two years prior on a smaller scale, with limited success. The leaders of the campaigns characterized them as a reaction to "niche, academic, overtly [leftist]" nominees and the Hugo becoming "an affirmative action award" that preferred female and non-white authors and characters. In response, five nominees declined their nomination before and, for the first time, two after the ballot was published. Multiple-Hugo-winner Connie Willis declined to present the awards. The slates were characterized by "The Guardian" as a "right wing", "orchestrated backlash" and by "The A.V. Club" as a "group of white guys", and were linked with the Gamergate controversy. Multiple Hugo winner Samuel R. Delany characterized the campaigns as a response to "socio-economic" changes such as minority authors gaining prominence and thus "economic heft". In all but the Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form category, "no award" placed above all nominees that were on either slate, and it won all five categories that only contained slate nominees. The two campaigns were repeated in 2016 with some changes, and the "Rabid Puppy" slate again dominated the ballot in several categories, with all five nominees in Best Related Work, Best Graphic Story, Best Professional Artist, and Best Fancast.  In response to the campaigns, a set of new rules, called "E Pluribus Hugo", were passed in 2015 and ratified in 2016 to modify the nominations process. Intended to ensure that organized minority groups cannot dominate every finalist position in a category, the new rules define a voting system in which nominees are eliminated one by one, with each vote for an eliminated work then spread out over the uneliminated works they nominated, until only the final shortlist remains. These rules were ratified in 2016 to be used for the first time in 2017. A rule mandating that the final nominees must appear on at least five percent of ballots was also eliminated, to ensure that all categories could reach a full set of nominees even when the initial pool of works was very large. Each nominator is limited to five works in each category, but the final ballot was changed to six in each; additionally, no more than two works by a given author or group, or in the same dramatic series, can be in one category on the final ballot.  In 2018 the newest permanent category, Best Series, was begun; it was run the year prior as a special Hugo Award prior to being ratified at the business meeting.

Categories.

Worldcon committees may also give out special awards during the Hugo ceremony, which are not voted on. Unlike the additional Hugo categories which Worldcons may present, these awards are not officially Hugo Awards and do not use the same trophy, though they once did. Two additional awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, are presented at the Hugo Award ceremony and voted on by the same process, but are not formally Hugo Awards.

Recognition.

The Hugo Award is highly regarded by observers. The "Los Angeles Times" has termed it "among the highest honors bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing", a claim echoed by "Wired", who said that it was "the premier award in the science fiction genre". Justine Larbalestier, in "The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction" (2002), referred to the awards as "the best known and most prestigious of the science fiction awards", and Jo Walton, writing for "Tor.com", said it was "undoubtedly science fiction's premier award". "The Guardian" similarly acknowledged it as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" as well as "one of the most venerable, democratic and international" science fiction awards "in existence". James Gunn, in "The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" (1988), echoed "The Guardian"s statement of the award's democratic nature, saying that "because of its broad electorate" the Hugos were the awards most representative of "reader popularity". Camille Bacon-Smith, in "Science Fiction Culture" (2000), said that at the time fewer than 1000 people voted on the final ballot; she held, however, that this is a representative sample of the readership at large, given the number of winning novels that remain in print for decades or become notable outside of the science fiction genre, such as "The Demolished Man" or "The Left Hand of Darkness". The 2014 awards saw over 1900 nomination submissions and over 3500 voters on the final ballot, while the 1964 awards received 274 votes. The 2019 awards saw 1800 nominating ballots and 3097 votes, which was described as less than in 2014–2017 but more than any year before then.  Brian Aldiss, in his book "Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction", claimed that the Hugo Award was a barometer of reader popularity, rather than artistic merit; he contrasted it with the panel-selected Nebula Award, which provided "more literary judgment", though he did note that the winners of the two awards often overlapped. Along with the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award is also considered one of the premier awards in science fiction, with Laura Miller of Salon.com terming it "science fiction's most prestigious award".  The official logo of the Hugo Awards is often placed on the winning books' cover as a promotional tool. Gahan Wilson, in "First World Fantasy Awards" (1977), claimed that noting that a book had won the Hugo Award on the cover "demonstrably" increased sales for that novel, though Orson Scott Card said in his 1990 book "How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy" that the award had a larger effect on foreign sales than in the United States. Spider Robinson, in 1992, claimed that publishers were very interested in authors that won a Hugo Award, more so than for other awards such as the Nebula Award. Literary agent Richard Curtis said in his 1996 "Mastering the Business of Writing" that having the term Hugo Award on the cover, even as a nominee, was a "powerful inducement" to science fiction fans to buy a novel, while Jo Walton claimed in 2011 that the Hugo is the only science fiction award "that actually affects sales of a book".  There have been several anthologies of Hugo-winning short fiction. The series "The Hugo Winners", edited by Isaac Asimov, was started in 1962 as a collection of short story winners up to the previous year, and concluded with the 1982 Hugos in Volume 5. "The New Hugo Winners", edited originally by Asimov, later by Connie Willis and finally by Gregory Benford, has four volumes collecting stories from the 1983 to the 1994 Hugos. The most recent anthology is "The Hugo Award Showcase" (2010), edited by Mary Robinette Kowal. It contains most of the short stories, novelettes, and novellas that were nominated for the 2009 award.

The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier award in science fiction. The award is administered by the World Science Fiction Society. It is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine "Amazing Stories". Hugos were first given in 1953, at the 11th World Science Fiction Convention, and have been awarded every year since 1955.

雨果奖(英语:Hugo Award)是一个颁予每年最佳科幻和奇幻作品的奖项。该奖因《惊奇故事杂志》创办人雨果·根斯巴克而得名,且在1992年前官方名为「科幻成就奖」。它是世界科幻年会的重点活动,由世界科幻小说协会举办。该奖首次是于1953年第11届世界科幻年会颁发,并在1955年起每年颁发。在奖项成立至今,该奖项的类别亦有增减,现时雨果奖分为十几个类别,包括各类型的书面和戏剧作品。


Gameplay.

"Worms" games are turn-based artillery games presented in 2D or 3D environment. Each player controls a team of several worms. During the course of the game, players take turns selecting one of their worms. They use whatever tools and weapons are available to attack and kill the opponents' worms, thereby winning the game. Worms may move around the terrain in a variety of ways, normally by walking and jumping but also by using particular tools such as the "Bungee" and "Ninja Rope", to move to otherwise inaccessible areas. Each turn is time-limited to ensure that players do not hold up the game with excessive thinking or moving. The time limit can be modified in some of the games.  Over fifty weapons and tools may be available each time a game is played, and differing selections of weapons and tools can be saved into a "scheme" for easy selection in future games. Other scheme settings allow options such as deployment of reinforcement crates, from which additional weapons can be obtained, and sudden death where the game is rushed to a conclusion after a time limit expires. Some settings provide for the inclusion of objects such as land mines and explosive barrels.  When most weapons are used, they cause explosions that deform the terrain, creating circular cavities. The types of playable terrains include "island" (terrain floating on a body of water), or "cave" (cave with water at the bottom and terrain at both top and bottom of the screen that certain weapons such as "Air Strike" cannot go through; this type is not available in 3D versions due to camera restrictions). If a worm is hit with a weapon, the amount of damage dealt to the worm will be removed from the worm's initial amount of health. The damage dealt to the attacked worm or worms after any player's turn is shown when all movement on the battlefield has ceased.  Worms die when one of the following situations occurs:

Weapons and tools.

The "Worms" series is notable for its extensive variety of weapons. With each new game that is released, weapons are added, though many were removed in the 3D versions for gameplay reasons. As a result, the 2D series has accumulated 60 weapons, and the 3D series 40 weapons.  The weapons available in the game range from a standard timed grenade and homing missiles to exploding sheep and the highly destructive Banana Bomb, both of which have appeared in every "Worms" game so far. The "Worms" series has seen weapons such as the iconic Holy Hand Grenade, the Priceless Ming Vase and the Inflatable Scouser.  Some of the bizarre weapons in a particular game are based on topical subjects at the time of the game's release. The Mail Strike, for example, which consists of a flying postbox dropping explosive envelopes, is a reference to the postal strikes of the time, while the Mad Cow refers to the BSE epidemic of the 1990s. The French Nuclear Test, introduced in "Worms 2", was updated to the Indian Nuclear Test in "Worms Armageddon" to keep with the times.  Other weapons are inside jokes. The MB Bomb, for example, which floats down from the sky and explodes on impact, is a cartoon caricature of Martyn Brown, Team17's studio director. Other such weapons include the "Concrete Donkey", one of the most powerful weapons in the game, which is based on a garden ornament in Andy Davidson's home garden, and an airstrike known in the game as Mike's Carpet Bomb was actually inspired by a store near the Team17 headquarters called "Mike's Carpets".  Since "Worms Armageddon", weapons that were intended to aid as utilities rather than damage-dealers were classified as tools. This classification mainly differs in the fact that they do not fall in ordinary weapon crates, and instead appear in toolboxes. Many tools were left in the wrong class for the sake of keyboard-shortcut conveniences. This was resolved in "Worms 3D".  Some weapons were inspired from popular films and TV programs, including the Holy Hand Grenade (from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail") and Ninja Rope (named the Bat Rope in early demos of the original game).

History.

Creator.

Andy Davidson is the creator of the original "Worms" video game by Team17. The game "Worms" is based on the 2D classic "Artillery", and originally did not feature worms, but the "Lemmings" from the popular game of the same name.

Background.

Davidson was working on a program called "Jack the Ripper" for the Amiga personal computer, which allowed him to trawl the residual contents of RAM after applications had been run and quit. In this way, he "ripped" the graphics from Lemmings, and used them while developing his version of "Artillery". The original name of the game was "Lemartillery", and it was created purely as a bit of fun for him and his school friends in 1993. The positive reaction he witnessed encouraged him to develop it further. Knowing he could never commercially release the "Lemmings" characters, he changed them to worms and changed the name of the game to "Total Wormage".

Development.

Created as an entry for a Blitz BASIC programming competition run by the "Amiga Format" magazine, a cut-down version of the programming language having been covermounted previously. The game at this stage was called "Total Wormage" (possibly in reference to "Total Carnage") and it did not win the competition. Davidson sent the game to several publishers with no success. He took the game to the European Computer Trade Show in London in September, 1994, where Team17 had a stand. Team17 made an offer on-the-spot to develop and publish the game. It subsequently evolved into a full commercial game, renamed "Worms", available initially for the Commodore Amiga. As the game was popular, it was regularly released for other platforms.  During the development of "Worms 2", Davidson wrote "", a special edition produced for the Amiga. "The Director's Cut" would be the last "Worms" game released for the Amiga.  For "Worms 2", the engine was redesigned using Microsoft's DirectX. The game would overhaul the series' visuals, dropping the darker tones of its predecessor and adopting a more cartoonish look. "Worms 2" would be the first game in the series to introduce internet play. The following release, "Worms Armageddon", featured the series' first campaign mode and was initially intended to be released as an expansion pack for "Worms 2". "Armageddon" marked the introduction of "WormNET", an online services which required registration and provided leagues and ranks. A variety of "schemes" have been developed by the WormNET community that are often played instead of the official schemes created by Team17. Some schemes have "rules" agreed to by the players but not enforced by the game itself.  "Worms 3D", released in 2003, was the first installment of the series with three-dimensional gameplay. The game features a 'poxel' engine, described as a hybrid of polygons and voxels (the 3D analogues of pixels), which allows for pseudo-realistic terrain deformation similar in style to the 2D games, in which the terrain was represented by a bitmap. The game was followed in 2004 by a spin-off, "", and the fourth-numbered sequel, "", in 2005. In the same year as "Worms 3"'s release, Team17 would announced the cancellation of "Worms Battle Rally", a karting game that would allow players to frag their opponents.  "", a handheld game was released in March 2006, returned to the original 2D gameplay and was considered to be a remake of the first "Worms" game. In addition to, a console port of "Open Warfare" would be first released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2007. In turn, the port would be followed by 2009's "", which was directly inspired by "Worms Armageddon", and tries to mimic the game's physics and several other aspects. "Worms 2: Armageddon" would itself be ported to home computers as "Worms Reloaded" in 2010.  In an attempt to revamp the series' gameplay, "Worms Revolution" was released in 2012. "Revolution" was a 2.5D game that features a class-based mechanic, with each class having their own advantages and disadvantages. "Worms W.M.D", released in 2016, introduced vehicles to the series.  Davidson left Team17 after the release of "Worms Armageddon".

Reception.

While initial installments were generally praised, later games in the series have been criticized for the lack of meaningful additions. In 2001, Metacritic quoted "Worms World Party" reviews with comments such as "it's virtually nothing more than an expansion pack for "Worms Armageddon"" and, as ActionTrip's Dejan Grbavcic put it, "And I thought that only Eidos was impertinent enough to keep selling the same game with a slightly different name...". In 2007, "IGN" included the "Worms" series in its list of game franchises that have jumped the shark.

Sales.

The "Worms" series are commercially successful. Its combined sales by January 2002 had reached 6 million copies. By May 2014, 60 million copies of the games in the "Worms" franchise had been sold since launching in 1995. By December 2015, the 25th anniversary of Team17, a total of 70 million copies of the games in the franchise had been sold and freely downloaded.

Awards.

Titles in the franchise have received a variety of awards.

Worms is a series of artillery tactical video games developed by British company Team17. In these games, small platoons of anthropomorphic worms battle each other across a deformable landscape with the objective being to become the sole surviving team. The games are noted for their cartoony animation and extensive use of surrealism and slapstick humour.

幼狮足球会(Young Lions FC)是新加坡一支23岁以下青年足球队,球队中绝大部分为新加坡U-23国家队成员。球队直接接受新加坡足球总会领导,但是球队的管理模式仍然是足球会形式,球队于2003年加入了新加坡最高级别的联赛行列。新加坡足总希望通过幼狮在新加坡最高水平联赛的磨练可以帮助新加坡U-23在国际赛场上取得好成绩,比如东南亚运动会。所以幼狮就成了世界足坛少有的最高级别联赛仍然有年龄限制的球队。因为多数的联赛青年队为了避免利益冲突最高只能在第二级联赛,或类似于英格兰的青年联赛角逐。


Selection and term of office.

The secretary-general is appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. As the recommendation must come from the Security Council, any of the five permanent members of the Council can veto a nomination. Most secretaries-general are compromise candidates from middle powers and have little prior fame.  Unofficial qualifications for the job have been set by precedent in previous selections. The appointee may not be a citizen of any of the Security Council's five permanent members. The General Assembly resolution 51/241 in 1997 stated that, in the appointment of "the best candidate", due regard should be given to regional (continental) rotation of the appointee's national origin and to gender equality, although no woman has yet served as Secretary-General.  The length of the term is discretionary, but all secretaries-general since 1971 have been appointed to five-year terms. Every secretary-general since 1961 has been re-selected for a second term, with the exception of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was vetoed by the United States in the 1996 selection. There is a term limit of two full terms, established when China cast a record 16 vetoes against Kurt Waldheim's third term in the 1981 selection. No secretary-general since 1981 has attempted to secure a third term.  The selection process is opaque and is often compared to a papal conclave. Since 1981, the Security Council has voted in secret in a series of straw polls. The Security Council then submits the winning candidate to the General Assembly for ratification. No candidate has ever been rejected by the General Assembly. In 2016, the General Assembly and the Security Council sought nominations and conducted public debates for the first time. However, the Security Council voted in private and followed the same process as previous selections, leading the president of the General Assembly to complain that it "does not live up to the expectations of the membership and the new standard of openness and transparency".

Residence.

The official residence of the secretary-general is a townhouse at 3 Sutton Place, Manhattan, in New York City, United States. The townhouse was built for Anne Morgan in 1921, and donated to the United Nations in 1972.

Lifespan timeline.

This is a graphical lifespan timeline of the secretaries-general of the United Nations. They are listed in order of office <div style="overflow:auto">

Living former secretary-general.

As of, the only former secretary-general that is alive is Ban Ki-moon. The most recent death of a former secretary-general was that of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (1982–1991) on 4 March 2020.

The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or just SG) is the head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The secretary-general serves as the chief administrative officer of the United Nations. The role of the United Nations Secretariat, and of the secretary-general in particular, is laid out by Chapter XV (Articles 97 to 101) of the United Nations Charter.

联合国秘书长是联合国秘书处的长官,由于联合国秘书处是联合国的行政机构,故该职被视为联合国的行政首长。依照《联合国宪章》,秘书长是由安理会推荐,负责秘书处的工作,将其认为可能威胁国家和平和安全的任何事项提请安理会关注,并执行安理会、联合国大会和其他主要机构托付的「其它职务」。在世界舞台上,联合国秘书长往往被看作联合国的象征,联合国秘书长也利用这一身份从事各种活动。