Early life and education.

Zetsche was born while his father, Herbert Zetsche, a civil engineer, was temporarily in Turkey for a dam construction project. The family returned to Germany in 1956. Dieter Zetsche attended school in Oberursel (near Frankfurt am Main) and studied electrical engineering from 1971 to 1976 at the University of Karlsruhe; he graduated as an engineer. He completed his doctorate in engineering in 1982 at the University of Paderborn.

Career.

Daimler.

Zetsche joined Daimler-Benz in 1976, working in the research department. In 1981, he became Assistant Development Manager at the Vehicles business unit. He became a member of Daimler Chrysler's Board of Management in 1998 and served as the President/CEO of Chrysler Group from mid-2000 to 31 December 2005, where he was credited with a turnaround of DCX's American operations. Since 1 January 2006 he succeeded Jürgen Schrempp as Chairman of DaimlerChrysler (now Daimler AG), being succeeded in the position of Chrysler Group CEO by Thomas W. LaSorda.  Zetsche was the main influence behind the demerger of Daimler and Chrysler in 2007, which ended in the newly formed Daimler AG. Following profit warnings in 2012 and 2013, weak sales in China and tensions with Daimler's powerful labour representatives, his contract was renewed for only three years instead of the expected five. He received €14.4 million in pay and bonuses in 2014, making him the second-highest paid employee at a listed German company. After a record year for car sales and revenue in 2015, Zetsche's contract was extended to 2019.  Zetsche is credited with bringing significant core changes to the Mercedes-Benz company in an effort to turn around a decade-long downward spiral in product quality and customer satisfaction. He was named in "Time Magazine"'s 2006's list of 100 most influential people. On the invitation of the Green Party’s leadership, Zetsche was invited to address the 2016 party conference.  On 26 September 2018, it was announced that Zetsche will step down as the company's CEO in May 2019 to comply with a two-year-long hiatus regulatory rule before becoming chairman of Daimler's supervisory board in 2021.  Ask Dr. Z campaign On 30 June 2006 Chrysler Group announced the Employee Pricing Plus program, which featured Dieter Zetsche as Dr. Z (Doctor "Zee"), the DaimlerChrysler spokesman for a series of United States and Canadian television commercials, also animated in cartoon format on the company's Ask Dr. Z website, which began on 1 July.  The "Ask Dr. Z" campaign included television, radio, print, online, in-dealership and customer relationship marketing media components and aggressive marketing tactics (mobile billboards, aerial banners, street teams), as well as targeting the NASCAR fan community. In the "Ask Dr. Z" ad campaign he provides answers to customers' questions and exits by saying "Auf Wiedersehen" (German for "goodbye" or "see you again").  The ad campaign emphasized the consumer benefits of the best of American and German engineering and design built into every Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicle. One included Zetsche riding in a Jeep Liberty crossing a pile of logs, another showed him at the trunk of a Dodge Caravan minivan heading a soccer ball, and the last showed him at the wheel of a Chrysler Pacifica when it undergoes a crash test where he emerges from the wreckage unscathed.  As a response to shrinking sales, the Employee Pricing Plus program was extended through the end of August and three new TV ads, which did not feature Dr. Z, were added to the August campaign. After three months however DaimlerChrysler hurriedly withdrew the Dr. Z campaign due to a significant loss in market share. However, some of the Dr. Z ads can still be seen on Canadian television. In later broadcasts, the tagline in Dr. Z TV ads was changed to 'See the best in German and North American design in your Dodge and Chrysler dealer.'  The campaign was criticized for having the wrong guy for doing funny ads. CNW Marketing Research poll showed most people thought Dr. Z was a fictional character, did not notice the employee discount offer in the ads and radio commercial listeners had difficulty understanding his German accent.

TUI AG.

In February 2018, before the announcement of his departure from Daimler, in the Annual General Meeting held by tourism company TUI AG, Zetsche was elected as a member of the Supervisory Board. This was officially confirmed in May 2019 when Zetsche was announced as new chairman of TUI's Supervisory Board.

Controversy.

In the autumn of 2011, Zetsche was investigated for the involuntary manslaughter of a 27-year-old engineer who died in an accident caused by an intern on one of the firm's test tracks. The newspaper "Stuttgarter Zeitung" reported earlier that the parents of the engineer felt the company should not have put the intern behind the wheel of a fast car on a test track. However, it was generally agreed that the public prosecutors were over-reaching their prosecutorial authority in holding Zetsche responsible, as he was not responsible in any way for regulating the limits of interns' activities while at the company.

Dieter Zetsche (; born on 5 May 1953 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a German engineer and business executive. He is the current chairman of TUI AG. He was the Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz until 22 May 2019, a role he had held since 2006 in addition to being a member of the company's board since 1998.

迪特·蔡澈(,1953年-5月5日),出生于土耳其伊斯坦布尔,德国商人。之前是戴姆勒董事会主席,并且自2006年起曾是梅赛德斯-奔驰汽车的总裁,自1998年是公司董事会成员。


Life as a slave.

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Talbot County, Maryland. The plantation was between Hillsboro and Cordova; his birthplace was likely his grandmother's cabin east of Tappers Corner, () and west of Tuckahoe Creek. In his first autobiography, Douglass stated: "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it." As such, the exact date of his birth is unknown, though he later chose to celebrate the 14th of February as his birthday, remembering that his mother called him her “Little Valentine.”

Birth family.

Douglass was of mixed race, which likely included Native American and African on his mother's side, as well as European. In contrast, his father was "almost certainly white," as shown by historian David W. Blight in his 2018 biography of Douglass. Douglass claimed that his mother Harriet Bailey gave him his grand name and, after escaping to the North years later, he took the surname Douglass, having already dropped his two middle names.  He later wrote of his earliest times with his mother:  The opinion was...whispered that my master was

Early learning and experience.

The Auld family.

At the age of 6, Frederick was separated from his grandparents and moved to the Wye House plantation, where Aaron Anthony worked as overseer. After Anthony died in 1826, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld, who sent him to serve Thomas' brother Hugh Auld in Baltimore. Lucretia was essential in creating who Douglass was as she shaped his experiences, and had a special interest in Douglass from the time he was a child, wanting to give him a better life. Douglass felt that he was lucky to be in the city, where he said slaves were almost freemen, compared to those on plantations. When Douglass was about 12, Hugh Auld's wife Sophia began teaching him the alphabet. From the day he arrived, she saw to it that Douglass was properly fed and clothed, and that he slept in a bed with sheets and a blanket.

William Freeland.

When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he taught other slaves on the plantation to read the New Testament at a weekly Sunday school. As word spread, the interest among slaves in learning to read was so

Edward Covey.

In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh ("[a]s a means of punishing Hugh," Douglass later wrote). Thomas sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker." He whipped Douglass so regularly that his wounds had little time to heal. Douglass later said the frequent whippings broke his body, soul, and spirit. The 16-year-old Douglass finally rebelled against the beatings, however, and fought back. After Douglass won a physical confrontation, Covey never tried to beat him again. Recounting his beatings at Covey's farm in "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave", Douglass described himself as "a man transformed into a brute!" Still, Douglass came to see his physical fight with Covey as life-transforming, and introduced the story in his autobiography as such: "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."

From slavery to freedom.

Douglass first tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him from his owner, but was unsuccessful. In 1837, Douglass met and fell in love with Anna Murray, a free black woman in Baltimore about five years older than he. Her free status strengthened his belief in the possibility of gaining his own freedom. Murray encouraged him and supported his efforts by aid and money.  On September 3, 1838, Douglass successfully escaped by boarding a northbound train of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. The area where he boarded was a short distance east of the train depot, in a recently developed neighborhood between the modern neighborhoods of Harbor East and Little Italy. The depot was located at President and Fleet streets, east of "The Basin" of the Baltimore harbor, on the northwest branch of the Patapsco River.  Young Douglass reached Havre de Grace, Maryland, in Harford County, in the northeast corner of the state, along the southwest shore of

Abolitionist and preacher.

The couple settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts (an abolitionist center, full of former slaves) in 1838, later moving to Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1841. After meeting and staying with Nathan and Mary Johnson, they adopted Douglass as their married name: Douglass had grown up using his mother's surname of Bailey; after escaping slavery he had changed his surname first to Stanley and then to Johnson. In New Bedford, the latter was such a common name that he wanted one that was more distinctive, and asked Nathan Johnson to choose a suitable surname. Nathan suggested "Douglass," after having read the poem "The Lady of the Lake" by Walter Scott, in which two of the principal characters have the surname "Douglas." Douglass thought of joining a white Methodist Church, but was disappointed, from the beginning, upon finding that it was segregated. Later, he joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, an independent black denomination first established in New York City, which counted among its members Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. He became a licensed preacher in 1839, which helped him to hone his oratorical skills. He held various positions, including steward, Sunday-school superintendent, and sexton. In 1840, Douglass delivered a speech in Elmira, New York, then a station on the Underground Railroad, in which a black congregation would form years later, becoming the region's largest church by 1940.  Douglass also joined several organizations in New Bedford, and regularly attended abolitionist meetings. He subscribed to Wm. Lloyd Garrison's weekly newspaper, "The Liberator". Douglass later said that "no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments [of the hatred of slavery] as did those of William Lloyd Garrison." So deep was this influence that in his last biography, Douglass confessed "his paper took a place in my heart second only to The Bible." Garrison was likewise impressed with Douglass, and had written about his anti-colonialist stance in "The Liberator" as early as 1839. In 1841, Douglass first heard Garrison speak at a meeting of the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society. At another meeting, Douglass was unexpectedly invited to speak. After telling his story, Douglass was encouraged to become an anti-slavery lecturer. A few days later Douglass spoke at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention, in Nantucket. Then 23 years old, Douglass conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his rough life as a slave. While living in Lynn, Douglass engaged in early protest against segregated transportation. In September 1841, at Lynn Central Square station, Douglass and friend James N. Buffum were thrown off an Eastern Railroad train because Douglass refused to sit in the segregated railroad coach.  In 1843, Douglass joined other speakers in the American Anti-Slavery Society's "Hundred Conventions" project, a six-month tour at meeting halls throughout the eastern and midwestern United States. During this tour, slavery supporters frequently accosted Douglass. At a lecture in Pendleton, Indiana, an angry mob chased and beat Douglass before a local Quaker family, the Hardys, rescued him. His hand was broken in the attack; it healed improperly and bothered him for the rest of his life. A stone marker in Falls Park in the Pendleton Historic District commemorates this event.  In 1847, Frederick Douglass explained to Garrison, "I have no love for America, as such; I have no patriotism. I have no country. What country have I? The Institutions of this Country do not know me—do not recognize me as a man."

Religious views.

As a child, Douglass was exposed to a number of religious sermons, and in his youth, he sometimes heard Sophia Auld reading the Bible. In time, he became interested in literacy; he began reading and copying bible verses, and he eventually converted to Christianity. He described this approach in his last biography, "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass":  I was not more than thirteen years old, when in my loneliness and destitution I longed for some one to whom I could go, as to a father and protector. The preaching of a white Methodist minister, named Hanson, was the means of causing me to feel that in God I had such a friend. He thought that all men, great and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight of God: that they were by nature rebels against His government; and that they must repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God through Christ. I cannot say that I had a very distinct notion of what was required of me, but one thing I did know well: I was wretched and had no means of making myself otherwise.I consulted a good old colored man named Charles Lawson, and in tones of holy affection he told me to pray, and to "cast all my care upon God." This I sought to do; and though for weeks I was a poor, broken-hearted mourner, traveling through doubts and fears, I finally found my burden lightened, and my heart relieved. I loved all mankind, slaveholders not excepted, though I abhorred slavery more than ever. I saw the world in a new light, and my great concern was to have everybody converted. My desire to learn increased, and especially, did I want a thorough acquaintance with the contents of the Bible.  Douglass was mentored by Rev. Charles Lawson, and, early in his activism, he often included biblical allusions and religious metaphors in his speeches. Although a believer, he strongly criticized religious hypocrisy and accused slaveholders of "wickedness", lack of morality, and failure to follow the Golden Rule. In this sense, Douglass distinguished between the "Christianity of Christ" and the "Christianity of America"

Civil War years.

Before the Civil War.

By the time of the Civil War, Douglass was one of the most famous black men in the country, known for his orations

Fight for emancipation and suffrage.

Douglass and the abolitionists argued that because the aim of the Civil War was to end slavery, African Americans should be allowed to engage in the fight for their freedom. Douglass publicized this view in his newspapers and several speeches. In August 1861, Douglass published an account of the First Battle of Bull Run that noted that there were some blacks already in the Confederate ranks. A few weeks later, Douglass brought the subject up again, quoting a witness to the battle who said they saw black Confederates "with muskets on their shoulders and bullets in their pockets." Douglass conferred with President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 on the treatment of black soldiers, and with President Andrew Johnson on the subject of black suffrage.  President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in Confederate-held territory. (Slaves in Union-held areas

After Lincoln's death.

The post-war (1865) ratification of the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery. The 14th Amendment provided for citizenship and equal protection under the law. The 15th Amendment protected all citizens from being discriminated against in voting because of race.  On April 14, 1876, Douglass delivered the keynote speech at the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington's Lincoln Park. In that speech, Douglass spoke frankly about Lincoln, noting what he perceived as both positive and negative attributes of the late President. Calling Lincoln "the white man's president", Douglass criticized Lincoln's tardiness in joining the cause of

Reconstruction era.

After the Civil War, Douglass continued to work for equality for African-Americans and women. Due to his prominence and activism during the war, Douglass received several political appointments. He served as president of the Reconstruction-era Freedman's Savings Bank. Douglass also became chargé d'affaires for the Dominican Republic, but resigned that position after two years because of disagreements with U.S. government policy.  Meanwhile, white insurgents had quickly arisen in the South after the war, organizing first as secret vigilante groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. Armed insurgency took different forms. Powerful paramilitary groups included the White League and the Red Shirts, both active during the 1870s in the Deep South. They operated as "the military arm of the Democratic Party", turning out Republican officeholders and disrupting elections. Starting 10 years after the end of the war, Democrats regained political power in every state of the former Confederacy and began to reassert white supremacy. They enforced this by a combination of violence, late 19th-century laws imposing segregation and a concerted effort to disfranchise African Americans. New labor and criminal laws also limited their freedom.  In an effort to combat these efforts, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant in 1868. In 1870, Douglass started his last newspaper, the "New National Era", attempting to hold his country to its commitment to equality. President Grant sent a Congressionally sponsored commission, accompanied by Douglass, on a mission to the West Indies to investigate if the annexation of Santo Domingo would be good for the United States. Grant believed annexation

Family life.

Douglass and Anna had five children: Rosetta Douglass, Lewis Henry Douglass, Frederick Douglass Jr., Charles Remond Douglass, and Annie Douglass (died at the age of ten). Charles and Rosetta helped produce his newspapers.  Anna Douglass remained a loyal supporter of her husband's public work. His relationships with Julia Griffiths and Ottilie Assing, two women with whom he was professionally involved, caused recurring speculation and scandals. Assing was a journalist recently immigrated from Germany, who first visited Douglass in 1856 seeking permission to translate "My Bondage and My Freedom" to German. Until 1872, she often stayed at Douglass's home "for several months at a time" as his "intellectual and emotional companion." Assing held Anna

Final years in Washington, D.C..

The Freedman's Savings Bank went bankrupt on June 29, 1874, just a few months after Douglass became its president in late March. During that same economic crisis, his final newspaper, "The New National Era", failed in September. When Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President, Douglass accepted an appointment as United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, which helped assure his family's financial security.  In 1877, Douglass visited Thomas Auld, who was by then on his deathbed, and the two men reconciled. Douglass had met Auld's daughter, Amanda Auld Sears, some years prior; she had requested the meeting and had subsequently attended and cheered one of Douglass' speeches. Her father complimented her for reaching out to Douglass. The visit also appears to have brought closure to Douglass, although some criticized his effort.  That same year, Douglass bought the house that was to be the family's final home in Washington D.C., on a hill above the Anacostia River. He and Anna named it "Cedar Hill" (also spelled "CedarHill"). They expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms, and included a china closet. One year later, Douglass purchased adjoining lots and expanded the property to 15 acres (61,000 m2). The home is now preserved as the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.  In 1881, Douglass published the final edition of his autobiography, "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass". That year he was appointed as Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. His wife Anna Murray-Douglass died in 1882, leaving the widower devastated. After a period of mourning, Douglass found new meaning from working with activist Ida B. Wells. He remarried in 1884, as mentioned above.  Douglass also continued his speaking engagements and travel, both in the United States and abroad. With his new wife, Helen, Douglass traveled to England, Ireland,

Death.

On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. During that meeting, he was brought to the platform and received a standing ovation. Shortly after he returned home, Douglass died of a massive heart attack. He was 77.  His funeral was held at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. Thousands of people passed by his

Legacy and honors.

Roy Finkenbine argues:  The most influential African American of the nineteenth century, Douglass made a career of agitating the American conscience. He spoke and wrote on behalf of a variety of reform causes: women's rights, temperance, peace, land reform, free public education, and the abolition of capital punishment. But he devoted the bulk of his time, immense talent, and boundless energy to ending slavery and gaining equal rights for African Americans. These were the central concerns of his long reform career. Douglass understood that the struggle for emancipation and equality demanded forceful, persistent, and unyielding agitation. And he recognized that African Americans must play a conspicuous role in that struggle. Less than a month before his death, when a young black man solicited his advice to an African American just starting out in the world, Douglass replied without hesitation: "Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!  The Episcopal Church (USA) remembers Douglass annually on its liturgical calendar for February 20, the anniversary of his death. Many public schools have also been named in his honor. Douglass still has living descendants today, such as Ken Morris, who is also a descendant of Booker T. Washington. Other honors and remembrances include:

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey; – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Likewise, Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave.

弗雷德里克·道格拉斯(Frederick Douglass,全名Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey,1818年-2月-1895年-2月20日),一位革命家、政治家、演说家、作家。在马里兰州从奴隶生活中逃脱后,他成为废除奴隶制度与社会改革的领袖,影响力涵盖全美,毕生争取黑人权益,是废奴运动的代表人物之一,也是反驳「奴隶智商低下,不应该成为美国公民」这类蓄奴言论的佐证案例。


Early life.

Marie-Pierre Kœnig was born on 10 October 1898, in Caen, Calvados, France. His parents were from the Alsace region.

Military career.

World War I.

Kœnig fought in the French Army during World War I and served with distinction. He obtained his baccalaureate and enlisted in 1917. He served in the 36th Infantry Regiment. He was designated as an aspirant in February 1918 and joined his unit at the front. Decorated with the Médaille militaire, he was promoted to "sous-lieutenant" on 3 September 1918.

Between 1918 and 1940.

After the war, he served with French forces in Morocco and Cameroon. He served in Silesia as assistant () of captain in the Alpes, in Germany, then in Morocco, at the general staff headquarters of the division of Marrakesh.

World War II.

He was a captain and assistant to lieutenant-colonel Raoul Magrin-Vernerey in the 13th Demi-Brigade of Foreign Legion of the French Foreign Legion.  When World War II broke out, Kœnig returned to France. In 1940, he was assigned as a captain with the French troops in Norway, for which he was later awarded the "Krigskorset med Sverd" or Norwegian War Cross with Sword, in 1942. After the fall of France, he escaped to England from Brittany.  In London, Kœnig joined General Charles de Gaulle and was promoted to colonel. He became chief of staff in the first divisions of the Free French Forces. In 1941, he served in the campaigns in Syria and Lebanon. He was later promoted to general and took command of the First French Brigade in Egypt. His unit of 3700 men held ground against five Axis divisions (c. 37,000 men) for 16 days at the Battle of Bir Hakeim until they were ordered to evacuate on 11 June 1942. General de Gaulle said to Kœnig: ""Hear and tell your troops: the whole of France is watching you, you are our pride.""  Later, Kœnig served as the Free French delegate to the Allied headquarters under General Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1944, he was given command of the Free French who participated in the Invasion of Normandy. Kœnig also served as a military advisor to de Gaulle. In June 1944, he was given command of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) to unify various French Resistance groups under de Gaulle's control. Under his command, the FFI stopped range battle in the Maquis, preferring sabotage waged in support of the invasion army. Important in D-Day, the role of the FFI became decisive in the battle for Normandy and in the landing in Provence of the US Seventh Army and French Army B. On 21 August 1944, de Gaulle appointed Kœnig military governor of Paris to restore law and order. In 1945, he was sent to arrest Marshal Pétain, who had taken refuge in Germany, but who gave himself up at the frontier with Switzerland.

Cold War.

After the war, Kœnig was commander of the French army in the French occupation zone of Germany from 1945 to 1949. In 1949, he became inspector general in North Africa and in 1950 vice-president of the Supreme War Council.

Political career.

In 1951, after his retirement from the army, Kœnig was elected as Gaullist representative to the French National Assembly and briefly served as Minister of Defense under Pierre Mendès-France (1954) and Edgar Faure (1955).  He gave his strong support to the new State of Israel as president of the Franco-Israeli Committee ("Comité franco-israélien"), at around the same time when he was France's Defense Minister, as shown from his informing of his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres that France was willing to sell Israel any weapons it wished to purchase, from small arms to tanks (such as the AMX-13 light tank). Kœnig had witnessed the heroism of a battalion of Palestinian Jewish mine layers during the Battle of Bir Hakeim and afterwards allowed them to fly their own Star-of-David flag, against British regulations.

Death.

Marie-Pierre Kœnig died on 2 September 1970, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and was buried at Montmartre Cemetery in Paris.

Hommage.

There are streets named after Kœnig in Jerusalem, Netanya and Haifa.

Marie Joseph Pierre François Kœnig (; 10 October 1898 – 2 September 1970) was a French general during the Second World War, where he commanded a Free French Brigade at the Battle of Bir Hakeim in North Africa in 1942. He started a political career after the War and was posthumously elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France in 1984.

马里-皮埃尔·柯尼希(法语:Marie-Pierre Kœnig,1898年-10月10日-1970年-9月2日),法国将军。他指挥的自由法国旅1942年在北非比尔哈凯姆战役成功阻击了隆美尔的军队,使英国盟军得以顺利撤退到埃及准备反攻。


Biography.

Born at Cheapside, City of London, as William Hobman Hunt, to warehouse manager William Hunt (1800–1856) and Sarah (c. 1798–1884), daughter of William Hobman, of Rotherhithe Hunt adopted the name "Holman" instead of "Hobman" when he discovered that a clerk had misspelled the name that way after his baptism at the Anglican church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Ewell, England. The Hobman family were wealthy, and it was thought that Sarah had made an unequal marriage. After eventually entering the Royal Academy art schools, having initially been rejected, Hunt rebelled against the influence of its founder Sir Joshua Reynolds. He formed the Pre-Raphaelite movement in 1848, after meeting the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Along with John Everett Millais they sought to revitalise art by emphasising the detailed observation of the natural world in a spirit of quasi-religious devotion to truth. This religious approach was influenced by the spiritual qualities of medieval art, in opposition to the alleged rationalism of the Renaissance embodied by Raphael. He had many pupils including Robert Braithwaite Martineau.  Hunt married twice. After a failed engagement to his model Annie Miller, in 1861 he married Fanny Waugh, who later modelled for the figure of "Isabella". When, at the end of 1866, she died in childbirth in Italy, he sculpted her tomb at Fiesole, having it brought down to the English Cemetery in Florence, beside the tomb of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. He had a close connection with St. Mark's Church in Florence, and paid for the communion chalice inscribed in memory of his wife. His second wife, Edith, was Fanny's youngest sister. At the time it was illegal in Great Britain to marry one's deceased wife's sister, so the two of them travelled abroad and married at Neuchâtel (in francophone Switzerland) in November 1875. This led to a grave conflict with other family members, notably his former Pre-Raphaelite colleague Thomas Woolner, who had once been in love with Fanny and had married the middle sister, Alice Waugh.  Hunt's works were not initially successful, and were widely attacked in the art press for their alleged clumsiness and ugliness. He achieved some early note for his intensely naturalistic scenes of modern rural and urban life, such as "The Hireling Shepherd" and "The Awakening Conscience". However, it was for his religious paintings that he became famous, initially "The Light of the World" (1851–1853), now in the chapel at Keble College, Oxford, England; a later version (1900) toured the world and now has its home in St Paul's Cathedral, London, England.  In the mid-1850s Hunt travelled to the Holy Land in search of accurate topographical and ethnographical material for further religious works, and to employ his “powers to make more tangible Jesus Christ’s history and teaching”; there he painted "The Scapegoat", "The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple", and "The Shadow of Death", along with many landscapes of the region. Hunt also painted many works based on poems, such as "Isabella" and "The Lady of Shalott". He eventually built his own house in Jerusalem.  He eventually had to relinquish painting because failing eyesight meant that he could not achieve the quality that he wanted. His last major works, including a large version of "The Light of the World", were completed with the help of his assistant, Edward Robert Hughes.  Hunt died on 7 September 1910 and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral in London, England.

Awards and commemoration.

Hunt published an autobiography in 1905. Many of his late writings are attempts to control the interpretation of his work. That year, he was appointed to the Order of Merit by King Edward VII. At the end of his life he lived in Sonning-on-Thames.  His personal life was the subject of Diana Holman-Hunt's book "My Grandfather, his Life and Loves".  The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was depicted in two BBC period dramas. The first, "The Love School", in 1975, starred Bernard Lloyd as Hunt. The second was "Desperate Romantics", in which Hunt is played by Rafe Spall.  Facing Mar Elias Monastery is a stone bench erected by the wife of the painter, who painted some of his major works at this spot. The bench is inscribed with biblical verses in Hebrew, Greek, Arabic and English.

William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism. These features were influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle, according to whom the world itself should be read as a system of visual signs. For Hunt it was the duty of the artist to reveal the correspondence between sign and fact. Of all the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hunt remained most true to their ideals throughout his career. He was always keen to maximise the popular appeal and public visibility of his works.

威廉·霍尔曼·亨特,OM(William Holman Hunt,1827年-4月2日-1910年-9月7日),英国画家。他是前拉斐尔派的创始人之一。


Medical uses.

Clonazepam is prescribed for short term management of epilepsy and panic disorder with or without agoraphobia.

Seizures.

Clonazepam, like other benzodiazepines, while being a first-line treatment for acute seizures, is not suitable for the long-term treatment of seizures due to the development of tolerance to the anticonvulsant effects.  Clonazepam has been found effective in treating epilepsy in children, and the inhibition of seizure activity seemed to be achieved at low plasma levels of clonazepam. As a result, clonazepam is sometimes used for certain rare childhood epilepsies; however, it has been found to be ineffective in the control of infantile spasms. Clonazepam is mainly prescribed for the acute management of epilepsies. Clonazepam has been found to be effective in the acute control of non-convulsive status epilepticus; however, the benefits tended to be transient in many people, and the addition of phenytoin for lasting control was required in these patients.  It is also approved for treatment of typical and atypical absences, infantile myoclonic, myoclonic, and akinetic seizures. A subgroup of people with treatment resistant epilepsy may benefit from long-term use of clonazepam; the benzodiazepine clorazepate may be an alternative due to its slow onset of tolerance.

Anxiety disorders.

The effectiveness of clonazepam in the short-term treatment of panic disorder has been demonstrated in controlled clinical trials. Some long-term trials have suggested a benefit of clonazepam for up to three years without the development of tolerance but these trials were not placebo-controlled. Clonazepam is also effective in the management of acute mania.

Muscle disorders.

Restless legs syndrome can be treated using clonazepam as a third-line treatment option as the use of clonazepam is still investigational. Bruxism also responds to clonazepam in the short-term. Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder responds well to low doses of clonazepam.

Contraindications.

Coma; current alcohol abuse; current drug abuse; and respiratory depression.

Adverse effects.

Rare.

The long-term effects of clonazepam can include depression, disinhibition, and sexual dysfunction.

Drowsiness.

Clonazepam, like other benzodiazepines, may impair a person's ability to drive or operate machinery. The central nervous system depressing effects of the drug can be intensified by alcohol consumption, and therefore alcohol should be avoided while taking this medication. Benzodiazepines have been shown to cause dependence. Patients dependent on clonazepam should be slowly titrated off under the supervision of a qualified healthcare professional to reduce the intensity of withdrawal or rebound symptoms.

Withdrawal-related.

Benzodiazepines such as clonazepam can be very effective in controlling status epilepticus, but, when used for longer periods of time, some potentially serious side-effects may develop, such as interference with cognitive functions and behavior. Many individuals treated on a long-term basis develop a dependence. Physiological dependence was demonstrated by flumazenil-precipitated withdrawal. Use of alcohol or other CNS depressants while taking clonazepam greatly intensifies the effects (and side effects) of the drug.  A recurrence of symptoms of the underlying disease should be separated from withdrawal symptoms.

Tolerance and withdrawal.

Like all benzodiazepines, clonazepam is a GABA-positive allosteric modulator. One-third of individuals treated with benzodiazepines for longer than four weeks develop a dependence on the drug and experience a withdrawal syndrome upon dose reduction. High dosage and long-term use increase the risk and severity of dependence and withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal seizures and psychosis can occur in severe cases of withdrawal, and anxiety and insomnia can occur in less severe cases of withdrawal. A gradual reduction in dosage reduces the severity of the benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome. Due to the risks of tolerance and withdrawal seizures, clonazepam is generally not recommended for the long-term management of epilepsies. Increasing the dose can overcome the effects of tolerance, but tolerance to the higher dose may occur and adverse effects may intensify. The mechanism of tolerance includes receptor desensitization, down regulation, receptor decoupling, and alterations in subunit composition and in gene transcription coding.  Tolerance to the anticonvulsant effects of clonazepam occurs in both animals and humans. In humans, tolerance to the anticonvulsant effects of clonazepam occurs frequently. Chronic use of benzodiazepines can lead to the development of tolerance with a decrease of benzodiazepine binding sites. The degree of tolerance is more pronounced with clonazepam than with chlordiazepoxide. In general, short-term therapy is more effective than long-term therapy with clonazepam for the treatment of epilepsy. Many studies have found that tolerance develops to the anticonvulsant properties of clonazepam with chronic use, which limits its long-term effectiveness as an anticonvulsant.  Abrupt or over-rapid withdrawal from clonazepam may result in the development of the benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome, causing psychosis characterised by dysphoric manifestations, irritability, aggressiveness, anxiety, and hallucinations. Sudden withdrawal may also induce the potentially life-threatening condition, status epilepticus. Anti-epileptic drugs, benzodiazepines such as clonazepam in particular, should be reduced in dose slowly and gradually when discontinuing the drug to mitigate withdrawal effects. Carbamazepine has been tested in the treatment of clonazepam withdrawal but was found to be ineffective in preventing clonazepam withdrawal-induced status epilepticus from occurring.

Overdose.

Excess doses may result in:  Coma can be cyclic, with the individual alternating from a comatose state to a hyper-alert state of consciousness, which occurred in a four-year-old boy who suffered an overdose of clonazepam. The combination of clonazepam and certain barbiturates (for example, amobarbital), at prescribed doses has resulted in a synergistic potentiation of the effects of each drug, leading to serious respiratory depression.  Overdose symptoms may include extreme drowsiness, confusion, muscle weakness, and fainting.

Detection in biological fluids.

Clonazepam and 7-aminoclonazepam may be quantified in plasma, serum, or whole blood in order to monitor compliance in those receiving the drug therapeutically. Results from such tests can be used to confirm the diagnosis in potential poisoning victims or to assist in the forensic investigation in a case of fatal overdosage. Both the parent drug and 7-aminoclonazepam are unstable in biofluids, and therefore specimens should be preserved with sodium fluoride, stored at the lowest possible temperature and analyzed quickly to minimize losses.

Special precautions.

The elderly metabolize benzodiazepines more slowly than younger people and are also more sensitive to the effects of benzodiazepines, even at similar blood plasma levels. Doses for the elderly are recommended to be about half of that given to younger adults and are to be administered for no longer than two weeks. Long-acting benzodiazepines such as clonazepam are not generally recommended for the elderly due to the risk of drug accumulation.  The elderly are especially susceptible to increased risk of harm from motor impairments and drug accumulation side effects. Benzodiazepines also require special precaution if used by individuals that may be pregnant, alcohol- or drug-dependent, or may have comorbid psychiatric disorders. Clonazepam is generally not recommended for use in elderly people for insomnia due to its high potency relative to other benzodiazepines.  Clonazepam is not recommended for use in those under 18. Use in very young children may be especially hazardous. Of anticonvulsant drugs, behavioural disturbances occur most frequently with clonazepam and phenobarbital.  Doses higher than 0.5–1 mg per day are associated with significant sedation.  Clonazepam may aggravate hepatic porphyria.  Clonazepam is not recommended for patients with chronic schizophrenia. A 1982 double-blinded, placebo-controlled study found clonazepam increases violent behavior in individuals with chronic schizophrenia.  Clonazepam has similar effectiveness to other benzodiazepines at often a lower dose.

Interactions.

Clonazepam decreases the levels of carbamazepine, and, likewise, clonazepam's level is reduced by carbamazepine. Azole antifungals, such as ketoconazole, may inhibit the metabolism of clonazepam. Clonazepam may affect levels of phenytoin (diphenylhydantoin). In turn, Phenytoin may lower clonazepam plasma levels by increasing the speed of clonazepam clearance by approximately 50% and decreasing its half-life by 31%. Clonazepam increases the levels of primidone and phenobarbital.  Combined use of clonazepam with certain antidepressants, anticonvulsants (such as phenobarbital, phenytoin, and carbamazepine), sedative antihistamines, opiates, and antipsychotics, nonbenzodiazepines (such as zolpidem), and alcohol may result in enhanced sedative effects.

Pregnancy.

There is some medical evidence of various malformations, (for example, cardiac or facial deformations when used in early pregnancy); however, the data is not conclusive. The data are also inconclusive on whether benzodiazepines such as clonazepam cause developmental deficits or decreases in IQ in the developing fetus when taken by the mother during pregnancy. Clonazepam, when used late in pregnancy, may result in the development of a severe benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome in the neonate. Withdrawal symptoms from benzodiazepines in the neonate may include hypotonia, apnoeic spells, cyanosis, and impaired metabolic responses to cold stress.  The safety profile of clonazepam during pregnancy is less clear than that of other benzodiazepines, and if benzodiazepines are indicated during pregnancy, chlordiazepoxide and diazepam may be a safer choice. The use of clonazepam during pregnancy should only occur if the clinical benefits are believed to outweigh the clinical risks to the fetus. Caution is also required if clonazepam is used during breastfeeding. Possible adverse effects of use of benzodiazepines such as clonazepam during pregnancy include: miscarriage, malformation, intrauterine growth retardation, functional deficits, carcinogenesis, and mutagenesis. Neonatal withdrawal syndrome associated with benzodiazepines include hypertonia, hyperreflexia, restlessness, irritability, abnormal sleep patterns, inconsolable crying, tremors, or jerking of the extremities, bradycardia, cyanosis, suckling difficulties, apnea, risk of aspiration of feeds, diarrhea and vomiting, and growth retardation. This syndrome can develop between three days to three weeks after birth and can have a duration of up to several months. The pathway by which clonazepam is metabolized is usually impaired in newborns. If clonazepam is used during pregnancy or breastfeeding, it is recommended that serum levels of clonazepam are monitored and that signs of central nervous system depression and apnea are also checked for. In many cases, non-pharmacological treatments, such as relaxation therapy, psychotherapy, and avoidance of caffeine, can be an effective and safer alternative to the use of benzodiazepines for anxiety in pregnant women.

Mechanism of action.

Clonazepam enhances the activity of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in the central nervous system to give its anticonvulsant, skeletal muscle relaxant, and anxiolytic effects. It acts by binding to the benzodiazepine site of the GABA receptors, which enhances the electric effect of GABA binding on neurons, resulting in an increased influx of chloride ions into the neurons. This further results in an inhibition of synaptic transmission across the central nervous system.  Benzodiazepines do not have any effect on the levels of GABA in the brain. Clonazepam has no effect on GABA levels and has no effect on gamma-aminobutyric acid transaminase. Clonazepam does, however, affect glutamate decarboxylase activity. It differs from other anticonvulsant drugs it was compared to in a study.  Clonazepam's primary mechanism of action is the modulation of GABA function in the brain, by the benzodiazepine receptor, located on GABA receptors, which, in turn, leads to enhanced GABAergic inhibition of neuronal firing. Benzodiazepines do not replace GABA, but instead enhance the effect of GABA at the GABA receptor by increasing the opening frequency of chloride ion channels, which leads to an increase in GABA's inhibitory effects and resultant central nervous system depression. In addition, clonazepam decreases the utilization of 5-HT (serotonin) by neurons and has been shown to bind tightly to central-type benzodiazepine receptors. Because clonazepam is effective in low milligram doses (0.5 mg clonazepam = 10 mg diazepam), it is said to be among the class of "highly potent" benzodiazepines. The anticonvulsant properties of benzodiazepines are due to the enhancement of synaptic GABA responses, and the inhibition of sustained, high-frequency repetitive firing.  Benzodiazepines, including clonazepam, bind to mouse glial cell membranes with high affinity. Clonazepam decreases release of acetylcholine in the feline brain and decreases prolactin release in rats. Benzodiazepines inhibit cold-induced thyroid-stimulating hormone (also known as TSH or thyrotropin) release. Benzodiazepines acted via micromolar benzodiazepine binding sites as Ca channel blockers and significantly inhibit depolarization-sensitive calcium uptake in experimentation on rat brain cell components. This has been conjectured as a mechanism for high-dose effects on seizures in the study.  Clonazepam is a 2'-chlorinated derivative of nitrazepam, which increases its potency due to electron-attracting effect of the halogen in the ortho-position.

Pharmacokinetics.

Clonazepam is lipid-soluble, rapidly crosses the blood–brain barrier, and penetrates the placenta. It is extensively metabolised into pharmacologically inactive metabolites, with only 2% of the unchanged drug excreted in the urine. Clonazepam is metabolized extensively via nitroreduction by cytochrome P450 enzymes, including CYP3A4. Erythromycin, clarithromycin, ritonavir, itraconazole, ketoconazole, nefazodone, cimetidine, and grapefruit juice are inhibitors of CYP3A4 and can affect the metabolism of benzodiazepines. It has an elimination half-life of 19–60 hours. Peak blood concentrations of 6.5–13.5 ng/mL were usually reached within 1–2 hours following a single 2 mg oral dose of micronized clonazepam in healthy adults. In some individuals, however, peak blood concentrations were reached at 4–8 hours.  Clonazepam passes rapidly into the central nervous system, with levels in the brain corresponding with levels of unbound clonazepam in the blood serum. Clonazepam plasma levels are very unreliable amongst patients. Plasma levels of clonazepam can vary as much as tenfold between different patients.  Clonazepam has plasma protein binding of 85%. Clonazepam passes through the blood–brain barrier easily, with blood and brain levels corresponding equally with each other. The metabolites of clonazepam include 7-aminoclonazepam, 7-acetaminoclonazepam and 3-hydroxy clonazepam. These metabolites are excreted by the kidney.  It is effective for 6–8 hours in children, and 6–12 in adults.

Society and culture.

Recreational use.

A 2006 US government study of hospital emergency department (ED) visits found that sedative-hypnotics were the most frequently implicated pharmaceutical drug in visits, with benzodiazepines accounting for the majority of these. Clonazepam was the second most frequently implicated benzodiazepine in ED visits. Alcohol alone was responsible for over twice as many ED visits as clonazepam in the same study. The study examined the number of times the non-medical use of certain drugs was implicated in an ED visit. The criteria for non-medical use in this study were purposefully broad, and include, for example, drug abuse, accidental or intentional overdose, or adverse reactions resulting from legitimate use of the medication.

Formulations.

Clonazepam was approved in the United States as a generic drug in 1997 and is now manufactured and marketed by several companies.  Clonazepam is available as tablets and orally disintegrating tablets (wafers) an oral solution (drops), and as a solution for injection or intravenous infusion.

Brand names.

It is marketed under the trade name Rivotril by Roche in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, China, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Peru, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, and the United States; Emcloz, Linotril and Clonotril in India and other parts of Europe; under the name Riklona in Indonesia and Malaysia; and under the trade name Klonopin by Roche in the United States. Other names, such as Clonoten, Ravotril, Rivotril, Iktorivil, Clonex, Paxam, Petril, Naze, and Kriadex, are known throughout the world.

Clonazepam, sold under the brand Klonopin among others, is a medication used to prevent and treat seizures, panic disorder, and the movement disorder known as akathisia. It is a tranquilizer of the benzodiazepine class. It is taken by mouth. It begins having an effect within 1 hour and lasts between 6 and 12 hours. Common side effects include sleepiness, poor coordination, and agitation. Long-term use may result in tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal symptoms if stopped abruptly. Dependence occurs in one-third of people who take clonazepam for longer than four weeks. There is an increased risk of suicide, particularly in people who are already depressed. If used during pregnancy it may result in harm to the baby. Clonazepam binds to GABA receptors, thus increasing the effect of the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Clonazepam was patented in 1960 and went on sale in 1975 in the United States from Roche. It is available as a generic medication. In 2017, it was the 34th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 20 million prescriptions. In many areas of the world it is commonly used as a recreational drug.

氯硝西泮(英语:Clonazepam),常见商品名「Klonopin」,为一种苯二氮䓬类镇定剂,常用于治疗及预防癫痫发作、恐慌症,以及静坐不能。本品可以口服,药物会在服药后1小时内作用,效果可维持6至12小时。 常见副作用包含嗜睡、协调不佳,及易怒,另也可能增加自杀的机会。长期使用可能导致个体对药物产生耐受性及依赖性,停药后则可能出现戒断症。三分之一的用药者的依赖性长达四周以上。妊娠期间用药可能会伤害胎儿。本品会作用于于GABA受体,增加GABA的效果。 氯硝西泮于1964年成功申请专利,并于1975年在美国上市,本品属于通用名药物,在发展中国家每锭的批发价约在 0.01 至 0.07 美金之间,在美国则约为0.40美金。本品在许多地区被用做娱乐性药物。


History.

In 1989, in Boca Raton, Florida, communications attorney Mitchell Rubenstein and his wife Laurie Silvers devised the concept for the Sci-Fi Channel. They planned to have it begin broadcasting in December 1990, but they lacked the resources to launch it. In March 1992, the concept was picked up by USA Networks, then a joint venture between Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios. The channel was seen as a natural fit with classic films and television series that both studios had in their vaults, including Universal's "Dracula", "Frankenstein", and the Rod Serling TV series "Night Gallery", along with Paramount's "". "Star Trek"s creator Gene Roddenberry and author Isaac Asimov were among those on the initial advisory board, but both had died by the time the channel finally launched on September 24, 1992. Rubenstein recalled: "The first thing that was on the screen was 'Dedicated to the memories of Isaac Asimov and Gene Roddenberry'." Leonard Nimoy was master of ceremonies at the channel's launch party, held at the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan. Asimov's widow Janet and Roddenberry's widow Majel Barrett were both in attendance. The first program shown on the network was the film "Star Wars".  In 1994, Paramount was sold to Viacom, followed by Seagram's purchase of a controlling stake in MCA (of which Universal was a subsidiary) from the Matsushita Electric Industrial Company the next year. In 1997, Viacom sold its stake in USA Networks to Universal, who spun off all its television assets to Barry Diller the next year into the new company Studios USA. Three years later, Diller would sell Studios USA back to Universal, by then a subsidiary of Vivendi SA (at the time known as Vivendi Universal). Vivendi's film and television production and cable television assets were then merged with General Electric's NBC to form NBC Universal in 2004. In 2010, Comcast purchased Syfy's parent company NBCUniversal.  A high definition version of the channel launched on October 3, 2007 on DirecTV. In 2013, Syfy was given the James Randi Educational Foundation's Pigasus Award for what was described as questionable reality programming involving paranormal subjects.

Branding history.

From 1992 to 1999, the network's first logo consisted of a planet with a ring, made to look like Saturn, with "SCI-FI CHANNEL" written on it. The network's second logo, which was used from 1999 to 2002, dropped the hyphen and the word "CHANNEL" from the name. The network's third and final "ringed planet" logo ran from 2002 to 2009, and was designed by Lambie-Nairn. The logo made its debut on December 2, 2002, with the launch of the Steven Spielberg miniseries "Taken". The network also launched a new image campaign with the tagline "If", which expresses the limitless possibilities of the imagination. Identification bumps depicted surreal situations such as a baby breathing fire, as well as a woman in a stately sitting room kissing a bug-eyed, big-eared animal.  On March 16, 2009, NBCUniversal announced that Sci Fi was rebranding as "Syfy". Network officials also noted that, unlike the generic term "sci fi", which represents the entire genre, the term "Syfy" as a sensational spelling can be protected by trademark and therefore would be easier to market on other goods or services without fear of confusion with other companies' products. The only significant previous use of the term "Syfy" in relation to science fiction was by the website SyFy Portal, which became Airlock Alpha after selling the brand to an unnamed company in February 2009.  The name change was greeted with initial negativity, with people deliberately mispronouncing "Syfy" as or to make fun of the name change. The parody news anchor Stephen Colbert made fun of the name change on "The Colbert Report" by giving the channel a "Tip of the Hat" for "spelling the name the way it's pronounced" and noting that "the tide is turning in my long fought battle against the insidious'soft C. The new name took effect on July 7, 2009. Syfy has since added reality shows and edged further from strictly science fiction, fantasy and horror programming.  The rebranding efforts at NBC Universal's Sci Fi Channels worldwide resulted in most rebranding as "Syfy" or "Syfy Universal"; however, over one-third of the channels did not take on "Syfy" as any part of their names: channels in Japan and the Philippines rebranded to or were replaced by Universal Channel, while each of the channels in Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia would become Sci Fi Universal. In Polish, "Syfy" does not suggest imagination or science fiction, but rather syphilis. In Australia, the Sci Fi channel was a joint venture not solely owned by NBC Universal; the channel was uniquely rebranded as "SF" until its closure, and was replaced by an NBC Universal solely-owned version of Syfy, branded as such, matching the standard international "Syfy" branding tv.  On May 11, 2017, in honor of the network's upcoming 25th anniversary, Syfy unveiled a major rebranding that took effect on-air June 19. The new branding was intended to re-position the channel back towards targeting fans of the fantasy and sci-fi genres. Network head Chris McCumber explained that the network's goal was to "put fans at the center of everything we do", and explained a stacked, square-shaped form of the logo as being akin to a "badge". Syfy also planned to place a larger focus on its genre news division Syfy Wire, disclosing the possibility of extending the website to television as well.

Programming.

Syfy's programming includes original made-for-cable movies, miniseries, and series. In the past, the channel concentrated on classic science fiction shows. However, under NBCUniversal ownership, the channel has altered its programming to target more mainstream audiences. In 2006, it began airing programs outside of the sci-fi genre such as "" and "WCG Ultimate Gamer". As part of this shift, Syfy previously aired professional wrestling programming from WWE, including "ECW", "NXT", and "SmackDown".  The network had gained significant international attention for its successful original miniseries and subsequent four-season series "Battlestar Galactica". In addition to many awards, the United Nations invited the main cast to a retrospective and discussion. Also prominent was the network's airing of "Taken", which won the Emmy Award that year for best miniseries.

Animation.

Syfy was also known for airing Japanese anime. It first began airing English dubbed anime films and original video animations in the early 1990s, although the programs were often edited in order to fit the market pressures typically placed on basic cable. It was the first to show the Streamline Pictures English dubs of the films "Robot Carnival", "Lensman" and "Akira", as well as airing Central Park Media's "Dominion: Tank Police", "Gall Force", and "Project A-ko". After a break in airings, anime programming returned on June 11, 2007, with a weekly two-hour programming block called "Ani-Monday". Intended to directly compete with Adult Swim's Adult Swim Action branding, the block featured English dubs of various anime series licensed by Manga Entertainment. During February 2008, the channel also aired anime on Tuesday nights in a second programming block.  In July 2009, Syfy announced that they had renewed and expanded their licensing agreement with Manga Entertainment to continue "Ani-Mondays", as well as to add a similar two-hour block of horror anime (also called "Ani-Monday") to its sister channel Chiller. Syfy's anime block was later moved to Thursday nights, starting March 14, 2011, where it remained until all anime programming was abruptly removed from the schedule on June 9, 2011  On April 20, 2019, Syfy launched TZGZ, a late night adult animation block anchored by reruns of "Futurama".

Syfy original films.

Spearheaded and originally launched by Thomas Vitale in 2001, and managed by Vitale, Chris Regina, and Ray Cannella, with the later additions of Karen O'Hara and Macy Lao, Sci Fi Pictures original films are typically independently-made B-movies with production budgets of $1 million to $2 million each. These films usually premiere on Saturday nights. They are also one of the sponsors for the Coalition for Freedom of Information. The movies have become one of the longest-lasting vestiges of Syfy's schedule. One of the most memorable campaigns for the movies presented these films as part of "The Most Dangerous Night of Television" (Saturdays). Over the years, Syfy's promotion of the movies leans into the escapist fun promised by them, with titles such as "Sharktopus", "Mansquito", "Two-Headed Shark Attack", "Ogre", "Ice Twisters", "Star Runners" and "Sharknado". Since 2001, Syfy has worked with a number of different production companies (most of them independent) to make over 200 original movies of this type.

Media.

Websites.

SciFi.com and Syfy.com.

Syfy's website launched in 1995, at SciFi.com, under the name "The Dominion"; it dropped the name in 2000. The site has won a Webby Award and a Flash Forward Award.  From 2000 to 2005, SciFi.com published original science fiction short stories in a section called "Sci Fiction", edited by Ellen Datlow, who won a 2005 Hugo Award for her work there. The stories themselves won a World Fantasy Award, the first Theodore Sturgeon Award for online fiction (for Lucius Shepard's novella "Over Yonder"), and four of the Science Fiction Writers of America's Nebula Awards, including the first for original online fiction (for Linda Nagata's novella "Goddesses").  On April 22, 2006, the site launched Sci Fi Pedia, a commercial wiki on topics including anime, comics, fandom, fantasy, games, horror, science fiction, and toys, UFOs, genre-related art and audio, and the paranormal. In 2009, Sci Fi Pedia was shut down without explanation.  As part of the channel's rebranding in 2009, the URL was changed to Syfy.com. As of 2010, Syfy.com began to contain webisode series including "" (as of October 26, 2010), "The Mercury Men" (as of July 25, 2011), and "Nuclear Family" (as of October 15, 2012).  Syfy.com was redesigned in early 2015, allowing users to watch the live channel on the site, as well as episodes of most current programming. The website was once again redesigned and combined with SyfyWire.com on June 19, 2017, in alliance with Syfy's rebranding.

SyfyGames.

SyfyGames.com is an online games portal which offers free-to-play MMO and casual games. The site features predominantly sci-fi and fantasy games from third-party developers. In April 2015, the News section of SyfyGames.com was rebranded to feature "news from G4" to prevent trademark dilution of Syfy's defunct sister gaming-focused network.  In 2010, Syfy Games signed a deal with defunct publisher THQ to co-produce "De Blob 2". Syfy Games would also co-produce "".

Syfy Wire.

Syfy Wire (formerly Sci-Fi Wire and Blastr) is a website operated by Syfy featuring coverage of news in the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres. The site was rebranded in 2010 as Blastr, with the addition of feature articles, guest columnists (such as Phil Plait), popular science news and coverage, and video content. In December 2016, Blastr rebranded as Syfy Wire; editor-in-chief Adam Swiderski stated that this change was to closer associate the website with the Syfy television channel.  As of March 2018, Syfy Wire releases five regular podcasts, including two recap series following "The Expanse" and the final season of "Colony", as well as "The Fandom Files", which features interviews with public figures about their pop culture obsessions. Guests have included Leland Chee and Mike Daniels of the Green Bay Packers.

Periodicals.

"Sci Fi Magazine".

"Sci Fi Magazine" was the channel's official magazine. It later became an unaffiliated magazine but often covers Syfy shows.

"Science Fiction Weekly".

"Science Fiction Weekly" was an online magazine started and edited by Craig Engler and Brooks Peck on August 15, 1995. In April 1996, it began appearing exclusively on "The Dominion" as part of a partnership with the site, before being sold to the Sci Fi Channel completely in 1999. The publication covered various aspects of science fiction, including news, reviews, original art, and interviews, until it merged with Sci-Fi Wire in January 2009.

Ratings.

In 2008, Syfy, then the Sci-Fi Channel, averaged a 1.0 household rating; 242,000 viewers among Adults 18–34 (up 4% vs 2007); 616,000 viewers among Adults 18–49 (up 5% vs 2007); 695,000 viewers among Adults 25–54 (up 6% vs 2007) and 1,278,000 total viewers (up 7% vs 2007). It saw two years of consecutive growth among female audiences, with a 12% increase among women 25–54, a 14% jump in women 18–49 and 6% in women 18–34. The channel also was ranked among the top ten watched channels for male viewers ages 18–54, and women ages 25–54 (#10).  For 2010, Syfy averaged 1.199 million viewers, down 6% from 2009. In Adults 18–49 the channel averaged.539 million viewers, down 11% from 2009. For 2010, Syfy did not hold any of the Top 20 Primetime Original Series.

Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel and Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American pay television channel that is owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The channel features science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural, paranormal, drama, and reality programming. Syfy is available to 92.4 million households in America.

Syfy(原名Sci-Fi 频道)是美国国家广播公司(NBC)的一个有线电视频道,于1992年9月24日开播。Syfy专门播放科幻、奇幻、惊悚、超自然等电视系列剧,制作播放的著名影集包括《异形庇护所》("Sanctuary")、《第十三号仓库》("Warehouse 13")、2004年版本的《太空堡垒卡拉狄加》("Battlestar Galactica")、《星际之门》("Stargate")系列影集等,亦有播出世界摔角娱乐所属节目SmackDown。Syfy一名于2009年7月7日开始采用。


Name.

The name "Ténéré" comes from the Tuareg language, meaning "desert", in much the same way that the Arabic word for "desert", "Sahara", came to be applied to the region as a whole.

Climate.

The Ténéré has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification "BWh"), typical of the large Sahara Desert. The climate is hyper-arid, extremely hot, sunny and dry year-round and there is virtually no plant life. The average high temperatures are above 40 °C (104 °F) for about 5 months and more in the hottest regions, and record high temperatures as high as 50 °C (122 °F) are highly possible during summer. The annual average high temperature is around 35 °C (95 °F) and even more. During "winter" months, the average high temperatures stay above 25 °C (77 °F) and generally hover around 30 °C (86 °F). The annual precipitation amount is extremely low—one of the lowest annual rainfall amounts found on Earth—around 10 mm (0.39 in) to 15 mm (0.59 in), and frequently several years may pass without seeing any rainfall at all. Water is notoriously difficult to find, even underground, and wells may be hundreds of miles apart. The sunshine duration is also one of the highest results on the planet at around 4,000 hours, that is about 91% of the daylight hours between sunrise and sunset. Fair weather is nearly non-stop in this bone-dry region. This part of the Sahara Desert has one of the harshest climates in the world. According to a NASA study, the sunniest spot in the world would be a ruined fort in Agadem in the southeastern Ténéré where the solar energy productivity would be unmatched, as this desert area sees even fewer clouds than the rest of the world. The Ténéré, as well as the rest of the Great Desert, is among the most extreme environments on Earth.

Topography.

Most of the Ténéré is a flat basin, once the bed of the prehistoric Lake Chad. In the north, the Ténéré is a vast sand sheet - the true, featureless 'Ténéré' of legend reaching up to the low hills of the Tassili du Hoggar along the Algerian border. In the centre, the Bilma Erg forms rows of easily navigable low dunes whose corridors make regular byways for the azelai or salt caravans. To the west, the Aïr Mountains rise up. To the southeast, the Ténéré is bordered by the Kaouar cliffs running 100 km north to south. At the base, lies a string of oases including the famous Bilma. Periodic outcrops, such as the unusual marble Blue Mountains in the northwest near Adrar Chiriet, or the Agram hills near the oasis of Fachi and Adrar Madet to the north, are rare but notable landmarks.

History.

During the Carboniferous period, the region was beneath the sea; later it was a tropical forest. A major dinosaur cemetery lies southeast of Agadez at Gadoufaoua; many fossils have been found there, having eroded out from the ground. An almost complete specimen of the crocodile-like reptile "Sarcosuchus imperator", nicknamed the "SuperCroc", was discovered there by paleontologists.  During early human history, this was a fertile land much more congenial to human life than it is now. The region was inhabited by modern humans as long ago as the Paleolithic period some 60,000 years ago. They hunted wild animals and left evidence of their presence in the form of stone tools including tiny, finely carved arrow heads. During the Neolithic period about 10,000 years ago, ancient hunters, the early Holocene Kiffian people, created rock engravings and cave paintings that can still be found across the region.  The Neolithic Subpluvial was an extended meteorological period, from about 7,500-7,000 BC to about 3,500-3,000 BC, of relatively wet and rainy conditions in the climate history of northern Africa. It was both preceded and followed by much drier periods. Several archaeological sites that date from this time, often identified as part of the Tenerian culture, are dotted across the deserts along the borders of Niger, Algeria and Libya. The human population dwindled as the Sahara dried out, and by 2500 BC, it had largely become as dry as it is today.  In recent times, Ténéré has been a crossing route for African migrants looking to immigrate to Europe.

Population.

The Ténéré is very sparsely populated. Fachi and Bilma are the only settlements that are not on the edge of the Tenéré.  While the well-known Tuareg occupy the Aïr Mountains and Agadez to the west, and still operate the salt caravans for Hausa merchants, other inhabitants of the Ténéré, found from oases like Fachi eastwards, are the non-Berber Kanuri and Toubou, the latter thought to be descended from among the original inhabitants of the Sahara.

Governance.

In 1960, the Tuareg territory became part of the independent republic of Niger. It has been divided into seven "départments". The central part of the Ténéré is a protected area, under the auspices of the Aïr and Ténéré Natural Reserve.

Cities.

The administrative centre of the Ténéré is the town of Agadez, south of the Aïr Mountains and west of the Tenere. There are also various oasis settlements, some like Bilma and Séguedine based on salt production.  Settlements and villages of Ténéré:

Landmarks.

The desert is also known for the celebrated Tree of Ténéré, once thought to be among the most remote in the world. Situated by the last well before entering the Grand Erg du Bilma on the way to Fachi, salt caravans relied on the tree as a landmark until it was allegedly knocked down by a truck driver in 1973. It was replaced by a metal sculpture and the remains are enshrined at the museum in Niamey (capital of Niger). New trees were planted but, because of the very low water table (the adjacent well is some 40m deep), irregular watering by passing travellers saw them fail to survive. Despite this unfortunate mishap, the tree is still often indicated on maps of the region as a notable landmark, as is the less well known Arbre Perdu (Lost Tree) situated in the true Tenere to the north, west of Chirfa.  A monument to UTA Flight 772, a 200-foot diameter circle of dark stones and 170 broken mirrors which represent each victim of the terrorist attack which brought down the aircraft, was built in May and June 2007 at 16°51′53′′N 11°57′13′′E.

The Ténéré (Berber: Tiniri, literally: desert, wilderness) is a desert region in the south central Sahara. It comprises a vast plain of sand stretching from northeastern Niger into western Chad, occupying an area of over. The Ténéré's boundaries are said to be the Aïr Mountains in the west, the Hoggar Mountains in the north, the Djado Plateau in the northeast, the Tibesti Mountains in the east, and the basin of Lake Chad in the south. The central part of the desert, the Erg du Bilma, is centred at approximately. It is the locus of the Neolithic Tenerian culture.

泰内雷(Ténéré、或译「特内雷」)是位于非洲撒哈拉南端;介于尼日尔共和国东北方与乍得共和国西方之间的沙漠,所覆盖的面积在40万平方公里以上。


Development.

Unveiled by the U.S. Air Force on 30 April 1996, the "Tacit Blue Technology Demonstration Program" was designed to prove that such an aircraft could continuously monitor the ground situation deep behind the battlefield and provide targeting information in real time to a ground command center. In December 1976, DARPA and the U.S. Air Force initiated the Battlefield Surveillance Aircraft-Experimental (BSAX) program, which was part of a larger Air Force program called Pave Mover. The BSAX program's goal was to develop an efficient stealth reconnaissance aircraft with a low probability of intercept radar and other sensors that could operate close to the forward line of battle with a high degree of survivability.  Tacit Blue represented the "black" component in the larger "Assault Breaker" program, which intended to validate the concept of massed standoff attacks on advancing armoured formations using smart munitions. The Pave Mover radar demonstrators provided the non-stealth portion of the program's targeting system, whereas Tacit Blue was intended to demonstrate a similar but stealth capability, while validating a number of innovative stealth technology advances.  The radar sensor technology developed for Tacit Blue evolved into the radar now being used by the E-8 Joint STARS aircraft.

Design.

Tacit Blue, nicknamed "the whale" (and sometimes also called an "alien school bus" for its only slightly rounded-off rectangular shape), featured a straight tapered wing with a V-tail mounted on an oversized fuselage with a curved shape. It was the first stealth aircraft to feature curved surfaces for radar cross-section reduction. Northrop would use this stealth technology on the B-2 bomber. A single flush inlet on the top of the fuselage provided air to two high-bypass turbofan engines. Tacit Blue employed a quadruply redundant digital fly-by-wire flight control system to help stabilize the aircraft about its longitudinal and directional axes.

Operational history.

The aircraft made its first successful flight on February 5, 1982, in Area 51, at Groom Lake, Nevada, flown by Northrop test pilot Richard G. Thomas. The aircraft subsequently logged 135 flights over a three-year period. The aircraft often flew three to four flights weekly and several times flew more than once a day. After reaching about 250 flight hours, the aircraft was placed in storage in 1985. In 1996, after Tacit Blue was declassified, it was placed on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio and has been on display in the new fourth hangar at the museum since June 2016.

The Northrop Tacit Blue was a technology demonstrator aircraft created to demonstrate that a low-observable stealth surveillance aircraft with a low-probability-of-intercept radar (LPIR) and other sensors could operate close to the forward line of battle with a high degree of survivability.

默蓝验证机是由诺斯洛普所开发的低可侦测性技术技术验证机。该机旨在验证低雷达探测率的飞行器在前线的生存性能。


Context and analysis.

In the act before this aria, Calaf has correctly answered the three riddles put to all of Princess Turandot's prospective suitors. Nonetheless, she recoils at the thought of marriage to him. Calaf offers her another chance by challenging her to guess his name by dawn. As he kneels before her, the "Nessun dorma" theme makes a first appearance, to his words, "" (My name you do not know!). She can execute him if she correctly guesses his name; but if she does not, she must marry him. The cruel and emotionally cold princess then decrees that none of her subjects shall sleep that night until his name is discovered. If they fail, all will be killed.  As the final act opens, it is now night. Calaf is alone in the moonlit palace gardens. In the distance, he hears Turandot's heralds proclaiming her command. His aria begins with an echo of their cry and a reflection on Princess Turandot:  Just before the climactic end of the aria, a chorus of women is heard singing in the distance:  Calaf, now certain of victory, sings:  In performance, the final "Vincerò!" features a sustained B, followed by the final note, an A sustained even longer—although Puccini's score did not explicitly specify that either note be sustained. In the original score, the B is written as a sixteenth note while the A is a whole note. Both are high notes in the tenor range. The only recording to follow Puccini's score exactly was the very first, sung by Gina Cigna and Francesco Merli, conducted by Franco Ghione.  In Alfano's completion of act 3, the "Nessun dorma" theme makes a final triumphal appearance at the end of the opera. The theme also makes a concluding reappearance in Luciano Berio's later completion (this having been an expressed intention of Puccini's), but in a more subdued orchestration.

Recordings.

"Nessun dorma", sung by some of the most famous interpreters of Calaf, appears on the following compilation recordings. (For full-length recordings of the opera, see "Turandot" discography.)

Cultural references and adaptations.

Luciano Pavarotti.

"Nessun dorma" achieved pop status after Luciano Pavarotti's 1972 recording of it was used as the theme song of BBC television's coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. It subsequently reached no. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. Although Pavarotti rarely sang the role of Calaf on stage, "Nessun dorma" became his signature aria and a sporting anthem in its own right, especially for football. Pavarotti notably sang the aria during the first Three Tenors concert on the eve of the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final in Rome. For an encore, he performed the aria again, taking turns with José Carreras and Plácido Domingo. The image of three tenors in full formal dress singing in a World Cup concert captivated the global audience. The album of the concert achieved triple platinum record status in the United States alone and went on to outsell all other classical recordings worldwide. The number became a regular feature of subsequent Three Tenors concerts, and they performed it at three subsequent FIFA World Cup Finals, in 1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama.  Pavarotti gave a rendition of "Nessun dorma" at his final performance, the finale of the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, although it was later revealed that he had lip-synched the specially pre-recorded performance (at the time of his Winter Olympics appearance, Pavarotti was physically incapable of performing as he was suffering from pancreatic cancer, to which he succumbed the following year). His Decca recording of the aria was played at his funeral during the flypast by the Italian Air Force. In 2013, the track was certified gold by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry.

Leicester City Football Club.

On 7 May 2016, Andrea Bocelli sang "Nessun dorma" in the King Power Stadium, home of Leicester City Football Club, before Leicester City's final home match of the 2015–16 Premier League season against Everton F.C.. Leicester's manager Claudio Ranieri stood beside Bocelli for the performance. After the game, Leicester were presented with the Premier League trophy for the first time in their history.

Crossover and adapted versions.

"Nessun dorma" (often in adapted versions of the score) has been performed by many pop and crossover singers and instrumentalists.

In other media.

"Nessun dorma" has been used in many films, often appearing at a central moment in the film—sometimes with the aria's moment of musical resolution aligned with the film's narrative climax, giving symbolic meaning to the aria's rich emotional impact. Films in which the aria plays a significant role in the soundtrack include "The Killing Fields", "New York Stories", "Mar adentro", "The Sum of All Fears", "The Mirror Has Two Faces", "Bend It Like Beckham", "No Reservations," and "" (with the scene set within a performance of "Turandot" itself). It was sung by Pavarotti himself as part of his fictional role in the film "Yes, Giorgio". "Nessun dorma" is also the title of a short film by Ken Russell included in the 1987 film "Aria". Nessun dorma is the title of a football podcast, hosted by "The Guardian" journalist Lee Calvert and featuring sports writers past and present, that celebrates 1980s and 1990s football. When all of Italy was under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a video of opera singer Maurizio Marchini performing "Nessun dorma" from his balcony in Florence went viral.

External links.

"" (; English: "Let no one sleep") is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera "Turandot" and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, (the unknown prince), who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot. Any man who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles; if he fails, he will be beheaded. In the aria, Calaf expresses his triumphant assurance that he will win the princess.

(意大利文:"")是普契尼最后一部歌剧《-{A|zh-cn:图兰多; zh-tw:杜兰朵;}-》的咏叹调,由男主角卡拉夫王子(Calaf)演唱,诉说杜兰朵公主要全城彻夜不睡,在天亮前替她寻找卡拉富王子的名字,若无法如期查出,则全城百姓都必须受死。歌曲的原意为「不让人入睡」,中译为「-{zh-hans:今夜无人入睡; zh-hant:今夜无人入睡;}-」或「-{公主彻夜未眠}-」。这首古典歌剧作品是著名男高音巴伐洛堤()的经典金曲,1990年英国广播公司(BBC)用此曲作为当年意大利世界杯足球赛的主题曲后,令它的知名度更广为人知。


Early life.

Toni Collett was born on 1 November 1972, in Sydney, the eldest of three children. Her father, Bob Collett, was a truck driver while her mother, Judy ("née" Cook), was a customer-service representative. She appeared on SBS TV's "Who Do You Think You Are?" in August 2015 for "Season 7 Episode 2: Toni Collette," to find out more about her grandparents. Bob was possibly born as a result of his mother Norma ("née" McWhinney) having an extra-marital affair with a US Navy Chief Petty Officer stationed in Australia during, and after, World War II. Norma and her husband (Harold "Stanley" Collett) were going through a divorce, and Bob's DNA test determined that Stanley was not his biological father. Despite a public appeal in August 2015, her biological grandfather's name is not known.  She has described her family as, "[not] the most communicative" but that despite her parents' lack of money, they made them feel cared for and they were supportive. She has fond memories of growing up in Blacktown where she

Career.

1990–99: Breakthrough and early roles.

Collette made her TV debut in 1990, in a guest appearance, as Tracy, on the Seven Network drama series "A Country Practice" Season 10, Episode 31, "The Sting: Part 1". Her first professional theatre role was as Debbie in "Operation Holy Mountain" in May of that year at Q Theatre, Penrith. Frank Barnes of "Journal of the N.S.W Public School Teachers Federation" noticed, "Collette [is] simply amazing in her professional debut as the girl with cerebral palsy." She joined the Sydney Theatre Company and, from December 1990 to February 1991, appeared in "A Little Night Music" at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. She performed Cordelia in "King

1999–2004: "The Sixth Sense" and Broadway.

When Collette received M. Night Shyamalan's script for "The Sixth Sense" (1999), she feared it would be a "formulaic Hollywood action drama." However, she was moved by the story and agreed to audition, winning the role over other actors, including Marisa Tomei. She portrayed Lynn Sear, a single mother struggling to raise her son Cole (Haley Joel Osment) who communicates with ghosts. Gary Thompson of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" observed, "the scene in the car when [Cole] divulges his secret is so riveting... and it's so well-acted by Osment and Collette." He added, "she'd become the greatest screen weeper of her generation." "The Sixth Sense" grossed US$670 million on a budget of US$40 million

2005–11: Supporting roles and "United States of Tara".

Collette's only film in 2005, "In Her Shoes", is a comedy-drama about the relationship between two sisters (Rose and Maggie Feller) and their estranged grandmother, co-starring Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine. Based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Jennifer Weiner, the film received generally positive reviews from critics, and became a moderate independent success, earning a total of US$82.2 million worldwide. She was subsequently nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actress for her performance of Rose, a successful-but-lonely lawyer with low self-esteem, which Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" noticed, "As usual, [her] face is a fine-tuned transmitter of her emotions, moment by moment, and she becomes the locus of audience feeling." In 2006 the artist starred in "Little Miss Sunshine", a comedy-drama road movie about a family's trip to a children's beauty pageant. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of that year, and

2012–17: Independent films and Broadway return.

Collette's first release of 2012 was the independent comedy-drama "Mental". She played Shaz, a hitchhiker who is hired as a nanny to take care of five mentally ill sisters. Despite giving the film a negative review, Gary Goldstein of the "Los Angeles Times" said that the actor "rips into her woolly role as if channeling a leftover personality from her "United States of Tara" days." Luke Buckmaster of "Crikey" called her "charismatic and all-inhabiting." She received her third AACTA Award for Best Actress nomination for the role. Later in the year, she played Peggy, a supporting role in the biographical drama, "Hitchcock". Deborah Ross, writing for "The Spectator", provided an unenthusiastic review and wrote, "[it] wastes many of its cast members - particularly Toni Collette." In 2013 the artist earned critical acclaim for her work in the independent film "The Way, Way Back" as Pam, opposite Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell, and in "Enough Said" as Sarah, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini. For "The Way, Way Back", she received positive reviews: Andrew O'Hehir of "Salon" praised her "brilliant, understated performance;" Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" dubbed her work "stellar;" Berardinelli described her as a "chameleon" and said that she gives a performance

2018–present: Mainstream films and Netflix.

In 2018 Collette gave what some critics considered to be one of her best performances in the horror film "Hereditary", in which she played Annie Graham, the matriarch of a family haunted by the supernatural following the death of her mother. She was initially reluctant to take on the role, but became convinced by the script's grounded approach and its exploration of grief and loss. She considered it to be the most difficult of her career: in an interview with "Vulture"s Rachel Handler she reflected, "There was no easy moment in this movie... I was shooting 14-take scenes, talking about great loss and difficulty in relating to my

Music career.

Despite cherishing music and singing at a young age, Collette had stopped in the mid-1990s and explained, "[Singing] comes from a very personal place. It's your voice... and it's only in the last couple of years I felt comfortable in myself singing." In 1996 she sang three cover versions for the soundtrack of the film, "Cosi": "Don't Dream It's Over" (originally by Crowded House), "Stand By Me" (Ben E. King) and "Throw Your Arms Around Me" (Hunters & Collectors). In 2000 she recorded nine tracks for the cast album, "The Wild Party", for the eponymous Broadway musical. Elyse Sommer of "CurtainUp," in a review of the musical, wrote that she was a "topnotch singer" and particularly praised her rendition of "People Like Us". For the soundtrack of "Connie and Carla" (2004), Collette, and her co-star Nia Vardalos, recorded duets of several show tunes including, "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair", "Maybe This Time" and "Cabaret". David Haviland of "Eye for Film" praised the renditions, "The musical numbers are a camp triumph." She sang the track, "Sunday Morning", for the album "Summertown" by Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier. She has also performed songs for soundtracks of "About a Boy", "A Long

Humanitarian work.

Collette supports various charities including Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International and Feeding America. She expressed her support for PETA and, in July 2005, wrote a letter to then Australian Prime Minister John Howard, asking him to ban the practice of mulesing and the live export of sheep. Later that month, after speaking to sheep farmers, she reneged on supporting PETA's campaign against mulesing: "The issue is not as black and white as was previously presented to me. I was given to understand that there were 'effective and humane alternatives to prevent fly strike' and they are 'currently available.' I am now aware that there are no simple alternatives available to farmers at this time."  In 2009 the actor auctioned off T-shirts of her own design to raise money for various charities. Collette along with Drew Barrymore and Catherine Hardwicke, who all worked together on "Miss You Already", wore pink ribbons to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October 2014. She has raised money for OzHarvest, an organisation which collects excess food from Australian restaurants and

Artistry.

Collette is described by Toby Creswell and Samantha Trenoweth in their book, "1001 Australians You Should Know" (2006), "she proved her abilities as a serious actress in Rowan Woods' 1998 film "The Boys" and again in the big budget international hits "The Sixth Sense" and "About a Boy"." Sharon Waxman of "The New York Times" noted that the artist often embraces characters who are pathetic, insecure or otherwise unattractive. However, the actor said she detests playing such characters, "If I keep perpetuating that image of myself — that of a downtrodden person — that's the only roles I'll get. And I'm getting tired of playing those roles." Despite achieving stardom early in her career with the top-grossing, "The Sixth Sense", she rarely acted in commerce-driven pictures. She prefers working in independent films over blockbusters where the latter prioritize box-office success over telling a story. Several journalists noted her gravitation towards playing dissatisfied and slightly neurotic mothers. When asked about being typecast in such roles, Collette replied, "All people are different. All women are different. A lot of women haven't had children but it doesn't change the fact that they're individuals and have some kind of individuality and spark about them."Collette listed Geoffrey Rush as one of her influences and remembered seeing him in "The Diary of a Madman" (1989): "When I watched him in that, it was like being in church, I had a full-on spiritual awakening. I even wrote him this

Personal life.

In her twenties she found it difficult to adapt to being in the media spotlight and, as a result, struggled with bulimia and panic attacks. During this period she travelled extensively, shaved her head five times and bought a flat in Brixton, London. Her aim was to "explore different ideas and just look at life and try to understand it." She left the Brixton flat after a few months because she saw a man "getting his head bashed in with a pole 30 metres away." Collette had dated her "Velvet Goldmine" co-star, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, for about a year (ca. 1997) before ending their relationship and described it as "hedonistic, drunken and probably dangerous." When asked about her faith, she remarked, "We're all spiritual... I'm not Buddhist but I am drawn to it because it seems the most beneficial of organised religions, and the most compassionate. It's an ongoing journey."  She met musician Dave Galafassi early in 2002, at a CD launch for his then-band Gelbison, the couple married in a traditional Buddhist ceremony on 11 January 2003. The couple have a daughter, Sage Florence, born on 9 January 2008, and a son, Arlo Robert, born on 22 April 2011. She has said that she is an avid camper and she enjoys meditating. They lived in Sydney in the 2000s before moving to Los Angeles. The family returned to Sydney after about ten years in 2019. In December of that year Galafassi "had a devastating motorbike accident"; Collette thanked the ambulance services, "for your swiftness, clarity, knowledge, compassion and dedication. You saved him and we cannot thank you enough."

Toni Collette-Galafassi (born Toni Collett; 1 November 1972), credited professionally as Toni Collette, is an Australian film, television, and stage actress and singer-songwriter. Collette is particularly known for her expressive emotive and highly malleable face, distinctive versatility, physical transformations and accents. Collette's versatility as a performer is unique in that despite playing a wide range of characters with vastly different personalities and nuances they're usually portrayed through the medium a mother and often deal with issues relating to motherhood. She is known for her work in independent films as well as support roles in studio films, for which she has received accolades. Her feature film debut was in 1992 and her breakthrough was with the comedy-drama, "Muriel's Wedding" (1994), for which she earned a Golden Globe Award nomination. She achieved greater international recognition for her role in "The Sixth Sense" (1999) – the highest grossing horror movie at the time – for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

安东妮亚(东妮)·歌莉蒂(英语:Antonia "Toni" Collette,1972年-11月1日),澳洲女演员和歌手。2009年和2010年凭电视剧《United States of Tara》赢得艾美奖喜剧类最佳女主角奖和金球奖音乐及喜剧类最佳女主角奖。